Greetings from sunny Bonaire,
The Prophet Joseph Smith...said,"I told the brethren that the Book of Mormon was 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 by any other book" .
Our Branch President has been concerned that many of the members have not read the Book of Mormon all the way through. This is not a culture where reading is important or encouraged. So,he has started a program to read 5 chapters all together each Sunday during the 2nd hour. We are scheduled to finish in December.
Everyone sits in a circle and takes a turn reading. It was painful when it was Elder VV and my turn, we were so terrible. He asked each person to read 3-6 verses. He asked us to read 2-3. We had no clue how to say anything, and I'm sure people just cringed when it was our turn. We took so long and sounded so bad. They just quit trying to correct us and gave up. We were terrible, really terrible.
Elder VV and I started to read the Book of Mormon in Espanol each day together. We also listen to it on the tablet so we can hear how it is supposed to sound. We have improved.
One day after my turn to read one of the Dominicans let out a woop and a thumbs up. This was after another Sister from St. Martin, who speaks English, had told me that at first when we started I sounded like a little child trying to read and since I had improved she said, if I could do it, maybe she could too.
After general conference a recent convert told me she was so excited that during a conference talk she heard one of the scriptures that we had read in the BofM reading time.
Now let's be clear, we do not speak Espanol well. We are still bad, but, we are much better than we were.
President Ezra T. Benson - "It is not just that the Book of Mormon teaches us truth, though it indeed does that. It is not just that the Book of Mormon bears testimony of Christ, though it indeed does that, too. But, there is something more. There is a power in the book which will begin to flow into your lives the moment you begin a serious study of the book. You will find greater power to resist temptation. You will find power to avoid deception. You will find the power to stay on the strait and narrow path. The scriptures are called "the words of life" and nowhere is that more true than it is of the Book of Mormon. When you begin to hunger and thirst after those words, you will find life in greater and greater abundance."
We feel so blessed to have the Book of Mormon, El Libro de Mormon, Het Boek van Mormon. I would encourage all to read it in whatever language you wish and recieve the blessings of reading this book.
