Theodicy and the purpose of suffering in God's Plan of Happiness

Suffering... 400-500 words on suffering... When I first received this prompt, my first thought was “Ick, suffering's not my favorite.” Nobody likes suffering, but we all endure it. Some endure it well, learning and growing from it, and others endure it poorly, becoming bitter and cynical about the world.
Why does God let us suffer? In today's popular Christian view, God is a loving, merciful creator. God is omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent. Many people see these characteristics as contradictory. They think, “If God is omnipotent, but also loving, why is there sorrow and suffering in the world?” Many of these people conclude that either God does not exist or that he does not love us. What they do not understand is that just as we are bound by the laws of nature (as an example: we can't fall up a hill or fly unaided) God, too is subject to laws, and He gains His power through understanding of and adherence to these laws. If God were to break these laws, He would cease to be God. If there were a way for God to make us like Himself without suffering, He would do it. However, nothing can be created from nothing. It is only through trials and chastisement that we can learn and grow. In fact, D&C 101 states that the saints must be, “chastened and tried, even as Abraham, who was commanded to offer up his only son.” God is still creating us. The whole point of this earthly life is to become more like our Heavenly Father.

Is it worth it? When we lived in Heaven before coming to earth, we knew no sorrow and no grief. However, we still had a lot of room for personal growth. I would submit to you that without a doubt, it is worth it. We will gain everything and lose nothing if we keep faith in Christ and endure to the end.

Through the atonement, pain from suffering can be taken away. Consider the case of Alma the Younger in the Book of Mormon. For Alma to truly change from a young man who tore down the church and persecuted its followers to a disciple of Christ, he needed to understand and feel the “pains of hell”, the consequences that follow any action that is not in tune with Christ's teachings. Alma was in real agony. Was this because God wanted revenge? Did God not love Alma? No. Alma felt this because pain and suffering necessarily follow wickedness. Must Alma suffer for these sins forever? If there were no atonement, since mercy cannot rob justice, the pain of these sins would be felt by Alma for eternity. However, because of the atonement, as soon as Alma turned to Christ, he was delivered from the pain of his sins. He felt joy, “as exceeding as was [his] pain”.

This healing power of the atonement applies to any pain, any sorrow, even those not caused by our own wickedness. In the end, if we give up everything to follow the Lord, we will have lost nothing. Everything will be restored to us. We will be compensated for any suffering we face to align ourselves to God's will. We may suffer, but, as God told Joseph, “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.” (D&C 121:7-8)