In the annals of Nephite history, it is a rare thing for dissenters to be converted back to the Lord. In the days of the sons of Mosiah, only one of the Amalekites and none of the Amulonites ever repented and returned to the Lord (Alma 23:14). Mormon's comment was as follows, 'thus we can plainly discern, that after a people have been once enlightened by the Spirit of God, and have had great knowledge of things pertaining to righteousness, and then have fallen away into sin and transgression, they become more hardened, and thus their state becomes worse than though they had never known these things' (Alma 24:30). The preaching of Nephi and Lehi must have been incredibly powerful to win the hearts of such hardened dissenters.