In every dispensation of the world, a witness is called to testify to the people of that

day and age that he has seen God and has talked with Him and has received instructions

and guidance from Him. That witness is called to testify in His day that God lives, that He is real, that he cares about his children,

that he hears and answers our prayers, and that He has a work for us to do.

Faith comes and is increased by listening to and heeding the testimony of that witness.

In our day, in this the dispensation of the fullness of times, that witness is Joseph Smith.

Welcome to Meridian Magazine's Come Follow Me podcast.

We are Scott and Maureen Proctor, and we love being with you each week and discussing

with you the sacred truths of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

In this year's lessons, we are immersing ourselves in the Doctrine and Covenants, the early history of the Church,

and naturally in the lives of Joseph Smith and his family and associates.

Today, we have the immense privilege of exploring and reflecting

upon the first vision, and our scriptural text is Joseph Smith History, Chapter 1, verse 1 through 26.

To better understand the first vision, we need to have some historical and family context

for the young boy Joseph and his family.

We have the great blessing of going back into the prophet Joseph's mother's writings

and original dictation of her history.

Lucy Mac Smith's record is one of the great treasures of the church.

Imagine any world leader or spiritual giant having a biography written by his

or her mother. We have this in the history of Joseph Smith by his mother, Lucy Mack Smith.

As we did this project many years ago and became intimately acquainted with Lucy's turn of phrase

or her approach to telling her story, we learned that as we got to with Lucy's turn of phrase or her approach to telling her story.

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