What does it look like to see people “remember the prophecies”?

Helaman 4:21 21 Yea, they began to remember the prophecies of Alma, and also the words of Mosiah; and they saw that they had been a stiffnecked people, and that they had set at naught the commandments of God; This scripture struck me today. I think to some degree something like this may have happened on September 11th 2001. I was on my mission then. I can't help but think that my perspective at the time was somewhat skewed by being much less IN the world at the time. I wonder what sorts of events would need to take place to see this kind of thing among a large portion of people today? Whatever it is I hope that we as followers of Christ can have the long suffering needed to stay faithful ourselves during that time.