Turning Tragedy into Victory

Our trials may seem senseless, but by transforming them from tragedy into victory, we can find inherent meaning.

My life has taken many unexpected turns, often as a result of sudden challenges. One of my toughest moments was when I started my full-time proselytizing mission in March of 2020—just ten days before the world shut down due to COVID-19. This led to a whirlwind of experiences: I was sent to my mission after ten days of training, then sent home, quarantined, temporarily released, and finally sent back into the mission field three months after I was supposed to have started.

Throughout the whole experience, I was taxed emotionally, physically, and spiritually. However, these challenges have positively shaped me and my life in the five years since. Without those difficult experiences, I would have never met the people who taught me important lessons about both the gospel and myself. I would have never learned valuable truths about the power of prayer and trusting in the Lord’s timing.

While trials sometimes turn our lives upside down, they can also shed new light as we turn to God. As Dr. Jennifer B. Nielson says in her BYU devotional “Experiment and Experience,” “when we find ourselves in a horrible experience, because of either our own bad choices or the decisions of others, we can learn to turn tragedy into victory by using the Atonement [of Jesus Christ].” His Atonement makes it possible for each of us to find meaning and power in our personal tragedies. 

One way to do this is by developing a growth mindset, which Nielson says is  “see[ing] yourself more as a work in progress who will improve with time and effort.” This has helped me recognize that my trials can always change me for the better.

In our darkest moments, the Lord says to each of us, as he did to Joseph Smith in Liberty Jail, “all these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good” (Doctrine and Covenants 122:7). To turn our personal tragedies into victories, just as I did with my challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic, we must turn to the Savior for help. As we allow the Savior to guide us to victory, only then can we become who we are meant to be.

To learn more about how to turn personal tragedy into victory, see Jennifer B. Nielson’s full talk “Experiment and Experience.”

Source: BYU Speeches

—Megan McGee, Latter-day Saint Insights

FEATURE IMAGE BY JONNY GIOS

Find more insights 

Take a look at Shaelyn Topolovec’s article “Embracing Our Forever Trials” to understand how we can embrace whatever trials may come our way.

Read Elizabeth Gallacher’s article “Pulling Life’s Weeds by Facing Trials” to learn more about our ability to face trials.