Mosiah 7-8

Mosiah 7

Remember back in the book of Omni how the Lord warned Mosiah that he should leave the Land of Nephi with as many people as would follow him (see Omni 1:12)? But then at the end of Omni 1, we learned that a group left the new city established by Mosiah, to return to the Land of Nephi where they had lived before. But Omni doesn’t tell us what happened to those people who went back, because he doesn’t know. 

Now we learn the answer. Mosiah sends a party of 16 men, led by a man named Ammon, to see if they can find the group who went back to the Land of Nephi. After 40 days in the wilderness, Ammon and company find the people and even encounter their king outside the city walls, but the kings guards capture Ammon’s group immediately without asking any questions and throw them in prison.

After 2 days in prison, Ammon’s group is brought before the king—Limhi—and given an opportunity to speak. King Limhi is delighted and relieved to learn who they are—he had mistaken them for someone else (who you will learn about later) which is why they threw them in jail. The king tells Ammon that his people are captive to the Lamanites and must pay them heavy taxes. He hopes Ammon & co. can help them escape back to the land of Zarahemla. 

King Limhi gathers his people to tell them hope has arrived. In his speech to the people he hints at the back-story of how his people got into this predicament in the first place. He says:

 25 For if this people had not fallen into transgression the Lord would not have suffered that this great evil should come upon them. But behold, they would not hearken unto his words; but there arose contentions among them, even so much that they did shed blood among themselves.

 26 And a prophet of the Lord have they slain; yea, a chosen man of God, who told them of their wickedness and abominations, and prophesied of many things which are to come, yea, even the coming of Christ.

In chapters 9-22 of Mosiah we will read the full story of what Limhi and his people have been through ever since Limhi’s grandfather, Zeniff, led the first group of people out of Zarahemla to return to the Land of Nephi.

Mosiah 8

King Limhi is anxious for his people to learn what has happened with the Nephites in Zarahemla since their group left, and he also tells Ammon that he sent a secret search party of his own out to find Zarahemla to request help escaping from the Lamanites. The search party was unsuccessful, but they found a land full of dead bodies and weapons and war clothing, and they were afraid it was the Nephites who had been slaughtered (which it wasn’t). But they found a record on gold plates amongst the ruins and brought it back—but it was in a language no one could read. 

Ammon tells Limhi that King Mosiah will be able to translate the gold plates for him if they are able to escape back to the land of Zarahemla, because Mosiah is a prophet and a seer.