I am Montana-born and raised, and it is in my very blood. Most people from Montana never leave it, even if they move thousands of miles away. I love the trees, the grass, the smells, the green, and of course the protection of the massive mountains. I miss it. I now live in the desert. Which has taken me a lot of time to get used to. I kept looking for Montana here. I have learned to appreciate the beauty of the cactus and red rock. But Montana will always be home.
Life, fraught with trials as it is, has some of it’s own mountains — foreboding ones. I was recently reading President Hinkley’s conference message “faith to move mountains,” (Ensign, 2007). It’s a beautiful talk — timely, I think, with all that is going on in the world right now. So many of my friends and family have mountains to move right now. It is requiring so much faith. I loved this part of the talk especially:
“Now permit me to diverge from this narrative to say that when I was engaged to marry my wife, I gave her a ring. When we were married, I gave her a wedding band. She wore them for years. Then one day I noticed that she had taken them off and was wearing this little gold wedding band. It had belonged to her grandmother. The ring had been given her by her husband, George. The ring was the only thing he left in this life. One day in the spring, Martha was housecleaning. She brought all of the furnishings out to give the house a thorough cleaning. Upon shaking the straw from the mattress, she looked down, and the ring was gone. She looked everywhere most carefully. It was the only physical remembrance of her beloved husband. She raked through the straw with her fingers but could not find the ring. Tears fell from her eyes. She went to her knees and prayed that the Lord would help her to find the ring. When she opened her eyes, she looked down and there it was.
Now I hold it in my hand. It is too small for all of you to see. It is 18 karat gold, old and scarred and bent. But it represents faith, the faith of a widow who pleaded with the Lord in her extremity. Such faith is the wellspring of activity. It is the root of hope and trust. It is this simple faith that all of us so much need.
In the on-working of this great cause, increased faith is what we most need. Without it, the work would stagnate. With it, no one can stop its progress.
Said the Savior, ‘If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you’ (Matthew 17:20).”
The ring, being so special to that sister, did not go unnoticed by our Heavenly Father. Finding it was not a life or death matter, but still an intimate need for that sister. Our Father knows each of us and loves us — every hair on our head. We can develop faith to take us through all of the trials of our life. We are not alone. We have the ability to move mountains.
Talk to you soon,
Sherri Schatz
