Recommended Resources

Learn about the Book of Mormon with verse by verse commentaries from renowned Book of Mormon scholars like John W. Welch and Brant A. Gardner in the ScripturePlus app. Read this week's KnoWhy connected with the Come Follow Me curriculum, and watch a video elucidating an insight in this week's scripture reading.

John W. Welch Notes

Moroni 7-9

Come Follow Me (Insights into Moroni 7-9, December 7-13)

Book of Mormon Central

Come, Follow Me with John Hilton III (Moroni 7-9)

Book of Mormon Central

Come, Follow Me with Taylor Halverson (Moroni 7 - 9)

Book of Mormon Central

KnoWhys

Reading Plan

Structure your personal scripture study by following a multimedia, day by day plan. Each day's assignment includes the required scripture passages from the Come Follow Me curriculum, as well as suggestions for additional resources to bring context and understanding to your study.

Monday

• Scripture: Moroni 7:1-6
• Quote: “One of the most tightly woven and forceful sermons in the Book of Mormon is that recorded by Moroni as given by his father, Mormon, on faith, hope, and charity. The topic is particularly poignant in its context: Mormon has been killed by the Lamanites, and Moroni is the solitary survivor, recording these words out of his own generosity of spirit. We can also imagine that Moroni is rereading this sermon to strengthen his own faith, hope, and charity—a topic Moroni addresses in his concluding words in the Book of Mormon.”
  Rust, Richard Dilworth. Feasting on the Word: A Literary Testimony of the Book of Mormon. 140-141. Salt Lake City, Utah: 1997.
• Quote: “This is the spiritual endowment of hope—of perspective, of patience, of an inner serenity, a sure inner sight, that is ‘not weary in well-doing.’ Such hope is bestowed by the power of the Holy Ghost, ‘which Comforter filleth with hope.’ ... It is the hope that Mormon recognized as a sustaining, God-given source of strength in the maturing stages of spiritual development ... Not perfect, not frantic; not pessimistic and not artificially cheerful. The walk of those who walk with the endowment of hope is ‘peaceable.’”
  Hafen, Bruce C. The Broken Heart: Applying the Atonement to Life's Experiences. Salt Lake City, UT: Deseret Book, 2008.
• KnoWhy 252: Why Should People Study the Same Scriptures Over and Over Again?
• Scripture: Moroni 7:7-19
• Quote: “’Never suppress a generous thought.’ Sometimes when I have an impression to do something for someone, I wonder if it was a prompting or just my own thoughts. But I am reminded that ‘that which is of God inviteth and enticeth to do good continually; wherefore, every thing which inviteth and enticeth to do good, and to love God, and to serve him, is inspired of God.’ Whether they are direct promptings or just impulses to help, a good deed is never wasted, for ‘charity never faileth’—and is never the wrong response.”
  Craig, Michelle D. “Divine Discontent,” General Conference October 2018.
• Quote: “In the process of taking the Savior’s name upon us, we must understand that the cause of Christ and of His Church are one and the same. They cannot be separated. Similarly, our personal discipleship to the Savior and active membership in His Church are also inseparable. If we falter in our commitment to one, our commitment to the other will be diminished, as surely as night follows day. Some are reluctant to assume the name of Jesus Christ and His cause because they regard it to be unduly narrow, limiting, and confining. In reality, taking upon us the name of Christ is both liberating and enlarging. It awakens the desire we felt when we accepted God’s plan through faith in the Savior. With this desire alive in our hearts, we can discover the real purpose of our divinely given gifts and talents, experience His empowering love, and grow in our concern for the welfare of others. As we take upon us the Savior’s name, we truly lay hold upon every good thing and become like Him.”
  Pieper, Paul B. “All Must Take upon Them the Name Given of the Father,” General Conference October 2018.

Tuesday

• Scripture: Moroni 7:20-39
• Quote: “In every age of the world, and all parts of the Earth, holy angels sent from God and commissioned by Him, have declared Salvation to all men through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Those who lived before His coming looked forward to that great event; we look back. Both visions are effectual to the working of grace in the hearts of men.”
  Reynolds, George, and Janne Mattson Sjodahl. Commentary on the Book of Mormon, Volume 7: 3rd Nephi Through Moroni. 7:341. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1976.
• KnoWhy 425: What Does Mormon Teach Us about Ministering as Angels?
• Quote: "How, then, should we approach the throne of grace as we plead earnestly for a loved one and place hands upon her head to give a blessing by priesthood authority? How do we properly exercise our faith? The Prophet Joseph Smith defined that first principle of the gospel as ‘faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.’ It is that defining phrase—'in the Lord Jesus Christ’—that we sometimes forget. Too often we offer our prayer or perform our administration and then wait nervously to see whether our request will be granted, as though approval would provide needed evidence of His existence. That is not faith! Faith is, quite simply, a confidence in the Lord. In Mormon’s words, it is ‘a firm mind in every form of godliness.’ The three Hebrew magistrates expressed trust that the Lord would deliver them from the fiery furnace, ‘but if not,’ they said to the king, ‘we [still] will not serve thy gods.’ Significantly, not three but four men were seen in the midst of the flames, and 'the form of the fourth [was] like the Son of God.’”
  Wickman, Lance B. “But If Not,” General Conference October 2002.

Wednesday

• Scripture: Moroni 7:40-48
• Quote: “It is certainly much more than wishful thinking. It is to have ‘hope through the atonement of Christ and the power of his resurrection, to be raised unto life eternal, and this because of your faith in him according to the promise.’ That is the theological meaning of hope in the faith-hope-charity sequence. With an eye to that meaning, Moroni 7:42 then clearly reads, ‘If a man have faith [in Christ and his atonement] he must needs [as a consequence] have hope [in the promise of the Resurrection, because the two are inextricably linked]; for without faith [in Christ’s atonement] there cannot be any hope [in the Resurrection].’”
  Holland, Jeffrey R. Christ and the New Covenant. 334–335. Salt Lake City, UT: Deseret Book, 1997.
• Quote 1619: “Some who at this very moment feel desperate or discouraged may wonder how they can possibly regain hope. If you are one of those, remember that hope comes as a result of faith. If we would build our hope, we must build our faith. Faith in the Savior requires more than mere belief. The Apostle James taught that even the devils believe and tremble. But true faith requires work. The difference between the devils and the faithful members of this Church is not belief but work. Faith grows by keeping the commandments. We must work at keeping the commandments.”
  Anderson, Wilford W. “The Rock of Our Redeemer,” General Conference April 2010.
• KnoWhy 361: What Does It Really Mean to Have Charity?
• Quote: “The purpose of charity is not merely to cause a proper motivation for charitable acts toward other people… The ultimate purpose is to make Christ's followers like him . . . The ultimate purpose of the gospel of Jesus Christ is to cause the sons and daughters of God to become as Christ is . . . We can give without loving, but we cannot love without giving. If our vertical relationship with God is complete, then, by the fruit of that relationship, the horizontal relationship with our fellow beings will also be complete. We then act charitably toward others, not merely because we think we should, but because that is the way we are.”
  Hafen, Bruce C. The Broken Heart: Applying the Atonement to Life's Experiences. 196-197. Salt Lake City, UT: Deseret Book, 2008.

Thursday

• Scripture: Moroni 8:1-16
• Quote: “It is appropriate that these letters follow Mormon’s sermon on faith, hope, and charity because they put the essence of that sermon to the test ... Mormon’s first letter is like a Pauline epistle in giving counsel to help regulate the Church ... In harmony with his argument and his previously quoted sermon, Mormon’s dominant characteristic revealed in this letter is love ... The second letter reveals the full strength of Mormon’s position. His people, he says, ‘have lost their love, one towards another; and they thirst after blood and revenge continually.’ Yet Mormon preserves his ‘perfect love’ and remains uncontaminated by the evil around him.”
  Rust, Richard Dilworth. Feasting on the Word: A Literary Testimony of the Book of Mormon. 163–164. Salt Lake City, Utah: 1997.
• Quote: “[W]e’re born good; we learn to sin as we grow older. And if you need evidence of the truth of that doctrine, please see your nearest infant. Look deeply into the child’s eyes. Have you ever seen such sweetness and purity? It’s like you can look through a baby’s eyes right into heaven. Of course, that changes a little later in their lives when wide-eyed innocence turns into wild-eyed mischievousness. That’s when children become accountable and capable of sin—when they know and understand the difference between right and wrong. Through the Prophet Joseph Smith the Lord revealed that the age of accountability is eight years old.”
  Ballard, M. Russell. Our Search for Happiness. 83. Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 2006.
• KnoWhy 253: Why Did Moroni Include Mormon’s Condemnation of Infant Baptism?
• Quote: “There is no room for fear in these holy places of God or in the hearts of His children. Why? Because of love. God loves us—always—and we love Him. Our love of God counters all fears, and His love abounds in holy places. Think about it. When we are tentative in our commitments to the Lord, when we stray from His path leading to life eternal, when we question or doubt our significance in His divine design, when we allow fear to open the door to all its companions—discouragement, anger, frustration, disappointment—the Spirit leaves us, and we are without the Lord. If you know what that is like, you know it is not a good place to be. In contrast, when we stand in holy places, we can feel God’s love, and ‘perfect love casteth out all fear.’”
  Rasband, Ronald A. “Be Not Troubled,” General Conference October 2018.

Friday

• Scripture: Moroni 8:17-30
• Quote: “Our Father in Heaven is the same yesterday, today, and forever. The prophet Mormon tells us that God is ‘unchangeable from all eternity to all eternity.’ In this world where nearly everything seems to be changing, His constancy is something on which we can rely, an anchor to which we can hold fast and be safe, lest we be swept away into uncharted waters.”
  Monson, Thomas S. “Stand in Holy Places,” General Conference October 2011.
• Quote: “The prophet Mormon taught that ‘the first fruits of repentance is baptism.’ To be complete, repentance must be combined with the ordinance of baptism administered by someone who holds the priesthood authority of God. For members of the Church, the covenants made at baptism and other occasions are renewed as we partake of the sacrament.”
  Ashton, Brian K. “The Doctrine of Christ,” General Conference October 2016.
• Quote: “Church history gives ample evidence of our members being treated with hatred and bigotry. How ironically sad it would be if we were to treat others as we have been treated. The Savior taught, ‘Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them.’ For us to ask for respect, we must be respectful. Furthermore, our genuine conversion brings ‘meekness, and lowliness of heart,’ which invites ‘the Holy Ghost [and fills us with] perfect love,’ an 'unfeigned love' for others.”
  Renlund, Dale G. “Our Good Shepherd,” General Conference April 2017.

Saturday

• Scripture: Moroni 9:1-10
• KnoWhy 477: When Did Mormon Write His Letter Recorded in Moroni 9?
• Quote: “The prophet Mormon boldly declared, ‘For we have a labor to perform whilst in this tabernacle of clay, that we may conquer the enemy of all righteousness, and rest our souls in the kingdom of God.’ The early Church leaders and pioneers of the past pressed forward with heroic courage and determined faithfulness to establish the restored gospel and build temples where ordinances of exaltation could be performed. The pioneers of the present, meaning you and me, also press forward in faith, ‘to labor in [the Lord’s] vineyard for the salvation of the souls of men.’ And, as President Gordon B. Hinckley taught, ‘How magnificent will be the future as the Almighty rolls on His glorious work … through the selfless [service] of those whose hearts are filled with love for the Redeemer of the world.’ We join with faithful sisters of the past, of the present, and of the rising generation when we join together in the work of salvation!”
  McConkie, Carol F. “Here to Serve a Righteous Cause,” General Conference October 2015.
• Quote: “I would like to share with you young men tonight one very unhappy recording in my mind of a promising young man aboard ship in wartime, who chose the beginning of a road that led him to a destination that was one of the last places in the world he really wanted to be. His initial mistakes were understandable; he was young and away from home and friends and familiar standards, and he wanted to be independent. His intentions were not evil, but because he was a little arrogant and proud, he rejected good counsel and let himself be led away by individuals who were described perfectly in the Book of Mormon, thousands of years ago, in their sinful persuasion of others. It is written of them that ‘they do it for a token of bravery.’ Imitation men being imitated; these ‘macho’ visions of life, so pitifully empty, can lead only to tragedy.”
  Hanks, Marion D. “Changing Channels,” General Conference October 1990.

Sunday

• Scripture: Moroni 9:11-26
• Quote: “Lasciviousness wrongly celebrates the capacity to feel, so that people lose their capacity to feel! Three different prophets in three different dispensations bemoaned those who became ‘past feeling.’ Do we really expect those presently ‘past feeling’ to fashion an acceptable future? Gross sin not only dulls the feelings, it also impairs the intellect. After murdering Abel, Cain ironically boasted, ‘I am free’! Did the herd of Gadarene swine similarly console themselves, thinking that they were actually rugged individualists as they raced down the hill to their destruction?”
  Maxwell, Neal A. ‘”Behold, the Enemy is Combined,’” General Conference April 1993.
• Quote: “Happily, even though the world worsens around us, there will be many, many fine and wonderful men and women of all races and creeds—and of no religious creeds at all—who will continue to lead decent and useful lives. Besides, as Mormon said, scriptural commentary on declining conditions is not communicated ‘to weigh thee down,’ but, instead, to help us live so that Christ may ‘lift thee up.’”
  Maxwell, Neal A. “’For I Will Lead You Along,’” General Conference April 1988.

Additional Resources (Bibliography)