Easter Sunday

Easter for me is the most holy holiday of the year.  I just love it.  I love the week leading up to Easter.  I read a part of The Infinite Atonement by Tad R. Callister and was so moved by what I read:  "The Savior’s earthly experience can be divided into three categories, namely his message, his ministry, and his mission.  Only the events associated with his mission, however, required his personal appearance, and thus, his mission, the atoning sacrifice, became the compelling reason for his condescension.  His message was also carried by his prophets, and the miracles in his ministry were also performed by others, both before and after.  So “while others could preach the Savior’s message and even perform a ministry of miracles and priesthood ordinances, only he could accomplish that divinely appointed mission, namely the redemption of the world.  No proxies, no substitutes, no surrogates, not even heaven-sent angels or prophets would or could do.  He was the sole candidate, the only “name under heaven. . . whereby we must be saved.”  (Acts 4:12) This is the prime reason he came to the earth.”  I had never understood that before.  I loved it.  Maybe I felt it more now because "we are now the Lord's missionaries" and we want to represent him well. I'm so grateful for the atonement in my life.

 We actually had a great week at the office.  We're staying reasonably caught up and we enjoy our association with the missionaries so much.  We're so appreciative of the other experiences we are having.  Here are a few:

There are eight younger missionaries going home this transfer and a total of five senior missionaries leaving in the next two weeks.  I have been so busy preparing their memory folders and getting everything ready for them to leave!  It's a big job to get the missionaries here, and it's equally big to prepare for them to leave.  On Monday evening it was our senior FHE at the Blacks.  Since one of the younger sisters, Sister Carr, was leaving the next day, her farewell dinner was held at the same time as our senior FHE.  It was so fun to be with her for the last time.  She was an excellent missionary, and I was able to go teaching with her on several occasions.  She will be missed!

And Glen was able to secure all the new missionary housing for this transfer on Monday--the last place to get came through, so he feels very prepared for the next transfer, which is a week away, when we get 24 new missionaries.  You just can't imagine what a great feeling that is!

On Wednesday, the Mowers came to Las Vegas!  It was so awesome to see them!  They came to the mission office first and we gave them a tour of the office.  Seeing them was like getting a drink of water in a hot dusty desert.  We really appreciated them coming.

We then were able to go to dinner with them at Ruth Christie's, and wow, was it awesome.  We had a delicious meal with them and it was just so wonderful to be able to talk with them.  They were on their way to the Donny and Marie show for their anniversary, and we went to Nathan and Bethany Jones' to watch BYU beat Southern Miss in the quarterfinals of the NIT.  What a great game!  We didn't expect BYU to play so well!  What a fabulous day we had after working so hard at the office.

On Friday we got this adorable card and pictures from David and Juliann at the office.  So sweet!  Clarissa is just growing up!  Everyone who sees our family picture at the office always says, "Oh that little girl is just so cute!"  We agree!  Thank you David and Juliann!

On Friday evening we had the awesome opportunity to go to Wendy (Jeanette's daughter) and her boyfriend  Jaime's house for dinner and a teaching appointment with Elder Butler and Elder Johnson, two of our wonderful elders.  Jaime has expressed interest in being taught and possibly baptized, and Wendy wants to get active in the Church.  We were able to have a very special experience with them and there were tears and tender feelings.  Wendy has two children living with them who are darling, Carly and Christian, and they want to get active in the Church also.  The kids weren't there because it was spring break, but I hope we are able to go again with them there, because how I would love for all of  them to find peace and joy in the gospel. We're praying for them!

On Saturday morning we left early for the long drive to Alamo and then up to Panaca, which is 175 miles from where we live.  It's the furthest point from the mission office to where we have elders. Glen wanted to inspect their housing, and we also wanted to check out the Delamar Welfare Ranch, which is on the way there and where a senior couple serves from our mission.  Elder Jacobson and Elder Stowell are here in front of their apartment, which was REALLY nice on the inside.  They just love it here in the small town of Alamo and hope to be able to stay here as long as possible!  They're dressed this way because they were giving service this morning.

They live on what is called the Buckhorn Ranch and drive a truck because of the many dirt roads that they have to go on.  We loved seeing them!

We then drove up to Panaca to see Elder Herlin and Elder Fallon.  They also love serving in the small town of  Panaca and don't want to leave!  It's so great to see happy and hard working elders.  Their apartment was also so nice!

They live in the place in the back of this yellow home, where the mission van is parked.  Glen and I drove the mission van up here!

Eld

Elder Herlin and Elder Fallon were driving one evening back from a training meeting in Las Vegas and hit a deer.  Miraculously this is the only damage it did to the car and the two of them were not hurt, although it killed the deer.  What protection the Lord gives his missionaries!

We left Panaca and drove to the Delamar Welfare Ranch where Elder and Sister Hodges are finishing up their mission there.  The Church owns a huge ranch here and oversees a large herd of cows that are raised for beef for the Bishop's Storehouses.  They took us on a tour of the ranch and told us all that the ranch does and what their responsibilities are.  Wow, what the Church does to supply its storehouses!  It was pretty amazing.  Check out these huge cacti with full flowers on them!  They were all over and were quite a sight.

A cactus flower nearly ready to bloom.  The huge area that this ranch covered was just mind boggling.

These Piute Indian petroglyphs were on the ranch, and there were a lot of them!  They were pretty cool.

The ranch is near "Area 51", the area in the Nevada desert where atom bombs were tested in the 1950's and where there is still all kinds of secret atom bomb research done.  No one is admitted without proper documentation anywhere near "Area 51" and there are all kinds of rumors about it.  This is the sign leading up to Area 51!  Pretty cool!  Our mission covers quite the array of areas, from Death Valley on one side to Las Vegas in the middle, to the Delamar Welfare Ranch on the other.  Now we've seen most of the mission areas!

We had Elder Findlay and Elder West over for Easter dinner along with Zena Marchenko and Deb Moppert, the wonderful lady who was baptized just a few weeks ago.  We had such a wonderful time with them.  Deb really is so amazing and she is such a strong convert who wants to give the Lord her all.  She was definitely prepared for many years to join the Church!

Elder Findlay's birthday was coming up this week, so we had his birthday cake for dessert, adorned with 21 candles for him to blow out.  We just love being with these elders!  They are so awesome and so dedicated--we love being in the same ward with them.  What a great week we've had.