So you have a spouse, fiancé, son or daughter who has decided to leave the church. Social gatherings are now awkward and you never know quite what to say at family get-togethers. If only there was something that you could do to break the ice and let them know that you still love them and value their involvement in your life. Well, Christmas is coming up and, despite their new status as a presumed heathen atheist, you are pretty sure they still engage in secular celebration of holiday gift exchanges. Getting them the perfect gift may be just the thing!

Sure, you could do the stereotypical gift that church leaders would recommend maybe give them a condescending or passive-aggressive gift, you know – one that conveys that you love them for who they would be if they weren’t headed for secular humanist hell. Something like a copy of “Shaken Faith Syndrome” by Michael Ash or maybe “The Crucible of Doubt” by the Givenses. But gifts like that convey the idea that your love is conditional upon them conforming to your own worldview. You see that for the manipulative affront that it is. You want to give them something that says “I accept you and love you where you are, even if we have different views”

Thoughts on Things and Stuff is here to help!

Here I present 10 gifts which would be sincerely meaningful to any ex-mormon who had spent time really studying Church History. They are listed in no particular order and cover a wide variety of costs. Here is the clincher – each of the gifts has a very particular significance to Mormon History.

Replica of the Rosetta Stone

Many Mormons are aware that Joseph Smith claimed that the Book of Abraham now found in the Pearl of Great Price was a translation of hieroglyphics found on a papyrus parchment which he purchased from a traveling mummy exhibitor Michael H Chandler. Joseph went so far as to have Chandler sign a certificate stating that Joseph’s ability to translate the Hieroglyphics was just as superb as any of the learned men he showed them to in all the eminent cities he had visited ((Millennial Star 15:285 archive.org)).

Exmormons observe that such a statement is deceptive because at that time, no one in America knew how to read hieroglyphics because the French scholar Jean-François Champollion’s breakthrough in deciphering the hieroglyphics on the Rosetta Stone was in its infancy. In the event that someone familiar with that work was actually consulted, there would have been no correlation at all with anything Joseph Smith would have said.

People were compelled to believe what Joseph put forth as the translation of those papyri because there was no one at the time who could actually translate hieroglyphics and demonstrate that Joseph’s statements were absolutely incorrect. The Rosetta Stone changed all that.

Years later scholars had studied the work of Champollion on the Rosetta Stone and correlated it with thousands of other papyri, engravings and murals that also contained hieroglyphics developing a working and consistent ability to translate those writings. When these scholars examined the facsimiles printed with the Book of Abraham, they were able to produce a translation which demonstrated that Joseph Smith’s descriptions were not correct. Later still when the papyri were rediscovered in the 1960’s Egyptologists were able to translate the hieroglyphics from the papyri, which were also seen in the Egyptian Alphabet and Grammar book that Joseph kept – these too showed that Joseph’s translations were incorrect and that the text was a common funeral prayer called “The Book of Breathings“

All of this was made possible by The Rosetta Stone. An artifact from the Ptolemaic period which had an official decree published in 3 scripts: Greek, Demotic script and Hieroglyphics. Since Greek was already known to scholars and a translation readily available, the ancient Egyptian writing was able to be deciphered.

You can purchase an excellent resin reproduction of the Rosetta Stone from the British Museum Store. It makes an attractive addition to any library or conversation piece for a reading nook.

Bonus: If your pockets are deep then you can do what BYU Idaho did and order a full-sized replica from the Freeman Institute.

Bottle of Fireball Whisky

Fireball Whiskey is a memorable whiskey that is steeped in a rich and spicy cinnamon. The pungent cinnamon scent hits you as soon as you open a bottle and the taste is so powerful that just a little will produce a burning in the bosom that is far more than a subjective emotional experience.

But what could this possibly have to do with Mormon History? That takes some brief explanation.

When Joseph Smith first established the Kirtland Temple, the ceremony of washing and anointing was instituted. There are very few descriptions of the details of its earliest form. One of the most complete is given by Oliver Cowdery as recorded in his Kirtland Ohio Sketch Book which is kept restricted in the Church History department. In 1972 Church Historian Leonard J Arrington published an article with excerpts from that book which included a description of the ceremony:

‘[M]et in the evening with [B]ro. Joseph Smith, Jr. at his house, in company with [B]ro. John Corrill, and after pure water was prepared, called upon the Lord and proceeded to wash each other’s bodies, and bathe the same with whiskey, perfumed with cinnamon. This we did that we might be clean before the Lord for the Sabbath, confessing our sins and covenanting to be faith to God. While performing this washing unto the Lord with solemnity, our minds were filled with many reflections upon the propriety of the same, and how the priests anciently used to wash always before ministering before the Lord.'”

(Oliver Cowdery Sketch Book, 16 January. 1836, pp. 4-5, archives, Church Historical Department – transcription at archive.org)

So we see that cinnamon-scented whiskey was a part of the sacred temple ritual from its earliest restoration. Now while the original description has the whiskey bathing the body from the outside, your exmormon loved one will likely use it to bath his or her insides. In small amounts. Responsibly.

Just remember that their experience in doing so is materially closer to the original washing and anointing ceremony than anything found in the temples today.

1958 1st Edition “Mormon Doctrine”

In 1958 upstart Quorum of the Seventy member (and son in law of Joseph Fielding Smith) Bruce R McConkie surprised the rest of the Prophets and Apostles by independently publishing an authoritative appearing tome which purported to document the greater aspects of Mormon Doctrine. This type of comprehensive and seemingly authoritative undertaking had never been done before and it took a man who thought highly enough of his own spiritual and mental faculties to bring it into being. McConkie was such a man and the book was aptly titled “Mormon Doctrine.”

The book was a bold and unflinching exposition of the wide landscape of LDS teachings and it included both the attractive well-regarded facets of Mormon theology, as well as the parts that make you feel less proud to be counted among the saints. Like, way less proud. Embarrassed even. Ugly racist things. Hateful things towards other faiths. It did this with an abrasive and authoritative tone that seemed to convey the idea that boldly holding onto these terrible notions was somehow proof of the legitimacy of the faith. Evidence that Mormonism did not adapt to the changing ideas of social equality. Shudder.

The book made quite a stir, both among the members and leaders of the church. As a result, the Prophet at the time, David O McKay, appointed Apostles Marion G Romney and Mark E Petersen to review the text and identify any errors. They did so and found no less than 1067 problems among the 776 pages of texts, with problems affecting almost every single page.

It was decided by the brethren to disavow the book as unauthoritative and prevent McConkie from publishing any further editions, corrected or otherwise. They also started a policy whereby no General Authority could publish a book without first informing and receiving approval from the Brethren.

Years later, McConkie was able to claim authorization for publishing a corrected version of the book, though some feel he took some liberties in doing so. The 1966 and later versions of the book had removed much of the problematic material, however many racist things remained and it is only recently that this book has been removed from the shelves of Deseret Book stores and all remaining copies disposed of.

As a result of the above sequence of events, the first edition of “Mormon Doctrine” is a rare book and copies of it sell for hundreds of dollars. There are several sources of it online, however, and if you choose this as a gift you should have no problem finding a copy.

Try this Amazon search, an AbeBooks Search, or this ebay search – just make sure to get the 1958 first edition printing with the green cover showing an image of Joseph Smith. Later editions are much more common, have the most erroneous material removed and have a different binding.

Tapir Figurine

This cute little creature seems to pop up all over the social media landscape of the ex-mormon community. Why is that?

This is an issue which arose from the unofficial defenders of the church. The apologists, like you find at FairMormon and the cranky old guy in High Priest’s group who goes on and on – you know the one. When people scrutinizing the Book of Mormon observed that Horses are mentioned several times in the Book of Mormon (see search for “Horse or Horses” at lds.org here) yet were not present on the America’s in the pre-Columbian era, the defenders had to come up with a plausible answer. The answer that was given by these unofficial spokespeople for Mormonism is that while the word translated into English language was “horse,” the actual animal it was describing could have been a tapir or a deer – both of which were present in the Americas in the pre-Columbian era and have horse-like features. There are several pages at the FairMormon website that address this particular point:

• Horses in the Book of Mormon
• Loanshifting: Deer and Tapirs
• Question: Do Mormon Apologists claim that the horses referred to in the Book of Mormon is actually a deer or tapir?

To be clear – they do not state with certainty that the word “horse” really meant “tapir” – only that it was a plausible explanation for why the word “horse” would be used in a purported historical record of pre-columbian inhabitants of the Americas when actual horses were non-existent there. But that hasn’t stopped the ex-mormons from holding up the Tapir as a humorous mascot of the ludicrous leaps of logic and plausibility that defenders of the Book of Mormon will go to in order to preserve the idea that it is a factual historical record rather than a piece of 19th century religious fiction.

So as a result, a Tapir figurine is a great and inexpensive gift that you could give an ex-mormon loved one that lets them know that you love them and can appreciate how a good sense of humor can help lessen the trauma that goes along with losing your entire metaphysical worldview. In fact, giving them the gift doesn’t have to really mean that you accept them for who they are, but it is a plausible explanation for that – and that’s good enough.

Find and order your own tapir figurine at Amazon.com

Changing Revelations Gift Set

This is a gift-set for the true ex-Mormon history nerd. You will have to assemble it from 3 separate sources, but it will really send the message that you love your ex-Mormon and have empathy for their intellectual journey. The extra work that it will take to assemble the set will really let them know that you care.

Part 1 – The Book of Commandments

Around the time that the Restoration was in its infancy, Joseph Smith would regularly receive revelations from the Lord which directed him in bringing the Book of Mormon into being, establishing the church, its organization, and policies. Many of these revelations were actually received through the seer stone that was just recently photographed and published by the church – the same one with which Joseph translated the Book of Mormon. 65 of those early revelations were collected and published in 1833 in a book called “The Book of Commandments.”  The original printing of the book was interrupted by a mob which razed the facilities of the publisher during its printing run, however, enough pages were preserved for a few copies to eventually be bound and published.  You can view high resolution scanned images of this entire book at the Joseph Smith Papers Project. Even better as a gift idea, however is a printed and bound replica of the 1833 Book of Commandments!

Click here to order a printed and bound replica of the 1833 Book of Commandments

Part 2 – 1835 Doctrine and Covenants

2 years later, a new collection of revelations was assembled, to include those found in the original Book of Commandments as well as others received in the interim. A total of 103 revelations were assembled and joined with the “Lectures on Faith” to create a new text titled “Doctrine and Covenants.” The Lectures on Faith constituted the Doctrine and the 103 revelations comprised the Covenants of this new text. You can see scanned images of the text also at the Joseph Smith Papers Project. Since that initial printing, the Doctrine and Covenants has undergone several revisions with new revelations added and a few sections removed – including removal of the Lectures on Faith.  The earliest edition, however makes great addition to this gift set and you can find a replica printing of that text at Amazon.com

Click here to order a printed and bound replica of the 1835 Doctrine and Covenants.

Part 3 – An Address to All Believers in Christ

So now we have replicas of the earliest publications of the most important formative revelations in the restoration. The third element in this gift set is the clincher. David Whitmer was one of the original 3 witnesses of the Book of Mormon. Though he later was excommunicated from the church, he was among the leadership at it formative stages and was actually present while Joseph was giving many of the original revelations from the seerstone. Years later Whitmer would go on to publish a pamphlet titled “An Address to All Believers in Christ” in which he repeated his testimony of the Book of Mormon but also described many of the problems that he believed plagued the early church. You can see scanned images of the pamphlet at archive.org. The pamphlet has been cited by the recent article on Joseph’s use of the seer-stone (see footnote #26 Joseph the Seer at lds.org)

One of the most significant issues Whitmer raised involved the revelations found in both the Book of Commandments and the Doctrine and Covenants. Since Whitmer was present for the receiving of those early revelations he was able to verify their accurate transcription in the 1830 Book of Commandments, but in addition was keen to notice that several of the revelations were significantly changed once published in the 1835 Doctrine and Covenants. These changes had the effect of granting Joseph greater power and authority than originally described in the early revelations, adding priesthood offices which were not originally included and adding to the complexity of the Gospel of Christ as originally depicted in the New Testament and Book of Mormon. He wrote:

“You have changed the revelations from the way they were first given and as they are to-day in the Book of Commandments, to support the error of Brother Joseph in taking upon himself the office of Seer to the church. You have changed the revelations to support the error of high priests. You have changed the revelations to support the error of a President of the high priesthood, high counselors, etc. You have altered the revelations to support you in going beyond the plain teachings of Christ in the new covenant part of the Book of Mormon. You have changed and altered the revelations to support the error of publishing those revelations in a book: the errors you are in, revelations have been changed to support and uphold them. You who are now living did not change them, but you who strive to defend these things, are as guilty in the sight of God as those who did change them.”
(An Address to All Believers in Christ/Part Second/Chapter VI. archive.org)

Chapter 8 of part 2 of the pamphlet in particular described specific revelations and the imprtance of the changes that Whitmer observed. I have previously assembled some of the most important of Whitmer’s observations is a series called Track Changes of the Doctrine and Covenants.

Click here to order a reprint replica of David Whitmer’s “An Address to All Believers in Christ”

This 3 part gift set tells your loved one that you acknowledge that there are issues which a reasonable person may have concerns about regarding the legitimacy of Joseph Smith and the founding of the Church. It doesn’t mean that you agree with the critics, but the validation and empathy that are communicated with this set are the real gifts that your ex-mormon loved one will value.

October 2015 Ensign

Okay – You are probably very skeptical of this one. Why in the world would your ex-mormon loved one appreciate a gift of the October 2015 Ensign – Isn’t that just going to make the problem worse? The last thing they want is just more preachy words from the fifteen at the top and their Public Relations minions. Actually, no. The church has been releasing Gospel Topic Essays for a few years now which have actually acknowledged many of the issues that have lead people to question the church. People have been concerned that while these acknowledgements are refreshing, they are not seen by the majority of the membership because they are hidden away on the website and not actively read from the pulpits or published in the Ensign. October 2015 changed that in a significant way. For the first time in a long time, a difficult issue in Church History was included in the major Church periodical – pictures and all.

The article “Joseph the Seer” found on pages 48-55 describes Joseph Smith’s use of the seer-stone and even includes a photograph of the stone, bring it front and center with the wide membership of the church. The article also acknowledges that the artistic depictions of the translation process which have been used in church publications for decades do not match the historical record.

Now, if you have discussed this article with your apostate loved one, then they probably still have lots of problems with some of the obfuscations and rationalizations included in the article – the article doesn’t even describe where Joseph got the stone and obscures the fact that he used it in early treasure hunting and money digging scams, but they are likely to see it as an important step towards more openness on the part of the church. Those people who may have been called anti-mormon liars for bringing up the stone in the hat in the past have now been vindicated. There is more progress to be done in the name of openness, to be sure, but the October 2015 Ensign is an important pioneering issue in this regard.

Chances are that your ex-mormon loved one is no longer getting the Ensign. Give him or her a copy – and a little note explaining that you can understand why the seer-stone is an issue which a reasonable person may find a questionable part of the Mormon faith. That simple concession does not destroy your own faith, but it could be a small first step in rebuilding the relationship that you want with your loved one. ((For bonus points tape a Victoria’s Secret gift card to the article about pornography so they can get themselves or their special someone something nice now that they don’t have to wear garments))

The Turncoat Broadsheet Giftset

This is a gift that is ideal for an exmormon who just loves to perseverate about esoterica. Someone who really digs into the details and latches onto an obscure juicy story and wont stop blabbing on and on about how it proves that Joseph was a fraud and the church is a sham. Sure, that makes them among the most annoying and perdition loving sort of apostate – but, dangit, you raised the flippin’ kid and you love them despite their contrary opinions and vociferous diatribes. If you could gift them something that has that nerdy ex-mo hipster coolness factor, maybe you can show them in a tangible way that your love for them comes before your love for the church. Chances are that their rants are really just an expression of their insecurity about this very fear – that you love the church more than you love them.

On the subject of “lovin'” The Turncoat Broadsheet Giftset comes in two related parts, each one a broadsheet sized newspaper addressing the issue of plural marriages in early church history.

Part 1 – “Affidavits and Certificates…” broadsheet replica

This item takes a bit of explanation. The events surrounding it are covered in more detail in the blog-post called “Defending the Expositor: Indecent Proposals, Part 2.” To summarize, in 1842 John C Bennett had been removed from the church primarily over the issue of “Spiritual Wifery” where it was alleged that Bennett had convinced women to have carnal relations with him by telling them that Joseph had had a special revelation which would sanction such acts if they agreed to be taken as spiritual wives and kept the matter secret. Joseph, of course denied that he taught any such principle. After leaving Nauvoo, Bennett struck a blow to the church by publishing a series of letters in the newspapers of surrounding communities and then assembling them into a book which was widely published as an expose entitled “History of the Saints.” In this book Bennett made numerous accusations that Joseph was secretly engaging in a religiously sanctioned system of plural wives.

The book did significant damage to the reputation of Joseph and the church in the region. In order to counter the allegations of Bennett, Joseph had many of the prominent church leaders and citizens of Nauvoo give testimony and affidavits under oath that he had not taught, in secret or in private, anything at all like polygamy or spiritual wifery and that he was of unimpeachable character. These certificates and affidavits were then assembled into a broadsheet newspaper insert and volunteer saints went far and wide distributing the paper to defend the character of Joseph.

The full title of the flyer was “Affidavits and Certificates Disproving the Statements and Affidavits Contained in John C. Bennett’s Letters” and you can find the full text at MormonBookshelf.com

This esoteric piece of Mormon History will take a bit more legwork to turn into a gift. The only original scanned copy of this document is significantly degraded. You can see images of it at archive.org. A cleaned up reconstruction has been made available by the good folks at Signature Books and can also be found at archive.org. To gift this item you will have to select the pdf file from either of those versions and then send them to a printing service to have them printed on a large newspaper sized page. This could be gifted in free leaf format or, for a bit more money, could be mounted in a poster frame.

Part 2 – “Nauvoo Expositor” Replica

A key observation to make in the “Affidavits and Certificates..” document is that among those members who lent their own reputations to defend Joseph were brother Francis and Chauncey Higbee, a young doctor named Robert Foster and two businessmen brothers Wilson and William Law. Each of these men put their own good names on the line by publicly defending the character of Joseph.

Each of them would go on to learn two years later that they had been lied to. Joseph did have a secret system of religiously sanctioned plural marriages. It wasn’t exactly like Bennett described, but Joseph had denied being involved in anything at all like spritual wifery and repeatedly directed people to Section 101 of the Doctrine and Covenants which only allowed for monogamy within the church. Joseph’s eventual disclosure of the reality of polygamy would no doubt cause these men to see that their own reputations had been used by Joseph to facilitate a deception.

As such, it may not come as a surprise that it is these very men who would subsequently publish the notorious “Nauvoo Expositor”. It was this newspaper which first publicly disclosed the reality of not only Joseph’s secret practice of polygamy, but also of his secret Council of Fifty, plans for theocracy and financial abuses in the church. The Expositor only had a chance to run its first issue, but it promised to go on to expose much more of the Prophet/President/Mayor/General/King Joseph’s activities. Fearing the exposure and mob reprisals which may result, Joseph convened the Nauvoo City Council and after two days of deliberation, the paper was declared a nuisance and the printing press and all issues and type of the Nauvoo Expositor were destroyed by the Nauvoo Legion under orders from Joseph Smith.

The events surrounding Joseph’s response to the Expositor would lead him to flee Nauvoo, then return to be imprisoned in Carthage Jail where he and his brother were murdered by a mob.

A Facsimile reprint of first issue of The Nauvoo Expositor can be purchased from the Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association of America.

Most exmormons are familiar with the Nauvoo Expositor, but only a few are likely to be familiar with the precursor “Affidavits and Certificates…” episode which may have fanned the flames of dissent in the minds of those who went on to publish the Expositor. By gifting this set of companion newspapers, you acknowledge to your apostate loved one that the reasons for their disaffection from the church are complex and valid to your loved one (even if they don’t meet that threshold to yourself). This validation of your loved one’s experience can be an important bridge to bringing them back into your life. That sort of healing is a great part of the magic of Christmas.

Facsimile 2 Hypocephalus Pillow

After an exhausting day of anti-Mormon scheming and baby blood drinking, your apostate loved one is, no doubt, spent. Those misogynistic and homophobic policies and doctrines aren’t going to bash themselves, you know – somebody has got to do it. You look at your loved one and can’t tell if the light is gone from their eyes because the spirit has left them or if those are just bags under their eyes from sin induced or guilt-ridden insomnia. Either way – you love them despite their seemingly inexhaustible efforts at tearing down the Kingdom that Joseph built.  

What better way to show them that you care than a head pillow emblazoned with Facsimile 2 from the Book of Abraham?

Now, there is some explanation due. Once the hieroglyphic language had been deciphered, Archaeologists, anthropologists and Egyptologists set about to translate and contextualize the various writings which were available – much of which came from burial troves which had contained mummies, papyri scrolls, engravings, etc.  In doing so, they discovered that in the archaic pagan cult of the Egyptians, there was a complex series of rituals performed in order to prepare a deceased person for the afterlife. In addition to the mummification process that we are all familiar with, there were also certain spells that were necessary in order to properly guide a spirit into the sublime hereafter. These were recorded and found upon the writings that were included with the burial chambers of the dead. Examples of such texts include the Book of the Dead and the Book of Breathing. There is no one official form of either of these books, but the versions of them found in numerous burials all share similar thematic elements and visual motifs.

Among these is the hypocephalus

The hypocephalus was an amulet placed as a pillow under the head of the mummy in accordance with the spell described in Chapter 162 of the Book of The Dead which serves to provide flame or heat for the dead as they navigate the afterlife.  It’s part of the archaic and pagan religion of the Egyptians.

That brings us to this pillow:

This pillow is more – on one side there is Facsimile 2, from the book of Abraham, with all of the numbered figures and illustrations that Joseph Smith interpreted and printed with the book of Abraham. On the backside of the pillow there is a Hypocephalus taken from the entombed mummy of Tasheritkhons.

Like the connections between Masonic Rituals and the Temple Endowment ceremony – it is just coincidence that Facsimile 2 and the hypocephalus look similar. But just how similar? Multiheaded God sitting in the middle? Check! Sacred cow? Check! Worshipping Baboons? Check! Seated God of Fertility with an erection? Check! There is more, but no need to belabor the description. You can see a large collection of Hypocephali at this page and note how these elements are most present in one form or another on many, many examples. But the one Joseph translated on Facsimile 2 is not related to those. It was drawn by Abraham.

Bonus- Since one side of the pillow is part of the black magic of a heathen pagan cult and the other is the sublime illustration of Joseph’s deity in all power and glory, then it can be a fun game for your loved on to make sure that they sleep with the correct side up – even the most hardened exmormon sometimes can’t tell the difference. This gift reminds your loved one that if they can’t tell the difference between the occult Egyptian symbolism and Mormon scripture, then they should have more compassion for Mormon’s who can’t either.

Click here to order the Facsimile 2 – Hypocephalus head pillow

Nauvoo Wine

If your loved one has developed a taste for the fruit of the vine, then this next gift is one that they may particularly appreciate. They will no doubt be familiar with the account given of what Joseph Smith and friends consoled themselves with on their last nights in Carthage Jail. This is recorded in the History of the Church:

Sometime after dinner we sent for some wine. It has been reported by some that this was taken as a sacrament. It was no such thing; our spirits were generally dull and heavy, and it was sent for to revive us. I think it was Captain Jones who went after it, but they would not suffer him to return. I believe we all drank of the wine, and gave some to one or two of the prison guards. We all of us felt unusually dull and languid, with a remarkable depression of spirits. In consonance with those feelings I sang a song, that had lately been introduced into Nauvoo, entitled, ‘A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief’, etc.
(History of the Church 7:101, byu.edu)

Remember that a region’s particular soil composition, general climate, and environs determine a great deal about the chemistry and makeup of a particular grape and so effect the particular taste of a wine from that region. Wines from particular provinces in Italy, Spain or California are sought after for their unique character. This would also be true of wines from Nauvoo and its region.

By gifting a wine from a vineyard in Nauvoo, you can give your loved one a taste of what Joseph experienced on the night of his murder. Just don’t rush their house with a bunch of your friends after you do so!

Click here to order wine from the Nauvoo Winery

“Command Given and Fulfilled” Stone giftset

Part 1 – The Seer Stone

Your apostate loved one has no doubt seen the pictures of Joseph seer stone and has also probably read numerous articles and interviews about it. They know that Joseph found the stone while “digging a well” and that he was paid by people to use the stone to try to locate buried treasure, though none was found in this manner. They also probably know that Joseph used the stone to help locate the Gold Plates, by some accounts. The church has recently acknowledged that Joseph used the stone to translate the portions of the Book of Mormon that we have today. One thing that may not be known to many Mormons or your heathen apostate loved one is that the earliest revelations given to Joseph Smith containing various commands in publishing the Book of Mormon and establishing the church also came through the stone. Joseph would look into the stone in a hat and receive commandments from the lord, much in the way depicted in this dramatization:

So the seer stone represents a medium whereby commands are given by God to one of his prophets. This is the first part of the gift set.

Shortly after the church published photographs of Joseph’s seer stone, the geology community did as much of an analysis from the photographs as possible and you can see their comments in this reddit thread and more comments in this reddit thread. The consensus is that the stone is an example of Banded Jasper

Click here to search for Banded Jasper on eBay – you will want to find one that is about the size of a goose egg. You may also have luck visiting your local mineral and gem shop.

Update: A helpful Redditor pointed out that you can order a 3d-printed sandstone replica of the seer stone here.

Part 2 – The Cairn Stone

Now that we have a stone which represents a command given to a prophet, we turn to the other side of the issue and look for a stone that represents a command from the prophet which has been carried out. There is no more meaningful example of this than the stones found strewn about the field at Mountain Meadows. No – I am not referring to the allegation that Brigham Young commanded the Saints in the region to brutally murder the over 120 men, women and children of the Fancher-Baker party – there is no conclusive evidence in existence which proves that claim. I am referring to what happened to the memorial monument that was erected at the site of the massacre – the cairn.

A year and a half after the massacre, in May of 1859, The US Army and Cavalry were ordered to gather the strewn bones of the victims for burial. They did so and a large conical shaped pile of granite stones from the nearby hills was piled up at the site and a cross was erected in memorial to the victims and the massacre.  This monument was short-lived, however. LDS historian Juanita Brooks gives an account from one of her relatives who was present when Brigham Young visited the site a few years later.

“My grandfather, Dudley Leavitt, was present, and he told the incident repeatedly, so that it has been verified by three of his sons. One preserved it in these words, quoting his father: ‘I was with the group of elders that went out with President Young to visit the spot in the spring of ’61. The soldiers had put up a monument, and on top of that a wooden cross with words burned into it, Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord, I will repay. Brother Brigham read that to himself and studied it for a while and then he read it out loud, Vengeance is mine saith the Lord; I HAVE repaid. He didn’t say another word. He didn’t give an order. He just lifted his right arm to the square, and in five minutes there wasn’t one stone left upon another. He didn’t have to tell us what he wanted done. We understood.’ “

(“Mountain Meadows Massacre,” Juanita Brooks, p. 183. books.google.com)

Since that time there are been several monuments erected, including assistance and funding of the church. ((see the excellent documentary “Burying the Past” at youtube.com)) The result of that first implicitly ordered destruction of the original cairn means that if you were to go to the site at mountain meadows and look for red granite stone strewn about the field, you will find a stone that may have been a part of the original monument, or at least from the same rock formations that contributed to the monument.

To get part 2 of this gift set, you would have to visit the Mountain Meadows and collect a red granite stone. I will leave it up to you to consider the legality or propriety of retrieving such a stone. A related red granite stone from the nearby hills may suffice.

This gift-set of two stones, representing commands given and carried out, acknowledged to your loved one that you know that Church history is messy and that the messiness did not end with Joseph Smith. While the seer-stone may not give your loved one extraordinary sight, it may give them a new view of the empathy and understanding that you are striving towards. The granite stone from mountain meadows, originally scattered by the unspoken command of a prophet – now gathered in the arms of your apostate loved one may symbolize how you desire to gather your scattered heathen back into the arms of your compassion, without condition or judgment.

Conclusion

This Christmas season, don’t miss the chance to mend wounds and heal hearts. A simple gift, like the ones above, conveys a message of acceptance that doesn’t invalidate your own faith while affirming your love and acceptance of the blackhearted heathen apostate in your life.