The Great Internist

I went to Relief Society Conference with my Mom while out in Va. Jason Wright was the guest speaker and he told a story of when he had an unexpected trip to a foreign country. He had to get his shots quickly and travel across the world. On the airplane his leg started to swell up and developed a rash. On his layover he saw a doctor who told him to take some aspirin and get it check out when he got home. At his destination they also didn't know what it was. When he got home he went to many doctors but no one knew what was wrong. It got worse and he would have dizzy spells and had a hard time sleeping for many many months. Finally his wife asked him to go see an internist. Internists are the doctors' doctor. When everyone else is stumped, they have the answer. He went to the doctor and the internist took one look at his leg and said "I know what this is" and came back with a book and opened it to the diagnosis. It was a reaction that was 1 in a million to one of the vaccines he got before going on his trip. He prescribed the cure immediately. The doctor said "I wish you had come to me first. I immediately knew the problem and could have given you the cure. I could have saved you months of sleepless nights and all that pain. "

How often do we look everywhere for a diagnosis and prescription to our problems when Heavenly Father already knows what our problems are and how to fix them? We will look everywhere for joy when we know the gospel is what  will bring us real joy.

Reservoir of Compassion

It doesn't matter that we have not experienced each other's woes. What does matter is our reservoir or compassion and our testimonies born of experience that the Lord is the ultimate Healer and Source of peace. What we have in common is so much more important than the incidental life details that distinguish and too often separate us from each other.

Sheri Dew?

Interviews with Deity

“I fear that many of us rush about from day to day taking for granted the holy scriptures. We scramble to honor appointments with physicians, lawyers, and businessmen. Yet we think nothing of postponing interviews with Deity—postponing scripture study. Little wonder we develop anemic souls and lose our direction in living. How much better it would be if we planned and held sacred fifteen or twenty minutes a day for reading the scriptures. Such interviews with Deity would help us recognize his voice and enable us to receive guidance in all of our affairs. We must look to God through the scriptures”

Carlos E Asay  Ensign, Nov. 1978, pp. 53–54

More Meaningful Scripture Study

Ways to Make Scripture Study More Meaningful

1. Write a question down and search for the answers
2. Look through notes from old scripture study
3. Look up the references from a conference talk
4. Open randomly and read
5. Read a chapter and categorize scriptures under different topics
6. Mediate on one or two scriptures
7. Prepare a mini-talk or lesson
8. Read all the scriptures you can about one topic
9. Memorize a scripture
10. Study the hymns or memorize a hymn

The Atonement

Jesus' daily mortal experiences and His ministry, to be sure, acquainted Him by observation with a sample of human sicknesses, grief, pains, sorrows, and infirmities which are "common to man' (1 Corinthians 10:13). But the agonies of the Atonement were infinite and first-hand! Since not all human sorrow and pain is connected to sin, the full intensiveness of the Atonement involved bearing our pains, infirmities, and sicknesses, as well as our sins. Whatever our sufferings, we can safely cast our care upon him; for he careth for [us]" (1 Peter 5:7). Jesus is a fully comprehending Christ. 

Neal A. Maxwell Not My Will, But Thine, p.51


 Whatever the source of pain, Jesus understands and can heal the spirit as well as the body.

The Savior, as a member of the Godhead, knows each of us personally. Isaiah and the prophet Abinadi said that when Christ would “make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed” (Isa. 53:10; compare Mosiah 15:10). Abinadi explains that “his seed” are the righteous, those who follow the prophets (see Mosiah 15:11). In the garden and on the cross, Jesus saw each of us and not only bore our sins, but also experienced our deepest feelings so that he would know how to comfort and strengthen us.

Merrill J Bateman "The Power to Heal from Within" Ensign, May 1995

 Will we too trust the Lord amid a perplexing trial for which we have no easy explanation? Do we understand—really comprehend—that Jesus knows and understands when we are stressed and perplexed? The complete consecration which effected the Atonement ensured Jesus’ perfect empathy; He felt our very pains and afflictions before we did and knows how to succor us (see Alma 7:11–12; 2 Ne. 9:21). Since the Most Innocent suffered the most, our own cries of “Why?” cannot match His. But we can utter the same submissive word “nevertheless …” (Matt. 26:39).

Neal A. Maxwell  "Swallowed Up in the Will of the Father" October 1995 General Conference


The Savior knows what it is like to die from cancer. 

Neal A. Maxwell "Even As I Am" p 116-117