This book details the story of the translation of the Book of Mormon into the Thai language. Published in 1976, the Thai language was the 24th language into which the full text of the Book of Mormon was translated (excluding translations for languages for which there is no version currently in print). This was a remarkable achievement for a language spoken by about 40 million people at the time of publication.

The story begins with the opening of missionary work in Thailand in 1968 and the conversion of Sister Srilaksanaa Suntarahut ("Siilaksanaa Suntharahut"), who became the principal translator. Significant challenges were faced to bring the message of the Book of Mormon into the Thai language. Among these were the lack of a good translation of the Bible in Thai, the lack of words for Christian religious terms like "church", "God", "seer" or "priesthood", and the normal challenges of translating from English to a foreign language, particularly one whose speakers, for the most part, know very little about Christianity.

The Lord's guidance and blessings were evident in meeting these challenges. The principal translator had been fully prepared for the challenge. Her father was the physician to Vajirawut (Rama VI) and her mother was a good freind of his wife HM Queen Indrasakdi Sachi. After the queen was widowed without children she asked Sirlaksana's parents if she could raise 3 of their daughters with her in Dusit Palace. Becuase of this Srilaksana was well educated and became fluent in both the Thai and English languages. Missionaries assigned to work with her assisted in the process. During the period of translation Sister Srilaksana faced several difficult physical and emotional challenges. The Lord provided special blessing to help her. Yet with all that was provided by the Lord the process from start to publication took 6 years.

The author's goal was to produce a story with as much historical accuracy as possible. He spent many hours on the telephone with Sister Srilaksana reviewing the events of her life and the experiences she had during the six years of the translation process. Input was taken from as many additional people as could be found who took the time to share their experiences and their knowledge of the events presented in this book.

The Book of Mormon has now been translated into more than 100 languages. In many cases the process of the translation was different from that used in the translation of the Thai Book of Mormon. While performed under different circumstances, the story of the translation of the Book of Mormon into other languages would no doubt yield other remarkable stories such as those contained herein.

As a sample of the content of the book you may read Chapter 2. [Adobe reader required - Free download from Adobe.com]