Why does this have to happen to me?

  Many people when facing a difficult time in their life have asked, "Why does God allow bad things to happen to me?"  This is a very valid question, in fact a prophet of God, Joseph Smith, once asked this same question during his incarceration in Liberty Jail.

  In Doctrine and Covenants section 122 verse 7, Heavenly Father gives him an answer to this question, "And if thou shouldst be cast into the pit, or into the hands of murderers, and the sentence of death passed upon thee; if thou be cast into the deep; if the billowing surge conspire against thee; if fierce winds become thine enemy; if the heavens gather blackness, and all the elements combine to hedge up the way; and above all, if the very jaws of hell shall gape open the mouth wide after thee, know thou, my son, that all these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good."

  God gives us each our own trials that we must go through during this mortal life to help us grow and become better people.  I have seen in my own life how the most difficult times for me are the times that I learn the most.

  Paul V. Johnson of the First Quorum of the Seventy gave an excellent talk on this subject during the April 2011 General Conference entitled: More Than Counqereors through Him That Loved Us.  In his talk he reads a quote from an apostle that I really enjoyed and think sums up this subject quite well, it says, “No pain that we suffer, no trial that we experience is wasted. … All that we suffer and all that we endure, especially when we endure it patiently, builds up our characters, purifies our hearts, expands our souls, and makes us more tender and charitable. … It is through sorrow and suffering, toil and tribulation, that we gain the education that we come here to acquire.”

The Book of Mormon

As a missionary I claim to know a lot of things.  I know that God called prophets such as Moses and Noah. (Amos 3:7)  I know that He sent his son, Jesus Christ to live and die for us. (John 3:16)  I know that when Christ was on the earth he set up his church on the earth. (Ephesians 4:11-14)  I know that after he and his apostles were killed that his true church and the authority to run it were lost. (Amos 8:11-12)  I know that, as he had done in the past, he called another prophet, Joseph Smith. (JS-H 1:15-20)  How do I know all of these things?  Because I have read and prayed about The Book of Mormon.

Joseph Smith through the help and guidance of Heavenly Father translated an ancient record now know as The Book of Mormon.  The Book of Mormon contains in it truths that were lost from the Bible because of the falling away or apostasy that occurred after the death of Christ and his apostles.  The Book of Mormon is also the convincing evidence that all of the things that I have talked about are true.  This is why we call The Book of Mormon the keystone of our religion because, if The Book of Mormon is true then the true church of Jesus Christ has been restored on the earth once again.  It says in the Introduction to The Book of Mormon: "Those who gain this divine witness from the Holy Spirit will also come to know by the same power that Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world, that Joseph Smith is his revelator and prophet in these last days, and that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the Lord’s kingdom once again established on the earth, preparatory to the second coming of the Messiah."  But how do we receive that divine witness?  Moroni the last prophet to write in The Book of Mormon gives us this promise: "And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost.  And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things." -Moroni 10:4-5  So I would encourage all that read this to take Moroni's challenge which is to read The Book of Mormon and pray about it to find out for yourselves if the book is true.  I leave you with my firm knowledge and testimony that The Book of Mormon is the word of God and that it will bless all who read it.