Escondido friend and 1855 rare Book of Mormon

One of our favorite exhibits in the Visitors' Center is an original 1855 edition of the Book of Mormon.  We were surprised to learn that it found its way to the VC with the help of a friend, Dean Ellis, who grew up with us in Escondido in the 1950's.  Dean married another younger friend, Lisa Bahen, and the two of them live close by, and Dean serves as a Bishop in one of the BYUH wards.  Here's a picture of Dean and two of his family, taken when the exhibit opened at the VC in November 2008.

The Book of Mormon was translated in Hawaiian from 1851-53 by Elder George Q. Cannon (then a missionary in Hawaii) with the help of a Hawaiian convert, Judge Ionatana Napela.  About 3,000 copies were printed in San Francisco and shipped unbound to Hawaii.  Approximately 200 were bound and the rest destroyed during a fire in 1868.  The copy on display at the Visitors' Center is one of only 15 to 30 copies believed to be extant.  BYUH has one other 1855 copy in it's collection.

There is a more complete account of this story in the November 22, 2008 edition of the Church News.