President Nelson Calls Book of Mormon ‘One of the Greatest Tools of Conversion’

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By Ryan Jensen, Church News

In the final message to newly called mission leaders who are about to begin their service around the world, Church President Russell M. Nelson shared his testimony of the Book of Mormon and its ability to strengthen individuals’ conversion to the gospel of Jesus Christ.

On Sunday, June 22, President Nelson shared his message in a pre-recorded video with new mission leaders gathered at the Provo Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah. He encouraged the new leaders to help the missionaries of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in their care be included among the lives changed and converted during their service.

“Perhaps at no other time in your life will you see so many lives change. These will of course include the lives of those who find and join the Church in your mission,” he said. “At least as important, however, is the conversion of your missionaries.”

President Nelson invited the new mission leaders to embrace the “converting power of the Book of Mormon.”

“One of the greatest tools of conversion that you and your missionaries have at your disposal is the Book of Mormon,” he said.

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Converting Experiences of the Book of Mormon

President Nelson recounted Parley P. Pratt’s experience reading the Book of Mormon for the first time.

Pratt wrote of that time: “I read all day; eating was a burden, I had no desire for food; sleep was a burden when the night came, for I preferred reading to sleep. … I knew and comprehended that the book was true.”

His conversion took him and his family away from his boyhood home in New York as they moved with the pioneering Latter-day Saints. He traveled multiple times for missions, including across the Atlantic Ocean to England, across the North American continent to California and south to serve in Chile.

President Nelson said that the Prophet Joseph Smith’s description of the Book of Mormon provides an answer to why so many millions of individuals have had their own conversion experiences by studying and living what the Book of Mormon teaches.

“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,” Joseph Smith wrote.

President Nelson said the Book of Mormon is the word of God.

“It teaches the doctrine of Christ and explains more about the Savior’s Atonement than does any other book. It recovers some of the ‘plain and precious’ truths — including covenants — lost during various translations of the Bible through the centuries,” he said.

Because of its value in containing these teachings and truths, President Nelson said the First Presidency frequently offers the Book of Mormon as a gift to those who visit them.

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“We enjoy these conversations immensely,” he said. And in offering them a copy of the Book of Mormon, President Nelson said they will often read part of “this treasured book” as they turn to the Savior’s appearance recorded in 3 Nephi 11.

“Perhaps you can imagine the Spirit that enters into the First Presidency’s conference room,” he said, then quoting 3 Nephi 11:10-11, 14.

“Behold, I am Jesus Christ, whom the prophets testified shall come into the world.

“And behold, I am the light and the life of the world; and I have drunk out of that bitter cup which the Father hath given me, and have glorified the Father in taking upon me the sins of the world, in the which I have suffered the will of the Father in all things from the beginning. …

“Arise and come forth unto me, that ye may thrust your hands into my side, and also that ye may feel the prints of the nails in my hands and in my feet, that ye may know that I am the God of Israel, and the God of the whole earth.”

As is the case with missionaries who share the same passage with those they teach, President Nelson said the reactions to these verses vary with the different guests who hear them. And he said many of them are “overwhelmed by the feeling … which of course is the Holy Ghost testifying of Jesus Christ.”

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Power and Blessings

President Nelson promised that these same kinds of experiences can be shared by mission leaders and their missionaries as they make the Book of Mormon “the cornerstone of your teaching.”

“Encourage your missionaries to study diligently. Help them see that inside this book are the answers to their questions,” he said.

He also shared three types of power that missionaries can gain from the truths taught in the Book of Mormon:

• Power to do the impossible.
• Power to become increasingly pure.
• Power to teach with authority from God.

President Nelson closed by promising blessings of increased personal conversion; strength and protection to family; and guidance in callings.

Finally, President Nelson shared his love for the new mission leaders, saying, “I love you, my dear friends.”

With the four-day seminar now concluded, the new mission presidents and their wives will begin leaving for their assigned missions. Most will begin serving over the next 10 days, and most will serve for three years before returning home.

Of the 167 new mission leader couples, 42 will be going to missions headquartered in 29 different U.S. states. The other 125 couples will serve in missions headquartered in 48 other countries.

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