God Himself called Joseph Smith as the prophet of the latter-days to restore His true gospel to the earth.

“I the Lord, knowing the calamity which should come upon the inhabitants of the earth, called upon my servant Joseph Smith, Jun., and spake unto him from heaven, and gave him commandments.”

Over centuries, the true Church of Jesus Christ had fallen into apostasy. Christ’s teachings had been corrupted and the ordinances of salvation changed. This apostasy ended with the calling of Joseph Smith, an obscure farm boy of 14 years of age, as a prophet.

Joseph was persecuted all the rest of his life for what he saw, but “he had seen a vision, he knew he had, and all the persecution under heaven could not make it otherwise.”1

The Church began with only six members in 1830, and was forced to move from place to place to avoid persecution, but still more and more members joined them.  They moved from New York, to Kirtland, Ohio; to Independence, Missouri (where the governor of Missouri signed an extermination notice against all members of the Church); and finally, to Nauvoo, Illinois.

While the saints were in Nauvoo, their prophet and his brother, Hyrum, were murdered while being held in a jail in Carthage, a few miles away.  Following the murders, persecution escalated, and early in the morning of February 4, 1846, the saints crossed a then frozen Mississippi River to head west and eventually settle in the valley of Salt Lake, Utah Territory. Brigham Young was the leader of the Mormon pioneer‘s great exodus to Salt Lake and has been called the Modern Moses. 

Between 1846 and 1869, when the railroad came to Utah, about 70,000 of the members of the Church traveled by wagon, foot, and handcarts to reach “Zion”, where they would find safety from persecution. Many of the emigrants came, first, by boat, from Europe.

Since that time, the Church has spread over the entire earth.  Missionaries carry the message of the gospel all over the world. The Church currently has full translations of the Book of Mormon printed in 77 languages. Book of Mormon selections are published in 28 additional languages.

Since 1830, the Church has had 16 Presidents (all prophets of God) and as of the end of 2008, has over 13,000,000 members. The current prophet and President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is Thomas S. Monson.

Other Links:
Mormon History
Mormon Beliefs
LDS Church