“God had a work for me to do,” the angel Moroni told Joseph Smith during his first appearance to the young prophet in his upstairs bedroom in Palmyra, New York, on the evening of September 21, 1823. “My name should be had for good and evil,” the Prophet recalled, “among all nations, kindreds, and tongues” (Joseph Smith—History 1:33).

In the spring of 2024, Religious Education witnessed, in part, a fulfillment of that prophecy when we took a group of nineteen students from many “nations, kindreds, and tongues” around the globe to study the restoration of the gospel at sites associated with the birth of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Religious Education partnered with BYU’s Office of Belonging and International Student Services to host a two-week field study focused on religious and civil freedom. Informally called the “birth of the Church, birth of the country” travel study, the experience included students from around the world for whom visiting the earliest sites of the Restoration might be difficult, if not impossible.

BYU students from China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Vietnam, and Korea joined others from Chile, Venezuela, Mexico, and the United States to explore, on-site, the foundational events of the Restoration. In Sharon, Vermont, students walked the grounds of the cradle of the Restoration, the birthplace of the Prophet Joseph Smith. In Palmyra, New York, they explored the Smith family farm, scene of the appearance of the Father and the Son in the First Vision as well as Moroni’s visits; climbed the Hill Cumorah, where the Book of Mormon was discovered; and toured the Grandin print shop, where that same sacred text was first printed. In Harmony, Pennsylvania, students studied revelations that are central to the beginning of the Church, including the restoration of priesthood authority, charges regarding missionary work, and instructions about the translation of the Book of Mormon. In Fayette, New York, they learned about how the Church was organized, reflecting on its growth from six founding members in a small frontier cabin to an organization that spans oceans and continents, reaching their homes far away. The students even calculated how many tens of thousands of miles, in total, they had traveled from those homes to be where the Church began.

In multiple locations, students live streamed for loved ones back home the experience they were having in the Smith or Whitmer homes, the print shop, or a grove of trees made sacred by the visit of the Father and the Son. Translating their experiences into Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese, these remarkable students embraced the BYU slogan “The world is our campus” by literally spreading their remote campus experience around the world.

At the conclusion of the experience, one student reflected, “Each stop unveiled significant events leading to the restoration of the true Church of Christ. These historical chains of events began to click into place, revealing their direct connection to me and the miracles that have shaped my life. Now I understand, there is power in learning about Church history. They helped me see the pattern of the Lord’s works and how He orchestrated His heavenly plan and how that plan affects my life.” Another poetically added, “Faith can move mountains, faith can open heavens, for a young man in New York. Faith reached out through missionary work, found me and my family, in a small town in Mexico, when we needed to find the Lord.”

In many cases these students are among the first members of the Church in their families and, in some cases, among the first members in their countries. Like the early Saints whose lives we studied, these students too are pioneers. One student concluded, “We talked a lot about being pioneers on the trip. One day I will share this story with my children, with hopes that they share it, to see how God always finds a way to restore His love and truth to His children. . . . One day when my children and great-grandchildren are seeking to learn the truth, I hope they can take my story to recognize how God’s purpose is to bring us back to His presence.”

More than two hundred years ago, Moroni told a seventeen-year-old boy that his name and his story would be known around the world. For two weeks last spring, students from around the world came together to celebrate that story in the places where it began.