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Mormonism began on April 6, 1830 in Fayette, New York, as an alleged "restoration" of the original Apostolic Church. Its originator, Joseph Smith, Jr., asserted that he had seen two celestial "personages" in 1820 who claimed to be God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. These "personages" told Smith that all existing churches--including the Orthodox Church--were false, and that he had been chosen to "restore" the one true Church. This restoration included a variety of things, including modern prophets, new revelations of scripture(chief among which was the Book of Mormon), and a calling of a modern group of Twelve Apostles. From the Mormon perspective, the most important elements of this "restoration" was the claimed appearance of a resurrected John the Baptist to convey upon Joseph Smith and his cohort Oliver Cowdery in May of 1829 to "restore" what Mormons call the "Aaronic Priesthood" and the authority to baptize and administer the Mormon version of holy communion and then, according to Mormons, later that same month the resurrected Peter, James, and John, the same as the biblical Apostles, appeared before Smith and Cowdery and conferred upon them the higher or "Melchizedek" Priesthood, which Mormons believe holds the power to do things like confirm membership in the LDS Church, confer the Gift of the Holy Spirit, and give anointings and blessings to the sick so that they may be healed ( perhaps best understood as the Mormon parallel of Holy Unction.) It was also at this time Mormons believe Smith was given the "keys of the kingdom" by the Apostles and ordained as an apostle himself. It is from these "visitations" that Mormons draw their claims of priesthood and divine authority.