"Sis. Mendoza, I know that this is just our first visit with you, but as we wrap up this first lesson, I want to ask you, if you come to know that the church is true, would you prefer to be baptized on Thursday the 17th, or would Saturday the 19th be better for your schedule?"
See, we didn't care if they read any of the BofM, we just cared that they 'come to know the church was true!!' We didn't even care if they attended church or paid a dime or quinto of tithing. And back in the day they were good to go when the senior companion said so. None of the BS of having pre-baptism interviews.
There is no time limit. asap is the name of the the game They tried to dunk me 2 weeks after first introduction and leaving me with the BOM. The baptism by immersion in water is necessary to quell the burning in the bosom, they would not want to be responsible for it getting out of control and causing spontaneous human combustion
Two different mission presidents, two different approaches.
For the first, we were told to get the investigators reading the BoM as soon as possible. There was no expectation for how far they read, just an assumption that sincere reading would produce the right emotional response.
The second MP only wanted the baptisms, so we didn't need our investigators to read anything. That wasn't as crazy as it sounds, since a good percentage of the missionaries hadn't read the BoM either.
"Hi. I'm Elder Sheepbot. Here's a book. No one can stay awake for the whole thing, so it's OK to get your warm fuzzy confirmation from God after just the first chapter. We'll be back tomorrow to pray with you and set up your baptism date."
Elder sheepbot back again "I know the Book of Mormon is true, I know the church is true, we got you down for the baptism at 2:00 pm on the 28 th You'll get the burning in your bosom, true"
In my not-so-humble-opinion NO ONE has enough time in this world for reading this boring book.
Asking anyone to read this book brings on a death tole of the desired goal which will surely never disappear, and I love the statement of Dave the Atheist which sums up the whole missionary shebang.....
"Hurry and get in the water before you find out about mormonism."
I baptized a young couple on my mission in France (they're since out, and I'm so glad). On our first visit, we "challenged" them to read the BoM. We came back a week later, and were all set to do the baptism challenge. But first...I asked them if they're read the BoM.
The husband said, "I read the first 10 pages or so, and then one of the reference chapters you gave me."
Uh-oh, I thought. He hasn't read it hardly at all. He's never going to go for the baptism date. But then he continued...
"I think it's amazing."
Hook, line, and sinker!
They were baptized 2 weeks later.
As far as I know, they never read the whole thing.
And unless you were totally brainwashed it doesn't take a genius to figure out it was concocted by ignorant, backwoods semi-literate hicks who could barely read, write, or spell...
You underestimate J Smith. Even among historians, he is regarded as something of a religious genius. He could have been more successful had he not had such a gluttonous eye for the ladies, and their dowries. And had he not been so greedy and power hungry which drove him to self-destruct.
oh, so frustrating, when a customer, I mean investigator would state that they would like to read the whole book first before being baptized. Ugh, no, please, not that, we can't wait that long. Nobody does that, we never even asked you to do that! Please, just pray about it after reading a little bit.....please! And that feeling that you are having, that's God telling you that it is true. Yes, we are sure about that, don't worry. (Hey, when I get home, I'll bet I could sell solar panels or, well, just about anything!)
Yes Robin! LOL, that exact script would go through my head when someone wanted to read all of it. I hated it when an investigator wanted to read the entire book. One, I knew they would not be baptized within 3 weeks which was the mission goal. The second issue was they would make a list of questions we were supposed to answer. Well at least this was before the internet.
To get through the BoM I read three chapters a night from cover to cover. It took a few months, but I did it. I was 19-20sh at the time. I read the bible first, followed by the BoM.
The bible was easier to get through. It was less like chloroform in print (Samuel Clemens description of the BoM.)