How did Samuel the Lamanite have the Words of Previous Nephite Prophets?

  

Some might wonder how it is that Samuel, a Lamanite, would have had the words of previous Nephite prophets. Approximately fifty years before Samuel preached in Zarahemla, "all those engravings which were in the possession of Helaman were written and sent forth among the children of men throughout all the land" (Alma 63:12). Such a sending forth of the prophetic word would surely have been made available to many Lamanites who converted twenty years later (see Helaman 5). Indeed, while we do not have any record of Samuel's conversion, his sermon in Zarahemla was delivered twenty-five years after the miraculous preaching of Nephi₂ and his brother in the land of Nephi. Perhaps Samuel was one of Nephi₂’s converts from the prison in the land of Nephi (see Helaman 5:40-50). This possibility is suggested by Dennis L. Largey, "Samuel the Lamanite," in Book of Mormon Reference Companion, ed. Dennis L. Largey (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2003), 697. If that were the case, one can imagine what Nephi₂’s direct lineal connection to previous Book of Mormon record keepers would have only enhanced Samuel's access to and interest in these records, as well as the possibility that Samuel would have had ways of learning about the contemporary preaching of Nephi₂. (John Hilton III, Sunny Hendry Hafen, and Jaron Hansen, “Samuel’s Nephite Sources,” in Charles Swift, ed., Samuel the Lamanite: That Ye Might Believe [Provo, Utah: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book], 223-50, here, pp. 243-44 n. 10)