Why Pain and Suffering?

     If God loves us, why does he allow is to suffer through pain and sorrow? This is a question I have heard many times while serving as a full-time missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Here are some of the answers I have found during my service and throughout my life so far.
     One of the things that pain and sorrow does for us is that it allows us to grow. Much like working out breaks down our muscles and makes them sore, trials and hardships can be taxing to us spiritually. However, when we work through those trying times, our spiritual selves will come out on top, and we will be stronger than ever before. It is analogous to the way our muscles rebuild themselves after an intense workout. No pain, no gain, as the saying goes.
     "Nevertheless the Lord seeth fit to chasten his people; yea, he trieth their patience and their faith.
     Nevertheless—whosoever putteth his trust in him the same shall be lifted up at the last day. Yea, and thus it was with this people." (Mosiah 23:21-22.)
     Another thing, I don't necessarily think that people are inherently evil, there are just those people who don't understand what the Gospel of Jesus Christ is all about. Needless to say, bad things do happen to good people. These "bad people", for lack of a better term, when wronged, need to have their revenge. If God was to make sure nothing bad ever happened to us that would mean He would have to stop all of the "bad people" from doing bad things. If God was to do that, He would be taking away our agency, which is the freedom to choose. When people do bad things, they are accountable for what they did. If God was to stop them from doing anything, then how could He punish them; they didn't do anything wrong. Thus, good people have to go through the pains and sorrows caused by the wickedness of others.
     Finally, there must be opposition in ALL things. We cannot experience happiness without knowing what it is like to be sad. If life was all puppy dogs and biscuits, we would take it for granted very quickly. We would simply exist in a state of limbo, going around our lives in a rather pointless existence, for without pain and sorrow, neither would there be any happiness. I like to think of it this way. Imagine the tastiest cookie you have ever eaten. If that was the only cookie you ever had, you would expect all cookies to taste like that and it would be nothing special. It takes eating something like a salty cookie, which is clearly nowhere as delicious, to realize how delicious that first cookie actually was.
     I have found that it is easier to just accept the trials God places before me and ask Him for the help that He is always willing to give us. We can get through our hard times if we just trust in God and rely on the fact that He knows what He is doing.