Alma was not only excited and happy to meet his old friends who were converted by an angel the same time he was, but as he talked to them he was especially delighted with four things. First, they still had radiant testimonies of the gospel; second, they had become ardent scholars of the scriptures; third, they had vigorously cultivated the Spirit of the Lord with fasting and prayer so that they enjoyed the spirit of prophecy and revelation; fourth, they had endured the most severe trials and afflictions but had kept the faith, and fifth, they had reaped a marvelous blessing by having thousands of Lamanites join the Church. Some of these had been killed by the Lamanites who opposed them coming into the Church, but the survivors were being brought by the thousands to Zarahemla to make a new home.
Beginning with verse 6, Alma begins telling the story that his four friends had recorded on plates and which Alma later incorporated into the Nephite library.