Peter Daniels wrote:

> I thought the angels took back the golden plates after Smith translated
> them.

The plates were not supposed to have been written in the Deseret alphabet.
It was acknowledged to be a subsequent invention.

I have a copy of the Historic Reprint of the Deseret First Book, a children's
primer. (Acquiring it was a unique experience: I went to Deseret Book, but only
through the special-order process could I actually obtain a Deseret book.) It
is not a difficult script to learn; I learned to read it at about 100 words per
minute after only a few weeks of casual effort. John Jenkins' magnum opus
<http://homepage.mac.com/jenkins/Deseret/BoM.html> was a great help as well.

-Doug Ewell
posting from work in Irvine, California