Likely between late June and early August 1839, JS gave a discourse on Jesus’s parable of the sower, and between January 1840 and April 1841 copied an account of the discourse into his “Pocket Companion,” a notebook he kept during his 1837–1841 mission in . Although Richards did not identify this discourse as coming from JS, the majority of the entries in the pocket notebook are JS revelations and discourses that Richards copied without giving attribution. Richards was proselytizing in England in summer 1839 and thus was not present when JS gave this discourse to members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and Quorums of the . After the apostles and seventies joined Richards in England to proselytize, he presumably copied one of their accounts of the discourse.

This discourse explains several parables, including the parable of the sower, the parable of the treasure hidden in a field, and the parable of the wheat and tares, all of which are found in Matthew, chapter 13. As part of his explanation, JS discussed signs in these parables of the second coming of Christ. The notes for this discourse are more fragmentary than are accounts of other JS discourses that copied. Apparently, Richards or the missionary who took the original notes focused on capturing main points rather than on documenting the complete text of the discourse. In this account, the content of selected verses in Matthew, chapter 13, is briefly mentioned, followed by JS’s explanations of the verses.