What is The Book of Mormon even about?!

Good question!

"The Book of Mormon is a volume of holy scripture comparable to the Bible. It is God's dealings with the ancient inhabitants of the America's and contains, as does the Bible, the fullness of the everlasting gospel."

        - Introduction to the Book of Mormon

So basically it's a long story that covers something like 1000 years.

There's this prophet named Lehi that lives in Jerusalem in 600 BC. He finds out that the city is going to be destroyed because everybody is just doin' their thing and ignoring God. He tries to warn them, they ignore him, he keeps trying to warn them, they threaten to kill him, etc etc. So instead of being...well, KILLED! he takes his family into the wilderness and begins traveling to "the promised land". (aka - the American continent).

He's got these sons: Nephi (the good guy) and Laman & Lemuel (the not-so-good guys) and Sam (the other good guy/middle child that doesnt get talked about very often).

So here they are, traveling through the wilderness, and everybody is kind of grumpy and tired and really just sick of this whole thing. But Nephi really tries to have a good attitude and follow God and just be a good kid. Laman and Lemuel on the other hand are a little less convinced. They are back and forth for like 130 pages. Sometimes they are ticked, sometimes they love God. They really just can't make up their minds.

Eventually, after everybody is married and has kids, Laman and Lemuel decide they REALLY don't want to listen to their dad, Nephi, and especially God. This one time an angel even appears to them and is like, "Hey! quit bein' so ridiculous and hard-headed!" Yet still, they are complete jerks.

Now they have this huge division. They could have just called them "the good guys" and "the bad guys", but they are much more creative than that; so, we have the Nephites (everybody that wants to follow the prophet) and the Lamanites (everybody that wants to party and 'make merry' blah blah blah). It's a total bummer.

So the rest of the Book of Mormon is the story of the Nephites vs. the Lamanites. Sometimes they Nephites forget that they are the good guys and switch over to the dark side for a while, but there is always a prophet that teaches them and brings them back. Sometimes the Lamanites even forget they are the bad guys and end up being more righteous than the Nephites! But the whole time God blesses the obedient and leaves the wicked alone. The righteous are blessed, the unrighteous have to do everything by themselves. It just makes sense.

So in 531 pages you have the rise of a civilization in the ancient Americas clear to the destruction of almost all of those people because they ended up just not really listening to God. And it seems like that's usually what happens...

This guy named Mormon ends up with all of these records from the prophets covering the last 500+ years and is supposed to condense them into 1 book (the Book of Mormon) for future generations (us). After he does that he gives them to his son Moroni.

Right before the end of the book and the end of these people, Moroni buries the record (which is on gold plates) in the ground. And God protects them for like 1500 years! Right up until he showed Joseph Smith where to find them and translate them into English.

So here's the cool part. Not only did everything in the Book of Mormon really happen, but it does a couple pretty awesome things for us.

1 - it invites God into our life:

Joseph Smith said about the Book of Mormon,

"...the Book of Mormon [is] the most correct of any book on earth...and a man would get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts, than by any other book."

And that is truth. I've read every page and it has brought me nearer to God than any other book.

2 - it proves the restoration of the Church of Jesus Christ:

"Those who pursue this course (reading, pondering, and praying about the Book of Mormon) will gain a testimony of its truth and divinity by the power of the Holy Ghost.
"Those who gain this divine witness will also know by the same power that...Joseph Smith is [Christ's] revelator and prophet in these last days, and that The Churdh of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the Lord's kingdom once again established on the earth, preperatory to the second coming of the Messiah."

'nuff said.