I was born and raised in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints [LDS or Mormon]. Every Sunday we went to church; Mondays were reserved for Family Home Evening [a time for us to all gather together, have fun, and learn]; I went to weekday youth events from the ages of 8-18; and we prayed and read the scriptures together as often as we could.

We believe in The Book of Mormon, which is another testament of our Savior, Jesus Christ. The Book of Mormon is a companion to the Bible and talks about the peoples of the America continent. The Book of Mormon contains the fullness of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

So, since I grew up in the church, I was constantly around The Book of Mormon. People quoted it at church, we read it as a family, I got my very own set of scriptures at 8…. But the first time I remember truly reading it was when I was a freshman in high school.

My church has a program called Seminary, where high school kids go to a Sunday School-like class every day during the school week. The years are divided up between the Old Testament, the New Testament, The Book of Mormon, and the Doctrine and Covenants, all which make up our canonized scriptures. Well, my freshman year we went over The Book of Mormon, and I absolutely loved it! I loved the way my teacher explained things, and the people seemed to jump off the page. For the first time in my life I remember feeling a lot of peace and happiness come from reading The Book of Mormon and applying the teachings of Christ into my life.

I also had the opportunity to serve a Spanish speaking mission for my church in Utah. Because of that, I had the wonderful blessing of reading The Book of Mormon in Spanish! I’m not going to lie – it was difficult for me to learn a second language. But as the months passed, I began understanding more and more from The Book of Mormon. I eventually got to the point where I didn’t need to read from my English copy anymore. As I read from El Libro de Mormón on my mission, I still felt the same spirit of comfort that always enveloped me as I read my English scriptures. I still received answers to questions and learned new things about my Savior, Jesus Christ.

Before my mission, though, I studied German for about 3 years collectively. I haven’t read The Book of Mormon all the way through in German, but it’s so exciting to read in the language of my forefathers! I’m not as fluent in German as I am in Spanish [I forgot a lot of it on my mission], but I distinctly remember reading out loud from Das Buch Mormon at BYU-Idaho and feeling the spirit testify to me of the truthfulness of the book. I didn’t understand all the words, but I could not deny that what I was reading was true.

I love The Book of Mormon. I love reading from its pages. I have heroes from it – namely Ammon, who was an amazing missionary. He was what I wanted to be like as a missionary because he loved the people he served. Gospel truths are expounded. Most importantly, though, I learn more about Jesus Christ and how I can become more like Him every day.

How thankful I am that we live in a world where The Book of Mormon can be translated into many different languages so that everyone can have the opportunity to read for themselves and find out that it’s true!

“And now I say unto you that the time shall come that thesalvation of the Lord shall be declared to every nation, kindred, tongue, and people.” – Mosiah 15:28