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.
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I love your insights and this one is no exception. This is the lesson I learn every week from the people in my ward. They are so grateful to have found the Gospel that they can't restrain themselves from sharing it with anyone who will listen. It comes an overflowing heart and just can't be held back.
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