Faith by Natasha

“Faith is a precious gift, that when one practices it, it can work miracles. As our Bible Dictionary suggest, often ‘faith is kindled by hearing the testimony of those who have faith’ (Bible Dictionary, “Faith,” 669). We need to strengthen and nourish our faith by exercising it and allowing ourselves to believe.” (Natasha Singh)

It was a cold winter’s evening in a small town called Stanger in the beautiful country of South Africa. Due to the dark, cold weather all form of life seemed to be hidden. The town remained quiet and dormant - not a sound was to be heard. Even though that one day was cold, dark and bitter, it has brought my family and I warmth, light and joy for an eternity. It was approximately 14 years ago, when my little sister, Nikita, and I impatiently squealed indoors hoping for the cold weather to die off, so that we could blissfully explore the adventures that awaited us outdoors. As we sympathetically tried to convince our beautiful mom to send us outdoors, we were interrupted by the gentle, yet persistent knock on our front door. “Who could possibly be roaming outside in such cold weather?” said mom. When my mom opened the door, she did not realize, at the time, that she was not just opening a kitchen door, but that she was opening a door that lead to a “new beginning” of a better way of life. Nikita and I shyly hid behind my mother, as we vaguely saw two young men with white shirts and name tags, that through the dark cold, had the brightest smile on their faces. How was our life to change? Why were these two young men prompted to knock on our door?

“…if ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible to you.” [1] These two young men may have been prompted to come to our home, but what they may have not known is that, at that time, my mother and father had a great desire to find a religion that had true meaning and substance. They had tried everything and felt that there was nowhere else to look, but they still had a seed of desire planted within them. It was these two missionaries whom radiated a speck of light onto this seed in order to begin growth. My parents were taught the Gospel discussions and this “mustard seed” had taken on the second stage of its life. The process of faith. What is faith?

“And now as I said concerning faith - faith is not to have a perfect knowledge of things; therefore if ye have faith ye hope for things which are not seen, which are true.” [2] Even though my parents did not know everything about the Gospel, they were being taught. When asked to pray to know for themselves whether the Church was true, my parents did not have a perfect knowledge of everything, but they prayed with hope, believing that God would give them an answer. They displayed faith and their prayers were answered.

"The Prophet Joseph was truly blessed with the ability to inspire faith. One bright morning Joseph walked up to John E. Page and said, 'Brother John, the Lord is calling you on a mission to Canada.'
"John E. Page was rather astonished and said, 'Why, Brother Joseph, I can't go on a mission to Canada. I don't even have a coat to wear.'
"The Prophet Joseph took his own coat from his back, handed it to John Page, and said, 'Here, John, wear this, and the Lord will bless you.' Brother Page took the coat, went to Canada, and in two years walked 5,000 miles and baptized 600 souls, because he trusted in the words of a prophet of God." [3]
Due to the exceedingly great faith displayed by Brother John, he was able to help bring many of our Heavenly Father’s children to the “fold”. This story reminds me of a my favorite group hero’s in Book of Mormon. “And they were all young men, and they were exceedingly valiant for courage, and also for strength and activity; but behold, this was not all - they were men who were true at all times in whatsoever thing they were entrusted. Yea, they were men of truth and soberness, for they had been taught to keep the commandments of God and to walk uprightly before Him.”[4]
These valiant young men had never taken up weapons of war before, yet their faith in the Lord was so complete that “there had not one soul of them fallen to the earth”.

“Faith” is a broad topic that lays the foundation of a bright future, which brings me to my concluding point. We often speak of faith and having faith, but faith in who? “We believe the first principles and ordinances of the Gospel are faith in the Lord Jesus Christ…”[5] We need to have faith in our Savior. I believe that everyone has faith. Just as one would water and nurture a seed to see it grow into a beautiful plant, so too, we need to build on our faith by exercising it and feeding it with spiritual nourishment like prayer and diligent scripture study in order to have it grow from just faith to a “perfect knowledge”.


"Before the world was, the gospel was central to God's eternal plan. It is an everlasting gospel--now restored in its fulness. With such a foundation, this Church will not be moved from its place, even through the Millennium. The gospel of Jesus Christ is a sure foundation upon which we can build our individual faith. Some of us are weak; some are strong. We can waffle 'like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed' (James 1:6), or we can anchor ourselves with cords of spiritual steel, rooted and grounded to the eternal truths of the gospel.”[6] I end with the wise words of Elder Russell M. Nelson and bear testimony that I know our Savior Jesus Christ suffered and died for my sins as well as yours. I know that He now lives. I know that if we put our complete trust in Him and lean not upon our own understanding, He will lift us up and help us overcome all our trials. I have always wanted to attend BYU, but many stumbling blocks were placed along my path that tried to prevent me from doing what I knew the Lord wants me to do, but I realized that I needed to put complete trust in the Lord and have exceedingly great faith. It was only when I did this, did everything work out! Never fear, fear is a lack of faith. It is impossible to have both fear and faith.