I know that many people rose to take President Hinckley’s challenge to read the Book of Mormon last year. I love the Book of Mormon, and I read it everyday. I usually read two chapters a day, and by doing this I am able to read the Book of Mormon about three times every year. This has helped the Book of Mormon become very familiar to me, so that I can find scriptures and passages fairly easily.
In college, a member in one of my wards talked about her experience with sitting down and reading the Book of Mormon in one session. She talked about how the stories had come to life as she had read it that way, and how much her testimony had grown. The challenge stuck with me, though I didn’t take it then. I thought that it would be important to read it that way. I think that is how a lot of investigators read the Book of Mormon.
A few years ago I decided to do something similar to read it in order to complete a value experience that I was working on in Personal Progress. I have young children at home, and so I knew that there simply was not going to be time for me to read it in one session. I decided to read a book a day. (I combined Enos, Jarom, Omni and the Words of Mormon into one day. I also split Alma into three days, and read about twenty-one chapters a day out of Alma. I also read Third and Fourth Nephi together.) Reading it this way, it took me just over two weeks to complete the Book of Mormon.
It was an awesome experience. I got to see how the individual stories fit together in a broad sense, and I made connections between events that I would not have made if I had not read it that way. This experience really helped to strengthen my testimony of the Book of Mormon. I recommend that everyone really try to read it this way at least once in his or her lives. I know that as you read the Book of Mormon and pray about it that the Holy Ghost will testify to you about the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. What experiences have you had as you’ve read the Book of Mormon?