The Waters of Mormon

Alma found a place to hide from the servants of King Noah, who were trying to kill him. The place was called Mormon, and if you’re trying to visualize it, we have the following three facts:

1. It had “been infested, by times or at seasons, by wild beasts” (Mosiah 18:4). That’s probably why there weren’t a lot of people hanging around there.
2. There was “a fountain of pure water,” large enough for people to be baptized. (See Mosiah 18:5.)
3. There was “a thicket of small trees,” dense enough for Alma to hide in during the day. (See Mosiah 18:5.)

After describing a remarkable spiritual event in which hundreds of people were baptized and organized into a church, Mormon goes on to sing the praises of that place:

All this was done in Mormon,
yea, by the waters of Mormon,
in the forest that was near the waters of Mormon;
yea, the place of Mormon,
the waters of Mormon,
the forest of Mormon,
how beautiful are they to the eyes of them who there came to the knowledge of their Redeemer;
yea, and how blessed are they, for they shall sing to his praise forever.

Mosiah 18:30

Why was it such a beautiful place? Not because of the fountain or the thicket, but because it was the location where these people “came to the knowledge of their Redeemer.”

Clayton Christensen spoke in similar terms about a large stone building where he lived in Oxford University. In his room, he had remarkable spiritual experiences studying the Book of Mormon beside a small heater. He said, “I love to return there because it’s a sacred place, and I can look at the windows of that room where I lived, and I think that that’s the place that I learned that Jesus is the Christ, that he is my living Redeemer, and that Joseph Smith was the prophet of the restoration for the true church” (“Decisions for Which I Have Been Grateful,” Brigham Young University—Idaho Devotional Address, 8 June 2004).

When I was a nineteen-year-old missionary, newly arrived in Chile, I quietly prayed that the home where my companion and I lived would be a sacred place. My companion was sick for part of the time that we lived there, so I spent the better part of some days studying and praying. It was a sacred place for me, and I will always remember the Spirit I felt there.

Elder David A. Bednar reminded us that our church buildings can be sacred places for us if we enter them with an attitude of worship:

The “house[s] of prayer” in which we gather on the Sabbath are meetinghouses and other approved facilities—holy places of reverence, worship, and learning. Each meetinghouse and facility is dedicated by priesthood authority as a place where the Spirit of the Lord may dwell and where God’s children may come “to the knowledge of their Redeemer.” If we will, we can “be still” in our holy places of worship and know ever more surely that God is our Heavenly Father, we are His children, and Jesus Christ is our Savior.

“Be Still, and Know That I Am God,” General Conference, April 2024

Today, I will be grateful for sacred spaces in which I have grown closer to God. Like Alma’s people, I will remember those places with reverence and gratitude.