What Think Ye of the Book of Mormon?

   "Two ministers of one of the largest and most powerful Protestant denominations came to a Latter-day Saint conference to hear me preach.

   After the meeting I had a private conversation with them, in which I said they could each gain a testimony that Joseph Smith was the prophet through whom the Lord had restored the fulness of the gospel for our day and for our time.

   I told them they should read the Book of Mormon, ponder its great and eternal truths, and pray to the Father in the name of Christ, in faith, and he would reveal the truth of the book to them by the power of the Holy Ghost.

   As every gospel scholar knows, the Book of Mormon proves that Joseph Smith was called of God to minister in the prophetic office and to restore the truths of salvation in plainness and perfection.

   The Book of Mormon is a volume of holy scripture comparable to the Bible. It contains a record of God’s dealings with the ancient inhabitants of the Americas. It is another testament of Jesus Christ.

It contains the fulness of the gospel, meaning that it is a record of the Lord’s dealings with a people who had the fulness of the gospel, and meaning also that in it is found a summary and a recitation of what all men must believe and do to gain an inheritance in the heavenly kingdom reserved for the Saints.

   As the teachings and testimonies of Moses and Isaiah and Peter find place in the Bible, so the parallel preaching and the same Spirit-guided testimonies of Nephi and Alma and Moroni have come down to us in the Book of Mormon.

   All of this I explained to my two Protestant friends. One of them, a congenial and decent sort of fellow, said somewhat casually that he would read the Book of Mormon. The other minister, manifesting a bitter spirit, said: 'I won’t read it. We have experts who have read the Book of Mormon, and I have read what our experts have to say about it.'

   This account dramatizes one of our problems in presenting the message of the Book of Mormon to the world. There are sincere and devout people everywhere who have heard what other people say about this volume of holy writ, and so they do not read it themselves.

   Instead of drinking from that fountain from whence clear streams of living water flow, they prefer to go downstream and drink from the roily, muddy, poison-filled streams of the world.

   The plain fact is that salvation itself is at stake in this matter. If the Book of Mormon is true—if it is a volume of holy scripture, if it contains the mind and will and voice of the Lord to all men, if it is a divine witness of the prophetic call of Joseph Smith—then to accept it and believe its doctrines is to be saved, and to reject it and walk contrary to its teachings is to be damned."

                 Bruce R. McConkie - What Think Ye of the Book of Mormon?

   I love this story from Bruce R. McConkie! One of the greatest struggles for me is to get others to read this wonderful, uplifting book! I have found much joy from reading from the Book of Mormon, and my desire is to have others feel that same joy. To feel that same direction from God that I have received. But many people turn down my invitation to read and to pray! Its like tasting a pie that is so so so good and then taking it to everyone that you see and asking them to taste it and they won't! I know the Book of Mormon is true. Anyone who reads and then sincerely prays, will receive an answer from God that the book is true. It will change any ones life like it has changed mine.