Translation of the Book of Mormon into Afrikaans from the Missionaries

Die Boek van Mormon
By John M. Pontius
I was searching through my books in storage a few days ago and
came across a first edition of the Book of Mormon in Afrikaans. I
served a mission in South African from 1971 to 1973. It was an
interesting and challenging experience.
I attended the Stake Conference in Johannesburg on May 14, 1972
when the new translation of the Book of Mormon into Afrikaans (Die
Boek van Mormon) was presented. It was an electric moment. People
wept. Some had waited all of their lifetimes to read the Book of
Mormon in Afrikaans. Many people had learned English for the sole
purpose of reading this scripture. The Spirit was strong among us as
we rejoiced.
Remembering back more than 50 years, I can still remember Professor
Felix Mynhardt [not a member of our church] as he spoke of his
experience in translating that sacred book. I will retell it as best I can
recall.
Professor Mynhardt was invited to come to the stand and speak about
his experience in translating the Book of Mormon. He recounted how
he had been given a gift of languages from God from his youth. He
said that he was fluent in many languages, including English,
Afrikaans, Hebrew and Egyptian, as well as many others. He was
presently employed as a language professor. He said he had been
praying that the Lord would give him some task, some divinely
important task, that would justify his having this gift of language from
God.
He said in about 1970 that he had visited with a group of Mormon
leaders, who sought to commission him to translate the Book of
Mormon from English into Afrikaans. He said that he knew of the Book
of Mormon from his religions studies, and his initial reaction was that
he did not want to be involved in translating it.
However, that evening, as he prayed upon his knees, as was his habit,
he said the Spirit of the Lord convicted him. The message was
something on the order of, “You asked me for a great, divinely inspired
task of translation, I sent it to you in the form of translating the Book of
Mormon, and you declined.” Professor Mynhardt said he could not
sleep through the night because he knew that translating the Book of
Mormon would get him into trouble with his university, which was
owned and operated by the Dutch Reformed Church. When morning
came he telephoned Elder Clark to inform him that he would begin the
translation immediately.
He stood at the pulpit and described the experience. He said, “I never
begin translating a book at the beginning. Writing style usually
changes through a book, and becomes more consistent toward the
middle. Accordingly, I opened to a random place in the middle of the
Book of Mormon, and began translating.” He said, “I was startled by
the obvious fact that the Book of Mormon was not authored in English.
He said, “It became immediately apparent that what I was reading was
a translation into English from some other language. The sentence
structure was wrong for native English. The word choices were wrong,
as were many phrases.” He said, “How many times has an Englishman
said or written, ‘And it came to pass?’” We all laughed, and knew he
was right, of course.
He continued, “When I realized this, I knew that I had to find the
original language, and translate it back into the original language, or a
similar language to the original, and then proceed to translate it into
Afrikaans. He listed a half-dozen languages he tried, all of which did
not accommodate the strange sentence structure found in the Book of
Mormon. He said, “I finally tried Egyptian, and to my complete surprise,
I found that the Book of Mormon translated flawlessly into Egyptian,
not modern, but ancient Egyptian. I found that some nouns were
missing from Egyptian, so I added Hebrew nouns where Egyptian did
not provide the word or phrase. I chose Hebrew because both
languages existed in the same place anciently.”
“I had no idea at that time why the Book of Mormon was once written
in Egyptian, but I can tell you without any doubt, that this book was at
one point written entirely in Egyptian.” I heard him say this over and
over. Then, he said, “Imagine my utter astonishment when I turned to
chapter one, verse one and began my actual translation and came to
verse two, where Nephi describes that he was writing in the language
of the Egyptians, with the learning of the Jews!”
He said, “I knew by the second verse, that this was no ordinary book,
that it was not the writings of Joseph Smith, but that it was of ancient
origin and was in fact scripture. I could have saved myself months of
work if I had just begun at the beginning. Nobody but God, working
through a prophet of God, in this case Nephi, would have included a
statement of the language he was writing in. Consider, how many
documents written in English, include the phrase, “we are writing in
English!” It is unthinkable and absolute proof of the inspired origins of
this book.
He paused, then noted, “I am one of the few people in the world that is
fluent in ancient Egyptian. I am perhaps the only person fluent in
ancient Egyptian who is also fluent in Afrikaans and English. And I
know for a fact, that I am the only person alive who could have
translated this book first into Egyptian, and then into Afrikaans. If your
church ever needs an Egyptian translation of the Book of Mormon, it is
sitting in my office as we speak.” We all laughed.
Professor Mynhardt spoke of many other things regarding the
translation of this book, and then said, “I do not know what Joseph
Smith was before he translated this book, and I do not know what he
was afterward, but while he translated this book, he was a prophet of
God! I know he was a prophet! I testify to you that he was a prophet
while he brought forth this book! He could have been nothing else! No
person in 1827 could have done what he did. The science did not
exist. The knowledge of ancient Egyptian did not exist. The knowledge
of these ancient times and ancient peoples did not exist. The Book of
Mormon is scripture. I hope you realize this.
“I will keep promoting this book as scripture for the remainder of my life
– simply because it is scripture, and I know it.
I haven’t studied your doctrine or your history since Joseph Smith. The
only thing I know about the Mormon religion is that you have authentic,
ancient scripture in the Book of Mormon, that your church was begun
by a living and true prophet of God, and that all of the world should
embrace the Book of Mormon as scripture. It simply can’t be denied.”

Pictures from Elder and Sister Van Sickle! They have been out 6 months!!

When we made the trip to Johanesburg in November for training. This is the plantation house we stayed in it has been converted into a hotel.

 Elder Van Sickle in front of the plantation house. It was beautiful inside and out. 

 Also in Johanesburg is the beautiful foliage at the plantation house. This use to belong to a plantation owner 100 years ago. 

Update from Elder and Sister Van Sickle - We miss you!

Hi everyone, Missionary life is so tiring and rewarding and sometimes disappointing. I just wanted to tell you of and experience

Elder Van Sickle and I had a couple of weeks ago. I still think about it. We got a call from Bishop Mataluba. His mother is in

the hospital and just got out of I.C.U. We drove over to Cuyler Hospital to see her. She was so glad to see us. She is a sweet

lady. She was standing and got dizzy so we put her back in bed. She started to cry and Bishop was so sweet and soft with his mother. Such love and kindness there. He wiped her tears away and smoothed her hair back and kissed her on the cheek

telling her it was okay. I asked Bishop what was wrong. He said with a twinkle in his eye She is like you she

just cries. I held her hand and the thought came to me. That in the last blessing she had her first time in the

hospital that Elder Van Sickle got the sad feeling that she was going to pass away. She has been home

two weeks now and she is back in the hospital. I whispered in his mother's ear. You have such a good

son. His mother said I know it. He is such a strong member of the church. ( The bishop is only 28 years

old.) I asked the bishop, " How long have you been a member. He started laughing telling us about when

he was passing the sacrament and his mother would march into the chapel and drag him out of the church.

He said, She was really upset I was going to the L.D.S. Church. Then we got into a big fight when I was old

enough to go on a mission. She said no matter what I couldn't talk him out of it. I even told him I would

disown him if he went on a mission and wasted two years of his life for nothing. She said, I am so

embarrassed now that I said that. Bishop said, you know what I told her. I don't care if you disown me. The

members of my church will take care of me. She said, that her and her husband finally gave up. They said,

" Let him go on a mission he won't listen to us anyway." Then when bishop went into the M.T.C. He got

his patriartical blessing. It said he would be instrumental in the members of his family joining the churchHe said, She was really upset I was going to the L.D.S. Church. Then we got into a big fight when I was old

enough to go on a mission. She said no matter what I couldn't talk him out of it. I even told him I would

disown him if he went on a mission and wasted two years of his life for nothing. She said, I am so

embarrassed now that I said that. Bishop said, you know what I told her. I don't care if you disown me. The

members of my church will take care of me. She said, that her and her husband finally gave up. They said,

" Let him go on a mission he won't listen to us anyway." Then when bishop went into the M.T.C. He got

his patriartical blessing. It said he would be instrumental in the members of his family joining the church

While he was on his mission they joined the church. Sister Matato ( bishop's mother ) started to cry

again. She  said she wanted to go to the temple as soon as she got out . Bishop Mataluba ex-

plained to Elder Van Sickle and I that his mom and dad were taking the temple prep classes to go to

the temple. His mother is endowed and his father isn't endowed yet! We hope they make it to the temple

We left so she could rest. On the way out to the car bishop's wife called. When the bishop hung up.

He said, I have such a great wife. She is so supportive. Family is so important. I am so glad I have

a family to go home to at night and he left. Elder Van Sickle and I agreed this was a great night. What a

wonderful experience. Good Night  We love you all. Dad and Mom, Elder and Sister Van Sickle, Grandpa and Grandma.

Hi Everyone, Today was a wonderful sabbath. The whole orphanage came to Kwanobuhle ward today. Let me just back up a minute here to tell you what has happened in the last four days. On Thursday we were suppose to go to the orphanage to

pick up a boy about 9 years old. We noticed for a long time he had one eye that was always weeping with green stuff. It looked

pretty bad. When we asked Mama about it she said that every month she takes him to the government clinic and every time

they give her the same stuff for his eye and it doesn't get any better. So we asked the Officials at the Orphanage if we could

have him see our doctor and they said we could. When we arrived there to pick him up we found  out that he had never arrived

home from school. They had suspected that his older sister and him had run off. So we searched up and down the streets for

him and his older sister. which was not an easy task there are always so many people walking up and down the road.The streets

are just filled with people. We finally had to call the doctor's office and cancel the appointment which made us sad. Then we

got a call that they had found him. So we called the doctor and got them to still take him. We went back to the orphanage and

picked up the boy and the social worker. We headed in to the doctor. Come to find out the doctor said that his tearduct

was closed and He thought he had had this since birth. On the way back we got talking to the social worker and was able to

teach her about the book of Mormon and gave her one in Xhosa to read. She started reading it in the car. The little boy acted

unhappy the whole time in til Elder Van Sickle mentioned ice cream.We started saying I scream we scream we all scream for

ice cream. He started smiling he knows the English word ice cream. We all stopped at MC Donald's and had some ice cream

He was so excited when I took him to MC Donald's play area. It was so fun to watch him He had never got to do anything like

this in his life. When we got back to the Orphanage all the mama's told us they were bringing all 28 kids to church on Sunday. We were so excited for Sunday. Sunday came and time kept passing on finally all the missionaries that were waiting for investigators

came in and sat down except for Elder Van Sickle he was still waiting out in the foyer waiting for the orphanage children. The head

social worker had told us they were going to come in taxis to the church. The sacrament was passed and Elder Fozard

got up to bear his testimony when the doors opened and Elder Van Sickle walked in with 28 Orphanage children and 4

social workers. They had made it and they had walked all the way to the church. That's why they were so late. I know

Heavenly Father loves these children. We felt so much love for them. They have been such blessings in our lives. There

was such a feeling of love there. After church all the members were out side holding and laughing with the children. This

is not all but it's missionary bedtime so I must close I will write and continue this later. Love Elder and Sister Van Sickle

Mom and Dad and Grandpa and Grandma

.. Sweet Moments..

 This was a very special Sunday. The whole orphanage walked to church. The ward has done some service projects for the orphanage and when they walked in there was so much love for the kids and staff that came with them. It will be a highlight of our mission. We have been working with them several monthes and they asked to attend our church. Love leonand Marylynn