Easter in St. James!

Hello everyone! How was your week? Ours was...pretty uneventful honestly...I don't really have much to report! We had a nice sunny day the other day, we walked to the church which was nice! I saw my elder friend Elder Bass yesterday so that was super exciting! We had a really funny experience where Sister Owen and I were trying to make pigeon noises and she said I sounded like Cardi B....haha yeah...we have lots of time spent laughing so hard it hurts! I love Sister Owen! Some members left us and the elders an easter basket so that was really nice! Our Easter weekend was good! We had some really good sacrament lessons with some members over video chat, it was cool! I miss going to church with everyone though, but it's okay! 

 Anyways, I just want to let you all know how much God loves you and how much our Savior loves you. I will do that by sharing a story with you that an Elder friend of mine shared on Facebook. 

 "There was once a bridge that spanned a large river. During most of the day, the bridge sat with its length running up and down the river paralleled with the banks, allowing ships to pass through freely on both sides of the bridge.

But at certain times each day, a train would come along and the bridge would be turned sideways across the river, allowing the train to cross it. A switchman sat in a shack on one side of the river where he operated the controls to turn the bridge and lock it into place as the train crossed.
One evening as the switchman was waiting for the last train of the day to come, he looked off into the distance through the dimming twilight and caught sight of the train lights. He stepped onto the control and waited until the train was within a prescribed distance when he was about to turn the bridge.
He turned the bridge into position, but, to his horror, he found the locking control did not work. If the bridge was not securely in position, it would cause the train to jump the track and go crashing into the river. This would be a passenger train with MANY people aboard.
He left the bridge turned across the river and hurried across the bridge to the other side of the river, where there was a lever switch he could hold to operate the lock manually.
He would have to hold the lever back firmly as the train crossed. He could hear the rumble of the train now, and he took hold of the lever and leaned backward to apply his weight to it, locking the bridge. He kept applying the pressure to keep the mechanism locked. Many lives depended on this man's strength.
Then, coming across the bridge from the direction of his control shack, he heard a sound that made his blood run cold.
"Daddy, where are you?" His four-year-old son was crossing the bridge to look for him. His first impulse was to cry out to the child,
"Run! Run!"
But the train was too close; the tiny legs would never make it across the bridge in time. The man almost left his lever to snatch up his son and carry him to safety. But he realized that he could not get back to the lever in time if he saved his son.
Either many people on the train - or his own son - must die.
He took but a moment to make his decision. The train sped safely and swiftly on its way, and no one aboard was even aware of the tiny broken body thrown mercilessly into the river by the onrushing train.
Nor were they aware of the pitiful figure of the sobbing man, still clinging to the locking lever long after the train had passed. They did not see him walking home more slowly than he had ever walked; to tell his wife how their son had brutally died.
Now, if you comprehend the emotions that went through this man's heart, you can begin to understand the feelings of Our Father in Heaven when He sacrificed His Son to bridge the gap between us and eternal life.
Can there be any wonder that He caused the earth to tremble and the skies to darken when His Son died?
How does He feel when we speed along through life without giving a thought to what was done for us through Jesus Christ?" 

 That story hit so hard because I have never thought of it like that. I am so grateful for the God's love for us and His Son's love for us. When I was thinking about the Atonement yesterday, I thought "Why me? What makes me so important that God, the Eternal Father, the most powerful being in the universe, had to send His Son to sacrifice and suffer for little ol' me?" As I prayed about it, I received this answer "You are my [child] too." I have never really understood why Christ needed to die for me, but as I looked back on my life, I realized how many mistakes I've made and how far they keep me from Heavenly Father but with the help of Jesus Christ, I can be closer than I  ever imagined. He took our stripes, through which we are healed, and I am eternally grateful for what that means to all of us. Because He lives, we can too. I love you all and I know Christ lives. Have a wonderful week! 

Love, Sister Talbot