Dear Gramps,

In the past I have always tried to do things to make life better for myself and those around me. But it really disheartens me hearing the Mormon Church leaders say that things are only going to get worse on earth. If this is true, then why should we even bother trying to make things better? It seems to me like it’s only a lost cause.

Chuck, from Spartanburg, South Carolina

Dear Chuck,

It’s true that things are only going to get worse before they get better. But it’s far from a lost cause, unless people like yourself give up and quite trying to maintain righteousness in the face of so much wickedness. Remember the scripture that says,

It has been prophesied that wickedness will reign in the last days, and will increase until the Lord Himself comes to put an end to it all. Another scripture says this— 

There was another time when gross wickedness covered the land and actually overcame the forces of righteousness. It was the time near 400 AD when the Lamanites overcame the Nephites in a long war, and destroyed them all. The leader of the Nephite army was the prophet warrior, Mormon. He made the following lament—  

We should be like Mormon and do all that we can to further the cause of righteousness even though wickedness is mounting all around us. Those who falter and join the cause of the enemy will be destroyed, because the Lord and his army of the righteousness will without any doubt at all be triumphant in this last great struggle. The forces of evil will be put down in the Lord’s own time; the forces of righteousness will prevail and will usher in an era of peace that will last a thousand years. During that time conditions described in the following scripture will obtain— 

Gramps