I've known Maddie since I moved here.
She can walk and she can talk.
But she can't really speak, whereas--
Even though she can't really talk to anyone, she just knows
how to make you smile whenever you see her.
She's such an amazing person.
It just feels good to be around her.
And she deserves to get her medallion just like any other
young woman.
I was reading the New Era like I do every month.
And I was just looking through.
And I saw this article about a girl who
was in a car accident.
And she had disabilities.
And her Young Women's group did Personal Progress for her.
And the whole time I was reading that, I just couldn't
get Madison out of my head.
She was my cousin.
I had been around her so much.
And I know her family.
And we just all love her.
And it's just so neat to see these girls do this for her.
And I just kept thinking what if we can do this for Madison?
And then we had to call the stake Young Women's and make
sure that they were OK with us doing it.
They had one condition.
And that was you had to do it for Madison.
And you had to do it for yourself.
You couldn't just do it for both and get it
done at the same time.
I had to write down a couple ways on how to comfort others.
And then I had to practice them.
I cooked dinner for my family for two weeks.
And I was able to write down my goals.
I had to memorize the sacrament prayers.
I read the whole Book of Mormon for Maddy.
So we each took a part of the Personal Progress book and did
some activities.
And by proxy she'll get her medallion.
It's hard to describe the feelings of that night of the
Young Womanhood's recognition.
When they presented Madison with the medallion, Scott and
Andrea were just so happy.
They were so shocked.
Just to see her start crying and be in
tears was just really--
you have a feeling that you did something right and that
someone else cares.
And this is where I just was like wow.
They had done something for her that she
could not do for herself.
Madison's requirements had been done basically by proxy.
I'm so thankful that I was able to be there that night.
I know
and feel the love of those young women.
Madison is so close to me.
And I haven't really got to know it.
But I know that through this project, I have been able to
get to know her a little bit better, to understand her.
And I know when we get to heaven that we'll be able to
talk about this project and how much fun.
And she got to watch it all play out before her.
And I'm so thankful to do things for people that can't
do it for themselves.
We did a thing for Maddie.
For Madison.
For Maddie.
For Madison.
The Savior has done for me and for all of us what we can't do
for ourselves.