I wrote last November about the durability of the Lamanites’ conversion and suggested some reasons for it. I’d like to suggest a few more based on these two verses:
- Aaron and his brethren were out visiting the people. Their own conversion was strong, and so the new members benefitted from having direct interactions with them.
- They established churches and consecrated priests and teachers to lead and to teach them. Meeting together frequently and teaching one another the word of God enabled them to strengthen one another.
- They were taught from the scriptures. The scriptures keep us in touch with the fundamentals and help us to remember that God is “the same yesterday, today, and forever” (1 Nephi 10:18). As Elder Neal A. Maxwell observed:
The holy scriptures represent mankind’s spiritual memory. And when man’s connection with scripture is severed, mortals are tragically deprived of an awareness of spiritual history, blinding the eyes of faith…. Without this precious, spiritual perspective, the human family is seldom more than one generation away from deep doubt and even disbelief (“God Will Yet Reveal,” General Conference, October 1986).
Today, I will be grateful for the ways the Lord helps me to grow in the gospel–allowing me to interact with people of great spiritual maturity, giving me opportunities to teach and to be taught, and giving me access to the spiritual history contained in the scriptures.