I am here as a candidate for eternity, for heaven and for happiness.

 So far as I am personally concerned, I am here as a candidate for eternity, for heaven and for happiness. I want to secure by my acts a peace in another world that will impart that happiness and bliss for which I am seeking

Chapter 11: Finding Joy in Life

John Taylor

Teachings of Presidents

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/teachings-john-taylor/chapter-11?lang=eng&verse=#p

why Adam and Eve didn’t return to the Garden of Eden after they were forgiven.

 Well, I hope this brief look at legal history might whet your appetite to think more deeply about such family-related questions. And for the sake of our families, our friends, and our own marriages, I also hope this historical context will help explain why today’s culture no longer understands marriage in the way God intended it. Building a good marriage isn’t easy. It isn’t supposed to be easy. But when a confused culture confuses us about what marriage means, we may give up on ourselves and on each other much too soon. Yet the gospel’s eternal perspective, as taught in the scriptures and in the temple, can help us transcend the modern chaos until our marriages become the most satisfying and ­sanctifying—even if also the most demanding—experiences of our lives.

....

Because of that Atonement we can learn from our experiences without being condemned by them. And receiving the Atonement, as Adam and Eve did, is not just a doctrine about erasing black marks; it is the core doctrine that allows human development. That is why Adam and Eve didn’t return to the Garden of Eden after they were forgiven. Rather, they held onto each other and moved forward, together, into the world in which we now live. And there they kept growing, together, as a couple. The temple’s primal story is quite consciously the story of a married couple who help one another face continuous mortal opposition. For only in that sometimes-miserable opposition could they learn to comprehend true joy.

Marriage, Family Law, and the Temple, Bruce C. Hafen, Emeritus General Authority Seventy

January 31, 2014, Speeches.byu.edu

Because of that Atonement we can learn from our experiences without being condemned by them

 Because of that Atonement we can learn from our experiences without being condemned by them. And receiving the Atonement, as Adam and Eve did, is not just a doctrine about erasing black marks; it is the core doctrine that allows human development.

Marriage, Family Law, and the Temple, Bruce C. Hafen, Emeritus General Authority Seventy

January 31, 2014, Speeches.byu.edu

It was intended that life be a challenge, not so that you would fail, but that you might succeed through overcoming.

You faces overwhelming challenges. Sometimes they are so concentrated, so unrelenting, that you may feel they are beyond your capacity to control.

Don’t face the world alone. “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.” (Prov. 3:5.)....

It was intended that life be a challenge, not so that you would fail, but that you might succeed through overcoming.

Trust in the Lord, Richard G. Scott, April 1989 

How We Should Approach Adversity

 I believe that the challenge of overcoming and growing from adversity appealed to us when God presented His plan of redemption in the premortal world. We should approach that challenge now knowing that our Heavenly Father will sustain us. But it is crucial that we turn to Him. Without God, the dark experiences of suffering and adversity tend to despondency, despair, and even bitterness.

D. Todd Christofferson, “The Refining Fire of Affliction,” Liahona, Mar. 2022, 7; emphasis added.

Keep your face to the sunshine. 

I have learned that Heavenly Father’s plan for us is fabulous,

 I have learned that Heavenly Father’s plan for us is fabulous, that what we do in this life really matters, and that the Savior’s Atonement is what makes our Father’s plan possible....Mortality is a master class in learning to choose the things of greatest eternal import. Far too many people live as though this life is all there is. However, your choices today will determine three things: where you will live throughout all eternity, the kind of body with which you will be resurrected, and those with whom you will live forever. So, think celestial.

Think Celestial!

October 2023

General Conference

Russell M. Nelson

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2023/10/51nelson?lang=eng&verse=#p

We can replace the word cancer with any of the other physical, mental, or emotional ailments we may face. Because of the Resurrection, they have already been cured too.

Each of us has physical, mental, and emotional limitations and weaknesses. These challenges, some of which seem so intractable now, will eventually be resolved. None of these problems will plague us after we are resurrected. Alisa researched survival rates for persons with the type of cancer she had, and the numbers were not encouraging. She wrote: “But there is a cure, so I’m not scared. Jesus has already cured my cancer, and yours. ... I will be better. I’m glad I know this.”

We can replace the word cancer with any of the other physical, mental, or emotional ailments we may face. Because of the Resurrection, they have already been cured too. The miracle of resurrection, the ultimate cure, is beyond the power of modern medicine. But it is not beyond the power of God. We know it can be done because the Savior is resurrected and will bring to pass the Resurrection of each of us too.

And There Shall Be No More Death April 2016 General Conference Elder Paul V. Johnson

Connecting Dots...Commit To Doing the Easy Things, Pefectly!

Connecting the Dots

One of the great innovators of our time, Steve Jobs of Apple, had this insight: “You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backward. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future.”

What did he mean by that? In the late 19th century, artists such as Georges Seurat and Paul Signac began painting in a new style that would become known as neo-impressionism. Their technique consisted of dotting canvases with small specks of color. Close up, these dots appear unconnected and random. But when you take in the entire painting, you can see how the dots blend into colors and how the colors form shapes that reveal a beautiful pattern. What once seemed arbitrary and even confusing begins to make sense.

Sometimes our lives are like neo-impressionistic art. The dots of color that make up the moments and events of our days can appear unconnected and chaotic at times. We can’t see any order to them. We can’t imagine that they have a purpose at all.

However, when we step back and take an eternal perspective, when we look at our lives in the frame of the gospel of Jesus Christ, we can begin to see how the various dots in our lives interconnect. We may not be able to see the entire picture just yet, but with patience we can see enough to trust that there is a beautiful, grand design. And as we strive to trust God and follow His Son, Jesus Christ, one day we will see the finished product, and we will know that the very hand of God was directing and guiding our steps.

We will know that the Master Artist had a plan for those random dots all along. We will see that He amplified our talents, prepared opportunities, and introduced us to possibilities far more glorious than we ever could have imagined or accomplished on our own. I have certainly seen this in my own life....

Don’t get overwhelmed by the many large, difficult tasks of life. If you commit to doing the “easy” things—the “small” things God asks you to do—and you do them as perfectly as you can, big things will follow.

Some of these small and easy things you could do perfectly are study the scriptures, live the Word of Wisdom, attend church, pray with real intent, and pay tithes and offerings.

Do these things even when you don’t want to. These “sacrifices” may appear to be small, but they are important, for “sacrifice brings forth the blessings of heaven.”

In a sense, your small and simple sacrifices are the dots of daily living that make up the masterpiece painting of your life. You may not see how the dots connect now, and you don’t need to yet. Simply have faith enough for the moment you are living in now. Trust in God, and “out of small things [will come] that which is great.”

Your Adventure through Mortality

March 2019

Ensign

Dieter F. Uchtdorf

Your Adventure through Mortality

March 2019

Ensign

Dieter F. Uchtdorf

As You Incline Your Hearts to Him...He Will Intervene in Your Life and Direct Your Path

My purpose is to offer my certain witness that your Father in Heaven knows you, hears you, and will never abandon you. As you incline your hearts to Him and strive to follow His way, He will intervene in your life and direct your path as you journey through this great and exciting adventure of mortality.

Your Adventure through Mortality

March 2019

Ensign

Dieter F. Uchtdorf

We Can Follow the Lord Or Go At It Alone

The Lord’s way is not hard. Life is hard, not the gospel. … Life is hard for all of us, but life is also simple. We have only two choices. We can either follow the Lord and be endowed with His power and have peace, light, strength, knowledge, confidence, love, and joy, or we can go some other way, any other way, whatever other way, and go it alone—without His support, without His power, without guidance, in darkness, turmoil, doubt, grief, and despair. And I ask, which way is easier?

Elder Lawrence E. Corbridge of the Seventy, “The Way,” Ensign, Nov. 2008, 36.

Four Things Needed for the Success of the Plan of Salvation

At least four things are needed for the success of this divine plan:

First was the Creation of the earth as our dwelling place. Whatever the details of the creation process, we know that it was not accidental but that it was directed by God the Father and implemented by Jesus Christ—“all things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.”

Second is the condition of mortality. Adam and Eve acted for all who had chosen to participate in the Father’s great plan of happiness. Their Fall created the conditions needed for our physical birth and for mortal experience and learning outside the presence of God. With the Fall came an awareness of good and evil and the God-given power to choose. Finally, the Fall brought about physical death needed to make our time in mortality temporary so that we would not live forever in our sins.

Third is redemption from the Fall. We see the role of death in our Heavenly Father’s plan, but that plan would become void without some way to overcome death in the end, both physical and spiritual. Thus, a Redeemer, the Only Begotten Son of God, Jesus Christ, suffered and died to atone for Adam and Eve’s transgression, thereby providing resurrection and immortality for all. And since none of us will have been perfectly and consistently obedient to the gospel law, His Atonement also redeems us from our own sins on condition of repentance. With the Savior’s atoning grace providing forgiveness of sins and sanctification of the soul, we can spiritually be born again and reconciled to God. Our spiritual death—our separation from God—will end.

Fourth, and finally, is the setting for our physical birth and subsequent spiritual rebirth into the kingdom of God. For His work to succeed to “[exalt us] with himself,” God ordained that men and women should marry and give birth to children, thereby creating, in partnership with God, the physical bodies that are key to the test of mortality and essential to eternal glory with Him. He also ordained that parents should establish families and rear their children in light and truth, leading them to a hope in Christ...A family built on the marriage of a man and woman supplies the best setting for God’s plan to thrive—the setting for the birth of children, who come in purity and innocence from God, and the environment for the learning and preparation they will need for a successful mortal life and eternal life in the world to come. A critical mass of families built on such marriages is vital for societies to survive and flourish. That is why communities and nations generally have encouraged and protected marriage and the family as privileged institutions. It has never been just about the love and happiness of adults.

April 2015 General Conference,Why Marriage, Why Family, Elder D. Todd Christofferson

Among All the Facts of Mortality, None Is So Certain as Its End

Among all the facts of mortality, none is so certain as its end. Death comes to all; it is our “universal heritage; it may claim its victim[s] in infancy or youth, [it may visit] in the period of life’s prime, or its summons may be deferred until the snows of age have gathered upon the … head; it may befall as the result of accident or disease, … or … through natural causes; but come it must.”2 It inevitably represents a painful loss of association and, particularly in the young, a crushing blow to dreams unrealized, ambitions unfulfilled, and hopes vanquished.

Thomas S. Monson, "He Is Risen", April 2010 General Conference

No Injustice In Mortality Is Permanent

Having satisfied the demands of justice, Christ now steps into the place of justice; or we might say He is justice, just as He is love.Likewise, besides being a “perfect, just God,” He is a perfect, merciful God. Thus, the Savior makes all things right. No injustice in mortality is permanent, even death, for He restores life again. No injury, disability, betrayal, or abuse goes uncompensated in the end because of His ultimate justice and mercy.
THE RESURRECTION OF JESUS CHRIST Elder D. Todd Christofferson - April 2014

Note the Centrality of Covenants to the Promise of Deliverance

Consider the example in the Book of Mormon as Amulon persecuted Alma and his people. The voice of the Lord came to these disciples in their afflictions: “Lift up your heads and be of good comfort, for I know of the covenant which ye have made unto me; and I will covenant with my people and deliver them out of bondage” (Mosiah 24:13).

Note the centrality of covenants to the promise of deliverance. Covenants received and honored with integrity and ordinances performed by proper priesthood authority are necessary to receive all of the blessings made available through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. For in the ordinances of the priesthood, the power of godliness is manifest unto men and women in the flesh, including the blessings of the Atonement (see D&C 84:20–21).

BEAR UP THEIR BURDENS WITH EASE By Elder David A. Bednar - April 2014

It is the Load that Enables Us

It was the load. It was the load of wood that provided the traction necessary for him to get out of the snow, to get back on the road, and to move forward. It was the load that enabled him to return to his family and his home....The unique burdens in each of our lives help us to rely upon the merits, mercy, and grace of the Holy Messiah (see 2 Nephi 2:8). I testify and promise the Savior will help us to bear up our burdens with ease (see Mosiah 24:15). As we are yoked with Him through sacred covenants and receive the enabling power of His Atonement in our lives, we increasingly will seek to understand and live according to His will. We also will pray for the strength to learn from, change, or accept our circumstances rather than praying relentlessly for God to change our circumstances according to our will. We will become agents who act rather than objects that are acted upon (see 2 Nephi 2:14). We will be blessed with spiritual traction.

BEAR UP THEIR BURDENS WITH EASE By Elder David A. Bednar - April 2014

On Your Wedding Day the Very Best Gift You Can Give Your Eternal Companion Is Your Very Best Self!

In matters of human intimacy, you must wait! You must wait until you can give everything, and you cannot give everything until you are legally and lawfully married. To give illicitly that which is not yours to give (remember, “you are not your own”) and to give only part of that which cannot be followed with the gift of your whole self is emotional Russian roulette. If you persist in pursuing physical satisfaction without the sanction of heaven, you run the terrible risk of such spiritual, psychic damage that you may undermine both your longing for physical intimacyand your ability to give wholehearted devotion to a later, truer love. You may come to that truer moment of ordained love, of real union, only to discover to your horror that what you should have saved you have spent, and that only God’s grace can recover the piecemeal dissipation of the virtue you so casually gave away. On your wedding day the very best gift you can give your eternal companion is your very best self—clean and pure and worthy of such purity in return.

Jeffrey R. Holland, Personal Purity, October 2008

The Inspiration I Received from my Grandfather Bruce R. Lovell

When the pathway of life takes a cruel turn, there is the temptation to ask the question “Why me?” At times there appears to be no light at the end of the tunnel, no sunrise to end the night’s darkness. We feel encompassed by the disappointment of shattered dreams and the despair of vanished hopes. We join in uttering the biblical plea, “Is there no balm in Gilead?”¹We feel abandoned, heartbroken, alone. We are inclined to view our own personal misfortunes through the distorted prism of pessimism. We become impatient for a solution to our problems, forgetting that frequently the heavenly virtue of patience is required.

The difficulties which come to us present us with the real test of our ability to endure. A fundamental question remains to be answered by each of us: Shall I falter, or shall I finish?....

Whenever we are inclined to feel burdened down with the blows of life, let us remember that others have passed the same way, have endured, and then have overcome......

Good timber does not grow with ease,

The stronger wind, the stronger trees.

The further sky, the greater length.

The more the storm, the more the strength.

By sun and cold, by rain and snow,

In trees and men good timbers grow.⁸

 October 2013 General Conference - “I Will Not Fail Thee, Nor Forsake Thee” - Thomas S. Monson

I like this because:  Grandpa had his baby brother Dan die.  His Brother Neal die at missionary age.  His wife die of cancer leaving 4 children under the age of eight at home.  His daughter then die  with the birth of his grand daughter.  He too was a cancer survivor.  Yet he kept his face to the sunshine.  He finished and did not falter!

Rise Up, Stand Tall. You Are Stronger Than You Realize!

My dear brethren, my dear friends, there will be times when you think you cannot continue on. Trust the Savior and His love. With faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and the power and hope of the restored gospel, you will be able to walk tall and continue on....My dear friends and brethren, no matter how many times you have slipped or fallen, rise up! Your destiny is a glorious one! Stand tall and walk in the light of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ! You are stronger than you realize. You are more capable than you can imagine. You can do it now! 

October 2013 You Can Do It Now! - President Dieter F. Uchtdorf

Though We May Feel Like a Broken Vessel We Must Remember that the Vessel is in the Hands of the Divine Potter

Let us remember that through any illness or difficult challenge, there is still much in life to be hopeful about and grateful for. We are infinitely more than our limitations or our afflictions! ....Whatever your struggle, my brothers and sisters—mental or emotional or physical or otherwise—do not vote against the preciousness of life by ending it! Trust in God. Hold on in His love. Know that one day the dawn will break brightly and all shadows of mortality will flee. Though we may feel we are “like a broken vessel,” as the Psalmist says, ¹⁰ we must remember, that vessel is in the hands of the divine potter. Broken minds can be healed just the way broken bones and broken hearts are healed. 

 October 2013 Like A Broken Vessel - Elder Jeffrey R. Holland

Opposition Is Not a Flaw in the Plan of Salvation; Rather an Indispensable Element

Mortality is meant to be difficult and that “opposition in all things” (2 Nephi 2:11) is not a flaw in the plan of salvation. Opposition, rather, is the indispensable element of mortality and strengthens our will and refines our choices. The vicissitudes of life help us fashion an eternal relationship with God—and engrave His image upon our countenance as we yield our hearts to Him (see Alma 5:19).

 October 2013 Wilt Thou Be Made Whole? - Elder Timothy J. Dyches