Change of Heart
CHANGE OF HEART:
After some of Alma's missionary stories, the Book of Mormon switches to the missionary efforts of the sons of Mosiah who went to preach among the Lamanites. The leader of these missionaries and perhaps best friend of Alma, is named Ammon.
This song comes from Alma 18-19 when Ammon serves among the Lamanites and rescues King Lamoni's flocks. Lamoni is astonished by Ammon's faithfulness and fears that Ammon might have been sent by the Great Spirit to punish him for killing his other servants. But Ammon teaches Lamoni about God and heaven and then opens the scriptures to him. Ammon completes his teaching, Lamoni kneels to pray and falls to the earth as if he were dead.
Ammon must've moved on because he is later called back when Lamoni has not returned from his comatose state. The queen insists that she knows her husband isn't dead and asks Ammon to do something about it. He recognizes this as the same thing that happened to his best friend, Alma, and declares to the queen that he is being freed from the shackles of hell. Then he, the queen, and all of the household fall to the earth as if dead. All except for Abish who had been converted as a small child.
Abish gathers the people to come see what God has done and there a dispute among them about what was really going on. Saddened and concerned, she touches the queen's hand to wake her. The queen pops up and praises God, followed by the king.
This song is about his conversion. And since he is a king among the Lamanites, what better genre to represent him than the King of Rock n' Roll. I patterned this song after Elvis for that reason. Musically, this makes sense because the Nephites have a history of anthemic rock leading to country music. This king was highly influenced by Ammon who is the son of the last king of the Nephites. And given that the Lamanites were a separate culture and probably had their own style of music, old fashioned Rock n' Roll just fits.
