This... Is Elder Coles. I don't know if I have told everyone who reads this blog yet... But I love the Book of Mormon! I take one everywhere with me! On my bike, to teaching appointments, at the apartment, in the car, everywhere! I have grown to love it for a few reasons........
Reason 1: The stories.
The stories in the Book of Mormon are amazing. I have a few favorites, which I will briefly mention. My first favorite is the story of Alma and Amulek. Alma and Amulek went preach the gospel to people who are so hard hearted that they take them and throw them into prison. While they are in prison they are beat and mocked by the wicked people, suffering for days without food or drink, but still remaining faithful to the Lord. When the spirit told them the time was right, they broke the chords to which they were bound, and the walls of the prison fell and everyone in the prison, except for Alma and Amulek, were killed, and Alma and Amulek walked away unharmed. (for more on this story see Alma chapters 8-14). My next favorite is the story of Ammon and the sons of Mosiah. They wanted to preach the gospel to their brethren the Lamanites, who were the enemies of the Nephites, which is what Ammon and his brothers were. Ammon and his brothers split up, and Ammon went to be a servant to a King among the Lamanites named King Lamoni. While Ammon was tending the flocks of the King, other Lamanites came to scatter their flocks. Ammon stood to contend with these men and he slew many of them with a sling and when the people started coming after him Ammon drew his sword and anyone who contended with him he chopped off their arms. Ammon is the man. He then went on to convert the whole house of King Lamoni. (for more information on this story see Alma chapters 17-22). These are just two of my favorites, but there are many others which I may go into more detail in the future.
Reason 2: The Personal Applications
I love how you can apply everything in the Book of Mormon to our lives today. And when I say everything, I mean everything! No matter what problem you may be having, weather it be you are having a bad day, or you are going through some trials, or you are having a hard time finding meaning to your life, the Book of Mormon has the solution. You may be thinking "Elder Coles you are crazy. This book was written over 2000 years ago how can anything in there apply to our lives today??" Well here is how...
The prophet Mormon had a whole bunch of Nephite records. It was his job to take the most important things and abridge and compile them into a book and deliver it to his son Moroni so that he could add a few words and then hide the records up in the earth so that it could come forth in these latter days to help us out. The Book of Mormon, even though it was written over 2000 years ago was written for us, and it has been brought forth by our loving Heavenly Father through the prophet Joseph Smith for us to read today. It is so great that He loves us so much that he has given us another volume of holy scripture and we can apply everything to our lives today!
There are so many more reasons why I love this book. The examples of the prophets, the personal ministry of Jesus Christ, the wars, the lessons contained within, there is just so much that you can learn from the Book of Mormon. I encourage all the read it, even if you have already read it, read it again! It is so great and it will invite the spirit into your lives.
