The Book of Mormon text preserves more information about the process surrounding this remarkable ability to tarry until the Savior comes. For these men, there will be no death as the rest of us experience. Their ultimate transition from earthly to heavenly, from mortality to immortality, will be “in the twinkling of an eye.” This phrase itself comes from the New Testament context of a change from mortal to immortal at the last days:
1 Corinthians 15:52
52 In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
While the New Testament phrase refers to raising the dead, the same speed of transformation will happen to the three without the intervening step of death. At that point, they shall also receive the blessing that the other nine had wished, to come into the kingdom of the Father.