As is prone to time, things change.
Nephi and his family reached the promised land, but it was not suddenly happy and content within the family. Lehi, the father, died and was buried. Laman and Lemuel and those who agreed with them separated themselves from Nephi and his family. They became Lamanites, and those who followed Nephi and had him as their leader were called Nephites. The Lamanites became wild and ferocious and feral, continuously seeking to destroy the Nephites. Time passed, and Nephi died, and the plates were passed to his brother Jacob, who was also a prophet. He wrote a bit about what became of the people after Nephi died, and after he had written all that the Lord saw fit, he passed the records to his son, Enos.
Now, Enos was a hunter, and he was in the wilderness often. As he was hunting one day, all the words that he had heard his father speak sank deep into his heart, and he stopped where he was in the secluded woods, and he fell to his knees, and he prayed. He spoke to God, crying mightily as he says. All was pushed from his mind, and all he wanted was to have a remission of his sins, to have that guilt and weight from everything he had done to be washed away. He prayed to God for hours. He knelt in the woods, undisturbed by the sun traveling through the sky, and when the sun set, he didn't stop praying. He wrote how his soul hungered, how there was an emptiness in his soul that he had to fill. He couldn't just stop praying now. He needed to be whole, and he desired it more than anything. He prayed aloud, and his voice echoed through the forest, and rose through the trees. A voice sounded and said "Enos, thy sins are forgiven thee, and thou shalt be blessed."
Enos knew that it was God who had spoken, and he knew that He couldn't lie. He felt all of the guilt and shame lifted from him, and he felt himself be filled with the Spirit. He then continued in his prayers, and he asked, " Lord, how is it done?"
His Heavenly Father answered, "Because of thy faith in Christ, whom thou hast never before heard nor seen. And many years pass away before he shall manifest himself in the
flesh; wherefore, go to, thy faith hath made thee whole."
As Enos was comforted and made whole, he had a desire to share this blessing with all those that were close to him, the Nephites, and his family and friends. He even wanted these blessings for the Lamanites. The Nephites and the Lamanites were at constant war with each other, and these two groups came from a close knit family. Enos knew that these people were his kindred, and he wanted their salvation as well. He told the Lord about what was going on, and again, he received an answer.
"I will visit thy brethren according to their diligence in keeping my commandments. I have given unto them this land, and it is a holy land; and I curse it not save it be for the cause of iniquity; wherefore, I will visit thy brethren according as I have said; and their transgressions will I bring down with sorrow upon their own heads. I will grant unto thee according to thy desires, because of thy faith."
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He was answered again. "Thy fathers have also required of me this thing; and it shall be done unto them according to their faith; for their faith was like unto thine."
Enos knew that God would uphold His promises, and he was comforted.
After this experience, which he had called his "wrestle with God," he changed. He went throughout his people, and he taught them about Christ and the gospel. He did all that he could to bring to people to God, but though he knew that God would keep His promises and would bless the people, he did not see that blessing in his lifetime.
To read the actual scriptural account, go to Enos.
So What?
So, we have this kid who's the child of a prophet who feels like he needs to be forgiven for so many things, and so he has this really cool experience where he knew that his prayers were answered, and why do we care?
Well, besides the promise that the record which would become the Book of Mormon would be preserved, there's a lot of things that we can see in our own lives.
Prayer is the biggest one. Sometimes, it just seems like our prayers go completely unanswered, and then we look at these prophets in the scriptures, and they get these miraculous answers that we know we will probably never experience. It's just a little depressing! So we are having this really hard time because we're not seeing answers to our prayers. What are we supposed to do? Are we supposed to stop praying? Are we supposed to continue and hope that a beam of light appears in our bedroom or a thunderous voice from Heaven speaks to us? How do we know that it's an answer to a prayer or if it's just coincidence? How do we even know if God's even listening to us?
Enos didn't have it easy. He was the son of a prophet, and his uncle was a prophet, and his grandfather was a prophet, and his uncles saw angels, and I'm sure that he just never felt good enough. He knew that prayers could be answered, but after hearing these stories from others in his family, he probably just didn't feel good enough to be anything like them. So he prayed. Not just a few minutes of pleading, but all day and all night of exhausting prayers and pouring his soul out to God. He had to really come to God before his prayers were answered.
Then, after his faith had been tried and strengthened, his faith was enough that all his prayers were answered.
Each of our experiences are different about prayer, but there are always answers. We just have to work for them, by praying, wait for them, and look for them.
What experiences have you had with prayer?
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