The Record is True

At this time, the people began to really think about some other prophecies of Samuel the Lamanite, who had accurately prophesied about the signs of Christ's birth. He had also prophesied  concerning signs of Christ's death. People started to doubt those signs, even though Samuel's prophesies (and other prophets, too) had been fulfilled. I am sure wickedness played into their unbelief.

There is a comment at the beginning of this chapter that kind of jumped out at me. The writer here just gave a timeline, that according to the record, this was 33 years that had passed since the day/night/day event that marked Christ's birth. Then, a simple, quick testimony of the truthfulness of the record, based on the reputation of the person who kept the record:

"And now it came to pass that according to our record, and we know our record to be true, for behold, it was a just man who did keep the record—for he truly did many miracles in the name of Jesus; and there was not any man who could do a miracle in the name of Jesus save he were cleansed every whit from his iniquity" (3 Nephi 8:1)

I think that it is encouraging and testimony-strengthening to hear other people testify of the truthfulness of something. It allows for an opportunity to feel the Spirit testify, if I am paying attention, of it's truthfulness as well. And that's how I gain a testimony.