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Alma — Chapter 26

¹ This is what Ammon said to his brothers: “My brothers, we have many reasons to be very happy. How could we have dreamed when we first left the land of Zarahemla that God would give us such great blessings?

² “I ask you, can you tell me what great blessings he has given to us?

³ “I will answer for you. Our brothers and sisters, the Lamanites, were in a terrible pit of darkness, but now look how many of them have come to see God’s wonderful light! We have been blessed to be tools in God’s hands to do this great work.

⁴ “Thousands of them are part of God’s kingdom now, and they are happy.

⁵ “The field was ripe. You are blessed, because you worked hard all day long. Look at how many [souls] you gathered! They will all be taken into the storehouse, and not be lost.

⁶ “Yes, they will not be destroyed by the storm which will come at the last day, and they will not be blown away by the tornadoes. When the storm comes, they will be in a safe place where it cannot come in, and the winds will not be able to blow them where the enemy wants them to go.

⁷ “They are in the Lord’s hands, and they are his, and he will raise them up at the last day.

⁸ “May our God’s name be blessed! Let us sing his praises and give thanks to his holy name, because he does what is righteous forever.

⁹ “If we had not come up out of the land of Zarahemla, these dear brothers and sisters of ours, who have loved us, would still hate us and would still not know God.”

¹⁰ After Ammon said this, his brother said to him: “Ammon, I’m afraid your great joy is making you boast.”

¹¹ But Ammon said to him: “I am not boasting about my own strength or wisdom, but my heart is full of joy, and I will be happy in my God.

¹² “Yes, I know that I am nothing, and that I am weak. I will not boast about myself, but I will boast about my God, because I can do anything in his strength. Yes, we have done many miracles in this land, so we will praise his name forever.

¹³ “Look at how many thousands of our brothers and sisters he has freed from the pains of hell. They sing about saving love because of the power of God’s word in us, so don’t we have good reason to be happy?

¹⁴ “Yes, we have a good reason to praise him forever, because he is the Most High God, and he has freed our brothers and sisters from the chains of hell.

¹⁵ “Yes, they were surrounded by eternal darkness and destruction, but he brought them into his eternal light and salvation. Now they are surrounded by his great love. Yes, and we were the tools in his hands to do this great and wonderful work.

¹⁶ “So let us glory in the Lord. Yes, we will be happy, because our joy is full. Yes, we will praise our God forever. Who can glory too much in the Lord? Yes, who can say too much about his great power and mercy and patience towards people? I cannot say even a little bit of how I feel.

¹⁷ “Who would have thought our God would have so much mercy that he would save us from our awful, sinful, and filthy ways?

¹⁸ “We went around in anger trying to destroy his church.

¹⁹ “Why didn’t he just let us be destroyed by his justice, and doom us to eternal misery?

²⁰ “O, my soul almost runs away at the thought! But he did not let justice come on us, but saved us in his great mercy from the pit of death and misery, and saved our souls.

²¹ “Now, my brothers, what kind of people know these things? The only people who know these things are those who truly repent.

²² “Yes, people who repent and have faith and do good works and always pray — those are the ones who will know God’s mysteries. They will learn things no one knows yet, and they will be able to bring thousands of souls to repentance, just as we have been able to bring our brothers and sisters to repentance.

²³ “Do you remember, my brothers, that when we told our brothers and sisters in the land of Zarahemla that we were going to the land of Nephi to teach the gospel to the Lamanites, they laughed at us?

²⁴ “They said to us: ‘Do you think you can teach the Lamanites the truth? Do you think you can show people as stubborn as the Lamanites that their ancestors’ teachings are not true? They love to kill, and their lives are full of sin, all the way back to the beginning.’ Do you remember, my brothers, that they said that to us?

²⁵ “They also said: ‘Let us take our weapons and completely destroy them and their wickedness out of the land, so they will not destroy us.’

²⁶ “But you see, my brothers, we did not come into the wilderness to destroy our brothers and sisters, but to see if we might save a few of their souls.

²⁷ “Then when our hearts were sad, and we were going to go back home, the Lord comforted us and said: ‘Go among your brothers and sisters, the Lamanites, and be patient in your troubles, and I will give you success.’

²⁸ “So we came among them, and were patient in our suffering (and we suffered in every way). Yes, we went from house to house, hoping for mercy from the world and from God.

²⁹ “We went into their houses and taught them, and taught them on their streets, and on their hills. We taught them in their temples and churches. We have been thrown out, and laughed at, and spit on, and hit, and stoned. We have been tied up and thrown into prison, but God through his power and wisdom saved us every time.

³⁰ “We suffered all these things just so we might be able to save someone’s soul. We thought we would have joy if we saved just a few of them.

³¹ “Now we can see the fruits of our work, and are there just a few? No, there are many! And we can see they are true believers by their love for their brothers and sisters, and by their love for us.

³² “They would rather die than kill their enemies, and they love their brothers so much that they have buried their weapons deep in the earth.

³³ “I ask you, has there ever been such great love in all the land? No, there has not, not even among the Nephites.

³⁴ “The Nephites would take up their weapons against their brothers, and not let themselves be killed. But look how many of these have died. We know they went to God because of their love, and because of their hatred of sin.

³⁵ “Now, don’t we have good reason to be happy? I tell you, no one has ever had as much reason to be happy since the world began. I am so happy, my joy makes me boast about my God, because he has all power and wisdom, and understands everything. He is full of mercy to save those who repent and believe on his name.

³⁶ “Now if this is boasting, then I will boast, because this is my life and my light, and my joy and salvation from eternal woe. Yes, may my God’s name be blessed, because he has protected this people who are part of the House of Israel, and who are living in a strange land.

³⁷ “Now, my brothers, we see that God remembers all people, wherever they may be. He counts them, and he has mercy on them and on all the earth. This is my joy, and I am full of thanks. Yes, I will give thanks to my God forever. Amen.”