As a grade school kid, for me, one of the best school days of the week had to be Fridays.

Not just because school would be out for the weekend, but because Fridays were show and

tell days where I got to see my classmates' toys and the things that they had in their

rooms at home, I just couldn't wait to see what was brought in each week to give a broader

window into aspects of their lives.

Although I wouldn't have been able to articulate it then, it's like as a kid I could already

sense that seen tangible objects brought greater insight into the reality of people's lives

and experiences.

I remember when I had that first real tangible experience with something from church history,

Elder L. G. Smith, who was the last ordained general church patriarch and a direct descendant

of Joseph Smith's senior, came to my seminary.

When he let us touch and place our hands in the wooden chest that had been handed down

through his family, that Joseph Smith had placed the Book of Mormon plates in to secure

them.

Although I already believed in the Book of Mormon, to see and touch the interior panels

of a wooden box where the gold plates rested, connected me to the reality.

The physical and tactile helped confirm the spiritual and divine.

Professor Casey Griffiths from BYU Church History and Doctrine, and as regular listeners

of the show know as part of our Why Religion team, has recently co-authored a book called

50 Relics of the Restoration, a book that harnesses this power of showing and telling through

tangible objects.

We wanted this to be kind of a cabinet of curiosities that you could open up and go,

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