Emily's Testimony of Fasting

(Our granddaughter who is twelve just finished chemotherapy treatments for leukemia.  She has battled this horrible disease for the past 2 1/2 years.  Right after she concluded her treatments, she was asked to give her very first talk as a Young Woman in Sacrament Meeting.  She sent us a copy of her talk.  She talked about a time all the missionaries in the Italy Rome Mission fasted for her.  It was a tender moment for us and a testimony that God hears and answers prayers.)

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Good morning brothers and sisters. For those of you who don’t know me, I’m Emily Stevens, John and Heather Stevens’ oldest child. I was asked to talk today about the principle of fasting.

First, we all know that the day when most of us fast, is on Fast Sunday, but we should also know that, like praying, we can do it whenever we feel it is appropriate. But when is the appropriate time? Well, we can fast for someone who is very sick, or to help someone when they are having hard times, maybe when someone is having a surgery, or just to give thanks to our Heavenly Father for our good health or for continued health (which is kind of fitting, since we just had Thanksgiving).

Next, as Elder Carl B. Pratt taught in the October 2004 General Conference, “We should not expect our young children to fast for the recommended two meals. But let us teach them the principles of fasting. If fasting is discussed and planned in a family setting, the small children will be aware that their parents and older siblings are fasting, and they will understand the purpose of the fast. They should participate in the family prayers to begin and end the fast. This way, when they reach the proper age, they will be eager to fast with the rest of the family. In our family, we have done this by encouraging our children between 8 and 12 years of age to fast for one meal; then as they have turned 12 and received the Aaronic Priesthood or entered Young Women, we have encouraged them to fast for two complete meals.” (Close Quote)

Now, I haven’t been doing too much fasting myself, because it has kind of made me feel sick. But that was when I was younger (before I was diagnosed with Leukemia), and I have tried it again this year, not too long ago, and I felt just fine. So I’ve decided to try to start back up again. I also realized that I didn’t really know what to fast for, but as I was preparing this talk, I realized that I shouldn’t really have a problem with that anymore, there are lots of things I could fast for.

Finally, although I haven’t done too much fasting myself, I have had lots of people, more than I could probably name, fast for me and my health during my battle with cancer (I was diagnosed with Leukemia when I was 10, and just finished my treatments earlier this month). There is one fasting experience I’d like to share from my time in treatment, but I’m sure there were other times too. It all started when I got a high fever one night this past January, which meant we had to go to Primary Children’s to make sure it wasn’t a complication. One of the big things they always check in my blood is called ANC, and it was supposed to be between 500 and 1500. My ANC had been around 500 the week before, but when they checked it again, it had dropped to about 300. My fever went away so we got to go home. But when I went to clinic next, my ANC had dropped even lower to 100. My doctor that day wasn’t my usual one, and he said that no matter how low my ANC was, if I was feeling okay I should go to school. My mom didn’t think that was quite right, so she called my normal doctor and she was afraid my dropping ANC might be due to a relapse, so she said that if my counts weren’t back up by the next week, I would have to come back up for a Bone Marrow Aspirate to check for a relapse. That weekend my family invited friends and family to join us in a fast. My grandparents, who are serving a mission in Rome, invited their missionaries to join in this fast. That next week, I had another blood draw and we found that my ANC had jumped from 100 to 4800. My mom later told me that we had just witnessed a miracle, that I might have been relapsing, which I guess I hadn’t really thought of, but after she said that, I thought about it and realized that she was right, we did witness a miracle. I know that a lot of the ward members probably fasted for me as well, and I’d like to thank you for that, and I know that the Lord blessed me because of that fast. I know that I have experienced the power of fasting, and now that my treatments are finished, I’m looking forward to fasting more regularly, including this next Sunday.

I’d like to say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.