Midwest Mormon in the Mid-East

Moroni seals his life's work with his testimony of the record we call the Book of Mormon. I would like to paraphrase his eloquent and heartfelt appeal and "liken the scriptures" to send a personalized version of his testimony to my family.

Now I, Carolni, write somewhat as seemeth me good; and I write unto my children, the Muslimites; and I would that they should know that it has been more than one hundred and seventy-five years since the coming of God, the Eternal Father and his Son, Jesus Christ to the boy-prophet Joseph Smith.

And later, the resurrected prophet Moroni delivered up these records for Smith to translate, and leave a few words by way of exhortation unto you.

Behold, I, Carolni would exhort you that when ye shall read these things, if it be wisdom in God that ye should read them, that ye would remember how merciful the Lord hath been unto the children of men, from the creation of Adam even down unto the time that ye shall receive these things, and ponder it in your hearts.

And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost.

And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things.

For I, Carolni, have read this record called the Book of Mormon and I have put the promise to the test. God in his great grace and mercy hath shown in my heart, by the power of the Holy Spirit that these things are true. After receiving my witness, with faith and after much repentance, I abandoned my wicked ways and returned to the fold of Christ to be numbered among his followers. This path has brought me nothing but joy, even exceeding great joy so sweet and pure that I have not words to describe it. This same witness can be yours if you will but read and pray in faith.

Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, abandon the false traditions of your fathers, deny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ; and if by the grace of God ye are perfect in Christ, ye can in nowise deny the power of God.
And again, if ye by the grace of God are perfect in Christ, and deny not his power, then are ye sanctified in Christ by the grace of God, through the shedding of the blood of Christ, which is in the covenant of the Father unto the remission of your sins, that ye become holy, without spot.

And now I bid unto all, farewell. I leave you my testimony to stand as a witness in cyber-space now and till the day I go to rest in the paradise of God, until my spirit and body shall again reunite, and I am brought forth triumphant through the air, to meet you before the pleasing bar of the great Jehovah, the Eternal Judge of both quick and dead. It is my prayer that we will be united in the bonds of faith and family; to dwell in the presence of our Father and Savior forever. Amen.

Now that I've reached the end, I'm ready to begin at the beginning. It's weird, I know, but I started my reading on page 406, 3rd Nephi. Any takers on the blog the challenge challenge... now's the time to start in and blog along.