But one voice can still be heard

My story begins back in 2008. July 23rd, 2008 to be exact.

The evening of July 23rd was spent in Ozark, Arkansas. I was picking peas with Tim T. in his family's garden, and we ended up having a fight. Peas were flying everywhere, as Tim was singing as loudly as possible; "AND I DON'T WANT THE WORLD TO SEE ME, CAUSE I DON'T THINK THAT THEY'D UNDERSTAND!!!!! VINDICATED, I AM SELFISH I AM WRONG I AM RIGHT I SWEAR I'M RIGHT!!!. . ." with a little "JESUS WANTS ME FOR A SUN-PEA!!!" The fight ended after we both got too tired to throw anything anymore. We went inside, and enjoyed dinner, and then Thomas, David and I headed to Ft.Smith to meet up by midnight to head to Nauvoo, Illinois.

Me being in Arkansas wasn't weird, random, or seen as me running away. Arkansas was my 2nd home. If I wasn't in Arkansas, I was planning, working and going towards another visit; I loved it there.

I was invited to go to Youth Conference with them, because it was a Nauvoo trip, and I hadn't been since 2005. So we got to Ft.Smith, and Thomas was not feeling well, AT ALL. Thomas and I ended up sitting together on the front row seat of the charter bus, because we were the first ones on. And plus, Thomas was my absolute best friend. We had a blast staying up till all hours just talking about random stuff. At midnight, we both looked at each other and said "Happy Birthday!" and "It's my birthday!" at the same time. We became good friends with the bus driver, as he listened to everything we said. Mind you, Thomas and I were the ONLY ones in the front. All the adult leaders were behind and beside us, so it was quiet, and we could be retards about everything, and no one bothered us.

We finally fell asleep, but woke up when the bus stopped in Fayetteville to wait for the other 2 buses that were coming from Oklahoma. (The Ft.Smith Stake covers a HUGE area ranging from Arkansas to almost the middle of Oklahoma.) We waited, and finally we were on our way again. It wasn't hard to fall asleep again. But I woke up about 15 miles south west of St.Louis, so I knew we were only 45 minutes away from Nauvoo. By that time, I was awake, and aware. I couldn't wait! About 20 minutes out of Nauvoo, I had to go to the bathroom, and I wasn't about to crawl all the way to the back of the bus, to pee. So, I waited. And Thomas started waiting too. Here we were.. crossing the Mississippi, it was raining, and Thomas TOOK ADVANTAGE!!! "Wow... look at all the rushing water, Natalia. Hmm. I'll bet that would be nice to swim in. Hmm? Hmm. Yeah. Oh! Look at the rain on the windshield! Oh! Look. Look at all those puddles, and ponds.. Natalia! Natalia... Don't pee. Don't pee." I almost killed that child. So we decided to watch the GPS that our bus had, and count down the miles to our destination. It became a race to see who could call out the ".4, .3, .2, .1, 7 miles... .9, .8. . . "s before the other. When we FINALLY got there, we got word that our group was doing baptisms first in the Nauvoo temple. By the way, today was my birthday, so you could understand why I was ECSTATIC.. except we had to walk. In the rain, and it was kinda chilly. But we did baptisms! It was a glorious day, being there. We ended the evening having a devotional outside of the temple. But the lights weren't on. Down the hill, there was a stage with a huge field full of chairs, HUGE stadium lights shining.. and that was for the "Nauvoo Pageant". The temple wasn't lit for the pageant, which I'll explain later in another story.

Well, it was 9pm, and we were all singing church songs from our YC hand books that had schedules, songs, and journals. We got up to walk back to camp, as it was getting late, and we started singing "The spirit of God" and as we were ending that, we started on Come Come ye saints, and the lights to the temple started coming back on.. first the top floor, then the floors started lighting up, and then the outside lights were last. Everyone was sobbing. There are spirits that walk those hills, those streets, that city... that continually spread the gospel with their powerful presences. It's so hard to explain. But we all knew it. It was the best birthday I had ever had. Ever.

July, 24th 2008. My 18th birthday.

-Sister May