Faith is the power to act

"The future is as bright as your faith”

-Thomas S. Monson

When I say Greenwich is a "small" town I don't really mean it was a small town, but compared to many of the cities around me Greenwich, where I spent most of my life was a SMALL town. One of the things I loved about living in small town was that you got to know people pretty fast. We had one high school so you were bound to end up in the same place. That sometimes had its downsides, but it taught me a lot of things. Growing up I had a couple of good friends that I would consider like family. We all lived down the street from each other and did just about everything with each other. When I was preparing to go on my mission. My friends had a lot of questions about what I was going to do for the next 18 months of my life. Since most of them were not members of the church it was a foreign idea that I would just pick up my things and go. 

I remember one day my friend and I went out on a walk. We attempted to go on a "run" but those always failed because we just ended up talking the whole time. One of the other things that I love the most about where I grew up was how close I was to the water. It was definitely not the Mediterranean Sea or anything, but it worked. We walked to the docks and sat down and continued to talk. We talked about how long and short 18 months was going to be. What was going to happen? As time goes by we tend to ask ourselves that question a lot. Where am I going to be in a year from now? Where am I going to be 5 years from now? Who am I still going to be friends with? What job will I have? What kind of trials will I go through? 

I love President Monson's simple phrase “your future is as bright as your faith" It reminds me that although looking ahead is a good thing that there really is no other way of knowing until I act. It wasn't doing any good talking about what the next 18 months of my life until I actually did something. I had all the control in the world. Of course God already had a plan for me, but I ultimately had to choose my own path. I think in life we tend to wait for the big moments to change or to act. We wait until the last minute to plan or we wait on other people to make decisions for us. One of the biggest things I have been working on being on my mission is having more faith. When I have faith I tend to look at the bigger picture. My outlook expands when I gain more faith and I don't wait and dream what will happen, but I trust the Lord and make things happen. I know that God lives and that he has this amazing plan for us on earth. I know that when we act on that faith we gain more of a glimpse on our specific plan of earth. Do your part and God will do his :)