The Book of Enos, the son of Jacob
1 I, Enos, knew my father was a righteous man, because he taught me his language, and taught me about the Lord, and I bless God’s name that he did.
2 I am going to tell you about the hard time I had in front of God, before my sins were forgiven.
3 I went into the forest to hunt animals. I began thinking hard about the words I had often heard my father say about living again with God, and about how happy God’s saints are.
4 My soul wanted very much to live again with God and be happy. So I knelt down and prayed to God to forgive me and to bless my soul. I prayed all day long. Yes, I was still praying even when night came.
5 Then a voice said to me: “Enos, your sins are forgiven, and you will be blessed.”
6 I, Enos, knew that God could not lie, so I did not feel guilty anymore.
7 And I said: “Lord, how did this happen?”
8 He said to me: “Because of your faith in Christ, whom you have not heard nor seen before. It will be many years until he is born on earth. Go your way — your faith in Christ has healed your soul.”
9 Now when I heard these words, I began to pray with my whole soul for my Nephite brothers and sisters.
10 While I was praying hard for them, the voice of the Lord spoke to me in my mind again: “Whether I will bless or curse the Nephites depends on if they keep my commandments. I have given this holy land to them, and I will not curse it unless they become wicked. If the Nephites break my commandments, they will be sorry.”
11 After I, Enos, heard these words, my faith in the Lord became strong, and I prayed to him long and hard for my Lamanite brothers and sisters.
12 After I prayed long and hard, the Lord said to me: “I will give you your desires because of your great faith.”
13 This was what I wanted the Lord to do: if my people, the Nephites, ever sinned and were destroyed, and if the Lamanites were not destroyed, I wanted the Lord to protect the my people’s records so the Lamanites would read them at a time to come, and repent and be saved —
14 Because at this time we have not been able to teach them the truth. The Lamanites have promised in their hatred and anger to destroy us and our records, and everything our ancestors have taught us.
15 But I knew that God could protect our records, so I prayed to him about it all the time. He said to me: “You will get whatever you ask for in faith, if you ask for it in Christ’s name.”
16 I had faith, so I prayed to God that he would protect the records, and he promised me he would bring them to the Lamanites at the right time.
17 And I, Enos, knew that God would do what he promised, so I did not worry about it anymore.
18 The Lord said to me: “Your ancestors also asked me to do this, and I promised them I would do this because their faith was as strong as yours.”
19 Then I, Enos, went among the Nephites and prophesied about what would happen at a time to come, and told them about the things I had heard and seen.
20 The Nephites tried very hard to teach the Lamanites about God. But even though we worked hard, they would not listen to us because they hated us so much. They were very wicked. They were like wild animals. They worshiped false gods, and were filthy, and ate all kinds of unclean animals. They lived in tents and went naked in the wilderness, and they shaved their heads. The only thing they did well was hunt with bows and axes and swords. Many of them ate only raw meat, and they were always trying to destroy us.
21 The Nephites were mostly farmers, raising grain and fruit, and cattle, goats, wild goats, and many horses.
22 There were many, many prophets among us. The Nephites were stubborn and did not understand God’s commandments.
23 The only thing that helped them obey God’s commandments was telling them about wars and death and hell and God’s power. I say that only talking about these things plainly kept them from being destroyed. This was how they were.
24 I saw many wars between the Nephites and the Lamanites during my life.
25 I got old. It has been one hundred seventy-nine years since Lehi left Jerusalem.
26 I will die soon. I have taught the people about Christ with the power of God all my life, and knowing about Christ has given me more joy than any other thing.
27 Soon I will go where my Savior is, and I will rest there with him. It makes me so happy to think of the day I will have a perfect body, and will stand before Christ. I will see his face with pleasure, and he will say to me: “Come to me, blessed one. There is a place prepared for you to live with my Father.” Amen.
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