Dear Matt,
How are you? Thanks for your letter. Guess what? I got a text at camp (which is a miracle of itself) from Miriam saying that Preston has been ordained an Elder! I was so happy when I heard it, I cried. It scared the other camp leaders because they thought something bad had happened, ha ha. It was the best news I could have possibly received. I am so proud of Preston! Heavenly Father has really blessed us, Matt. Preston graduated from training on Friday, and Miriam sent us a picture of him. I can’t figure out how to send it to you, but I asked Miriam to do it. I hope she does.
Hi, I bet you didn’t expect to hear from us today. I didn’t know exactly how things would go for us, so I wasn’t sure if we would be able to write or not. Anyway, we are in Cocoa Beach Florida and it is beautiful! As soon as I got off the plane and walked into the airport, I could smell the difference in the air. I think it was the ocean although we were an hour away from it. Anyway, the drive from the airport to the beach was so beautiful and lush. I slept for part of it, though. We are staying on the beach and this morning we went out on the balcony to see the sunrise. It was only 4:30 our time, so we went back to bed after that.
Our flight was just fine. Dad and I weren’t able to sit by each other at first and that was not fun. I was super tired and dozed off a lot, but couldn’t stay asleep because I was wedged between 2 people with nowhere to rest my head. The second half, Dad sat by the window so he could rest his head on it and I slept on his shoulder. I got some nice sleep. I knew that we should talk to the guy next to us, but I didn’t want to. Then I thought about how much Heavenly Father loves him and how much I have been blessed and realized how unthankful I would be to Heavenly Father if I didn’t do what He wants me to. I turned to him and asked him if he lived in Orlando, and he started talking. He was a real interesting guy who has done a kajillion things including some things where we live. He said he loves Mormons and asked if we were Mormons. We had a nice conversation with the man and he thanked us for starting the conversation. Nothing beats the feeling that comes from pleasing the Lord!
It was sure nice to finally get to the hotel and eat dinner because we sort of skipped lunch, ha ha. Dad ate a full rack of pork ribs at dinner. He gave me one and they were so good, I couldn’t blame him. I wanted more, but they were pork, so I just ate a little.
From Monday to Thursday morning I was at girl’s camp. We leaders went up Monday afternoon, but the girls didn’t come up till Tuesday which means we had a nice relaxing time settling in and setting up. It was really fun, and we talked and giggled at bedtime. The next day it was work, work, work, but it was fun. Some of the things I was responsible for was helping the youth camp leaders over the second year girls help their girls make journals, giving a devotional, helping the “drops of awesome” committee make a banner, doing an “mtc” class, taking the second years and their ycl’s on a hike, and doing another devotional.
The journal activity was insane, but we got through it, ha ha. For my devotional, Sister Melton wanted me to talk about how life is a journey, and our destination is eternal life, so I wrote a song to the tune of Gilligan’s Island, and we in the Young Women’s presidency sang it with sailor hats on and then I quickly wrapped it up with my testimony. I was surprised how many people came up to me and said they loved it. The banner was so cute, the girls made it look like a pirate map with burned edges and Islands on the map to represent each day. We got it up, but it was hard work to keep it up—it kept wanting to fall down. The hike was beautiful and, by the time we’d stopped and pondered and written in our journals a couple of times the way the ycl’s planned, it ended up being pretty short. It was a good experience, though. For the MTC class I talked about the characteristics of Christ, basing the lesson on Elder Bednar’s talk, “Characteristics of Christ.” I think it went well.
The last devotional I was supposed to do, had for the theme, “Rise to the Rock,” the rock being Jesus Christ, and Jon gave it for me. He did a great job. Lots of people came up to him afterwards to tell him how great he did. It was awesome! He also drove me home. It was the perfect way to end a wonderful girl’s camp.
Dad was waiting when I got home—he was on lunch break. All of the kids besides Jon were gone. Katrina was still at camp, Miriam is at Preston’s graduation, and Thomas is on a camp out. I hope they are all having a wonderful time. It is a nice feeling to know they are all in good places.
I just talked to Jon on the phone and he said that Katrina got home at midnight and that she also threw up last night, so I guess she got home from camp early and sick. I haven’t been able to get a hold of her yet to see how she’s doing. I hope she’s okay, now. Cassandra’s family has also been feeling sick. I got to talk to Lily yesterday and, happily, she sounded like she’s doing pretty good now. She sang “Jesus Wants Me For a Sunbeam to us. She is so cute! She calls me “Grammy.” Isn’t that sweet?
Thanks for your letter, Matt. I am so grateful that you had such a wonderful district meeting. I have been praying and fasting for you, and I am so glad that both your district leader and your zone leader were in tune with the Spirit and could help you feel hope. Hope and joy are an important part of the gospel plan. What good would the gospel be if it didn’t bring us joy? I hope you will be less worried now and more happy.
I am glad that you worked to create your week spiritually before you lived it physically. I am so glad it helped you. I think it is so important to renew my covenants and think of the atonement during the sacrament. I use my morning prayers to ask Heavenly Father’s help in creating my day and week. When I am able to focus on Christ during the Sacrament, it sets a pattern of focusing on Christ throughout the week, whereas if my mind wanders during the sacrament, I find myself straying more from Christ during the week. This is the way that the sacrament spiritually creates the week for me.
I am glad also that you are feeling more courage to obey the Spirit. I have been praying that you would. I am glad you were able to comfort the woman with the baby. I pray always that you will be able to bring the gospel to good people like her because that is where she and everyone will find true happiness. One thing that helps me when I feel afraid to obey the spirit is to ask myself “What are you afraid of?” When I directly face the fear, I usually realize that it is unfounded, and that the real tragedy would come if I ignored the prompting. I love you, Matt. You are an instrument in God’s hands. He loves you. Write down what you learned about hope so that you can refer to it when you need your hope renewed. I love you so much!
Love,
Mom
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