Brother Anderson asked me to speak to you about the Book of Mormon.  The Book of Mormon is the reason that I’m a member of the Church.

A few years ago I was a student at Baker High School.  My good friends were the Latter-day Saints.  There were 8 of them in my graduating class of 160.  Everyone knew who they were.  They lived their religion, and they weren’t afraid to talk about their church.  They were good examples, and I remember thinking that if religion ever became important to me, I’d look first at their church because they were the most Christian people I knew.

They talked about the Book of Mormon, but they never offered me one.  I was highly curious about it, and would have been glad to have one; but no one gave me a book.  I thought that it was probably a secret book that only the properly initiated could have.

As life went on, things happened to me that made religion become important and necessary.  It’s of interest to me that things happened in the lives of others of my classmates, too.  Ten or fifteen years after graduating, I counted the number of LDS Church members in my former class, and was amazed to find that the number had grown to 22.

In my case, I became depressed.  I became so depressed that in my second year of college I quit school.  I hit rock bottom.  My home, family, and girl friend were the only glimmers of light in my life.  I went home, and then I made a trip to Provo, Utah to see my girl friend at BYU.  I went to church with her there.  Afterward we went home to her apartment.  All five of her roommates were there plus the recently-returned missionary boy friend of one of them.  Upon discovering that I was not a member, he immediately set about giving me the first discussion in front of those six girls.  It was a highly embarrassing ordeal.  I got nothing out of it except one scene that’s forever burned into my memory.  He turned to Margie and asked, “Do you have a Book of Mormon you could give to him?”

She leaped out of her seat and ran into her bedroom, and came back carrying this book.  It was all underlined, and was the copy she was using for her Book of Mormon class.  I protested that she needed it, but she insisted that she could get another.

I took the book home, and stood it upright in the center of the desk in my bedroom.  I had a treasure.  I knew that when I read that book I was going to experience something.  I savored the moments.  I let the book stand there on my desk for two weeks.  It was the first thing I saw every morning.  I saw it every time I entered my room, and it was the last thing I saw at night.

Finally I began reading.  It was in December.  My room was cold, but all I wanted to do was to be alone behind my closed door with that book.  Going to work with Dad, and feeding the cows, was a pain.  I wanted to be reading.

The reason was the effect that the book was having on me.  As I read I could feel light coming into my head.  It came in at the front, and pushed the darkness to the back.  I couldn’t have told you beforehand that my head was filled with darkness, but it was; and the Book of Mormon was pushing it out.

I didn’t know it at the time, but what I was experiencing was the same thing that Saul, and Alma, and Lamoni experienced at the times of their conversions.  You’ll remember that all three of those men lost their strength, and became as dead men while the Spirit lightened their minds, cleansed them, and turned them into something useful.  When I came in my reading to the place where king Lamoni prayed, fell to the earth, and became as if he were dead, I understood what had happened to him, and what was happening to me to a different degree.

Notice how many times light is alluded to in this one verse that describes Lamoni’s experience:  “…(Ammon) knew that king Lamoni was under the power of God; he knew that the dark veil of unbelief was being cast away from his mind, and the light which did light up his mind, which was the light of the glory of God, which was a marvelous light of his goodness—yea, this light had infused such joy into his soul, the cloud of darkness having been dispelled, and that the light of everlasting life was lit up in his soul…”  (Alma 19:6).

In the midst of my reading Margie sent me a pamphlet entitled “Joseph Smith’s Testimony.”  That brought everything into focus.  All my life I’d wondered who God was, if He and Jesus Christ were one and the same Being, and why prophets were a thing of the distant past.  Suddenly I learned that there was a prophet in our day, that he’d talked with God and Jesus Christ, and that they were two separate Beings!  That’s knowledge that you can’t get out of the Bible.  It’s not in the Book of Mormon, either.  I read the book clear through looking for that answer, and it’s not there.  It required a vision by a prophet to restore the knowledge of who God is.

On 9 January 1967 I knelt in the middle of my bedroom and told my Father in heaven that I knew the Church was true, and that I wanted to be baptized.  I went to Marjorie’s dad and asked him what I needed to do to be baptized.

He told me that I’d have to take the missionary discussions.  I found where the missionaries lived, prepared a little speech, and knocked on their door one night.  Elders Pace and Sullivan both opened the door.  They’d probably never gotten a knock on their door before.  I said, “Hi, I’m James Kerns, and I’d like to hear your discussions.  You don’t need to worry about me.  I won’t give you any trouble.  I’ve already read the Book of Mormon, and I know that it’s true.”

The elders came to my house for the next several weeks and gave me their flannel-board discussions.  Mom and Dad graciously received them, and would then excuse themselves, shut themselves in the kitchen, and leave us to have our discussions in the living room.

I didn’t get a thing out of those discussions.  I was on fire about the Book of Mormon, and wanted to talk about it, but it was rarely mentioned.  All of the scriptures used in the discussions in those days came from the Bible.  I thought the elders would get around to talking about the Book of Mormon in one of the last lessons, but it never happened.  The lessons were stretched over six or seven weeks which gave me time to repent, to learn, and to also read the Doctrine and Covenants before I was baptized.

I asked my future Father-in-law to baptize me.  I was baptized 4 March 1967.

My eldest son realized on his mission that if he’d read the Book of Mormon a few more times, he’d have read it as many times as he was years old.  What a neat thing to realize while you’re young, and while it’s still possible!  He caught himself up while he was on his mission, and has read it once a year ever since.  He’s 42 years old now, and is still on course.  I’ve adopted his goal as well, but I’ll be 74 years old before I catch up to where I’m supposed to be.  I’m doing it by faithfully reading three chapters per day.  That gets me through the Book of Mormon four times per year—once each quarter.  I always finish early, so I’ve used the down time, before I begin reading it again, to read the other scriptures.  I write the dates when I finish in the fronts of the books.  I see where I’ve read Doctrine and Covenants three times since I started the program, the New Testament twice, and also Jesus the Christ.  I’ve read the Old Testament clear through only twice in my lifetime, and I keep working at it during my Book of Mormon down times; but it doesn’t spiritually feed me like the Book of Mormon does.  I’m always anxious to get back to the Book of Mormon.

I remember Spencer W. Kimball saying that he’d read the Book of Mormon 78 times.  My friend Garry Hoopes had read it over 50 times, I think, before he died.  Why would anyone do that?

It’s because Joseph Smith’s statement is true.  He said 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.”  (Introduction to the Book of Mormon).

You feel close to God and the Spirit when you daily read from the Book of Mormon.  Numerous prophets have encouraged us to read it daily.  Just one chapter a day gets you through the Book of Mormon in 239 days.  That takes just five minutes a day.

What does that do for you?  It opens you to receive revelation.

Once upon a time I was a father of eight, a farmer, a bishop, and had a job in town.  Life became really tough for me, and stressful.  I didn’t know what was wrong, so I went to the temple to get an answer.  I went through an endowment session, and then sat in the celestial room and prayed.  Nothing happened.  So I went through another endowment session, and again sat in the celestial room and prayed.  This time a scripture went through my head.  The little voice said, “It is not requisite that a man should run faster than he has strength.”  That comes from Mosiah 4:27.

Could that have come to me if I hadn’t read it?  I instantly knew the solution to my problem.  “Go home and quit your job in town.”

That verse in the Book of Mormon is an old friend now, and brings back pleasant memories every time I run across it.  I’ve had personal experiences with a lot of other such verses.  I have lots of old friends in the Book of Mormon.  No wonder it’s such a pleasure to read.  He who reads it oftenest, likes it best.

Detractors of the Church have tried for 184 years to debunk the Book of Mormon.  They haven’t established a toehold.  The Book of Mormon is tangible evidence that the Restoration really happened.  It’s the only book on earth that carries within it a promise whereby you can know of its truthfulness.

Those who haven’t read the Book of Mormon are those who criticize it most.  It’s like tithing that way.

Detractors of the Book of Mormon say that it makes ridiculous statements.  In the 1800’s they said that if the Book of Mormon were true there would be evidence of ancient civilizations in America.  Believers could only say, “Nevertheless, I know that it’s true.”  It wasn’t until the 1880’s, I think, that ruins of ancient Mesoamerican civilizations were discovered.

The Book of Mormon says that Ishmael died at a place called Nahom while Lehi’s group was crossing what is now Saudi Arabia.  No such place was known to the world until archeologists recently uncovered a stone in Arabia identifying a spot known as Nahom.

Everyone knows that Jesus died upon the cross in Jerusalem about 3:00 in the afternoon.  The Bible says so.  The Book of Mormon says that a terrific storm arose in the Americas at the moment Jesus died which was followed by three days of total darkness.  The Book of Mormon says, “And it came to pass that thus did the three days pass away.  And it was in the morning, and the darkness dispersed…”  (3 Nephi 10:9).

That, detractors said, is a ridiculous statement.  If Jesus died at 3:00 in the afternoon, it would not be “in the morning” when the three days of darkness ended.

Remember, Joseph Smith said that the Book of Mormon is the most correct of any book on earth.  If you figure out the time zones between Jerusalem and the Americas, 3:00 in the afternoon in Jerusalem is “in the morning” in the Americas where the Nephites were located.

If Joseph Smith wrote the book, would he have thought of that?

I have infinite respect, even reverence for Joseph Smith, but he wasn’t smart enough to have written that book.  That book was dictated by God Himself.

If your father sent you a letter, would you refuse to read it?

When George Cannon first read the book he astutely said, “No wicked man could write such a book as this; and no good man would write it, unless it were true and he were commanded of God to do so.”  (The Ensign, Nov. 2009, pg. 89).

When Willard Richards picked up a copy for the first time, “He opened it to the center and read a few pages.  He then declared, ‘That book was either written by God or the devil, and I am going to find out who wrote it.’  He read it through twice in the next 10 days and then declared, ‘The devil could not have written it—it must be from God.’”  (Tad R. Callister, The Ensign, Nov. 2011, pg. 74).

I have identified a very real problem with the Book of Mormon that not even its detractors have noticed:  It’s too short!  We only have 1/3 of what was written upon the golden plates.  The other 2/3 was withheld until we properly use the 1/3 that we have.

Marjorie points out that when she was a youth no encouragement was given to read the Book of Mormon.  Encouragement is now given regularly at every level, and the saints have stepped up to the plate.  There are primary children here who have read the Book of Mormon.  I have an 18-year-old son who is on his ninth reading.

We’re told to flood the earth with the Book of Mormon.  133 million copies had been printed by 2007 in 106 languages.  It has been listed by those who worry about such things as one of the 20 most influential books of all time.

One day not long ago I realized something because of things that my children had each said.  I went to Margie and said, “Do you realize that all 10 of our children are reading the Book of Mormon daily?”  She clutched at her heart, sat down heavily, and said, “You don’t know what this does to me!”

“Yes, I do,” I responded, “because it just happened to me.”

The Book of Mormon is one of those “hidden treasures of knowledge” mentioned in the 89th section of the Doctrine and Covenants.  It’s a beacon and a searchlight.  It’s the keystone of our religion.  It verifies the Bible.  It’s saturated with the Spirit.  It will bring us close to God.  It will bind our children to us and to God.

The Book of Mormon is true.  It’s another testament of Jesus Christ, and I love it!