Final answer:
Joseph Smith, the founder of the Mormon Church, claimed that the angel Moroni visited him and revealed the location of golden plates, which Smith translated to create the Book of Mormon, establishing their relationship as that of a prophet to a divine messenger.
Step-by-step explanation:
The relationship between Joseph Smith and Moroni is of great importance in the history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), commonly known as the Mormon Church. Joseph Smith was the founder of the Mormon Church, and he reported that an angel named Moroni visited him in 1823. According to Smith, Moroni led him to golden plates buried in a hillside, which Smith later translated to become the Book of Mormon, a sacred text in the Mormon religion. Moroni is described as the son of the prophet Mormon and the last of the Nephites, an ancient American civilization according to the Book of Mormon. Joseph Smith's translation of these plates and the subsequent founding of the Church in 1830 were directly related to his claimed encounters with Moroni, thus establishing the critical relationship between them as one of prophet to divine messenger, pivotal to the inception of the Mormon faith.