Third Nephi — Chapter 8
1 Now our record says (and we know our record is true, because a good man kept the records, and he did many miracles in Jesus’ name. No one can do miracles in Jesus’ name unless they are completely clean from sin) —
2 If this man was right, thirty-three years had gone by.
3 People began to look very hard for the sign Samuel the Lamanite had talked about — for the time there would be darkness over all the land for three days.
4 There began to be doubts and quarrels among the people, even though there had been many signs.
5 Then during the thirty-fourth year, on the fourth day of the first month, there came a bigger storm than there had ever been before in all the land.
6 There was a terrible windstorm, with lots of thunder shaking the earth as though it would break it in two.
7 There was lightning more terrible than ever before in all the land.
8 The city of Zarahemla caught fire.
9 The city of Moroni sank into the sea, and all the people in it drowned.
10 The land came up and buried the city of Moronihah, so there was a big mountain where the city used to be.
11 There was terrible destruction in all the south lands.
12 But there was even more terrible destruction in the north lands. The whole face of the land changed because of the storms and the tornadoes and the thunder and lightning and the earthquakes.
13 All the highways and roads were broken up, and many smooth places became rough.
14 Many cities were sunk, or burned, or shaken until they fell down, killing all the people in them, so those places became empty.
15 Some cities still stood, but many of their buildings had fallen down, and many people had been killed.
16 Some people were carried away by tornadoes, and nobody knows where they went. All they know is that those people were carried away.
17 The whole face of the earth was changed because of the storms and thunder and lightning and earthquakes.
18 The rocks were broken in two all over the earth. They were all broken up in pieces, and there were cracks all over the land.
19 When the thunder and lightning and storms and tornadoes and earthquakes were over (they lasted for about three hours, though some say they lasted longer), there was darkness over all the land.
20 There was thick darkness over all the land, and the people who had not been killed could feel the darkness.
21 There was no light. They could not light candles or lamps, and they could not make fires even with the driest wood, so there was no light at all.
22 No light was seen — not fire, not the sun, nor the moon, nor the stars — because of the clouds of darkness over all the land.
23 The darkness lasted for three days, during which there was no light. But the people were crying and howling because of the darkness and destruction that had come on them.
24 In one place some cried: “O, if only we had repented before this great and terrible day! Then our brothers and sisters would have been saved, and they would not have been burned up in the great city of Zarahemla.”
25 And in another place, some cried: “O, if only we had repented before this great and terrible day, and had not killed and stoned and thrown out the prophets! Then our mothers and our beautiful daughters and our children would have been saved, and not buried in the great city of Moronihah!” The people’s howlings were loud and terrible.
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