Book of Mormon Study Blog

KnoWhy #6 “Wherefore, the Lord hath commanded me that thou and thy brothers should go unto the house of Laban, and seek the records, and bring them down hither into the wilderness.” 1 Nephi 3:4 As Nephi describes movements back and forth between Jerusalem and the wilderness, he consistently describes going up while moving toward Jerusalem, and going down while moving away from Jerusalem.   Hugh Nibley was among the first to notice this subtle detail. “The Book of Mormon employs the expressions ‘to go down’ and ‘to go up’ exactly as the Hebrews and Egyptians did with reference to the location of Jerusalem.” Archeologist Jeffrey R. Chadwick elaborated on this point:    It is important to remember that in the idiom of Nephi one always went  up to come to the Jerusalem region, and one always went  down  when exiting the Jerusalem region. This is also the Hebrew idiom employed in the Bible, where persons in both the Old and New Testaments typically are...

The Book of Mormon “title page,” which was translated by Joseph Smith, ends with a rather intruiging disclaimer for a book of scripture. “And now if there be fault, it be the mistake of men. Wherefore condemn not the things of God, that ye may be found spotless at the judgment seat of Christ.”  By its own admission the Book of Mormon is not a perfect text, something the book’s authors and compilers themselves frequently insisted. Although the principles of the Gospel of Jesus Christ as contained in the Book of Mormon remain correct, the text itself suffered some problems and difficulties not only in its initial recording by ancient prophets, but also in its transcription, typesetting, and transmission from edition to edition in the latter days. Even so, as Wilford Woodruff recorded in 1841, “Joseph said the Book of Mormon [is] the most correct of any book on earth, and the keystone of our religion, and a man would get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts, than b...

An Unexpected Gift LARRY ECHO HAWK A remarkable life story: For me life began to change at the age of 14, when two missionaries from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Lee Pearson and Boyd Camphuysen, came into my home and presented the missionary lessons. Up until that time I knew very little about Christian religion and had seldom attended any church. When the time came for the missionaries to challenge our family to be baptized, they first challenged my dad, then my mother, and then the children, starting from the oldest child and descending to the youngest. By the time they got to me, the second youngest in the family, everyone else had said yes. When they asked me, I remember looking at my dad. He had this stern look on his face, and I knew what my answer should be. I was baptized, but I did not have a testimony of the truthfulness of the Restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ through the Prophet Joseph Smith. I was, however, glad that my famil...

Story from Micronesia: Four missionaries, a senior couple, and two elders serving in Micronesia walked into the only attorney’s office on the tiny island on which they were serving. They had a problem: they needed an amendment to a birth certificate for a membership record of a girl in their branch. Previously the municipal office had had no sympathy for their request. They had said it would be too hard, and it didn’t matter anyway since “we all know her and know when she was born!” So the city had turned down the missionaries’ request. It was suggested that the missionaries go to the only attorney’s office on the island, where they met a highly educated and deeply respected man. The missionaries sat across from him at his desk and described their plight, to which he replied that within thirty days he would get an amended birth certificate. At this point he stood up and walked around his desk, closed the door to his office, walked back around his desk, opened his desk ...

Great story about Sidney Rigdon: First, Sidney Rigdon’s daughter, Nancy Rigdon Ellis, was eight years old when Parley P. Pratt and Oliver Cowdery presented her father with a copy of the Book of Mormon in their home. She said that she recalled the event because of the conflict that arose: I saw them hand  [my father]  the book,  and I am as positive as can be that he never saw it before.  He read it and examined it for about an hour and then threw it down and said he did not believe a word in it. Later, however, he did accept the Book of Mormon, joined the Church, and became one of its leaders. Second, Sidney Rigdon’s son John spoke to his father as he lay on his deathbed: “[Father], you owe it to me and to your family to tell [the truth about the Book of Mormon].” In other words, this is the day of reckoning; be totally honest before you go to the judgment bar. The son then recounted his father’s response: “My father looked at me a mo...

This is a great excerpt from a longer talk.  4:39

The Role of the Book of Mormon in Conversion By Elder Shayne M. Bowen Of the Seventy As a young missionary going to Chile, I learned a life-changing lesson about the conversion power of the Book of Mormon. Mr. Gonzalez served in a respected position in his church for many years. He had extensive religious training, including a degree in theology. He was quite proud of his biblical expertise. It was obvious to us that he was a religious scholar. He was well aware of the missionaries of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as they went about their work in his home city of Lima, Peru. He always wanted to meet with them so that he could school them in the Bible. One day, almost as a gift from heaven, so he thought, two missionaries stopped him in the street and asked if they could come to his home and share the scriptures with him. This was his dream come true! His prayers had been answered. Finally, he could set these misguided young boys straight. He ...

Found through the Power of the Book of Mormon By Elder Rubén V. Alliaud Of the Seventy Great conversion story! Just before I turned 15, I was invited by my uncle Manuel Bustos to spend some time with him and his family here in the United States. This would be a great opportunity for me to learn some English. My uncle had converted to the Church many years before, and he had a great missionary spirit. That is probably why my mother, without my knowing, spoke with him and said she would agree to the invitation on one condition: that he did not try to convince me to become a member of his Church. We were Catholics, and we had been for generations, and there was no reason to change. My uncle was in complete agreement and kept his word to the point that he didn’t want to answer even simple questions about the Church. Of course, what my uncle and his sweet wife, Marjorie, could not avoid was being who they were. I was assigned a room that contained a large library of bo...