"Emma Smith was never given permission by God to let her see them. Later in her life Emma recounted that, “They lay in a box under our bed for months but I never felt at liberty to look at them.” She said they were sometimes on a table in her living room, “wrapped in a small linen table cloth, which I had given him to fold them in. I once felt of the plates, as they thus lay on the table, tracing their outline and shape. They seem to be pliable like thick paper, and would rustle with metallic sound when the edges were moved by the thumb, as one does sometimes thumb the edge of a book.” Emma also mentioned that she lifted and moved the plates as she dusted around them but never looked at them.” (Pg. 25 in Mormon Enigma) Emma claimed that she never had any desire to see them but in D&C 25:4 the Lord tells her "Murmur not because of the things which thou hast not seen, for they are withheld from thee and from the world, which is wisdom in me in a time to come." So obviously Emma did struggle somewhat with not being able to see or understand everything her husband did."
