Sweet Innocence!

Wednesday night I had the special opportunity of sitting in on a missionary lesson for a girl I have known for a LONG time and her roommate.

My friend Christy is actually friends with the girl and a couple weeks ago she called me in pure excitement telling me that Jocelyn was coming over to her house to talk to the missionaries! I was so excited and proud of Christy for taking that step. For years she had invited Jocelyn to mutual and church and she would come every once in while but not often enough to make Christy feel like it was making an impact. Well, we kind of lost contact with her for a couple years. Then somewhere they ran into each other and Jocelyn tells Christy that her and her sister are moving into the same condos Christy lives in! (which are also the same condos my sister lives in!) A few weeks later Jocelyn's friend Becky moved in to the condo with them.

Jocelyn was on the third lesson where they were talking about the Restoration and the missionaries felt it was time to challenge Jocelyn to be baptized. They set the date for April 11th!!! Becky heard this and with tears in her eyes she innocently asked, "Can I be baptized too?" WOW I cannot even imagine the excitment that flooded through those Elders' minds as they recruited Becky. They decided to give Jocelyn some time to read and pray about her decision while they caught Becky up on what she had not been there for.

My brother in law is a ward missionary in that ward so thought it would be a good idea to have the lesson with both girls at his house so they would have a familiar face at church. I was talking to Christy on Tuesday night and she was telling me about this. She quickly told me I should come, that Jocelyn needed as much support as she could get. I thought "hey why not! it is always good to get a little refresher also!"

We met at my sisters at 7:00 and the lesson started. The missionaries did a great job of simplifying the complicated chapter Becky had read the previous week and helping her understand the basics. I was amazed at how sincere her questions were! Alot of times I feel like people continue to take the lessons just to please people around them, but this girl is special! She knows she has found the missing piece in her life! They went into the Restoration with her and explained alot about prophets and why it is so important for us to follow them. After they finished their "speal" they asked her if she had anymore questions. With a little hesitance and with tears in her eyes she said "I have done things in my life that I am not proud of. How do I fix them? How do I repent?" Tears came to my eyes and as I looked at my sister I could see her crying too!

As "life-time members" I think we think too much about things and make them harder than they really are! Here we have an 18 year old girl who has been living a life a pure confusion. Half of her family is catholic, half non-denominational christian...no real structure. And she wants to know the truth. No matter what it takes she is ready to start again! One of the elders told her she was alot like Joseph Smith in that he was confused and wanted the know the truth...chills?? yeah me too.

The missionaries loved this question and explained to her that NO MATTER what she has done in her life, the minute she is dunked in the waters on baptism, those sins are forgiven, its a clean slate! Becky began to sob when they were telling her this, what a feeling to know that no matter what the Lord loves us and wants us to be happy!

I didn't know Becky before this night but I am glad I do now! I needed that night and the Lord must have known that! It made me ponder on everything in my life. I want to have that feeling of pure and sweet innocence when saying "how can i fix this?" instead of trying to cover it up with life.

They had Becky pray and told her that it was like a sandwich, it has a top bun(addressing the Lord) and a bottom bun(closing in the name of Christ) and the middle is whatever you want it tobe, talk to Him like a friend! She was very nervous but started her innocent preayer. Tears came to my eyes as I felt the overwhelming spirit in the room and could tell by her voice that she wanted this more than anything in the world. She thanked Heavenly Father for allowing her to FINALLY find him and asked Him to bless her with the faith and strength that she needed to get as close as she could to Him! It was as if He were standing in front of her and she was bowing at His feet! It was an amazing experience!

During the lesson when they asked her for her questions, she was having trouble remembering what they were, she had just underlined versus in the chapter. In my mind I was thinking "geez boys why didnt you give her a journal?!?! slackers!!!" haha jk. So after they left I told my sister that thought and she agreed with me. We made a 9:00 stop at Deseret to get two journals for these precious girls so that they can remember these feelings forever. We went on a walk and took them the journals with a card thanking them for the special opportunity to share in this experience with them, signed with our names and our phone numbers. When they opened the door, their eyes lit up! Becky came running from the living room to give us a hug and thank us for our support! WOW what an awesome feeling, something so simple in my mind was such a big thing to her.

This whole experience just makes me reflect on my life and just reminds me that I need to remember to have the simple innocence of a child when taking advantage of the full blessings of this wonderful Gospel! Its just so humbling to see someone coming into the gospel with such adimet and sincere faith and hope. Sometimes I feel like I take it for granted...alot of it!!! Despite our harships, Im so grateful to have my family that I get to spend eternity with and the examples they give to me by helping me make the correct choices and showing me how to get the most out of life! I am hoping and praying that this whole experience reminds Christy of the simpleness of it all and gives her the strength to do what she needs to do to get through the stuggles of her own life!

Thanks to everyone who has done anything in my life to bring out the sweet innocences life has to offer!!!