President Eyring listed 5 characteristics that great learners have obtained

1.      Welcoming Correction. “The desire to receive wise correction is a hallmark of a learner and of a community of learners”… it “comes naturally to a Latter-day Saint who knows and values what it means to be a child of God”, Eyring stated. Eyring also said… “We know he has placed servants to offer us both his covenants and his correction. We see the giving and the taking of correction as priceless and sacred”.

2.      Keeping Commitments. Eyring says, “Any community functions better when people in it keep their promises to live up to its accepted standards…And what all great learners have is a deep appreciation for finding better rules and a commitment to keeping them. That is why great learners are careful about what commitments they make and then keeping them. The Latter-day Saints who see themselves in all they do as children of God take naturally to making and keeping commitments. The plan of salvation is marked by covenants. We promise to obey commandments. In return, God promises blessings in this life and for eternity. He is exact in what he requires, and he is perfect in keeping his word… When we try with all our hearts to meet his standards, he gives us the companionship of the Holy Ghost. That in turn both increases our power to keep commitments and to discern what is good and true”.

3.      Hard Working. Eyring said, “When people quit working they quit learning… You will notice that the learners who can sustain that power to work hard over a lifetime generally don’t do it for grades or to make tenure in a university or for prizes in the world… For the child of God who has enough faith in the plan of salvation to treat it as reality, hard work is the only reasonable option”. He then stated, “God our Father has offered us everything he has and asks only that we give him all we have to give. That is an exchange so imbalanced in our favor that no effort would be too much and no hours too long in service to him, to the Savior, and to our Father’s children. Hard work is the natural result of simply knowing and believing what it means to be a child of God”.

4.      Helping Other People. “Those who can’t suffer fools gladly become more foolish themselves… Those who learn best seem to see that everyone they meet knows something they don’t and may have a capacity they don’t have”, Eyring wrote. He then said, “Every person they will ever meet is a child of God… Every person they meet, whatever their condition in this life, has been redeemed by the loving sacrifice of the Savior of the world… Sometimes the greatest kindness we could receive would be to have someone expect more from us than we do, because they see more clearly our divine heritage”.

5.      Accepting Resistance and Overcoming It. Eyring said, “Failure was an application of the rule of learning, not an exception to it… the great learner expects difficulty as part of learning and is determined to work through it…the greater the test, the greater the compliment from a loving Heavenly Father”

Lastly Eyring wrote, “The way to grow in the faith that we are the children of our Heavenly Father is to act like it. The time to start is now. Keeping commandments increases the power to keep other commandments. If we act upon that plan as we should, it will allow us to claim eternal life, which is our inheritance”.