      Moroni’s visitations  The Joseph Smith–History gives a bit
of information about Joseph Smith’s coming of age   He provides
this information to set up his need for repentance which
directly leads to the first visitation of Moroni, but this
little addition is curious:   What did people who were close to
Joseph Smith think of him? How did he bridge the credibility gap
between how he was perceived and what he was claiming to have
done and what he was about to do? We tend to apply the stick-
pulling/leg-wrestling motif here — just a bit of harmless fun —
but I wonder if there wasn’t something more fundamental being
alluded to here. I don’t know enough about the context in which
Joseph Smith–History was written and edited, but I think
everyone involved in the process knew Smith personally, and it’s
interesting that it was considered important enough to make the
final cut.  It’s also interesting that repentance leads to the
visit of Moroni. It has certainly been my experience that
spiritual growth and clarity c