King lamoni part 2 Alma 19

We left off last with King Lamoni, falling to the ground as if dead.

After 2 days and two nights, King Lamoni's Queen summoned Ammon. 

Ammon came unto her,

     "And she said unto him: The servants of my husband have made it known unto me that thou art a prophet of a hold God, and that thou hast power to do man mighty works in his name; 

Therefore, if this is the case, I would that ye should go in and see my husband, for he has been laid upon his bed for the space of two days and two nights; and some say that he is not dead, but others say that he is dead and that he stinketh and that he ought to be placed in the sepulchre; but as for myself, to me he doth not stink."

Ammon had actually wanted to go in and see the king because he knew that he was carried away by the spirit and that he was learning and that the veil of darkness was being lifted from his mind.

Ammon went in to see the king and told the queen that he was not dead and that he would arise the next morning, and not to bury him.

     "And Ammon said unto her: Believest thou this? And she said unto him: I have had no witness save thy word, and the word of our servants; nevertheless I believe that it shall be according as thou hast said." 

     "And Ammon said unto her: Blessed art thou because of thy exceeding faith; I say unto thee woman, here has not been such great faith among all the Nephites." 

The queen watched over her husband all night, and he arose as Ammon had promised. King Lamoni, blessed the Lord and told them of the prophecy that he had received. Then he and the queen were overpowered by the spirt and sunk down. Ammon saw the spirit of the Lord was present and poured his soul out in thankful prayer, and he too sunk down through the spirit.

Then all those in the house saw what had happened and they all cried out in prayer, and they too sunk to the earth, except for one Lamanitish woman, who had converted the Christ many years ago, because her father had received a vision. Her name was Abish. 

Abish ran outside and made it known unto all the people of what had happened. All the people came in unto the house and they assumed that all the host of the house were dead and they saw that Ammon was a Nephite. They assumed that a great evil had come upon the house, which was why all the people of the house appeared to be dead. 

      "Now, one of them, whose brother had been slain with the sword of Ammon, being exceedingly angry with Ammon, drew his sword and went forth that he might let it fall upon Ammon, to slay him; and he lifted the sword to smite him, behold, he fell dead."

When the people saw that the man had fallen dead, they were frightened and dared not to touch Ammon. 

Abish went forth and took her mistress' hand and as soon as Abish touched the queen's hand, she arose and stood, and said,

     ". . .O blessed Jesus, who has saved me from an awful hell! O blessed God, have mercy on this people!" 

Then Lamoni arose and began to rebuke the people and teach them what Ammon taught him. Many heard his words and were converted,  but there were many that were not converted. 

Many were baptized and did believe on his words and the established a church.

This is one of my favorite book of Mormon stories, I love the amazing spirit the the Lord poured out upon the people.

So, we might not fall to the ground as if dead to receive testimony of the Lord.

It's an amazing story, and Ammon was protected because the Lord had promised his father, King Mosiah  that he would protect his sons. 

I just thought that this whole story would be a good one to tell. There are so many good stories, so I'll probably be using a lot of stories in later blogs. <3

King Lamoni part 1 Alma 18

Okay, so last post was Alma 17, and I talked about Ammon going on a mission and he began working for King Lamoni.
So, it picks up in chapter 18 that King Lamoni is shown the arms that Ammon had hewn from the enemy Lamanites that had tried to scatter the king's flocks.
So, when the king saw these things he commanded his servants to repeat all that had happened and he was astonished and assumed that Ammon was the Great Spirit. So, he inquires as to where Ammon is, and he is told that Ammon is feeding the king's horses horses. Lamoni wants to speak with Ammon but he is too afraid to summon him.
Eventually he does summon him and Ammon asks what the king desired of him. The king was bewildered and did not speak for an hour, Ammon inquires again, what the king desires of him.

     ". . .But the king answered him not. And when it came to pass that Ammmon, being filled with the Spirit of God, therefore he perceived the thoughts of the king. And he said unto him: Is it because thou hast heard that I defended thy servants and they flocks,  and slew seven of their brethren with the sling and with the sword, and smote off the arms of the others, in order to defend thy flocks and thy servants; Behold is it this that causeth thy marvelings?"

Ammon, through the Spirit of the Lord, discerned the thoughts of Lamoni.
After Ammon had said these things, Lamoni told Ammon that he would give Ammon anything that he desired.
Ammon said that all he wanted was to teach Lamoni the Gospel. Lamoni consented that he wanted to learn.
Ammon teaches Lamoni the basics, and Lamoni listens and believes.

"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. And now, when he said this, he fell unto the earth, as if he were dead."

His servants took his body to his wife, the Queen, and laid him on a bed. He laid there, as if he were dead, for two days and two nights, and his wife and children mourned for him.

That's where chapter 18 ends. Chapter 19 is where the story really begins.

So, we may say "Oh, I'll never meet an Ammon that will give me this amazing spiritual moment and teach me like Lamoni."
So, wrong. We have our strong, young missionaries that preach the gospel. They are called by the Spirit and they are the true super heros of our day. They are truly men called of God, and if you invite the spirit in with you, you will have the same amazing testimony delivered to you that Ammon did, but like everything else in the world, you have to request it and invite it in. Feeling the Spirit is amazing and I always wondered why I didn't feel the spirit during church and all these spiritual activities, everyone's like Oh, I felt the spirit so strongly, and I never noticed a difference. I think the thing is that I invite the spirit with me always and I stay out of situations that would make him leave me. I strive to always feel him near, and if you invite him in and keep him in your mind and in your heart you will truly feel his love and your life will be blessed.
There will always be trials. Satan is constantly trying to put his hooks into anyone that tries to follow the straight and narrow path. He doesn't try to go after people without a testimony, of course he influences them, but anyone who is truly trying to be good he's going to hammer away at, day after day. He wants us to give up, he wants us to fail and to not believe. He puts all sorts of stumbling blocks and barriers in our way to slow us down or stop us all together, but we can't let him win. He may win a battle or two, but we cannot let him win the war. We have to be prepared to step up and boldly declare our testimonies, and be like Ammon.

First Post!!!!! :D!!!

Okay, so, I was reading Alma chapter 17 in the Book of Mormon today. It's one of my favorite chapters, it tells the story of Ammon. (one of my favorite Book of Mormon heros)

Ammon goes to preach the word to the Lamanites, he is bound upon arrival and taken to the king of the Lamanites, Lamoni. Lamoni inquires whether Ammon plans to stay in the city with his people. Ammon replies that that was what he wanted to do. Lamoni wishes Ammon to marry one of his daughters, Ammon kindly refuses and requests to be a servant instead.

The King consents, and Ammon is sent to watch his flocks with several other servants of the king, and they drove them to a place to be watered. 

Other Lamanites come scatter the king's flocks. The other servants weep for they believe that the king will slay them for losing the king's flock. Ammon says, 

"My brethren, be of good cheer and let us go in search of the flocks, and we will gather them together and bring them back  unto the place of water; and thus we will preserve the flocks unto the king and he will not slay us."

So, they gathered the flocks together and take them back to the place of water, when the Lamanites again try to scatter the flocks. Ammon doesn't just stand by and watch this time. The Lamanites are of a large number. He stands against them, but the spirit of The Lord is with him and he slays six of them with a sling and stones. Now the other's are angry for the death of their brethren so they rush upon Ammon to beat him with clubs, but Ammon smites off the arms of any who raise an arm against him. The Lamanites flee from before him. Ammon and the servants of Lamoni water the flock. 

Later they bring the arms of the Lamanites to the king as a testimony of what Ammon had done.

Now, how can we relate this story to our lives? Well, hopefully we don't go around hacking of other people's limbs, so there must be a spiritual aspect to it. 

First and foremost would be at the beginning of the chapter, Faith. Ammon first had faith that he would be able to be a missionary to the Lamanites without being killed. Second, he had faith that the Lord would give him the strength that he needed to defeat the Lamanites, and save the king's flocks. 

Now we may not have to fight agains Lamanites trying to scatter our flocks, but let us liken our flocks to our testimony. Like sheep, testimonies are fragile and easily lost if disturbed, but otherwise stay nearby us. Satan and his hosts are the Lamanites, they try to scatter our testimony. We must stay strong and slay the spirit of the adversary who opposes us. If we follow the Prophet's council and stay in places where our spirits will be uplifted, our testimonies strengthened and our minds pure, we find peace and joy. 

So put on your spiritual armor and be ready to face what you come in contact with and survive the spiritual Lamanites that would otherwise scatter your testimony.