“The same testing in troubled times can have quite opposite effects on individuals. Three verses from the Book of Mormon … teach us that … ‘because of the exceedingly great length of the war between the Nephites and the Lamanites many had become hardened, because of the exceedingly great length of the war; and many were softened because of their afflictions. … ’ (Alma 62:39–41; italics added.)
“Surely you know some whose lives have been filled with adversity who have been mellowed and strengthened and refined by it, while others have come away from the same test bitter and blistered and unhappy” (Packer, “Mystery of Life,” 18).