Thank you so much for the Easter package! I was surprised to get it, and thrilled with the goodies. I've started coloring my little egg man, and he's almost done. It seems like I don't get a whole lot of time to even do that. We had a good Easter yesterday. It was my first Sunday with the ward, so there were a lot of people to meet. I now understand why there are so many conference talks on the nature of God and the Godhead and why the idea of the Trinity is wrong. So many converts here don't understand that Heavenly Father is NOT Jesus or the Holy Ghost. We had so many prayers offered by people who spoke to Jesus and not Heavenly Father, I was in shock. I didn't know if I should say 'amen' or not. One of the ladies in the ward also gave us Easter crosses. I've never owned a cross before. I suppose it's appropriate for the holiday, but I feel strange having it. Dinner was at a member's house, and it was the most amazing meal I've ever had. Crawfish casserole, jalapeno bread, sweet potatoes, and chicken stuffed with cornbread and cajun spices. Holy cow it was amazing, I forced myself to eat more! Members don't feed us much so far.
Sister Thomas is fun. She's from Lindon. Her dad is in prison, and if you do some research on DN or the Trib, you'll find articles about an ex-bishop committing fraud? Yeah, that's him. I think I like having a companion much better than having a roommate because one of the problems I have most with people is holding secrets from me. That's impossible to do on a mission, so my anxiety over companionships is pretty much gone. At least for this transfer. We laugh a lot, work hard, and party as hard as a missionary can. Our DL is nuts. On Friday we had a Passover dinner that was really interesting. We had to eat with our fingers because there were no clean dishes aside from the pans the food was in, for starters. We had naan bread instead of matza because there isn't anywhere to find matza here. We had salad instead of bitter herbs, rice, and gravy. To top it off though, in favor of economic over authenticity, we had a pork roast. For our Passover. How blasphemous can you get? He wants to have a Holocaust Remembrance feast this week on Holocaust Memorial Day, and he wants to try to eat whatever they ate in concetration camps. I told him there was no way he was getting me to eat feces.
Work is progressing here. People are super nice, and tracting isn't too bad. We got around to going for my first time this week, and we had a little miracle. I was too scared to say anything even though I was supposed to be leading in our efforts, so Sister Thomas said a prayer that the next house would be fruitful and give us a nice rejection if it didn't work. So I lead on and knocked on the door. We sure got rejected, but not without a hug from the guy, who was excited that we were out preaching about Christ. We also got some new prospects this week. Two Muslims and an Atheist. Such is my life. I come to the God-centric South, and I get two Muslims and an Atheist. It'll be interesting teaching them. The Muslims are really nice, but the Atheist is weird. He may be a bit crazy. We've visited with a lot of less actives. One guy, Ralphy, is blind and mentally challenged, and lives in a disabled commune in the north part of town. He's really sweet and very lonely. He was baptized a few years ago but has a hard time getting to church, so we try to visit once a week. He sits in the dark when he's at home and listens to tapes. His apartment is small and rather messy. It's very sad that people here don't care more. There is so much poverty, and though I know that many people bring upon themselves, there are so many people who are worth more but go unnoticed.
I'm so glad, Dad, that you took note of that talk. I was thinking of you the whole time. I felt as though the letter he referenced at the beginning could have been written by grandma, and I pray that there is an opportunity to reconcile. I was hoping that you'd like that. It's so important that we put our faith in the Atonement and turn to Christ for comfort and be willing to take His name upon us when we take the sacrament. Baptism is the only ordinance that we renew for our own benefit every Sunday, and it's because the Doctrine of Christ is the cycle by which we can find salvation and peace.
I'll write a letter today and send it off to Mom. Thank you for your support and love. I miss you guys, and I love hearing from you. I hope and pray that things are going well at home and that you're recieving blessings. I hope the boys realize that this isn't going to be a cake walk and are spiritually prepared to take this work on. It will be very humbling for both of them, but they can succeed if they rely on the Lord. I hope they get called stateside so they don't get stuck in the Empty Sea for too long! LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE YOU!!!
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