Tuesday, May 26, 2009

One man

Throughout today's and yesterday's reading, I couldn't stop thinking about how all this (the conversion of the Lamanites) had happened because of one man - Ammon (and his brothers too, of course - hence the cheesy clipart I attached here - but c'mon, you know we give most of the [non-Heavenly Father] credit to Ammon)
That was a long sentence. Hope it makes sense.
I wonder if Ammon, as he was turning down his father Mosiah's kingdom, had even an inkling of the amazing journey he would take and the incredible success he would have as a missionary. Because of him, thousands (tens of?) Lamanites found the gospel. And they weren't just converts, they were SUPERconverts - "zealous for righteousness." And even when their brothers, the Amalekites and Amulonites (after the order of Nehor - who Malerie probably feels compassion for like Sherem, but I think he's a stinker) came against them to fight, they wouldn't. They were in the act of praising God as they were murdered. Which brought some Lamanites (Laman and Lemuel's actual descendants) to the gospel and repentance - even more than the number that were slain (1,004, right? Can you imagine whose job it was to count all those dead bodies?!). They became the Anti-Nephi-Lehis, then the people of Ammon, whose sons later became the famous stripling warriors (every YW's fantasy boyfriend).
All because of one man.
I hope someday I can do something cool enough to have such a tremendous effect on the world.

1 comments:

Malerie said...

haha, I don't feel compassion for all wicked men....just some of them :)

I was thinking similar thoughts today about Ammon. This has always been one of my favorite parts of the Book of Mormon. His sacrifice and service to the Lord affected so many. He seemed to go about it so confident too, trusting the Lord would take care of him. I love the brotherhood of the sons of Mosiah as they all go out and serve missions, run into eachother and can't contain the joy they feel in hearing how many people they have converted.

Also, the Anti-Nephi-Lehies who made a difficult outward commitment to serve the Lord. I'm sure burying their weapons was a real sacrifice since pretty much every year there was some huge battle going on!

Thanks for your thoughts. It's all pretty amazing.