Called With a Holy Calling

In his recent talk in general conference, Elder Hans T. Boom spoke about a painting he found in the Nashville Tennessee Temple. He said, “I was especially impressed with the painting of Mary Wanlass called Carry On hanging on the wall in the office of the matron. This is the story behind the painting: ‘In Missouri in 1862, the 14-year-old Mary Wanlass promised her dying stepmother that she would see to it that her disabled father [and her four much younger siblings would all make] it to the Valley of the Great Salt Lake. … Mary drove the oxen and milk cows that pulled the wagon, in which her father [was bedridden, and] she cared for her … siblings. After each day’s journey, she fed the family by foraging edible plants, flowers, and berries. Her only compass was the instruction she had received to keep traveling west “until the clouds become mountains.” They reached [the] Utah Valley in September, having traveled all spring and summer. Her father died not long after the family settled in Utah County, where Mary later married and raised her [own] family.’” The painting can be seen online here and I was even more impressed as I read the whole story: she did not travel with the Mormon pioneers but made her way first with another company on the Oregon trail and then completely alone. She had no directions and was the one to find food for her father and younger siblings every day. Having a daughter about that age, that burden for someone that young seems too heavy to bear, but she did it and made it to the valley. The scripture on the painting’s website captures I think the way that she made such a journey: “But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint” (Isaiah 40:31). The Lord renewed her strength—and that of so many other pioneers—so they could walk (hundreds of miles) and not faint.

            I have to wonder if occasionally, as young Mary Wanlass struggled to take care of her father and siblings, she asked why she had been given such a trial. She must have wondered why the Lord had put her in that difficult situation with no end in sight as she walked mile after mile and struggled every day to find food to feed the family. And yet, like Esther, we could say of her, “[She was] come to the [place] for such a time as [that]” (Esther 4:14). Each of us will surely face difficulties that we would not choose and yet that the Lord has prepared for us to meet. My mom once suggested to me that if we sat in a circle with our neighbors and all put our package of problems in the middle of the circle, free to choose another package if we wanted, we would all end up taking back our own. I think there is truth to that—the Lord has prepared us to face our specific challenges, especially the ones we think we do not want, and deep down we know which ones are for us. And who knows what we may have agreed to accept in the premortal world as our unique challenges in mortality. I remember a good friend telling me of a strong spiritual impression he had that his sister, who faced severe physical challenges, had agreed before coming to earth to have that trial. Elder Maxwell once quoted these words of a French author, Marcel Proust, giving credence to this idea: “Everything in our life happens as though we entered upon it with a load of obligations contracted in a previous existence … obligations whose sanction is not of this present life, [which] seem to belong to a different world, founded on kindness, scruples, sacrifice, a world entirely different from this one, a world whence we emerge to be born on this earth, before returning thither.” Perhaps the words of Alma to the people of Ammonihah can be understood to apply to more than just priesthood foreordination: “And this is the manner after which they were ordained—being called and prepared from the foundation of the world according to the foreknowledge of God, on account of their exceeding faith and good works; in the first place being left to choose good or evil; therefore they having chosen good, and exercising exceedingly great faith, are called with a holy calling, yea, with that holy calling which was prepared with, and according to, a preparatory redemption for such” (Alma 13:3). Those who proved faithful there may have been given callings here that involve the very trials they now struggle through.

            Elder Boom summarized his message with these words of encouragement: “Let us all continue in our efforts to get to know our Savior, Jesus Christ, better and to make Him the center of our lives. He is the rock upon which we must build so that when times become difficult, we will be able to stand firm.” No matter what the unique challenges we face, we can trust that the Savior will prepare a way for us to make it through as we trust in Him. Whatever we may have agreed to in the premortal life, one thing is sure: the Savior “was prepared from the foundation of the world to redeem [His] people” and gives us this promise in all of our struggles: “I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness” (Isaiah 41:10).