by Sister Moore
Lily has been taught on and off with the missionaries since 2015! Her mom, Latoya, has been a member since 2003 and took Lily to church while she was growing up but in the end wanted to leave the decision of religion up to them. Latoya wanted Lily to decide for herself which church was true.
Lily became especially interested in being baptized after seeing one side of her family completely uninterested in religion and another side of her family having a firm testimony in the Church of Jesus Christ. She saw how their lives were impacted differently because of that belief and decision.
Lily wanted to learn for herself what the church believes in and what baptism means. She recognized the importance of exercising her agency to choose baptism for herself, not just because her family did. She has had the desire to be baptized for quite some time, but didn’t want to make that step until she had been taught by the missionaries. She wanted to have an understanding she was comfortable with and a testimony for herself.
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The story of Joseph Smith and the Plan of Salvation were especially important to Lily. She loved that a young boy, just about her age, could have an experience like that. She felt that she connected especially with the hope that comes from the Plan of Salvation.
When she read the Book of Mormon, Lily noticed how important it was to read the book for herself. She wanted to understand the sacrifices the people made to believe in Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father. Her faith was also strengthened when she heard about the sacrifices that the early saints made to bring forth the Book of Mormon.
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How did it feel to get baptized and confirmed?
Lily felt nervous to get confirmed in front of a lot of people. But it was a good experience.
She feels like she’s been much happier since she was baptized! Her mom has also noticed a positive change in Lily as well. Lily feels like she is more quick to forgive and finds more patience with those who have negatively impacted her life.
The list of missionaries who taught Lily: Elder Spiers, Elder Shurtleff, Sister Peace, Sister Goodman, Sister Griffiths, Sister Georgeson, Sister Terry, Sister Jensen, Elder Taylor, Elder Brock Porter, Sister Cunningham, Sister Moore, and baptized by Elder Ben Porter.
Barlows in TKM 