Witness of the Light is a mobile app made for the iPad. It has 230+ photographs of historical sites and beautifully-written stories to help you relive the history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It takes you from Joseph Smith’s birth in 1805 to his martyrdom in 1844. It follows Joseph Smith, his family, and other prominent and lesser-known historical figures.

• Stories are put in context and chronology.
• Touch any of the 230+ gorgeous photographs to see them in full-frame high resolution. Wherever you tap on the enlarged picture, it zooms towards that point. (These are the quality of photos that you would expect from National Geographic.) Many of the photographs were taken in the season that matches the historical context and from nearly every place Joseph Smith received revelations.
• Watch slide shows and 15 videos from author/photographer Scot Facer Proctor.
• With the swipe of a finger walk through the Sacred Grove, be in the room where the Church was organized, see the kind of tools that were used to construct the Kirtland Temple, or be a witness to the Carthage Jail. Or use the slider along the bottom of the page to quickly find a place in the app.

The mobile app was created by Maurine Jensen Proctor and Scot Facer Proctor, a husband-and-wife team who has created numerous books and films. They have also published the online Meridian Magazine (LDSmag.com) for the past 16 years.

This app gives you a panoramic view of the early history of the Church and explains what happened in each historic location. You’ll find yourself spending hours exploring the stories and seeing the sites.

You may also read some stories you have never heard before. For example, look at the photo below of the courtroom where Joseph Smith was put on trial in Springfield, Illinois.

Do you see the trap door in the ceiling above the judge’s seat? There was a young attorney whose office was upstairs above this courtroom. He used to open that trap door and observe the proceedings of the court. This young attorney would later become the President of the United States—Abraham Lincoln!

I just downloaded this app and love it so much I’m showing it to my coworkers. In addition to the gorgeous photography of places from the Restoration, I love the summaries and text about each place and the events that took place there. If you want to learn more than the brief summary that appears below a photo, swipe up to read more of the story. You can interact with every page in interesting ways.

Go to JosephSmithWitness.com to see more of the features of the mobile app.

Read more in the article “Spectacular New iPad App: A Photographic Journey in the Footsteps of Joseph Smith.”

To get the app, go to the App Store on your iPad and search for “Witness of the Light.” Here’s the app’s detail page. You can buy this gorgeous, professionally-designed app for the bargain price of $8.99. Consider it for a Christmas gift to family, friends, or neighbors.

What do you like about the app? Do you also get lost in exploring it?

How could we make Church learning materials more like this?