Email - April 21

    Easter was just another day in the mission field, I love seeing all the pretty dresses and ties at church on Easter!! So cute! I was thinking about hiding the box you sent to make it a little more like the Easter baskets we have at home but... it wouldn't of been the same haha.

   This week OH Estrella, cute little Estrella was baptized. She is the cutest little thing ever!! She is ten and her mom was a less active that is slowly coming back. The mom's live-in boyfriend is not really interested in the church at all. And she has 2 older brothers, one is a member, and one little brother. But Estrella is this light in their family, seriously, she understands so much when we would teach her, she is so precious and such a huge example to all her family and friends. She would bring friends to the lessons we would have with her, she is already a missionary!! So for Easter Sunday her family was not able to come to church because they are doing a family activity or the husband/boyfriend will divorce the mom so she had to get confirmed right after the baptism instead of at church on Sunday like normal convert baptisms. Her confirmation was incredible!! The priesthood holder said that she truly is a light, and has the light of Christ within her. At the end of the confirmation he said that she will be a missionary, and be an instrument in the Lord's hands, spreading the word of God to people. She is going to serve a mission!! It was so powerful, me and my companion just look at each other in ah. I asked Estrella how she felt after her baptism, she said "I feel good. and clean."

We had a really great lesson with Claudia and Fernando, they are eternal investigators, well for about a year and a half now and they are not married. But have a daughter that is 6. WELL... finally Claudia said that all her doubts are washed away, because at church she got her answer that she needs to prepare to meet God, by being baptized!! She said "I am going to be baptized whether with Fernando or not, I will move out if he isn't ready yet". WOWZAS!! I guess he is the one that use to be ready and she wasn't and now he isn't but she is. They are scared of commitment to not only baptism, but also marriage. They are both praying for the date of May 20th. Everything seems to be going pretty well, we just can't let the adversary get in the way!! Here comes the wedding planners again! We had a very powerful lesson, and the member that we had with us, who is a recent convert of a year, asked the most inspiring question. She said "Well, you have it all, you have a beautiful daughter, a nice home, and.. blah and blah..., so what do you think is missing?" There was a pause, Claudia, with watery eyes looked up and said "happiness". The member said "The gospel can fix that, the gospel can patch all holes". woah. The spirit was strong!!

   We went to the Easter Pageant again and helped out, it was awesome! Claudia, Fernando, and Brianna came. We couldn't find them in the big crowd of people but it all worked out fine! I decided I like watching the pageant in Spanish better than English. It just seemed better, I don't know why. It was so packed though!! Holy cow! I also found out that Christ was married to Mary Magdeline, I didn't know that so that was cool!

   Oh also, we had a lesson with Estrella and 2 of her friends were over. They were so cute, but it was so sad. Just to see how awful children's lives can be is so sad. They DESIRE the gospel and the teachings of Christ in their lives so desperately, but they can't reach it because of the situations they are in. They said how their mom works all Sunday, so they can't go to church, and how they saw their dad being arrested. They trusted us so much because they could see that we talked of Christ, and knew it was good. They say they get angry sometimes and they know that the things we teach can help them with that. We were talking about Estrella's baptism, they said "I really need that because I choose the wrong sometimes". It was so cute, but so heartbreaking. What a sad place to be in. I am so grateful for the life I have been given and the opportunity I have, to see so much of the world and the hearts of others, on my mission.

  Also, the Bishop here, he is from Spain and he talks just like Andrew Hartsfield, when he calls us on the phone, it freaks me out sometimes haha. It is really weird but kind of nice to have a familiar voice around haha