By Barbara B. Garner, Raleigh, North Carolina
“Testimonial expressing my love and gratitude for the Annotated Edition of the Book of Mormon”
“I have attempted to write a testimonial expressing my love and gratitude for the Annotated Edition of the Book of Mormon numerous times, but mere words did not seem to do it justice. I am going to make another attempt to put my deepest and most sincere feelings concerning the Annotated Edition of the Book of Mormon into this testimonial using inadequate words, and petition the help of the Spirit as I do so!
My husband and I have been members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for 39 years this month—we joined in June of 1981. I gained a testimony of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon and have since loved and pondered the spiritual, uplifting passages found in its pages. But, to be perfectly honest, at the same time it seemed somewhat like a Harry Potter novel simply because the strange names and places did not have a real-world location that made sense in my mind!
After 35 years as devoted and very active members of this Church, the beautiful Annotated Edition of the Book of Mormon came into our lives and literally rocked our spiritual world! Through its pages, we have now come to understand that Manasseh wrote the Book of Mormon on the very same land, “the land choice above all other lands,” where Ephraim established the cradle for the Restoration, translated the Book of Mormon, and restored the Gospel of Jesus Christ. That land is America, and specifically America’s Heartland!
Rod Meldrum shared a phenomenal geographical chiasmus with us when we met him in 2017. He said the Nephites were pushed by the Lamanites from the Missouri area, went across Illinois, Ohio, and into New York where they were annihilated and hid the plates in the earth in the Hill Cumorah. Approximately 1400 years later, Joseph Smith recovered the plates from the earth in the Hill Cumorah in New York, and then he and the saints went across Ohio, Illinois, and ended up in the Missouri area before heading West after Joseph’s martyrdom! Who but the Lord could plan and orchestrate a Hebrew geographical chiasmus of that proportion and magnitude? This will always remain embedded in my mind and heart! And I must not forget the Zion’s Camp March in 1834 which covered almost the identical territory, where Joseph had several revelations and visions of the Lamanite and Nephite altars, mounds, and remains. I do not think that was a mere coincidence!
I came to love and understand the words in Ether 13 in a most profound manner! Ether prophesied that the Nephite and Jaredite promised land, “the land choice above all other lands”, was also Joseph’s promised land—the New Jerusalem—where remnants of his seed, Ephraim and Manasseh, would dwell. Through His prophet Joseph Smith, the Lord later identified the New Jerusalem as Independence, Jackson County, Missouri!
In short, I came to understand that America is WHERE and that this is HOW the “tens of thousands of Ephraim and the thousands of Manasseh are now pushing the people together to the ends of the earth” in the Last Days, just as Moses prophesied in Deuteronomy 33: 13-17. In addition to being 1) Joseph’s promised land, 2) the land choice above all other lands, 3) the land where remnants of Ephraim and Manasseh would dwell, and 4) the location of the New Jerusalem, just look at what else we know about Missouri through modern-day prophets! It is 5) “the center of the land”, 6) the Garden of Eden, 7) the place where Adam dwelt, 8) the place where Enoch lived and to which his city will return, 9) the location of Adam-ondi-Ahman, and 10) one of only TWO designated promised lands on this earth which He gave to, and personally prepared for, His chosen House of Israel: The OLD JERUSALEM in the Holy Land and this very sacred land of the NEW JERUSALEM in America. Christ will Return to the earth! And when He does, He will Rule and Reign from Jerusalem and the New Jerusalem. Clearly, the land of Missouri in America is the land “chosen of the Lord” to which Ether referred in Ether 13:2!
For the Lord to send Lehi and his family to any other land on the face of the earth for their promised land makes reason stare! Of their promised land, Lehi said in 2 Nephi 1: 5 and 6, “…we have obtained a land of promise, a land which is choice above all other lands; a land which the Lord God hath covenanted with me should be a land for the inheritance of my seed. Yea, the Lord hath covenanted this land unto me, and to my children forever…” Together, the prophet Ether and the prophet Joseph Smith have identified Lehi’s covenanted promised land for us today! It is none other than the New Jerusalem in America’s Heartland. The New Jerusalem was prepared by the Lord as the place where Manasseh and Ephraim would dwell and where they would become Joseph’s “horns”, with which he would push the people together to the ends of the earth! In other words and at the risk of becoming overly redundant, why would the Lord have Ether prophesy that the New Jerusalem in the land choice above all other lands was prepared for Manasseh and Ephraim, tell Joseph Smith the New Jerusalem is in Missouri,send Ephraim to the New Jerusalem to establish America, translate the Book of Mormon, and restore the Gospel, but send Manasseh to Mesoamerica to write the Book of Mormon? That is completely and totally illogical!
If all of this is as intriguing, enthralling, exhilarating, and humbling to you as it is to me, you will not want to miss having THE most beautiful Book of Mormon of all times—the Annotated Edition— in your home. You can find all of this information expounded upon and much, much more explained by ancient and modern-day prophets in this red-letter edition of the Book of Mormon. The colored text and the easy-to-read narrative combine together to make the Book of Mormon more understandable and comprehensible than ever before. In addition, there are hundreds of inserts which magically place the Hill Cumorah in New York (as ALL the modern-day prophets have stated) and the Book of Mormon geography in Joseph’s promised land—the New Jerusalem. Joseph Smith stated over and over that, “…The remnant (the Lamanites) are the Indians which now inhabit this country (America).” The scholars who have been the keepers and interpreters of our Church History for many decades claim it was merely Joseph’s opinion. Consequently, and most unfortunately for us, they feel completely justified in censoring, repudiating, and hiding Joseph’s words from our view so that Joseph’s words will then fit their interpretation instead of making certain their interpretation fits Joseph’s words. Shame on them! Please thank the Lord often in your prayers for the publication of the Joseph Smith Papers in 2001 and for our Heartland friends who pour through them to find what Joseph actually said! As one such friend, Jonathan “Martin Luther” Neville, recently stated, “Make certain you are following the words of prophets and not the words of scholars!”
Scores and scores of my favorite inserts include the phenomenal number of ways the Annotated Edition prove Joseph correct—the Native American Indians in America today are indeed the descendants of the Lamanites! How profound is that? We have an actual, real, and authentic link to Book of Mormon peoples living in the world today! But not just anywhere in the world! They are living in America! How significant and breath-taking it is to me that the Lord allowed this phenomenon as part of the proof that the Book of Mormon is true! The Book of Mormon is about real members of the House of Israel who came to a real promised land called the New Jerusalem located in America the Beautiful. They were real descendants of Manasseh because Lehi was from Manasseh! Manasseh came to Joseph’s promised land to write the “stick of Joseph” which would be in the hands of Ephraim, to be joined with the “stick of Judah”, and then to be one in the hand—just as the Book of Mormon and Bible are literally one in our hand today. The Book of Mormon is now known to be an authentic, sophisticated Hebrew document, complete with the Hebrew Chiasmus and the Hebrew Midrash, and which also contains the essential Hebrew Old Testament “second witness” which completes the proof for of the divinity and authenticity of Jesus the Christ as the Only Begotten of the Father, the Holy Messiah, and Savior of the world! The Heartland of America is a real-world location for Book of Mormon geography which makes perfect sense, which has abundant proof which has come out of the earth in this country, and to which the Spirit abundantly testifies is true! This Annotated Edition of the Book of Mormon will delight, inspire, and prove, without question, that Joseph was the prophet of the Restoration whom the Lord chose above all others and that America has been, and will always be, the land which the Lord chose above all others to accomplish the majority of His grand and glorious Purposes through and for all of His Children! Once you have read the Annotated Edition of the Book of Mormon, like Lehi of old, you will desire that your loved ones should partake of it!
I have a deep and abiding love for this Gospel and for the Annotated Edition of the Book of Mormon which has taken the Gospel of Jesus Christ to a higher realm for me! This light and knowledge has deepened the love that I have for my Heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, and has drawn me ever closer to Them. I marvel at the way They have orchestrated Their Grand Design on this earth from the Pre-existence to the day in which we live and, thereby, we know that They will continue through the Millennium and through the Eternities. Amazingly, they have managed to do so with imperfect mortals who have Agency and with those same mortals being buffeted by Satan! “For behold, this is my work and my glory—to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.” All of this testifies that They love us, They want us to become like Them, and They want us to live with Them and with our families for Eternity.
Thank you, David Hocking and Rod Meldrum, for being worthy, humble instruments in the Hands of the Lord and for putting your God-given talents together to produce this precious Book! And a special thank you to all of the diligent Heartlanders, geneticist, archeologist, geologist, linguist, and countless others, members and non-members alike, all of whom the Lord has raised up in this day to recover the things from the earth in this country—America—which prove the Book of Mormon true. The Lord promised the Three Witnesses and Joseph that He would “make it known to the people that the early inhabitants of this land had been just such a people as they were described in the book, and he would lead them to discover the ruins of great cities, and they should have abundant evidence of the truth of that which is written the book.” (David Whitmer interview, 21 August 1883) It is happening in our day!! Light and knowledge are flooding the earth as never before just as the Lord promised! A healthy portion of this light and knowledge can be found within the pages of the Annotated Edition of the Book of Mormon! We are most fortunate to be a part of the Lord’s marvelous work and a wonder in the Last Days! May we, as Gathering Israel, ask daily, “How may I help Thee, Lord?” And when He sends an answer—do it!
Because it is entirely relevant, I would like to share one more item which is somewhat miraculous! It is miraculous to me because I know it came as pure revelation to me a few weeks ago. I have a deep desire to share what the Spirit shared with me! I taught high school mathematics in North Carolina public schools. For thirty years, I taught Geometry students how to construct two-column deductive proofs by employing the use of two critical tools known as the Law of Detachment and the Law of Syllogism from Logic 101. Teaching students how to construct proofs was my favorite topic, and somewhat of a specialty, in my teaching career! I loved the order and beauty involved in the process, and I loved sharing it with students who appreciated it, as well! In all of the years of teaching proofs, I never once imagined that the Lord would one day enable me to use these same two Laws of Logic to organize a vast array of words from His prophets into a concise and infallible proof for the location of the Nephite or Book of Mormon geography. If you get bogged down in the five steps of the synopsis, simply skip down to the proof (in color) at the bottom. You should be able to follow the proof itself.” By Barbara B. Garner (Some italics and bold have been added)
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