"And he did receive them with joy."

The story of the people of Zeniff in Mosiah chapters 9 to 22 is instructive about life.

Zeniff leads a group of followers from Zarahemla to possess a different part of the land.  For a time, they are successful, but as they fall into wickedness, they eventually become slaves to the Lamanites.  Their suffering, and the timely arrival of Ammon from Zarahemla, serve as calls to humility and repentance, which frees them from their shackles of slavery and they return to Zarahemla there they are warmly received.

(The story of Abinadi is in these chapters as well, but I'll not touch on that in this post.)

We often go through the same process of wandering, wickedness, humility, repentance, and return. In the world, as we learn from our own experience to distinguish good from evil, we face temptation.  We often submit, which can enslave us to sin and addiction.  Giving up a portion of our agency through sinful actions makes us more susceptible to Satan, who would love to choose for us and make us miserable like he is. The misery that always follows such choices can bring humility and remorse, which can bring repentance and forgiveness.

It took the people of Zeniff years and years to reach the point where repentance was a more attractive option than continued decadence.  They ultimately had to be enslaved to a foreign power.  It is painful to watch those we love (it was painful for those I love to have watched me at points in my life) suffer the consequences of poor choices.  We sometimes wait until we can't possibly sink lower before calling on the redeeming power of the Atonement to replace our misery with joy, and remove the burdens of enslavement to sin.

I find myself praying that those I love will suffer more and earlier, so they will be returned to humility faster.  But, no matter how much of our agency we give away to temptation, embarrassment, and regret, we always retain the portion of agency to choose liberty by choosing to follow the Savior, or to continue choosing captivity according to the captivity of the devil (2 Ne. 2:27).

Yet no matter how long it takes, no matter what we have suffered, no matter what we have brought upon ourselves, when we ultimately choose to return to the Lord, he will receive us with joy (Mosiah 22:14).