MOVING MOUNTAINS

I have had some wonderful spiritual experiences over the last couple of weeks. Starting a week ago Saturday with a funeral, then we had three of our Ward members go into the hospital, and other requests from three very ill people ask for Priesthood Blessings - one YW and two nonmembers. We had three convert baptisms and interviews for 4 eight year old baptisms. Then the 5th Sunday/3rd hour presentation on "Becoming a Zion People" and the fifth Sunday fireside. It has been quite a spiritually rewarding time.

In the middle of it all came our last Mutual night, and I had several appointments including annual youth interviews for two of our YW. I was pretty spent and hadn't prepared as well as I would have liked to be. But it's here that I wanted to share a wonderfully sweet moment where the Spirit gave me some wonderful insights.

For the first YW, one of our Beehives with a faithfully strong testimony, the Spirit prompted me to start this interview with this question: "What is your favorite scripture?" Her reply took me back some when she said, "Well, I have several!" Wow! I couldn't wait to hear some of them and why they were meaningful to her!

She said that her first one was John 14:15, "If ye love me, keep my commandments." So I asked her why and we had a great conversation about that scripture. Then I asked her about one of her other favorite scriptures and she responded with, "...it's one in a book that starts with "M"... and it's the one about 'if we had the faith of a mustard seed, we could move mountains'." We then discussed that verse and why it was special to her. 

I asked her if she knew anybody that had enough faith -- a mustard seed portion, powerful enough to move a mountain? That puzzled her for a moment. She finally responded that she didn't know anyone that had that much faith. Hmmm.  I asked her if she knew of any current Church leaders that had faith enough to move mountains? Again she thought hard, and said that she didn't think so. I asked her if there was anyone that might be close to having that kind of faith?  (She is getting a gold star for this one!) she thought that maybe the bishopric had that kind of faith. I was touched at her sincerity.

It was here that the windows of heaven opened up and some wonderful inspiration followed. As you know, this is an amazing thing when it happens.  It makes me feel so blessed and reassured that the Lord is so involved in the work of His Kingdom, even down to the individual member level.

The Spirit said this and in turn I vocalized it to her. "Did you ever consider that the 'mountains' spoken about in this verse might be different than the physical mountains we see in the mountain ranges?" She wasn't really following and these words followed, "Have you ever thought about a mountain of despair? Or a mountain of pain? Possibly a mountain of sickness? Or a mountain of loneliness? Maybe a mountain of sin? Or even a mountain of anger?"

She was concentrating on this new idea and I could see the wheels churning in her mind. She said that she hadn't thought about it that way. (I hadn't ever thought about it that way either!) I continued, "Do you think that there are men and women and church leaders that have enough faith to move these other types of mountains?" She responded that she did.

I asked, "What do you think would more difficult to move, a mountain of dirt or a mountain of loneliness or a mountain of sin?"  At first she said that she wasn't sure and we talked about that and about the miracle that happens when people have the faith to move these other kinds of 'mountains'. She said that she thought that it would take a lot of faith to move these other mountains and that she believed that there were people and church leaders that had that kind of faith.. I testified that what she said was true!

The Spirit was strong during this brief meeting, It was a great blessing from the Lord for me, and I believe it was for her as well.

I love this work! Thanks for letting me share.

Mountains of Love, bishop Hughes 

Lake Elsinore, CA | January 11, 2011