One wonders here if the preposition of might be missing from the end of “whatsoever they stood in need”; that is, perhaps an original of was accidentally lost from “whatsoever they stood in need of ”. Elsewhere in the text, whenever there is a noun complement for the verb phrase “to stand in need (of )”, we get the preposition of:
It is also possible to get an infinitive clause as the complement:
And there are cases where there is no complement at all:
But when this phrase appears in a relative clause where the complement is a relative pronoun (in fact, always some form of whatsoever), there is no of at all:
Thus the of appears to be intentionally omitted in these three passages. The critical text will retain this unusual usage.
Also note here the rather unusual variation in the placement of the word things with respect to whatsoever: not only before and after whatsoever, but even between the what and the soever! The online Oxford English Dictionary has one example of this phraseology, dating from Early Modern English:
David Calabro points out (personal communication) that what things soever also occurs three times in the King James Bible (Mark 11:24, John 5:19, and Romans 3:19). The use of “what things soever” in Mormon 9:27 is obviously intended.
Summary: Accept the use of “to stand in need” without the preposition of in Alma 1:29, Alma 7:23, and Mormon 9:27; also accept the construction “what things soever” in Mormon 9:27.