This article is excerpted from the Church Newsroom. To read the full article, CLICK HERE.
Elder David A. Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles dedicated the refurbished Hill Cumorah historic site in Palmyra, New York, on Sunday, September 21, 2025. The Prophet Joseph Smith was visited here in the 1820s by an angel named Moroni and given the gold plates that contained the record now known as the Book of Mormon.
In his dedicatory prayer, given to around 500 guests and a global broadcast audience, Elder Bednar of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints said, “I dedicate this site as a place of holy remembrance, a place of heavenly inspiration, a place of heartfelt appreciation, a place of seeking and learning, and a place of humble reverence.”
The refurbished Hill Cumorah in Palmyra, New York, on Saturday, September 20, 2025.
The Apostle asked God “to bless all people who come to this place with curious and open minds and with sincere and receptive hearts. May they be blessed to learn here eternal truths by the power of the Holy Ghost.”
In his remarks that preceded the prayer, Elder Bednar compared the Hill Cumorah to the burning bush of the Hebrew Bible (see Exodus 3). It was at that bush on Mt. Horeb that Moses had an encounter with the divine. Moses was told to remove his shoes because he stood on holy ground.
“Today, you and I also stand on holy ground,” Elder Bednar said.
Visitors at the summit of the refurbished Hill Cumorah in Palmyra, New York. The experience on the hill is self-guided, allowing visitors to move through the site at their own pace. Here visitors observe a statue of the Angel Moroni.
Members of the Church of Jesus Christ believe that the Book of Mormon was originally written in an ancient language on metal plates, often called gold plates. The final prophet to write in the book, Moroni, buried the plates in the hill now known as Cumorah around A.D. 420. Some 1,400 years later, Moroni, then an angel sent from heaven, guided the young Joseph Smith to the plates. The angel Moroni first visited Joseph exactly 202 years ago, on September 21, 1823, when Joseph was 17. Moroni showed him the gold plates for the first time the following day. On September 22, 1827, after four years of preparation, Joseph was allowed to take the plates from the hill. He translated the record into English by the gift and power of God.
The Book of Mormon’s witness of Jesus Christ is published today in more than 100 languages.
A statue of the Angel Moroni at the Hill Cumorah in Palmyra, New York, on Friday, September 19, 2025.
Elder Bednar was accompanied on Sunday by his wife, Susan, and several Church leaders: Elder Kyle S. McKay of the Seventy (the Church Historian and Recorder) and his wife, Jennifer; and Elder Hugo E. Martinez of the Seventy (assistant executive director of the Church History Department) and his wife, Nuria.
Elder Bednar called Moroni’s many visits to Joseph Smith a part of the prophet’s “celestial curriculum” that prepared him for what was ahead. Reflecting on that idea, Elder Martinez said the curriculum began with Joseph’s First Vision and continued through his receiving priesthood authority from other divine messengers.
An aerial view of the refurbished Hill Cumorah in Palmyra, New York.
“It’s through those steps that we see and find that that’s how the young prophet grew as a true prophet of God,” Elder Martinez said. He added that the Hill Cumorah matters because it is a part of how God ushered in “the restoration of the fulness of time as has been spoken of in the Bible, the Book of Mormon and other books of scripture.”
To read the full article, CLICK HERE
