King Lamoni’s prayer for mercy

And he began to cry unto the Lord, saying: O Lord, have mercy; according to thy abundant mercy which thou hast had upon the people of Nephi, have upon me, and my people. (Alma 18:41)

From this verse of prayer it is possible to tell some of the things Lamoni was taught by Ammon, even though the essential elements are only touched on by Moron who abridged the account.

“O Lord, have mercy” – Lamoni had to have been taught about 1) the plan of redemption and 2) about the Lord’s abundant mercy, such that he would feel inspired to ask for mercy.

“According to thy abundant mercy which thou hast had upon the people of Nephi, have upon me, and my people” – Lamoni had to have been taught about all the ways the Lord had had mercy upon the Nephites insomuch that he desired that for his own people. And it is most likely that he was taught about the intermediary role that the high priest (or high priestly king) played in pleading for the people, because he immediately assumes that role by interceding for his own people as well as pleading for himself.

One of the important principles all people have to learn in order to have the courage to ask for forgiveness for their sins is concerning the abundant mercy of God. Without this, we wouldn’t have the confidence to ask for Him to have mercy on us. This confidence is best built by hearing how the Lord has had mercy on others, particularly those who were in a worse case. (This is partly Ammon and his brethren were such great missionaries. They had been in an awful state, and the Lord had mercy on them, so they shared that, so that all those in similar states could trust that they could obtain mercy too.)

Let’s work on noticing the mercies that the Lord has bestowed on us and tell others about them.

The State of the Soul When Dying

As Ammon is trying to convince Lamoni’s father not to kill Lamoni, he says something about what would happen to Lamoni’s father if he were to die at that time, versus Lamoni’s state. I found it both interesting and indicative of an important principle.

But Ammon stood forth and said unto him: Behold, thou shalt not slay thy son; nevertheless, it were better that he should fall than thee, for behold, he has repented of his sins; but if thou shouldst fall at this time, in thine anger, thy soul could not be saved. (Alma 20:17)

So dying in anger would leave a soul in a sin without time to repent, and even though that probably wasn’t the only sin Lamoni’s father was burdened with, the point is that Ammon didn’t want to send Lamoni’s father out of mortality unprepared to meet God.

The deeper principle here is one that is universally applicable. We all have sinned, and we deserve to die, but God prolongs our life so that we have time to repent. We don’t know when our time will run out and our life will be over. Freak accidents happen. People go unexpectedly ballistic and kill people. Disease hits, etcetera, and if it is suddenly our turn to go, can we see we have repented and have a clear conscience?

Alma 19: Spiritual gifts manifested in Lamanite conversion

I found some interesting things in the scriptures recently that I hadn’t noticed before. One was in the story of Ammon teaching the Lamanites. I noticed that when the Lamanites woke up from their Spirit-induced sleep, they immediately manifested spiritual gifts.

When Lamoni wakes up the first time, he says to his wife the queen, “Blessed be the name of God, and blessed art thou.” And then he tells her he has seen his Redeemer (the gift of visions) and he prophesies of the redemption of Christ (prophecy). Further, I looked at that statement “Blessed art thou” directed at his wife and I didn’t see how that had anything to do with anything he said afterward. It was puzzling to me, but then this time I realized that he was demonstrating the spiritual gift of discernment, echoing something Ammon had said to her earlier about her blessed state because she believed more than any of the Nephites. Lamoni could not have known his wife’s blessed believing state unless it had been revealed to him through spiritual gifts.

I further have to point out that Lamoni’s wife seems to have demonstrated the spiritual gift of believing the testimony of others. She believed what her servants said about Ammon being “a prophet of a holy God” and she believed Ammon when he said that Lamoni would wake up after another day. Then, it is no surprise that when Lamoni did wake up and then bore powerful testimony to the redemption of Christ on conditions of belief, she believed what her husband said and thus was overpowered by the Spirit.

When Lamoni’s wife awoke from sleeping in God, it says that she “arose and stood upon her feet, and cried with a loud voice, saying: O blessed Jesus, who has saved me from an awful hell! O blessed God, have mercy on this people! And when she said this, she clasped her hands, being filled with joy, speaking many words which were not understood” (Alma 19:29-30) and then raised King Lamoni up. (I can only conclude that she had a conversion experience similar to Alma the Younger’s.) But I wondered about those words she spoke which were not understood. I struck me just recently that she had to have been speaking in tongues.

Perhaps we could argue that she merely spoke things about the gospel that were not understood because of the spiritual ignorance of her people at that point. Or perhaps we could say that she was slipping back into a more native language and she was an immigrant of some sort.. but those explanations do not fit the intensity of the faith manifested in this story, and we all know that miracles happen in proportion to our faith. A manifestation of the gift of tongues is in perfect harmony with the spiritual climate of this story at this point and in perfect proportion to the faith she manifested.

When Lamoni’s servants awoke, they declared the change they had experienced in their hearts, that they had no more desire to do evil. They also “did declare unto the people that they had seen angels and had conversed with them; and thus they had told them things of God, and of his righteousness.” (Alma 19:34) The servants evidently had gifts of visions.. and angelic visions at that.

In thinking about these wonderful spiritual gifts that Lamoni, Lamoni’s wife, and their servants received in their conversion, I can see that those gifts were the fruits of their desires for the truth, their open-hearted acceptance of what they were told, and their immediate efforts to lay hold on salvation. Their enthusiasm was palpable. I look at my own life and I see that far too often I have held back, I have made only tentative efforts, my heart has been only half-open. Their example has reminded me of the commandment to love the Lord with all my heart, might, mind, and strength. It has shown me that to reap the full spiritual blessings of obeying the commandments, I need to give it my best, strongest efforts and my fullest zeal.

Ammon, Lamoni, and Lamoni’s Father: Unexpected Obstacles Can Further Missionary Work

Yesterday my husband and I were reading the chapter about when Ammon and Lamoni go to deliver Ammon’s brethren from prison. I always thought it was very odd that Ammon was prompted to not go to see Lamoni’s father but that when he goes to Middoni to get his brothers out of prison, they meet Lamoni’s father anyway! This seemed kind of contradictory to me that the Lord would tell Ammon to not go see a person and then make it so that he meets him after all.

I was thinking about this today and I realized that in the larger scheme of things, by allowing the events to happen as they did, the Lord actually was setting the stage for the conversion of Lamoni’s father. Remember that Lamoni straightway wanted to go show Ammon to his father. (“See who I met! Look what I learned! Listen to him and be converted too!”) While Lamoni’s feelings were perfectly natural—what convert doesn’t immediately want to share what they found with their nearest and dearest?—following those inclinations would certainly have set up an awkward situation. The scene that played out in the road between Lamoni, his father, and Ammon would have have occurred in more unfavorable conditions and Lamoni would certainly have felt frustrated and stymied from it if that had been his main reason for seeing his father.

But by giving Ammon and Lamoni a mission to accomplish that didn’t involve conversion, the Lord could bring Lamoni’s father to them, and with that as the bigger concern, discussion of religion would be a “by the way” bonus and the interaction would be more natural and genuine.

I think Heavenly Father also knew that Lamoni’s father needed to be softened up in a similar way to Lamoni and his servants. The Lamanites, a fierce and warlike culture, considered fighting prowess to be the most impressive characteristic a man could have. The better a fighter you were, the more they would respect you. Heavenly Father used this bit of information and began missionary work among the Lamanites by creating a new association in the minds of the Lamanites—associating fighting prowess with God, faith, and religion. He used the same thing with Lamoni’s father. For the first time, Lamoni’s father saw superior strength and fighting prowess associated with saving souls, love of his son, mercy, having no guile, and the Spirit of the Lord. Not only this, but he heard everything that Ammon had done that led to Lamoni’s conversion. (He didn’t accept it initially, but with sufficient time to think after the encounter, those ideas began to sink deeper into his heart.)

The Lord allowed Lamoni’s father to be an obstacle for Lamoni and Ammon to overcome, knowing that this victory would be enough to impress Lamoni’s father and make him more receptive. Interestingly enough, Ammon and Lamoni were going to liberate the very missionaries that would later teach the gospel to Lamoni’s father.

Something I learn from this is that each person has a characteristic or a skill that they particularly respect. We may not know what it is, but Heavenly Father does, and to bring the gospel to His children, He may maneuver us into situations in which we demonstrate how that respected idea is associated with the gospel.

Something else I learned from this was that the unexpected obstacles we may suddenly run into can actually be part of the Lord’s plan, preparing the way for future missionary success. So, when we suddenly face opposition in choosing the right or helping others, we can keep this in mind. Stand up for what’s right! Stick to your guns! You never know if you may be playing Ammon or Lamoni’s part in a similar scenario that may eventually bring similar conversion results.

Another thing that occurs to me is that Lamoni’s father was particularly impressed not just by Ammon’s fighting prowess, but by his mercy and generosity when in a position of power. Ammon held the life of Lamoni’s father in his hand, and Lamoni’s father knew it. Lamoni’s father probably thought that Ammon would do what he himself would have done in the same situation—extract as much benefit as possible because the chance wouldn’t come again. Lamoni’s father considered Ammon’s mercy as completely undeserved. Further, he would consider Ammon’s unselfish requests highy unusual when Ammon could have asked for so much more. Whether or not Ammon or Lamoni’s father realized it, when Ammon was merciful and generous, he became a type of Christ, an object lesson for Lamoni’s father so that he could begin to understand the mercy and generosity of God in the face of his own undeserving position.