Alma 49:3-5, 12-15

At the beginning of the year 2013 I was serving as a full-time missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in The Bronx of New York City. As most people who serve in the capacity of a full-time missionary soon find out, it can be quite challenging almost all the time. The particular difficulty that my teaching companion and I faced at this time was retaining the religious investigators we found. It seemed as if no matter how much effort we put forth to pray for, stay in contact with, and prepare to teach the people who initially were interested in the restored gospel, it didn't seem to work. Within three weeks after initial contact, most of them would either not respond to phone calls nor texts, tell us they no longer had time to continue investigating, or inform us that they were no longer interested.

Of course, this is nothing unusual as a missionary. And fortunately, I had learned at this point how to deal with disappointments like these. At this same time I also had the additional responsibility of being a district leader, helping to lead and coordinate the efforts of a district of six missionaries. One of the things this responsibility entailed was preparing a spiritual message for a weekly district meeting. While thinking deeply one week about what would be good to share for this meeting, I couldn't clear the thoughts of the many investigators whom we no longer were able to visit from my mind. Pondering deeply about why such (at least initially) sincere people eventually chose to no longer pursue a more complete knowledge of the Lord's truths, I came to the conclusion that somehow the adversary was able to cloud their vision of how much the message we shared could influence their lives for good.

Upon realizing this, I felt a need to prevent such clouding from occurring in my life, and hopefully the lives of the missionaries in the district I had responsibility for. Setting off into the scriptures to try and find how to address such a need was my very next step. For reasons that I no longer recall, I found myself studying in what are often called the "war chapters" of The Book of Mormon. Upon studying the 49th chapter of Alma, which takes place in the midst of a war between the righteous Nephites and the wicked Lamanites, the following verses caught my attention:

"Behold, I said that the city of Ammonihah had been rebuilt. I say unto you, yea, that is was in part rebuilt; and because the Lamanites had destroyed it once because of the iniquity of the people, they supposed that it would again become an easy prey for them.

But behold, how great was their disappointment; for behold, the Nephites had dug up a ridge of earth round about them, which was so high that the Lamanites could not cast their stones and their arrows at them that they might take effect, neither could they come upon them save it was by their place of entrance.

Now at this time the chief captains of the Lamanites were astonished exceedingly, because of the wisdom of the Nephites in preparing their places of security. 

Therefore, they retreated into the wilderness, and took their camp and marched towards the land of Noah, supposing that to be the next best place for them to come against the Nephites.

For they knew not that Moroni had fortified, or had built forts of security, for every city in all the land round about; therefore, they marched forward to the land of Noah with a firm determination; yea, their chief captains came forward and took an oath that they would destroy the people of that city.

Be behold, to their astonishment, the city of Noah, which had hitherto been a weak place, had now, by the means of Moroni, become strong, yea, even to exceed the strength of the city Ammonihah.

And now, behold, this was wisdom in Moroni; for he had supposed that they would be frightened at the city Ammonihah; and as the city of Noah had hitherto been the weakest part of the land, therefore they would march thither to battle; and thus it was according to his desires."         ~ Alma 49:3-5, 12-15

Prior to this study I had seen this passage as just another story that was, more or less, worth skipping over. But now I saw it as much more. I saw it as a warning for preparation against the shrewd attempts of the adversary to spiritually overpower us. As the Lamanites' first priority was to overthrow the Nephites by attacking the city Ammonihah, a city that they had successfully demolished about 8 years earlier, so it is with the adversary in each of our lives. If Satan wishes to lead us away from the truth, his first priority is to attempt to overpower us in a way in which he already has in the past. This could entail (as I then identified as likely possibilities in the lives of my past investigators) temptations to go back to a past addiction or simply habitual sins. Therefore, I learned for myself the utmost importance of putting a special effort towards avoiding the repetition of sins previously repented for.

Upon realizing that Ammonihah was heavily defended, the Lamanites then resorted to attacking the city of Noah, the weakest part in all the Nephite lands. So it is, as I came to learn, with the adversary. If he cannot overpower us in ways he has in the past, his next priority is to come against us through our weaknesses. We all have something that we are particularly vulnerable with. Whether that is patience, faith, diligence, humility, or a commandment that we don't fully understand or agree with, the adversary seems always willing to take the easy road of our weaknesses towards a success.

Therefore, I learned while preparing for this upcoming district meeting that in order to protect the restored gospel in our lives, we must first guard against the repetition of past mistakes and our vulnerability of weakness. Oh how I wished that I could have shared this with all of those religious investigators the first moment I met them, so that they might have avoided falling prey to temptation. But at least I had learned the lesson for myself, which in the many coming years became a source of protection I absolutely needed.