Faith in our Trials

Just because missionaries volunteer to serve, it doesn't mean they are immune from great trials. While we were at the MTC, we spent the week with 4 other couples and became fast friends. We recently heard from one of the sisters that she has breast cancer.


She announced that instead of coming home, she would stay in the mission field, and continue her treatment there. Can you imagine 20 weeks of chemotherapy away from your home and family? She says there is still much she can do and it will give her purpose to get up in the morning.

I am impressed by her faith in such a challenging situation. Thinking of others in the midst of our own trials is something that Elder Bednar talks about.

"Character is revealed, for example, in the power to discern the suffering of other people when we ourselves are suffering; in the ability to detect the hunger of others when we are hungry; and in the power to reach out and extend compassion for the spiritual agony of others when we are in the midst of our own spiritual distress. Thus, character is demonstrated by looking and reaching outward when the natural and instinctive response is to be self-absorbed and turn inward."

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