Maddy's Baptism

WOWZA. The past few weeks have been SO BUSY and so much has happened. I'm trying to remember everything haha. 

One of the highlights of it all was getting to go on exchanges with my last companion Sister Maughan for a day!! We had SO much fun. We even saw a rainbow and ate at firehouse subs which is one of my favs so it was pretty much the best day of my life. 

Our friend Maddy got baptized on saturday and it was also the best day of my life. Her boyfriend is a member so he got to baptize her and seeing them both in their white outfits was the CUTEST thing. #goals. Maddy could not stop smiling and she was so so happy. 

We are still teaching Debby and she is doing great! We taught her about temples and eternal marriage the other day and showed her the Rome Italy temple tour video and she cried :,) she was so excited to find out that she would be able to be baptized for her mom who has passed away. Still just trying to get her hitched so she can be baptized!!! 

We had a fast and testimony meeting over zoom one sunday and our favorite member from the ward has 2 kids out on missions and he bore his testimony about missionaries. Not about his kids but about US - Sister Palmer and I :,) He was super emotional and it wrecked me. It was the sweetest thing ever. PLEASE BE A FRIEND TO YOUR WARD MISSIONARIES. They need it. The things he said were such an answer to my prayers.

A kid in my district got tested for COVID this week so we had to be quarentined until he got his results back. We were so stressed that we weren't going to be able to go to the baptism but we found out he was covid free like a day before so that was a miracle! 

We got to teach at Zone Conference and we talked about the atonement of jesus christ. I found this story in an ensign article and it really touched me. 

As a young missionary, Elder Orson F. Whitney (1855–1931), who later served in the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, had a dream so powerful that it changed his life forever. He later wrote:

“One night I dreamed … that I was in the Garden of Gethsemane, a witness of the Savior’s agony. … I stood behind a tree in the foreground. … Jesus, with Peter, James, and John, came through a little wicket gate at my right. Leaving the three Apostles there, after telling them to kneel and pray, He passed over to the other side, where He also knelt and prayed … : ‘Oh my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless not as I will but as Thou wilt.’

“As He prayed the tears streamed down His face, which was [turned] toward me. I was so moved at the sight that I wept also, out of pure sympathy with His great sorrow. My whole heart went out to Him. I loved Him with all my soul and longed to be with Him as I longed for nothing else.

"I was perfectly familiar with His appearance—face, form, and movements. He was of noble stature and of majestic mien … the very God that He was and is, yet as meek and lowly as a little child.

“All at once the circumstance seemed to change. … Instead of before, it was after the Crucifixion, and the Savior, with those three Apostles, now stood together in a group at my left. They were about to depart and ascend into heaven. I could endure it no longer. I ran from behind the tree, fell at His feet, clasped Him around the knees, and begged Him to take me with Him.

“I shall never forget the kind and gentle manner in which He stooped and raised me up and embraced me. It was so vivid, so real that I felt the very warmth of His bosom against which I rested. Then He said: ‘No, my son; these have finished their work, and they may go with me; but you must stay and finish yours.’ Still I clung to Him. Gazing up into His face—for He was taller than I—I besought Him most earnestly: ‘Well, promise me that I will come to You at the last.’ He smiled sweetly and tenderly and replied: ‘That will depend entirely upon yourself.’ I awoke with a sob in my throat, and it was morning.”

Jesus Christ has already done his part! He came to the earth and completed all that he was sent here to do. Now we must do our part!! We should use his gift of the atonement that has so freely been given, so that we CAN make it back to him at the last. It is up to us. I am so grateful that for me a sinner, he suffered, he bled, and died. It is WONDERFUL that he should care for me enough to die for me. And for each one of YOU. 

I love you
I miss you
I pray for you!

Phoebe kay