We drove through Sardine Canyon, to my families house in Paradise, and spent the night. The next morning, I got up and drove back to Brigham City without telling my wife where I was going or why. I figured she would just bitch at me, and I might as well only get bitched at on my return and not both leaving and returning.
I went into the Rock Shop and just as I expected, there was a young lady behind the desk, not the same one I had seen last night. I asked if I might speak with her grandfather. She said he wasn't in yet, but should be along shortly, if I'd like to wait. I assured her that I did, and that I'd look around the store. So I wandered around the shop, touching the different rocks, looking at them, wondering what kind of rock would make a proper Urim and Thummim. Diamonds? Opals? Jades? I looked at so many rocks, and I was drawn to the expensive ones, the jewelry, figuring that surely for such important work, the Lord must need an expensive and exotic crystal.
After a while, an older gentleman entered the shop. He introduced himself as Harold O'Whiler. I told him that Shulem had sent me. He grinned widely, and invited me to a back room. After closing the door, he invited me to have a seat, and spoke saying, "If shulem has sent you, it means you have golden plates, and will need some seer stones. May I look at the plates?" When I declined, he sighed, and muttered something about doing all the work, and not getting any of the glory. I almost relented, but then remembered what happened to Joseph Smith and Martin Harris when they showed sacred writings to people when the time was not right. There was a forlorn look in his eye for a moment, but it was soon replaced by glee as he warmed up to the task at hand.
Harold told me that ever since he had opened his rock shop after retiring from teaching school, that people had been coming in seeking seer stones. The first few times, he hadn't known what to do, so he had sold the people any old rock they took a fancy too just to get them out of the shop. After all, seer stones are for apostates, not for good Mormon people. But then he watched a pattern emerge. It was always the most humble and faithful members of the stake who came into the shop looking for seer stones. The people who were full of quiet spiritual power came in, but never the church leaders, or those who set themselves up as a light to the people.
Brother O'Whiler told me that after a few times, he got curious and decided that he would do a serious study about seer stones, and what makes them work and why. He was aware that Joseph Smith used a seer stone, but never thought much of it, until people started asking him for seer stones. Brother O'Whiler searched in church history, and found that in the early days of the church many people used seer stones, and left detailed descriptions about them, but that during the polygamy war with the federal government that seer stones had also gotten suppressed. He found much information about seer stones in the legends of the native american indians, and among several alternative religions. He studied the Hebrew meaning of the words Urim and Thummim, and found that the name means Light and Perfections. He dug into the scientific literature of gemology, and finally after several years of searching came to the conclusion that the perfect set of seer stones would be composed of Granite and Calcite.
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