Boyd K. Packer
"Some years ago I learned a lesson that I shall never forget.
"I had been called as an Assistant to the Council of the Twelve, and we were to move to Salt Lake City and find an adequate and permanent home. President Henry D. Moyle assigned someone to help us.
“A home was located that was ideally suited to our needs. Elder Harold B. Lee came and looked it over very carefully and then counseled, ’By all means, you are to proceed.’”
"But there was no way we could proceed. I had just completed the course work on a doctor’s degree and was writing the dissertation. With the support of my wife and our eight children, all of the resources we could gather over the years had been spent on education.
"By borrowing on our insurance, gathering every resource, we could barely get into the house, without sufficient left to even make the first monthly payment.
Brother Lee insisted, ’Go ahead. I know it is right.’
"I was in deep turmoil because I had been counseled to do something I had never done before-to sign a contract without having the resources to meet the payments.
"…I was still not at peace, and then came the lesson. Elder Lee said, ’Do you know what is wrong with you-you always want to see the end from the beginning.’
"I replied quietly that I wanted to see at least a few steps ahead. He answered by quoting from the sixth verse of the twelfth chapter of Ether: ’Wherefore, dispute not because ye see not, for ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith.’
"And then he added, ’My boy, you must learn to walk to the edge of the light, and perhaps a few steps into the darkness, and you will find that the light will appear and move ahead of you.’
"And so it has-but only as we walked to the edge of the light.
“…I am confident that as we move to the edge of the light, like the cloud that led the Israelites, or like the star that led the wise men, the light will move ahead of us and we can do this work.” (The Holy Temple, pp. 184-86)
Spencer W. Kimball
"Remember that Abraham, Moses, Elijah, and others could not see clearly the end from the beginning. They also walked by faith and without sight.
"Remember again that no gates were open; Laban was not drunk; and no earthly hope was justified at the moment Nephi exercised his faith and set out finally to get the plates.
"…Remember that there were no clouds in the sky, no evidence of rain, and no precedent for the deluge when Noah builded the ark according to commandment. There was no ram in the thicket when Isaac and his father left for Moriah for the sacrifice. Remember there were no towns and cities, no farms and gardens, no homes and storehouses, no blossoming desert in Utah when the persecuted pioneers crossed the plains.
“And remember that there were no heavenly beings in Palmyra, on the Susquehanna; or on Cumorah when the soul-hungry Joseph slipped quietly into the grove, knelt in prayer on the river bank, and climbed the slopes of the sacred hill.” (Faith Precedes the Miracle, pp. 11-12)
Henry B. Erying
"One of the reasons why you will be tried is that opposition is always part of being a faithful member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. You should expect that great difficulties will come to you in the pursuit of doing what the Lord would have you do. But you should also feel that these trials are a blessing, because ’faith is things which are hoped for and not seen; wherefore, dispute not because ye see not, for ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith.’ (Ether 12:6.)
“I‘d like to suggest something about how to receive through our trials the blessing that’s promised in that scripture. Perhaps you’re being tried right now, and you may feel like saying to me, ’Well, Brother Eyring, it’s pretty tough right now. Do you mean this is going to go on over a lifetime?’ And my answer is yes. It will be intermittent; there will be times when things go very badly, and there will be times when you think things are going wonderfully well. (If you’ll remember my definition of a trial, you’ll want to be careful about the times when things seem to be going well.) But the trials will continue to come.” (To Draw Closer to God, p. 84)
Neal A. Maxwell
"Thus there ought to be expectations that in this laboratory of life we will actually see each other in the process of being remodeled, sometimes succeeding and sometimes failing. We will obviously be aware of others who are also in the ’furnace of affliction.’ However, we will not always have a smooth, ready answer to the question, ’Why me?‘ ’Why now?‘ ’Why this?’—for as Moroni observed, ’Ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith.’ (Ether 12:6. Italics added.)
“As we see ourselves, and others, passing through fiery trials, the wisdom of Peter, who had his own share of fiery trials, is very useful: ’Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you.’ (1 Peter 4:12.)” (All These Things Shall Give Thee Experience, p. 44)
James E. Faust
"Some years ago president David O. McKay told from this pulpit of the experience of some of those in the Martin handcart company. Many of these early converts had emigrated from Europe and were too poor to buy oxen or horses and a wagon. They were forced by their poverty to pull handcarts containing all of their belongings across the plains by their own brute strength. President McKay relates an occurrence which took place some years after the heroic exodus:
"A teacher, conducting a class, said it was unwise ever to attempt, even to permit them [the Martin handcart company] to come across the plains under such conditions.
"[According to a class member,] some sharp criticism of the Church and its leaders was being indulged in for permitting any company of converts to venture across the plains with no more supplies or protection than a handcart caravan afforded.
"An old man in the corner … sat silent and listened as long as he could stand it, then he arose and said things that no person who heard him will ever forget. His face was white with emotion, yet he spoke calmly, deliberately, but with great earnestness and sincerity.
"In substance [he] said, ’I ask you to stop this criticism. You are discussing a matter you know nothing about. Cold historic facts mean nothing here, for they give no proper interpretation of the questions involved. Mistake to send the Handcart Company out so late in the season? Yes. But I was in that company and my wife was in it and Sister Nellie Unthank whom you have cited was there, too. 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 apostatized 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.
"’I have pulled my handcart when I was so weak and weary from illness and lack of food that I could hardly put one foot 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.’ He continues: ’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.
"’Was I sorry that I chose to come by handcart? No. Neither then nor any minute of my life since. The price we paid to become acquainted with God was a privilege to pay, and I am thankful that I was privileged to come in the Martin Handcart Company.’ (Relief Society Magazine, Jan. 1948, p. 8.)
"Here then is a great truth. In the pain, the agony, and the heroic endeavors of life, we pass through a refiner’s fire, and the insignificant and the unimportant in our lives can melt away like dross and make our faith bright, intact, and strong. In this way the divine image can be mirrored from the soul. It is part of the purging toll exacted of some to become acquainted with God. In the agonies of life, we seem to listen better to the faint, godly whisperings of the Divine Shepherd.
"Into every life there come the painful, despairing days of adversity and buffeting. There seems to be a full measure of anguish, sorrow, and often heartbreak for everyone, including those who earnestly seek to do right and be faithful. The thorns that prick, that stick in the flesh, that hurt, often change lives which seem robbed of significance and hope. This change comes about through a refining process which often seems cruel and hard. In this way the soul can become like soft clay in the hands of the Master in building lives of faith, usefulness, beauty, and strength. For some, the refiner’s fire causes a loss of belief and faith in God, but those with eternal perspective understand that such refining is part of the perfection process.
“…The proving of one’s faith goes before the witnessing, for Moroni testified, ‘Ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith’ (Ether 12:6). This trial of faith can become a priceless experience.” (Conference Report, May 1979 Ensign, “The Refiner’s Fire”)