Come Follow Me with Sam

Welcome to Come Follow me with Sam! Its MISSIONARY TIME! Technically it was already missionary time, since Alma 1. but this is where the great story of the missionary work among the Lamanites starts. I'm going to hit on a few highlights we don't think about much, instead of talking about the main points of the story. If you don't know this story yet, I highly encourage you to read it before continuing :) Preparation for this work happened long before the sons of Mosiah came Amulon, as bad a dude as he was, and as bad as his posterity persecuted the work, was actually a secret ingredient to this missionary secret ingredient soup. In Mosiah 24, it says that he appointed teachers to teach the Lamanites the Nephite language, writing, record-keeping, and trade. In essence, he began the re-melding of the culture so that the Nephites and the Lamanites could understand one another. I'm pretty sure this was a major contributor to the success of the missionary work here. The Sons...

Welcome to Come Follow Me with Sam! We are doing a combo of two weeks so that we get the Ammonihah experience end to end. (also because I am still catching up :D) Things get a little crazy here! Ammonihah is doing really bad things. Alma sees an angel. Amulek changes his entire life around (!!!) Wow. Here's the stuff. Ammonihah round 1 Alma goes from Gideon to Melek and from Melek from Ammonihah. The preaching in both Gideon and Melek went fantastic. Ammonihah is a complete dead-end. No one listens and he gets cast out.If I were him, I would pat myself on the back and say 'good effort, let's go to some place that has a greater spiritual return on my life investment'. Alma doesn't respond exactly that way, but he does decide his work is done. The difference is that it gives him 'weighed down with sorrow, wading through much tribulation and anguish of soul. Remember that Alma himself rebelled pretty hardcore against the church. When he sees someone turn away, I th...

Welcome to Come Follow Me with Sam! These chapters are the great preaching of Alma! We get to compare and contrast what he does with Zarahemla and Gideon. A Little Background Zarahemla is the capital city of the Nephite nation. Large cities naturally are places of trade, administration, and society, and as such it is easy to get distracted with everything happening there and less on the spiritual side of life. Alma 5 is the famous chapter filled with soul-searching questions. It looks like Alma is reminding them that amid the bustle of the city, to search their souls. Gideon, and the valley of Gideon, was certainly named after the Gideon who resisted Noah, counseled Limhi, and was killed in cold blood by Nehor. He was obviously highly respected. The city of Gideon was again almost certainly composed of people who not only knew these events, but lived through them. Alma takes a different tack. It seems as though he is teaching them the greater things. Zarahemla: the take-aways - Remembe...

Welcome to Come Follow Me with Sam! Judgement day has come.  I have really gotten behind on these things and today is the day that I catch up! and get current on the AMAZING things that are happening at this time in the Book of Mormon. Honestly, it would be fun to do this more. The tricky thing is that it does take significant time, and some schedule changes that came from Corona, along with investment in effort into a come follow me discussion during Corona virus lock-down, has really cut out my normal routine of posting. Well, No More! We are going for the Gold. Thanks all, and hope you are coming out of the experience of the last 3 months better attuned to helping each other. Okay Enough of that. Judgment day has come another way! It is the beginning of the Reign of Judges (YES YES YES!) and the beginning of Alma the younger as high priest in the church. Mosiah showed himself to be very wise, because dissension stresses come almost immediately into the reign of judges. We will e...