The Golden Plates

What is known as "The Golden Plates" is a record of a people in the Ancient Americas, engraved into metal plates, which Joseph Smith translated in the 1800's to become The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ. Many ancient prophets contributed to this record of Christ's visit to the Americas and the events leading up to it. The Book of Mormon is not a replacement for the Bible, but a companion to the Bible with the express purpose of testifying of Jesus Christ. For more information see mormon.org.

If you are not Mormon, this probably seems to be a preposterous story. Members of the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are not asked to take anyone else's word for it, but are expected to find out for themselves if it's true. Joseph Smith's sincere search for truth, as a fourteen-year-old boy, prompted by this Bible verse, "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not, and it shall be given him," (James 1:5) led him to the woods near his home to pray and find out for himself which church was right. That led to his vision of God the Father and his Son Jesus Christ and eventually the establishment of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Moroni, a Book of Mormon prophet, makes this promise, "And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost." Moroni 10:4

When someone has found out for him/herself that these teachings are true, it is called a "testimony." Sharing these feelings with others is called "bearing your testimony." Each person's testimony is unique and personal.

What is "The Plates of Cardiff"?

The Plates of Cardiff is a collection of testimonies, through drawings and words, of 250 members age three and older, of the The Cardiff Ward, Del Mar Stake, of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I spearheaded the project with the support of my bishop and the assistance of several friends and family members. The idea occurred to me in the beginning of 2006 as I was touched by the many testimonies of members of the Cardiff Ward who had been blessed by taking President Hinckley’s challenge to read the Book of Mormon in 2005. I started collecting testimonies and drawings from members of the ward, intending to compile them into a book, but never completed the project.

In the fall of 2008 I rediscovered this file; the events of that year’s election season and the need to speak out and defend our faith greatly strengthened my personal testimony of the Book of Mormon and prompted me to pick up the project again. Most of the entries are from 2008-2009 but some are from 2006, and some are from ward members who have since moved. The drawings are from our primary children who were over age three in 2008.

I am so grateful for the faith and willingness of Cardiff Ward members of all ages to stand for truth and to put their testimonies on record. I am also grateful to those who interviewed some of our long-time members so that their stories could be included, and for friends who stepped in to help with production of the book. As people read the book, I hope they will feel how I felt putting it together, with the powerful spirit that our testimonies bring. As President Kimball said, “The angels may quote from it.”

Inside The Plates of Cardiff

Many people had a difficult time thinking of what to write. They didn't have access to what others had written like I did, and didn't have a vision of what the project was. I asked them to submit their testimony, conversion story, favorite scripture, faith-promoting story, etc. If someone bore their testimony or gave a talk in church, I would ask them to write it and email it to me for the Plates. The product ended up being like a pot-luck dinner in which EVERY dish was different, unique....and absolutely delicious.

The Spirit of Christ was so strong for me when I was working on this project, every day reading new testimonies of my fellow ward members. Most people don't bear their testimonies every month yet here were 250 testimonies collected in one place. Often I would receive something in my email, or scribbled onto a scrap of paper, that moved me to tears. Members bravely shared their deepest feelings, sometimes revealing personal struggles from their past that they had overcome through the gospel.

As of today the book has been out for about three weeks and the effects in our ward are already being felt. We feel closer as a ward family because we know more about each other. Visiting grandparents have seen the book and asked to read it. A non-Mormon dad has asked for his very own copy. Home and visiting teachers are distributing copies of the book to the people they visit.

How-To: Plate-like Pages

I was trying to produce this book as cost-efficiently as possible while still making the pages feel like "Plates", so initially I wanted to use card stock. I also wanted to save money by printing the pages on my laser printer at home for 3 cents per page as opposed to 9 cents per page elsewhere. I had to abandon this plan because I couldn't get card stock into my home printer, nor could I afford the cost of card stock or the time it would take to cut the pages.

My daughter came up with a brilliant solution! She suggested I print one side of a piece of plain white paper, fold it, and punch holes along the non-folded side. This made laser printing so much easier, the weight of a double-folded piece of paper was "plate-like" enough for me, and the weight of the entire book did justice to the priceless weight of the faith of ward members contained inside.

Folding 61 sheets of paper per book was the most time-consuming part of the production. A dear retired couple volunteered to do the folding for me. I am so picky that I made them audition for the job! When they returned the first set of perfectly folded pages, I trusted them with more. They ended up coming back for more until they had folded enough for 90 books--almost 6,000 pieces of paper in one week!

How-To: Bribery

By far the most difficult part of this project was getting people to participate. When we reached 50% of ward members who regularly attend church, my husband thought that was great and that was all we were going to get. But each time I got a new entry, I became more and more determined to keep trying with each person I knew unless they gave me a clear, "No." When the "announcements and flyers approach" didn't yield any more entries, I used the "one person at at time" philosophy, inspired by Barack Obama's successful Presidential campaign.

The easiest ones to get were the primary kids. We devoted one Sharing Time to having kids either draw a picture (black pen on white paper) or write their testimonies.

Surprisingly, the teenagers weren't as difficult to engage as the, um, High Priests..... For some reason my teenage kids didn't think this project was that un-cool and they encouraged and reminded their friends to send me something.

My husband and a couple of dear sisters phoned and interviewed several elderly, shut-in, and other members and jotted down their testimonies for them.

And with some people, I resorted to bribery. I baked cookie dough and hand-delivered it with instructions to bake it as soon as the whole family had written their testimonies and emailed them to me.

One of the most beautiful experiences I had was when I personally went to visit a family who was new in the ward and fairly new in the church. They dictated the most powerful testimonies to me, while their darling children drew pictures for the book. I was a little shy and hesitant about asking them but they were so pleased to share their testmonies with me and it motivated them to become more active in our ward. Another newly-baptized sister who was not sure what to write, and was pretty shy about it, finally did it after much urging. Afterwards, she said she was so glad she did and felt warm all over after sharing her testimony.

I don't like to be pushy, especially when asking people to share a testimony, but in the end only three people politely refused and everyone else thanked me profusely for asking them to do it. I reminded people that it could be even be just one sentence, from the heart, and that would be great. Some of the most inspiring testimonies were only a few sentences long.

How-To: Making the Covers

For the covers, I bought 8.5 x 11 card stock in a khaki color from PaperSource. Since I couldn't get this through my printer at home, I had the copies made at Kinko's. (If I could have done it at home I would have custom-printed each family name on each cover...oh, well.....).

I cut each cover exactly in half, then made the holes using a regular 3-hole punch for which I had adjusted the positions of the holes. (I had no idea before doing this project that you could adjust the positions on a 3-hole punch.)

How-To: Rings from Lamp Chain

I felt strongly that this book needed to be bound with rings, like the Golden Plates, but didn't want to use office-type rings. I am so glad I made this decision because people seem much more intrigued by this book bound with rings than if it looked like an ordinary book. And turning the pages feels more like plates and makes me think about Joseph Smith and all the Lord's servants who had a hand in bringing us the Book of Mormon.

With encouragement from a creative friend, I finally came up with the idea of using lamp chain. A "Swag kit" from Home Depot for $12.00 was the best-looking and most cost-effective solution. I chose Antique Brass and it came with 15 feet of chain which I think was enough for about 50 books. You can probably find this cheaper online at a lamp parts supply site.

How-To: Chain Pliers

This little tool was the key to opening and closing the chain links easily and perfectly. My friends who own a lamp store let us borrow theirs, then I ordered my own set online.

It seems simple now, but the discovery of this tool was a true miracle. My husband and I had hired a sitter so we could go out on Friday night of the weekend I wanted to bind the books so I could hand them out that Sunday. I was really busy and would have rather stayed home and worked on the books, but curiously felt peaceful about going to the movie. In the food court next to the theatre, we ran into these old friends who own the lamp store, who we hadn't seen in a long time, and told them about the Plates project. I told them I was using lamp chain, and they said, "Oh, we have a tool that does that! You can come to the shop and borrow it tomorrow."

The other miracle is that our college son happened to be home that weekend and was willing to install the chain on 90 books! (His burly hands are shown in the "covers" photo.)