Dave answered...

Are you a secular or a spiritual type of person? (1 Corinthians 3:2, Hebrews 5:12.)

Secular answer: The answer you may want to hear is that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints began in 1830 on the Peter Whitmer farm in western New York. That’s when the founder, Joseph Smith, made the Church a legal entity in the United States. Many people are satisfied with that answer.

Spiritual answer: This is the same church that has been around since the dawn of time. This is the gospel that Jesus Christ gave to Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, that Christ and his apostles taught while he was here on the earth. Because we are prone to wander, God sends prophets to adjust our perspective and invite us to return, so that we may be truly happy. In order to invite the world back to his path once more, God restored this original gospel to the earth through Joseph Smith. Wherever the gospel goes, the Church is careful to live within the laws of the land. It spans all time and all lands, in any country which allows the Church to be established legally. (Twelfth Article of Faith: We believe in being subject to kings, presidents, rulers, and magistrates, in obeying, honoring, and sustaining the law.)

Everyone on earth may know these truths for themselves, directly from God. It all depends with which answer you’re ready/willing to be satisfied. I have learned for myself that the answers that come from God are desirable above all others. (Book of Mormon, 1 Nephi 8:12).