Joseph Smith: I am like a rough stone rolling...

3. Elder Orson F. Whitney wrote, "No pain that we
suffer, no trial that we experience is wasted." Such
cosmic conservation! He continues, "It ministers
to our education, to the development of such
qualities as patience, faith, fortitude and humility.
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."
(Ibid., p. 4.)
(Neal A. Maxwell, All These Things Shall Give
Thee Experience [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book
Co., 1979], 42.)

4. Messages of Inspiration from President Hinckley,
LDS Church News, 1997, 10/04/97
It isn't as bad as you sometimes think it is. It all
works out. Don't worry. I say that to myself every
morning. It will all work out. If you do your best,
it will all work out. Put your trust in God and
move forward with faith and confidence in the
future. The Lord will not forsake us. He will not
forsake us, . . . if we will put our trust in Him, if
we will pray to Him, if we will live worthy of His
blessings, He will hear our prayers.-From
priesthood session, Jordan Utah South Regional
Conference, March 1, 1997

5. Howard W. Hunter, The Teachings of Howard W.
Hunter, edited by Clyde J. Williams, p.202
Things will always get better if we live and love
the gospel. In my lifetime I have seen two world
wars plus Korea plus Vietnam and all that you are
currently witnessing. I have worked my way
through the depression and managed to go to law
school while starting a young family at the same
time. I have seen stock markets and world
economies go crazy and have seen a few despots
and tyrants go crazy, all of which causes quite a
bit of trouble around the world in the process.

6. Howard W. Hunter
So I am frank to say tonight that I hope you won't
believe all the world's difficulties have been
wedged into your decade or that things have never
been worse than they are for you personally, or
that they will never get better. I reassure you that
things have been worse and they will always get
better. They always do-especially when we live
and love the gospel of Jesus Christ and give it a
chance in our lives. (93-01, p. 68)

7. Joseph Trials
“Never get discouraged, whatever difficulties
might surround [you]. If [you were] sunk in the
lowest pit of Nova Scotia, and all the Rocky
Mountains piled on top of [you], [you] ought not
to be discouraged, but hang on, exercise faith and
keep up good courage and [you] should come out
on top of the heap.” (George A. Smith’s
journal, quoted by Preston Nibley, in Church
Section, 12 Mar. 1950, p. 16.

8. As a child shot at persecuted and hated,
Leg operation… walked on
Crutches for 3 years…very hard labor…

9. 200 plus legal entanglements

10. First four children die:
Baby Alvin, Thaddeus, Louisa, and Joseph Murdock

11. Tarred and Feathered, Poisoned, Betrayed
by his closest Friends

12. Joseph Smith, The Personal Writings of Joseph
Smith, compiled and edited by Dean C. Jessee, p.543
- 544
And as for the perils which I am called to pass
through they seem but a small thing to me, as the
envy and wrath of man has been my common lot
all the days of my life and for what cause it seems
mysterious, unless I was ordained from before the
foundation of the world for some good end, or bad
as you may choose to call it. Judge ye for
yourselves, God knoweth all these things wether it
be good or bad,

13. Joseph Smith, The Personal Writings of Joseph
Smith, compiled and edited by Dean C. Jessee, p.543
- 544
but nevertheless deep water is what I am wont to
swim in, it all has become a second nature to me
and I feel like Paul to glory in tribulation for unto
this day has the God of my Fathers [p.1] delivered
me out of them all and will deliver me from
henceforth for behold and lo I shall triumph over
all my enemies for the Lord God hath spoken it.

15. …know thou, my son, that all these
things shall give thee experience,
and shall be for thy good...(D&C 122:8)

16. Why we suffer?
(compiled by Bro. Maughan)
• 1 We suffer because of our own sins and
errors (1 Peter 4:15-16; 2 Ne. 2:27)
• 2 Because we live in a fallen world and the
conditions of mortality …bring pain and
suffering. ( Matt. 5:45; 2 Ne. 2:11; Mos. 4:2)
• 3 The sins and transgression’s of others over
which we have no control. (Jacob 2:35)
• 4 We Suffer for righteousness sake-
• Divine Tutorials (D&C 122:7; Mosiah
23:21;D&C 101:4; 132:37; 2 Cor. 12:7-9; 1
Peter 3:12-14)

17. Elder Bruce C. Hafen, The Atonement: All for
All, Ensign (CR), May 2004, p.97
• The Fall was not a disaster. It wasn’t a mistake
or an accident. It was a deliberate part of the
plan of salvation. We are God’s spirit “offspring,”
sent to earth “innocent” of Adam’s transgression.
Yet our Father’s plan subjects us to temptation
and misery in this fallen world as the price to
comprehend authentic joy.

18. Elder Bruce C. Hafen, The Atonement: All for
All, Ensign (CR), May 2004, p.97
• Without tasting the bitter, we actually cannot
understand the sweet. We require mortality’s
discipline and refinement as the “next step in
[our] development” toward becoming like our
Father. But growth means growing pains. It also
means learning from our mistakes in a continual
process made possible by the Savior’s
grace, which He extends both during and “after
all we can do.”

19. Elder Bruce C. Hafen, The Atonement: All for
All, Ensign (CR), May 2004, p.97
• Adam and Eve learned constantly from their
often harsh experience. They knew how a
troubled family feels. Think of Cain and Abel. Yet
because of the Atonement, they could learn from
their experience without being condemned by it.
Christ’s sacrifice didn’t just erase their choices
and return them to an Eden of innocence. That
would be a story with no plot and no character
growth. His plan is developmental—line upon
line, step by step, grace for grace.

20. Elder Bruce C. Hafen, The Atonement: All for
All, Ensign (CR), May 2004, p.97
• So if you have problems in
your life, don’t assume there
is something wrong with you.
Struggling with those
problems is at the very core
of life’s purpose. As we draw
close to God, He will show
us our weaknesses and
through them make us
wiser, stronger. If you’re
seeing more of your
weaknesses, that just might
mean you’re moving nearer
to God, not farther away.

21. Why we suffer?
• 1 We suffer because of our own sins and
errors (1 Peter 4:15-16; 2 Ne. 2:27)
• 2 Because we live in a fallen world and the
conditions of mortality …bring pain and
suffering. ( Matt. 5:45; 2 Ne. 2:11; Mos. 4:2)
• 3 The sins and transgression’s of others over
which we have no control. (Jacob 2:35)
• 4 We Suffer for righteousness sake-
• Divine Tutorials (D&C 122:7; Mosiah 23:21;D&C 101:4;
132:37; 2 Cor. 12:7-9; 1 Peter 3:12-14)