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The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announced the release date for a new series of Book of Mormon video. The first two seasons, which depict teachings and events found in the Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ, will be released each Friday from September 20 to December 27, 2019. Filming of season three is near completion.
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“Season one was really exciting because we shot the story of Nephi and Lehi’s journey through the wilderness,” said Aaron Merrell, senior producer of the series. “In season two, we were able to capture a lot of really great doctrines and teachings. … [For season three] it’s the best of both worlds. It’s packaged around beautiful stories about people living the principles of the gospel.”
Sister Reyna Aburto, second counselor in the Relief Society General Presidency, recently visited the Book of Mormon Videos set at the Church’s Motion Picture Studio in Provo, Utah.
“It’s exciting to see all the different resources that have come together to make this project and to bring the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ to all corners of the world, thanks to technology…I’m very excited that it’s coming,” Sister Aburto said.
The videos’ main purpose is to help both Latter-day Saints and individuals of other faiths increase their understanding of the Book of Mormon as a second witness of Jesus Christ (the first being the Bible).
“As I’m directing the scene … I’m thinking to myself, ‘I’m so thankful that I’m seeing this.’ I’ve read the book many times, but just to see it come to life is awesome, and I think people all over the world are going to respond to that,” said Adam Anderegg, one of the series’ directors. “It’s not necessarily a dramatization of the scriptures — it’s a visualization of the scriptures.”
The third season’s storyline continues to follow the footsteps of Book of Mormon prophets as they teach ancient American civilizations about Jesus Christ. This narrative focuses on the stories of King Benjamin, Abinadi, Alma and Amulek.
Charley Boon, one of the actors, explained that he hopes those who watch the end product will feel something special.
“I’m a visual learner myself, and I’m a convert to the Church. And that’s how I actually learned about the Church — [it] was through audiovisual,” Boon said. “I’m hoping that we can convey enough of the story to get people interested to actually want to read, to find out what this is about as they learn about the life of Jesus Christ.”
The video series will also be used as supplementary material for “Come, Follow Me,” the Churchwide personal scripture study program. “And I think that having these videos [gives us] another way to … appreciate the grandeur of the Book of Mormon,” said Elder LeGrand R. Curtis Jr., a General Authority Seventy and a member of the Book of Mormon Videos series project committee.
Additional videos, including seasons three and four, will be released in 2020 and 2021.
The videos can be found on ChurchofJesusChrist.org, in the Gospel Library app and on the new Book of Mormon Videos YouTube channel. Subscribe here to be notified when new videos are published on the new Book of Mormon Videos YouTube channel (youtube.com/BookofMormonVideos).
Photographs from each series’ season will be available on ChurchofJesusChrist.org and in the Gospel Media app.
Episodes will be published in 15 languages, including Cantonese, Cebuano, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin, Portuguese, Russian, Samoan, Spanish, Tagalog and Tongan.