In All Mine Afflictions

I have a vague recollection of being in a primary class when I was about ten or so and being taught by a faithful sister in our ward with a baby on the floor on a blanket. I don’t remember what she taught me, but this family from Brazil was and is full of faith and enthusiasm for the gospel and have always been powerful influences for good. Now almost three decades later, that little girl on the blanket passed away in a tragic airplane accident Saturday. She was with her fiancé and his brother and wife near Cedar City, and for reasons not yet known their small plane went down shortly after taking off from that airport. It broke my heart to see the photo of the four young children now left behind without parents and to think of the loss for all of these families. The news article quoted someone with this piercing question: “How do you explain this to them that mom and dad aren’t coming home again?” Surely the grief and pain from this terrible tragedy will be intense and long-lasting for these families who lost so suddenly their loved ones. Jeremiah’s famous question could surely be asked for them: “Is there no balm in Gilead; is there no physician there?” (Jeremiah 8:22) It will take indeed the Master Healer to bring that needed balm to these children and families.

                As I reflected on this event I thought of one of the saddest stories I have ever heard in general conference. President Monson told of an unnamed faithful sister who “lived an idyllic life in East Prussia” before WWII. He recounted, “Her beloved young husband was killed during the final days of the frightful battles in their homeland, leaving her alone to care for their four children.” He continued, “The occupying forces determined that the Germans in East Prussia must go to Western Germany to seek a new home. The woman was German, and so it was necessary for her to go. The journey was over a thousand miles (1,600 km), and she had no way to accomplish it but on foot. She was allowed to take only such bare necessities as she could load into her small wooden-wheeled wagon. Besides her children and these meager possessions, she took with her a strong faith in God and in the gospel as revealed to the latter-day prophet Joseph Smith.” They had little food on their journey and “she was constantly faced with dangers from panic-stricken refugees and plundering troops.” After many weeks the weather grew cold and “she stumbled over the frozen ground, her smallest child—a baby—in her arms. Her three other children struggled along behind her, with the oldest—seven years old—pulling the tiny wooden wagon containing their belongings. Ragged and torn burlap was wrapped around their feet, providing the only protection for them, since their shoes had long since disintegrated. Their thin, tattered jackets covered their thin, tattered clothing, providing their only protection against the cold.” The cold first took the life of her three-year-old daughter and “she used the only implement she had—a tablespoon—to dig a grave in the frozen ground for her tiny, precious child.” She persevered, but subsequently “her seven-year-old son died, either from starvation or from freezing or both. Again her only shovel was the tablespoon, and again she dug hour after hour to lay his mortal remains gently into the earth. Next, her five-year-old son died, and again she used her tablespoon as a shovel.” She had only her one baby left, but “as she was reaching the end of her journey, the baby died in her arms. The spoon was gone now, so hour after hour she dug a grave in the frozen earth with her bare fingers.” President Monson summarized her awful situation: “Her grief became unbearable. How could she possibly be kneeling in the snow at the graveside of her last child? She had lost her husband and all her children. She had given up her earthly goods, her home, and even her homeland.” What a story to tell in a talk entitled “Be of Good Cheer”!

                The story did not end there, though, for this woman in some miraculous way still was able to be of good cheer through the gospel of Jesus Christ. President Monson recounted how as she contemplated taking her own life after losing her entire family, “Something within her said, ‘Get down on your knees and pray.’ She ignored the prompting until she could resist it no longer. She knelt and prayed more fervently than she had in her entire life: ‘Dear Heavenly Father, I do not know how I can go on. I have nothing left—except my faith in Thee. I feel, Father, amidst the desolation of my soul, an overwhelming gratitude for the atoning sacrifice of Thy Son, Jesus Christ. I cannot express adequately my love for Him. I know that because He suffered and died, I shall live again with my family; that because He broke the chains of death, I shall see my children again and will have the joy of raising them. Though I do not at this moment wish to live, I will do so, that we may be reunited as a family and return—together—to Thee.’” What incredible faith after such tragedy! President Monson continued, “When she finally reached her destination of Karlsruhe, Germany, she was emaciated. Brother Babbel said that her face was a purple-gray, her eyes red and swollen, her joints protruding. She was literally in the advanced stages of starvation. In a Church meeting shortly thereafter, she bore a glorious testimony, stating that of all the ailing people in her saddened land, she was one of the happiest because she knew that God lived, that Jesus is the Christ, and that He died and was resurrected so that we might live again. She testified that she knew if she continued faithful and true to the end, she would be reunited with those she had lost and would be saved in the celestial kingdom of God.” I don’t know how she and other faithful Saints through the ages of have had such powerful faith in the midst of the most terrible hardships of life. But I do know that what she did was the only way to overcome difficulty in whatever our circumstances: pour out our hearts to God in prayer. And then we will be able to say this with Zenos: “And thou didst hear me because of mine afflictions and my sincerity; and it is because of thy Son that thou hast been thus merciful unto me, therefore I will cry unto thee in all mine afflictions, for in thee is my joy; for thou hast turned thy judgments away from me, because of thy Son” (Alma 33:11).