Mormon Musings

Brother Kimball referred to Zion’s Camp going to Missouri.  When I returned from that mission to Kirkland, a brother said to me, “Brother Brigham, what have you gained by this journey?”  I replied, “Just what we went for; but I would not exchange the knowledge I have received this season for the whole of the Geauga County; for property and mines of wealth are not to be compared to the worth of knowledge.”  Ask those brethren and sisters who have passed through scenes of affliction and suffering for years in the Church what they would take in exchange for their experience, and be placed back where they were, were it possible.  I presume they would tell you that all the wealth, honors, and riches of the world could not buy the knowledge they had obtained, could they barter it away.  Let the brethren be contented, if you have trials and must have hard times, learn to acknowledge the hand of the Lord in it all.  He directs the affairs of this world… Brigham You...

By Elder Neal A. Maxwell Of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles Elder Neal A. Maxwell passed away on 21 July 2004 as this issue of the  Ensign  was being prepared for publication. After reciting a litany of social ills during his time, Mormon consoled his son, Moroni, suggesting that somber world conditions could unnecessarily “weigh thee down” ( Moro. 9:25 ). 1   Today, I write lest you be unnecessarily “weighed down.” What follows will include several stern but needed prophecies, yet my comments will mostly be about some very reassuring and positive things. Though I write primarily to the youth of the Church, these assurances have ready application to all gospel teachers who have been entrusted with nurturing this royal generation. My text is a later Nephi’s phrase about his own time and season on earth. As he became less nostalgic for an earlier time and more submissive as to doing his duty in his particular season, he said, “I am consigned that these are my days.” I inv...

http://www.mormonchannel.org/video/mormon-messages?v=2649255347001

Sailors and mariners become wise, useful, and qualified for their stations only by experience. Storms, tempests, and hurricanes have to occur in order to give them that experience. If all was calm, and storms never arose at sea, where would the mariner get the experience that is necessary for him to have, that when storms do occur and difficulties arise, when the ship sails out upon the ocean, he shall be prepared to manage and guide his his vessel safely into port. If there are individuals on board that have never experienced storms, or perhaps have never ventured away from land before, when storms arise, you see that trepidation of spirit that you do not witness in those that have had experience. So it is with ourselves in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, we have to learn by the things that take place around us and act in the stations assigned us by the circumstances that transpire and the experience we gain. President Lorenzo Snow, Journal of Discourses 5:322

We are in a great school; and it is a profitable one, in which we are receiving very important lessons from day to day. We are taught to cultivate our minds, to control our thoughts, to thoroughly bring our whole being into subjection to the Spirit and law of God, that we may learn to be one and act as the heart of one man, that we may carry out the purposes of God upon the earth. Yes, we are taught many principles which tend to our exaltation and glory, which could not be made manifest unto us only as they are revealed unto us by the inspiration of the Almighty, through the mouth of his servants the Prophets. President Wilford Woodruff, Journal of Discourses  6:115

http://jdquotes.wordpress.com/2011/06/16/storms-of-life-give-us-the-requisite-experience/

We talk about experience, and we have had a great deal of experience, and we are constantly in the school of experience. But I am inclined to think that it may be the case with us in that school as in other schools. We sometimes improve by what we experience, adding to our store of knowledge; and then, again, we may experience very considerable from which we derive no particular benefit, like the scholar that attends school, but from inattention, a failure to apply himself properly to his lessons and to the acquirement of the knowledge that is imparted, he fails to comprehend the truth to the extent that he might otherwise have done; and hence he is not benefited to the extent that he might have been, although he has been in the school. Well, as Saints and as children of God, we are in the school; and if there is any higher purpose connected with our being in the school—connected with living in the world, and connected with all our labours in the world, and what we are supposed to be h...

Brother Kimball referred to Zion's Camp going to Missouri.  When I returned from that mission to Kirkland, a brother said to me, "Brother Brigham, what have you gained by this journey?"  I replied, "Just what we went for; but I would not exchange the knowledge I have received this season for the whole of the Geauga County; for property and mines of wealth are not to be compared to the worth of knowledge."  Ask those brethren and sisters who have passed through scenes of affliction and suffering for years in the Church what they would take in exchange for their experience, and be placed back where they were, were it possible.  I presume they would tell you that all the wealth, honors and riches of the world could not buy the knowledge they had obtained, could they barter it away.  Let the brethren be contented, if you have trials and must have hard times, learn to acknowledge the hand of the Lord in it all.  He directs the affairs of this world... Brigham ...