“How Rare a Possession” to Be Telecast November 8

A new major motion picture, How Rare a Possession—the Book of Mormon, will be broadcast over the Church satellite network on Sunday, November 8. President Ezra Taft Benson is scheduled to introduce the film.

The film will be telecast in English only to stake centers throughout the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico beginning at 6:10 P.M. Mountain Standard Time. It will be rebroadcast at 8:10 P.M. MST that same evening. The motion picture may be seen at firesides scheduled that evening or at videocassette viewings scheduled at a later date.

The presentation, seventy minutes in length, will be closed captioned for the hearing impaired.

“This motion picture is one of the most extensive and important productions ever done by the Church,” said President Howard W. Hunter, Acting President of the Council of the Twelve, in a letter to priesthood leaders. “It has great value in strengthening faith and motivating members and nonmembers to read and study the Book of Mormon.”

The first part of the film portrays Parley P. Pratt as he leaves his farm to search for the true church. This search led the future Apostle to the Book of Mormon.

The film then shifts to Vincenzo di Francesca, a pastor in the early part of the twentieth century, who found a Book of Mormon in a barrel of ashes in New York City and spent years searching for the book’s origin.

Flashbacks of scenes from the Book of Mormon are part of the motion picture, including the Savior’s appearance to the Nephites and Moroni’s burial of the golden plates. The events portrayed in the film cover over 2,500 years of history.

More than five hundred people made up the cast and crew. Filming was done on location in Italy, Switzerland, England, and New York City, and in several rural and urban settings in Utah.

Stereo videocassettes of the film can be ordered from the Salt Lake Distribution Center after November 9. The videocassettes (VNVV2855) cost $12.50 each.