Samuel the Lamanite was gone. And nobody wrote down his story. And people tried to forget everything he said. And they tried to carry on their lives as if Samuel had never stood on the wall and never told them that Jesus was going to be born in five years. And perhaps they would have succeeded if Samuel hadn’t given such a short and specific time frame.  

You might think five years is a long time. And you would be right. If you are five now, you will be ten, five years from now. If you are fifteen, you will be twenty. But five years is also a very short time. In five years, your hair will grow two and a half feet. But a saguaro cactus will only grow a half inch. And for the Nephites who had been waiting for six hundred years, five years was so short. Too short. Too short a time to not hope. At least a little. 

Listen on to hear the full story.