Hints of Spring

 Maybe Springtime is here.  We say that with the knowledge that last April 19th we had 10 inches of snow.  We are hoping that we are done with snowstorms.  That being said, we did do some walking at Lowe's because of rain, wind, and cold.  But when we walked into the store, look what we saw!

Nothing screams Spring like beautiful flowers in beautiful colors.  These just made my heart happy.  Every store we go to, I'm pulling out my camera to take pictures of the flowers.  

Monday, our P-Day, was our darling Sister Taylor's birthday.  She has extreme celiac disease and there are no restaurants that she feels safe eating in but we did find a place called Bowl Boss that makes Acai bowls and they have gluten free so she said she could eat there.   We were excited to take her and Sister Erickson out for lunch.  We had never had Acai bowls before and we both liked them.  I'm not sure if Sister Erickson was convinced though.  We love be able to spoil the missionaries when we get a chance.

L-R Mike, Me, Sister Emree Taylor, Sister Jacie Erickson

We loved Sister Erickson's astronomy lesson this week. She taught the process that stars are born.  She shows the most amazing photos taken from space and has all kinds of diagrams of how the creation of stars happens. I learned that all stars are suns-like our sun is our star, and all stars have at least one planet that orbits it like the planets in our solar system.  We love learning new things.

Our Book of Mormon class was the best.  I know I always say that - but every week just gets better and better.  We taught an Easter lesson, using the Book of Mormon.  We learn so much about the Atonement of our Savior from the Book of Mormon and that is what we talked about-what Jesus went through for us and how it is an Infinite Atonement.  We then read The Living Christ, paragraph by paragraph and wrote on the board all of the names of Jesus Christ.  It was an amazing evening and those who came loved it.

On Friday, as we were walking, we saw a whole bunch of cars in a line around the United Methodist Church a couple of blocks away from our house.  We thought maybe they were having a "Good Friday" service but then we noticed everyone in their cars.  We saw a sign about a Good Friday food giveaway.  We were so excited-we hurried home, changed into our missionary attire and went back and asked if we could help.  We helped very little because they were almost done but found out they would be doing it again on Saturday.  They give food out every Friday and Saturday and on Saturday they also serve lunch for 2 hours.  We have been looking for a pantry that we could serve in and had been told we weren't needed at a couple.  These people want us to help so now we will be spending a few hours each week helping out.  We even got to dress up in nifty little hairnets to help serve the lunch.  Oh my, we were so stylish!  We might go buy baseball caps instead.

Saturday was also our Primary's Easter Egg hunt at our church.  There were something like 500 eggs for 8 kids.  Needless to say, they hauled in the candy.  Afterwards the had muffins, fruit, cheese and crackers, and chips and salsa to eat.  Everyone had a great time.

We love Easter.  We had a beautiful Easter program and had about 62 people there.  Our Area Presidency had asked us to invite, invite, invite, and we had several less active people come and only one friend.  But we were happy with the attendance.  And to make the day complete, Mike conferred the Aaronic Priesthood on Robert and ordained him to the office of Priest. We are so excited to go to the temple with them to do baptisms.  And the cool part, after we are finished at the temple we get to go to the Sacred Grove.  What a wonderful place to be missionaries.

We finished the day with dinner at the Atwood's home.  The Sisters were there and a sister from our ward came.  We had a traditional ham dinner with mashed potatoes, carrots, biscuits, and I made deviled eggs (the only thing they would let us bring) and Katie had bought several cakes and desserts.  It was a great meal.  But you have to see our beautiful colored eggs.  These eggs are the color of the eggs-laid by Easter Egg Hens.  All I had to do was boil them-no coloring involved.  Aren't they the prettiest little eggs?  And they made really good deviled eggs. (To tell you the truth, I don't know how I will go back to store bought eggs-we have been very spoiled with fresh, free range eggs).

We are so thankful to be missionaries for our Savior.  We love Him.  We know that He lives, that He paid an awful price for us and we are forever thankful for our testimonies of Him and His work.  We love the young Elders and Sisters.  We feel so very blessed with good health, family,  and friends.  We miss you all but we know this is where we belong for now.