Initiative in faith

What a week. Where do I start?

Oh! I have been called as a trainer! We have two new ASL sisters coming into the program on June 30th, and I will be training one of them. Their names are Sister Richardson and Sister Clarke. And here's the tricky part: They are both redheads!!! Yeah, I am still processing that.

On Monday, our lovely Boss family (Peggie, and her daughter Bonnie who is autistic, and Tim who is Bonnie's husband) decided to take the four of us north missionaries out to dinner. At Outback. Wow! So that was fun! We love asking Peggie about her late husband, Mort, because she gets the biggest smile on her face. It is so sweet how much those two loved each other.

Tuesday we taught Adela. She is a blue box signer who has been taught for several years now. We were getting a little tired of her refusing to read the Book of Mormon, so in our lesson we basically told her, "Adela, you are now assigned to read Chapter 1 of the Book of Mormon. We will come in Tuesday next week at 2pm. If you say you have read the chapter, we will come visit you again. If you say you have not read the chapter, we are not coming back again." So we will see what happens tomorrow! She is such a sweet woman, who NEEDS the light of the gospel in her life, but she refuses to do the work for it.

I would like to compare Adela's example to the example of Rosalia's. Rosalia has been reading the Book of Mormon of her own accord every single day. She has been praying about it on her own without us ever having started encouraging her. If she doesn't understand the word she is reading, she compares the scripture to the ASL Book of Mormon. If she still does not understand, she highlights the word and asks us the next time she sees us to explain. She understands the importance of bearing testimony and gaining knowledge. When we taught her Word of Wisdom, she recognized the importance and decided right then and there to follow that commandment.

The difference between Adela and Rosalia is their initiative. They both understand the importance of the Book of Mormon, but only one takes the initiative to act. Nothing in the gospel happens unless we act. Preach My Gospel says, "Faith in Christ leads to action... Having faith causes us to try as hard as we can to learn about and become more like our Savior. We want to learn what His commandments are and then obey them." James 2:26 says, "...faith without works is dead." If we don't act on the commandments of God, we do not have faith. But as we act on the commandments given to us, "He blesses us. He gives us the power to meet life's challenges. He helps us change the desires of our hearts. Through our faith in Jesus Christ, He can heal us, both physically and spiritually." Who does not want to be healed both physically and spiritually? I have a testimony that as we obey the commandments, we allow Christ to heal us. I have a personal witness of the peace and joy we can feel as we allow the atonement to take part in our lives and heal us.

Sister Crawford