Alma's counsel to his son Shiblon to be bold but not overbearing may reflect painful lessons that Alma learned after his initial missionary failures in Ammonihah. Courtesy of Intellectual Reserve, Inc.

After successfully preaching to the Zoramites in the city of Antionum and bringing many of them to repentance, the prophet Alma₂ returned to Zarahemla with his two younger sons, Shiblon and Corianton (see Alma 35:14).[1] Despite their success, Alma was grieved upon his return as he perceived “the iniquity of his people [the Nephites],” including their hard hearts and their increasing propensity to take offense at the word of God (v. 15). Possibly to help counteract the wickedness around him, as well as to support, instruct, and empower those closest to him, Alma gathered his three sons together to give each one “his charge . . . concerning the things pertaining unto righteousness” (v. ).[2]

As he talked with his second son, a steady, faithful, obedient, and patient young man (see Alma 38:2–4), Alma prudently acknowledged that Shiblon was just beginning to “teach the word” (v. 10). Because his son was a novice, Alma encouraged him to gain more experience by continuing to teach, but he also directed Shiblon to cultivate qualities that would make him a better teacher, such as diligence, temperance, humility, and the ability to modestly evaluate his own levels of wisdom and strength (see vv. 10–11). The prophet[3] then counseled his son about his teaching style, recommending that Shiblon use “boldness, but not overbearance” (v. 12). The words boldness, bold, and boldly are utilized twenty-seven times throughout the Book of Mormon to indicate that a person, or group of people, has spoken or acted with “courage, daring, fearlessness; confidence, assurance, [and] security.”[4] Overbearance, on the other hand, is utilized only once and seems to mean “to overcome, put down, or repress, as by power, authority, influence, or emotional pressure.”[5] As the only stylistic teaching advice that he gave to his son, Alma’s admonition to be bold but not overbearing generates two intriguing questions. First, why would boldness and overbearance be of prime importance to Alma when he could have discussed many other methodological teaching approaches with Shiblon? Second, what is the origin of Alma’s counsel? When, where, and how did Alma learn that boldness was appropriate for teaching and overbearance inappropriate? This study will answer these questions by demonstrating that the Lord expertly tutored Alma about boldness and overbearance during his initial missionary labors in the city of Ammonihah. It will also show that the lessons Alma learned about boldness and overbearance were painfully profound and permanently changed the way Alma conducted missionary work afterward. Thus, Alma made sure to advise Shiblon to be fearless and confident as a teacher but to avoid letting his confidence repress or overwhelm the Lord’s will in decisions about what to teach and how to teach it. Alma’s experiences in Ammonihah are instructive for anyone with leadership or teaching responsibilities.

Alma’s Missionary Visit to Ammonihah

According to Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, Alma the Younger is “among the most unforgettable characters in scripture.” In fact, he may have been the most “well-known celebrity of his day” because of his miraculous change from an unbelieving enemy of the church of God (see Mosiah 27:8–10) to a believing, faithful disciple in the church of God (see vv. 32–37).[6] After his change of heart, Alma went on to become both the high priest over the church of God (see Mosiah 28:20; Alma 4:18) and the first chief judge in the new government that King Mosiah₂, the last Nephite monarch, developed and established before his death (see Mosiah 29:11, 25, 28–30, 38–39, 47). Nine eventful years later,[7] Alma resigned his high political office so that he could “preach the word of God” to the Nephites on a full-time basis, believing it to be the best way to reclaim them from the wickedness and contentions that were again rising among them (see Alma 4:6–20).

Alma’s missionary tour required him to exercise high degrees of patience, dedication, and faith.[8] One scholar explains, “After considerable success in the cities of Zarahemla, Gideon, and Melek, Alma met the greatest challenge of his tenure as high priest upon arriving at the city of Ammonihah.”[9] Geographically, Ammonihah was roughly a three-day journey northward from the central Nephite city of Zarahemla, a considerable distance that would have naturally assured infrequent contact between the two cities, reduced political and cultural influence by Zarahemla, and increased autonomy for Ammonihah’s local government.[10] Additionally, Ammonihah’s religious community largely followed “the profession of Nehor” (Alma 16:9, 11), what one scholar has described as “a version of the Nephite faith” that was divergent “from some of the principles taught by the faithful Nephite prophets.”[11] Because of its political, economic, cultural, and religious differences, the city of Ammonihah may have felt like a foreign place to Alma when he arrived there, a situation requiring him to use courage and confidence—that is, boldness—to “preach the word of God” to the people (8:8).[12] Presumably Alma taught them “in their temples, and in their sanctuaries” (16:13), in their synagogues and houses, and “in their streets” (32:1);[13] but despite his best efforts, Alma had zero success because “Satan had gotten great hold upon the hearts of the people of the city” and they “would not hearken” to his words (8:9).

The comprehensive rejection by the people of Ammonihah may have been a particularly shocking experience for Alma, a man known for his successfully persuasive use of “many words” (Mosiah 27:8). Alma’s history demonstrates that he had always been able to convince some people to listen to him,[14] a circumstance that could have made the broad rejection by the people of Ammonihah a profoundly unique, painful, humiliating, and baffling experience. The conjunctive adverb nevertheless that immediately follows Mormon’s description of Alma’s failure conveys much about his reaction (see Alma 8:10). Nevertheless means “notwithstanding, in opposition to, or without regarding,”[15] and it shows that Alma chose to face what may have been his first large-scale missionary failure with determined boldness (courage, daring, fearlessness, and confidence), a quality that he had already demonstrated under previous adversity but that may have been significantly amplified by the unique lack of any positive response from the people of Ammonihah.[16]

Mormon relates that rather than giving up, Alma “labored much in the spirit, wrestling with God in mighty prayer” so that He “would pour out his Spirit upon the people who were in the city” and “grant” Alma the opportunity to baptize the people “unto repentance” (Alma 8:10). “Labored much in the spirit” is a curious phrase with an obscure meaning. Noel Reynolds’s comprehensive analysis of how spirit is used in the Book of Mormon shows that it is usually “a shorthand reference to the Holy Ghost.” However, Reynolds also acknowledges that the Book of Mormon has a handful of uncapitalized references to “the spirit” that “seem to be occurrences where the text is not obviously referring to a person.”[17] For example, Nephi, the son of Lehi, wrote “I have workings in the spirit, which doth weary me even that all my joints are weak” (1 Nephi 19:20). Enos, the son of Jacob, admitted to “struggling in the spirit” while he prayed for the welfare of his Nephite brethren (Enos 1:10). The missionary sons of Mosiah had “much labor in the spirit” (Alma 17:5) as they journeyed among the Lamanites. Like Alma’s labor “in the spirit,” it is not clear what the uncapitalized spirit in these passages refers to, opening the distinct possibility that these are not references to the Holy Ghost, but references to these men’s own spirits and to their determined efforts to develop greater spirituality. President Howard W. Hunter taught that “Developing spirituality and attuning ourselves to the highest influences of godliness is not an easy matter. It takes time and frequently involves a struggle . . . [and] deliberate effort.”[18] Thus, Alma may have responded to his first missionary failure by laboring internally with his own spirit in order to refine and increase his spirituality.[19] Even though the prophet was a “man of God” who was already “exercised with much faith” (2:30), “which is the greatest power available,” Alma may have concluded that the impenetrable hard-heartedness of the people of Ammonihah could be overcome only by his own increased faith in Jesus Christ. Consequently, the prophet may have diligently worked to cultivate and purify those things that affected his level of faith, such as his doctrinal understanding, his obedience, and his worthiness.[20] Once he had thoroughly done his part to spiritually gain access to an increase of divine power, Alma could then boldly approach God “in mighty prayer” and confidently ask for a miraculous outpouring of “his Spirit” (capitalized) that would expand his abilities to reach uninterested, reluctant, or hostile people (see Ether 12:12; Moroni 7:37).[21]

Mormon also relates that part of Alma’s spiritual labors involved “wrestling with God.” This is an important description that should not be quickly passed over, because it could be a key to explaining why Alma’s second attempt to succeed in Ammonihah failed. Because wrestling is a powerfully expressive word that inevitably creates visions of an intense struggle between two people in which each party attempts to physically dominate, subdue, or oppress the other,[22] wrestle is a peculiar term to associate with prayer, though Mormon is not the only Book of Mormon author to do so. Enos also wrote about the “wrestle” he had “before God” as he prayed to receive a remission of his sins (Enos 1:2; emphasis added). Without careful analytical attention, Enos’s prayer experience and Alma’s prayer experience sound similar. However, because of the word before, which means “in front of,” “in the presence of,” or “in sight of,”[23] Enos appears to be saying that God was not a participant in a wrestling match with Enos but was a spectator of a wrestling match. According to one interpretation published by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, “Enos did not wrestle with God.” Enos wrestled with himself to “find and express [his] real desires,” which may have been hidden behind sin, evasion, excuse, or denial and which needed to be revealed to him “under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost” so he could overcome them.[24] Because of the significant difference in meaning between “wrestling before God” and “wrestling with God,” Enos’s experience seems to be entirely distinct from Alma’s experience.[25]

Doctrinally, “prayer is a form of work,”[26] and it can involve intense “spiritual labor”[27] as it brings “the will of the Father and the will of the child”[28] into correspondence with each other. However, the object of prayer is not the triumphant subjugation or oppression of one party by the other as in a wrestling match.[29] Referring to a petitioner’s behavior, Elder Bruce D. Porter explains that “prayer should never be a matter of trying to change God’s mind, to persuade Him of the rightness of our request, or to counsel Him as to what is best.”[30] Likewise, referring to God’s responses to prayer, Elder D. Todd Christofferson teaches that “God will not live our lives for us nor control us as if we were His puppets. . . . Truly He loves us, and because He loves us, He neither compels nor abandons us. Rather He helps and guides us.”[31] As the prophet would later teach his oldest son Helaman, prayer is for the petitioner to “counsel with the Lord” (Alma 37:37) and to establish harmonious unity with him through submission and sacrifice as she or he identifies and secures “blessings that God is already willing to grant” based on conditions of seeking and asking for them.[32] With this understanding of the prayer relationship in mind, Mormon’s description of Alma “wrestling with God” in his prayers could be interpreted as an instance where Alma overbearingly asserted his belief that he was to be the lone missionary in Ammonihah over God’s very different plans for how missionary work was to be accomplished there. Rather than seeking a productive unity with God by asking detailed questions about how to proceed after his first failure, Alma may have overly relied on his previous missionary experiences as the sole messenger and assumed that he knew the procedural answers already and only needed to refine his spirituality to open the way for a miracle. President Uchtdorf taught that even though the prophet was “an exceptionally gifted and capable man,” he needed to stop thinking that he could do the work on his own.[33] This perspective provides one possible reason why Alma’s increased spiritual efforts to be worthy of a significant outpouring of the Spirit failed and why his second round of preaching had even greater negative results than the first. The people “hardened their hearts,” they accused him of exercising illegitimate political authority over them, they “withstood all his words,” they “reviled him, and spit upon him, and caused that he should be cast out of their city” (Alma 8:11–13).

Letting God Prevail

As Alma walked away from Ammonihah, he was “weighed down with sorrow, wading through much tribulation and anguish of soul, because of the wickedness of the people” (Alma 8:14). When sorrow is defined as “mental distress caused by loss, suffering, [or] disappointment,” we can more easily detect Alma’s psychological anguish and distinguish it from the rest of his emotional and physical pain.[34] Adversity often causes us to “ask many questions,” and it is possible that the prophet’s mental agony from his second failure manifested itself as questions.[35] Perhaps he asked himself, “Why wasn’t I successful after all the effort I put in?” or “Why didn’t I receive the spiritual outpouring that I worked and prayed for?” or “Why did the Lord send me to Ammonihah if it wasn’t to baptize?” Perhaps the prophet was even reminded of Zenos’s great missionary allegory in which the Lord of the vineyard heart-wrenchingly cries in response to the universally evil fruit on his olive trees, “What could I have done more for my vineyard?” (Jacob 5:41, 49).[36] It may be that Alma’s first failure, though it was a shocking and difficult experience that produced greater spiritual effort, was not enough to cause him to ask the right questions about how to succeed with the people of Ammonihah, but that his second, more painful failure did.

While Alma was “thus weighed down” in his mental anguish, an angel appeared (see Alma 8:14). Since “revelation almost always comes in response to a question, usually an urgent question,” and since it is not “likely to come unless [it is wanted] urgently, faithfully, humbly,”[37] the angel’s presence seems to be neither coincidental nor arbitrary. In fact, a careful examination of the interchange not only indicates that the messenger primarily came to answer the prophet’s questions about his situation, it also suggests what the agonizing and urgent questions were. For instance, the angel begins by admonishing Alma to “lift up [his] head and rejoice” because his success is not measured by anything that did or did not happen in Ammonihah, but by his long-term, consistent dedication and obedience to God (see v. 15). On the surface, this comforting statement could cheer a discouraged missionary, but it has much greater meaning when it is understood as a direct answer to personal questions that Alma may have been pondering, such as whether he had been successful in Ammonihah. The angel then commands the prophet to “return to the city of Ammonihah” (v. 16), a useful directive that is also more meaningful if Alma had been questioning whether he should have come to Ammonihah and whether leaving was the right thing to do. And finally, the angel commands the prophet to tell the people of Ammonihah to repent or “the Lord God will destroy them.” He also explains the reason for the message of destruction by revealing the people’s intentions to “destroy the liberty of [the Nephites],” critical information about the people’s hearts that was unknown to Alma previously (see vv. 16–17). These revelations are advantageous, but they have much greater value if they are perceived as answers to Alma’s questions about the content of his message, his reasons for teaching what he taught, and whether he should have taught something else instead. Interestingly, the angel does not directly address what Alma could have done differently in Ammonihah, but that important information comes during the events that follow the angel’s visit, a circumstance that supports the possibility that Alma had been asking himself what he could have done differently as he left the city.

As the prophet “speedily” returned to Ammonihah (Alma 8:18), perhaps he felt like Nephi, the son of Lehi, when Nephi went back to Jerusalem after two previous failures to try a third time to get the brass plates from Laban (see 1 Nephi 3–4), being “led by the Spirit, not knowing beforehand” what he was supposed to do (4:6). But as Nephi acted in faith within his gradually unfolding circumstances, the Holy Ghost helped him learn, step by step, how to obtain the precious plates (see 1 Nephi 4). Similarly, as Alma went back to Ammonihah, he gradually discovered what he needed to do differently. First, he found “another way” to enter the city (Alma 8:18) where he fortuitously met a man who would not only minister to his immediate physical needs for food and rest, but whose family would be receptive to him. Second, after spending “many days with Amulek” (v. 27) and blessing him and his entire household (see 10:7, 11), Alma was instructed to call Amulek to join him in preaching repentance to the city (see 8:29). Amulek turned out to be the key Alma needed to gain access to the minds and hearts of some of the people in Ammonihah (see 10:12; 11:46; 12:1). Not only did Amulek serve as a second witness of the truth (see 9:6; 10:12) but he was also “one of their own,”[38] someone the people could more easily identify and connect with. Under the combined influence of both missionaries, many of the people in Ammonihah believed and “began to repent, and to search the scriptures” (14:1). Ultimately, Alma’s righteous desires came to pass, but not in the way he initially envisioned. Through his painful disappointments, the prophet learned that boldness (courage, fearlessness, and confidence) can easily become overbearance (applying influence or pressure to bring about one’s desires). Even though Alma’s aspirations to teach and baptize in Ammonihah were righteous, he needed to learn not to let his determination to succeed repress or overwhelm God’s will in matters of what to teach and how to teach it. It was not until the right message was in the hands of the right messengers that missionary work in Ammonihah moved forward.[39]

Conclusion

While interviewing his second son, Shiblon, Alma wisely counseled the developing young teacher to “use boldness, but not overbearance” (Alma 38:12). As we have seen, this advice may have originated in Alma’s painful missionary experiences in Ammonihah where the prophet learned to be both a confident, fearless teacher and a humble, submissive one who was willing to let God’s will prevail in decisions about what he should teach and how he should teach it. Alma’s experiences learning about boldness and overbearance can inspire each of us to be more willing to humbly counsel with the Lord about how to fulfill our roles and responsibilities in life rather than inadvertently or intentionally asserting our desires and plans over his desires and plans.

Notes

[1] Following scholarly convention, I designate Alma the Younger as Alma₂ when necessary to distinguish him from his father, Alma the Elder (Alma₁).

[2] Mark D. Ogletree explains why Alma focused on his family in “Alma as an Intentional Father,” in Give Ear to My Words: Text and Context of Alma 36–42, ed. Kerry M. Hull, Nicholas J. Frederick, and Hank R. Smith (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2019), 326.

[3] Prophet appears in the Book of Mormon more than two hundred times. Amulek and the angel who appeared to Amulek both refer to Alma as a prophet (see Alma 8:20; 10:7). Kevin L. Tolley has shown that Old Testament biblical call narratives identifying Jehovah’s true prophet are present in the Book of Mormon and that they are used to identify prophetic authority. See “A Call to Repentance, a Prophetic Call,” in Hull, Frederick, and Smith, Give Ear to My Words, 298–301.

[4] Oxford English Dictionary Online (hereafter OED), s.v. “boldness,” https://www.oed.com/. For figures speaking with boldness, see 2 Nephi 1:26; 4:24; Jacob 2:7; Mosiah 12:19; Alma 1:11; 9:7; 18:20, 24; 3 Nephi 3:11; 4:14; 7:16; Moroni 8:16, 21. For many people speaking with boldness, see 3 Nephi 6:20, 23. For multiple people acting with boldness, see Alma 30:27; Mormon 2:24; 4:20; 5:6.

[5] OED, s.v. “overbear.”

[6] Dieter F. Uchtdorf, “Learn from Alma and Amulek,” Ensign or Liahona,November 2016, 71.

[7] During his first eight years as the chief judge Alma faced an anti-Christ (see Alma 1:1–15), priestcraft, wickedness, and dissensions in the church of God (see vv. 16–24), an attempted restoration of the monarchy (see 2:1–10), a civil war (see vv. 11–38), a battle with the Lamanites (see 3:20–25), and a second rise of pride and wickedness in the church of God (see 4:6–12).

[8] See Gerald Hansen Jr., “The Book of Alma as a Prototype for Teaching the Word of God,” in The Book of Mormon: Alma, the Testimony of the Word, ed. Monte S. Nyman and Charles D. Tate Jr. (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 1992), https://rsc.byu.edu/book-mormon-alma-testimony-word/book-alma-prototype-teaching-word-god.

[9] John W. Welch, “The Trial of Alma and Amulek,” in The Legal Cases in the Book of Mormon, ed. John W. Welch (Provo, UT: Brigham Young University Press, 2008), 237.

[10] See Brant A. Gardner, Second Witness: Analytical and Contextual Commentary on the Book of Mormon (Draper, UT: Greg Kofford Books, 2007), 4:141, 143.

[11] Gardner explains that the followers of Nehor believed that every priest and teacher ought to become popular and should be financially supported by the people (see Alma 1:3). They also denied the redeeming mission of the Messiah and argued that all mankind should be saved at the last day (see v. 4) no matter what their behavior (see 15:15). See Second Witness, 4:42–43.

[12] During Alma’s missionary visits to Zarahemla and Gideon, he preached repentance, obedience to the commandments of God, baptism, spiritual rebirth, and the atonement of Jesus Christ (see Alma 5; 7).

[13] The sons of Mosiah also accomplished their missionary labors by traveling “from house to house” (Alma 26:28), teaching in people’s homes, in their streets, upon their hills, in their temples, and in their synagogues (see v. 29).

[14] As an unbeliever Alma stole “away the hearts of the people,” “became a great hinderment to the prosperity of the church,” and led “many of the people to do after the manner of his iniquities” (Mosiah 27:8–9). After his conversion, Almabrought “many to the knowledge of truth” (vv. 35–36). For his additional success see Alma 4:4; 5–7; 8:4–5.

[15] OED, s.v. “nevertheless.”

[16] Alma bravely faced persecution by unbelievers (see Mosiah 27:32); he stayed strong in the sword fight with Amlici (see Alma 2:29–31).

[17] Noel B. Reynolds, “The Language of the Spirit in the Book of Mormon,” Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship 33 (2019): 198n25. Royal Skousen does not explain why he capitalizes spirit in some instances and not in others. See The Book of Mormon: The Earliest Text (New Haven and London: Yale University, 2009), xli.

[18] Howard W. Hunter, “Developing Spirituality,” Ensign, May 1979, 25.

[19] Former Relief Society general president Elaine L. Jack taught that “spirituality is all about feeling the Spirit of God, wanting it with us, sharing the Spirit with others, and heeding its prompting.” See “Walk with Me,” Ensign, May 1994, 16.

[20] President Russell M. Nelson explains that studying the scriptures, acting obediently, and worthily participating in sacred ordinances can increase faith in Christ in “Christ Is Risen; Faith in Him Will Move Mountains,” Liahona, May 2021, 103.

[21] President Nelson says, “Through your faith, Jesus Christ will increase your ability to move the mountains in your life.” “Christ Is Risen,” 102.

[22] The OED defines wrestle as “to strive with strength and skill to throw a person to the ground by grappling with him; to endeavour to overpower and lay down another.”

[23] OED,s.v. “before.”

[24] Church Educational System, “Enos—Words of Mormon,” in Book of Mormon Student Manual (Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 2009), 130.

[25] Genesis 32:22–31 gives an account of the patriarch Jacob wrestling all night with an angel to obtain a blessing. This controversial story has sparked much commentary from Judaic, Catholic, and Protestant theologians, biblical scholars, and literary critics. It is difficult to utilize Jacob’s experience to illuminate the wrestling portrayed in Alma 8 because it is not clear who the angel is, an identity that is crucial for understanding a matter of this kind. An unknown man, Esau, an angel, the angel Gabriel, a figure of Christ, and God have all been proposed as Jacob’s antagonist. See Rosemary Ellen Guiley, Encyclopedia of Angels (New York: Facts On File, 1996), 98–100. Stephen A. Geller provides a literary interpretation in Sacred Enigmas: Literary Religion in the Hebrew Bible (London: Routledge, 1996), 9–29. Andrew C. Skinner presents a Latter-day Saint interpretation in “Jacob in the Presence of God,” in Sperry Symposium Classics: The Old Testament, ed. Paul Y. Hoskisson (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2005), 117–32.

[26] Bible Dictionary, “Prayer.”

[27] Milton Camargo, “Ask, Seek, and Knock,” Ensign or Liahona, November 2020, 108.

[28] Bible Dictionary, “Prayer.”

[29] The Book of Mormon indicates that the Holy Ghost “strives” with people in 1 Nephi 7:14; 2 Nephi 26:11; Mormon 5:16; Ether 2:15; 15:19; Moroni 8:28; 9:4. Webster’s 1828 Dictionary defines strive as (1) “to make efforts; to use exertions; to endeavor with earnestness” and (2) “to contend; to contest; to struggle in opposition to another; to be in contention or dispute” (https://webstersdictionary1828.com/). Because Christ taught that “he that hath the spirit of contention is not of me, but is of the devil” (3 Nephi 11:29), the first definition of strive fits better theologically. President Boyd K. Packer taught that “the Spirit does not get our attention by shouting or shaking us with a heavy hand. Rather it whispers. It caresses so gently that if we are preoccupied we may not feel it at all. . . . Occasionally it will press just firmly enough for us to pay heed. But most of the time, if we do not heed the gentle feeling, the Spirit will withdraw and wait until we come seeking and listening.” “The Candle of the Lord,” Ensign, January 1983.

[30] Bruce D. Porter, “Did You Think to Pray?,” Brigham Young University devotional, December 4, 2012, https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/bruce-d-porter/did-you-think-to-pray/.

[31] D. Todd Christofferson, “Free Forever, to Act for Themselves,” Ensign or Liahona, November 2014, 16–17.

[32] Bible Dictionary, “Prayer.”

[33] Uchtdorf, “Learn from Alma and Amulek,” 72.

[34] OED, s.v. “sorrow.”

[35] Richard G. Scott, “Trust in the Lord,” Ensign, November 1995, 17.

[36] That Alma knew of, and utilized, the teachings of Zenos is evident as he addresses the poor Zoramites; see Alma 33:3–13. Noel B. Reynolds argues that Alma concluded his Zarahemla sermon with images from Zenos’s allegory in “Nephite Uses and Interpretations of Zenos,” in The Allegory of the Olive Tree, ed. Stephen D. Ricks and John W. Welch (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1994), 44.

[37] Jeffrey R. Holland, “Cast Not Away Therefore Your Confidence,” Brigham Young University devotional, March 2, 1999, https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/jeffrey-r-holland/cast-not-away-therefore-your-confidence/.

[38] Uchtdorf, “Learn from Alma and Amulek,” 72.

[39] In subsequent missionary journeys, Alma always took at least one companion with him, sometimes more, which suggests that he permanently internalized the need for more than one witness and embraced the advantages of different personalities helping with the work. See Alma 15:1, 12–13 (Sidom); 16:13 (undisclosed locations); 31:4–7 (Antionum); 43:1–2 (undisclosed locations).