From the Church website:

Henry B. Eyring was sustained and set apart as First Counselor in the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on October 14, 2025. He served as a counselor to President Russell M. Nelson from 2018 to 2025, to President Thomas S. Monson from 2008 to 2018, and to President Gordon B. Hinckley from 2007 to 2008. He was sustained as a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles on April 1, 1995. He has served as a General Authority since April 1985.

President Eyring previously served as First Counselor in the Presiding Bishopric from April 1985 to September 1992 and as Church commissioner of education from September 1980 to April 1985 and also September 1992 to January 2005.

President Eyring was president of Ricks College in Rexburg, Idaho, from 1971 to 1977. He was on the faculty at the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University from 1962 to 1971.

He holds a B.S. degree in physics from the University of Utah and master of business administration and doctor of business administration degrees from Harvard University.

My dear brothers and sisters, I feel the love of the Lord as we meet together. I am humbled to speak with you. I pray that the Spirit will carry into your hearts what the Lord would have you hear, far beyond the words which I will speak.

Long ago I sought to learn physics and mathematics in my college years. I felt overwhelmed. I began to feel that I was trying to learn something that was beyond me. The more I felt overwhelmed, the less I felt the strength to keep trying. My discouragement led me to feel that my efforts were almost fruitless. I began to think of quitting, of doing something easier.

Have you ever had an experience of feeling totally overwhelmed? How did you respond to that experience?

I felt weak. As I prayed, I felt the quiet assurance of the Lord. I felt Him say to my mind, “I am proving you, but I am also with you.”

I did not know then all that those words meant. But I knew what to do—I went to work.

By pondering and working during the years that followed, I came to understand this message of encouragement in the scriptures: “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.”

In October 2023 President Camille N. Johnson said: “Brothers and sisters, I can’t go at it alone, and I don’t need to, and I won’t. Choosing to be bound to my Savior, Jesus Christ, through the covenants I have made with God, ‘I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me’  Philippians 4:13 (“Jesus Christ Is Relief,” Liahona, May 2023, 82).]

Do you have any favourite scriptures that strengthen and encourage you?

I learned that my struggle with physics was actually a gift from the Lord. He was teaching me that with His help, I could do things that seemed impossible if I had the faith that He would be there to help me. Through this gift, the Lord was working to prove and strengthen me.

What does President Eyring mean by the words ‘prove’ and ‘strengthen’?

The word prove has several meanings. To prove something is not simply to test it. It is to increase its strength. To prove a piece of steel is to place it under strain. Heat, weight, and pressure are added until its true nature is enhanced and revealed. The steel is not weakened by the proving. In fact, it becomes something that can be trusted, something strong enough to bear greater burdens.

What kinds of ‘heat, weight and pressure’ might we experience in our lives?

The Lord proves us in much the same way to strengthen us. That proving does not come in moments of ease or comfort. It comes in moments when we feel stretched beyond what we thought we could bear. The Lord teaches that we are to continue to grow and never tire in our efforts, that we never give up, that we keep trying.

How does the Lord prove us?

When we continue to have faith in Jesus Christ—even when things might feel impossible to us at the moment—we become spiritually stronger. The sacred scriptural records emphasize this truth.

The prophet Moroni, for instance, was proved and strengthened in such a way. He lived his final years alone. He wrote that he had no friends, that his father had been killed, that his people had been destroyed. He was hunted by those who sought his life.

Yet Moroni did not despair. Instead, he engraved his testimony of Jesus Christ on plates for people he would not live to see, including the descendants of the people who desired to kill him. He wrote for us. He knew that some would mock his words. He knew that some would reject them. Yet he kept writing.

Elder Holland also wrote of Moroni’s situation and response:

“Following this dismaying decline of Nephite civilization documented by his father, Moroni picked up the recorder’s task, but he did not write to any living audience. Rather, he directed his final testimony-in fact, three final testimonies-to those who would receive the record in the last days…Moroni’s experience was painful, for he observed in life, in history, and in vision the pollution and destruction of three glorious civilizations-his own Nephite world, the Jaredite nation, and our latter-day dispensation.” (Jeffrey R Holland, Christ And The New Covenant, p. 323)

In his proving, Moroni’s faith was refined and strengthened. It became more pure. His words carry the power of one who endured faithfully to the end. We can feel that power as we read his testimony:

“Now I, Moroni, write somewhat as seemeth me good; and I write unto my brethren, the Lamanites; and I would that they should know that more than four hundred and twenty years have passed away since the sign was given of the coming of Christ.

“And I seal up these records, after I have spoken a few words by way of exhortation unto you.

“Behold, I would exhort you that when ye shall read these things, if it be wisdom in God that ye should read them, that ye would remember how merciful the Lord hath been unto the children of men, from the creation of Adam even down until the time that ye shall receive these things, and ponder it in your hearts.

“And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost.

“And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things.”

Moroni’s testimony was refined in loneliness, but it shines with light to guide all generations to seek our Father in Heaven and the Savior Jesus Christ.

Another Book of Mormon prophet, Jacob, was proved and strengthened as a child who experienced afflictions and much sorrow. But his father, Lehi, taught him God would bless him through his trials.

“And behold, in thy childhood thou hast suffered afflictions and much sorrow, because of the rudeness of thy brethren.

“Nevertheless, Jacob, my firstborn in the wilderness, thou knowest the greatness of God; and he shall consecrate thine afflictions for thy gain.

“Wherefore, thy soul shall be blessed, and thou shalt dwell safely with thy brother, Nephi; and thy days shall be spent in the service of thy God. Wherefore, I know that thou art redeemed, because of the righteousness of thy Redeemer; for thou hast beheld that in the fulness of time he cometh to bring salvation unto men.”

The Prophet Joseph Smith experienced such proving and strengthening when he was in Liberty Jail. In the depths of his anguish, the Prophet Joseph cried out:

“O God, where art thou? …

“How long shall thy hand be stayed?”

The Lord saw in Joseph’s suffering the sanctifying effect of his enduring it well when He replied:

“My son, peace be unto thy soul; thine adversity and thine afflictions shall be but a small moment;

“And then, if thou endure it well, God shall exalt thee on high; thou shalt triumph over all thy foes.”

Elder Holland, in his October 2020 General conference talk  also referred to Joseph’s suffering in Liberty Jail”

‘So, we are not the first nor will we be the last to ask such questions when sorrows bear down on us or an ache in our heart goes on and on. I am not now speaking of pandemics or prisons but of you, your family, and your neighbors who face any number of such challenges. I speak of the yearning of many who would like to be married and aren’t or who are married and wish the relationship were a little more celestial. I speak of those who have to deal with the unwanted appearance of a serious medical condition—perhaps an incurable one—or who face a lifelong battle with a genetic defect that has no remedy. I speak of the continuing struggle with emotional and mental health challenges that weigh heavily on the souls of so many who suffer with them, and on the hearts of those who love and suffer with them. I speak of the poor, whom the Savior told us never to forget, and I speak of you waiting for the return of a child, no matter what the age, who has chosen a path different from the one you prayed he or she would take.

Furthermore, I acknowledge that even this long list of things for which we might wait personally does not attempt to address the large economic, political, and social concerns that confront us collectively. Our Father in Heaven clearly expects us to address these wrenching public issues as well as the personal ones, but there will be times in our lives when even our best spiritual effort and earnest, pleading prayers do not yield the victories for which we have yearned, whether that be regarding the large global matters or the small personal ones. So while we work and wait together for the answers to some of our prayers, I offer you my apostolic promise that they are heard and they are answered, though perhaps not at the time or in the way we wanted. But they are always answered at the time and in the way an omniscient and eternally compassionate parent should answer them. My beloved brothers and sisters, please understand that He who never sleeps nor slumbers2 [See  Psalm 121:4] cares for the happiness and ultimate exaltation of His children above all else that a divine being has to do. He is pure love, gloriously personified, and Merciful Father is His name.’

The greatest example of proving and strengthening occurred through the Savior’s Atonement. He took upon Him the sins of the world. He bore our pains and our sorrows. He drank the bitter cup. He proved faithful in every moment.

What other examples from scripture or church history can you think of where people have been proved, strengthened and refined?

Because of His glorious Atonement, Jesus Christ can strengthen us in our times of trial. He knows how to succor us because He has felt all the challenges that we will ever feel in mortality. “He will take upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people … that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities.”

What is the role of the atonement of Jesus Christ in our process of being proved and strengthened?

How can we access the succour of the Saviour?

We learn that while in the Garden of Gethsemane, the Savior did ask the Father if the trial could pass over Him—but then He also said that if it was the Father’s will, then the Savior would do it. In other words, the Savior even took on doubt and uncertainty, but He had faith in His Heavenly Father.

Brothers and sisters, your proving and strengthening may not look like Moroni’s or Jacob’s or the Prophet Joseph’s. But it will come. It may come quietly, through the trials of family life. It may come through illness or disappointment or grief or loneliness.

I bear witness that these moments are not evidence that the Lord has abandoned you. Rather, they are evidence that He loves you enough to refine and strengthen you. He is making you strong enough to carry the weight of eternal life.

If we remain faithful in our service, the Lord will refine us. He will strengthen us. And one day we will look back and see that those very trials were evidence of His love. We will see that He was shaping us to be able to stand with Him in glory. As the Lord’s Apostle Paul stated at the end of his own life, “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith.”

Have you ever had an experience when you felt that the Lord had abandoned you but in retrospect you saw that he was proving and strengthening you?

I testify that God knows you. He knows the trials you face. He is with you. He will not forsake you. I testify that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. He is our strength, our Redeemer, our hope. If we trust Him, He will make our spiritual power equal to every trial we are called to bear. I so testify in the sacred name of Jesus Christ, amen.

How can you apply the principles of President Eyring’s talk in your life?

NB: Passages in italics are direct quotes from President Eyring’s talk.

You can watch President Eyring’s talk here.

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