Mormon Church

by Nora Hess

When I was 16 years old, I spent a few weeks at Cornell University attending a summer program for high school students. For the first time in my life, I left the safe, comforting environment of my home to spend time with people who were very different from me. The culture shock was enormous. As a lifelong member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, sometimes called the “Mormon Church” by the media, I had grown up among people who believed as I did, who worshipped God, and who strove daily to keep His commandments. By contrast, the other young people with me at Cornell were largely agnostic: they did not pray, believe in Jesus Christ, or live the standards that I had been taught. Soon I realized that the way I saw the world was not the only way. I came face to face with the question: Why did I believe?

Faith: The Essential Questions 

There comes a time in each person’s life when certain questions loom large: What is the purpose of life? Is there a God, and if so, does He care about me? How can I find happiness? How can I know what is true?

I returned home from Ithaca deeply worried about those essential questions. Both the logic and the emotions upon which I had previously based my faith had been called into question by my peers. Was there a God? How could I know? I pondered for weeks as I looked at the world with new eyes, comparing different world views. What was true?

The Beginning of Faith: A Desire to Believe

The Book of Mormon, Another Testament of Jesus Christ, is the religious history of an ancient people who lived in the Americas long ago. Alma, a prophet whose teachings are recorded in The Book of Mormon, once taught a group of people about how to develop faith. The people he taught had been deeply humbled, as I had been, and were searching for answers. Alma counseled them:

Now, as I said concerning faith—that it was not a perfect knowledge—even so it is with my words. Ye cannot know of their surety at first, unto perfection, any more than faith is a perfect knowledge.

But behold, if ye will awake and arouse your faculties, even to an experiment upon my words, and exercise a particle of faith, yea, even if ye can no more than a desire to believe, let this desire work in you, even until ye believe in a manner that ye can give place for a portion of my words (Alma 32:26-27).

Like Alma’s people, I did not have a perfect knowledge, or even much knowledge at all. But I knew one thing: I desired to believe. I desired to believe because when I looked at what my life would be like if I abandoned my faith and its teachings compared to the eternal life offered to me by Jesus Christ, there was no comparison. Even at my young age, I could see that a life of faith is full of unmatched goodness, richness of experience, and joy. I also could see that it was no more logical to disbelieve in God than to believe in Him; each choice was a leap of faith. So I chose to “give place for a portion” of the word, and see where it led.

Faith as a Seed: Enlarge My Soul, Enlighten My Understanding

Once Alma had encouraged the people to accept the possibility of belief in Jesus Christ, he taught them how to proceed:

Now, we will compare the word unto a seed. Now, if ye give place, that a seed may be planted in your heart, behold, if it be a true seed, or a good seed, if ye do not cast it out by your unbelief, that ye will resist the Spirit of the Lord, behold, it will begin to swell within your breasts; and when you feel these swelling motions, ye will begin to say within yourselves—It must needs be that this is a good seed, or that the word is good, for it beginneth to enlarge my soul; yea, it beginneth to enlighten my understanding, yea, it beginneth to be delicious to me (Alma 32:28).

And behold, as the tree beginneth to grow, ye will say: Let us nourish it with great care, that it may get root, that it may grow up, and bring forth fruit unto us. And now behold, if ye nourish it with much care it will get root, and grow up, and bring forth fruit (Alma 32:37).

Faith: Feasting on the Fruit

As I continued to act in faith, my conviction and knowledge continued to grow. Miracles of healing, both large and small, occurred in my life. Answers to my prayers would come as the Holy Ghost spoke to my mind and my heart. From time to time, my Heavenly Father would direct me to help someone else in just the way they needed. I felt the love of Jesus Christ for me and for those around me. Life became ever richer and more rewarding the more I acted in faith.

My life today is blessed beyond measure because of the choice I made, long ago, to believe. My faith is no longer weak, and my knowledge is no longer meager. Instead, the accumulated experience of my life helps me to know now that God does indeed live, and He loves me. Keeping His commandments leads to happiness in this life, and joy throughout eternity. My Savior, Jesus Christ, lives. He has atoned for my sins, and will sustain me through every trial. My life without God would have been an empty shell of what it is today. I believed then because I took a leap of faith and chose to experiment upon the word. I believe now because I know that what I believe is true. My life of faith brings me great joy.

But if ye will nourish the word, yea, nourish the tree as it beginneth to grow, by your faith with great diligence, and with patience, looking forward to the fruit thereof, it shall take root; and behold it shall be a tree springing up unto everlasting life.

And because of your diligence and your faith and your patience with the word in nourishing it, that it may take root in you, behold, by and by ye shall pluck the fruit thereof, which is most precious, which is sweet above all that is sweet, and which is white above all that is white, yea, and pure above all that is pure; and ye shall feast upon this fruit even until ye are filled, that ye hunger not, neither shall ye thirst (Alma 32:41-42).

Additional Resources:

Faith: Study by Topic

Gordon B. Hinckley, “Be Not Faithless”

Clayton M. Christensen, “Why I Belong and Why I Believe”

It isn’t popular these days to say that you know the truth. Feel-good philosophies say that truth is relative to the individual, and that it isn’t important what you believe as long as you live a good life. In our desire to be tolerant, we may be ashamed to claim that any doctrine is true or false, or especially that any single church has the answers.

Yet the answers to some questions really do matter. They are basic:

Is there a God or not? What is He like? Does He care about individuals? Does He care what we do? Can we communicate with Him?

Why are we here on earth? What happens after we die? Did we live before we were born?

Was Jesus Christ really the literal Son of God in the flesh? Do we need His atonement? Was He literally resurrected, and will we be resurrected? Do we need to keep His commandments?

Are there prophets on the earth today? Can we receive personal revelation from God?

Will we be with our families after we die? How important are marriage and families?

Knowing the Truth is Important

Different religions throughout the world answer these questions differently. The answers are important to us because they govern how we live from day to day, how we choose to spend our time, and especially how we relate to other people. It is the small daily choices we make over time determine who we are. A person who believes they will continue to live as an individual after this life will be likely to make different choices than one who believes their existence ends at death. Those who follow the teachings of Jesus Christ as their ideal treat others differently than those who do not. If we believe that family relationships continue after death, we treat our families differently. Our beliefs color everything we do, and our choices affect the world around us.

Truth Can Be Found in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, sometimes inadvertently referred to as “The Mormon Church” by the media, teaches many essential truths about the life and mission of Jesus Christ, the purpose of life, man’s role in God’s creation, the importance of families, and other doctrines. Joseph Smith, the founding prophet of the Mormonism, lived during a time of religious revival, when many different preachers actively sought converts to their different Christian faiths. Joseph, who was only 14 years old at the time, was so confused about their conflicting answers to his questions that he sought the answers directly from God through prayer. What God revealed to Joseph Smith in answer to his questions forms the basis of the doctrines of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Mormon Doctrine: The Nature of God

Mormon doctrine answers the questions above in the following ways.

There is a living God, who is the Father of our spirits. We lived with Him before we came to earth. The Godhead consists of three separate and distinct individuals: God the Father; God the Son, who is Jesus Christ; and the Holy Ghost. Both the Father and the Son have bodies of flesh and bones as tangible as man’s; the Holy Ghost is a personage of Spirit so that He can dwell in our hearts (see Doctrine and Covenants 130:22). God loves us beyond our capacity to understand, and is aware of the minute details of our lives. He desires us to communicate with Him through prayer, and will respond to us in our minds and hearts through the Holy Ghost. We are His greatest work:

For behold, this is my work and my glory—to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man (The Pearl of Great Price, Moses 1:39).

Mormon Doctrine: Our Purpose on Earth

We lived with our Heavenly Father in a loving family relationship before we were born. Jesus Christ, as the firstborn of God in the spirit, was our eldest brother there. God planned for us to come to the earth to obtain bodies of flesh like His, and to learn to choose between good and evil in an environment where we could be completely free to choose and to experience the consequences of our choices. This earth life is both a schooling and a test to see what we desire most. God’s ultimate desire is that we choose good, learn to be like Him, and return to live with Him after this life. Eternal life is God’s life, and is a life of ultimate joy and peace.

Mormon Doctrine: Jesus Christ

Because all of us sin, none of us is able to return to God on our own. Jesus Christ is the only begotten Son of God in the flesh.  He alone lived a perfect life. Before His mortal birth, He created the earth and all things in it. He came to earth to teach us and to show us by example how we must live to be like God. In Gethsemane and on the cross, Jesus Christ paid for all of our sins on condition of repentance. He also bore the burdens of our sufferings in mortality, so that through His atonement He is able to succor and sustain us through any mortal trial. He was literally resurrected from the dead, thus breaking the bands of death for all mankind. We will all be resurrected one day, and every human being will spend eternity in an immortal, perfected physical body like the bodies of God the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ. If we choose to follow Jesus Christ and repent of our sins, striving daily to keep His commandments, the atonement of Jesus Christ will pay for our sins, and we can grow to be like Him and live with God eternally.

Mormon Doctrine: Prophets and Personal Revelation

Because God cares for us so profoundly, He will never leave us alone. Throughout the history of the world, God has called prophets to teach us His word and His commandments. From Adam until the present day, God has spoken to prophets to teach His children how they should live. He loves all His children equally, and has called prophets in every age and clime. When men have lost the truth through apostasy, God has called new prophets to bring the truth back again. Prophets lead His Church on the earth today, and continually reveal God’s will for us. The Church of Jesus Christ today teaches the same truths that were made known by Jesus Christ to His prophets throughout Old Testament times and to His apostles at the time of His earthly ministry.

In addition to the guidance of prophets, God has provided the opportunity for each individual to receive personal revelation through the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost helps us with personal problems, answers to questions, comfort, and peace. The Holy Ghost speaks to our minds and our hearts, giving us ideas accompanied by feelings of light and joy. We can feel the depth of God’s love for us through the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost is often referred to as the “still, small voice.” In order to hear Him, we must first remove the darkness of sin and the distractions of the world from our lives. We must pray diligently

…to God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, …with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, [and] He will manifest  the truth …unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost.

And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things (The Book of Mormon, Another Testament of Jesus Christ, Moroni 10:4-5).

Mormon Doctrine: The Importance of the Family

Family life is central to our lives on earth. In families we learn love and compassion for others, and receive love in return. Mormon doctrine teaches that families are central to God’s plan in the eternities as well. We lived as brothers and sisters, members of God’s family, before we were born. We are meant to live as families here on earth. After this life, those who have been sealed together in families through the ordinances of the holy temple, a place where members of The Church of Jesus Christ go to marry and make other sacred promises with the Lord, will continue to enjoy family life throughout all eternity. Our most important relationships do not end at death. It is God’s desire that they continue forever.

Oh Say, What Is Truth?

True doctrine matters. Mormon doctrine contains truths that change lives. It is important to know that there are true answers to basic questions. We should not let our desire to be tolerant of others’ beliefs keep us from finding and speaking the truth ourselves, because the truth is precious:

Oh Say, What is Truth?

Oh say, what is truth? ‘Tis the last and the first,

For the limits of time it steps o’er.

Though the heavens depart and the earth’s fountains burst,

Truth, the sum of existence, will weather the worst,

Eternal, unchanged, evermore.

(“Oh Say, What is Truth?“ Hymns #272, verse 4)

Additional Resources:

Our Eternal Life

 The Family: A Proclamation to the World

God’s Commandments

The Book of Mormon and Other Mormon Scripture

keywords: truth, LDS Church, Mormons, Joseph Smith, Jesus Christ, Mormon doctrine, prophets

When people struggle to know whether or not God and Jesus Christ are real, they often ask in frustration, “Why doesn’t God just show Himself?” It sometimes seems to them that if He wants them to believe in Him, that would be the simplest way.

Why doesn’t God just show Himself? To understand the answer to this question, we first have to examine why we came to earth. For members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, whose members are sometimes called Mormons, the explanation of life’s purpose begins even before birth. What happened to us before we were born explains why God seldom shows Himself today.

Mormon beliefs tell of a time before the world was created. God created our spirits. This is one reason Mormons consider God to be literally their Heavenly Father. Our spirits weren’t housed in bodies yet, although they had that form, but we did have our personalities, talents, and interests. In other words, we were uniquely ourselves. We lived with God during that time, getting to know Him and letting Him get to know us.

While this was wonderful, this experience didn’t allow us the full range of opportunity and experiences God wanted us to have. As a perfect Father, He knew we needed to  have challenges, tests, and hard experiences to become everything we could be. We know from our own experiences that we don’t entirely learn who we are until we live away from home and until we’ve faced some trials. If our parents make life too easy, we become spoiled and don’t develop fully.

To receive the full experience God planned for us, we needed physical bodies, families, and a chance to develop faith. Faith is the answer to “Why doesn’t God just show Himself?” While we lived right in God’s presence, we didn’t need faith to believe in Him. However, faith is an important part of life’s experiences. When we learn to have faith in things we can’t see, it dramatically improves our life experience. Learning to have faith can help us learn to love and to commit to a family even in hard times. After all, we can’t see or scientifically measure love and we can’t see into the future to know how family life will work out. So much of that is based on faith. With faith, we can have the courage to take risks that enhance our lives—trying a skill we’re not sure we’re good at, giving ourselves uplifting experiences outside our comfort zone, or making wiser choices.

There are many possible things to believe in, but when we’re forced to sort through them and make choices about what to believe and what to reject, we improve our ability to make wise decisions. The ability to make good decisions helps us in both our temporal and spiritual lives.

And so, God told us that if we chose to come to Earth, we would lose our memory of our time in His presence, and even of His existence. However, He would send along a toolkit that would help us to know it happened, if we chose to open the kit and use it.

One gift God gave us is the Spirit of Christ. Every person has this gift at all times. We can also receive promptings from the Holy Ghost, and after baptism and confirmation by someone with the proper authority, we can have the Holy Ghost with us all the time, as long as we are living worthy of the presence of the Holy Ghost.

Harold B. Lee, a past Mormon prophet, explained the Light of Christ or Spirit of Christ in this way: “Every one of you born into this world enjoys the blessing of this Light that shall never cease to strive with you until you are led to that further light from the gift of the Holy Ghost that may be received only upon condition of repentance and baptism into the Kingdom of God.” (See Decisions for Successful Living, Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1973, p. 144.)

God cannot show Himself to most of us because we agreed to come here in part to learn how to have faith. By having all of us learn faith by seeking out God and Jesus Christ, God is able to create a plan to help us learn. Of course, just as it is with anything we want to learn, we must make a choice to learn faith and we must commit ourselves to doing so.

The Book of Mormon, which God commanded ancient prophets on the American continent to create, was written to serve as a second witness of Jesus Christ. It is meant to be used with the Bible. It is structured much like the Bible, in that a variety of authors wrote the book and the book is filled with both stories and sermons designed to help us gain faith. One of the most famous sermons on faith in this book was given by a prophet named Alma. Alma taught listeners to conduct an important experiment that would help them gain faith. This experiment is as valid today as it was anciently.

Alma’s sermon was preached to a specific group of people called the Zoramites. The Zoramites had once been followers of Christ, but had somehow become sidetracked and had corrupted the gospel. They became very worldly and were entirely focused on wealth. They believed wealth was proof of God’s approval on a person. They believed this so strongly they would not allow the poor into their churches. Their services were nothing more than a celebration of how wonderful they were and once they went home, they gave no further thought to God until the next week.

Unfortunately, they taught there was no way to worship God except inside their churches. The poor, being excluded, felt they were lost forever due to their poverty. When Alma and his missionary companions arrived to preach, the poor asked Alma what they could do to be saved. Alma taught them that what they needed was not to get inside this corrupt church, but to have faith.

He challenged them to experiment with faith. He assured them that all they needed to get started was a desire to have faith—just a desire, and nothing more. God could take that desire and grow it into something wonderful.

He praised them for being humble, but pointed out they were humble out of necessity. He told them they would be blessed even more if they were humble by choice as well. Humility is essential to gaining faith in God. By accepting they were not the greatest and highest power in the world, they could learn to obey God and accept His will, even if it wasn’t what they hoped it would be. This would allow them to repent when they sinned, and repentance allows God to forgive through the atonement of Jesus Christ.

Alma then tells them something that helps us understand more about why God can’t just show Himself to us:

“17 Yea, there are many who do say: If thou wilt show unto us a sign from heaven, then we shall know of a surety; then we shall believe.

18 Now I ask, is this faith? Behold, I say unto you, Nay; for if a man knoweth a thing he hath no cause to believe, for he knoweth it.”

19 And now, how much more cursed is he that knoweth the will of God and doeth it not, than he that only believeth, or only hath cause to believe, and falleth into transgression? (See Alma 32:17-19).

From this we see many people, even then, wanted signs—proof. But if you have proof, you don’t need faith. Furthermore, your punishment for failing to keep the commandments is far greater if you have proof of God’s existence than if you only have faith in it. Greater knowledge comes with greater responsibility. In addition, history has shown that having a sure knowledge doesn’t really convert the heart.

In an early Book of Mormon writing, we learn of a family that had four sons when the story began. The two oldest were self-centered and unfaithful. When they abused or tried to kill their brother, angels came to them multiple times. Despite seeing angels and many miracles, they were not truly converted. They continued to deny what God wanted them to do and to disobey commandments. They had proof, but they had no real conversion in their hearts.

This is why Alma found it so important to teach his students that they needed faith. He told them their faith would not be a perfect knowledge—if it were, it wouldn’t be faith. He compared the growth of faith to a seed. First, they must plant the seed in their hearts and not cast it out by choosing to not believe. The seed would then, if it was a good seed (meaning if God was real), begin to swell or grow in their hearts. When they felt this swelling feeling, and felt their souls enlarge, they would know it was a good seed—signs of the reality of God.

Alma reminded them that seeds bring forth their own kind. An apple seed will grow an apple tree. A seed of faith in God will grow faith in God and in itself, then, will prove that God is real. Satan cannot bring forth joy and peace, and that is what you feel when you are praying to know if God is real.

This part of the experiment leads to perfect knowledge, but only in one thing—whether or not the seed was a good one and capable of changing you. If we plant a tree seed, we have to nurture the seed to get the best results. Faith also has to be nurtured in order to grow. If you neglect it, it will die, not because it was bad, but because you didn’t take care of it.

Nurturing the seed of faith requires prayer, scripture study, and pondering of gospel truths that are learned. It requires us to agree to act on whatever God tells us, even if it isn’t what we hoped to hear. Alma warned his listeners that developing a strong faith requires a long commitment, just as growing a tree does. However, it leads to faith in God and eternal life. The rewards are more than worth the work involved.

Once we have faith, we no longer need God to appear before us. Our hearts, and the Spirit of Christ, will tell us everything we need to know.

In the Book of John, we learn, “All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.” (See John 1:3.)

It is clear, then, that anything that exists was created by God, and so God made Satan. However, he wasn’t Satan at his creation and he was not created evil. The prophet Isaiah helps us to understand what turned Lucifer into Satan and demonstrates that he is not the being God created him to be: “How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!” (See Isaiah 14:12.)

In other words, Satan, as created, was not evil. God does not create anything that is evil. The creation accounts in Genesis consistently remind us that everything God creates is good. How did Satan go from being a good creation of God to being the source of evil?

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, whose members are sometimes called Mormons, teach that agency was an essential part of God’s plan for us. From the very beginning, God gave us the right to choose for ourselves. Although He made rules for Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden concerning the tree, he did not lock it up where they could not get to it. In fact, he put it right in the center of the Garden, where they would see it often. They were free to choose to eat from it, and they did.

Agency explains how Lucifer became Satan. Mormons believe that God first created our spirits and allowed us to live with Him in Heaven prior to the creation of the Earth. This makes Him very literally our Father, and it also means we began to develop our characters and personalities prior to birth. We did not have bodies, but we did have personalities, and the ability to choose whom to become. Some worked hard to become as much like God as possible. Some did not. Some were power-hungry, even then, and it appears Lucifer was one of these. The events that would occur demonstrate he was popular among a certain type of spirit and that he used that popularity and his agency to cause others to make poor choices, even then.

Mormon beliefs talk of a great meeting held in Heaven in which we were told of the plan to create an earth for us. We would all, in our turn, go there to live for a while. We’d gain a body, come to earth through a family, and have agency. We would not remember our time in Heaven, but we would be given the ability to feel God’s presence and counsel to us if we listened and were anxious to do the right thing. Through what would be known as the Spirit of Christ, we would be able to discern truth from lies if we chose to do so. The Holy Ghost would be available to help us on Earth. With this help, we would be expected to search out the truth and then commit to live it.

Of course, we wouldn’t be perfect, and the Law required perfection in order to return home. To this end, God would provide a Savior who would come to earth through a mortal mother, with God as His father, and live a sinless life. He would then make a voluntary sacrifice on our behalf, known as the atonement. This would allow us to overcome death and to repent. It would make it possible to overcome the demands of the law through mercy. Jesus Christ volunteered for this calling, saying he wanted all the honor and glory to go to God.

Lucifer, however, did not like God’s plan. He used his influence to try to convince us to replace God and Jesus Christ with him. Lucifer said he would take control of our lives on earth, controlling every movement and thought so we could not possibly sin. In that way, no atonement would be necessary (relieving him of the need to suffer on anyone’s behalf) and we’d all come home safely. In exchange, however, he wanted us to let him take God’s place and receive all the honor and glory.

Lucifer’s plan was a selfish one, designed to win him a position of power and authority without undue sacrifice. This was a sharp contrast to Jesus’ proposal, which asked nothing for himself. However, perhaps because Lucifer was popular, or perhaps because his plan seemed to offer security and an easy route to success, one-third of God’s children chose Lucifer as their leader, rejecting both God and Jesus Christ.

They were not allowed to come to earth as a consequence. They will never receive bodies or families, and because they rejected the atonement before they even came to earth, they are not allowed to benefit from it. They were cast out of heaven for their efforts to overthrow God and His plan. All the remainder of the spirits in Heaven began to prepare for mortality.

However, Lucifer’s work was not done. He became Satan and he was angry at being cast out of Heaven. He was also miserable, having been denied what even he knew was a wonderful opportunity—even though he made the choices that led to it. He was determined to make every who had refused to follow him miserable.

His role in our lives today is to try to get us to reject the great plan of salvation we once embraced, to disobey God’s commandments, even to choose not to believe in God or Jesus Christ. He is determined to undermine God’s work.

Although Satan is allowed to try to make us sin and reject the opportunity to return home to God’s presence, there are some things he cannot do. He cannot force anyone to sin: he can only encourage sin. He cannot prevent anyone from knowing the truth who is determined to know it: he can only try to keep us from wanting to know. Satan cannot remain if we tell him to leave. In the New Testament, we can look to the example of Jesus Christ to know how to handle Satan’s temptations and lies. When Satan tried to tempt Jesus, Jesus simply refused to pay any attention to him and ordered him to leave.

Satan then, began life as we all did, as a child of God. He used his God-given agency to reject God and the gospel and chose instead to live a selfish life harming others. While he is temporarily allowed to try to carry out his revengeful goals, we are under no obligation to give him power over us.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, whose members are sometimes called Mormons, recently held its semi-annual General Conference. In this conference, Mormon leaders instruct members and other listeners in ways to better live Christ’s teachings.

In the April 2011 General Conference, Paul V. Johnson answered the question, “Why is life so hard?” He taught that trials often come to us because Jesus loves us. It might not seem, at first glance to be much of a gift, but when we understand why we came to earth, the reasoning behind this becomes clear.

Mormon beliefs teach that God created our spirits. As spirits—meaning we had no body—we lived with God, getting to know Him and becoming the people we are today. Eventually, of course, every child needs to leave home and so God prepared the earth for us. When we came to earth we would take with us our own personalities but we would forget who we had been and where we had come from. We’d gain bodies and families. Many of us would have opportunities to rediscover God and Jesus Christ and even those who did not would have with them the Light of Christ, which everyone always has. We’d have trials which would serve as a test to see if we could handle them properly.

But trials are not just a test. They are also a gift. When we face trials, we often discover something about ourselves we didn’t know was there. When we handle them badly we learn our weaknesses and can choose to overcome the challenges. When we handle them well, we can grow to be more than we ever imagined we can be. Trials help us become everything God knows we can be.

Elder Johnson’s talk was given in the Sunday morning session of Conference, It was called, “More Than Conquerors through Him That Loved Us.” The title comes from the Biblical apostle Paul in Romans, chapter 8:

35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?

 36 As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.

 37 Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.

 38 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,

 39 Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Elder Johnson reminded listeners that no one is exempt from trials. Money can’t prevent them. Obedience to the commandments can’t prevent them. Trials are an essential part of life—even Jesus faced trials and temptations. The trials He faced were an essential part of His own mortal experience and they are also an essential part of our own.

At times it may seem that our trials are focused on areas of our lives and parts of our souls with which we seem least able to cope. Since personal growth is an intended outcome of these challenges, it should come as no surprise that the trials can be very personal—almost laser guided to our particular needs or weaknesses.

There are times when we are tempted to tell God we are more than willing to take on our share of trials—just not that particular trial that looms ahead. We think we can’t handle that trial. However, if the trial comes, it is proof to us that God knows we can handle it after all. More importantly, it means there is something He wants us to learn by experiencing it. We learn the most when we are pushed far outside our comfort zones. Trials are painful, but seen from an eternal perspective, they are worth it.

In the Book of Numbers, in the Old Testament, Moses is struggling with his group of whiny Israelites. They were worried about having nothing to eat, so God began providing them with manna. Soon, however, the novelty of the manna wore off and they began to whine for meat, vegetables, and other foods from their past. Moses came pretty close to the breaking point. He even complained to God, asking why he had to deal with these people—they were, after all, God’s children, not his. He suggested, in a clear measure of his frustration, God just kill him. Death seemed preferable to coping with this trial, which he insisted was beyond his ability to bear. Instead, God offered him some help and made him carry on. Over time, Moses became a strengthened leader, better able to handle the trial he faced.

Our trials are personalized to our specific needs. The reason some people have seemingly harder lives than others is often because of the specific lessons that person might need to learn. God knows exactly which trials we need. The person with seemingly easy trials might actually face greater danger than the person with clearly challenging trials. It is often said, for instance, that most people feel certain they would be willing to die for their faith, but that the truth is we are more often called on to live for it. While dying for our faith might seem to be harder and more grievous, in truth living the small, day-to-day challenges to our faith might prove to be far harder. Many of us measure up surprisingly well to the severe trials, but fumble on the smaller ones, some of which don’t really look like trials, and so catch us off-base.

For those who are frustrated over a deep trial, Elder Johnson consoles:

A pattern in the scriptures and in life shows that many times the darkest, most dangerous tests immediately precede remarkable events and tremendous growth. “After much tribulation come the blessings.”  The children of Israel were trapped against the Red Sea before it was parted.  Nephi faced danger, anger from his brothers, and multiple failures before he was able to procure the brass plates.  Joseph Smith was overcome by an evil power so strong that it seemed he was doomed to utter destruction. When he was almost ready to sink into despair, he exerted himself to call upon God, and at that very moment he was visited by the Father and the Son. Often investigators face opposition and tribulation as they near baptism. Mothers know that the challenges of labor precede the miracle of birth. Time after time we see marvelous blessings on the heels of great trials.

Remembering this can help us endure our trials. We can know that if we face our trial with courage, look for the lessons to be learned and the skills to be gained, when it ends we will receive the reward of our efforts. We will be stronger, have increased faith and trust in God, and will be better prepared for the next trial.

Our Heavenly Father loves us, and we “know that whosoever shall put their trust in God shall be supported in their trials, and their troubles, and their afflictions, and shall be lifted up at the last day.” Someday when we get to the other side of the veil, we want more than for someone just to tell us, “Well, you’re done.” Instead, we want the Lord to say, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant.”

Watch the entire talk in speech and sign language:

On Tuesday, April 27, 2010, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, whose members are often casually called Mormons, showed reporters around a new solar-powered meetinghouse. It is one of five environmentally friendly chapels serving as a test program to monitor effectiveness. The pilot program will eventually lead to environmentally friendly meetinghouses world-wide.

The Mormons have a long history of environmentalism, beginning with Joseph Smith’s injunctions not to kill animals unless they are needed for food, and Brigham Young’s regular warnings to members not to waste the Lord’s natural resources. He frequently reminded members everything belonged to God and we have no right to waste it. He was very careful about reusing and recycling in his personal life, and expected others to do the same. (more…)

The Mormons—a nickname for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints—have released a new edition of Gospel Principles. This lesson manual is designed for both classroom and personal study. Adults who are visiting a Mormon Church to learn more and those who are new members use this as a Sunday School textbook to learn the basics of Mormon beliefs before moving into the regular, more advanced Sunday School class. It can be read online at no cost and without registration, making it an inexpensive and organized way to learn the essential teachings of the Mormons as taught to their own members. (more…)

The Mormons are sometimes seen as having a great many restrictive rules. Mormons themselves know that within the rules are many opportunities for freedom, and that these rules actually make them freer than those with no rules.

An often-used example of freedom within structure is the sonnet. A sonnet is a poem with very strict rules.

Shakespeare’s sonnets each contained fourteen lines. Every line had ten syllables written in iambic pentameter. Despite this very strict structure, Shakespeare managed to come up with 154 sonnets, all different, and many other people have also created sonnets based on this formula. The structure does not prevent people from being creative and writing something close to their heart. Rather, it actually frees the author. By having the structure in place, the poet is free to focus all his attention on the message and wording of the poem, which, after all, is the point of a poem. (more…)

The Pew Forum, which is not affiliated with the Church in any way, did a study of Mormons in the United States. One aspect of Mormons in their personal lives involved their feelings about and relationships with God.

The study found that every Mormon surveyed believed in God, which was higher than any other religion previously

surveyed. In addition, nine out of ten were absolutely certain of God’s existence. Ninety-one percent of Mormons believe God is someone you can have a relationship with. All these figures are well above the normal for other groups. (more…)

In the Catholic faith, canonization is the official recognition that someone is a saint and was so even prior to the

official recognition. A process is followed to allow the church to determine who is a saint.

Mormons (the nickname for members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) do not follow this process. The term saint is used in the official name of the church and denotes, as used in the Bible, a community of people who followed God. (more…)