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May I refer to a modern last days testimony. When Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum started for Carthage, to face what they knew to be an immenent martyrdom Hyrum read these words of comfort to the heart of his brother. "Thou hast been faithful, wherefore, thou shalt be made strong, even unto the sitting down of the place which I have prepared in the mansions of my Father. And now I Moroni, bid farewell until we shall meet, before the judgment seat of Christ."
A few, short verses, from the 12 chapter of Ether in the Book of Mormon......
......Later, when actually incarcerated in the jail, Joseph the Prophet, turned to the guards who held him captive and bore a powerful testimony to the divine authenticity of the Book of Mormon. Shortly thereafter, pistol and ball would take the lives of these two testators.
As one of a thousand elements of my own testimony of the divinity of the Book of Mormon, I submit this as one more evidence of it's truthfulness. In this their greatest and last hour of need, I ask you, would these men blaspheme before God by continuing to fix their lives, their honor, and their own search for eternal salvation on a book? And by implication a church and ministry they had fictiously created out of whole cloth? Never mind their wives are about to be widows and their children fatherless, nevermind that their little band of followers are about to be homeless, houseless, and friendless and that their little children will leave footprints of blood across frozen rivers and an untamed prairie floor, nevermind that legions will die and other legions live declaring that they know that the Book of Mormon and the church that it espouses to be true. Disregard all of that and tell me, whether in this hour of death that these two men would enter the presence of their eternal judge quoting from, and finding solace in a book which if not the very Word of God, would brand them as imposters and charlatains until the end of time. THEY WOULD NOT DO THAT.
They were willing to die, rather than deny the divine origin and the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. For 179 years this book has been examined and attacked, denied and deconstructed, targeted and torn apart, like perhaps no other book in modern religious history, perhaps like no other book in any religious history and still it stands. Failed theories about it origins have been borne, parroted, and died. From Ethan Smith to Solomon Spaulding, to deranged paranoid to cunning geneous. None of these frankly pathetic answers has ever withstood examination because there is no other answer than the one Joseph gave as it's young, unlearned translator.
In this I stand with my own great-grandfather who said simply enough "no wicked man could write such a book as this, and no good man would write it, unless it were true, and he were commanded of God to do so."......
.....If anyone is foolish enough, or mislead enough to reject 531 pages of a heretofore unknown text teeming with literary and semetic complexity without honestly attempting to account for the origins of those pages somehow especially without accounting for their powerful witness of Jesus Christ and the profound spiritual impact that whitness has had on what is now 10s of millions of readers; if that's the case than such persons elect or otherwise have been deceived......
.....But my testimony of this record and the peace it brings to the human heart is as binding and unequivocal as was theirs. Like them I give my name to the world to witness unto the world that that which I have seen and like them, I lie not, God bearing witness of it. I ask that my testimony of the Book of Mormon and all that it implies, given today under my oath and my office, be recorded by men on earth and angels in heaven. I hope I have a few years left in my last days but whether I do or do not, I want it absolutely clear when I stand before the judgment bar of God that I declared to the world in the most straightforward language I could summon that the Book of Mormon is true. That it came forth the way Joseph said it came forth and was given to bring happiness and hope to the faithful in the travail of the last days......

There are several supporting evidences for a Mesoamerican theory. These evidences match what we find in the Book of Mormon and, not surprisingly, were unknown or virtually unknown to early ninenteenth-century farmers in upstate New York.
Writings Mesoamerica is the only place (so far discovered) that has a sophisticated writing system druing Book of Mormon times

Adavanced cities and fortifications Thanks to archaeology we now know that such cities and fortifications existed in Mesoamerica during Book of Mormon times.

Rivers Rivers must match in size and in portion of what we find in the Nephite scripture. Such correlations are found in Mesoamerica.

Culture Both Book of Mormon cultures and Mesoamerican cultures had developed agriculture and commerce.

Volcanism The destruction described in 3 Nephi following the New World appearance of Christ, is best explained by volcanic activity and earthquakes. Mesoamerica lies in a hot zone of frequent earthquakes and volcanic activity.
The vast majority of LDS archaelogists, anthropologists, and New World experts believe that Mesoamerica meets the requirements for lands described in the Book of Mormon. Book of Mormon geography is, first of all, internally consistant, it provides over seven hundred geographic references and never trips up in the explaining directions of travel and geographic locations. Second, such a consistant geography can't just be dropped in any location in the world; it must not only fit the six criteria mentioned above (which accurately match what we know about ancient Mesoamerica), but geographically it must also match hundreds of mutually dependant variables including hills, rivers, seas, and so forth. As John Clark, the director of the New World Archaeological Foundation explains, rathering than counting a credible Book of Mormon geography as single evidence for the book's authenticity, "it actually counts for several hundred. The probability of [Joseph] guessing reams of details all correctly is zero."
Third, a New World geography must correctly account for the population figures we find in the Book of Mormon (which mentions the existence of millions of people). As Dr. Clark observes, "Mesoamerica is the only area in the Americas that sustained the high population densities mentioned in the Book of Mormon, and for the times specified." That such correlations are genuine to real experts in Mesoamerica is seen in the following story of two Mesoamerican archaeologists, Dr. Kim Goldsmith and her husband, Alejandro Sarabia, who converted to the Church:
"Long before becoming Mormons, they both had earned degrees in archaeology and for several decades had been engaged in research at Teotihuacan- the largest archaeological zone found in all of Mesoamerica and a site that flourished from about 150 B.C. to AD 750 (which is partially comtemporary with Book of Mormon times.) Alejandro is currently the Site Director at Teotihuacan. While Kim and Alejandro were converted through a spiritual witness, they believe the Book of Mormon is an authentic ancient text and that it has an overwhelming number of important points that easily fit in with myriad geographic and cultural traits of ancient Mesoamerica."

I don't see why people refuse to read a book, I guess it just baffles me.

I don't think he was saying to read the book for a conversion, I think he was saying read it to form your own opinion about what it's about instead of taking other's opinions as your own.
But if you've read it and don't agree with it, hey that's fine with me. I respect your opinion and glad that you are strong in your faith. smile

A question though, how are our hearts desperately wicked? I know that man is sinful, but I don't believe we are wicked to the core.