An angel of the Lord appeared to Alma the Younger while he and the sons of Mosiah were going about to destroy the church of God. The angel descended in a cloud and spoke with a voice like thunder that shook the earth on which they stood (Mosiah 27:11). He told Alma that the Lord had heard the prayers of his people and of his servant Alma, Alma’s father, who had prayed with much faith that his son be brought to the knowledge of the truth (Mosiah 27:14).
The words struck Alma with such fear that he fell to the earth, and the angel commanded him to stop seeking to destroy the church (Alma 36:6-11). Alma later recounted seeing the angel face to face, which led to his repentance (Alma 38:7). Afterward he began to preach the word of God, and those who had been with him when the angel appeared traveled through the land publishing what they had heard and seen, preaching amid persecution by unbelievers (Mosiah 27:32).
Alma attributed further instruction to an angel: the state of the soul between death and the resurrection, namely that the spirits of all men are taken home to God when they depart the body (Alma 40:11). During his ministry at Ammonihah, an angel told him to return to the city and preach again, blessing him for having kept the commandments of God from the time he received his first message (Alma 8:15-16).