Helen Mae Andrus All rights reserved August 10-12, 1989 Lecture – 5B THE 13 "LOOKS" OF NEPHI -- Helen Mae Andrus (Introduction by Hyrum L. Andrus: Helen May is in my opinion a great student of the Book of Mormon. She has had a life-long interest in it. She has read the Book of Mormon 22 times since 1965--22 times, and that's not counting the studying she's done along the way. It has been a privilege for me to have her not only as my wife and companion, but as one to whom I sit up and listen, one who has been prompted by the Spirit to get many tremendous, special insights, particularly on the vision of Lehi and Nephi. This is what she would like to discuss with you today.) Helen Mae Andrus: I have very few qualifications for speaking at a Book of Mormon seminar, and they are these: I know it's true. I have a strong testimony of the Book of Mormon, and that is my greatest qualification. I love the book--that's the second. And the third is that it's my security blanket. Each of us has something for a security blanket, and the Book of Mormon is mine. When difficulties come and problems come, and they do, the Book of Mormon is a tangible evidence, and it's there and I can use it. If it is true, and it is, then Christ is there. If it is true, and it is, Joseph Smith was a Prophet, the Church is restored and President Benson is a prophet of God. All of these things come together and make me secure in the gospel of Jesus Christ. For that I am most grateful. I'd like to tell you a little bit about my love affair with the Book of Mormon. The first two or three readings, I was so interested in Lehi and his experiences, leaving his home, going into the wilderness and then they send back Nephi and his brothers, the experience with Laban, with the plates of brass, and they brought those back. Then they go back again for Ishmael and his daughters and the rest of his family, their sojourn in the wilderness for 8 years, the experiences with Nephi and his broken bow, the problems building the ship, the rebellion of Laman and Lemuel, and they finally get across the ocean to the promised land. Lehi gives them blessings. After his death they divide into Lamanites and Nephites. Well, I thought I had 1st and 2nd Nephi down pat, I knew that story. Are any of you guilty of that? Then I found out there are 45 other chapters in 1st and 2nd Nephi that didn't include this, and I have learned to love those 45 chapters. As I was reading through the vision of Nephi, I found that the angel, or the Spirit, it seemed like an awful lot of times said, "Look!" So I began to look at what that angel and the Spirit said to Nephi in chapters 11 through 14. And I found out that there are 13 different "looks," so I would like to talk about what I call "the looks" in 1 Nephi 11-14. If you'd like to take your Books of Mormon and follow through with that.... I found out that Nephi had some major contributions made in that vision. First, he put Christ in the very center of salvation, prophecy and history. The second great contribution to me is that it gives an overview of the future of the remnant of Lehi, all of the house of Israel and of the Gentiles. It gives an outline of how the Father will finally bring his covenants unto Israel that he has promised these many years. Third, and this is important, to me it gives a focus to all of the writings that Nephi includes in his 1st and 2nd book of Nephi, and all the work that he will do to put it on the plates. You know that he engraved these by hands, and you think of the labor that must have been. He chose the material from Lehi, from Jacob, from his own prophecies, and in particular from Isaiah. And all of these were concerned with Christ and with our day. So when we read 1st and 2nd Nephi, we should do it with these two major items in mind. What do they say about Christ, and what do they say about the last days? Then we get the focus that I think Nephi wanted us to have. Fourth, it suggests the important gospel principles that are emphasized and explained throughout the rest of the Book of Mormon. It is interesting to note that at the end of the Book of Mormon when Christ comes to the Nephites, his emphasis is the same as Nephi's. He puts his time on his gospel and on the latter-days. I found out in these other 45 chapters in 1st and 2nd Nephi, that to me, all tie in, in one way or another, to Nephi's vision. For example, the trail that Nephi uses from Lehi, chapters 1, 8 and 10 in particular, and a little bit of 5, give Lehi's prophecies, Lehi's visions, Lehi's dream. And when we get into Nephi's vision, you'll find out that he refers back to all of the things that Lehi had seen or knew by the power of the Holy Ghost. When he got to 2 Nephi, he again used Lehi in the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th chapters of 2 Nephi. In those chapters, Le… Get the full transcription from www.hyrumandrus.com!