I taught Book of Mormon classes at BYU for eighteen years, and I was always astounded when I would talk about something in class and a student would observe, “Oh, I read that once.”
“Oh, you read it once?” I would reply. “Well, I teach this book every year and find things I’ve never even seen before. And you’ve read it once?”
So, we had an assignment. I gave extra credit to students who read 2 Nephi 9 or Enos for thirty days in a row before going to bed. A student once asked me: “Why? Why do we need to read it every day? I mean, I’ll get it after just a night or two.”
“You just read it and see,” is all I answered.
Well, one day I was walking to class, and all of a sudden this young man was waiting for me by the door. He literally leapt upon me, gave me a hug, and said, “Oh, Brother Ed, Brother Ed, it’s true, it’s true!”
I said, “I know it’s true, Elder.”
“I understand what you mean now,” he said. “I read Enos, and on the twenty-first day something happened inside. I wanted everybody to be converted. Brother Ed, I’m thinking of checking out of school and going on my mission today.”
“Can’t you just wait two more weeks until the semester ends?” I asked.
This young man fell in love with the Book of Mormon because he did what the prophet said, again and again and again, and then he applied it in his life. Until we apply it to our lives, we will not delight in it. We will not enjoy this feeling. We will not be enthusiastic about it. We’ll say, “Yeah, I read the book this morning.” But when we love it, we’ll live it because we apply it.
Nephi understood this principle: “For my soul delighteth in the scriptures, and my heart pondereth them” (2 Nephi 2:15). President Benson also understood: “Now, my beloved brethren and sisters, let us read the Book of Mormon and be convinced that Jesus is the Christ. Let us continually reread the Book of Mormon so that we might more fully come to Christ, be committed to Him, centered in Him, and consumed in Him” (“‘Come unto Christ,’” Ensign, Nov. 1987, 83). (Ed J. Pinegar)