The Joy of Missionary Work

Alma 36  Alma is having personal interviews with each of his sons, starting with Helaman.  He begins by bearing his testimony and then telling his conversion story.  I'm sure it's not the first time Helaman heard this story, but Alma's not retelling it because he's getting senile, but because Helaman needs to hear it again.  A good conversion can bring the Spirit each time it's told.

Then Alma tells Helaman (and us) that since that time and because of that experience he has labored without ceasing to bring others to repentance in order to share that joy he felt.

It sometimes feels like we try to share the gospel out of duty.  We're told we should do it, so we try to speak up and say something.  But if we could get the vision of what Alma's saying here, we would see that what we're really doing is sharing the joy.

How easy is it to tell someone about a great movie or TV show; to share a favorite recipe, or talk about a great place to go out to eat?  And these are such trivial things!  Why is it so easy to share something unimportant, yet so hard to share something that can give such great joy?  I have in my heart something so delicious, something so joyful that it's my greatest treasure, but too bad for you, I'm keeping it all for myself, in spite of the fact that it doubles, triples, quadruples when shared.

When I think about the people who we watched accept and embrace the gospel in the mission field, my heart is filled to overflowing.  Their lives have changed so much!  For example, Asoncion was a single young adult, working, struggling along with her life.  Her parents were both dead, so she lived with an aunt and uncle and worked at dead end jobs.  She was referred by a friend and took the lessons.  She drank them in, like a dry plant.  We sat in on many of the lessons, and by the 3rd or 4th lesson, she was reading the Book of Mormon on her 2nd time through.  She was baptized and a year later served a wonderful mission in the Singapore Mission.  Now she's at BYU-Hawaii, working and going to school, attending the temple, serving in her ward.  I hope she finds a wonderful young man to marry in the temple.  Her life is so filled with joy.  What a blessing to be part of that!

Missionary work isn't about duty.  It's about joy.

Thou Hast Elected Us

The Zoramites, as part of their prayer, say "we believe that thou hast elected us".  This is similar to some of our scriptures, and as Mormons we like to feel that we are elect people.  But I beg to differ with they way they define the word "elect".

Genesis 12:3 is a good example of the real definition of "elect".  Abraham is told that through his seed would all the nations of the world be blessed.  To me, this implies responsibility to do something.  It means missionary work and service.  The elect of God are chosen because of their goodness and faithfulness, not to be served, but to served.  Those who have great blessings have great responsibility to bless others. 

Prayer of the Zoramites

Alma took some of his dearest friends on a mission to the Zoramites.  I love seeing who came with him on this mission.  In addition to his original companion, Amulek, he took Zeezrom, the lawyer they had converted in Ammonihah.  Also joining him were Ammon and some of his brethren who had been with Alma when the angel appeared to them.  And he took two of his sons, Shiblon and Corianton.

The Zoramites climbed onto their Rameumptom and prayed.  This prayer is very interesting because it is so full of false doctrine:
 Alma 31:15 Holy, holy God; we believe that thou art God, and we believe that thou art holy, and that thou wast a ^aspirit, and that thou art a spirit, and that thou wilt be a spirit forever.

  16 Holy God, we believe that thou hast separated us from our brethren; and we do not believe in the tradition of our brethren, which was handed down to them by the childishness of their fathers; but we believe that thou hast ^aelected us to be thy ^bholy children; and also thou hast made it known unto us that ^cthere shall be ^dno Christ.

  17 But thou art the same yesterday, today, and forever; and thou hast ^aelected us that we shall be saved, whilst all around us are elected to be cast by thy wrath down to hell; for the which holiness, O God, we thank thee; and we also thank thee that thou hast elected us, that we may not be led away after the foolish traditions of our brethren, which doth ^bbind them down to a belief of Christ, which doth lead their hearts to wander far from thee, our God.

  18 And again we thank thee, O God, that we are a chosen and a holy people. Amen. 

 

Here are the false doctrines I notice in this prayer:

1)  The nature of God -- They say that God is a spirit, has always been a spirit, and will be a spirit forever.

2)  God has separated them from their brethren -- God doesn't separate us from our brethren.  Sometimes he asks us to separate ourselves from their wickedness, but mostly he wants to be "in the world, but not of the world" so that we can influence others for good.

3)  Belief in Christ is a childish belief handed down from their fathers -- They say that there should be no Christ.

4)  They are elected to be saved while others around them will be cast down to hell -- I'll discuss this more in a later post.

These people had chosen to believe some very wicked doctrines, and these beliefs later proved to lead them in the path of destruction.

Alma's Lament

Alma had the heart of a missionary.  In Alma 29 we read his famous words:   1 O that I were an angel, and could have the wish of mine heart, that I might go forth and speak with the ^atrump of God, with a voice to shake the earth, and cry repentance unto every people!

  2 Yea, I would declare unto every soul, as with the voice of thunder, repentance and the plan of redemption, that they should repent and ^acome unto our God, that there might not be more sorrow upon all the face of the earth. 

If we consider things that happened in Alma's life, I think we can better understand his feelings.

1)  Ammon and his brethren had just returned with thousands of converted Lamanites.

2)  The land had just been ravaged by a terrible was caused by those Lamanites who weren't converted and who were angry that the Nephites had converted their brethren.

3)  Some of Alma's own Nephites hardened their hearts and refused to live the Gospel.

4)  Alma, along with Ammon and the other sons of Mosiah, had been converted when an angel appeared to them and caused the ground to shake.

It grieved Alma to see any people suffer rather than to choose the joy of God's plan.  But of course he acknowledges that all men have their agency and that all will be taught the Gospel, either in this life or the next.

Sometimes we wish that we could do things other than those which the Lord has assigned us.  There are couples who have longed to go on a mission, but health or other problems prevented them from going.  I believe that the Lord knows those righteous desires and will bless us in ways we can't imagine.

At other times, though, we wish for things that are good and righteous, but are not what is assigned for us.  Alma tells us that he did sin in his wish.  If our wishes prevent us from living fully in the minute, if we don't take advantage of what we DO have because we're wishing for what we DON'T have, then we need to learn from Alma.  He said:    I know that which the Lord hath commanded me, and I glory in it.

Let's glory in our assignments, whether they're mundane or impressive.