pgs. 250 and 251...the Lord did visit them with his Spirit, and said unto them: Be comforted. And they were comforted.

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THE BOOK OF ALMA

THE SON OF ALMA

An account of the sons of Mosiah, who rejected their rights to the kingdom for the word of God, and went up to the land of Nephi to preach to the Lamanites; their sufferings and deliverance—according to the record of Alma. Comprising chapters 17 to 26 inclusive.

CHAPTER 17

The sons of Mosiah have the spirit of prophecy and of revelation—They go their several ways to declare the word to the Lamanites—Ammon goes to the land of Ishmael and becomes the servant of King Lamoni—Ammon saves the king’s flocks and slays his enemies at the waters of Sebus. From about 91 to 77 B.C.

1 And now it came to pass that as Alma was journeying from the land of Gideon southward, away to the land of ^aManti, behold, to his astonishment, he ^bmet with the ^csons of Mosiah journeying towards the land of Zarahemla.

2 Now these sons of Mosiah were with Alma at the time the angel ^afirst appeared unto him; therefore Alma did rejoice exceedingly to see his brethren; and what added more to his joy, they were still his brethren in the Lord; yea, and they had waxed strong in the knowledge of the truth; for they were men of a sound understanding and they had ^bsearched the scriptures diligently, that they might know the word of God.

3 But this is not all; they had given themselves to much prayer, and ^afasting; therefore they had the spirit of prophecy, and the spirit of revelation, and when they taught, they taught with ^bpower and authority of God.

4 And they had been teaching the word of God *for the space of fourteen years among the Lamanites, having had much ^asuccess in bringing many to the ^bknowledge of the truth; yea, by the power of their words many were brought before the altar of God, to call on his name and ^cconfess their sins before him.

5 Now these are the circumstances which attended them in their journeyings, for they had many afflictions; they did suffer much, both in body and in mind, such as hunger, thirst and fatigue, and also much ^alabor in the spirit.

6 Now these were their journeyings: Having ^ataken leave of their father, Mosiah, in the ^bfirst year of the judges; having ^crefused the kingdom which their father was desirous to confer upon them, and also this was the minds of the people;

7 Nevertheless they departed out of the land of Zarahemla, and took their swords, and their spears, and their bows, and their arrows, and their slings; and this they did that they might ^aprovide food for themselves while in the wilderness.

8 And thus they departed into the wilderness with their numbers which they had ^aselected, to go up to the land of Nephi, to preach the word of God unto the Lamanites.

9 And it came to pass that they journeyed many days in the wilderness, and they fasted much and ^aprayed much that the Lord would grant unto them a portion of his Spirit to go with them, and abide with them, that they might be an ^binstrument in the hands of God to bring, if it were possible, their brethren, the Lamanites, to the knowledge of the truth, to the knowledge of the baseness of the ^ctraditions of their fathers, which were not correct.

10 And it came to pass that the Lord did ^avisit them with his ^bSpirit, and said unto them: Be ^ccomforted. And they were comforted.

11 And the Lord said unto them also: Go forth among the Lamanites, thy brethren, and establish my word; yet ye shall be ^apatient in long-suffering and afflictions, that ye may show forth good ^bexamples unto them in me, and I will make an instrument of thee in my hands unto the salvation of many souls.

12 And it came to pass that the hearts of the sons of Mosiah, and also those who were with them, took courage to go forth unto the Lamanites to declare unto them the word of God.

13 And it came to pass when they had arrived in the borders of the land of the Lamanites, that they ^aseparated themselves and departed one from another, trusting in the Lord that they should meet again at the close of their ^bharvest; for they supposed that great was the work which they had undertaken.

14 And assuredly it was great, for they had undertaken to preach the word of God to a ^awild and a hardened and a ferocious people; a people who delighted in murdering the Nephites, and robbing and plundering them; and their hearts were set upon riches, or upon gold and silver, and precious stones; yet they sought to obtain these things by murdering and plundering, that they might not labor for them with their own hands.

15 Thus they were a very indolent people, many of whom did worship idols, and the ^acurse of God had fallen upon them because of the ^btraditions of their fathers; notwithstanding the promises of the Lord were extended unto them on the conditions of repentance.

16 Therefore, this was the ^acause for which the sons of Mosiah had undertaken the work, that perhaps they might bring them unto repentance; that perhaps they might bring them to know of the plan of redemption.

17 Therefore they separated themselves one from another, and went forth among them, every man alone, according to the word and power of God which was given unto him.

18 Now Ammon being the chief among them, or rather he did administer unto them, and he departed from them, after having ^ablessed them according to their several stations, having imparted the word of God unto them, or administered unto them before his departure; and thus they took their several journeys throughout the land.

19 And Ammon went to the land of ^aIshmael, the land being called after the sons of ^bIshmael, who also became Lamanites.

20 And as Ammon entered the land of Ishmael, the Lamanites took him and ^abound him, as was their custom to bind all the Nephites who fell into their hands, and carry them before the king; and thus it was left to the pleasure of the king to slay them, or to retain them in captivity, or to cast them into prison, or to cast them out of his land, according to his will and pleasure.

It is always touching to read about the reunion of Alma and the Sons of Mosiah after all their years apart. This caused me to think about the difference in communication methods between then and now. In society today we are so accessible to each other. Even if the cell phone, email, text message or twitter don't work there is snail mail. And if we live far apart we can get on an airplane and go to each other. It is such a blessing for us to be able to keep close with those we love. Really. It's amazing.

Another message I took from this reading came when the Lord told the sons of Mosiah to be patient in their long suffering and afflictions in verse 11. This shows us that even if we are called of God to serve it doesn't mean the we'll be spared from suffering. And that's OK. We can grow so much from hard things. My days in Tokyo knocking on door after door as a missionary had to be the hardest of my life so far. But I love the things I learned about the Lord and myself during that time and I would never exchange them for an easier option. The same goes for Motherhood. It isn't always easy. In fact, most of the time it's a lot of hard work and serious effort. But of course, I love my children so much and they are worth so much more than any alternative path would have offered me.