These four verses form the transition from the stories about Alma to the stories of his friends, the sons of Mosiah. Alma is heading toward Manti when he meets the sons of Mosiah returning from the lands of the Lamanites. It is not surprising that the sons of Mosiah were coming from Manti, as that is the historically logical path between the Lamanite lands and the land of Zarahemla. It is important to know that Alma meets them, for we need to know how their story becomes part of Alma’s record. It will become clear that there are different records of the brothers’ labors among the Lamanites, but Mormon is accessing them through Alma’s records. This meeting put Alma in a position to receive those records, whether that occurred at the time of this meeting, or sometime later.
Verses 2 through 4 have a similar function to the book headers that we see in Mormon’s writings. Those heading provide the reader with information of what will occur in the book. The chapter headers appear to be used to mark the source of the text. However, Mormon provides the same kind of forward-looking synopsis as he does in the book headers, but here it is imbedded in the text itself.
We are given to know that we will learn of what happened in the fourteen years that they have been gone, and that during that time they taught with power and had success. Before beginning the story, we know that it will have a good ending.