As many of us embark on a re-reading of the Book of Mormon, I wished to mention a few things to ponder.
The Book of Mormon came forth in a Miraculous Manner
1) Joseph Smith wrote the extant text of the Book of Mormon in 85 days, from 7 June to 30 June, 1829. That is the same number of days we have to read the Book of Mormon between today and 31 December, 2018.[ref]John Welch, “How Long did it take Joseph Smith to Translate the Book of Mormon?“, Ensign, January, 1988.[/ref]
2) We have much of the manuscript of the Book of Mormon. This manuscript lacks the erasures and corrections that are present in Joseph Smith’s own writings following June 1829. This is consistent with the account of contemporaries that Joseph would dictate text he reportedly saw written on the seerstone inside his (beaver) hat. These contemporaries insisted that Joseph would resume the dictation each day without any reference to what the scribe had previously written.[ref]For discussion of the importance of the use of a skin hat, see my post, The Beaver Skin Hat: How Joseph Interpreted the Plates (2015), and the 2018 podcast where Don Bradley confirmed that Joseph did use a beaver skin hat (Finding the Lost 116 Pages).[/ref] Continue reading
Pres. Nelson issued four challenges to the sisters in the Saturday night Women’s Session of General Conference. They are:
