I will make thy food become sweet, that ye cook it not.

I will also be your light in the wilderness;

and I will prepare the way before you, if it so be that ye shall keep my commandments;

wherefore, inasmuch as ye shall keep my commandments ye shall be led towards the promised land; and ye shall know that it is by me that ye are led.

So beautiful

and rich.

It is a bountiful land.

Nephi, arise.

Get thee into the mountain.

What is Thy will, Lord?

Thou shalt construct a ship, after the manner which I shall show thee, that I may carry thy people across these waters.

Whither shall I go that I may find ore to molten, that I may make tools to construct the ship after the manner which thou hast shown unto me?

Nephi!

What are you doing? Making tools. For?

The Lord has commanded me in a vision and has shown me how to build a ship to carry our people across these waters.

Nephi, this is madness. Working together, we can be instruments . . . You will get no help from us. Here we have found a land of promise. Here we will stay. We know that ye cannot construct a ship. Thou art like unto our father, led away by the foolish imaginations of his heart. He hath led us out of the land of Jerusalem, and we have wandered in the wilderness these many years; And our women, our women have toiled, and they have borne children in the wilderness and suffered all things, save it were death! It would have been better that they had died before they came out of Jerusalem than to have suffered these afflictions. These many years we have suffered in the wilderness, which time we might have enjoyed our possessions and the land of our inheritance; and we might have been happy. The people of Jerusalem were about to be destroyed. The people who were in the land of Jerusalem were a righteous people! They kept the statutes and judgments of the Lord, and all His commandments according to the law of Moses! Do ye believe that our fathers would have been led away out of the hands of the Egyptians if the Lord had not commanded Moses that he should lead them out of bondage? That has nothing to do with this. Ye know that Moses was commanded of the Lord to do that great work; and ye know that by his word the waters of the Red Sea were divided, and they passed through on dry ground. You are not Moses, and this is not the Red Sea! Ye are swift to do iniquity but slow to remember the Lord your God.

Ye have seen an angel, and he spake unto you!

Ye have heard His voice; and He hath spoken unto you in a still small voice, but ye were past feeling, that ye could not feel His words!

Why is it, that ye can be so hard in your hearts? My soul is rent with anguish because of you, and my heart is pained;

I fear lest ye shall be cast off forever.

I am full of the Spirit of God, insomuch that my frame has no strength.

In the name of the Almighty God, I command you that ye touch me not, for I am filled with the power of God, even unto the consuming of my flesh;

and whoso shall lay his hands upon me shall wither even as a dried reed; and they shall be as naught before the power of God, for God shall smite him. Murmur no more against our father, and do not withhold your labor from me, for God has commanded me that I should build a ship.

If the Lord had commanded me to do all things I could do them. If the Lord hath such great power, and hath wrought so many miracles, then how is it that He cannot instruct me, that I should build a ship?

Nephi. Stretch forth thine hand again unto thy brethren, and I will shock them, that they may know that I am the Lord their God.

We know the Lord is with thee. I am thy brother, even thy younger brother; wherefore, worship the Lord thy God, and honor thy father and thy mother.

Nephi.

It is good.

Lord, lead us to the promised land.