In the

Book of Mormon The Book of Mormon is a religious text of the Latter Day Saint movement, which, according to Latter Day Saint theology, contains writings of ancient prophets who lived on the American continent from 600 BC to AD 421 and during an interlude date ...

, Lamoni (; believed to mean "Lamanite" or "of

Laman In the Book of Mormon, Laman and Lemuel () are the two eldest sons of Lehi and the older brothers of Sam, Nephi, Jacob, and Joseph. According to the text, they lived around 600 BC. They were notable for their rebellion against Lehi and Nephi, ...

") is a Lamanite king. The missionary

Ammon Ammon (Ammonite: 𐤏𐤌𐤍 ''ʻAmān''; he, עַמּוֹן ''ʻAmmōn''; ar, عمّون, ʻAmmūn) was an ancient Semitic-speaking nation occupying the east of the Jordan River, between the torrent valleys of Arnon and Jabbok, in p ...

converts him back to the

Law of Moses The Law of Moses ( he, תֹּורַת מֹשֶׁה ), also called the Mosaic Law, primarily refers to the Torah or the first five books of the Hebrew Bible. The law revealed to Moses by God. Terminology The Law of Moses or Torah of Moses (Hebrew ...

. After this, Lamoni becomes righteous again. Lamoni was a lesser king of part of the greater Lamanite Kingdom, as recounted in the Book of Mormon. Lamoni's father was king over all of the Lamanites, a people who traditionally had a visceral hatred of the Nephites. After initially having the Nephite missionary Ammon imprisoned, Lamoni later allows him to be his servant. Later still Ammon saves some of Lamoni's servants and animals in a seemingly miraculous way. Lamoni then believes that Ammon is the Great Spirit. After being told by Ammon that he (Ammon) is only a servant of the Great Spirit (meant by context to mean ''God'') Lamoni is finally convinced that Ammon is not deity. After his conversion Lamoni is traveling with Ammon when he encounters his father the high Lamanite king. At the peril of his life Lamoni verbally defends Ammon. Eventually Lamoni helps gain freedom for Ammon and his fellow Nephite missionaries to preach freely in the Lamanite areas. Lamoni's people are generally considered to be the corp of a people that would be called the ''Anti-Nephi-Lehies'', or

Ammonites Ammonoids are a group of extinct marine mollusc animals in the subclass Ammonoidea of the class Cephalopoda. These molluscs, commonly referred to as ammonites, are more closely related to living coleoids (i.e., octopuses, squid and cuttlefish) ...

Town of Lamoni

Lamoni, Iowa, USA was named after the scriptural Lamoni, and was the headquarters of the

Community of Christ The Community of Christ, known from 1872 to 2001 as the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (RLDS), is an American-based international church, and is the second-largest denomination in the Latter Day Saint movement. The churc ...

(formerly the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints), a separate group from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints based in

Salt Lake City Salt Lake City (often shortened to Salt Lake and abbreviated as SLC) is the Capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Utah, most populous city of Utah, United States. It is the county seat, seat of Salt Lake County, Utah, Sal ...

, from 1880 to 1920. It was originally named New Buda by Hungarian immigrants, but in 1870, Joseph Smith III renamed the settlement "Lamoni" after him.

References

Book of Mormon people {{LDS-stub