They just wanted to keep working

The desire of the three neighbors wasn’t to avoid death, they simply wanted to participate in bringing people to Christ and moving the work forward forever. It is perhaps somewhat like “O that I were an angel” from Alma. It is consecration dialed up to eleven. It is, “I will give everything I have to the kingdom and I’d like to keep going as long as the Lord of the Vineyard still has work to do.”