Young Corianton received a blessing of hope from his father—hope that he could overcome the burden of sin and dispel the feelings of guilt in his heart by repenting sincerely and coming back into the fold of Christ. Hope is a precious doctrine that gives optimism to life. It helps us carry on when we are downhearted and discouraged. It helps us repent. Hope is the doctrine that is expressly connected to faith and charity. We cannot live without hope. If hope is gone, sin is at the door. Thus when we realize that there is life after death and that our reward is directly connected to our actions here on earth, we look to God and seek to keep His commandments. Hope is continually activated when one understands and appreciates any doctrine or principle of the gospel. Understanding then becomes a key to hope. If we understand, we can go on. President Thomas S. Monson tells a beautiful story of a missionary who almost quit because he was without hope:
As a mission president, I was afforded the privilege of guiding the activities of precious young men and women, missionaries whom the Lord had called. Some had problems, others required motivation; but one came to me in utter despair. He had made his decision to leave the mission field when but at the halfway mark. His bags were packed, his return ticket purchased. He came by to bid me farewell. We talked; we listened; we prayed. There remained hidden the actual reason for his decision to quit.
As we arose from our knees in the quiet of my office, the missionary began to weep almost uncontrollably. Flexing the muscle of his strong right arm, he blurted out, “This is my problem. All through school my muscle power qualified me for honors in football and track, but my mental power was neglected. President Monson, I’m ashamed of my school record. It reveals that ‘with effort’ I have the capacity to read at but the level of the fourth grade. I can’t even read the Book of Mormon. How then can I understand its contents and teach others its truths?”
The silence of the room was broken by my nine-year-old son who, without knocking, opened the door and, with surprise, apologetically said, “Excuse me. I just wanted to put this book back on the shelf.”
He handed me the book. Its title: A Child’s Story of the Book of Mormon, by Deta Petersen Neeley. I turned to the preface and read that the book had been written with a carefully selected vocabulary on a fourth-grade level. A sincere prayer from an honest heart had been dramatically answered.
My missionary accepted the challenge to read the book. Half laughing, half crying, he declared: “It will be good to read something I can understand.”
Clouds of despair were dispelled by the sunshine of hope. He completed an honorable mission, is now married for eternity to a choice companion, and has children of his own. His life is a testimony of the nearness of our Father and the availability of His help. (Inspiring Experiences That Build Faith: From the Life and Ministry of Thomas S. Monson [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1994], 145–147)