Hi, welcome back. I'm Lynn Hilton Wilson and this is John W. Welch here to talk about our favorite book in the world, the Book of Mormon. We're part of the Come Follow Me team with Scripture Central and you can get all this information on either audio or visual or there's handouts. You'll find the John W. Welch notes. We can attach them here, or you can dive into all these books

that we'll give you. We hope to be able to strengthen your testimony and understanding of this

fabulous book. We're starting today in 1st Nephi chapter 6 through 10. We are bridging

Lehi and his family leaving and now introducing the family of

Ishmael and the vision of the tree of life. In chapter 6, right from the start, Nephi introduces

his purpose in writing. Back in the beginning in chapter 1, he talks about, I'm going to write

to show you the tender mercies. But here in chapter 6, verse 4, it reads,

The fullness of mine intent is that I may persuade men to come unto God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob and be saved.

And if you mentioned last week, that's coming into Christ.

And so we begin with this beautiful bridge, and it's time to go get the women because Lehi

is reading and gets another revelation that we need to raise up seed and your sons do not

have their wives with them.

And I think the wives were arranged.

I think that's probably true as well, that it was normal in that day for that millennium.

Men, the fathers, to provide for and to arrange for marriages.

And often cousin marriages were thought to be the closest

and the most likely to succeed, I guess. But at least the families were well known. They

knew each other. I think when they go to get Ishmael, Ishmael and

Lehigh probably had spent a lot of time together. But I think it's significant that his name is Ishmael,

and that Ishmael is from Abraham's first wife, Hagar. And we deal with a person who knows how to

travel. His family's ready to go, it appears like these

marriages had already been arranged, and that they were already sensitive to the spirit.

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