33 But notwithstanding all this, they did impart much consolation to the church, confirming their faith, and exhorting them with long-suffering and much travail to keep the commandments of God. 34 And four of them were the
asons of Mosiah; and their names were Ammon, and Aaron, and Omner, and Himni; these were the names of the sons of Mosiah.
35 And they traveled throughout all the land of Zarahemla, and among all the
apeople who were under the reign of king Mosiah,
bzealously striving to repair all the injuries which they had done to the church,
cconfessing all their sins, and publishing all the things which they had seen, and explaining the prophecies and the scriptures to all who desired to hear them.
36 And thus they were instruments in the hands of God in bringing many to the knowledge of the truth, yea, to the knowledge of their Redeemer.
37 And how blessed are they! For they did apublish bpeace; they did publish good tidings of good; and they did declare unto the people that the Lord reigneth.
CHAPTER 28
The sons of Mosiah shall have eternal life—They go to preach to the Lamanites—Mosiah translates the Jaredite plates with the two seer stones. About 92 B.C.
1
Now it came to pass that after the
asons of Mosiah had done all these things, *they took a small number with them and returned to their father, the king, and desired of him that he would grant unto them that they might, with these whom they had
bselected, go up to the land of
cNephi that they might preach the things which they had heard, and that they might impart the word of God to their brethren, the Lamanites—
2
aThat perhaps they might bring them to the knowledge of the Lord their God, and convince them of the iniquity of their fathers; and that perhaps they might cure them of their
bhatred towards the Nephites, that they might also be brought to rejoice in the Lord their God, that they might become friendly to one another, and that there should be no more contentions in all the land which the Lord their God had given them.
3 Now
they were desirous that salvation should be declared to every creature, for they could not abear that any human bsoul should cperish; yea, even the very thoughts that any soul should endure dendless torment did cause them to quake and etremble. 4 And thus did the Spirit of the Lord work upon them, for they were the very
avilest of sinners. And the Lord saw fit in his infinite
bmercy to spare them; nevertheless they suffered much anguish of soul because of their iniquities, suffering much and fearing that they should be cast off forever.
5 And it came to pass that they did plead with their father many days that they might go up to the land of Nephi.
6 And king Mosiah went and
ainquired of the Lord if he should let his sons go up among the Lamanites to preach the word.
7 And the Lord said unto Mosiah: Let them go up, for many shall believe on their words, and they shall have eternal life; and I will
adeliver thy sons out of the hands of the Lamanites.
8 And it came to pass that Mosiah granted that they might go and do according to their request.
9 And they
atook their journey into the wilderness to go up to preach the word among the Lamanites; and I shall give an
baccount of their proceedings hereafter.
10 Now king Mosiah had no one to confer the kingdom upon, for there was not any of his sons who
awould accept of the kingdom.
11 Therefore he took the records which were engraven on the plates of
abrass, and also the plates of
bNephi, and all the things which he had kept and preserved according to the commandments of God, after having translated and caused to be written the records which were on the
cplates of gold which had been found by the people of Limhi, which were delivered to him by the hand of Limhi;
12 And this he did because of the great anxiety of his people; for they were desirous beyond measure to know concerning those people
awho had been destroyed.
13 And now he translated them by the means of those two
astones which were fastened into the two rims of a bow.
14 Now these things were prepared from the beginning, and were handed down from generation to generation, for the purpose of interpreting languages;
15 And they have been kept and preserved by the hand of the Lord, that he should discover to every creature who should possess the land the iniquities and abominations of his people;
16 And whosoever has these things is called
aseer, after the manner of old times.
17 Now after Mosiah had finished
atranslating these
brecords, behold, it gave an account of the people who were
cdestroyed, from the time that they were destroyed back to the building of the
dgreat tower, at the time the Lord
econfounded the language of the people and they were scattered abroad upon the face of all the earth, yea, and even from that time back until the creation of Adam.
18 Now this account did cause the people of Mosiah to mourn exceedingly, yea, they were filled with sorrow; nevertheless it gave them much knowledge, in the which they did rejoice.
19 And this account shall be
awritten hereafter; for behold, it is expedient that all people should know the things which are written in this account.
20 And now, as I said unto you, that after king Mosiah had done these things, he took the plates of
abrass, and all the things which he had kept, and
bconferred them upon Alma, who was the son of Alma; yea, all the records, and also the
cinterpreters, and conferred them upon him, and commanded him that he should keep and
dpreserve them, and also keep a record of the people, handing them down from one generation to another, even as they had been handed down from the time that Lehi left Jerusalem.
* VERSE 1 (ABOUT 92 B.C.).
Every missionary finds inspiration in these actions of Alma and the sons of Mosiah. Their desire to leave their homeland, where they could have had an easy life, and go to their enemies to preach the gospel shows incredible courage, faith, and commitment to their conversion.
The writing in chapter 28 verses 11-20 regarding the "interpreters" is very interesting. I found this fascinating quote that taught me a lot about the importance of timing in the way the Lord reveals His word.
“The people of Limhi brought to Mosiah a record, ‘. . . engraven on plates of ore,’ which record Mosiah translated by the aid of ‘two stones which were fastened into the two rims of a bow,’ and which gave an account of the Jaredites. In translating this record Mosiah kept from going forth to the people that particular part forbidden of the Lord to be revealed until after he was lifted up upon the cross. These sacred revelations given to the brother of Jared were kept from the Nephite people, as well as many other things, until after the resurrection of Christ [see Alma 63:12]. After the appearing of the Savior to the Nephites, the vision of the brother of Jared was revealed to the Nephites. When Moroni made his abridgment of the record of Ether, he copied on his record the vision of the brother of Jared. At the command of the Lord, however, Moroni also sealed up the greater things in this vision and the ‘interpreters’—which were the same ‘two stones’ had by the brother of Jared, so that this vision should not be made known even in our day among the Gentiles, in the day of their wickedness [see 2 Nephi 27:8]; ‘. . . until the day that they shall repent of their iniquity, and become clean before the Lord.’ So we today do not have the fulness of the account written and sealed up by the brother of Jared and again sealed by Moroni. This part of the record the Prophet Joseph Smith was forbidden to translate. We have, then, received but the ‘lesser part.’
“Joseph Smith received with the ‘breastplate’ and the plates of the Book of Mormon, the Urim and Thummim, which were hid up by Moroni to come forth in the last days as a means by which the ancient record might be translated, which Urim and Thummim were given to the brother of Jared” (Joseph Fielding Smith, Answers to Gospel Questions, 1:161–62).
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