Okay, so I may have cheated a little on this one. But only because I'd already made a goal to read it in two weeks before I made the list. When we went camping, I decided to have read the entire Book of Mormon by the time we got back.
I've only read the Book of Mormon all the way through once before and I wasn't sure I would get a lot out of it this time around because I'd be reading so fast, but I did. I really liked reading my scriptures every day because it just made my days so much better. One thing that I got out if it as I read was that I noticed all the times when the Lord blessed those who kept his commandments. God had made a covenant with the people that if they kept his commandments they would prosper in the land and His spirit would be poured out upon them. One of my favourite examples of this was in the story of the 2,000 stripling warriors. For those of you who don't know the story, I'll elaborate.
There was a Nephite named Ammon who went among the Lamanites to preach the gospel to them. He converted one of the Lamanite kings named Lamoni as well as all of his people. These people experienced a change of heart and rejoiced in the redemption they could recieve through Jesus Christ. They no longer wanted to sin and made a covenenant with God that they would never pick up their weapons of war and would shed no more blood. This became a problem because the Lamanites who weren't converted were angry with the people of Lamoni for their conversion and so they came down upon the people to battle. Because of the oath they'd made, there were many that were killed. Ammon and his brethren didn't want to see the people they loved slughtered by the Lamanites, so they took them to the land of the Nephites for refuge. The people of Lamoni were kept safe for a while and enjoyed being with their brethren in the gospel. Many years down the road, the Lamanites began terrorizing the Nephites and so the Nephites rose up in battle to protect their lives, families and liberty. The people of Lamoni wanted to help them in battle, but couldn't because of the oath they'd made for fear of losing their souls. However, their sons had not made an oath to God that they wouldn't shed anymore blood, so 2,000 of these young men picked went off to war to protect their people. Because of their faith in God, they were protected and not a single one of them died in battle.
There are a lot more cool stories that I liked, but this was one of my faves.
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