Omni

This is the book of Omni, Amaron, Chemish, Abinadom, but mostly Amaleki. The record is passed from father to son or between brothers and records are kept simply until Amaleki. He writes most of this chapter.

In v1-3 Omni writes about the people and how there has been seasons of war and peace until 282AJ (after Jerusalem as in when Lehi left also known as 317BC). Omni says straight but that he is wicked and hedoesn't hide that he hasn't done what he's supposed to except writing a short record and passing it to his son.

Amaron's section in v4-8 speaks of how the more wicked part of the Nephites are destroyed...unfortunately we don't find out how. But Amaron had a small testimony of the power of God to punish those who didn't follow the commandments. In 320AJ (aka 279BC) Amaron records his small portion and passes the record to his brother.

Chemish has one verse!!! He sells out his brother's procrastination by only baring record of the fact that what he read was his handwriting and he saw him do it the day it was given to him. This also makes it seem like he didn't read anything else in the record besides the last before himself (v9). At least he passed it to his son successfully. 

Abinadom might have had a testimony with the way he speaks in v10-11. He kind of mentions the previous prophecies and that he didn't receive any new ones. He also might even agree with the teachings. In his days there were wars and contentions between the Nephites and Lamanites.

Now for Amaleki who is the son of Abinadom and writes the rest of the chapter. This is a pretty good introduction to the good history stories in the rest of the Book of Mormon. Mosiah was made the king over the land of Zarahemla (which is the capital city of the Nephites). Now Mosiah is righteous and was warned by The Lord to flee the land of Nephi and brought anyone righteous who would follow (v12-13). They came to Zarahemla who had people who were happy to see them because they had scriptures (v14).

This group turns out to be another group who had left Jerusalem just like Lehi did and they had a similar story of troubles like the people of Nephi (v15-17). Unfortunately they didn't keep a record like Nephi and their language was corrupt and they easily fell into wickedness until Mosiah and his people came to teach them (v18-19). And that is the story of how and why Mosiah was king of Zarahemla. 

The next story is of records that the people in Zarahemla found when they came here and had Mosiah interpret. The full abridged story is the book of Enos near the end of the Book of Mormon by Moroni. But here there is a brief mention of Coriantumr and the confounding of the languages by The Lord (v20-22).

Amaleki was born when Mosiah was king and sees his son Benjamin rule and win against the Lamanite attacks (v23-24). Amaleki is close to death but has no one to pass the records to, and having a testimony of The Lord and knowing king Benjamin to be righteous, he gives it to him (v25). He closes his records with a testimony of the Savior and the power of his redemption (v25-26). 

Then he leaves a cliffhanger!! Apparently there's this group who left the city of Zarahemla to return again to the land of Nephi (v27-28). Well, only fifty returned out of we have no idea how many originally and they come back to gather more people (v29). Amaleki's brother left with them which I assume is why he has no one to pass the records to besides King Benjamin (v30). And just incase not knowing the full story of this is bothering you, it is spoken of later. We will hear from this group again!