Faith is tried not only to test it, but also to strengthen it, Elder Henry B. Eyring told more than 30,000 Church members gathered in Provo for BYU Campus Education Week Aug. 20.
Speaking on the centennial theme, "Faith of our Fathers," Elder Eyring of the Quorum of the Twelve told visitors that a "thread of faith" connects them with their ancestors."I see a thread of faith, a particular faith, running in the lives of those heroes of the Restoration, whose steadfastness and courage leave us in awe," he said. "Perhaps if we examine that thread today we may find it in our own lives and strengthen it."
Elder Eyring said the pioneer histories reveal a "recurring pattern," despite the fact that they each faced different challenges with different responses.
"They shared a faith," he said, "that the kingdom of God had been established for the last time - that it would triumph over great opposition, would become glorious in preparation for the day when the Savior would come to accept it, would stand forever - and that theirs was a rare privilege to have been called out of the world to build it."
Quoting an account from the Prophet Joseph Smith, Elder Eyring emphasized that throughout time persecution has not stopped the progress of truth.
"The Prophet and the faithful Saints expected trials," Elder Eyring said. "They knew the Lord would deliver them. . . . They knew that the times of peace would be temporary and so made of them times of gratitude and of boldness to go forward with the work."
He said that members - such as his great-grandmother Mary Bommeli - grew in faith through cycles of opposition and deliverance followed by more opposition.
Sister Bommeli left the rolling hills of northern Switzerland, worked her way to the United States by weaving, crossed the plains with a pioneer company, and used her weaving to feed her family once she reached the Salt Lake Valley. She helped establish St. George and then the Mormon colonies in northern Mexico - where her husband died.
"Mary's story is worth telling not because it is exceptional but because it isn't," Elder Eyring explained. "The growth in her faith seemed as constant in times of deliverance as it was in times of trial."
He said that seems to be true of every pioneer story he has read. "It seems to me that was true because their faith was based in an understanding of why God allows us to pass into such close places and how He delivers us. The how springs from the why. The why is that our loving Heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, wish for us to be sanctified that we may have eternal life with them. That requires our being cleansed through faith in Jesus Christ, repenting because of that faith, and proving ourselves faithful to the covenants they offer us only through their mortal servants in the kingdom of God."
Elder Eyring explained that knowing Heavenly Father's and Jesus Christ's loving purpose makes it easier for Church members to understand both why they allow trials and how they will deliver them.
"They could make all the rough places smooth in building the kingdom and in our lives," Elder Eyring said. "They allow trials to come even when we are faithful because they love us."
