Why does God allow evil and suffering to occur?

My assignment this morning was to answer this question from the Book of Mormon.  2 Nephi 2 has always been one of my favorite chapters.  It is the chapter that explains the purpose of Adam and Eve having the option to choose to live in the Garden of Eden forever or to move on with their lives and have experiences.  By moving on, they were also given mortal lives and the opportunity to choose good over evil and to find joy or misery according to their choices.  This chapter also explains quite clearly “the plan” for those who make poor choices and desire to change.  There was a Redeemer, even Jesus Christ, who made intercession for all of those who would believe in him (v9). 

It is important that we experience opposition in this life (v11).  Had we never experiences bad, how could we know to appreciate the good?  This is very pertinent to me today as I just passed my 44^th anniversary of my first marriage – a miserable choice with serious consequences indeed.  There is never a day pass that I don’t thank my Heavenly Father for the opportunity to correct that mistake and live a life more in keeping with His plan for me.  I pondered this morning where I would be had the Atonement not been in place for me.  I shutter to think. 

With the current events in the world today, one wonders why there are so many innocent people who are required to suffer.  The senseless shooting spree last week that caused the death of 20 small children and six adults at the hands of a mentally ill young man in Connecticut last week is just one of many.  Why? We ask.  The Lord answers that very clearly in Alma 14:9-11 when Alma and Amulek are required to watch the slaughters of many righteous people because they chose to believe in the message they gave them.  They would not deny their testimonies and were burned to death.  Those killed were taken back to Heavenly Father.  Their blood stands as a witness against those who killed them.  The Lord allows this kind of suffering so that His judgments “may be just” (v11). 

Alma 60:13 puts it this way: “For the Lord suffereth the righteous to be slain that his justice and judgment may come upon the wicked; therefore ye need not suppose that the righteous are lost because they are slain; but behold, they do enter into the rest of the Lord their God.”  To the believer, this verse brings a great deal of comfort. 

So how would I comfort someone reeling in the senseless death of a righteous loved one?  If the pain were fresh, all I could do at the moment would be to love and comfort them.  Somehow, I would try to explain the Lord has a plan for each of His children and we need to have faith in that plan.  It would be a difficult place to be, but we need to be able to turn to these answers quickly when necessary.  So I guess my order of the day is to ponder these verses, memorize where they are so I can find them quickly and be grateful – ever so grateful, that I know these things are true.