"There will be light after dark, someday when we aren't six feet apart"

LaRae Wallace
Sep 14, 2021
4 min read

This week went by much much faster than last, which is weird considering we were quarantined for two days (and why I picked this song lyric for my title.) Sister Hardman decided to get sick, the audacity.

Haha. Anyway I learned that the Lord definitely knows who I am and I'm on my mission at this time for a reason. Because there is no way I would've made it through the throes of quarantine. Just two days and I thought I'd never make it through. I made us keep our sliding door open basically all day so I could at least hear life. I was sanitizing everything like a mad woman and my poor comp probably felt like an outcast. But I was doing everything in my power not to get the germs. If you tell them to go away, I think the mind has enough power to keep me from getting sick, right?

Anyway. Kinda cool though that we still had so many tender mercies even when we were stuck inside. The Lord really does keep his work moving forward one way or another. We had people actually answer our phone calls, and members who were sweet enough to do zoom calls instead of in-person dinners and one member brought us dinner and made me a really delish gluten-free coffee cake. But I was grateful when we got to venture out of here.

I had a cool experience on Sunday that I've never had before. Sister Hardman and I were asked to give talks in both of our wards, one for 5 minutes and the other for 12. Well, I wrote a pretty decent talk that I gave in my last ward in Los Lunas, and just figured I would cheat and reuse it. I prayed about it and felt good about it and moved on. So fast forward to Sunday morning and I can't stop thinking about the sacrament (if you're not familiar with this term, it is the ordinance of partaking of bread and water in remembrance of Jesus Christs' atoning sacrifice.) Lately, I've made it more of a focus in my life, and have realized how much I need it each week. I've learned to love the sacrament in a whole new way that I've never felt before. And lately, I've felt that in both my wards that focus on the sacrament in our Sunday meeting hasn't been there. So I'm sitting in my first ward where I only have to speak for 5 minutes and a talk kinda just unfolds in my mind based off of some verses I have been reading in the Book of Mormon every time I partake of the sacrament. I thought, "ok yeah I can ad lib this for 5 minutes no problem, and then do the talk I prepared in my other ward." Haha, yeah, thought wrong.

I'm sitting on the stand in my next ward and something just feels off. Then a minute before the meeting starts, in walks my mission president and his wife. I suddenly felt so nervous and I don't usually feel that way before talks. I kept thinking over and over again in my head that the talk I had written just wasn't it. But I couldn't tell if the nerves were because of that, or because of my lovely visitors (they didn't know we were speaking and just happened to be in the area, but it made me happy to get a Sister Weathersby hug after the meeting). Well, when I stood up to talk, I found out why I was so nervous. The spirit truly spoke for me. The words were not my own. I knew what to talk about and I knew how to say it. I'm sure I stumbled a lot and was repetitive, but I know that because it was guided by the spirit, the spirit made up for it when it hit the congregations ears.

I shared how personal the sacrament has become to me, and how the atonement of Jesus Christ can work so personally in our own lives. The verses I shared come from Alma chapter 7, and they just so vividly describe what Christ has been through for every one of us:

11 And he shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind; and this that the word might be fulfilled which saith he will take upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people. 12 And he will take upon him death, that he may loose the bands of death which bind his people; and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities. 13 Now the Spirit knoweth all things; nevertheless the Son of God suffereth according to the flesh that he might take upon him the sins of his people, that he might blot out their transgressions according to the power of his deliverance; and now behold, this is the testimony which is in me. I know these things are true. Jesus felt all of this for you and for me. It is as simple as that. He loves you and he needs you and he can bring you out from darkness and into the light. I hope you all have a good week and can remember just how important you are. To those of you who still read my ramblings, I love you. Thank you for the support and the love and the prayers. I'm so thankful to be a missionary. Don't forget that Jesus loves you, Sister Wallace