Easter, A Time to Remember

Dear Parents, Mom and Dad/Dad and Mom,

I am glad you had a good "Holy Week." (Somebody mentioned that in a talk yesterday and I thought it to be an interesting term.) I did receive both packages, both from the Primary (the younger children of the congregation in Lemoore) and you. Thank you for the package; I really enjoyed getting the package from the family! I will eventually write the Primary. Eventually.
The weather is indeed bipolar here; it was cold one day and the next it was warm. I have been expecting showers. On Saturday, there was this utmost beautiful sunset despite the clouds. I so wished I had my camera. It was a brilliant purple and red, with a hint of pink. As it continued to set, it turned a dark red, which was amazing to see.

My companion is recovering, thankfully. I am doing better. When did I headaches at home? I hardly remember. Why did I get them? Regardless, my companion, albeit recovering, was badly sick  on Tuesday. He needed rest, so three hours went by. And slowly he recovered from there. I just drank lemonade and my throat is a lot better. I just have a mysterious cough that does not bother me until night time and that is pretty much when it does bother me. 

I really focused on the Savior this week. I read all the gospels at the same time and worked with the Bible Dictionary's chronology. My favorite gospel is John. Luke seems to be the opposite of me; I like order and Luke puts part of a sermon of Jesus in one chapter, another part in another chapter, and the last piece in another chapter. But, amazingly everything did work out where I finished on Sunday. It was truly great to do. I read his death on Saturday and then I went to bed. It left a lot of time to reflect and grow my thoughts. I honestly felt the reality of His death and His suffering on the cross and in the garden. It really coupled with what I know about His Resurrection and the message of hope. While there is despair in the world, there is still that hope; the hope of relief, of joy, of second chances, and of so much more.

Easter was fun. We stopped by people who invited us over. I got to watch some of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir perform Handel's Messiah; in fact, I am currently listening to it. Absolutely beautiful. It was quite enjoyable. I woke up early before the sun rose (about 6:00 and the sun rose later) and read about the Resurrection. It was an overall good day. As much as I was trying to focus on the Savior, I could not help, but wonder, "Now what?" I thought of Peter who went fishing. I realized that this is what we witness or testify of along with the message of the Restoration. So, the answer to my wondering is now I go forth, become who the Savior wants me to be. I am a disciple of Jesus Christ. I plan on writing you a letter reflecting the thoughts I have.

Oh, I tried lamb this week! It was delicious! I think an awesome Easter tradition I would like to do is to have the Passover meal as my Easter meal. Have lamb, unleavened bread, and bitter herbs. It would be perfect to remember the Savior. I think it is an excellent idea. And I experimented this week with food and cooking. So, you know how to make tacos? Well, I used that idea and then I decided to add ingredients and roll the tortilla to hold it in. Do you know what that makes? Eggrolls. I was quite amazed. It just tastes like eggrolls and maybe it is due to the fact I used flour tortillas. I have no idea. Because only one of the ingredients I had (which were cabbage, red bell pepper, onion, cheese, and non-jarred jalapenos) actually is used in eggrolls. Thus, I have created Mexican eggrolls.

I realized this week, because I have been having a bit more trouble with my communication, that I speak at a much higher level than most people. I did not have any stuttering episodes or frozen tongue moments, but I think people still have a hard time understanding me. Then, I made that realization and now, I am figuring out how to make things simple. I can make the gospel simple, but when it comes to casual conversation, I, not realizing, use bigger words. So, I am slowly learning about communication. I thought about praying for the gift of tongues to make myself to speak the language in simple terms.

This week on the 26th, we have booth at a Powhatan Power Show (a coalition of churches raises money to aide community members). It is going to be good. We are doing family history, which is going to be next topic of 

discussion. 

I am really excited for family history and I do recommend doing more of it. The Church has put on a new website of sorts that is connected to Family Search (familysearch.org). It is called Puzilla.org and it is simply neat, phenomenal. The idea is not only finding our ancestors, but also finding our cousins. Well, the site is just neat to look at for us as far as I can tell. But, there is still things we can do. One, adding siblings to the tree is another thing we can do. Adding stories that other people can see about us and our ancestors. The idea of family history is not only the idea of trying to do ordinances for their salvation, but give them history. I term it as I heard about it on a video, the idea of the dash (what has happened in their life). Any information we have we should index and any sources we find should be sourced to the individual (or individuals) to whom it belongs . Have you been on Family Search recently? Again, I recommend it. Why? Well, we may have more clues, more specifically to Mom. Mom, did your father, Emilio, have a brother name Manuel Calderon Galvez (as put in Family Search)? If so, then do we have more family? I never found them or even sourced them, but they have been added for some reason. No sources for them either other than they have been added by Family Search and the Church. Do you know a Julian R. Arana? They have reserved a lot of stuff for that side. They are Mexican and do speak Spanish. Maybe you can find them on Facebook or through Family Search, find their email. Remember Spanish is required.

All is well.

Love,

Elder S. Todd

P.S. Also, our less active in the hospital went to a nursing home in another area. We are a bit sad about that. But our investigator is progressing; he just needs to quit smoking.