During nearly all the ninth year of the Reign of the Judges over the People of Nephi (83 B.C.), Alma labored that the Church of God, of which he was the Presiding High Priest, should be set in order both in Zarahemla and in Gideon. This, with the help of the Lord, he accomplished by himself. As he had done in Zarahemla, so also he did in Gideon—he appointed priests to teach the people that they might hear and know the commandments of the Lord, and further, to quicken them to a continual remembrance of the sacred vows they had made when received into God’s Holy Order.
There were many things that Alma taught the people of Gideon which Mormon, the abridger of Alma’s Record, could not write. The Record of Alma was undoubtedly large, consisting of a great number of plates, and besides, Mormon who was trained in the art of engraving his words upon metal plates, nevertheless, found in difficult to express the fullness of his thoughts in the words at his command. Mormon’s son, Moroni, explained their dilemma thus: In speaking of his father’s abridgment, and also of his own writings when the Lord commanded him to write concerning the Gospel, that knowledge of it might come to their father’s seed through the Gentiles, said,
And I said unto Him: Lord, the Gentiles will mock at these things, because of our weakness in writing; for Lord Thou hast made us mighty in word by faith, but Thou hast not made us mighty in writing; for Thou hast made all this people that they could speak much, because of the Holy Ghost which Thou hast given them;
And Thou hast made us that we could write but little, because of the awkwardness of our hands. Behold, Thou hast not made us mighty in writing like unto the Brother of Jared, for Thou madest him that the things which he wrote were mighty even as Thou art, unto the overpowering of man to read them.
Thou hast also made our words powerful and great, even that we cannot write them; wherefore, when we write we behold our weakness, and stumble because of the placing of our words; and I fear lest the Gentiles shall mock at our words. (Ether 12:23-25)
The arduous task which Alma had performed in his missionary labors had greatly deprived him of his normal strength and vitality. The journey he had undertaken, the joys and sorrows he had experienced, the pleasures and pains caused by the faith, or lack thereof, among Church members, had drawn deeply upon the energy he had so unselfishly offered in the cause of Christ. Knowing that the body has limits beyond which it must not go, as well as resources that urged it to greater efforts, Alma felt it was wise to rest for a while in his own home in Zarahemla where he for a short time recruited his strength and well being.