After almost 31 years of marriage Maxine Rasmussen’s husband, Moon, was taken from her in an instant.  His death was devastating.  Through the grief, Sister Rasmussen found a beacon of hope in a beautiful diamond ring that he had given her on their 25^th wedding anniversary.

In a world that seemed as if “the sun had dimmed,” the ring acted as a reminder of her dear husband, she said.

Grief nearly overtook Sister Rasmussen when one day she found that the diamond that usually rested in her beautiful anniversary ring was gone.  Hours of searching proved useless.

Four years passed without a single sign of the diamond.  In spite of her deeply rooted knowledge of the gospel, temple marriage, and the plan of salvation, Sister Rasmussen felt her faith being tried by the extreme loneliness she felt.

“God, in all his love, must have seen me struggling in my faith and He took pity on me,” she said.  “One night, as I lay asleep…the words, ‘sift the dirt under the kitchen window and you will find your diamond,’ went through my mind.”

In the morning, Sister Rasmussen diligently followed the prompting she had received the night before, only to find a barrier of evergreen shrubs that had grown outside the window, making the dirt outside almost completely inaccessible.

“Two weeks went by and I still couldn’t get [through] the shrubs.  The power of the ‘dream’ was still strong, but I found myself tempted to discount it as nonsense,” Sister Rasmussen said.  “Finally, one day I grabbed the pruners and set to work cutting a path through those shrubs.”

She succeeded in getting through the shrubs but after she sifted multiple piles of dirt, there was still no sign of the diamond.

“The doubting side of my mind told me this was silly.  The faithful side told me the dream was a gift if I would only act in faith,” she said.  She went back to look once more when she saw her diamond in the dirt near the foundation of the window.  “It is strange to us how the Lord works,” she said.  “My trial had turned from the loss of the diamond to a struggling faith in the Lord’s promises….Then Heavenly Father, in all His love and wisdom, used the loss of the diamond as an opportunity to strengthen my faith….I felt God’s love, and my testimony has grown strong that Moon is there waiting for me and we will be together again.”  (Allie Jeppson, Church News, 24 June 2012, pg. 16).