Easter

Dear Kin Folk,

You know what cracks me up? How the locals refer to their bosses as “boss man” and that’s completely normal….

But anyway thanks for the Easter package! I didn’t get to read my email last week so I wasn’t expecting anything and it was a surprise! I laughed when I saw the sandpaper, you are so thoughtful and know exactly what I need :) And I liked the irony of getting candy and wheat grass tablets in the same package. Probably the best Easter package ever. I got Kristi’s letter and it made my day!

You know what also made my day the other day? The Elders wanted to do what they call a blitz where all the missionaries in the district go and tract in one of the companionships areas so we cover more ground, etc. So we were tracting in the town of Buena Vista which is the District Leader’s area (my area is more out in Rockbridge County), and we actually ended up knocking on a members door. She was an old, blind lady and it just made her so happy to have us visit for a little while and she said when there used to be sister missionaries in her ward they’d sing to her and so we ended up singing “A Child’s Prayer” to her. It made my day just to have brought such a small happiness to her. It really is the little things that make the biggest difference.

On Easter we spent most of the day in church, like always, trying to cover three wards. But then we had dinner at a member's home and as part of our spiritual thought they requested that we sing - so I'm getting a lot of practice- so we sang my favorite Easter song -"O Savior Thou Who Wearest A Crown". For Easter, as a district we had been asked to also study that last week of the Savior's earthly ministry, and I guess I'd never really noticed before how all the parables and things he teaches in that last week are about his second coming and the time right before. So how important is it now that that time is near that we study, especially that last week? The Savior and the Atonement is such a large and somewhat unfathomable topic, sometimes you don't even know where to start, but I found that that scripture in 2 Nephi 25:26 makes a nice little summary - "And we talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we prophesy of Christ, and we write according to our prophesies, that our children may know to what source they may look for a remission of their sins." It really struck we that it basically says how we need to write our testimonies and so I've been trying to do that. And I asked the member family we had dinner with to do it as well. Will you also write your testimonies down and maybe send them to me to have and read?

One of my favorite things that we did for Easter was that the six of us missionaries in this area got together and shared with each other the poems that our District Leader, Elder Turner, had asked us to write for Easter. The Elders are surprisingly good poets :) So we joked about having a regular "Turner's Poetry Corner".

Oh, that reminds me. I finished the first spoon I started carving and since it was Elder Turner's birthday on Thursday I thought I'd give it to him. I even burned his initials on the handle and the funny part is they spell EAT, so it was perfect for an eating utensil. Now, I'm going to work on the next one and it will be even better because now I have several different grades of sandpaper! I also got to laughing really hard the other day when I got Elder Maughan with one of those squirting rings right in the eye, it was classic.

There was also a really good fireside here the other day. The author of the book "The Mormon Way of Doing Business", Jeff Benedict, as well as some of the people he featured in the book, like the CEO of Jet-Blue, came and spoke. And it actually ended up being a lot on missionary work, instead of business like most people expected. Apparently Jeff Benedict also teaches a writing class at SVU. You meet all sorts of interesting people here.

But, I am way excited about Rick's mission papers being in! I can't wait to see where he goes!

But anyway, I better get going. It sounds like you all are just getting busier and having more fun now than ever now that you don't have as many kids around :) Love you!

~Sister Johnson