Alma the Younger is the second of the two Almas to appear in the Book of Mormon. Originally a rebellious young man who rebelled against the teachings of his father (Alma the Elder) and sought to overthrow the church, Alma's mind was changed when an angel of the Lord appeared to him and his like-minded friends. He lay in a comatose state for three days and three nights, during which he confronted his sins, for which he "was tormented with the pains of hell" (Alma 36:12-14). He remembered his fathers teachings about Jesus Christ and cried out in his heart for mercy and deliverance. Afterward he and his friends (the sons of King Mosiah) devoted their loves to preaching the gospel. In the two decades or so that passed after his conversion, Alma single-handledly invigorated the Nephite church and society. He never forgot the words of the angel that spoke to him, and he wrote "O that I were an angel, and could have the wish of mine heart, that I might go forth and speak with the trump of God, with a voice to shake the earth, and cry repentance unto every people!....that there might be no more sorrow upon all the face of the earth" (Alma 29:1-2).

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