We would err if we supposed that to be born again requires a conversion experience as dramatic as Alma’s. it does not. Alma’s story is preserved in the scriptures because it is unusual and powerful. For virtually everyone in Alma’s day and ours, the process of being born again is quiet and unobtrusive, yet all conversion experiences ought to contain certain elements in common.
“We must be cautious,” President Ezra Taft Benson has warned, “as we discuss these remarkable examples. Though they are real and powerful, they are the exception more than the rule. For every Paul, for every Enos, and for every King Lamoni, there are hundreds and thousands of people who find the process of repentance much more subtle, much more imperceptible. Day by day they move closer to the Lord, little realizing they are building a godlike life.” (“A Mighty Change of Heart,” Ensign, October 1989, p. 5.)