The history of the origin of the Second Invitation to the restored gospel of Jesus Christ begins with a man in southern Brazil named Mauricio A. Berger. This page focuses on him.
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At that time, there appeared Jehovah's Witnesses missionaries who said that Mauricio was being tormented by the devil and that only by baptizing him as a Jehovah's Witness would the enemy leave him alone. His father sent him to Santa Maria so he could be baptized and stay there to join them. After three years, Mauricio was about to become a missionary to Angola, South Africa, for them. Twelve days before he left, he met two LDS missionaries for the first time. Being very curious, he approached them to know what they did and received a Book of Mormon. The Spirit witnessed to him while reading the story of the Prophet Joseph Smith so strongly that it induced him to do the same as Joseph. He retired into a pine grove in the back of the Federal University of Santa Maria and began to pray with certainty that God would give him an answer to know which of the religions to serve. It was then, on this occasion that he first saw the angel Raphael, who began to give him instructions as to what he should do. In the future he would come to Mauricio again for further clarification. So, Mauricio gave up being a Jehovah's Witness, and in 1998 he became a member of the LDS church.
He then married a woman who was also LDS, a single mother already having an infant daughter. He loved his wife very much. With little educational background, he had to undergo various types of work to support his family, which today is composed of Mauricio, his wife, and four daughters.
In October 2006 he saw an opportunity to work in a shop in the city of Caxias do Sul, RS, some 250 miles from Santa Maria. In order to work there, Mauricio had to leave his family in Santa Maria for six months. After six months away from home, having already arranged to bring them, he drove from the shop where he worked as soon as the mall closed at 10:00 pm, and left for Santa Maria. At about 4 o'clock in the morning, Mauricio became sleepy and being near the town of Agudo, where he grew up, he decided to stop the car to rest. It was on this occasion, after 8 years, that the angel Raphael appeared to him again.
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Just before dawn of Fri 6 Apr 2007, they ascended Mount Agudo. Raphael led him through the brush to the top of the mount. Because it was still dark, Raphael lit the way with a portion of energy he produced as he rubbed his hands. On the summit, Raphael left Mauricio alone.
As he prayed to know what was happening, the angel Moroni appeared, enveloped in an extremely strong light. He quoted Isaiah 1:2-9 several times, so that it became etched in Mauricio's memory. That suggests that you might want to read it at least once (click on the reference)! Moroni told him that he appeared to him because of his great faith and quest for truth. His prayer had touched the feelings of Him that rules the entire universe.
Moroni explained many things to him, and gave him the plates, the interpreters and the sword of Laban. On that day he heard, from Moroni, for the first time about the Church of Christ, about the RLDS Church, and about the importance of the land of the temple lot in Missouri. Moroni required Mauricio to return to that same place accompanied by three other men who had approached him for Bible study and that they should go back there every year until 10 years had past. And so they did, until they came to understand what God expected them to do.
Mauricio asked the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-day Saints to remove him as a member. After a while, they called him in a disciplinary proceeding and tried to get him to deny his story, stating that only the president of the LDS church could translate the sealed part of the plates. When that did not succeed, he was then excommunicated.
On Mon 4 Feb 2008 Mauricio went up Mount Agudo with Sergio Ignacio, Jader Machado and Joni Batista and they all saw a multitude of angelic personages in the heavens.
On 25 Dec 2008 he returned with Jader Machado and they were ministered to by Peter, James, and John, the three apostles of the Lord. They were commanded to testify that a great work was about to happen.
On Sat 12 Dec 2009 Mauricio was discouraged after some men had broken into his house, causing Mauricio to consider giving up the work. It was at night, and he had just told his family they were leaving Caixas do Sul. Mauricio and his wife saw lights appear across the street in the woods where Mauricio had visited with Raphael before, so they walked out onto their porch. Mauricio crossed the street and soon found Moroni, who directed Mauricio to meet with several prophets of the past to encourage him, so that he would never give up.
On Tue 22 Dec 2009, Mauricio's 33rd birthday, he returned to Mount Agudo with Jader and Joni, having the promise from Moroni that he would receive a celestial blessing. Mauricio asscended the mount some distance and there was Raphael awaiting for him. Both Mauricio and Raphael disappeared from the sight of the other two men for about 40 minutes. Those two saw a light appear above them where Mauricio was surely in a heavenly vision.
On Sat 21 Jan 2017, Moroni revealed to Mauricio how to contact Joseph Fredrick Smith, the great grandson of the Prophet Joseph Smith, in Missouri. He was told on this occasion that the Lord was moving his hand to restore Zion to its place determined by Him, in a place chosen to be the New Jerusalem in Missouri. Moroni said that the churches that bear his name had strayed from their covenant making the arm of flesh their strength. He explained that the remnant quoted by him the first time (Isaiah 1:2-9) referred to the various branches of the restoration.
Joseph F. Smith and Bob Moore came to Brazil from Missouri to meet with Mauricio and they were allowed to see the gold plates. On Sun 4 Mar 2018 those two had brought six more witnesses from the Missouri branches and while all twelve were present (Mauricio, the Three Witnesses, and the eight others), when the sealed portion was released so that a portion of the sealed plates were able to be examined. Later, Mauricio used the interpreters to translate about half of these newly revealed plates into both Portuguese and English (and he does not speak English!). That translation was published on Tue 26 Mar 2019 as The Sealed Book of Mormon. It is currently downloaded as a PDF file from this website.