Welcome Back. I’d love to “hear” from more of you in the comments because it’s always great to get each other’s insight about these talks. For week 5 of general conference book club, we’ll be studying Elder Bowen’s talk from the Saturday A.M. session:
“Because I Live, Ye Shall Live Also”
By Elder Shayne M. Bowen
Because of Him, even our Savior, Jesus Christ, those feelings of sorrow, loneliness, and despair will one day be swallowed up in a fulness of joy.
Elder Bowen shares an experience of teaching a woman on his mission who had lost an infant, and how much relief she found through the doctrines in the Book of Mormon.
He then recounted a personal tragedy about the loss of his own 8-month old son who choked on a piece of chalk. He highlights the stages of his mourning and grief and the role that those same doctrines he had taught years ago as a missionary played in his healing and recovery from such a tragedy.
Elder Bowen shared this beautiful quote from Preach My Gospel:
We can be filled with joy, peace, and consolation. All that is unfair about life can be made right through the Atonement of Jesus Christ.
What did you find meaningful or powerful in this talk? How has the gospel helped you to find hope in very desperate circumstances? Discuss in the comments below.
(A reminder to those of you who are new to General Conference Book Club: You’re welcome to return to this post any time this week and leave your comment and thoughts in the comment section below. You may also want to see what others are saying about the talk and engage in a conversation for mutual understanding and encouragement. A new talk will be posted each Sunday and will be studied and discussed throughout the week.)
Diapers and Divinity 
One thing that rereally impacted me when I reread this talk was his decision to look forward with hope insted of backwqrd with despair. he also talked bout how he needs to continue to make that choice. that’s a choice we all need to make. I’m suremost people have things that could p ull them down into despair if they focus on them.
at the time of the talk, I was extremely touched by his comments regarding watching a coffin..my husband’s mother died this august. i appreciated his candor intalking about the varied feelings involved inmourning.
Oh I like your thoughts! Thank you for sharing them!
So my comments on this post are so long that I just posted them on my blog….carinanddrew.blogspot.com
Thanks for hosting the General Conference Book Club. I am trying to keep up 🙂
I like how he says that God gave him a new heart. It was even more poingnant after he described the details of his suffering, and you really get a sense of how beat up and battered his heart was when he got a new one. It reminded me of the idea of crossing the veil that he talks about later. You progress and move out of the place you were at into a new place -where the feelings are intensified. I think the two are the same principal.
This man opened up and shared all of his pain. To those not going through this, it can still teach us. I think it is important to know the grieving process is real and to recognize the emotions. How it wears on the whole family and the ability to feel the spirit. I heard someone talk about how our role around those going through emotional times is to walk with them as the Savior does. Validate, empathize, let them know it is ok to feel that way and help them to identify and put to words what they are going through. They will get to a point where they will trust the Lord. Talking will help them channel and direct the pain in a healthy way.
Honestly, I have a hard time commenting or thinking straight about this talk. When it was given and when I read it, I get into a tailspin of worrying about one of my kids dying and how I don’t think I could handle it.
We lost our 6 year old son in 2005. It is very hard. The grieving doesn’t end, but it lessens. I am so grateful for the gospel and the stability it has given me over the years. Our son was the youngest of 9 children. Most of our children still lived at home. I lean heavily on the atonement, even now, as I see and deal with the long-lasting effects of that loss on my husband and I and our children. When you are grieving yourself, you can miss things with your children who are also grieving. You do the best you can in your circumstances. I am just grateful the atonement will make right what I couldn’t and can’t. Even though we felt the spirit very strongly for a while after his death, that also lessens and isn’t there all the time. I can go back and remember what I felt and the peace I had and get it back on occasion. There are still questions–questions about why I couldn’t have helped my surviving children deal with it better. You always hope that crisis experiences like this will bring you all closer to the Lord, but it doesn’t always work that way, unfortunately.
I love this talk. Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts. I love what Elder Bowen says about prayer “As I felt the guilt, anger, and self-pity trying to consume me, I prayed that my heart could change. Through very personal sacred experiences, the Lord gave me a new heart, and even though it was still lonely and painful, my whole outlook changed. I was given to know that I had not been robbed but rather that there was a great blessing awaiting me if I would prove faithful.” It is such a powerful and meaningful thing that can bring about a change within us that would never be possible on our own. I have seen many times in my own life where prayer has changed my heart but also given comfort to my soul that would not have been possible otherwise. We literally tap into Heavenly power as we pray for assistance, and God does hear those pleads.
“[Heavenly Father] allows us to experience trials so that we can come to know and love Him and understand that without Him we have nothing.”
“as we rely on the Atonement of Jesus Christ, He can help us endure our trials, sicknesses, and pain. We can be filled with joy, peace, and consolation. All that is unfair about life can be made right through the Atonement of Jesus Christ.”
What great points to help strengthen all of us, no matter what trials we are facing in this life. It is rough and it can be easy to get down about our individual situations or the world in general. I am constantly trying to remember that our trials are for our good and that one day we will receive our reward if we are faithful.
I also appreciated his honesty in the feelings/reactions he had. If he can have these feelings and this trial and still come out “better” for having experienced it, than I too need to not dwell on the negative. It took prayer for him to have a change of heart. I hope I can fall on my knees and pray for a change of heart, especially in those moments when I don’t feel like praying.
Over ten years ago a dear friend of mine lost her two and half year old son to a tragic tractor accident. Oh, how I would have known all the feelings she had to endure those first days, weeks and months! It is amazing the feelings that wrack us and torment us to sway our hearts not to believe in Him, and yet wonderful and marvelous to watch the Atonement take hold as we give our hearts to Him.
I had to reread this talk several times because of the emotions that overcame me each time I would read it. I think what amazes me that very most is the doctrines of which Elder Bowen testifies:
– This life is not the end
– The Spirit World is real
– The teachings of the prophets regarding life after death are true
– This life is but a transitory step forward on our journey bacl to Heavenly Father
– The veil is thin
– Because of Jesus Christ, feelings of sorrow, loneliness, and despair will one day be swallowed up in a fulness of joy
– We can depend on Him
– “As we rely upon the Atonement of Jesus Christ, He can helpd us endure our trials, sicknessness and pain. We can be filled with joy, peace and consolation. All that is unfair about life can be made right through the Atonement of Jesus Christ.”
And I truly believe, it doesn’t get better than that!
I love this truth that he quoted from Preach My Gospel, “…As we rely on the Atonement of Jesus Christ, He can help us endure our trials, sicknesses, and pain. We can be filled with joy, peace, and consolation. All that is unfair about life can be made right through the Atonement of Jesus Christ.”
“All that is unfair about life can be made right throught the Atonement of Jesus Christ.” I love this quote.
Everyone will have hard times, times when we think we can’t make it. It is so important to remember that we are here to learn and grow and experience these things. We can make it, and with the help of the Savior, we can be happy while going through our individual trials.
catching up here…
I also loved the quote: “All that is unfair about life can be made right through the Atonement of Jesus Christ.” It was also quoted by Sister Burton in the General Relief Society meeting.
I felt the Spirit comforting me during this talk. I lost a baby boy just one week before General Conference. I really appreciated his frankness about the wide spectrum of emotions that come.