The Brass Plates

To readers of the Book of Mormon, the story of Nephi retrieving the Brass Plates is a familiar story of faith and obedience. This app is not a game, but rather a unique storytelling approach that follows Nephi in his efforts to retrieve the Brass Plates in real-time. From leaving the Valley of Lemuel, to traveling to Jerusalem, multiple attempts to get the Brass Plates, and back to the Valley of Lemuel, this app has separate story events that can be sent to your phone as they happen, in real-time. For example, when Nephi enters Jerusalem at 8pm at night, you get a notification at 8pm that he is doing that, along with the scripture that goes along with it.

This is a multi-day experience. It took Nephi several days to make the round trip from the Valley of Lemuel and back, so this app “runs” the story for the same amount of time. The app features approximately 80 story events spread across 31 day. If you enable notifications, you will get a notification exactly when each story event happens. There is also a Timeline View showing all the story events that have occurred so far during your story run. There is also a Map View tracking Nephi's location for each event and his progress throughout his journey.

The latest research has been used when picking locations for the Valley of Lemuel, the Land of Inheritance, and the likely routes Nephi and his brothers would have taken. Sabbath days are also factored in which affects their progress. Scripture references are included to match the story events with the scriptural account.

Experiencing the story in real-time gives an added dimension for story-immersion: time. Often a few short scriptures summarize events and it can be hard to get a feel for how long it really took, or how far people had to go, or how much effort it really was. This app aims to provide that extra dimension of understanding of what it took to get the Brass Plates.

Each day, you will get a few notifications on average throughout the day. This can be helpful reminder of the story without being overwhelmed by too many notifications, or the need to sit down and devote a lot of time to studying this.

You are invited to take 31 days and experience this familiar story in a whole new way.