#3 HOW TO READ THE BOOK OF MORMON

            I am 73 years old and have read the Book of Mormon many times in my life – probably 40 to 50 times. (But who’s counting?) I love the Book of Mormon! It speaks to my mind and heart with a familiar voice and feels like taking a long walk with an old friend or visiting a place I love to go. And yet it is always fresh and new with insights, truths and treasures to be discovered each time I read it – not just each time I read the whole book but each time I sincerely apply myself to reading, even if only a chapter or for a few minutes. It is timeless and timely!

Many ways to read the Book of Mormon

            There are many ways to read the Book of Mormon either individually or as a family. (In this post and elsewhere in this blog, unless specified otherwise, “family” in the context of reading the Book of Mormon refers to any setting of two or more people reading the Book of Mormon together. “Where two or three are gathered together in my name, as touching one thing [i.e. united in purpose], behold, there will I be in the midst of them – even so am I in the midst of you.” D&C 6:32) Any two (or more) truth-seeking people can read the Book of Mormon together and create a synthesis that is greater than the sum of the parts. We teach and inspire each other.

There is no wrong way to read the Book of Mormon, as long as we follow Moroni’s exhortation to read “with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ” (Moroni 10:4). I’ll discuss below some of the possible approaches for reading the Book of Mormon for you to consider.

Actually, there is a wrong way to read the Book of Mormon. The wrong way is to read it without a sincere heart and with the intent to prove it to be false. Some people read the Book of Mormon that way. They miss the forest for a tree or two. They focus on something that they see as a “deal breaker” in the Book of Mormon such as references to cement (such as Helaman 3:7, 9, 11) or horses (such as Enos 1:21) or Jacob’s use of the French word “adieu” (Jacob 7:27) or minor textural changes which have been made since the original edition of the Book which they feel “prove” the Book is a fraud and discount all of the remainder of the Book of Mormon with its profound truths, doctrines, stories and messages for our day. They never really read the whole Book. They see it through the pinhole of the unbeliever’s cynical eye rather than through the eyes-wide-open broad vision of the sincere truth seeker’s panoramic vista of this marvelous book.  (See Tad Callister’s A Case for the Book of Mormon for an in-depth discussion of the most commonly cited “deal breakers” of the Book of Mormon’s veracity.)

So, what are some of the ways to read the Book of Mormon?

Reading sequentially

Most people read the Book of Mormon from front to back, Nephi to Moroni, a chapter at a time or a certain number of pages at a time or for a certain amount of time at each sitting. (This is sometimes called “Netomo” – just like riding a bicycle from Logan to Jackson is called “Lotoja.”) This is a good way to read the Book of Mormon, especially for those who may be less familiar with the storyline and organization of the Book.  If you plan to read the Book of Mormon individually and/or as a family as part of Come, Follow Me with the rest of the faithful Saints in the Church in 2020 (And I hope you do!), this is probably how you should read it.

May I suggest three possibilities for how to pace yourself or your family as you read?

First, you can divide the number of pages in the Book of Mormon (531) by the number of days in the year 2020 (366– it’s a leap year) and determine that you need to read 1.45 pages/day, or about 1½ pages each day. That will work fine.

I have created a “Book of Mormon Reading Calculator” in Microsoft Excel that you are welcome to adapt for your own use to track your reading of the Book of Mormon this year. (Send me an email to the address below and I will send you the Excel file.)

I have also created this calculator in Google Sheets. Here is the link: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1SCPiEj4hiF_Uvm5YtKoGKzDNrS4wYZAJ76ycjKf1ALQ/edit?usp=sharing

You are welcome to go to this link in Google Sheets and copy the calculator into your own new Google Sheet. Copy and paste this link into the address bar of a browser and it will take you to Google Sheets. Then open a new Google Sheet for yourself and copy this calculator to your own sheet so you can track your own progress. Make sense? If not, email (rsboyer46@gmail.com) or call me (801-891-9931) and I’ll talk you through it.

Second, you can create a Study Plan in the Gospel Library App. On the “Library” page of the Gospel Library, you will see an option for “Study Plans”. Touch that link and follow the directions to create a study plan in Gospel Library for reading the Book of Mormon in 2020. It’s easy. You can create your own study plan in less than 5 minutes. I did this today with our teenage grandchildren. They did it faster than I did. (No surprise there!) The Study Plan will give you daily reminders at a time you specify. With it you can track your progress for the whole year. I suggest you use the option to allow chapters to be split. Notice that choosing to read the Book of Mormon (from the scriptures tab) will include the supplementary material at the beginning of the Book before 1st Nephi. That’s helpful because that supplementary material is what we will study in the first week of Come, Follow Me. Again, if you can’t figure it out, email or call me or ask a teenager to help you.

Third, you can follow the Come, Follow Me – For Individuals and Families manual and read the chapters indicated for each week in the manual. You can do this with either the print or online (Gospel Library) version. This will work well because you will be in sync with Sunday School classes through the year. There will be some weeks when you’ll need to read more and some weeks when you will read less to stay in sync, so you’ll have to be more flexible in what you read each day and each week to stay on schedule.

Reading topically

Another way to read the Book of Mormon is to read it topically – following the themes of key doctrines as they are taught in the Book. For instance, the Index to the Triple Combination under the heading of “Jesus Christ, Atonement through” contains about 40 references in the Book of Mormon that relate to the Atonement of Jesus Christ. It also contains 11 other subheadings about Jesus Christ that expand our understanding of His Atonement. Finally, there are about 15 cross references to other topics in the Index that relate to Jesus Christ and His Atonement. For those who are comfortable with the story line and organization of the Book of Mormon, studying it topically will yield an understanding of the depth and breadth of the doctrinal foundations of the Book of Mormon that is hard to appreciate reading it sequentially from front to back.

A combination of both methods suggested by President Nelson

A fascinating way to read the Book of Mormon is a combination of the first two suggestions above (sequentially and topically). This way is to read the Book from beginning to end (sequentially) but to do so looking for a specific doctrine or teaching. Pres. Nelson asked the sisters of the Church to do this in his talk to them in General Conference October 2018. In that talk, given in the Women’s session of the Conference, he invited the sisters to "read the Book of Mormon between now and the end of the year.  He went on to suggest to the sisters, 

As you read, I would encourage you to mark each verse that speaks of or refers to the Savior. Then be intentional about talking of Christ, rejoicing in Christ, and preaching of Christ with your families and friends. You will be drawn closer to the Savior through this process. And changes, even miracles, will begin to happen. (“Sisters’ Participation in the Gathering of Israel”, Ensign, November 2018) 

Some, perhaps many, of you followed the Prophet’s advice and read the Book of Mormon in this way between General Conference in October 2018 and the end of the year. I know you were blessed for doing so. (I did and I was blessed. And I’m not even a “sister”!)

Combining both methods to read for inspired answers to important questions

Our mission president in the England Manchester Mission, President Stuart McReynolds, taught us a variation of reading the Book of Mormon in this way (sequentially but following a specific topic). He suggested to the missionaries, including ourselves, that we read the Book of Mormon looking for answers to important questions on which we are seeking inspired direction. He suggested we take a clean, inexpensive copy of the Book of Mormon (We had a whole shelf full of them to give out as missionaries.) and read it from beginning to end (sequentially) in a relatively short period of time (i.e. 1 to 3 months) looking for the answers to a specific question (topically) and marking the passages that relate to that question and provide inspired answers. Pres. McReynolds told us that he has about 20 such copies of the Book of Mormon each marked with the inspired answers to a different question.

Lori and I each followed this process at his suggestion. Lori has actually done it four times since he suggested this approach, starting with a clean copy of the Book of Mormon each time with each new question. She marked each passage that related to the question for which she was seeking inspiration. She also made notes in the margins of inspired insights and answers as they came to her. We shipped those copies of the Book of Mormon home from England so that she can treasure them.

What we found is that the Book of Mormon is like a beautiful tapestry created by weaving lovely but unique threads together, each thread representing the answers to an inspired question that weaves its way through the Book of Mormon. The combination of all the threads woven together produces a lovely picture of the Doctrine of Christ which is taught in greater fulness in the Book of Mormon than anywhere else in the scriptures. Try this approach sometime – if not this year, maybe another year.

By the way, you can use this approach in the Gospel Library app instead of using a paper copy of the Book. Just choose a different highlighting color for each question or topic as you read the Book of Mormon each time looking for inspired answers. You can also tag important passages and create notes about important passages and save them in specific note files for later reference.

You don’t have to read at all!

            Actually, you don’t have to read the Book of Mormon at all to be blessed by it. You can listen to it very conveniently in the Gospel Library App. Just touch the headphones icon in the lower right corner of any page in the Book of Mormon and you can listen while you work at home, drive in the car, work out, bike, ski, shovel the walks or whenever you want. It’s magic! You can choose whether to listen to a male or female voice and even choose which language you would like to hear it in. There are dozens of options from Afrikaans to Zulu! (I chose English for obvious reasons.)

I remember the first time I listened to the Book of Mormon all the way through. I was a resident in medical training in the Los Angeles area in the 1970’s and had a long commute from Torrance to UCLA for a rotation of 4 months. I had a box of cassette tapes of the Book of Mormon which were read by a man with a rich, deep male voice. I played them on a small tape player in my ’67 VW bug as I drove. I still remember feeling the Spirit and loving the Book as I drove the San Diego Freeway to and from work. It is a great antidote for road rage! Sometimes I would drive around the block when I got home just to finish a chapter! It was a wonderful and spiritually powerful way to experience the Book of Mormon.

Sister Lisa L. Harkness had a somewhat similar experience listening to the Book of Mormon. She told of her experience in the Women’s Session of the recent General Conference. She said:

Not long ago, I was listening to the Book of Mormon. In the last chapter of 2 Nephi, I heard Nephi say something that I had never read the same way before. All throughout his record, he teaches and testifies of the “Redeemer,” the “Holy One of Israel,” the “Lamb of God,” and the “Messiah.” But as he closed his account, I heard him say these words: “I glory in plainness; I glory in truth; I glory in my Jesus, for he hath redeemed my soul.” When I heard these words, my heart rejoiced and I had to listen over and over again. I recognized and responded to that verse just as I recognize and respond to my own name. (“Honoring His Name”, Ensign November 2019)

Don’t get bogged down in methodology!

            Having made all of the above suggestions, the most important thing is to not get bogged down by reading goals, schedules, calculators or different techniques. Don’t overthink this and make it too hard. Remember, the power is in the Book, not in any of the aids that help us read it or track our progress. So just start wherever you are and do the best you can. Don’t beat yourself up for what you don’t do or because you can’t do it like someone else. We always want to compare ourselves to someone else (parent, child, sibling, spouse, friend, ward member, leader, etc.) and seldom if ever feel better for doing so.

            In her article “Have the Greatest Year with the Greatest Book” in the January 2020 issue of the Ensign, Church Magazines staff author, Onnastasia Cole, gives some excellent suggestions for how to get more out of reading the Book of Mormon as a family in the coming year. After doing so, she writes, Don’t overthink it; don’t give up. Family study shouldn’t be complicated. You know your family’s circumstances and individual needs, so prayerfully consider what will work best for you and try different approaches. If one week doesn’t go as planned, try not to get discouraged! Simple seek Heavenly Father’s guidance on what adjustments to make. Then try again and watch the blessings flow.

Don’t let Satan win!

            This is wonderful advice! Satan doesn’t want you to read the Book of Mormon so he will throw every obstacle in your path that he can. Don’t let him win. Just say, “Get thee behind me, Satan!” (Matt. 16:23) ‘Get off my covenant path. I’m going to follow the Prophet and read the Book of Mormon this year and we’re going to do our best as a family to do so. And you can’t stop us!’