Women are pretty amazing, I have to say. Men might think they are all that (okay, maybe some of them are), but women have strength that isn’t evident in their appearance, and they often don’t even know what they are capable of themselves. It’s a wonderful surprise.
I’ve been reading Women’s Voices by Kenneth and Audrey Godfrey and Jill Derr. It is full of stories of women who sacrificed beyond what they thought themselves capable. It is a record of our own possibilities.
Sarah Studevant Leavitt—She and her husband, Jeremiah believed in the Book of Mormon right away. She received visions of the spreading of the gospel and her faith was strong. One day, her aunts came in back-talking, because they hadn’t been invited to a quilting. Sarah sat silent against their angry words. Upon noticing, they asked her what she thought. “I told them I didn’t know or care anything about it, all I cared for was to know and do the will of God. ” She told them of the recent vision she had seen and they received it with joy. They spread the news to the neighborhood and a change came over everyone as they “cried to Him for mercy”.
I often wonder just how bold Enoch and his people had to be to change the hearts of one of the most wicked cities in the world.
Mary Ann Weston Maughan—Mary Ann was in England when she first heard the gospel preached. “My relatives did not obey the gospel and this made me sorrowfull and lonely.” Her husband was beaten by a mob and died shortly after. “The last and hardest triel was to take leave of my Father, Mother, Brothers, and Sisters. Now I had left all and was traviling alone to a land unknown to me, but I had cast my lot with the people of God and in him I put my trust.”
Jean Rio Griffiths Baker—After the death of her husband, Jean set out to Zion with her seven children. Her youngest became sick aboard the ship and passed away. “At half past 5pm my little Josiah breathed his last. He had sank rapidly since last Tuesday, when he practically lost his speech. I did not think his death was so near, though when witnessing his sufferings, I prayed that the Lord would shorten them. He has done so, and my much beloved child is in the land of the spirits awaiting the morning of Resurrection, to again take possession of a tabernacle, purified and fitted to enter the presence of the Great Eternal, in the Celestial Kingdom.”
Patience Loader—When Patience’s parents joined the church, she refused to follow them because she liked fun and thought religion was “long-faced” and boring. Eventually, she retracted her words, joined the church and traveled west, to Zion. She was a survivor of the Martin Company. “When we was in the midle of the river I saw a poor brother carrying his child on his back. He fell down in the water. I never knew if he was drowned or not. I fealt sorrey that we could not help him but we had all we could do to save our ownselvs from drownding. That night we had no dry cloth to put on after we got out of the water. We had to make the best of our poor cercumstances and put our trust in God our father that we may take no harm from our wett cloths.” As the story goes, we know they were rescued near Devil’s Gate. “It seemed that if God our Father had not sent help to us that we must all have perished and died in a short time for at that time we had only very little proveseans left and at the request of Br Martin we had come on four ounces of flour a day for each one to make the flour last us as long he could.” “My Sister Mrs. Jaques dear little two years old girl died near Fort Bridger. She rapt her in a blanket on quilt and fetched her into Salt L City. I well remember that when we campt in Echo Canyon that Sister Squires was confined in the morning. She had a lovely baby girl and thay named her Echo.”
Strength comes from faith. We are all more than we think we are. Our trials can be great, but it is the gospel that brings us peace to endure to the end.