they are evidence that He loves you enough to refine and strengthen you

 Brothers and sisters, your proving and strengthening may not look like Moroni’s or Jacob’s or the Prophet Joseph’s. But it will come. It may come quietly, through the trials of family life. It may come through illness or disappointment or grief or loneliness.

I bear witness that these moments are not evidence that the Lord has abandoned you. Rather, they are evidence that He loves you enough to refine and strengthen you. He is making you strong enough to carry the weight of eternal life.

If we remain faithful in our service, the Lord will refine us. He will strengthen us. And one day we will look back and see that those very trials were evidence of His love. We will see that He was shaping us to be able to stand with Him in glory. As the Lord’s Apostle Paul stated at the end of his own life, “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith.”

I testify that God knows you. He knows the trials you face. He is with you. He will not forsake you. I testify that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. He is our strength, our Redeemer, our hope. If we trust Him, He will make our spiritual power equal to every trial we are called to bear. I so testify in the sacred name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Proved and Strengthened in Christ

October 2025

General Conference

Henry B. Eyring

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2025/10/47eyring?lang=eng&verse=#p

I Went to Work

Long ago I sought to learn physics and mathematics in my college years. I felt overwhelmed. I began to feel that I was trying to learn something that was beyond me. The more I felt overwhelmed, the less I felt the strength to keep trying. My discouragement led me to feel that my efforts were almost fruitless. I began to think of quitting, of doing something easier.

I felt weak. As I prayed, I felt the quiet assurance of the Lord. I felt Him say to my mind, “I am proving you, but I am also with you.”

I did not know then all that those words meant. But I knew what to do—I went to work.

By pondering and working during the years that followed, I came to understand this message of encouragement in the scriptures: “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.”

I learned that my struggle with physics was actually a gift from the Lord. He was teaching me that with His help, I could do things that seemed impossible if I had the faith that He would be there to help me. Through this gift, the Lord was working to prove and strengthen me.

Proved and Strengthened in Christ

October 2025

General Conference

Henry B. Eyring

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2025/10/47eyring?lang=eng&verse=#p

Rationalize Sin, How to Avoid

 Our preparation to meet Jesus Christ accelerates when we stop asking what God will permit and start asking what God would prefer.

Participate to Prepare for Christ’s Return

April 2025

General Conference

Steven D. Shumway

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2025/04/42shumway?lang=eng&verse=#p

Should a Latter-day Saint sell a product when its use violates the Word of Wisdom?

Henry B. Eyring, president of Ricks College, Rexburg, Idaho The advice from Church leaders of this dispensation has been in the direction of discouraging Church members from “handling, selling, or serving” alcoholic beverages. (General Handbook of Instructions, 1976, p. 104.) They have said less concerning a multitude of related questions: Should we grow hops? Sell tobacco? Coffee?

If I were faced with such a decision, two questions might help me make my choices. They are simple ones: What is my overriding objective? What business alternatives can I create?

First, I have no hope of acting wisely if my first and overriding objective is to make money. But if my main motive is to please God, I will be sensitive to the Spirit as it warns me away from what would displease him. Once I have decided I want eternal life more than business success, I will have crossed the great gulf between wanting to know what God would permit and trying to do what he would prefer. That will make me look for different products and services from those I now offer that lead people to violate the Word of Wisdom.

Second, the alternatives are seldom as stark as “Either I sell a product whose use violates the Word of Wisdom or I go broke.” In those few cases where that must be the choice, my obligation to investors, to business associates, to employees, and to my family may force me to sell the harmful product. But almost always, the “go broke” alternative is a false one. For instance, space occupied by beer in a store wouldn’t be left vacant if beer were not sold. It would be used for selling something else; and, with creative skill and faith, the alternative product might be sold in sufficient volume to offset much of the sales lost on beer. This same pursuit of creative alternatives in choosing what to plant might reduce the farmer’s financial sacrifice as he moved away from harmful crops.

The only mistake as bad as making the wrong choice ourselves would be to judge someone else’s heart by his product line or by what he grows. We don’t know if he wants to please the Lord more than to get profits. We don’t know whether he has tried to create alternatives. We don’t know whether his lack of power in his company or his obligations to others allow him no chance to try alternative products. The only heart we know is ours. And that’s the one we can examine, and change, if it needs it. Imperfect ourselves, we cannot always make perfect choices in an imperfect world, but we can have perfect intent to please God. We can make constant efforts to conduct our business both to please God and meet our business obligations. When we can’t do both, we’ll feel uncomfortable. And if someone could explain away that discomfort, we’d have lost something precious.

The Doctrine and Covenants, section 58, verses 26–28, seems to me to describe the opportunity this type of choice presents us: “For behold, it is not meet that I should command in all things; …

“Verily I say, men should be anxiously engaged in a good cause, and do many things of their own free will, and bring to pass much righteousness;

“For the power is in them, wherein they are agents unto themselves. And inasmuch as men do good they shall in nowise lose their reward.” [D&C 58:26–28]

Should a Latter-day Saint sell a product when its use violates the Word of Wisdom?

April 1977

Henry B. Eyring

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/ensign/1977/04/i-have-a-question/should-a-latter-day-saint-sell-a-product-when-its-use-violates-the-word-of-wisdom?lang=eng&verse=#p

For every hour spent instilling doctrine into a child’s life, there are countless hours of opposition filled with messages and images that challenge or ignore those saving truths.

Teaching simply allows us to share the saving doctrine early on, while children remain untouched by the deceiver’s temptations that will later confront them, long before the truths they need to learn are drowned out by the noise of social media, peers, and their own personal struggles. We should seize every opportunity to share the teachings of Jesus Christ with children. These teaching moments are precious and far fewer compared to the relentless efforts of opposing forces. For every hour spent instilling doctrine into a child’s life, there are countless hours of opposition filled with messages and images that challenge or ignore those saving truths.

Simple Is the Doctrine of Jesus Christ

October 2024

General Conference

Henry B. Eyring

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2024/10/47eyring?lang=eng&verse=#p

One of the surest ways to avoid even getting near false doctrine is to choose to be simple in our teaching.

 It is tempting to try something new or sensational. But the Holy Ghost will reveal the spirit of truth only as we are cautious and careful not to go beyond teaching true doctrine. One of the surest ways to avoid even getting near false doctrine is to choose to be simple in our teaching. Safety is gained by that simplicity, and little is lost.

Simple Is the Doctrine of Jesus Christ

October 2024

General Conference

Henry B. Eyring

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2024/10/47eyring?lang=eng&verse=#p

Those who do not see their weaknesses do not progress. Your awareness of your weakness is a blessing as it helps you remain humble and keeps you turning to the Savior. T

 Those who do not see their weaknesses do not progress. Your awareness of your weakness is a blessing as it helps you remain humble and keeps you turning to the Savior. The Spirit not only comforts you, but He is also the agent by which the Atonement works a change in your very nature. Then weak things become strong”

 (Henry B. Eyring, “My Peace I Leave with You,” Ensign or Liahona, May 2017, 16).

“It’s my life to live, my choices to make,” is speaking the truth, a wonderful truth.

 Agency is the source of the risk. It is so priceless a gift from our Heavenly Father that the War in Heaven was fought to defend it. Lucifer sought to take it from us and with it take for himself the honor and glory of our Father. The teenager you love may well have been one of the valiant warriors on the side of agency and truth. Satan seems to feel he can win a double victory by drawing that teenager into sin. He can destroy one of his antagonists and in the process try to prove the Father wrong, prove that the risk of agency was too great.

We can help by seeing clearly the opportunity. The teenager who begins to say, “It’s my life to live, my choices to make,” is speaking the truth, a wonderful truth. The choice to do good is the only way to build a life on the foundation of truth and light. Yet those words can strike fear into a parent or a bishop or a Young Women leader who loves the teenager. That outburst of independence usually comes when a rule is announced or something is forbidden. It may come with the mere appearance of authority, with anyone telling them what they must do, or even with just a look at a hemline.

Our opportunity lies in their seeing a simple truth. And their seeing this is their opportunity, too. It is their life to live, and yet they live it with two powerful opposing forces pulling on them in different ways. One is God, who loves and will not compel and who offers eternal life through the plan of salvation. That plan depends on the Atonement made by the Savior, Jesus Christ, and the teenager’s choice to follow Him. The other, a terrible power, will use deception, force, and hatred to bring someone into bondage and misery. And the teenager is free to choose.

The opportunity is in their seeing that reality, but that is also the problem. It takes the revelation of truth from God to the teenager for those opposing forces to be seen as real. Once seen, the choice will be obvious. But many young people have little experience with persisting in obedience when the truth must be taken on faith alone until it is revealed to them. The opportunity lies in their sensing what they once knew, that the power to choose is a gift from God to bring them happiness in life and in the life to come with Him.

We can help in the way we react to their determination to choose for themselves. They will sense whether we see them as if they could well have been one of the faithful warriors from the premortal existence, committed still to the defense of moral agency and aware of its great value to bring them happiness. If we can see them as faithful warriors from the premortal existence, we may also see their claims of independence as a sign of their potential, a sign that they are testing the power of agency that will bring them happiness. That is hard, because we know the risk should they choose sin. But when fear for them comes, as it does, it helps for us to remember and take comfort that there are opposing pulls. There is an influence of evil in the world, but there is also in the world, and across all creation, the powerful Light of Christ.

They were born with access to the Light of Christ. 

August 15, 2000
A Life Founded in Light and Truth
Henry B. Eyring

Live so that when the call comes, you can walk away easily.

 Trials, challenges, and heartaches will surely come to all of us. None of us are immune from “thorns of the flesh.” Yet, as we attend the temple and remember our covenants, we can prepare to receive personal direction from the Lord.

When Kathy and I were married and sealed in the Logan Utah Temple, then-Elder Spencer W. Kimball performed our sealing. In the few words he spoke, he gave this counsel: “Hal and Kathy, live so that when the call comes, you can walk away easily.”

Initially, we did not understand what that counsel meant for us, but we did our best to live our lives in such a way that we would be prepared to leave to serve the Lord when the call came. After we had been married nearly 10 years, an unanticipated call did come from the Commissioner of Church Education, Neal A. Maxwell.

The loving counsel given by President Kimball in the temple to be able to “walk away easily” became a reality. Kathy and I received a call to leave what seemed an idyllic family situation in California to serve in an assignment and in a place that I knew nothing about. However, our family was ready to leave because a prophet, in a holy temple, a place of revelation, saw a future event for which we were then prepared.

All Will Be Well Because of Temple Covenants

April 2024

General Conference

Henry B. Eyring

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2024/04/18eyring?lang=eng&verse=#p

Qualifying to make sacred covenants is not a one-time effort but a lifetime pattern.

Qualifying to make sacred covenants is not a one-time effort but a lifetime pattern. The Lord has said it will take our full heart, might, mind, and strength.

Frequent participation in the ordinances of the temple can create a pattern of devotion to the Lord. When you keep your temple covenants and remember them, you invite the companionship of the Holy Ghost to both strengthen and purify you.

You may then experience a feeling of light and hope testifying that the promises are true. You will come to know that every covenant with God is an opportunity to draw closer to Him, which will then create a desire in your heart to keep temple covenants.

All Will Be Well Because of Temple Covenants

April 2024

General Conference

Henry B. Eyring

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2024/04/18eyring?lang=eng&verse=#p

The Savior has provided priesthood keys so that those with ears to hear and faith to obey could go to places of safety.

The account at the beginning of the Book of Mormon is of a prophet of God, Lehi. He was also the leader of a family. He was warned by God to take those he loved to safety. Lehi’s experience is a type of what happens as God gives counsel through His servants. Of Lehi’s family, only those who had faith and who themselves received confirming revelation saw both the danger and the way to safety. For those without faith, the move into the wilderness seemed not only foolish but dangerous. Like all prophets, Lehi, to his dying day, tried to show his family where safety would lie for them.

He knew that the Savior holds responsible those to whom He delegates priesthood keys. With those keys comes the power to give counsel that will show us the way to safety. Those with keys are responsible to warn even when their counsel might not be followed. Keys are delegated down a line which passes from the prophet through those responsible for ever smaller groups of members, closer and closer to families and to individuals. That is one of the ways by which the Lord makes a stake a place of safety. For instance, I have sat with my wife in a meeting of parents called by our bishop, our neighbor, so that he could warn us of spiritual dangers faced by our children.

I heard more than the voice of my wise friend. I heard a servant of Jesus Christ, with keys, meeting his responsibility to warn and passing to us, the parents, the responsibility to act. When we honor the keys of that priesthood channel by listening and giving heed, we tie ourselves to a lifeline which will not fail us in any storm.

Our Heavenly Father loves us. He sent His Only Begotten Son to be our Savior. He knew that in mortality we would be in grave danger, the worst of it from the temptations of a terrible adversary. That is one of the reasons why the Savior has provided priesthood keys so that those with ears to hear and faith to obey could go to places of safety.

Finding Safety in Counsel

April 1997

1990–1999

Henry B. Eyring

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/1997/04/finding-safety-in-counsel?lang=eng&verse=#p

When a prophet speaks, those with little faith may think that they hear only a wise man giving good advice.

Looking for the path to safety in the counsel of prophets makes sense to those with strong faith. When a prophet speaks, those with little faith may think that they hear only a wise man giving good advice. Then if his counsel seems comfortable and reasonable, squaring with what they want to do, they take it. If it does not, they consider it either faulty advice or they see their circumstances as justifying their being an exception to the counsel. Those without faith may think that they hear only men seeking to exert influence for some selfish motive.

Finding Safety in Counsel

April 1997

1990–1999

Henry B. Eyring

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/1997/04/finding-safety-in-counsel?lang=eng&verse=#p

When I feel distant from the Lord, when answers to my prayers seem delayed, I have learned to follow the counsel of President Nelson to review my life for opportunities to repent.

 When I feel distant from the Lord, when answers to my prayers seem delayed, I have learned to follow the counsel of President Nelson to review my life for opportunities to repent. He reminds us, “Daily repentance is the pathway to purity, and purity brings power.”

If you find yourself having difficulty in feeling the Holy Ghost, you might ponder whether there is anything for which you might repent and receive forgiveness. You can pray with faith to know what to do to be cleansed and thus more nearly qualify for that constant companionship of the Holy Ghost.

I am reminded of this teaching by President Spencer W. Kimball

That I AM Far, Far Away

Our Constant Companion

October 2023

General Conference

Henry B. Eyring

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2023/10/47eyring?lang=eng&verse=#p

If you have felt the influence of the Holy Ghost today, you may take it as a sweet evidence that the Atonement is working in your life.

 If you have felt the influence of the Holy Ghost today, you may take it as a sweet evidence that the Atonement is working in your life.

Our Constant Companion

October 2023

General Conference

Henry B. Eyring

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2023/10/47eyring?lang=eng&verse=#p

Sometimes we will receive counsel that we cannot understand or that seems not to apply to us, even after careful prayer and thought. Don’t discard the counsel, but hold it close

 Sometimes we will receive counsel that we cannot understand or that seems not to apply to us, even after careful prayer and thought. Don’t discard the counsel, but hold it close. If someone you trusted handed you what appeared to be nothing more than sand with the promise that it contained gold, you might wisely hold it in your hand awhile, shaking it gently. Every time I have done that with counsel from a prophet, after a time the gold flakes have begun to appear and I have been grateful

(Henry B. Eyring, “Finding Safety in Counsel,” Ensign, May 1997, 26; see also 3 Nephi 1:13; Doctrine and Covenants 1:14).

Consider this teaching as well:  https://quotestokeep.blogspot.com/2018/10/when-does-prophet-speak-as-prophet-and.html

I promise that the day will come, if it has not already, when your faith in His coming will be confirmed. That will be a happy day.

 The baby in the manger was the Son of God, sent as a gift from the Father to become our Savior. Through the joy we feel because of His coming, our burdens can be made light (see Alma 33:23). That is because the babe of Bethlehem who delivers us from sin and death can also deliver us from sorrow, doubt, fear, and pain.

You recall the words Jacob taught about the coming of the Holy One of Israel:

“O how great the holiness of our God! For he knoweth all things, and there is not anything save he knows it.

“And he cometh into the world that he may save all men if they will hearken unto his voice; for behold, he suffereth the pains of all men, yea, the pains of every living creature, both men, women, and children, who belong to the family of Adam.

“And he suffereth this that the resurrection might pass upon all men, that all might stand before him at the great and judgment day” (2 Nephi 9:20–22).

To have the Christmas spirit, we not only read His words and study His life but also act upon what we learn. That includes feeding the Savior’s sheep by gathering them to His fold. We gather as we share the joy we feel because of His birth and because of the Restoration of His gospel. If we are on the path the Lord has designed for us, we will have His light to show others the way to Him.

Life can be difficult, and hard times can threaten our faith. When we confront trial and tragedy, we may wonder if our faith in God’s Son is a vain hope. But trials are designed to draw us toward the Savior so that He can make us better able to lift others to Him. As we share the “good cheer” (3 Nephi 1:13) of His coming, we lift heads and soften hearts. I promise that the day will come, if it has not already, when your faith in His coming will be confirmed. That will be a happy day.

Christmas is a time of love, hope, and joy. It is also a time of gratitude and reflection. During Christmas we make new memories and relive old ones. We miss family and friends who have passed on. We wonder where the years have gone and what the new year will bring. And in the midst of our reverie, we give gratitude to God for the glorious gift “called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace” (Isaiah 9:6).

The Promised Messiah

December 2022

2022

Henry B. Eyring

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/liahona/2022/12/04-the-promised-messiah?lang=eng&verse=#p

He did what he could for the beaten man and then put in place a specific plan for others to do more.

 Remember that when the Lord lets us encounter someone in distress, we honor the good Samaritan for what he did not do as much as for what he did. He did not pass by on the other side even though the beaten traveler on the road was a stranger and perhaps an enemy. He did what he could for the beaten man and then put in place a specific plan for others to do more. He did that because he understood that helping may require more than what one person can do.

Henry B. Eyring "The Caregiver", General Conference, October 2012

I prayed that the people would feel the Lord’s love through my loving service. I have learned this is the key to serving and blessing others in His name.

 In my few moments this evening, I will speak to those of you who want to be even more effective in your personal priesthood service. You know of the charge that you are to magnify your call to serve. But you may wonder what to magnify your calling can mean for you.

I will start with the newest deacons because they are the most likely to feel uncertain about what magnifying their priesthood service might mean. Newly ordained elders might also want to listen. And a bishop in his first weeks of service might be interested too.

....I prayed that the people would feel the Lord’s love through my loving service. I have learned this is the key to serving and blessing others in His name.

Bless in His Name

April 2021

General Conference

Henry B. Eyring

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2021/04/34eyring?lang=eng&verse=#p

Use Your Best Judgement

 I was sent to speak to leaders of churches in the United States and ministers of those churches who had met in Minneapolis to deal with the problem of competition among churches.

When I arrived, I found that I was assigned to be a speaker. My subject was to be: Why there was a need for a restoration of the true Church through Joseph Smith. I was a last-minute substitute for Elder Neal A. Maxwell.

When I arrived in the city the night before the meetings and looked at the program, I called President Hinckley. I told him that the meetings were to last three days, that many talks were to be given at the same time, that the crowd could choose which one to attend. I told him that I thought if I told the truth, I feared that no one would come to my second session and that I might be coming home very quickly. I asked him what he thought I should do. He said, “Use your best judgment.”

God Helps the Faithful Priesthood Holder, Henry B. Eyring, October 2007 General Conference

I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God because I have treasured it.

As a quorum member, as a home teacher, and as a missionary, you cannot help people repair spiritual damage unless your own faith is vibrant. That means far more than reading the scriptures regularly and praying over them. The prayer in the moment and quick glances in the scriptures are not preparation enough. The reassurance of what you will need comes with this counsel from the 84th section of the Doctrine and Covenants: “Neither take ye thought beforehand what ye shall say; but treasure up in your minds continually the words of life, and it shall be given you in the very hour that portion that shall be meted unto every man.”2

That promise can be claimed only if we “treasure up” the words of life and do it continually. The treasuring part of that scripture has meant for me a matter of feeling something about the words. For instance, when I have gone to try to help someone wavering in his or her faith about the Prophet Joseph Smith’s divine calling, feelings come back to me.

It is not only the words from the Book of Mormon. It is a feeling of assurance of truth that comes whenever I read even a few lines from the Book of Mormon. I cannot promise that it will come to every person infected with doubt about the Prophet Joseph or the Book of Mormon. But I know Joseph Smith is the Prophet of the Restoration. I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God because I have treasured it.

Henry B. Eyring, October 2013 General Conference, Bind Up Their Wounds

My Mother

Becoming a covenant woman in partnership with God is how great and good daughters of God have always mothered, led, and ministered, serving in whatever way and place He has prepared for them. I promise that you will find joy in your journey to your heavenly home as you return to Him as a covenant-keeping daughter of God.

Covenant Women in Partnership with God

October 2019

2010–2019

Henry B. Eyring