The Ensign, Jan. , pg. 48
Good morning, Resty. How are you today?
Oops!!!
You ended your quotation early, making the intent of it seem different than it was.
Adding the context back in....
“Many religions teach that human beings are children of God, but often their conception of Him precludes any kind of bond resembling a parent-child relationship. The Prophet Joseph Smith taught of a much simpler and more sensible relationship: “God himself was once as we are now, and is an exalted man, and sits enthroned in yonder heavens! That is the great secret. If the veil were rent today, and the great God who holds this world in its orbit … was to make himself visible … , you would see him like a man in form—like yourselves in all the person, image, and very form as a man; for Adam was created in the very fashion, image and likeness of God, and received instruction from, and walked, talked and conversed with Him, as one man talks and communes with another.” We are of God’s family. We are His sons and daughters, created in the image of heavenly parents.”
The purpose the quote was used for was to establish God’s anthropomorphic nature, and our familial relation to him. The claim that God experienced a period of mortality was an opinion of Joseph Smith’s, but it has not been accepted as doctrine by the church.
If it someday was accepted as doctrine, the fact is that Christ was God before he was mortal, when he was mortal, and after he was resurrected and glorified. If Christ can progress from being a pre-mortal spirit, to a mortal, to a glorified and exalted immortal while being divine the whole time, surely the Father can as well. In fact, Joseph based his opinion on the verse in the Bible where Christ says he only does what he has seen the Father do.