Faith and Tenacity

Faith and Tenacity

Faith and Tenacity
Mormon History Related

"On a spring morning in 1854, the McNeil family stood by the sea to watch eight-year-old Margaret be baptized. It was so early that they had carried a lantern on their walk from the little village of Tranent, Scotland. The water was chilly as Margaret stepped into the sea with her father." 'As I came up out of the water,' she later wrote, 'the day was just beginning to dawn and the light to creep over the eastern hills. It was a very beautiful sight, one that I shall never forget. At this time I was filled with a sweet heavenly spirit which has remained with me to this day.' (Autobiography of Margaret McNeil Ballard, pp. 1?2.)"More than a century and a quarter later, I, too, feel something of that heavenly spirit whenever I read about my great-grandmother Margaret McNeil Ballard, whose faith and tenacity have brought eternal blessings to me and others of her posterity."Several years after she was baptized, Margaret and her family emigrated to be with the Saints. They joined a wagon company and settled in Cache Valley, where Margaret married Henry Ballard. Margaret was Relief Society president for thirty years; Henry was bishop for thirty-nine."
-- M. Russell Ballard, "Margaret McNeil Ballard's Legacy of Faith," Ensign, July 1989, 16