This is a review of the slides we used while discussing... Enduring Trials “Well” D&C

The nearer a person approaches the Lord, a greater power will be manifested by the adversary to prevent the accomplishment of His purposes (Joseph Smith, History of the Church, 3:46). The nearer a person approaches the Lord, a greater power will be manifested by the adversary to prevent the accomplishment of His purposes (Joseph Smith, History of the Church, 3:46).

Why do bad things happen to good people?

Men have to suffer that they may come upon Mount Zion and be exalted above the heavens (Joseph Smith, History of the Church, 5:556). Men have to suffer that they may come upon Mount Zion and be exalted above the heavens (Joseph Smith, History of the Church, 5:556).

Being human, we would expel from our lives physical pain and mental anguish and assure ourselves of continual ease and comfort, but if we were to close the doors upon sorrow and distress, we might be excluding our greatest friends and benefactors. Suffering can make saints of people as they learn patience, long-suffering, and self-mastery (Spencer W. Kimball, Faith Precedes the Miracle [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1972], p. 98).

No pain that we suffer, no trial that we experience is wasted. It ministers to our education... and it is through sorrow and suffering, toil and tribulation, that we gain the education that we come here to acquire and which will make us more like our Father and Mother in heaven (Orson F. Whitney as quoted in Faith Precedes the Miracle, p. 98). (Howard W. Hunter, Ensign, Nov. 1987, 60)

President Romney then said: “This does not mean that we crave suffering. We avoid all we can. However, we now know, and we all knew when we elected to come into mortality, that we would here be proved in the crucible of adversity and affliction.... [Furthermore,] the Father’s plan for proving [and refining] his children did not exempt the Savior himself. The suffering he undertook to endure, and which he did endure, equaled the combined suffering of all men [and women everywhere. Trembling and bleeding and wishing to shrink from the cup, he said,] ‘I partook and finished my preparations unto the children of men.’ (D&C 19:18–19.).” (Howard W. Hunter, Ensign, Nov. 1987, 59).

How do we endure it well?

Not enduring it well...

Where can I turn for peace?

Out of tribulation comes knowledge...

4 Types of Knowledge: 1) [121:26-32] knowledge through revelation due to humility. [see D&C 136:31-33]

No pain that we suffer, no trial that we experience is wasted. It ministers to our education, to the development of such qualities as patience, faith, fortitude and humility (Orson F. Whitney as quoted in Faith Precedes the Miracle, p. 98) (Howard W. Hunter, Ensign, Nov. 1987, 60).

4 Types of Knowledge: 1) [121:26-32] knowledge through revelation due to humility. 2) [121:33] knowledge that God’s work can’t be stopped.

Result of Persecution -- “Every time you kick 'Mormonism,' you kick it up stairs: you never kick it down stairs. The Lord Almighty so orders it.” (Journal of Discourses, Vol.7, p.145, Brigham Young, May 22, 1859).

4 Types of Knowledge: 1) [121:26-32] knowledge through revelation due to humility. 2) [121:33] knowledge that God’s work can’t be stopped. 3) [121:41-45] knowledge that yields compassion for others.

No pain that we suffer, no trial that we experience is wasted. It ministers to our education... All that we suffer and all that we endure, especially when we endure it patiently, builds up our characters, purifies our hearts, expands our souls, and makes us more tender and charitable, more worthy to be called the children of God (Orson F. Whitney as quoted in Faith Precedes the Miracle, p. 98). (Howard W. Hunter, Ensign, Nov. 1987, 60).

4 Types of Knowledge: 1) [121:26-32] knowledge through revelation due to humility. 2) [121:33] knowledge that God’s work can’t be stopped. 3) [121:41-45] knowledge that yields compassion for others. 4) [122] knowledge that trials from all sources will work for our good.

…Wherefore, though good and bad men suffer alike, we must not suppose that there is no difference between the men themselves, because there is no difference in what they both suffer. For even in the likeness of the sufferings, there remains an unlikeness in the sufferers; and though exposed to the same anguish, virtue and vice are not the same thing. For as the same fire causes gold to glow brightly, and chaff to smoke; and under the same flail the straw is beaten small, while the grain is cleansed; and as the lees are not mixed with the oil, though squeezed out of the vat by the same pressure, so the same violence of affliction proves, purges, clarifies the good, but damns, ruins, exterminates the wicked. And thus it is that in the same affliction the wicked detest God and blaspheme, while the good pray and praise. So material a difference does it make, not what ills are suffered, but what kind of man suffers them. For, stirred up with the same movement, mud exhales a horrible stench, and ointment emits a fragrant odor. (“City of God”, Ch 8. – Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, [Hedricksons Publishers, Inc., 1995] vol.2, pp. 5-6) St. Augustin of Hippo

The Ultimate Outcome! D&C 123:11-17

Never be discouraged. If I were sunk in the lowest pit of Nova Scotia, with the Rocky Mountains piled on me, I would hang on, exercise faith, and keep up good courage, and I would come out on top (Joseph Smith to his cousin George A. Smith).

The End...