- 28After Mosiah’s sons had done all this, they took a small number with them and went to their father the king and asked him to allow them to go up to the land of Nephi with those they had chosen, in order to preach what they had heard and share God’s word with their Lamanite brothers and sisters, 2so they could perhaps bring them to know the Lord who is God and convince them of their forefathers’ iniquity. Perhaps to cure them of their hatred of the Nephites, and so they could also be brought to rejoice in the Lord who is God and be friendly to each other, and so there wouldn’t be any more wars in the whole land that the Lord their God had given them. 3Now they wanted salvation to be explained to every creature, because they couldn’t stand for any human soul to perish. Indeed, the very thought that any soul might endure endless torment made them shake and tremble. 4This is how the Spirit of the Lord acted upon them. They were once the vilest of sinners, but the Lord saw fit in His infinite mercy to spare them. Nevertheless, they suffered great anguish of soul because of their iniquities, experiencing terrible dread that they could be rejected forever.
- 5They pled with their father for many days to be able to go up to the land of Nephi. 6And king Mosiah went and asked the Lord if he should let his sons go among the Lamanites to preach the word. 7The Lord said to Mosiah: Let them go there, because many will believe in their words; and they will have eternal life. And I’ll protect your sons from the power of the Lamanites.
- 8Mosiah gave them permission to go and do as they requested. 9And so they went into the wilderness to preach the word among the Lamanites. I’ll give an account of their labors later. 10Now king Mosiah had no one to confer the kingdom on, since none of his sons would accept the kingdom. 11So he took the records engraved on the brass plates, the plates of Nephi, and all the things that he had kept and preserved according to God’s commandments. And he translated the records on the gold plates found by Limhi’s people and then given to him by Limhi. He had the translation written down. 12He did this because his people were eagerly wanting to know about the people who had been destroyed. 13Now he translated the plates using those two stones fastened into the two rims of a frame for spectacles. 14These things had been prepared from the beginning and handed down for generations for the purpose of translating languages. 15And the hand of the Lord had preserved them to expose the iniquities and abominations of His people to any people who would inhabit the land. 16And whoever has this instrument has always been called a seer.
- 17After Mosiah had finished translating these records, they learned it was an account of the people who were destroyed, from the time they were destroyed back to the time when the great tower was built, when the Lord confused the people’s language and they were scattered across the whole earth, and went all the way back to Adam’s creation. 18Now this account distressed Mosiah’s people — indeed, they were heartbroken. Nevertheless, it informed them a great deal, and they rejoiced because of that. 19And this account will be written later; because it will benefit everyone to know what’s written in that account.
Chapter 12