Friday, June 29, 2012

Mosiah 21 Fish Stuck in a Net


When I worked at the trout farm for Jean’s dad, one of my duties was to net the fish and dump them in a large metal sorting pan. I would dip the net into a larger net of fish that had been hauled to the sorting station. Filled with heavy, flopping fish, the net was very heavy and awkward. I would then lift the net up to the pan and flip it over in such a way that the fish could not yet escape. They would flip and flip until they had knocked each other out. Then I would empty them into the pan for sorting. I would then take each fish and hold it up to the side of the pan to measure them. Each length represented a specific weight of fish. Then I would turn, and taking the fish by the head in my right hand, and the tail in my left, toss them into large milk cans. Then I would go and get another net full, let them flop until they were knocked out, and repeat the process until all the fish were sorted. After all the milk cans full of fish were lifted into the nearby building where the gutting station was located we would proceed to gut the fish. The fish guts were not thrown away. They were taken up to a barn where they were put into a large vat and cooked and ground up into “mush.” The mush was poured out on the cement floor of the barn and dried. Then the mush was cut up into bricks. The bricks were loaded onto a flat-bed, wooden wheeled wagon. The wagon was hitched to a team of horses and one of the workers would drive it to several locations on the farm where the fish were held in runs and ponds. The bricks were pitch forked by the worker into the ponds and canals to the waiting fish! Cannibalism at the trout farm was just a part of the process. The fish were also fed grain-based pellets purchased from Nelson Brothers Feed Company. My Grandfather Stone was the bookkeeper for that company.

Those fish struggling in my net until they knocked each other out, making it easy for me to handle them, reminded me of the Nephites struggling to free themselves from Lamanite bondage. They tried to escape on their own without help from the Lord and as a result they became weaker and weaker.

In Mosiah 21, the sad tale of Limhi’s people trying to escape their servitude to the Lamanites is told. They went to battle three times unsuccessfully before they humbled themselves to the dust and prayed for relief to Heavenly Father. But they knew that he would be slow to hear their prayers because of their wickedness that had led to their captivity. Yet, they were patient, and the Lord finally, heard their cries and caused their burdens to become light. Eventually, good news arrived from Zarahemla. Ammon came with a few good men and told them that there was a prophet in Zarahemla and the people there had the gospel. The people of Limhi had assumed that the Nephites in Zarahemla were dead because they had found a city of bones in one of their unsuccessful attempts to escape. In the ruins they had found a record on metal plates but had no means for translation. Ammon promised them that the prophet would be able to do that. Limhi had faith that Ammon was there to lead them successfully to Zarahemla. But they still needed a plan; time for Gideon to step up again.

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