Lessons Learned

While finishing up my religion class this year, I was able to read again one of my favorite scriptures. It's in Ether 12 verse 30. It says, "For the brother of Jared said unto the mountain Zerin, Remove—and it was removed. And if he had not had faith it would not have moved; wherefore thou workest after men have faith". It isn't the biggest or the most creative scripture, but it speaks to me. Whenever I read it, I'm reminded of a conversion story told to me.

I knew a man named Nikki. His life wasn't going as well as he had planned and he knew it was time for a change. He was doing great financially, socially, and status wise but he craved for something more. Then he met my friend Kash. Kash was able to introduce him to the gospel and help Nikki fill the void in his life.

This process wasn't an easy one. Nikki soaked up the doctrine and the principles of the gospel, but he had a problem giving up certain things in order to be baptized. He tried and tried, but just couldn't kick these actions. He even thought he had successful repented multiple times and had been interviewed by the mission president four or five times and received permission to get baptized.

After one of these interviews (the second to last) Nikki got frustrated. He felt like quitting and that maybe this gospel wasn't for him. Then Kash shared Ether 12:30 with him on a whim. After Nikki read the verse, Kash said nothing. He just looked at Nikki. After a brief silence, Nikki asked Kash if he was testing his faith. To that Kash responded "Yes". That was all it took. Nikki had to realize that he did have the faith, he simply needed to act on it. Like the brother of Jared, he was able to tell his mountain to move and it moved.

You and mean have mountains in our own lives, and through the gospel and our faith, we can move them. Many will be hard, like in Nikki's case. But we can move them nonetheless. Let us put our faith in Christ and the God that made us and go about doing good. Our faith will shine and our trials will pass away as we do our Father's business.