Alma 17:4-17

17:4-10 – This part of the chapter has me reeling from Mormon’s ability as a writer. He’s so detailed yet not overwhelming. I particularly like “by the power of their words many were brought before the altar of God, to call on his name and confess their sins before him.” Now we know that there is no actual physical altar that we kneel at to repent, but it’s metaphoric and beautiful. He also starts out with the positive aspects of the mission and then leads in to the negatives, they “had much success,” but “they had many afflictions; they did suffer much, both in body and in mind, such as hunger, thirst and fatigue, and also much labor in the spirit.” Kind of giving us a run down before jumping into the whole story. I thought that it was interesting that we are given their packing list: “their swords, and their spears, and their bows, and their arrows, and their slings.” Interesting that they would take weapons with them on their missions, but Mormon must have known what our reaction would be, so he’s quick to tell us that “this they did that they might provide food for themselves while in the wilderness.” And now the world makes sense again. And after they were all packed up and ready to go, saying goodbye to their father, “they journeyed many days in the wilderness, and the fasted much and prayed 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 instrument 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 traditions of the fathers, which were not correct.” The IM quotes President Gordon B. Hinckley as teaching “every member to work and pray for missionary opportunities: ‘Let there be cultivated an awareness in every member’s heart of his own potential for bringing others to a knowledge of the truth. Let him work at it. Let him pray with great earnestness about it.’ Elder M. Russell Ballard admonished us to pray for guidance in doing the Lord’s work: ‘In gospel-sharing homes we pray for guidance for ourselves, and we pray for the physical and spiritual well-being of others. We pray for the people the missionaries are teaching, for our acquaintances, and for those not of our faith. In the gospel-sharing homes of Alma’s time, the people would ‘join in fasting and nighty prayer in behalf of the welfare of the souls of those who knew not God.’” For our Family Home Daytime lesson today we talked about prayer, mostly because my kids like to power through prayers saying little to nothing and then being done, and I wanted them to know that we all need to do a little bit better with that. Last night I was having a mini panic attack while taking a shower at the gym. I had been up since the early morning and been really busy, and my workout was really hard and I just got really overwhelmed, and so I was freaking out, and I thought, what can I do, so I prayed and just told Heavenly Father how I was feeling, and I felt peace, even though I was in the shower at the gym. I felt what the sons of Mosiah felt while in the wilderness, they were comforted, and I wanted my kids to learn a little bit more about how it can be amazing. I could imagine the daunting task that was going to preach to the Lamanites. I’m trying to think what a mission similar to that would be in our day, then knowing that when they got there they were going to be abused and possibly murdered in a most horrific manner. But “the Lord did visit them with his Spirit, and said unto them: Be comforted. And they were comforted.”

17:11-17 – The Lord is very specific on what to expect as he prepares them for their impending mission. He comforts them that they will be successful, but they should “be patient in long-suffering and afflictions, that ye may show forth good examples unto them in me, and I will make an instrument of thee in my hands unto the salvation of many souls.” I wonder why this is important. I’m trying to think what’s the difference between going in preaching the word and having amazing success and preaching the word, suffering afflictions, and then having great success? People’s true colors come out when they are under pressure. It’s one thing to be a good person and be kind and serve others when everything is great, but when stuff is hard, when life is tough, then if you can maintain those Christ-like attributes, then it is more convincing. There’s a lot from the IM, so I’m going to copy and paste.

 I love Elder Ballard’s formula for missionary success. I always thought the “get to know people so you can share the gospel” approach was flawed; people don’t want to feel like they are being sold something or that they are being used for quotas. I think it’s very profound to say that the friendship should be enough, even if they don’t join the church. Living where I do, there aren’t a ton of members, but I still have lots of friends, and I try really hard to love people just like Jesus did. And I agree that labels can tear people apart, and that we as a society aren’t very sensitive to that. If, instead of looking at people by race or religion or ethnicity or anything like that, if we just looked at everyone else as a person with their own hopes and dreams, and treated them as such, we would all be a lot happier. I love the story about the missionary who was angry and thought about throwing rocks back at the people who threw rocks at him. I thought that it was similar to the story that I had heard yesterday, if the gospel is true, then isn't sharing that more important than getting a rock in the eye? Not like I'm one to talk, my missionary efforts are stellar or anything but I try, kind of. I also thought that the story was a very nice example of the change of heart that all of the true converts of Christ must experience, and the constant battle of the natural man trying to take over the spirit. Even on a mission, the 

natural instincts are still there, the violence, revenge, dominance but over time, as we practice, it is easier for us to recognize, then repel that natural man pulling at the inside of our minds, tempting us to get rid of our Christ-like attributes and just go crazy.

Lessons from today's study:

1. Fasting, prayer, and scripture study is vital to spiritual preparation. Unlike the sons of Mosiah, we don't usually have extended periods of time in which we can escape to the wilderness and focus solely on preparing for not only missionary work, but daily Christ-like lives. But I guarantee that after they left the wilderness, they didn't stop studying and praying and fasting, they continued that. In our own lives, we don't necessarily have to have a time of intense spiritual growth, though some of us do, through missions, conversions, blogging, etc. But as we continue the day to day little things, we grow into spiritual giants and become men and women of great understanding.

2. Good examples are the best missionary tools. I heard a saying once that no one cares how much you know until they know how much you care, and that's true especially when it comes to sharing the gospel. No one wants to feel like a project, like a number, like their friendships are contingent on them believing exactly what you believe. We need to truly strive to love others unconditionally, which means that it's not conditioned on whether or not they join the church.

3. The natural man is a constant battle. Even though this lesson wasn't put forth in the IM, it comes as kind of a sneaker. In the beginning, it's big things, the desire to drink or gamble or swear, etc. that we slowly conquer, until it becomes the little things, our reactions to people, our daily prayer and scripture study, etc. There will always be

something more we can do, to improve on, and recognizing and conquering those demons that are right in front of us, that are our problems we face right now, those are what we need to seek guidance for so that we might overcome. 

4. Affliction - the Lord warns the sons of Mosiah that they will suffer, but it is through their suffering that their commitment to God and the gospel will be confirmed, not only to the people that they teach, but also to themselves. There are so many stories, and even I've experienced this myself, that people look back on major trials in their lives and realize that it was during that period of time then they grew so much closer to the Lord. These are amazing times and blessings, if we are willing to see them as such.