John Bytheway: 00:01 Welcome to part two with Dr. Frantz Belot, Alma chapter 5 through 7.

Hank Smith: 00:08 Let’s leave chapter 5 behind and go where you want to go in 6 and 7.

Dr. Frantz Belot: 00:12 Chapter 6 is a transitionary chapter to chapter 7, so we’ll spend a little bit more time in chapter 7. Nonetheless, I wanted to say then in chapter 6, what were some of the consequences or the results of what Alma did?

  00:30 As I said in the beginning, the people of Zarahemla were not in good shape. We already know that, and in Alma, because of his faith and because of also the calling that he had received and the commitment that he was following was able to establish somewhat of an order in the church.

  00:49 In Alma chapter 6 verse 1, we hear a little bit of what’s happened after that. It says, “It came to pass after Alma had made an end of speaking unto the people of the church, he ordained priests and elders by the laying on of hands according to the order of God, to preside and watch over the church.”

  01:07 The good news is that good things happened. It was a very difficult task, but he was able to in some instances, in Zarahemla ordain priest and elders so that they can preside and watch over the church. His work was not in vain. He did some good there. In a lot of ways, we have to also recognize that even though we may not see the totality of our works, especially when we’re trying to do the Lord’s will, even in our home, by the way, even with our children and sometimes with people that we love very much, I would say let’s not give up, good things happen. Especially if we feel that the Lord is encouraging us, inviting us, asking us to help Him in one aspect or another.

  01:59 I wouldn’t worry so much about the outcome because He’ll take care of the outcome and He will provide blessings because we would have done His will. I think, that’s a story of the Book of Mormon in general, but also here that tells me that some good things happen in Zarahemla.

Hank Smith: 02:15 They start to make the shift.

Dr. Frantz Belot: 02:18 Exactly. Some of them did. Some of them did.

John Bytheway: 02:22 I had a class from Dr. Robert L. Millet that we’ve had on the podcast before. I’m sure you guys know him. He’s now teaching institute at Southern Virginia University with his wife. He’s on a mission there. He said something about verse 6. “Nevertheless, the children of God were commanded that they should gather themselves together oft, and join in fasting and mighty prayer in behalf of the welfare of the souls of those who knew not God,” and he said once in a class, “Can you imagine if every ward did that for their neighborhood. Fasting and mighty prayer on behalf of the welfare of the souls who knew not God?” I don’t know, I just remembered that ever since that, yeah, that would be amazing way to look at the welfare of our neighbors all around us.

Hank Smith: 03:09 John, that’s wonderful because often we attack or judge.

John Bytheway: 03:13 We want them to have a fresh view.

Hank Smith: 03:16 Yeah.

Dr. Frantz Belot: 03:17 Can I piggyback on this comment? I really like that because at the end of the month, my wife and I will be in Orlando, and I have to say that looking back, my wife and I, we’ve both said that we have become the people that we are because of the members of that community, because of the prayers that they had for us, because of the services that they offered to us and our children.

  03:42 I can say from a recipient of people praying for the welfare of the Belots, that’s benefited us in so many different ways, so I love that verse as well that they prayed and perhaps when you said that they knew not God. I can’t say that I didn’t know God, but I know God better today than I did 26 years ago. I can say that.

  04:06 And because of the good people that have taught me and that have blessed our lives.

Hank Smith: 04:12 I love it. Frantz, we’ve done 5 and 6 and now chapter 7 is a highlight of the Book of Mormon. It’s one of those jewels of the Book of Mormon.

Dr. Frantz Belot: 04:22 Oh, yeah. I love chapter 7. We’re going to go back to some verses, but I got to start with that story. I was a missionary in Birmingham, Alabama, and I was thinking about the good and the bad that I’ve done in my life and I was having a pity party. And then I was sitting in my room as a missionary with my mission companion around and then those verses came to me and it says in verse 15.

  04:56 And sorry, we’ll go back to the beginning, but I have got to share that. “Yea, I said unto you, Frantz Belot, come and fear not. Lay aside every sin which easily doth beset you, which thus bound you down to destruction. Yea, come and go forth and show unto your God that you are willing to repent of your sins and enter into a covenant with him to keep his commandments and witnesseth unto him this day by going into the waters of baptism. And whosoever doeth this and keepeth the commandments of God from thenceforth the same will remember that I say unto him, yea, he will remember that I have said unto him, he shall have eternal life according to the testimony of the Holy Spirit, which testifieth in me.”

  05:47 I read this and I thank the Lord to have heard my prayers and I felt so much love and compassion from the Lord in saying, you’ll be fine. Dust yourself off and go out and do the work and if you continue you’ll be fine. And that brought me so much hope.

  06:08 I would always share this with my brothers and sisters when I was a missionary in Alabama to say that the Lord says, just put it aside. I’ll be there for you. Love that chapter. I love it. Every verse in that chapter.

John Bytheway: 06:25 One of the things I love about this chapter 7 is that Alma could have gone, I gave this talk in Zarahemla, went really well, so I’m good. I’m going to give this same talk in Gideon. I bet they’ll love it too. He finds that the people are in a different place and he gives a different talk. I think it was Harold B. Lee who said, rather than preparing his speech, prepare yourself to speak and this perfect example of that. Boy, they get some amazing stuff and here’s, as you know, a different place, but he’s aware of that, he doesn’t just think, I’ll give that other talk. I gave that one before, it worked.

Hank Smith: 07:02 Yeah. I really like that.

Dr. Frantz Belot: 07:04 Let’s go back to the beginning of the chapter and walk through that. So we already know that he had just come from Zarahemla, now he’s in the land of Gideon. Things are much better as he says that they are in the path of righteousness. At the end of verse three, he says he was happy that he found them, “that you were blameless before him, that I should find that you were not in the awful dilemma that our brethren were in in Zarahemla.” He called it awful.

Hank Smith: 07:31 Yeah, I thought they’re not doing so well though.

Dr. Frantz Belot: 07:36 Yeah, they’re not doing so well, but they’re going to get there. So in verse 4 he says, “But blessed be the name of God that He hath given me to know” by inspiration obviously “yea had given unto me the exceedingly great joy of knowing that they are established again in the ways of his righteousness.” So we know that, and then now he moves to Gideon in verse 6, he says, “But behold, I trust that you are not in a state of so much unbelief. I trust that you are not lifted up in the pride of your heart, and I trust that you have not set your hearts upon riches. Yea, I trust that you do not worship idols, but that you do…” I tell you what, the people in Zarahemla were not in good shape.

John Bytheway: 08:18 That is an awful dilemma.

Dr. Frantz Belot: 08:20 That is an awful dilemma, “but that you do worship the true” and that’s the people of Gideon, “But that you do worship the true and the living God and that you look forward for remission of your sins with an everlasting faith, which is to come.” Can you imagine living in a way where you look forward every day, not in the future, not the judgment seat, but every day you look forward for that the Lord will remit or that he will forgive you?

  08:53 It’s a joyful way of living because if you believe that, that means that you’re also doing the work to repent, basically. You’re repenting. So you’re looking at “that you look forward to those remission of your sins” daily, not at the end of your life, but it’s a daily thing.

John Bytheway: 09:08 I just love the comparison, the reminders, the spiritual midterm at Zarahemla and then coming here and saying, “You’re walking in good paths. Would you like to hear some prophecies about Christ?” It’s kind of like one of those, what could we hear at general conference if we didn’t have to be reminded of the same things?

Hank Smith: 09:31 I think you’re right on here, John. It seems that Alma in Gideon feels like he’s among friends and he can share some things that he couldn’t share in Zarahemla that he definitely can’t share in Ammonihah, but he says, “Can I share with you some revelation that I’ve had?”

John Bytheway: 09:49 I imagine him going, “would you” like looking both ways “Guess what I’m going to tell you? His mother’s name will be Mary.” Whoa. Is this the first time they’re hearing that? And he shall be born at (not in) Jerusalem, which is the land (not the city) of our forefathers. I say that because one time when I worked at BYU in continuing education, we came outside and all of the BYU motor pool vehicles had a bumper sticker on the back that said, “Alma 7:10 Bethlehem or Jerusalem.”

Hank Smith: 10:24 Oh my word.

John Bytheway: 10:26 Some of our critics who are trying to find a flaw in the Book of Mormon had put bumper stickers on all the cars.

Hank Smith: 10:31 And John, maybe they’ve never been there, but you and I have. Frantz, I don’t know if you’ve been to Israel, but Bethlehem is exactly what?

John Bytheway: 10:40 5 miles, 6 miles.

Hank Smith: 10:41 Yeah, 5 miles from Jerusalem.

John Bytheway: 10:45 So, it’s really close. But since then there’s scholarship that talks about Jerusalem being referred to as a land in other extra biblical documents beside the Book of Mormon. For them to get this, her name will be Mary and she will be the land. That’s all they could remember that this is 83 BC. They’ve been out of Jerusalem since 600 BC, the land of Jerusalem, land of our forefathers. She will be overshadowed, conceived by the power of the Holy Ghost, and then boy verses 11 and 12. I want to let you guys talk about those because those are huge in this chapter.

Dr. Frantz Belot: 11:23 I couldn’t agree more with you. Verses 11 and 12 they are doctrinally rich. Rich, rich, rich. Not only for the mind, but also for the heart to know what the Lord has done for us and to know why he can say that, “Come unto me, all ye that are heavy laden and I will give you rest.” You start understanding why He can say that.

  11:50 So in verse 11, He, the Savior, shall go forth suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind. Nowhere does it say there was an exception of those pains, of the temptations, of the afflictions, every kind. Of every kind, and this that the word might be fulfilled, which saith, he will take upon him the pains. Again, there’s no exception. It doesn’t say except the pains of Frantz Belot or Hank Smith or John Bytheway. It says, “He will take upon Him the pains and the sicknesses of His people.”

  12:30 The richness of that doctrine that He truly suffered every kind and took upon Him the pains and the sicknesses of His people without exception.

John Bytheway: 12:47 We so often say the Savior suffered for our sins, which He did. And that’s coming in verse 13, but in 11 and 12 it seems to expand the reach of the atonement to pains, afflictions, temptations, infirmities, which is why I just think these verses are so powerful and that the folks in Gideon got to hear this.

  13:16 Hank, you know this, Frantz you may not know that I had an experience in Columbine, Colorado in Littleton, Colorado that I hope I never have this kind again. I had the chance to go talk to the kids exactly a month after the school shooting that happened 25 years ago. I really struggled with what in the world do I know? What can I say? I finally came up with some scriptures that will help you get through almost anything. And I said almost because it’s the Savior who gets us through everything without an almost.

  13:54 Alma 7:11 and 12 was scripture #4 because these kids, all they did was go to school that day. That’s not a sin to go to school, but the Savior covers our pains, afflictions, temptations, infirmities, everything that could happen to us. These verses expand the atonement to the most amazing place. And then at the end of verse 12 that He may know according to the flesh, He will be here in a body. It says, according to the flesh twice how to succor His people according to their infirmities.

  14:31 I’m looking in the Book of Mormon reference companion. I’m going to read this exactly because I think it’s so cool. The appendix has an 1828 Webster’s dictionary, which is online. You can look it up. This is what it says on succor, “Literally, to run to, or run to support, hence to help or relieve when in difficulty, want, or distress. To assist and deliver from suffering.” So when you read it that way that He may know according to the flesh how to run to His people according to their infirmities. That is so powerful.

Hank Smith: 15:09 Yeah.

Dr. Frantz Belot: 15:09 Yeah. Question for me in my mind is why is that so important to know? For me, it has removed despair in my life because I’ve been afflicted with a physical ailment that seems to be persistent in my life and I put up with it. Many, many people do put up with some of the ailments that they have. It’s part of their lives. At times I’m like, “How long do I have to put up with this?” And then sometimes the thought is, “Well, maybe all your life you’re going to have to be afflicted with that physical ailment.”

  15:47 But whenever I be still, like the scripture says, and then I think of the Savior, what you just said John, running towards me to lift me up, He gives me the ability to say, this too shall pass, whether in this life or in the life to come, this too shall pass. This ailment will be gone.

  16:14 But meanwhile, if it is that infirmity, like a physical infirmity, I’m not talking about sin. It’s a physical infirmity. If this is what your lot is in life, I am going to help you go through this. That provides me with the ability to say things will work out. Yes, it’s not fun, but things will work out. That’s one of the major why for me to know that He, according to the flesh, how to succor Frantz Belot according to his infirmities.

  16:54 I know this scripture personally in my life, how true those words are because I’m experiencing it even as I’m speaking right now to you all.

John Bytheway: 17:04 Oh, wow.

Hank Smith: 17:05 I have a friend who went through something, I won’t go into detail, but went through something absolutely horrific, a nightmare, a significant trial that I can’t comprehend. As he and his family recovered slowly from this tragedy, he learned something significant and it had to do with these verses. He says, “When I hear of someone going through something similar to what I went through,” he said, “it’s strange, but my body naturally wants to go to them.” He said, “My body and my mind. My body is responding to hearing that they’re going through something similar. I have to go to them.”

  17:56 When my wife’s mother died, it was so hard for my wife, they were so close. Sarah’s my wife, she said, “It was interesting to see that those who come to you are those whose mother had died. Those are the ones who show up first.” I don’t think it’s anything that someone who hasn’t been through it can’t show sympathy, but there’s something in us where we’ve been through something almost soul excavating that when we hear that someone else is going through it, we want to go to them. Like there’s a natural inclination to go to them.

  18:35 I think of these verses where Alma says, the Spirit could tell the Lord what problems are like, what human difficulties are like, but He experienced them Himself. So as he said, John, “He would succor his people or run to those people.” Frantz, I can see why that would ease despair that I’m going through this, but here He knows in my children’s terms, He gets me.

Dr. Frantz Belot: 19:04 Mm-hmm. Yes.

John Bytheway: 19:07 And Frantz, I love the way you put that. He will help you through it. Sometimes we’d prefer that He just remove it.

Dr. Frantz Belot: 19:15 Yes.

John Bytheway: 19:16 But He’ll help you through it. Was it Elder Groberg that said, “Sometimes the Lord calms the storm and sometimes He calms the sailor.” So the storm’s still there, but you are different. You’re better able to face it.

Dr. Frantz Belot: 19:34 I love the distinction and I think that verse 13, like you said, the Spirit could have told him, but “nevertheless, the Son of God suffereth”, just like you said, he went through it and to me that’s an expression of his perfect love towards all of us. In verse 14, again, the concept of repentance, it follows what it says here, and then you’re like, okay, the Lord is taking all of this, is doing all of that for us, but it’s almost like, look, if you want the full influence, the full blessings that only Christ can give you, prepare yourself to receive that and how do you do that?

  20:16 Now, in verse 14, “I say unto you that ye must repent.” Change. “and be born again for the spirit saith, if ye are not, ye cannot inherit the kingdom of God.” And then he talks about how the Lamb of God taketh away the sins of the world who is mighty to save and to cleanse from all righteousness. And that’s verse 15 & 16.

  20:41 But it’s remarkable in my mind and heart the connection with the ability of the Savior to succor His people, but to also invite us to repent at the same time. To better give an example of this, before I became a member of the church, I knew God, but I didn’t know Jesus Christ. For me, it was blurred. To me, it was just there is a God. I knew nothing about the Savior, nothing.

  21:12 When things were happening to me in my life, and I would wonder, well, how are we going to overcome this? I didn’t know that there was somebody who had a perfect being who had made it possible for us to experience joy again. I thought to me that where we are is where we are and eventually we die and we kick the bucket and we’re done.

  21:36 So when the missionaries taught me about the gospel and the mission of our Savior, the hope that I got as a little boy, I can’t even explain this. I was 15/16. The hope that I received to just say, wow, there’s a way through this life. It doesn’t have to be miserable, and I just have to do my part, which is to repent. I think I like that deal. I like it. I just liked it.

Hank Smith: 22:06 John, Frantz, the Lord doesn’t give us much insight into what His atonement was like. We have a verse in section 18 of the Doctrine & Covenants, but there’s nothing wrong with thinking through it as we read scripture and as we listen to prophets. I wanted to share with you a quote from Elder Merrill J. Bateman, this is back in 2005. In General Conference he says, “For many years I thought of the Savior’s experience in the garden and on the cross as places where a large mass of sin was heaped upon Him.” Like everybody’s sins was just put on Him at one time.

John Bytheway: 22:52 He’s dying for sin.

Hank Smith: 22:54 Yeah.

John Bytheway: 22:54 Sinfulness of the whole world.

Hank Smith: 22:56 And then he says, “Through the words of prophets, my view has changed. It wasn’t an impersonal massive sin. It was a long line of people, a one by one experience.” He said, “The atonement was an intimate personal experience in which Jesus came to know how to help each of us. He learned about your weaknesses, not just weakness, but He learned about your weaknesses. He experienced not just pain and sufferings, He experienced your pain and sufferings. I testify that He knows you. But more than that, more than just knowing you, He now knows how to help you. If you come to Him in faith.”

  23:40 Again, we don’t know exactly what the Saviors atonement, what the mechanics of it were, but that sounds like the Lord to me, a one by one experience. Third Nephi, one by one over and over.

John Bytheway: 23:55 And Elder M. Russell Ballard in April of 2004 when he was Elder Ballard. He said, “In the eyes of the Lord, there may be only one size of audience that is of lasting importance, and that is just one. Each one, you and me and each one of the children of God.” And then he said, “The irony of the Atonement is that it is infinite and eternal, yet it is applied individually one person at a time.”

Dr. Frantz Belot: 24:22 I love the fact that you’re sharing this because it brings to mind when I do feel the influence of the Lord in my life, I do feel like a personal ministry. I don’t feel that, oh yeah, Frantz is just one of my kids. I feel the attention is on me because I don’t feel like, oh, get over it because Hank can get over this very quickly and you’re a slacker. I do feel that He’s saying, you and I work together. That’s the way I feel about that, and obviously it’s by the power of the Spirit, but that’s the way I feel when the Lord is working with me.

Hank Smith: 25:01 I’ve noticed in my own life that the Lord seems to know when to have a prayer immediately answered and when to have one that takes a while. He knows what my breaking point might be, like a good spotter in the weight room. I’m going to let you stretch and grow, but I’m not going to let the weight fall on your teeth. He knows us so well. Each individual.

Dr. Frantz Belot: 25:24 Yes.

John Bytheway: 25:25 And if we understand the character of God and how He loves His children, we hear it so often, but do we really believe that He loves us? If we understand that character it’s easier to say, I’m going to let God be God and I’m going to let Him decide when or if or how He helps me deal with this trial.

Dr. Frantz Belot: 25:48 The more I consider this, like you all, I’ve read this so many times and each time there’s new insights, but it does something to my heart where my love increases towards the Lord. My respect, my admiration, and my desire to do better. Maybe if I can share with you in verse 23 of the same chapter in verse 23 and 24, I always think, what’s my part in all of this? Because at least me, I don’t think that the Lord has the burden of it all, although He took the burden of it all, but there’s some things that I can do and that we can do.

  26:26 So in verse 23, I was reminded again as I was reading this chapter, the invitation, “And now I would that ye should be humble, and be submissive and gentle; easy to be entreated; full of patience and long-suffering; being temperate in all things; being diligent in keeping the commandments of God at all times; asking for whatsoever things ye stand in need, both spiritual and temporal; always returning thanks unto God for whatsoever things ye do receive.  And see that ye have faith, hope, and charity, and then ye will always abound in good works.”

  27:07 That’s what I want to do. Do I fall short? Yes. But that’s what I want to do. It’s clear to me that the Lord expects me to be accountable as well. He’s done his part, but there are other things that I need to do. I can’t just take, take, take. I’m expected to do those things. I feel that as I was reading this, that I love Him so much that I’m going to try to do those things.

Hank Smith: 27:36 When I read verses Alma 7:23-24, back at 11 and 12, this to me is the pen of heaven. That is just beautiful language.

John Bytheway: 27:46 Poetry, yeah.

Hank Smith: 27:47 Yeah.

Dr. Frantz Belot: 27:47 It is poetry, yes.

John Bytheway: 27:50 Now I look at that and I say, “Look at that sequence. It’s not that the good works are a formula. It’s that the good works are a fruit. Have faith, hope, and charity, and then the good works come naturally. That’s just going to flow from you.”

Hank Smith: 28:08 I really like that, John. I’m going to add that to my notes here.

John Bytheway: 28:12 You’ll be in somebody’s backyard in their raging backyard with grass clippings on your face and the smell of oil and gasoline.

Hank Smith: 28:22 I love it. Now, Frantz, you’re going to disagree with me here, but I’ve known you for 14 years and I would say that as I read these, I think you’re a person that comes to mind and your wife, Brandi. Humble, submissive, gentle, easy to be entreated, full of patience and long-suffering. Tempered in all things, diligent in keeping the commandments always returning thanks, have faith, hope, and charity and abounding in good works.

  28:54 That to me is a successful life. If you can be described in that way. Again, we fall short. We should never think, oh, I’ve got to do this every step of the way because that’s part of patience. Part of patience is being patient with yourself.

Dr. Frantz Belot: 29:08 Yes.

Hank Smith: 29:09 But now I can see the missionaries in Orlando going, these are my mission leaders right here, Alma 7:23-24.

Dr. Frantz Belot: 29:17 Oh, you’re very kind. You’re very kind. If I can say one thing about the part that you said about patience, what a good thing to remember. We’re in mortality. Mortality comes with problems. We come with problems. We have shortcomings.

  29:36 It’s okay to, at times, stumble. It’s part of the journey, and the sooner we accept this, the more liberating it is to know that after this conversation, I’m excited, I’m feeling the spirit, but to think that from now till midnight, I’m not going to make a mistake would be silly. So it’s part of life and I accept it. Not that I’m like, oh, yeah, let’s go sin, but it’s like be patient with yourself. Trust the Lord. Do your best and every day become better and better and better and better, but be patient. Be patient with yourself. Don’t beat yourself up when you do a mistake. That helps no one.

Hank Smith: 30:23 It comes back to what we talked about earlier. There’s a difference between shame and guilt. Guilt can help you stay aligned with your values.

Dr. Frantz Belot: 30:31 Yes, yes.

Hank Smith: 30:32 You don’t need to be ashamed that you make mistakes. It’s part of living, as you said.

Dr. Frantz Belot: 30:38 Yeah.

John Bytheway: 30:39 And I think what we said on here before, the famous Elder Scott quotation that the Lord looks differently at weakness than He does at rebellion.

Hank Smith: 30:49 Yeah.

John Bytheway: 30:50 We’re stumbling, but we’re not rebelling.

Hank Smith: 30:53 Yeah. Yeah. I like that, John. Yeah.

John Bytheway: 30:56 There’s something in Alma 7:25 that when I read it, I thought, wait a minute, he said something like that back in Alma 5 in Zarahemla. If you go with me back to Alma 5:24, he’s kind of on this theme of, “Can you look up to God? Will you be comfortable in holy places and with holy people?” Alma 5:24, “Behold, my brethren, do ye suppose that such an one can have a place to sit down in the kingdom of God with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob, and also all the holy prophets whose garments are cleansed and are spotless, pure and white?”

  31:33 I love that. We’ve talked a lot about the Abrahamic covenant in recent years and the promises of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, right? Those are the fathers. Our hearts are going to turn to the fathers. He’s asking them if they will feel comfortable in that place. And then we go to Alma 7:25 in Gideon and listen to what he says to them. “May the Lord bless you and keep your garments spotless. That ye may at last be brought to sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and all the holy prophets who have been ever since the world began having your garments spotless, even as their garments are spotless in the kingdom of heaven, to go no more out.”

  32:12 That was on his mind, the Abrahamic covenant, and this is the goal. Our hearts turn to the fathers and to be with them one day.

Hank Smith: 32:19 That’s interesting, John, that he says, “You need to have your garments washed white,” in Alma 5. And in Alma 7, he says, “Keep your garments spotless,” so that tells you the difference between Zarahemla and Gideon.

Dr. Frantz Belot: 32:35 Yeah.

John Bytheway: 32:35 You’re in a good place now. Keep it that way.

Hank Smith: 32:38 Keep it that way.

Dr. Frantz Belot: 32:40 And then at the end in verse 27, he says, “May the peace of God rest upon you,” which again supports what you just said. They were in a better place. They were ready to hear additional information that helped them or uplifted them, and then he gives them the peace that a prophet of God can give to people when they do what’s right. Beautiful.

Hank Smith: 33:02 He might say to Gideon, you are singing the song of redeeming love, so keep singing. Keep singing.

Dr. Frantz Belot: 33:10 Exactly. Yeah. You got it.

John Bytheway: 33:11 You tenors over there a little stronger, right?

Dr. Frantz Belot: 33:14 Yes.

John Bytheway: 33:15 Hank, you said that verse 24 is like the tongue of angels. I looked at verse 27 and I thought, what a beautiful way to end a talk. I’ve got to adopt that. Listen, how positive and beautiful, “And now, may the peace of God rest upon you, and upon your houses and lands, and upon your flocks and herds, and all that you possess, your women and your children, according to your faith and good works, from this time forth and forever. And thus I have spoken. Amen.” Is that a great way to end a talk?

Hank Smith: 33:45 Yeah. It’s beautiful language.

John Bytheway: 33:47 I bet they were all, wait, Alma, stay. Give another talk.

Dr. Frantz Belot: 33:50 Yeah, we want more. We want more. We want to keep singing.

Hank Smith: 33:54 Frantz, this has been fantastic. Now, before we let you go, because we might not see you awhile, you’re heading out to Florida. What is it about this book and the Restoration, the gospel, that would cause you and your wife and your children to make you, this kind of sacrifice in the middle of a great career, in a great state? I can say that because I’m in the same state, right?

Dr. Frantz Belot: 34:21 You make it great.

Hank Smith: 34:22 Yeah. Great neighborhood and here you are. Your son is giving up a senior year of high school and you are going to up and move away. I think our listeners would like to hear, what is it about this that is causing you to sing that song and get on that plane and go to Orlando? Can you give us the insight into that?

Dr. Frantz Belot: 34:48 Well, that’s a beautiful question. I’m trying to not have the tears so I can explain or share with you what it is about the Book of Mormon, the message about the Savior Jesus Christ and his perfect atoning sacrifice and succoring of our infirmities and so on.

  35:09 I was a poor person, and when I say poor, I’m not talking about financial things or material things. I was a poor man. I did not know God, nor did I know Christ. I was just living life trying to do good things, but just living life without any purpose, without any direction, not knowing where I came from, not fully understanding what this was about, and certainly not knowing where I was going to go when it’s all said and done. Everything was about me. Me, me, me, that was my life. That was going to be my life until I die.

  35:55 When I was introduced to the Holy Scriptures, the Book of Mormon, I discovered Jesus Christ. In those pages, I started understanding where I came from, my divine identity, that I was a son of God and I had a responsibility to live right and then to help my sisters and my brothers.

  36:29 Once I discovered that, I became a very different person. I knew my identity, I knew my purpose, and I knew that someday, God willing, through the atonement of Jesus Christ, I would rejoice in his kingdom with my family and the people that I love. That’s glorious to me.

  37:01 To share this with other people, I can’t think of a better way to spend three years. Thank you for asking.

Hank Smith: 37:13 Now, I think John, we said this earlier, but the people of Orlando are about to receive a great blessing.

John Bytheway: 37:22 Yeah.

Hank Smith: 37:23 Florida is about to be a little bit brighter with the Belot family.

John Bytheway: 37:30 Hank and Frantz, I saw a poster once that said, “Those who danced were thought to be quite insane by those who could not hear the music.” And speaking of that song of redeeming love, that’s what Frantz has heard, and that song is carrying him to Orlando. That’s pretty cool.

Hank Smith: 37:51 That is beautiful.

John Bytheway: 37:52 Thank you.

Dr. Frantz Belot: 37:53 Thank you.

Hank Smith: 37:54 With that, we want to thank Dr. Frantz Belot for being with us today. It has been such a treat. I would love to continue forever.

John Bytheway: 38:03 This is like Alma at the end of his talk, wait, don’t stop.

Hank Smith: 38:07 Yeah, don’t stop. Don’t stop, stay, let’s keep going. We want to thank our executive producer Shannon Sorensen, our sponsors David and Verla Sorensen, and every episode we remember our founder Steve Sorensen.

  38:22 Now join us next week. We’re going to keep covering Alma’s reactivation tour on followHIM. Before you skip to the next episode I have some important information. This episode’s transcript and show notes are available on our website, followHim.co. That’s followHim.co.

  38:40 On our website, you’ll also find our two books, finding Jesus Christ in the Old Testament and Finding Jesus Christ in The New Testament. Both books are full of short and powerful quotes and insights from all our episodes from the Old and New Testaments. The digital copies of these books are absolutely free. You can watch the podcast on YouTube. Also, our Facebook and Instagram accounts have videos and extras you won’t find anywhere else.

  39:03 If you’d like to know how you can help us, if you could subscribe to, rate, review, and comment on the podcast, that will make us easier to find. Of course, none of this could happen without our incredible production crew, David Perry, Lisa Spice, Jamie Neilson, Will Stoughton, Krystal Roberts, Ariel Cuadra, and Annabelle Sorensen.

President Russell M. Nelson: 39:24 Whatever questions or problems you have, the answer is always found in the life and teachings of Jesus Christ, turn to Him, follow Him.