1. Mormon 6-9 Mormon 6:2“Land of Cumorah” Joseph Smith is on record as saying it is the one in New York. The Hill Cumorah where the Nephites were destroyed is the hill where the Jaredites were also destroyed. To the Jaredites the hill was called Ramah (Joseph Fielding Smith, Doctrines of Salvation, Vol. 3, 232-34).

2. What is the meaning of the word “Cumorah?” The Hebrew spelling for the word Cumorah would be “Kumorah.” In Hebrew lexicons, only the root of the word is treated and defined. The Hebrew root of a word usually consists of the three major consonants of the word. The root of “Cumorah” would be (Kmr). (The “h” is often silent or acquiesces to the preceding vowel marking the point of accent or stress.)

3. As Professor Marcus Jastrow explained, the root (kmr) originally comes from a word that means “shrinking and maturing of fruits by underground storage.” The Hiffiel conjugation (the causative tense) is defined as “to hide in the ground” (Marcus Jastrow, Dictionary of the Targunion, 647). Considering those definitions, the word “Cumorah” was an appropriate name for a hill that was not only the depository of the gold plates but also a general storage space for other sets of plates.

4. Hill Cumorah One interesting event, which was related in a sermon delivered by the late President Brigham Young at Farmington, Utah, 17 June 1877, Follows: “I believe I will take the liberty to tell you another circumstance that will be as marvelous as anything can be. This is an incident in the life of Oliver Cowdery, but he did not take the liberty of telling such things in a meeting as I take.

5. I tell these things to you, and I have a motive for doing so. I want to carry; them to the ears of my brethren and sisters, and to the children also, that they may grow to an understanding of some things that seem to be entirely hidden from the human family. Oliver Cowdery went with the prophet Joseph when he deposited these plates. Joseph did not translate all of the plates, there was a portion of them sealed, which you can learn from the book of Doctrine and Covenants. When Joseph got the plates, the angel instructed him to carry them back to the Hill Cumorah, which he did. Oliver says that when Joseph and Oliver went there, the hill opened, and they walked into a cave, in which there was a large and spacious room.

6. He says he did not think, at the time, whether they had the light of the sun or artificial light; but that it was just as light as day. They laid the plates on a table; it was a large table that stood in the room. Under this table was a pile of plates as much as two feet high, and there were altogether in this room more plates than probably many wagon loads; they were piled up in the corners and along the walls. The first time they went there the sword of Laban hung upon the wall; but when they went again it had been taken down and laid upon the table across the gold plates; it was unsheathed, and on it was written these words:

7. ‘This sword will never be sheathed again until the kingdoms of this world become the kingdom of our God and his Christ.’ I tell this as coming not only from Oliver Cowdery, but others who were familiar with it, who understood it just as well as we understand coming to this meeting, enjoying the day, and by and by we separate and go away, forgetting most of what was said, but remembering some things. So it is with other circumstances in life. I relate this to you, and I want you to understand it. I take this liberty of referring to those things so that they will not be forgotten and lost” (JD, 19:38).

8. Mormon 6:10-22 “A Scene of Horror!” “I hope that we will be able to remain faithful… I hope that we will be able to enjoy the same feeling expressed by Abraham Lincoln during the time of the Civil War. A friend was talking with him regarding the condition of the country, and so on, and made the remark, ‘I hope that the Lord is on our side,’ Well, ‘said President Lincoln, ‘I do not worry about that at all; I know that the Lord is always on the right side. What worries me the most is to know if we are on the Lord’s side’” (Hugh S. Gowans, C.R., April 1903, 37). “Great nations do not fall because of external aggression; they first erode and decay inwardly, so that, like rotten fruit, they fall of themselves” (Ezra Taft Benson, This Nation Shall Endure, 84).

9. Mormon 6:10 Why would they just pass by the injured Mormon? Mormon 6:11, 15, 17, 22 An army of 230,000 to 25 Mormon 7:8-10 “Purpose of the Book of Mormon?”

10. Brigham Young said, “No man can say that this book (laying his hands) on the Bible is true… and at the same time say that the Book of Mormon is untrue;… that person on the face of the earth who has had the privilege of learning the gospel of Jesus Christ from the two books, that can say that one is true, and the other false. No Latter-day Saint, no man or woman, can say the Book of Mormon is true, and at the same time say the Bible is untrue. If one be true, both are” (Brigham Young, J.D. 1:38).

11. Does righteousness sometimes bring loneliness? “And he (Elijah) said, I have been very jealous for the Lord God of hosts for the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down the altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away” (I Kings 19:10).

12. Jesus was left alone: –The multitudes (John 6:66) –The Apostles (Matthew 26:56) –The Father (Matthew 27:46) Elder Neal A. Maxwell explained, “Discipleship requires us to be willing to stand alone” (Ensign, November 2001, 79).

13. Mormon 8:1-5Moroni becomes the author Mormon 8:11God does not leave us alone Mormon 8:14No one shall have the plates to get gain (JS-H 1:53) Mormon 8:26-40 The Book of Mormon will come forward when: (ten things) Mormon 9:3-5 Will those in the terrestrial and telestial kingdoms be happy there?

14. “And they who remain shall also be quickened; nevertheless, they shall return again to their own place, to enjoy that which they are willing to receive, because they were not willing to enjoy that which they might have received” (Doctrine and Covenants 88:32). “The prophet and his leaders seek to educate our very desires, for God finally gives to each man the desires of his heart” (Neal A. Maxwell, Of One Heart, 30). “It is His purpose, according to the divine plan, to make all of his creations as happy as it is possible for them to be under the conditions of their immortal states” (Joseph Fielding Smith, Church History and Modern Revelation, 2:68).

15. Mormon 9:27-31Moroni’s counsel to L.D.S. readers, seven points. Mormon 9:28 President Marion G. Romney observed that we would have more spiritual experiences if we did not talk about them so much! As if having them were more important than benefitting from them, some lust after spiritual experiences rather than desiring the substance of such experiences: “Ask not, that ye may consume it on your lusts,…but that ye will serve the true and living God.” Perhaps, in recounting their spiritual experiences, some may occasionally wish to demonstrate their ascendancy; just as some academics, in a sort of intellectual imperialism, enjoy the knowing more than they enjoy utilizing what is known. This illustrates the old problem of the desire of preeminence, which can take so many forms (Neal A. Maxwell, That Ye May Believe, 69-70).

16. Mormon 9:32Reformed Egyptian, a type of shorthand. Mormon 9:36“Restoration to the knowledge of Christ”

17. “Studying the Church…through the eyes of its defectors,” Elder Neal A. Maxwell once said, is “like interviewing Judas to understand Jesus. Defectors always tell us more about themselves than about that from which they have departed” (Maxwell, “All Hell is Moved” (Brigham Young University devotional, Nov. 8, 1977).

18. President Dieter F. Uchtdorf said: “First doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith. We must never allow doubt to hold us prisoner and keep us from the divine love, peace, and gifts that through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ” (Come, Join with Us,” Ensign, Nov. 2013, 23). Elder Jeffrey R. Holland said: “This is a divine work in process, with the manifestations and blessings of it abounding in every direction, so please don’t hyperventilate if from time to time issues arise that need to be examined, understood, and resolved. They do and they will. In this Church, what we know will always trump what we do not know” (“Lord, I Believe,” Ensign, May 2013, 94).

19. President Henry B. Eyring, in speaking about those with doubts, said: “In your love for them you may decide to try to give them what they ask. You may be tempted to go with them through their doubts, with the hope that you can find proof or reasoning to dispel their doubts. Persons with doubts often want to talk about what they think are the facts or the arguments that have caused their doubts, and about how much it hurts…. “You and I can do better if we do not stay long with what our students see as the source of their doubts….Their problem does not lie in what they think they see….We do best if we turn the conversation soon to the things of the heart, those changes of the heart that open spiritual eyes” (“’ And Thus We See’: address to Church Educational System religious educators, Feb. 5, 1993, 3- 4).