The Prophet Mormon

Mormon was a Nephite prophet, military leader, and record keeper in the Book of Mormon. The reason the Book of Mormon has his name in the title is because he was the one who took all the records of his people and abridged them into a smaller, more manageable record.Mormon made this abridgement, not to give a full account of his people, but to help turn people to God. In the small section called Words of Mormon, Mormon further explains his purposes in making an abridgement of the records of his people (see Words of Mormon 1: 1-11)

Mormon was born in A.D. 311 and named after his father. He was a descendent of Nephi, who was the first leader of the Nephites. When Mormon was ten years old, Ammaron, who was in charge of the Nephite records, met Mormon and gave him the responsibility of being in charge of the records. He told Mormon that when he turned 24 years old he should go to the hill where the plates were hid, then finish the record of what happened to the Nephites.

At the young age of 15, Mormon was appointed the military leader of the Nephites. He continued leading the army for much of his life. As Ammaron had instructed, when he was 24, Mormon began keeping a record of all that happened to his people. A long war continued with the Lamanites, and the Nephites were pushed out of much of their land.

After a ten year period of peace, war continued.  But when Mormon’s people began to desire to destroy the Lamanites and not just defend their lands and families, Mormon refused to lead them because of their wickedness. By this time, Mormon had been leading the armies of the Nephites for 36 years. Eventually, Mormon again agreed to lead the Nephite armies.

In A.D. 385, when Mormon was 74, he gathered all the people to Cumorah, and put his son Moroni in charge of the records. After a large battle between the Nephites and the Lamanites, all of the Nephites (except for 24 men, including Mormon and his son) were slaughtered. The Lamanites hunted and killed the few Nephites that were left. They found Mormon and killed him. The only Nephite who survived was Moroni, who was left to finish the record of his people and hide them in the hill Cumorah.