Act on Faith!

I had the privilege to server a mission for my church in Portugal.  I was serving there with 3 other young men from Cape Verde, Africa, Elder Barros, Elder Brazao, and Elder Fernandez.  I was serving in a small town called Pombal.  This was a rural area of homes and villages surrounding a castle.

We used buses and trains to get around to the various villages.  We took a bus out to a member's house that lived far away.  We spent time with the family, had dinner, (if I remember right there were pork products in a soup, one being a pig's ear, still had hair on it).  The mother Rosa drove us to the train station to catch the train.  Well, the train was suppose to stop there at 9:09pm.  Well it was a very small town station and at that hour only me, Elder Barros, Elder Brazao, and Elder Fernandez were there.  It was freezing cold.

The train doesn't show up on time, so we wait.  Soon it was 9:30pm - still no train.  We then start running in place to keep warm.  I told them this was a test of our faith.  The next train will be the one to stop and take us home.  Well, soon after we hear a train coming.  We run out of the station anxiously waiting.  There is a horn and the train passes with hardly even noticing us.  We walk back into the station (the inside of the station was still outside and cold).  By this time Elder Brazao had his shoes off rubbing his feet.  The cold was harder on the Elders from Cape Verde.  They are use to very warm climates, whereas, I'm from Utah and was more accustomed to the colder weather.  Nonetheless, I had been jogging in place for 45 minutes.  I told them again that it is our test of faith.  Don't give up hope.  Within the next 5 minutes, 6 trains pass, not one of them stopping.  We had be waiting there in the freezing cold for over an hour.  Finally, Elder Fernandez said, "Its time to leave and find a taxi."  I said "the next one will stop.  It's a test of our faith.  I know that Christ lives, I don't doubt He lives and I know anything I ask and the Holy Ghost confirms, I will receive.  The part that was missing here in this experience was the confirming of the Holy Ghost.  We found a cafe and called a taxi and arrived at home without any problems.  We could have stayed at that station and froze for another hour or put some effort into finding another way home.  You can have tons of faith by words, but without getting up and doing something about it, forget it.

James 2:14,17

14. What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him?
17. Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.