In ancient times, in the absence of a temple, the Lord’s prophets might summit a mountain to find a holy place to commune with him. The example that often comes to mind is Moses receiving the commandments upon Mount Sinai (Exodus 19:18–20). Abraham and Isaac climbed a mountain to perform the sacrifice the Lord had directed them to (Genesis 22:2). In the Book of Mormon, we read of two other prophets who conversed with the Lord atop mountains: Nephi when he needed directions how to keep the Lord’s commandment to build a ship (1 Nephi 17:7), and the brother of Jared when he required help with some logistics of his own journey (Ether 3:1). Jesus Himself climbed mountains to pray (for example, in Matthew 14:23).

Language is a fascinating concept to me. Both concrete objects and abstract ideas are represented by combinations of sounds we make with our mouths. Very small children begin to learn it before they can learn many other things. A linguistics professor I took a couple classes from in college believed that language is the only thing that sets humans apart from animals—so for him, it was significant.

Of course, the gospel of Jesus Christ teaches us that there’s much more than the capacity for speech that sets humankind apart.