The Mormon story is that, after The Book of Mormon was published, Parley Pratt and Oliver Cowdery were sent on a mission to the Indians in the West, but showed up promptly at Rigdon's place, in norther Ohio, where they showed him a Book of Mormon. At first he feigned surprise and said that the book was of the devil. However, within a matter of hours, he accepted the book as the word of God and, within a two-week period, had converted his entire flock of about 150 to Mormonism.

All of these men knew each other for a period of years before The Book of Mormon was finished. Oliver Cowdery, who knew both Pratt and Rigdon (Pratt had been one of Rigdon's followers), came from Poultney, Vermont, where a fellow townsman had written a book, View of the Hebrews, that sought to prove that the Indians were the lost tribes of Israel. The book, by Ethan Smith, was published just a year or so before Cowdery put in his appearance. Cowdery knew the Whitmers, and the Whitmers already knew about the plates and Nephi, one of the characters of The Book of Mormon.