Print Walk in the Land of the Nephites

Are you ready to walk in the land of the Nephites? It’s going to be a fun adventure! Please note the map provided is not anything official and does not represent any particular part of the world. I really don’t know how the land of the Nephites looks. I did pour over several maps, scripture references, etc. and made my best guess of what things might look like. Some things we do know for sure. For example, it took 12 days to get to Zarahemla from the city of Helam. We also know that the city of Nephi was in a valley and near the Waters of Mormon. The River Sidon flowed through Zarahemla. Bountiful was north of Zarahemla and near the narrow neck of land. Hill Cumorah was not very far from Bountiful, etc. The question is, did the Nephites have to go around mountains and lakes or was it a direct path? How far did they travel in a day? What does traveling for many days really mean? It doesn’t really matter to our eternal salvation but I had to put some numbers to it all for this activity. I also only highlighted select cities that I had enough information to map. The pioneers roughly walked 11 miles a day when traveling across the plains with a herd of animals, women, and children. This is a great base for calculating distances for the people of Alma who traveled to Zarahemla with their families and flocks. That means it’s about 230 miles from Helam to Zarahemla. For the purposes of this activity, I used 15 miles a day for speedier travel and calculating how many days it would take you to travel. As you travel to each location, the goal is to help you become more familiar with these places and what significance they have in the Book of Mormon. That way as you read about the Lamanites attacking the city of Manti, it’s not just a name to you. You understand why they would attack Manti and its relationship to the rest of the land of the Nephites. At the end of each journey, celebrate with a fun activity that relates back to that particular location. How to Walk the Land of the Nephites 1. Choose your starting and end locations. Refer to my Distance reference page and overall map to give you an idea of how far each location is. Hang your two locations pages up to help remind your family or church group of your goal. Read about your starting location to learn more about it before you leave. 2. Pick how you want to mark your distance: by number of days, by total miles, or by kilometers. See the Distance reference page for details. 3. Decide how you would like to chart your course. There are several different charting pages you can use including coloring in a box a day, marking your path from one city to another, and making your own boxes. If a page you want to use has more boxes than you need, color them in to mark them off beforehand or use them to mark extra fun days. For example, a colored box could mean that you get to walk to the snow cone truck instead of your usual route. You would cross off two boxes that day- one for the snow cones and one for your walk. Put your chart between the two locations to show your route. 4. Go out and walk, run, skateboard, roller skate, bike, etc.! Check off the distance as you go. You can check the distance your travel through a program like google maps or use a fitness tracking app. 5. Celebrate! You made it to the next city, it’s time to have some fun! Read through my Destination Activity Ideas page for ideas to celebrate that tie into that Book of Mormon location. 6. Do it again! Tips and Bonus Activities • If your goal is to walk from Bountiful to Nephi, include some of the other cities along the way to keep your family or church group going. For example, after you walk 80 miles, do one of the Ammonihah activities. I don’t know how far it is from Bountiful to Ammonihah but I know it’s 100 miles from Ammonihah to Zarahemla and it’s 180 miles from Bountiful to Zarahemla where you’ll be going next so a celebration after 80 miles makes sense. This way you can have a big goal for the summer with lots of fun stops along the way. • Turn my charting pages into a board game instead. Make your own cards with rewards and consequences based on the cities and locations on the map. Use the location pages to help. • This is a great physical and spiritual goal project for children and youth! As you head to the next location, look it up in the Topical Guide and read all you can about that location. Make your own map glossary so you can refer back to it as you come across it again in your Come, Follow Me studies. • Days are the easiest way to track your progress from place to place. You can walk as much as you want each day and not worry about keeping track. • Pick a city to make your own home base then try to go to as many cities as you can starting from your home city. You can host a speech and debate style forum to convince each other which city to use as your home base. • Keep the overall map with all the locations on it near your charts so you can remember what part of the land you are traveling in better. • Fill in the rest of the overall map! Add in additional bodies of water, the mountains, forests, etc. • Do it as a children’s or youth activity group! For example, you could easily have a goal to walk from Hill Cumorah to Nephi as a group. Each person or family would submit the number days or miles they walked weekly. Then you can update the chart and send everyone a progress report. When you make it to a city, celebrate together by doing that location’s activity and learning more about it. • Split it up. Pick which cities you want to walk to and which locations you want to visit by doing an activity instead. For example, instead of walking to Gideon, I could read the scripture verses about the man Gideon to represent my journey to this city. Instead of walking to Amulon, play a game of tag to represent the wicked priests running away from people in King Noah’s time and talk about the story. • Use the location quarter sized pages like a passport book. Assemble the pages and stamp or color each location as you visit it. Challenge your family to walk to or do an activity to represent each city by the end of the year. • Color the location page as you come across it in your studies.

Happy Trails! P.S. Here are some references I used as I compiled my map and distances: • BYU Studies Charting the Book of Mormon (see charts 150-160) • BYU Virtual Scriptures Book of Mormon Map (You can download the virtual map program and click on book to see what locations are mentioned in that book) • Book of Mormon Land Map • Book of Mormon Geography • And, of course, the Book of Mormon and scripture study helps.

Ammonihah • to Melek: 3 days or about 45 miles (about 72 km) • to Zarahemla: 7 days or about 100 miles (about 161 km) • to Nephi: 19 days or about 280 miles (about 451 km) Amulon • to Zarahemla: 8 days or about 120 miles (about 193 km) • to Nephi: 4 days or about 65 miles (about 105 km) • to Helam: 2 days or about 35 miles (about 56 km) Bountiful • to Hill Cumorah: 4 days or about 60 miles (about 97 km) • to Zarahemla: 12 days or about 180 miles (about 290 km) • to Nephi: 25 days or about 380 miles (about 612 km) • to Moron: 3 days or about 40 miles (about 64 km) Gideon • to Zarahemla: 2 days or about 30 miles (about 48 km) Helam • to Zarahemla: 12 days or about 180 miles (about 290 km) • to Nephi: 8 days or about 120 miles (about 193 km) • to Amulon: 2 days or about 35 miles (about 56 km) Hill Cumorah • to Moron: 9 days or about 135 miles (about 217 km) • to Bountiful: 5 days or about 75 miles (about 121 km) Jerusalem • to Lehi-Nephi: 3 days or about 40 miles (about 64 km)

Lehi-Nephi (Nephi) • to Zarahemla: 21 days or about 315 miles (about 507 km) • to Manti: 11 days or about 165 miles (about 266 km) Manti • to Zarahemla: 10 days or about 150 miles (about 241 km) • Lehi-Nephi: 11 days or about 165 miles (about 266 km) Melek • to Ammonihah: 3 days or about 45 miles (about 72 km) • to Zarahemla: 2 days or about 25 miles (about 40 km) Moron • to Hill Cumorah: 8 days or about 125 miles (about 201 km) • to Bountiful: 3 days or about 40 miles (about 64 km) Narrow Neck • Walk across: 1 ½ days or about 22 miles (about 35 km) • to Bountiful: 1 day or about 15 miles (about 24 km) • to Hill Cumorah: 4 days or about 60 miles (about 97 km) Zarahemla • to Amulon: 8 days or about 120 miles (about 193 km) • to Ammonihah: 7 days or about 100 miles (about 161 km) • to Bountiful: 12 days or about 180 miles (about 290 km) • to Gideon: 2 days or about 30 miles (about 48 km) • to Helam: 12 days or about 180 miles (about 290 km) • to Lehi-Nephi: 21 days or about 315 miles (about 507 km) • to Manti: 10 days or about 150 miles (about 241 km) • to Melek: 2 days or about 25 miles (about 40 km)

Ammonihah • Try an Escape Room to represent Alma and Amulek walking out of the crumbled prison. You can buy one to use at home, make your own, or go to one. • Build your own city out of blocks then have fun knocking it down. Throw bean bags, be a giant T-Rex, etc. Ammonihah was destroyed by the Lamanites and became Desolation of Nehors. • Try an egg drop contest. After Ammonihah was destroyed, the Nephites rebuilt it so strong that the Lamanites dared not attack it (see Alma 49). See if you can build something that will keep your egg safe when dropped from two stories or from the top of a ladder. Amulon • Start learning a new language using an app like Duolingo since the Amulonites taught the Lamanites the Nephite language. • Decode my Mystery Words as you try to learn this new “language” or use my free Crack the Code page for this New Testament scripture. • Teach each other a new skill! What’s a talent you have that you can teach to another? Can’t think of any? Hold an Instant Talent Show instead. Bountiful • Christ appeared at the temple in Bountiful. Go on a Temple Walk with my Family Date Night Kit to learn more about temples and temple work your family can do. • Make a gingerbread temple or use sugar cubes. Base each creation on a different temple today. • Build a temple using my brick building challenge cards. • Make your own Temple Thought books. • Make temple sugar cookies!

Gideon • Host a neighborhood block party and celebrate good friends like Alma did when he ran into the sons of Mosiah. • Treat your friends with a visit from your own Ice Cream Truck. • Invite some friends over for a fun dinner. My Book of Mormon Discussion Cards also includes Silly Supper ideas for extra fun! • Play some Unity Games! Helam • The people of Alma built Helam. If you were to make your own city, what would it look like? What would you name it? Use my free printable map included at the end of this packet to design your own city. • The people of Alma snuck out of the city while the guards were in a deep sleep with help from the Lord. Play Night at the Museum! Each person pretends to be a statue with one person being the guard. Turn out the lights and give the guard a flashlight. Statues move when they think the guard can’t see them but if the guard catches them, they are out. The guard can try to make the statues move but cannot touch them. • The Lamanites asked the people of Helam for directions back home. Pick a location that no one has been to yet. Safely race in teams to be the first ones to the new location. No devices allowed, only paper maps and word of mouth. Hill Cumorah • Play the classic card game of War since this is where the last battle took place. Make a tournament bracket to declare an overall family champion. • Play a game of Capture the Flag. • Play the included Dot game at the end of this packet. The goal is to trap the most Lamanites. Jerusalem • Jerusalem was covered by water when Christ died. Have some fun with water games! Get out the water balloons, make some targets for squirt games, run through the sprinkler, have fun! • Head to the pool or a local water park. • Make a small volcano but dye the vinegar blue so it’s like water. Build a mini city out of cardboard or plastic figurines around your volcano. To make your volcano explode, add baking soda to the vinegar and watch your city flood. Lehi-Nephi • Have some fun with night games and a s’mores buffet as you use my Be a Light Family Date Night Kit. Abinadi stood in front of King Noah in the land of Lehi-Nephi. Talk about how we can all be lights like Abinadi. • Mosiah sent out an expedition to find the people of Lehi-Nephi. The people of Lehi-Nephi searched for the people of Zarahemla. Go on your own search as you go geocaching! Remember to bring something to trade out. Manti • The Nephites reclaimed Manti through stratagem. Play Hide and Go Seek or Kick the Can to represent their trick on the Lamanites. • The 2,000 stripling warriors helped reclaim Manti. See if you can be strong and brave like them. Set up your own Ninja Warrior course in your backyard or park. • Be like the stripling warriors as you become a CTR superhero. Use my super fun pack for ideas. Melek • Alma baptized many in Melek. Play mini golf with a twist with my Family Date Night Kit as you review your baptismal covenants. • Since Alma disappeared on the way to Melek, learn some new magic tricks or watch a magic show. • Combine some disappearing magic with a lesson on baptism with my Disappearing Sins experiment. Moron • Host a mystery boat building competition to honor the Jaredites sailing to the Americas in their unique boat. Assemble one paper bag for each team with random supplies inside. Teams have 30 minutes to use whatever is inside their bag to build the sturdiest boat. Be sure to water test all boats! • Many kings were overthrown in land of Moron. Play Stratego, Risk, Foosball, some Minute to Win It games, or Latter-day Saint Wowizers and see who wins. • Play Human Battleship! Hang a sheet between the two teams so they can’t see each other. Each team member is a part of boat. They must stay in that spot the entire time. Toss a soft ball over the net to try to hit the other team’s battleships. If someone is hit, they sit down. First team to hit all the other team’s boats, wins. • Have a Sock War! My Family Date Night Kit gives you multiple ways to play plus a way to tie in how we can be armed to protect ourselves from attacks from the adversary. Narrow Neck • Challenge your family to a boat race as you talk about Hagoth and his boat adventures. Make your own boats out of whatever you have around the house then race them in the bath tub, a pool, or down the rain gutters. • Build some boats on wheels out of building bricks. Add a sail and race them- blow on the sails or use a balloon to get them going. Try to break each other’s records. • Buy some narrow neck bottles of soda and enjoy a treat together. You can even make floats! • Go exploring and see what new things you can find with your family. • Hagoth and the people who followed him were pioneers! Be like a pioneer with my family fun packet! It includes lots of games and activities for your family to use. Zarahemla • Play Jenga or another tower game to remember King Benjamin. Tape my printable cards found at the end of this kit for a fun twist on the classic game. • Build a tower challenge- use marshmallows and spaghetti noodles or toothpicks. Who can build the tallest tower in one minute? Will it stay standing if you gently shake the table? • Play a cup stacking game. Give each person a stack of cups and a dice. Roll the dice to see how many cups you must use each time you go to stack them up. See who can build the tallest tower in one minute. • King Benjamin had to speak loudly so the people could hear him. Shout out your own answers as you play Latter-day Saint Shout Out! • There were seven churches in Zarahemla (see Mosiah 25:23). Get out the clay and design your own church building. Then share your creations with each other. Up for a bigger challenge? Use ice cream to sculpt your church building instead! • Alma organized the churches in Zarahemla. Organize yourself and test your knowledge of church topics with The Category Game for Latter- day Saints. There are two ways to play and lots of lists to keep the fun going.

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Build a City- Made by Cknscratch.com for personal or church use only

Build a City- Made by Cknscratch.com for personal or church use only Glue these cards on to a game of Jenga.