In which Sam's parents are impressed

Last night, our friend Michai was here for scripture study. We usually read 1 page of the Book of Mormon a night, going around the room taking turns reading a verse each. We couldn't think off the top of our heads of any better way to do it with a Deaf person joining us, so we just did the same thing, but translating to ASL. Obviously, our translations were not beautiful, but everyone was reading along in their scriptures anyway, so it didn't matter too much :)

There was one part that sort of blew us away though. Sam is 5, and he's a pretty darn good reader for his age. But when we got to Sam's turn, he didn't pause a second, just signed his scripture like everyone else.

Now they did not suppose that salvation came by the law of Moses; but the law of Moses did serve to strengthen their faith in Christ; and thus they did retain a hope through faith, unto eternal salvation, relying upon the spirit of prophecy, which spake of those things to come.

Michai said, "Wait - he can read?" I helped him with the signs for Moses and salvation.

Sam has a bit of a hot temper, and a bunch of really bright big brothers and sisters, so I think that sometimes I don't think of  him as the smart one in the family. But I've changed my mind. Anyone who reads and translates scriptures at 5 is a pretty smart cookie!

We've been doing a project (that I might write more about later) to learn ASL better where we watch a little movie every day, then report on it at dinner time in ASL. Yesterday, Sam started telling us about this movie he'd watched about volcanoes. He went on for 5 minutes, explaining all about the explosions and the airplanes flying around them, and lots of other things I can't remember. Interestingly, Sam didn't watch any movie about volcanoes, I don't know where he got this all from. Well, no, I do - he was having fun storytelling. And it was good storytelling, too!

Poor Sam, I really do get caught up in his behavior issues and forget what a smart and creative boy he is sometimes. I'm thankful that sometimes Heavenly Father opens our eyes and lets us see our children the way He sees them.