Elder Wride is 20 Year Old!

Today is Elder Wride's 20th birthday!!! Crazy, time is flying by. We wished him a happy birthday yesterday when we talked to him, and he sent us this pretty birthday-ish looking photo for us in his email from yesterday.

You can read his letter for this week here. And I'll update here with a picture of his birthday if he ends up doing anything fun on his special day. He said he had permission to call home again if he wanted, but they have a lot of appointments so he said that he probably wouldn't call. So we'll talk to him next week

So, I had one other cool/special thing happen today/early this morning that I want to share very briefly. I might spill out more of the details later at my spiritual blog, cause I don't want to forget it, but for documentation's sake, I'll record a little here. This morning around 1:30 am, Peter was really fussing and wouldn't sleep and wouldn't nurse, and I was like a tired zombie and it took me a while to figure out what was wrong. A bath always quiets him down, so at 2 I take him into the tub, that didn't work, and he was kinda thrashing around and I was like "What is WRONG?!?!" So we got dressed and I think maybe a quick walk around the block will rock him to sleep. Peter was quiet for about a half a house, and then started screaming again, so I booked it back inside before he woke up the neighborhood. Since he had had a fever on Monday, I don't know why it took me so long to clue into what was bothering with him. Maybe cause it was the middle of the night and I had a foggy brain. Anyway, I eventually realize it was probably an ear ache. But I didn't have anything to help with that - no ear drops. I didn't want to take him to the store with me to buy any cause he'd just be screaming the whole time. But it wasn't an ER visit type emergency. So I was kinda desperate. I didn't feel I should wake Corey to give him a blessing, but I did feel that there was something I could do, which was to basically command him to be healed in the name of the Lord. I've never done that before, so I rocked him as I paced the room for a little bit as I pondered if it was okay, and then when I had just enough confidence and faith that God would honor this plea, I held my hand to the square and commanded in the name of Jesus Christ for Peter's ear to be healed. And then I went straight to lay down with him to nurse him and that was it! He went to sleep, and so did I! He's been totally fine today. So, I just want to say that that was a miracle, and it was done through the power of and in the name of Jesus Christ. I'm grateful he honored the words I spoke and healed Peter. A quote from President Nelson that Nicole reminded me of today from his most recent General Conference talk titled "Spiritual Treasures":

The heavens are just as open to women who are endowed with God’s power flowing from their priesthood covenants as they are to men who bear the priesthood. I pray that truth will register upon each of your hearts because I believe it will change your life. Sisters, you have the right to draw liberally upon the Savior’s power to help your family and others you love.

Now, you might be saying to yourself, “This sounds wonderful, but how do I do it? How do I draw the Savior’s power into my life?”

You won’t find this process spelled out in any manual. The Holy Ghost will be your personal tutor as you seek to understand what the Lord would have you know and do. This process is neither quick nor easy, but it is spiritually invigorating. 

I am grateful that the Spirit tutored me and helped me to know how to draw liberally upon God's power to help Peter. I'm grateful Peter was healed, thank you Heavenly Father!

*Update*
Joseph had a good birthday - here's his link to the letter from his birthday week. His comp made some chocolate chip pancakes for him on his big day.

I had good comps like that on my mission too. Happy birthday Joseph! It's the simple things in life.

Joseph said about these: "Not sure if it says Birthday Happy or Happy Birthday." haha.