On 17 July 1840, JS met with the in his office and discussed raising funds to publish several books. Although the minutes do not specify what was to be published, other records show that the books discussed were a hymnal, a new edition of the Book of Mormon, and JS’s revision of the Bible, which church members called the “new translation.” Church leaders had previously discussed the need to produce these items, and the printing of the Book of Mormon was already well under way. , one of the church printers, was in securing contracts with a printer, a bookbinder, and a paper supplier to produce four thousand copies of the Book of Mormon. Robinson had written , JS’s brother and the other church printer, asking for money to cover the printing costs. Robinson’s letter may have prompted JS to nominate high council members and to take on the task of raising funds. The high council approved JS’s nomination, and Bent and Harris carried out their fund-raising mission not long thereafter; by September 1840, they had visited in and and raised “about Eighty three dollars.”

As clerk pro tempore for the high council, took the minutes of the meeting. He entered the minutes into the high council record book sometime after 14 February 1842 and likely before the end of that year.