39. The Gathering

CHAPTER 39

THE GATHERING

“Nephi!  Thou art the man!  You look exactly like your father.”

The man speaking to him respectfully extended his hand in humble greeting.  The man was about his age, or maybe a few years younger, like Timothy.  And this was the first time they had ever met --- so how would he know who he was?  And why would he say that he looked like his father?  Unless, he knew his father?

Nephi was visiting in the land Bountiful in the twenty and seventh year.  He had traveled there to transfer some of the sacred records to the temple.

A large group of people had recently arrived in the land Bountiful from the land northward.  They were refugees who had been converted to the Lord in the land northward, but they had been persecuted and had lost their homes because of their belief.  The man greeting Nephi was the leader of this group of refugees.

“Yes, I am Nephi,” Nephi shook hands with the man from the land northward.  “And you have me at a distinct disadvantage, brother.  I don’t believe we’ve met before, have we?”

“No.  But I’ve been looking forward to meeting you for a long time.  I owe so much to your father for helping me.”

The stranger was tall and thin.  He had fair skin.  His eyes were clear and dark.  Mostly, the look of intelligence shone from deep inside his eyes.

“My name is Moriancom.  Your father is a great man!  Your father prayed that someday I might get the chance to know you.  And now, it looks like his prayer came true!”

“I see,” Nephi was elated to meet someone who spoke favorably about his father.  He was especially pleased that Moriancom said ‘is a great man’ rather than ‘was.’  “Did my father meet you or your family on his mission to the land northward?”

Moriancom’s answer came as a surprise.  “No.  I met him when I sailed on Hantuman’s ship.  He and Hantuman were my great teachers.  Without them, I never …”

“What!?”  Nephi gasped.  “You sailed on Hantuman’s ship!  With my father!  Tell me, please.  What happened to him?  Do you know?”

“The last time I saw him, he and Hantuman were taken prisoners by Tyreantum’s men.  I really wouldn’t know anything after that.”

Nephi grimaced.  His expression fell.  He stopped breathing.

 Moriancom recognized his honest mistake right away.  “Oh, dear me.  I’m sorry.  Maybe you didn’t really want to hear about this after all.”

“Oh, oh yes I do.  Really.  Please go on and tell me the complete story.  I have to know.  I want to know.”  Nephi hungered for every word that Moriancom could tell him.

“Well, once we made it to the land northward, the captors came on board.  I tried to put up a fight, but there were too many of them.  They held me down.  When they went to tie up your father, I jumped from the ship and managed to get away.  As I so awkwardly blurted out, I can’t say what happened to him after that.  I’m so sorry.”

“That’s all right.  But he was alive?  He was merely taken prisoner?”  Nephi’s hope was clearly expressed.

“That’s right.  Hantuman too.”

“Good.  Thank you, Moriancom.”  Nephi started breathing again.  “So, well then.  At least tell me about you.  What brings you and your people to the land Bountiful this many years later?”

“Goodness.  It’s a long story.  Maybe I’ll just mention a few highlights for now.”  Moriancom could tell that Nephi was disappointed that he couldn’t tell him more about the fate of his father.

Nephi listened as Moriancom summarized his story.  “I fell into the water and was washed ashore.  I think I must have been watched over by angels because not only didn’t I drown or get dashed to pieces by the waves on the rocks, Tyreantum’s men missed me with their arrows.  My deliverance was a miracle!

“I wish I did know what happened next to your father and Hantuman.  As for me, I continued to run in order to get as far away from Tyreantum and the others as I could.  After several days of fleeing through the wilderness, I discovered a very pleasant and beautiful land, a land with an abundance of pure water.  I called it the land Hantuman.

“I found that the people in the land Hantuman were good people.  I taught them the things that your father and Hantuman had taught me.  They believed and desired to be baptized.  Your father said that since I was a priest, I could baptize them.  So I did.  We were blessed and prospered in the land Hantuman for a time.

“But after a number of years, a friend of Tyreantum, whose name is Alumon, discovered us.  Alumon is an evil person with a lot of political influence.  He put himself in charge of the land Hantuman.  In other words, he began to rule over us.”

“Oh, I know who Alumon is,” Nephi interrupted Moriancom’s story only briefly.  “I also know who Tyreantum is.  Do you think Alumon knew who you were?”

“Yes, I think so.”  Moriancom continued his story.  “I think he knew that I had been on Hantuman’s ship and was converted to Christ after your father and Hantuman taught me.  At any rate, Alumon began to persecute us.  He put many tasks upon us and taxed us heavily.  He forbade us to pray to God at any time, and anyone who was found calling upon God or teaching the words of God was punished and subject to death.  Alumon put guards over us to watch us and to maintain control over us.

“We were forced to suffer afflictions at the hand of Alumon for some time.  And although we were forbidden from praying, we continued to pour out our hearts to God in silence.  God knew the thoughts of our hearts and strengthened us so that our burdens did not feel quite as heavy.  Yet we were truly in bondage.

“Then the voice of the Lord came to me and said; ‘Thou shalt go before this people, and I will go with thee and deliver this people out of bondage.’

“So we gathered all our possessions together, everyone with their families, and we took our grain and prepared to flee from the land Hantuman.  And when the night came, we all fled.

“We departed from the land Hantuman and went southward.  We journeyed southward for a considerable distance, and after many days, we arrived in the land Bountiful.  And now it is here in the land Bountiful that we are thankful to be welcomed by you and your people.” 

Nephi came back to his conversation with Hasai.  “… But what about the ship?  Nobody ever saw Hantuman’s ship after the night without darkness.  Perhaps they managed to escape after all.” 

Hasai replied, “That would have been a miracle.”

“My father was a believer in miracles.  And I believe in miracles.”  Nephi’s record testified that he had, in fact, performed miracles.

“I do too,” confirmed Hasai.  “It’s just that … Oh, dear!  What’s going on outside!?  What’s the commotion?  Something’s wrong!”

Nephi and Hasai sprang to the doorway of their hut and looked out.  They didn’t see anything at first.  The darkness of night limited their view.  But they could hear voices, men’s voices --- many of them.  The men were shouting and cheering.  They sang of triumph in voices that indicated consumption of large amounts of strong wine.

A parade of torches came through the garden, as many as twenty or thirty of them.  A mob of men approached.

“Oh, no!” cried Hasai, panic stricken.  “Shall we run for it?”

“No!  Wait!” Nephi answered.  “They’re not here for us.  You’ll be all right.  Let’s see what they want.”

The men leading the mob carried a person over their heads.  The person they carried was limp and lifeless.  His arms and legs hung down loosely from the rest of his body.

They dropped the man’s body at the doorway to Nephi’s hut.