Jeffersonian Enos

n--------------------Chapter 1--------------------

1 I, Enos, knew that my father, Jacob, was a just man.

2 He taught me how to nurture and admonish with love.

3 I want to tell you how I wrestled with the guilt I have had in my life.

4 One day when I went hunting in the forest, and I began to ponder life.

5 I wanted to know more, so I sat and meditated.

6 All day long I meditated, and when the night came, I had a realization.

7 I felt a sense of equanimity.

8 It felt as if my guilt in life had been swept away.

9 I wondered why I felt this way.

10 After more pondering, I realized I felt this way because I was very kind, loving, and lived a moral life.

11 After I felt this way, I wanted my brothers and sisters, the Nephites, to experience it as well.

12 All that they needed to do was to also be very kind and loving and live a moral life.

13 This land is a good land. As long as we work together, we will live happily.

14 If we do not do this, we will live in sorrow.

15 After I felt this way, I wanted my brothers and sisters, the Lamanites, to experience it as well.

16 I knew I could help them if I tried.

17 If the Nephites were to destroy themselves, I wanted the history of my people to be preserved.

18 We would need to be diligent in keeping the history and trusting it only with people who can be trusted, even if they are not Nephites.

19 Right now, our struggles to help the Lamanites have been in vain.

20 They have sworn that if it were possible they would destroy us, our history, and our ancestors' history.

21 However, I believed that the Nephites would keep these records safe.

22 I also believed that the Lamanites would one day be a moral people.

23 I felt at ease.

24 I went to the Nephites and taught them what I felt and how I did.

25 We worked to build bridges with the Lamanites.

26 No matter how hard we tried, their hatred is fixed. They are an immoral people. They are a wild, ferocious, filthy, bloodthirsty, and immoral people.

27 They are nomadic hunters that have shaved heads. They are very skilled with the bow, scimitar, and the axe.

28 Many of them eat nothing but raw meat.

29 They want to destroy us.

30 The Nephites are agrarian and grew grains and fruits. We keep flocks, herds, cattle, goats, and horses.

31 There are many moral people that lived among us.

31 There are also many stubborn people that struggled with even the simplest lessons in morality.

32 There is nothing except speaking the plain harsh truth of the possibility of war, and fights, destruction, and death that will keep them from being immoral.

33 In my life, I have seen wars between the Nephites and the Lamanites.

34 I have now begun to grow old. It had been 179 since our ancestor Lehi left The Great City.

35 I know that I will soon pass away, but I still teach lessons of morality.

36 I have taught these lessons my whole life, and it has made me happier than anything else.

37 I am happy that I have lived a good and moral life.