President Monson spoke of one pioneer couple, Catherine Curtis Spencer and her husband, Orson, who were leaving Nauvoo to travel across the plains. Catherine became sick on the journey, and when Orson wrote to her parents, asking if she could come back to Boston to stay with them while he established a home in the West, they refused. Her parents replied that if she would renounce her faith, then, and only then, could she come back to their home.

After hearing of their response, Catherine asked her husband to read from the Bible in Ruth 1:16: "Intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee; for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God."

Catherine died on the plains, having refused to abandon her faith.

"Though we may not necessarily forfeit our lives in service to our God, we can certainly demonstrate our love for Him by how well we serve Him," President Monson said.

As individuals choose friends with caution, plan for the future with purpose and frame life with faith, they will have the gift of the Holy Spirit, a perfect brightness of hope and the blessings of the Lord throughout their life, President Monson said.

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