Samuel, a Lamanite, came into the land of Zarahemla around 6 B.C. and preached repentance to the Nephites for many days at a time when they had grown proud and were ripening for destruction (Helaman 11:37). The Gadianton robbers had built up into a great band operating from the mountains and wilderness, drawing Nephite dissenters to their numbers (Helaman 11:25-26). Samuel warned that the people were ripe for destruction once they cast out the righteous from among them (Helaman 13:14).
The people cast Samuel out, and he was about to return to his own land when the voice of the Lord told him to go back and prophesy whatever came into his heart (Helaman 13:2-4). Samuel himself declared that an angel of the Lord had brought him glad tidings and that he was sent to declare them to the Nephites (Helaman 13:7). Refused entry to the city, he climbed onto its wall and cried out to the people from there, prophesying as the Lord directed (Helaman 13:4; 14:1-31).
He prophesied a curse on the land for the people’s wickedness: those who hid up treasures would lose them, their riches would become slippery and could not be held, and their swords and tools would slip away in the day they sought them (Helaman 13:17-36); whoever hid up treasure in the earth would find it no more unless he were righteous and hid it up unto the Lord (Helaman 13:18). He also gave signs of Christ’s coming, set five years out: a night with no darkness before the birth, in which the sun would still rise and set, a new star, and at Christ’s death three days of darkness, thunderings, lightnings, an earthquake breaking up the rocks, tempests, mountains and valleys exchanging places, and graves opened so that many saints would appear (Helaman 14:1-27). Samuel taught that Christ must die to bring the resurrection and redeem mankind from the spiritual death brought by the fall of Adam, that repentance through Christ’s merits brings remission of sins, and that those who do not repent fall under a second death (Helaman 14:13-18). He concluded this doctrinal discourse by declaring that the people were free and permitted to act for themselves — God had given them knowledge of good and evil and the ability to choose life or death, and that what they chose would be restored unto them (Helaman 14:30-31).
Many who heard him went to Nephi, son of Helaman, confessed their sins, and were baptized (Helaman 16:1-3). Those who did not believe were angry and cast stones and shot arrows at him on the wall, but the Spirit of the Lord was with him so that they could not hit him (Helaman 16:2).
When they came to seize him, Samuel cast himself down from the wall, fled to his own country, and preached among his own people; he was never heard of again among the Nephites (Helaman 16:7-8). His signs of the birth were fulfilled: at sunset there was no darkness, a new star appeared, and unbelievers fell to the earth, which strengthened Nephi after he had cried to the Lord on behalf of the believers (3 Nephi 1:13-21). When Christ later appeared to the Nephites, he noted that Samuel had prophesied the rising of the saints at his death and commanded that this prophecy, which had not been recorded, be written into the record (3 Nephi 23:9-13).