All Things Shall Work Together For Your Good

Elder S. Mark Palmer told this tragic story in general conference about his sister: “My father and mother were sheep farmers in New Zealand. They enjoyed their life. As a young married couple, they were blessed with three little girls. The youngest of these was named Ann. One day while they were on holiday together at a lake, 17-month-old Ann toddled off. After minutes of desperate searching, she was found lifeless in the water. This nightmare caused unspeakable sorrow. Dad wrote years later that some of the laughter went out of their lives forever.” As a parent with small children, imagining such an experience is indeed heart-wrenching, and surely it would be very difficult for anyone who loses a child like this to not struggle with the question of why God would allow such a thing to happen. Surely that question was on the minds of Elder Palmer’s parents through the years. But, according to Elder Palmer, they were eventually able to see with inspired perspective what good came out of that tragic loss of their child. He recounted how their parents had eventually both accepted the restored gospel as taught to them by missionaries, and his dad later told him this: “Many years later Dad told me that if not for Ann’s tragic death, he would never have been humble enough to accept the restored gospel. Yet the Spirit of the Lord instilled hope that what the missionaries taught was true…. I will always be thankful for my parents’ example to future generations. It is impossible to measure the number of lives forever changed because of their acts of faith in response to profound sorrow.” No matter what sorrow we face, we can like his parents find the strength to respond in faith and we will see the fulfillment of this promise: “Search diligently, pray always, and be believing, and all things shall work together for your good, if ye walk uprightly and remember the covenant wherewith ye have covenanted one with another” (Doctrine and Covenants 90:24). Even the greatest sorrows in our lives can work together for our good.

                In his talk Elder Palmer also told this anecdote of an encounter with President Nelson: “Several years ago, while attending meetings in Salt Lake City, I was greeted by our dear prophet, Russell M. Nelson. In his typically warm and personal way, he asked, ‘Mark, how is your mum doing?’ I told him I had been with her earlier that week at her home in New Zealand and that she was getting old but was full of faith and an inspiration to all who knew her. He then said, ‘Please give her my love … and tell her I look forward to seeing her again.’ I was rather surprised and asked, ‘Do you have a trip planned to New Zealand soon?’ With thoughtful sincerity he replied, ‘Oh no, I will see her in the next life.’” Elder Palmer remarked that this was a “perfectly natural expression of fact” as President Nelson implicitly bore testimony of the reality of life after death. The story reminds me a little of the one that Truman G. Madsen told of Wilford Woodruff who “often spoke of his experiences with the spirit world.” Brother Madsen recounted, “He was walking down the street when he saw a friend. ‘Brother John, it’s good to see you,’ President Woodruff said. Then after a pause he said, ‘You know, I don’t think I’ve seen your father since he died.’” For him and for President Nelson, the reality of life after death was certain, a fact as clear as the reality of our existent now. This also reminds me of the testimony of President Monson who powerfully declared in what is for me one of his most memorable talks: “The empty tomb that first Easter morning was the answer to Job’s question, ‘If a man die, shall he live again?’ To all within the sound of my voice, I declare, If a man die, he shall live again. We know, for we have the light of revealed truth.” I am grateful for that revealed truth which brings perspective into our lives now and hope through all of the challenges of mortality that we face.