The One with Alma

April 28, 2014 

 

English classes started this week! Yay! We've been waiting for these since I got to this area! Woohooo! 

I am seriously lacking desires to write a lengthy email today. This week was great! I love the Woodlands. Poor Hna McOmber has a cough. We met a cute old man named O., and we sang "Grand Eres Tu".  He cried. We had interviews with President.  

But more importantly than what I did this week--the gospel of Jesus Christ. I read this chapter in my personal study this week. It is my second favorite story in the Book of Mormon. So, I've decided to copy and paste the whole thing for your enjoyment. It counts as your scripture study for the day! 

Alma 14 (Please attempt to seriously imagine this in your mind as you read):

 1 And it came to pass after he had made an end of speaking unto the people many of them did believe on his words, and began to repent, and to search the ^ascriptures.

 2 But the more part of them were desirous that they might destroy Alma and Amulek; for they were angry with Alma, because of the ^aplainness of his words unto Zeezrom; and they also said that Amulek had ^blied unto them, and had reviled against their law and also against their lawyers and judges.

 3 And they were also angry with Alma and Amulek; and because they had ^atestified so plainly against their wickedness, they sought to ^bput them away privily.

 4 But it came to pass that they did not; but they took them and bound them with strong cords, and took them before the chief judge of the land.

 5 And the people went forth and witnessed against them—testifying that they had reviled against the law, and their lawyers and judges of the land, and also of all the people that were in the land; and also testified that there was but one God, and that he should send his Son among the people, but he should ^anot save them; and many such things did the people testify against Alma and Amulek. Now this was done before the chief judge of the land.

 6 And it came to pass that Zeezrom was astonished at the words which had been spoken; and he also knew concerning the ^ablindness of the minds, which he had caused among the people by his ^blying words; and his soul began to be ^charrowed up under a ^dconsciousness of his own guilt; yea, he began to be encircled about by the pains of hell.

 7 And it came to pass that he began to cry unto the people, saying: Behold, I am ^aguilty, and these men are spotless before God. And he began to plead for them from that time forth; but they reviled him, saying: Art thou also possessed with the devil? And they spit upon him, and ^bcast him out from among them, and also all those who believed in the words which had been spoken by Alma and Amulek; and they cast them out, and sent men to cast stones at them.

 8 And they brought their wives and children together, and whosoever believed or had been taught to believe in the word of God they caused that they should be ^acast into the fire; and they also brought forth their records which contained the holy scriptures, and cast them into the fire also, that they might be ^bburned and destroyed by fire.

 9 And it came to pass that they took Alma and Amulek, and carried them forth to the place of ^amartyrdom, that they might witness the destruction of those who were consumed by fire.

 10 And when Amulek saw the pains of the women and children who were consuming in the fire, he also was pained; and he said unto Alma: How can we witness this awful scene? Therefore let us stretch forth our hands, and exercise the ^apower of God which is in us, and save them from the flames.

 11 But Alma said unto him: The Spirit constraineth me that I must not stretch forth mine hand; for behold the Lord receiveth them up unto himself, in ^aglory; and he doth suffer that they may do this thing, or that the people may do this thing unto them, according to the hardness of their hearts, that the ^bjudgments which he shall exercise upon them in his wrath may be just; and the ^cblood of the ^dinnocent shall stand as a witness against them, yea, and cry mightily against them at the last day.

 12 Now Amulek said unto Alma: Behold, perhaps they will burn us also.

 13 And Alma said: Be it according to the will of the Lord. But, behold, our work is not finished; therefore they burn us not.

 14 Now it came to pass that when the bodies of those who had been cast into the fire were consumed, and also the records which were cast in with them, the chief judge of the land came and stood before Alma and Amulek, as they were bound; and he smote them with his hand upon their ^acheeks, and said unto them: After what ye have seen, will ye preach again unto this people, that they shall be cast into a ^blake of fire and brimstone?

 15 Behold, ye see that ye had not power to save those who had been cast into the fire; neither has God saved them because they were of thy faith. And the judge smote them again upon their cheeks, and asked: What say ye for yourselves?

 16 Now this judge was after the order and faith of ^aNehor, who slew Gideon.

 17 And it came to pass that Alma and Amulek answered him ^anothing; and he smote them again, and delivered them to the officers to be ^bcast into prison.

 18 And when they had been cast into prison three days, there came many ^alawyers, and judges, and priests, and teachers, who were of the profession of Nehor; and they came in unto the prison to see them, and they questioned them about many words; but they answered them nothing.

 19 And it came to pass that the judge stood before them, and said: Why do ye not answer the words of this people? Know ye not that I have ^apower to deliver you up unto the flames? And he ^bcommanded them to speak; but they answered nothing.

 20 And it came to pass that they departed and went their ways, but came again on the morrow; and the judge also smote them again on their cheeks. And many came forth also, and smote them, saying: Will ye stand again and judge this people, and condemn our law? If ye have such great power why do ye not ^adeliver yourselves?

 21 And many such things did they say unto them, gnashing their teeth upon them, and spitting upon them, and saying: How shall we look when we are damned?

 22 And many such things, yea, all manner of such things did they say unto them; and thus they did ^amock them for many days. And they did withhold food from them that they might hunger, and water that they might thirst; and they also did take from them their clothes that they were naked; and thus they were ^bbound with strong cords, and confined in ^cprison.

 23 And it came to pass after they had thus suffered for many days, (and it was on the twelfth day, in the tenth month, in the tenth year of the reign of the judges over the people of Nephi) that the chief judge over the land of ^aAmmonihah and many of their teachers and their lawyers went in unto the prison where Alma and Amulek were bound with cords.

 24 And the chief judge stood before them, and smote them again, and said unto them: If ye have the ^apower of God deliver yourselves from these bands, and then we will believe that the Lord will destroy this people according to your words.

 25 And it came to pass that they all went forth and smote them, saying the same words, even until the last; and when the last had spoken unto them the ^apower of God was upon Alma and Amulek, and they rose and stood upon their feet.

 26 And Alma cried, saying: How long shall we suffer these great ^aafflictions, O Lord? O Lord, ^bgive us strength according to our faith which is in Christ, even unto ^cdeliverance.  And they broke the cords with which they were bound; and when the people saw this, they began to flee, for the fear of destruction had come upon them.

 27 And it came to pass that so great was their fear that they fell to the earth, and did not obtain the outer door of the ^aprison; and the earth shook mightily, and the walls of the prison were rent in twain, so that they fell to the earth; and the chief judge, and the lawyers, and priests, and teachers, who smote upon Alma and Amulek, were slain by the fall thereof.

 28 And Alma and Amulek came forth out of the prison, and they were not hurt; for the Lord had granted unto them ^apower, according to their faith which was in Christ. And they straightway came forth out of the prison; and they were ^bloosed from their ^cbands; and the prison had fallen to the earth, and every soul within the walls thereof, save it were Alma and Amulek, was slain; and they straightway came forth into the city.

 29 Now the people having heard a great noise came running together by multitudes to know the cause of it; and when they saw Alma and Amulek coming forth out of the prison, and the walls thereof had fallen to the earth, they were struck with great fear, and fled from the presence of Alma and Amulek even as a goat fleeth with her young from two lions; and thus they did flee from the presence of Alma and Amulek.

(IMAGINE THAT. Put epic music in the background as they walk through the clouds of dust. If I could send a video of myself acting this out and adequately demonstrate it, I totally would!)

STORIES DONT GET ANY BETTER THAN THAT PEOPLE. Why does anyone even watch TV? Just read the Book of Mormon!

Much Love,

Hermana Burnham

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I am lucky to be following the blogs of Hna Burnham's companions.  Here is an excerpt from Hna McOmber's blog (that I stole) giving some detail on this past week.  Thank you Hna McOmber!

“So one of the families we teach is X and her husband, and her brother E and his wife, and all of their kids. We only stopped by for a quick lesson, but it was a miracle that their kids were already in bed and that all four were home from work, so I followed the prompting to teach them the Evangelio lesson, which covers Faith, Repentance, Baptism, Gift of the Holy Ghost and Endure to the End. When I started talking about the Gift of the Holy Ghost, E's head snapped up and he had this huge look of shock on his face. He and X spoke super rapidly for a couple seconds and he turned to me and said, "We are members of your church!" WHAT?!? No wonder they were such golden investigators. hahah X and E were baptized as youth in Honduras, but went inactive. X came to church on Sunday! They will be a huge support in helping their spouses and children join the church. So crazy!

One day we were walking down River Oaks and we saw this cute old man sitting in front of his house, so we went over and said hi. He is this old, leathery, skinny, blind man with two teeth.  He is from from Mexico. He had us pull up some chairs and grab some water and sit and chat with him. He was SO sweet. I absolutely LOVED talking to him. Then we sang "Grand Eres Tu" for him and he just started sobbing and praising God. . .  

One day we were trying to visit people and no one was answering their door, per usual. It was 8:30 so we had half an hour and no one to talk to! We have a saying in the mission, "If you are craving a mango, go get a mango." Hermana Burnham was craving tater tots, so we drove over to Sonic. haha! We ended up meeting this cool kid and had a really great conversation with him about the church.

Church as a missionary is so crazy. I can't wait to come home and actually sit and enjoy church. haha We stand at the doors and greet everyone that walks in, then we ran up to the stand to sing prelude music with the ward choir, then we ran down to sit with our investigators and less-actives that came (YAY!), then we whispered to them everything that was going on, then we ran up to sing another song with the choir, then we finished whispering everything for the rest of sacrament meeting, then we herded them all into the next room for class, then we ran and did singing time in junior primary, then we ran and herded them to Relief Society and Elders Quorum, then we ran and led singing time in senior primary, then we ran and made a list for relief society to sign up to feed us, then we ran and talked to the Stake President, then we ran and picked up the food a member made for us out in her car, then we ran back in and tried to get all of the right kids back to the right parents and find our investigators, and then we have to thank everyone who signed up to feed us and say goodbye to everyone. It is MADNESS.   

It was so amazing to have our investigator W at church! He is so ready! He loved Sacrament meeting, and the Stake President found us after Sunday School and told us to get him a baptismal date right after church, so we were stoked! But when we walked in to the end of Elder's Quorum, we found him totally surrounded by people all trying to talk to him and our ward mission leader was trying to pry open the doors of the baptismal font... LITERALLY. Needless to say, he is overwhelmed and will not be setting a date any time soon.”