Susanna Avila

REL 121

Dec. 6, 2010

Personal Application Paper

There was a time in my life when I was truly happy. I would wake up in the morning feeling

good about my life. I was optimistic and positive about everything. I would finish my day feeling the

same way. I was happy. But as life goes, you follow a wave with highs and lows. Unfortunately, I began

to fall into the lower region of that wave. I looked back on when I was so happy and wondered exactly

what I did to get there. So when asked to think of a topic while reading the Book of Mormon, I thought

I’d look for what makes people happy. What do we do to bring everlasting joy into our lives? I found a

lot of different passages that mentioned this and they all fall into three themes. First, keep the

commandments; second, have faith and endure to the end; third, focus your life on the simple aspects

of the doctrine of Christ. If you do these three things, you will have a happy life.

“Inasmuch as thy seed shall keep my commandments, they shall prosper in the land of promise”

(1 Nephi 4:14). In the beginning of the Book of Mormon we see a great example of how obedience to

Heavenly Father brings about immediate blessings and happiness. In 1 Nephi 4:10, Nephi is told to kill

Laban. He is wary of this because killing someone is not something you would normally do. But he

remembered the words the Lord spoke to him in the wilderness about the importance of obedience and

so he smote off the head of Laban. Because he did this, he was able to get the brass plates for his

family. Not only was he and his family blessed by this, but we are to for we are able to share in the

knowledge the brass plates had. This is only one example of how keeping the Lord’s commandments

bring happiness. We see many times how Nephi and his family kept the Lord’s commandments and
were blessed because of it. Lehi took his family out into the wilderness and wasn’t destroyed. Nephi

and his brothers traveled back and forth from the wilderness to Jerusalem and were blessed with the

brass plates and the joining of Ishmael’s family. When Nephi’s bow broke, he was blessed with the

means to obtain food which I am sure brought happiness to his whole family. The liahonna worked

because of their faith and their obedience in keeping of the commandments. There are countless

examples in the Book of Mormon of people being obedient to the Lord and receiving blessings and

happiness because of it. Not only does keeping the commandments bring happiness and prosperity, but

it also brings us a sense of protection. We don’t need to worry what happens to us in the end because if

we are doing what we are supposed to be doing, we should be fine. This is known as faith and enduring

to the end.

Having a happy life is great, but suffering and enduring to the end is what really benefits us. If

we got what we wanted all the time, the need for faith would be eliminated. “Should all prayers be

immediately answered according to our selfish desires and our limited understanding , then there would

be little or no suffering, sorrow, disappointment, or even death, and if these were not, there would also

be no joy, success, resurrection, nor eternal life and godhood”. 1 Enduring to the end makes us stronger

and happier. A little example of this from my life comes from when I work out. If I do a simple little

lifting routine, the next day I don’t feel like I did anything. But when I work out so hard I want to quit in

the middle of it, the next day I am sore and happy for I know that my body is getting stronger because of

my endurance. We see amazing examples of endurance throughout the Book of Mormon. One that I

have always liked since I was a child was about Alma and Amulek. The Nephites were getting annoyed

with Alma and Amulek because they kept telling them to repent of their wickedness. In their anger they

bound Alma and Amulek and put them in prison. They mocked Alma and Amulek, spit on them, took

away their clothes, their food and water so that they might suffer for the things they were saying about

1
Spencer W. Kimball, Faith Precedes the Miracle [1973]
the people’s wickedness. After a number of days, Alma prayed to the Lord, asking for strength for their

deliverance. Because of Alma and Amulek’s exceeding faith his prayer was answered. The prison was

demolished and all who were inside it save Alma and Amulek were destroyed. I love this story because

it shows that if you have faith and endure to the end, you will be saved and the experience will make

your life better and your joy more profound. Like in the story, sometimes our suffering will come from

being righteous. “Adversity in the lives of the obedient and faithful may be the consequence of disease,

accidental injury, ignorance, or the influence of the adversary. To preserve free agency, the Lord also at

times permits the righteous to suffer the consequences of evil acts by others”. 2 Another story in Alma

shows this. In Alma 14, Zeezrom casts all those who had been taught to believe in the work of God were

cast into a fire to die. Amulek asks Alma why they aren’t saving them. Alma says in verse 11 that he

cannot for the Lord receives all those who died so that they can stand as a witness against the people

doing this to this to them. This story makes me so sad when I read it and I hoped they were at least

saved from the pains. But in Doctrine and Covenants 42:46, it says “Those that die in me shall not taste

of death, for it shall be sweet unto them.” This doesn’t mean there is no pain involved, but the blessings

we get for it far outweigh the pain. In 2 Nephi 9:18, the righteous are promised that those that endure

the crosses of the world shall inherit the kingdom of God and their joy shall be full forever. Knowing this

makes me feel better for all those who died in Zeezrom’s fire for I know they will be blessed. The same

goes for all those who were persecuted for their righteousness over the thousands of years since then.

It also gives me faith to endure to the end with all my pains and troubles for I surely will be blessed and

have eternal joy if I continue to be faithful. Enduring the end is one of the aspects seen in the doctrine

of Christ.

The first principles of the gospel are known as the doctrine of Christ. The Book of Mormon is a

great teacher of this doctrine. 1 Nephi 8:10 – “And it came to pass that I beheld a tree, whose fruit was

2
Elder Ronald E. Poelman in Conference Report, Apr. 1989; or Ensign, May 1989
desirable to make one happy”. Knowing that the fruit in Lehi’s dream represented the gospel tells you

that the gospel is there to make you happy. The great thing about the doctrine of Christ is its simplicity.

When I am told instructions, I like them so simple that a child could follow them. There is less room for

error. It appears that Nephi feels the same way. In 2 Nephi 31:3 he says his soul delighteth in plainness.

We are given a simple list of what we need to do to be happy. We just need to practice faith,

repentance, remember our baptismal covenants, and listen to the Holy Ghost. If we do these things, we

shall have eternal happiness and joy. Nephi talks about these things in 2 Nephi 31-33. When we are

baptized, we promise to take the name of Christ upon ourselves. This means that we promise to act like

Him and obey His commandments. After baptism we are given the gift of the Holy Ghost. He helps us

keep the covenants we made at our baptism. The promise we get from keeping those covenants is to

return to our Heavenly Father. This is made possible through repentance. Sometimes life gets hard and

we don’t always remember our covenants and we forget to repent. But if we press forward and endure

to the end, we can have eternal joy and return to our Heavenly Father. Nephi does a good job of

explaining this process in the last three chapters of 2 Nephi. Living the doctrine of Christ brings joy into

our lives.

There are many other things that we can do that will bring about happiness in our lives. But I

know that if you keep the commandments, endure to the end, and live the doctrine or Christ, you will

become a very happy person and enjoy this life and the life to come. I know that Heavenly Father

wants us to be happy and listens to our prayers. I know He loves us and has a plan for us. This gospel is

true and Joseph Smith really did translate the Book of Mormon and restore the church. I know that if

we repent and live the gospel, we will return to live with our Heavenly Father. I say these things in the

name of Jesus Christ, amen.