The Incredible Missionary Labors of Nephi

The ministry of Nephi, the son of Helaman, was an incredible example of devoted service, spanning about 38 years, from the “fifty and third year of the reign of the judges” when he filled the judgment seat to “the ninety and first year” when he “departed out of the land of Zarahemla” and disappeared (Helaman 3:37, 3 Nephi 1:1).  The first nine years, while the chief judge, the Nephites were in a precarious position as the Lamanites took over the land of Zarahemla and many of the possessions of the Nephites.  Moronihah fought to preserve the people and managed to take back half of their lands.  We don’t have any information about what Nephi did as the chief judge at that time, but surely he labored alongside Moronihah without ceasing trying to preserve the liberties of his people.  He finally decided that he should “yield up the judgment-seat, and took it upon him to preach the word of God all the remainder of his days” (Helaman 5:4).  The book of Helaman covers the rest of his missionary labors and shows that he did indeed with “unwearyingness” declare the word of the Lord to the people (Helaman 10:3).    

That “remainder” of his life that he would preach was about 29 years and would encompass just about all of the lands of the people.  He started at the northernmost part of the land southward in the 62^nd year, “beginning at the city Bountiful; And from thenceforth to the city of Gid; and from the city of Gid to the city of Mulek; And even from one city to another, until they had gone forth among all the people of Nephi who were in the land southward; and from thence into the land of Zarahemla, among the Lamanites” (Helaman 5:14-16).  The land of Zarahemla, having been taken over during his time as the chief judge, was occupied by the Lamanites, and he and his brother performed incredible missionary work “insomuch that there were eight thousand of the Lamanites who were in the land of Zarahemla and round about baptized unto repentance.”  After those missionary labors, “Nephi and Lehi did proceed from thence to go to the land of Nephi” (Helaman 5:19-20).  This was still further south and the land where Nephi had originally settled his people and where the sons of Mosiah had preached.  These two brothers had similarly incredible experiences teaching the Lamanites and converting many.  After some miraculous manifestations of the Spirit they were so successful “insomuch that the more part of the Lamanites were convinced” and “it came to pass that they did yield up unto the Nephites the lands of their possession” (Helaman 5:50, 52).  All of those missionary labors took place in the space of approximately a year, for Mormon wrote that “when the sixty and second year of the reign of the judges had ended, all these things had happened and the Lamanites had become, the more part of them, a righteous people” (Helaman 6:1).  Nephi’s missionary labors were only beginning. 

After their success among the Lamanites, Nephi and Lehi went to the one place they hadn’t yet been: the land northward.  “And it came to pass that many of the Lamanites did go into the land northward; and also Nephi and Lehi went into the land northward, to preach unto the people” (Helaman 6:6).  This was in the 63^rd year of the reign of the judges, and they spent about six years there, coming back to Zarahemla “in the sixty and ninth year of the reign of the judges.”  Many of the people there were descendants of those who had left with Hagoth and others at the end of the book of Alma, including some of the people of Ammon. Though Nephi “did preach the word of God unto them, and did prophesy many things unto them,” they were not well received: “they did reject all his words, insomuch that he could not stay among them, but returned again unto the land of his nativity” (Helaman 7:1-3).  So by this time Nephi had preached to the Nephites in Bountiful, the Lamanites in Zarahemla, the Lamanites in the land of Nephi, and then the Nephites in the land northward.  After years of rejection in the north he was back in Zarahemla, and it appears that he labored the rest of his days (over twenty years) among the Nephites around the land of Zarahemla. He had numerous experiences recounted in Helaman 7-16, but unfortunately these were sad days for him and Lehi because the Nephites largely rejected the gospel.  Nephi announced the murder of their chief judge by inspiration (a chief judge that would have been himself if he hadn’t given it up many years earlier), received the sealing power from the Lord and sealed the heavens so that the people would repent, watched them come unto the Lord only to turn back away a few years after their miraculous deliverance from famine, and ultimately lamented their wickedness “false, and also the unsteadiness of the hearts of the children of men” (Helaman 12:1).  What is incredible is that he continued to preach and teach and serve the people for so many years, and even in his final days we find him so doing: “Nephi was baptizing, and prophesying, and preaching, crying repentance unto the people, showing signs and wonders, working miracles among the people, that they might know that the Christ must shortly come” (Helaman 16:4).  Shortly thereafter he simply walked away, having served and taught the people for almost forty years, “and whither he went, no man knoweth” (3 Nephi 1:3).  His was an example of incredible diligence in service and missionary work, and surely he went straight on to the Spirit World where his preaching with unwearyingness continued even there.