The Translator of the Sealed Book: Mauricio A. Berger




Mauricio Arthur Berger.
The translator of the Sealed Book of Mormon is a seer in southern Brazil named Mauricio A. Berger. In 1998, just before Mauricio was about to go on a mission for the Jehovah's Witnesses Church, he encountered the LDS missionaries for the first time and received a copy of the Book of Mormon. Upon reading it he felt he had to know if it was true, so he went to a grove of trees behind the University of Santa Maria, RS, Brazil, and prayed to know. The angel Raphael appeared to him! He immediately joined the LDS Church.

On 6 Apr 2007 Mauricio was near his home town of Agudo and prayed for more answers. The angel Raphael again appeared to him, with others. They all ascended Mt. Agudo, and at the top Raphael left Mauricio alone at the top, after which the Angel Moroni appeared to him. The angel showed him the gold Plates of Mormon, which had been used by Joseph Smith to translate the unsealed portion into the Book of Mormon, as well as the interpreters and the sword of Laban. Moroni instructed him to return there every year for ten years and to bring three men with him each time. And so he did, until they came to understand what God expected them to do.

Finally the time came for Mauricio to unseal the sealed portion of the gold plates to translate the first portion into the Sealed Book of Mormon. Mauricio had learned about the branches of the Church in Missouri from the Angel Moroni. They were to provide eight other witnesses, besides the three main witnesses, to watch the unsealing of the plates and to then become additional witnesses of the Plates of Mormon.

Joseph Fredrick Smith, great grandson of the Prophet Joseph Smith, and Bob Moore came to Brazil from Missouri to meet with Mauricio, where they were allowed to examine the gold plates. On Sun 4 Mar 2018 those two had brought six more witnesses from the Missouri branches. While all twelve were present (Mauricio, the Three Witnesses, and the eight others), 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.

This history is given in more detail at the "Origin" under the "History" tab.