The question is worth asking, “could I be as strong as these new converts?” “Could I lay down, peacefully praying to God while an enraged army attacked and commenced slaughtering my friends and family?” “Am I ready to die for the cause of truth?” These are the questions which we must ask ourselves. If we expect the Lord to bless us with the ultimate blessing, all that the Father has (DC 84:38), we have to being willing to make the ultimate sacrifice—all that we have, even if it means laying our own lives on the altar of sacrifice.
“In 1979…I was serving as president in the Mexico City North Mission…A (community) meeting was called…at which Church members were given the following options: denounce the Church, leave the village, or be killed (not an idle threat). The members, particularly the women, said they knew the Church to be true and would not denounce it. They also indicated they had worked just as hard as the rest of the community to secure their homesteads, and they would not leave. Boldly stepping forward, they told their taunters if they were going to kill them to get on with it. The moment grew tense as machetes were raised, then finally lowered while the Latter-day Saints stood up for that which the Spirit had testified to them to be true. These Saints eventually learned, as most of us do, that it is harder to live the gospel day by day than to die for it in an instant, but their early commitment came because the Spirit had touched their hearts and changed their lives.” (John B. Dickson, Ensign, Feb. 1995, p. 7 as taken from Latter-day Commentary on the Book of Mormon compiled by K. Douglas Bassett, p. 289)
Spencer W. Kimball
"What a monster is prejudice! It means pre-judging. How many of us are guilty of it? Often we think ourselves free of its destructive force, but we need only to test ourselves. Our expressions, our voice tones, our movements, our thoughts betray us…
“(Speaking of prejudice against the American Indian) I ask you: Do not scoff and ignore these Nephite-Lamanites unless you can equal their forebears in greatness and until you can kneel with those thousands of Ammonite Saints in the sand on the field of battle while they sang songs of praise as their very lives were being snuffed out by their enemies. Could you look heavenward, smiling and singing, while the bloodthirsty demons slashed your body with sword and scimitar? Perhaps the children of the Ammonites are with us.” (Conference Report, Apr. 1949, pp. 106-7)