From the Deepest Part of my Heart

Dearest Family,

Yesterday was an Easter Bank Holiday (sometimes they have random Monday holidays here) and so today became e-mail day. I had forgotten how much I appreciate e-mail time; it didn't feel like P-day without it. But pish posh, here we are and it's going to be a great day. 

Easter is such a wonderful holiday. They have a fun tradition here that I've never heard of before, but that I'd like to start when I get home. They roll eggs that they dye down a hill. I think they boil them and paint them and then they roll them/throw them down hills and they smash to bits. It symbolizes the rolling of the stone away from the tomb of Christ. I think that's pretty fun and also a cool tradition to help us remember what Easter is about. I did a terrible job of explaining that but hey ho—hopefully it made sense.

Sister Jones and I have been loaded with the cold this week. She got it in the early part of the week and so we were in (and I was watching mission-approved movies like the Doctrine and Covenants DVDs) and then I got it a few days later and had to stay in bed and sleep about 10 hours a day. It was a bit rubbish but we're feeling a bit better now and we're out and about. So that's a good thing.

Exchanges start up again this week so I'm currently with Sister Francis, who is going home in four weeks, in Irvine and later in the week I'll go to Glasgow and one of the sisters will come here. Exchanges are so fun and I miss them when we don't do them for too long—I feel like I get stagnant—and so change is a good thing and I'm excited to get back in the work! It was rough being sick this week and not doing missionary work. I'm happy that we're back in a normal routine. 

I got to speak at dear Katie Kerr's baptism this week. She is eight and comes from the sweetest family ever. I absolutely love them and I was so honored to speak at their big family event. A lot of non-members were there, so it was a great time to teach a simple talk about the Holy Ghost and a prime situation to fellowship and friendship these friends into hopefully joining the Church one day. 

Church was amazing on Easter and it was fun to hear the Sacrament Meeting talks, which were fantastic. I helped play the piano (“The Family Is of God”) in Primary while Sister Jones taught the Gospel Principles lesson, and then we joined and taught together for Relief Society. I read the "Green Eggs and Ham" missionary version from Mrs. Goodrich, and the members loved it. Hopefully they will start doing more missionary work, because Irvine is a prepared place where the members can invite their friends. 

Elder Holland said, “The future of this world has long been declared, the final outcome between good and evil is already known. There is no question as to who wins because the victory has already been posted on the scoreboard. The only really strange thing in all of this is we are all still down here on the field trying to decide which team’s jersey we want to wear.”

Let's all be on the winning side—with the righteous jerseys that we put on by reading our scriptures, attending church, keeping our covenants, and sharing the gospel with others!

I love you all! 

Love,

Baby Girl