Seer Stones and The Contemporary LDS Church
After finishing the Book of Mormon translation, Smith gave his brown seer stone to Oliver Cowdery, but he occasionally used his white stone to gain revelations, including his translation of what later became known as the "Book of Abraham." There is no evidence that Smith used the stone to dictate any more of the Doctrine and Covenants revelations after November 1830; and during his work on his Bible translation, Smith told Orson Pratt he had stopped using the stone because he had become acquainted with "the Spirit of Prophecy and Revelation" and no longer needed it. Nevertheless, in 1855, Brigham Young told the apostles that Smith had had five seer stones; and Young made it clear that Smith "did not regard his seer stones simply as relics of his youth" but had found others while church president.
According to Joseph Fielding Smith, tenth president, the LDS church continues to own one of Joseph Smith's seer stones. Michael Quinn claims that the church holds three. Nevertheless, since the nineteenth century, no President of the Church has openly used such a stone in his role as "prophet, seer, and revelator."
Read more about this topic: Seer Stone (Latter Day Saints)
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