1. “Bear Up
Their
Burdens
with
Ease”
Elder David A. Bednar

2. Follow Along…

3. “Bear Up Their
Burdens with Ease”

4. What is a load?

5. Our Individual Loads
“Each of us carries a
load.
“Our individual load is
comprised of demands
and opportunities,
obligations and
privileges, afflictions and
blessings, and options
and constraints.”

6. Ponder• “Two guiding principle questions can be helpful as
we periodically and prayerfully assess our loads…”
• 1. “Is the load I am carrying producing the spiritual
traction that will enable me to press forward with
faith in Christ on the strait and narrow path and
avoid getting stuck?...
• 2. “Is the load I am carrying creating sufficient
spiritual traction so I ultimately can return home to
Heavenly Father”

7. Spiritual Traction

8. 10 Truths About Loads
• 1. We don’t always know what to do
to get ourselves out of sticky
situations?
• 2. Some loads happen because we
“went too far along the snowy road”
• 3. We can’t just sit there and expect
our loads to be lifted for us
• 4. Sometimes it’s our loads that are
actually moving and changing us
• 5. All loads are personalized and
individualized

9. 10 Truths About Loads
• 6. Sometimes one load gets us
out of another load
• 7. Loads are not always sin
induced
• 8. Covenants ease our load
• 9. Loads can be made easier
but won’t always be taken
away
• 10. It is the Atonement that
makes this all possible

10. How Diamonds are Strengthened?
• “The Truth About Eden” page 68, Eldred G Smith
Doctrine & Covenants 29:39- “Bitter and the sweet”
“So it is with us today, we must also have the bitter in
order to know the sweet. Sometimes some of us think
we have the bitter and not enough of the sweet. This
is normal. We all have our trials of life to strengthen
us.
“Each thinks he has the hardest or most severe trials.
It may be that they are the most difficult only because
they are the hardest or most difficult for you.
“The diamond is enhanced and made more valuable
with polishing. Steel is made harder and more
valuable through tempering. So also opposition
builds the character of man.”

11. Diamonds & Us
How are diamonds like us?

12. Mosiah 24:1-25

13. Mosiah 24: 1-25
1. What process was applied to ease their
burdens?
2. How were their burdens eased?
3. Why weren’t their burdens just taken
away?
4. How is their experience like our
individual loads?

14. 1. “Act as Agents”
•
“The object of prayer is not to change the will of
God, but to secure for ourselves and for others
blessings that God is already willing to
grant…Blessings require some work or effort on
our part before we can obtain them. Prayer is a
form of work, and is an appointed means for
obtaining the highest of all blessings.”
(Bible Dictionary, Prayer)

15. 2. Who is on the other end
of our yoke?
YOU ?

16. Earthly & Heavenly Yoke

17. Earthly Yoke
Who is your
earthly yoke?

18. “I have spoken here of heavenly help, of
angels dispatched to bless us in time of
need. But when we speak of those who
are instruments in the hand of God, we
are reminded that not all angels are
from the other side of the veil.
Some of them we walk with and talk
with- here, now, everyday. Some of
them reside in our own neighborhoods.
Some of them gave birth to us, and in
my case, one of them consented to
marry me. Indeed heaven never seems
closer than when we see the love of
God manifested in the kindness and
devotion of people so good and so
pure that angelic is the only word that
comes to mind.”
Elder Holland, “The Ministry of Angels,” Ensign,
Nov 2008

19. Earthly Yoke Examples:
• Mary, the mother of Jesus & Elizabeth
(Luke 1:27-56)
• Nephi & Zoram (1 Nephi 4:31-37,
2 Nephi 1:30-32)
• Joseph & Hyrum Smith (D&C 135)
• Ruth & Naomi (Ruth 1:6-18)
• Adam & Eve (Genesis 2:18-25)
• Moses & Aaron (Exodus 4:10-16)
Using these examples, what do we learn about
how to yoke ourselves with others?

20. Heavenly Yoke

21. Quote #1
• “May I suggest to you that one of the
things we need to teach our students
and one of the things which will
become more important in their lives
the longer they live is the reality of
angels, their work and their ministry.
Obviously I speak here not alone of the
angel Moroni but also of those more
personal ministering angels who are
with us and around us, empowered to
help us and who do exactly that.”
Elder Holland, BYU Book of Mormon Symposium, 1994

22. Quote #2:
“…I testify of angels, both the heavenly
and the mortal kind. In doing so I am
testifying that God never leaves us
alone, never leaves us unaided in the
challenges we face…On occasions,
global or personal, we may feel we are
distanced from God, shut out from
heaven, lost, alone in the dark and
dreary places. Often enough that
distress can be of our own making, but
even then the Father of us all is
watching and assisting. And always
there are those angels who come and
go all around us, seen and unseen,
known and unknown, mortal and
immortal.”
Elder Holland, “The Ministry of Angels,”
2008

23. Quote #3
“’And Elisha prayed, and said, Lord, I
pray thee, open his eyes, that he may
see. And the Lord opened the eyes of
the young man; and he saw: and
behold, the mountain was full of horses
and chariots of fire round about Elisha.’
“Like the servant of Elisha, there are
more with you than those you can see
opposed to you. Some who are with
you will be invisible to your mortal eyes.
The Lord will bear you up and will at
times do it by calling others to stand
with you.”
President Eyring, “O Ye That Embark,” Ensign Nov
2008

24. Quote #4
“All people have their
guardian angels. Whether
our departed dead guard
us is not for me to say. I can
say we have our guardian
angels.”
Brigham Young, Journal of
Discourses, 11:17

25. William R. Palmer
Martin Handcart Company
“We suffered beyond
anything you can imagine
and many died of exposure
and starvation, but did you
ever hear a survivor of that
company utter a word of
criticism? Not one of that
company ever apostaized or
left the Church, because
everyone of us came through
with the absolute knowledge
that God lives, for we became
acquainted with Him in our
extremities…”

26. “I have pulled my handcart when I was so weak and
weary from illness and lack of food that I could hardly
put one food ahead of the other. I have looked ahead
and seen a patch of sand or a hill slope and I have said,
I can go only that far and there I must give up, for I
cannot pull the load through it…I have gone on to that
sand and when I reached it, the cart began pushing me.
I have looked back many times to see who was pushing
my cart, but my eyes saw no one. I knew then that the
angels of God were there.”

27. Challenge:
Text or write a note of
appreciation for someone
who has helped ease your
burdens and carry your
personal loads.

28. “Take my yoke upon you”
“Let me help you carry your loads”
Matthew 11:29

29. “I wonder if we fail to
fully acknowledge this
strengthening aspect
of the Atonement in our
lives and mistakenly
believe that we must
carry our load all
alone- through sheer
grit, willpower, and
discipline and with our
obviously limited
capacities.”

30. • “Thus, the Savior has
suffered not just for our
sins and iniquities- but
also for our physical
pains and anguish, our
weaknesses and
shortcomings, our fears
and frustrations, our
disappointments and
discouragement, our
regrets and remorse,
our despair and
desperation, the
injustices and inequality
we experience, and
the emotional distress
that beset us.”

31. “In a moment of weakness, we may cry out, ‘No one knows
what it is like. No one understands.’ But the Son of God
perfectly knows and understands, for He has felt and borne
our individual burdens. And because of His infinite and
eternal sacrifice, He has perfect empathy and can extend
to us His arm of mercy.”

32. Next Week’s Lesson:
“Spiritual
Whirlwinds”
By Elder Andersen

33. How does the story of the Good Samaritan
(and his load)
propel him forward?

34. Clip of the Good
Samaritan