Did you know that the Book of Mormon’s birthday is March 26, 1830? I’m having a party for it! This year I’ll make a birthday cake out of a yellow/golden cake for the golden plates, then I’m going to “bury” it with some “berries” and whipped cream. I’m going to count down the days to it by telling a story a day about the Book of Mormon from my Celestial Family Devotionals Ebook. Download your free PDF of it here.

Today’s story is called “The Book That Would Not Burn,” by Ervin Lynn. You can read the story of it in his own words over here. Or read my summary of it in these next sentences. Brother Lynn served a mission in New Mexico. While serving this mission, he left a copy of the Book of Mormon with a family who lived in a large white home in a mining camp. The woman who received a copy of the book said she couldn’t read, but she was happy to receive the book because she wanted to build a large library of good books for her children. Brother Lynn returned to the site a year later, with a different companion. He was surprised to find a pile of ashes and charred objects where the home used to be. Later he received a letter from a friend who told a story about the book. He said that when the firefighters came to fight the fire, the mother had told the firefighters to see if they could save her books. They made the attempt but felt it was in vain and gave up. Days later the family went back to the ashes, dug through the ashes where the books had been, and found the copy of the Book of Mormon. It was intact and unharmed.

Brother Lynn wrote a letter to the woman and told her that the book being saved evidenced the power of God and the book’s truthfulness. She decided to believe the good news of the gospel and be baptized.

Brother Lynn concludes the story by saying the following:

“Years later I visited New Mexico and called on this sister. She told me the story of the fire and showed me the undamaged copy of the Book of Mormon.

“Through this single event many lives have been blessed. The members of this family have remained active, and they and many descendants have filled missions for the Church.”