Alma 8-12

1. Alma 8-12 Missionary Work is hard! According to the M.T.C. President in Provo, (2006) the biggest reason missionaries come home from the MTC is because it was too hard for them. Elder Kimball and his companion “set off down the road out of Jefferson City, knocking on every door, hauling their suitcases crammed with tracts and books, having no breakfast, no dinner, and just store crackers for lunch. At dark, exhausted and feeling starved, they began to ask for a place to stay. ‘Sorry,’ was the usual answer, ‘we can’t fit you in.’ They marched on till about midnight, when they caught sight of a light back through the trees.

2. Not even an ‘ominous pack’ of ‘huge vicious dogs’ guarding the house, Spencer later remembered, could frighten the tired missionaries from knocking at the door. A gruff, unfriendly man answered the door, and finally let them in, showed them to an attic bed, and left them. Despite the bedbugs, Spencer and his lanky companion sank into sleep on the lumpy bed, the heavy quilt stiff as a board. They woke in the morning covered with bug bites, the bed spotted with blood. Their host, as if to restore their loss, served breakfast of blood pudding…. “Spencer’s early letters home sounded a note of discouragement. He was enthusiastic about proselyting, but as a junior companion he was subject to his partner, who ‘tried my soul,’ he remembered later, ‘because I wanted to work, and found it difficult to work without him, and was unable to stimulate him, he being the senior companion” (Edward L. and Andrew E. Kimball, Spencer W. Kimball, 1977, 75).

3. Alma 8:10,13-14 What was the most difficult thing for you to adjust to on your mission? What was the most difficult doctrine to teach? Alma 8:19-21 The Lord often answers our prayers through another person. “God does notice us, and he watches over us. But it is usually through another person that he meets our needs. Therefore, it is vital that we serve each other in the kingdom…Often, our acts of service consist of simple encouragement or of giving mundane acts and from small but deliberate deeds” (Spencer W. Kimball, Ensign, December 1974, 5).

4. Alma 8:27 D&C 11:21 Alma 9:4 Alma 16:2, 3, 9 Alma 9:21 “Gifts of the Spirit” (I Cor. 12, Moroni 10, and D&C 46) 1. The gift of speaking with tongues 2. The gift of preaching (unique to the Book of Alma) 3. The gift of the Holy Ghost 4. The gift of translation

5. Alma 10:2 “Aminadi” “This is the only time Aminadi is mentioned, and our present Book of Mormon gives no further details concerning the writing written by the finger of God upon the wall of the temple” (Daniel H. Ludlow, Companion, 198).

6. Alma 10:3 This is the first time the Book of Mormon indicates that Lehi was a descendant of Joseph’s eldest son, Manasseh. “Some students of the Book of Mormon have wondered how descendants of Joseph were still living in Jerusalem in 600 B.C. when most members of the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh were taken into captivity by the Assyrians about 721 B.C. 2 Chronicles 15:9 mentions that in about 941 B.C. Asa, the king of the land, gathered together at Jerusalem all of Judah and Benjamin ‘and the strangers with them of Ephraim and Manasseh.’ These ‘strangers…out of Ephraim and Manasseh’ who were gathered to Jerusalem in approximately 941 B.C. may have included the forefathers of Lehi and Ishmael” (Daniel H. Ludlow, A Companion to Your Study of the Book of Mormon [1976], 199).

7. Alma 10:5-6 Why would Amulek not hear the promptings of the Lord? “He is a classic case of an essentially a good man being put out of touch with the great spiritual realities; … because, though he was basically good, he was pre-occupied with the cares of the world” (Neal A. Maxwell, Meek and Lowly, 12).

8. Alma 10:7-10, 20 In what ways do angels administer to men today? “The ministering of angels can also be unseen. Angelic messages can be delivered by a voice or merely by thoughts or feelings communicated to the mind…Most angelic communications are felt or heard rather than seen” (Dallin H. Oaks, Ensign, November 1998, 39). Alma 10:22-23 The prayers of the righteous availeth much!

9. Alma 11 “A chapter of doctrine” v. 40-46 Alma 40:23-25 There is no reason for any person to be concerned as to the appearance of individuals in the resurrection. There is no death in the grave, children will continue to grow until they reach the full stature of their spirits. We have reason to believe that old age will disappear and full vigor of manhood and womanhood will return (A.T.G.Q. 4:185-87, 189, Joseph Fielding Smith).

10. Elder Sterling W. Sill while serving as a member of the Seventy described some of the blessings of the Resurrection when he taught that a resurrected body “is beautiful beyond all comprehension, with quickened senses, amplified powers of perception, and vastly increased capacity for love, understanding, and happiness” (C.R., Oct. 1976, 67).

11. In reality a man cannot forget anything. He may have a lapse of memory. God will touch the mainspring of memory and recollection, and you will not forget a single idle word. Beware of saying wicked things, of speaking evils and taking in vain the name of sacred things and sacred beings. Guard your words, that you may not offend even man, much less offend God (Improvement Era, May, 1903, 503-04, Joseph Fielding Smith, “A Sermon on Purity”).

12. Resurrected persons will appear just as they did in mortal life, only with bodies that are Celestial, bodies that are Terrestrial, bodies Telestial, and other bodies that receive no glory whatever. But each will remain it’s individual identity and will be so recognized after their resurrection (A.T.G.Q., J. Fielding Smith, Vol. 2, 102). (Alma 40-42) Alma 11:45 “Resurrection is an ordinance” “We are in possession of all the ordinances that can be administered in the flesh; but there are other ordinances and administrations that must be administered beyond this world… We have not, neither can we receive here, the ordinance and the keys of the resurrection. They will be given to those who have passed off this stage of action…They will be ordained, by those who hold the keys of the resurrection, to go forth and resurrect the Saints” (Brigham Young, Discourses, 397).

13. Alma 12:9 When is it appropriate to share sacred mysteries of God? “I have learned that strong, impressive spiritual experiences do not come to us very frequently. And when they do, they are generally for our own edification, instruction, or correction. Unless we are called by proper authority to do so, they do not position us to counsel or to correct others” (Boyd K. Packer, Ensign, January 1983, 53). “Should you receive a vision or revelation from the Almighty, one that the Lord gave you concerning yourselves,… you should shut it up and seal it as closed, and lock it as tight as heaven is to you, and make it as secret as the grave. The Lord has no confidence in those who reveal secrets, for he cannot safely reveal himself to such persons” (Brigham Young, Discourses, 40-41). (D&C 63:63).

14. President Joseph Fielding Smith explained that the mysteries of God are simply those divine principles of the gospel necessary for our salvation that are not understood by the world (Church History and Modern Revelation, 2 vols. [1953], 1:43). The mysteries of God should not be confused with the unworthy pursuit of “mysteries,” or things that God has not revealed.

15. Alma 12:12-14 Elder Dallin H. Oaks taught that the Judgment is not merely a review of actions taken in mortality, but is instead an assessment of who and what we have become as a result of our actions. “From such teachings we conclude that the Final Judgment is not just an evaluation of a sum total of good and evil acts --- what we have done. It is an acknowledgment of the final effect of our acts and thoughts --- what we have become. The gospel of Jesus Christ is a plan that shows us how to become what our Heavenly Father desires us to become” (C.R., Oct. 2000, 41).