"All Things for Our Good" - Mitch Peterson

Last updated on July 26th, 2024 at 12:42 pm

General Conference Applied

S3 E13 – Sunday, July 14, 2024 | “All Things for Our Good” by Elder Gerrit W. Gong; April 2024 General Conference

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Podcast Episode Outline

Introduction

Doctrine: Plan of Salvation: “Because of the plan of salvation, we can be perfected through the Atonement, receive a fulness of joy, and live forever in the presence of God. Our family relationships can last through the eternities.”

Principle: Temple Work and Family History: “Temples of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are special buildings dedicated to the Lord. Worthy Church members may go there to receive sacred ordinances and make covenants with God. Like baptism, these ordinances and covenants are necessary for our salvation. They must be performed in the temples of the Lord.

“We also go to the temple to learn more about Heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus Christ. We gain a better understanding of our purpose in life and our relationship with Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. We are taught about our premortal existence, the meaning of earth life, and life after death.”

Christlike Attribute: Hope: “As you center your hope in Christ, you have the assurance that all things will work together for your good (see Doctrine and Covenants 90:24). This assurance helps you persevere with faith when you face trials. It can also help you grow from trials and develop spiritual resilience and strength. Hope in Christ provides an anchor for your soul (see Ether 12:4).

“Hope gives you confidence that God will magnify your diligent, righteous efforts (see Doctrine and Covenants 123:17).”

Personal Touch

Greeting youth one-by-one
BYU-Idaho Devotionals Podcast – Sister Rebecca L. Craven, “Humility in Covenant Leadership” – June 18, 2024: “We witnessed an amazing example of Christlike love and humility when Ron and I were assigned to a priesthood leadership conference with Elder Gerrit W. Gong. Between meetings, a light luncheon was provided for several leaders and spouses who were involved in the conference. And as typical with presiding authorities, Elder Gong and his wife Susan were invited to the buffet table to be first in line.

“Instead of picking up a plate for himself, Elder Gong picked up all the plates and began to hand one to all who came through the line, greeting them one by one with his very gentle smile. While Elder Gong was on plate duty at one end of the table, Sister Gong filled cups with drinks at the other end. They saw an opportunity to humbly and joyfully serve, and their simple actions made each person feel important and appreciated.

“Ron and I will never forget the humble covenant leadership we witnessed that day from Elder and Sister Gong. I hope we will remember that most often it is the small kindnesses we share that make the biggest difference in the hearts and minds of those we serve.”

All Things for Our Good

“A Chinese story begins as a man’s son finds a beautiful horse.

“‘How fortunate,’ the neighbors say.

“‘We’ll see,’ says the man.

“Then the son falls off the horse and is permanently injured.

“‘How unfortunate,’ the neighbors say.

“‘We’ll see,’ says the man.

“A conscripting army comes but doesn’t take the injured son.

“‘How fortunate,’ the neighbors say.

“‘We’ll see,’ says the man.

“This fickle world often feels tempest tossed, uncertain, sometimes fortunate, and—too often—unfortunate. Yet, in this world of tribulation, ‘we know that all things work together for good to them that love God.’ [Romans 8:28] Indeed, as we walk uprightly and remember our covenants, ‘all things shall work together for your good.'” [Doctrine and Covenants 90:24] -Elder Gong
“In Huddersfield, England, Brother Samuel Bridgstock was diagnosed with stage-four cancer shortly before the calling of a new stake president. Given his dire diagnosis, he asked his wife, Anna, why he would even go to be interviewed.

“‘Because,’ Sister Bridgstock said, ‘you’re going to be called as stake president.’

“Initially given a year or two to live, President Bridgstock (who is here today) is now in his fourth year of service. He has good and hard days. His stake is rallying with increased faith, service, and kindness. It is not easy, but his wife and family live with faith, gratitude, and understandable sadness they trust will become eternal joy through Jesus Christ’s restoring Atonement.” -Elder Gong
- “Admonitions for the Priesthood of God“, President Harold B. Lee, October 1972 General Conference: “I had a lesson taught me some years ago when, in company with one of the brethren, I had reorganized the presidency of the Ensign Stake. We had named the bishop of one of the wards as stake president. It was near the end of the year, and he elected to remain as bishop, along with his first counselor, who was a bishop, until they had closed the books at the end of the year.
  
  “Six weeks after they were sustained, the stake president suddenly passed away.
  
  “Then I began to receive a barrage of letters. Where in the world was the inspiration for you to call a man whom the Lord was going to let die in six weeks? They invited me to talk at his services, and some seemed to be expecting me to try to explain why I had appointed a man that the Lord was going to take home in six weeks.
  
  “President Joseph Fielding Smith sat on the stand and heard my attempt to satisfy these people, and he said to me, ‘Don’t you let that bother you. If you have called a man to a position in this church and he dies the next day, that position would have a bearing on what he will be called to do when he leaves this earth.’
  
  “I believe that. I believe that every President of this church, every apostle of this church, every bishop, every stake president, every presiding position will have a bearing on what one is called to do when he leaves this earth.
  
  “And so, when you think of one President taking the place of another, he doesn’t. That President maintains his own place. We shouldn’t try to compare one as being greater than this one or greater than the other, because each one is, in the eyes of the Lord, in his own time the one most needed for that particular time. You may be sure of that.”

What is the speaker inviting me to do, and how might I consider taking action?

Invitations

1: “When trials come, often what we most want is for someone to listen and be with us. In the moment, cliché answers can be unhelpful, however comforting their intent. Sometimes we yearn for someone who will grieve, ache, and weep with us; let us express pain, frustration, sometimes even anger; and acknowledge with us there are things we do not know.”

Stand as witnesses of suffering.
followHim Podcast – Mosiah 18-24 – Dr. Melissa Inouye: [Dr. Melissa Inouye] “When I’ve had big surgeries, my family and members of the ward have always come and helped me. I think it’s also just really important… I mean, sometimes you can’t take away pain from someone. You just can’t do it. What I think the next best thing is just to be a witness, to just sit with them and say, ‘This is really hard.’ And then it gives the person who’s in pain or who’s going through a hard time just that recognition. You’re not making this up. This is a real challenge, and you’re tackling it. So I think that’s really helpful.

“People who have cancer often talk about how their friends vanish. That hasn’t happened to me. But I think it’s because people just don’t know what to say any more. They feel like it’ll be awkward, they don’t know what to say, they don’t know how to help, and so they don’t come. But for me, it’s really powerful to have people come and just say, ‘This is really hard for you.’ And you say, ‘It’s really hard.’ And they say, ‘It looks like it kind of sucks.’ And you’re like, ‘Yes, it sucks.’ And it’s just nice to have someone there with you that way. I mean, I think that’s why Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane asked the Apostles to come to witness. It was hard for them, but I think that’s what he wanted. He didn’t want to be alone during that time.” (Dr. Melissa Inouye passed away just a few weeks after this recording. I found her testimony and her commitment to Jesus Christ and His Church to be inspiring!) (May 26, 2024, What? Eye. Read. 💡 Newsletter)
“The Plateau Effect: Getting from Stuck to Success” by Bob Sullivan and Hugh Thompson: “We’ve spent twenty years each talking to people for a living, people from all walks of life, and without hesitation we can say this – most people are lonely, and then desperately happy when someone asks them a question and truly listens for the answer.”

2: “A father assigned with his teacher-age son as ministering companions explained, ‘Ministering is when we go from being neighbors who bring cookies to trusted friends, spiritual first responders.'”

Would those to whom I minister consider me to be one of their ‘spiritual first responders’?
“Emissaries to the Church“, October 2016 General Conference, Elder Jeffrey R. Holland: “On May 30 of last year, my friend Troy Russell pulled his pickup truck slowly out of his garage on his way to donate goods to the local Deseret Industries. He felt his back tire roll over a bump. Thinking some item had fallen off the truck, he got out only to find his precious nine-year-old son, Austen, lying face down on the pavement. The screams, the priesthood blessing, the paramedic crew, the hospital staff—they were, in this case, to no avail. Austen was gone.

“Unable to sleep, unable to find peace, Troy was inconsolable. He said it was more than he could bear and that he simply could not go on. But into that agonizing breach came three redeeming forces.

“First was the love and reassuring spirit of our Father in Heaven, a presence communicated through the Holy Ghost that comforted Troy, taught him, loved him, and whispered that God knows everything about losing a beautiful and perfect Son. Second was his wife, Deedra, who held Troy in her arms and loved him and reminded him that she too had lost that son and was determined not to lose a husband also. Third in this story is John Manning, home teacher extraordinaire.

“I frankly don’t know on what schedule John and his junior companion made visits to the Russell home, or what message was given when they got there, or how they reported the experience. What I do know is that last spring Brother Manning reached down and picked Troy Russell up off the tragedy of that driveway just as if he were picking up little Austen himself. Like the home teacher or watchman or brother in the gospel he was supposed to be, John simply took over the priesthood care and keeping of Troy Russell. He started by saying, ‘Troy, Austen wants you back on your feet—including on the basketball court—so I will be here every morning at 5:15 a.m. Be ready because I don’t want to have to come in to get you up—and I know Deedra doesn’t want me to do that either.’

“‘I didn’t want to go,’ Troy told me later, ‘because I had always taken Austen with me on those mornings and I knew the memories would be too painful. But John insisted, so I went. From that first day back, we talked—or rather I talked and John listened. I talked the entire drive to the church and then the entire drive home. Sometimes I talked while we parked in the driveway and watched the sun rising over Las Vegas. At first it was difficult, but over time I realized I had found my strength in the form of a very slow 6-foot-2-inch (1.88 m) Church ball player, with an absolutely pathetic jump shot, who loved me and listened to me until the sun finally rose again on my life.’

“My brethren of the holy priesthood, when we speak of home teaching or watchcare or personal priesthood ministry—call it what you will—this is what we are talking about. We are asking you as home teachers to be God’s emissaries to His children, to love and care and pray for the people you are assigned, as we love and care and pray for you. May you be vigilant in tending the flock of God in ways consistent with your circumstances.”
“Our Constant Companion“, President Henry B. Eyring, October 2023 General Conference: “Years ago I received a phone call from a distraught mother. She told me that her daughter had moved far from home. She sensed from the little contact she had with her daughter that something was terribly wrong. She pleaded with me to help.

“I found out who the daughter’s home teacher was. You can tell by that name that it was a long time ago. I called him. He was young. Yet he told me that he and his companion both had been awakened in the night with not only concern for the daughter but with inspiration that she was about to make choices that would bring sadness and misery. With only that inspiration of the Spirit, they went to see her.

“At first she did not want to tell them about her situation. Under inspiration, they pleaded with her to repent and choose the path the Lord had for her. She realized then, I believe by the Spirit, that the only way they could have known what they knew about her life was from God. A mother turned her loving concerns over to Heavenly Father and the Savior. The Holy Ghost had been sent to those home teachers because they were willing to serve the Lord.”

3: “As temples come closer to us in many places, a temple sacrifice we can offer is to seek holiness in the house of the Lord more frequently. For many years, we have saved, planned, and sacrificed to come to the temple. Now, as circumstances permit, please come even more often to the Lord in His holy house. Let regular temple worship and service bless, protect, and inspire you and your family—the family you have or the family you will have and become someday. Also, where your circumstances permit, please consider the blessing of owning your own temple clothes.”

It’s more convenient than ever to serve in the temple: prioritize time in the temple as never before to better recognize that all things are for our good.
“When we are still, open, and reverent, we may feel the beauty, purpose, and serenity of the covenant belonging the Lord offers. In sacred moments, He may let us glimpse the larger eternal reality of which our daily lives are part, where small and simple things work together for the good of givers and receivers. … As the Lord, through His living prophet, brings more houses of the Lord closer in more places, temple blessings work together for our good.” -Elder Gong
“A grandmother from a humble family said of anything in the world, what she most wanted were her own temple clothes. Her grandson said, ‘Grandma whispered, ‘I will serve in my own temple clothes, and after I die, I will be buried in them.” And when the time came, she was.” -Elder Gong
How can my service in the house of the Lord help me to recognize that all things are for my good?

4: “When life is cluttered and purpose isn’t clear, when you want to live better but don’t know how, please come to God our Father and Jesus Christ. Trust They live, love you, and want all things for your good.”

Turn to Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, trusting that They love us and want all things for our good.
“Lived with faith, trials and sacrifices we would never choose can bless us and others in ways never imagined. We increase faith and trust in the Lord that all things can work together for our good as we gain eternal perspective; understand our trials may be ‘but for a small moment’; recognize affliction can be consecrated for our gain; acknowledge accidents, untimely death, debilitating illness, and disease are part of mortality; and trust loving Heavenly Father does not give trials to punish or judge. He would not give a stone to someone asking for bread nor a serpent to one asking for a fish.” -Elder Gong
“Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking” by Susan Cain: “At the Foley Center for the Study of Lives at Northwestern University, [Dan] McAdams studies the stories that people tell about themselves. We all write our life stories as if we were novelists, McAdams believes, with beginnings, conflicts, turning points, and endings. And the way we characterize our past setbacks profoundly influences how satisfied we are with our current lives. Unhappy people tend to see setbacks as contaminants that ruined an otherwise good thing (‘I was never the same again after my wife left me’), while generative adults see them as blessings in disguise (‘The divorce was the most painful thing that ever happened to me, but I’m so much happier with my new wife’). Those who live the most fully realized lives – giving back to their families, societies, and ultimately themselves – tend to find meaning in their obstacles. In a sense, McAdams has breathed new life into one of the great insights of Western mythology: that where we stumble is where our treasure lies.”
“Heart of the Matter: What 100 Years of Living Have Taught Me” by President Russell M. Nelson: “Scripture and history are replete with examples of men and women who have risen above difficult circumstances and still praised the Lord.

“During my ten decades of living, I have concluded that counting our blessings is far better than recounting our problems. Rather than just enumerating our trials, we can pray to understand them. We can pray to see them as opportunities for growth, even for our transformation. Therefore, no matter our situation, showing gratitude for our privileges and blessings, as well as for our afflictions and trials, is a fast-acting, long-lasting emotional and spiritual prescription.

“Harvard professor and New York Times columnist Arthur Brooks wrote that gratitude is ‘common sense: Choosing to focus on good things makes you feel better than focusing on bad things. As my teenage kids would say, ‘Thank you, Captain Obvious.’ In the slightly more elegant language of the Stoic philosopher Epictetus, ‘He is a man of sense who does not grieve for what he has not, but rejoices in what he has.”

“Gratitude may not come easily. We may be operating under the notion that unless everything is going well in our lives, we have nothing for which to be grateful. But the opposite is actually true. Challenges and even hardships are not only part of life; they are part of a good life! One of our quests here in mortality is to learn how to solve problems and deal with setbacks.

“If we would take a few minutes each day to do what many do on Thanksgiving Day—when we gather with loved ones and friends and each takes a turn to express gratitude for various blessings—I am certain that our feelings about life as well as our relationships with others would improve exponentially.

“Gratitude helps us focus on the positive elements in our lives rather than obsess about our challenges—which we all have. Even in times of disappointment, there is always something for which we can be grateful. …

“Does gratitude spare us from sorrow, sadness, grief, and pain? No, but it does soothe our feelings and provide us with a greater perspective on the purpose and joys of life.

“Despite the disappointments and personal losses I have experienced in my life, I am eternally grateful for so many things. During each time of loss and deep sadness, the Lord has blessed me with His support and that of family members and friends to buoy me up.

“I, of course, am not alone in finding solace after experiencing loss. Horatio G. Spafford was a successful attorney and real estate investor who lost his fortune in the great Chicago fire of 1871. Around the same time, scarlet fever took the life of his four-year-old son.

“He and his family were devastated. Believing that a vacation would give them time to mourn, he sent his wife and four daughters on a ship to England, planning to join them after he finished some business at home. While crossing the Atlantic, however, the ship carrying his family members sunk. His wife survived, but his four daughters drowned. Upon arriving in England, she sent a telegram to her husband that read: ‘Saved alone. What shall I do?’ I can only try to imagine the grief Horatio must have felt.

“Horatio immediately set sail for England. The captain of his ship was aware of the tragedy in Horatio’s family. When they passed over the place where his family’s ship had sunk, the captain made him aware of the location. As Horatio tried to grapple with his grief, words of comfort filled his heart and mind. Those words have since become the text for a beloved hymn [Hymn # 1003 – “It Is Well with My Soul”], one verse of which reads:

“When peace like a river, attendeth my way,
“When sorrows like sea-billows roll;
“Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say
“It is well, it is well, with my soul.

“In his own way, Horatio Spafford’s words express a remarkable kind of deep gratitude, even amidst great trial.”
Footnote 15: “Letting God prevail in our lives is not passively to accept whatever comes. It is actively to believe that Heavenly Father and our Savior, Jesus Christ, want only and always what is best for us. When tragedy strikes, we can ask with faith, not ‘Why me?’ but ‘What can I learn?’ And we can mourn with broken hearts and contrite spirits, knowing, in His time and way, compensating blessings and opportunities will come.”
“The Power of Jesus Christ in Our Lives Every Day“, October 2023 General Conference, Elder Joaquin E. Costa: “We have seen the manifestation of the Savior’s power … in a young woman in Argentina who fell under a train and lost her leg, just because someone wanted to steal her cell phone. And in her single father, who now must pick up the pieces and strengthen his daughter after such an unexplainable act of cruelty. … When Elder Soares visited Argentina last June and asked Flavia about her tragic accident, she faithfully replied, ‘I experienced turmoil, bitterness, anger, and hate when [this happened]. Something that helped me was not to ask, ‘why me?’ but ‘what for?’ … This was something that brought me closer to others and the Lord. … Instead of distancing myself from Him, I had to cling to Him.'”
5/29/2024: Q: How does this address help me see and love Jesus Christ? A: Heavenly Father loves Jesus Christ very much, but He allowed Him to suffer agony beyond comprehension. Jesus Christ is living proof that all things work together for our good.
“In time and eternity, the purpose of Creation and the nature of God Himself are to bring all things together for our good. This is the Lord’s eternal purpose. It is His eternal perspective. It is His eternal promise.” -Elder Gong

Take Action

How will you take action on the invitations extended in this General Conference address?

Conclusion

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Additional Content

Previous Podcast Episode (“The Powerful, Virtuous Cycle of the Doctrine of Christ” by Elder Dale G. Renlund)

Next Podcast Episode (“Covenant Confidence through Jesus Christ” by Elder Ulisses Soares)

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