Hi everyone! I hope Easter was amazing! Hopefully the Easter Bunny came this year. I wanted to talk a little about the true meaning of Easter. It's nice to have gifts and to dye eggs and the fun activities that go along with Easter, but what is Easter all about? Easter is about Jesus Christ and what He did for us. Because of Christ and His willingness to go through with His sacrifice, we can return to live with our families again. Christ bled from every pore in His body and went through more pain than any person could fathom. 1 Nephi 11:33, "And I, Nephi, saw that he was lifted up upon the cross and slain for the sins of the world." He suffered every sin we do each and eery day. Because of the atonement we have the ability to be happy. We get the chance to start over every day and to become like Him. Christ paved the way and made it possible to follow His footsteps. He overcame death so everyone will as well. Alma 26:12 says it perfectly. "Yea, I know that I am nothing; as to my strength I am weak; therefore I will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God, for in his strength I can do all things; yea behold, many might miracles we have wrought in this land, for which we will praise his name forever." Just a little something to think about this week, I am so grateful that this holiday I could focus only on the meaning and I got to share the message of the importance of it. I have such a strong testimony of the atonement and resurrection. It happened and because it happened, we can become just like Jesus Christ. That is what I strive for everyday.
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| Sister Tam and Sister Rexinger |
This week has been super crazy and full of trials and miracles. The week started off long and super snowy. Sister Tam and I tried to make the most of it. It's hard to do but we managed. I really think this week I want to share a journal entry from Thursday 17/4/14. "Today was a miracle in itself. Sister Tam and I got to District meeting 20 minutes early. It was snowing and we walked there! The Elders didn't get there early and they have the keys to the church so we had a photo shoot while we waited. District meeting was about learning to work together with other missionaries and since we have two elders in our ward, we had to really exercise this topic. We talked a lot with the Elders that are in our boundaries as well and gave formers to them that they would work better with and vice versa. From District meeting, we then had District lunch where we colored hard boiled eggs. This is when Betty was born. She has cancer though so don't stare at her lack of hair. Sister Tam and I then did companionship study and came up with two lesson plans depending on if Maureen read 3 Nephi 11. We show investigators we are serious about reading by reading the assignment with them. Anyway, after comp study we then went into 12 weeks which is additional study for an hour and they have activities like role playing, etc. After 12 weeks, Sister Tam was practices a piece that she is playing on Sunday in the Easter program. Some Elders in my district made me gluten free cookies! They were so good! After all of that fun stuff, Sister Tam and I took the bus to get home to drop a few things off, like our area book. Don't you worry, it was snowing hard and we had 16 minutes to get to our four-plex basement suite and then the bus stop! Se we ran/walked fast. At this point in the week, I was getting super discouraged. We had to give away three investigators this week. Alannis (a 17 year old girl that I loved), Heather (because she moved out of our area), and Maureen (but I'm not ready to let her go in the slightest). Turns out Maureen isn't in our area but she meets with us at a member's house. I have to call President about that because I refuse to give her up! I've gotten so close with her. She is family to me. When I was walking I thought some good thoughts and some bad thoughts. I was tired and cold and with snow hitting my face. I then realized this is just like our life. Throughout life we have super good things happen and some bad things. At times, we will be tired and even feel like giving up but we have to stick through everything. He has provided a way for me and everyone. We rushed over to the bus after booking like 19 blocks. Good news, we missed the bus! But, He does provide a way so Sister Zea (a lady in our ward) picked us up and fed us supper. I love the Zea's. They are so nice and funny. They have three boys and one on the way. Sam (the youngest boy) was so tired he fell asleep on the stairs. I wish I could pick him up and play with him. Missionary rules, sometimes are stupid! The Zea's just had gotten two new foster kids as well so they are super busy. I think Sister Zea is the definition of a Saint. They are also super active in the Church and fellowship a new family every week. I think that's the greatest thing I have ever heard. After supper, Sister Zea dropped us off at the Clarke's.
I cannot express my love for the Clarke's. It's like that same feeling I get when I go to Utah and walk into Nana and Papa's house and see them and Katie, Avery and Haley. I walk into that house and I got Brother Clarke messing around with me and Sister Clarke telling him to knock it off, kinda just like nana and Papa. Kaitlyn is their granddaughter that is Elise's age. She's way fun to talk to. I'm always mentioning Elise or thinking about her when I talk to Kaitlyn. When Maureen walked in, I got so excited. I looked forward to seeing her all week. She is beautiful. She ran in to tell me she didn't read 3 Nephi 11. So, she was going to read it upstairs real quick. I told her not to worry about it. Plus, Sister Clarke was getting all new windows installed and a new door. They looked so good and Maureen appreciates the small things so, of course, we had to look at what was going on. We had a nice chat before the lesson and Kaitlyn was painting cardboard that said BOB. I don't exactly know what that means but that's okay. We started the lesson with a prayer like always. Brother Clarke offered it. We invited the Spirit and this time, it was super strong. Sister Tam asked her about her reading and she said she didn't have that much time which is okay. We decided to start reading 3 Nephi 11 about Jesus Christ coming down and showing everyone His hands and feet. I kept watching Maureen as she read and she studied those words. She seemed really intrigued by the words she read. Every one to three verses, we asked what was happening and I kept expressing what it meant to me. In 3 Nephi 11 verse 3, it talks about how a voice came down from Heaven. It reads...."it was not a harsh voice, neither was it a loud voice; nevertheless, and notwithstanding it being a small voice it did pierce them that did hear to the center..." I mentioned how I really liked how it described the voice, that small voice is the one we should be listening to everyday as we are guided. I told them the story of how I got my answer. My answer to serve was an answer I'll never forget. It did pierce my soul. As we read on, we stopped at verses 15 and 16. We asked Maureen what that meant to her. She said she loved how personal it was when He came down. That He suffered for all of us and loves us so much that he was willing to let everyone feel and know who He was. Sister Clarke added that he didn't have to show everyone but He loves us so much that He did. He didn't have to go through the atonement, but He did it out of love. I then felt prompted to mention that out of love when His body and Spirit were separated, He taught in the spirit world. In 1 Peter 3:18-19 it says...'being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the spirit; By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison' I then went on and shared the story of Parker Allred. How he died quickly and out of the blue really, but because he has other work to be done on the other side, just like Christ did. Maureen started to cry and said I'm an angel. She went on and said, "if you were to say this any other lesson then I wouldn't of hit me, but you knew exactly what I needed to hear. I wasn't going to come tonight because this is the hardest time of the year for me. I was at my son's grave site all day today. He was young when he was boating with some friends and drowned, but I knew God was telling me to go and it was so you could show and tell me, what I've been convincing myself for years now. Sister Clarke told her this is why we have temple work. So people can have the opportunity to still get baptized and repent and receive the Holy Ghost. She said we were actually wondering if you'd like Christian (her son) to have his temple work done. Maureen freaked out saying how she was just thinking about that and how her and Sister Clarke have never talked about this and how crazy it was that it crossed her mind for the first time and Sister Clarke mentioned it. She recognized that was from God. Christian's temple work will be done shortly. Sister Tam and I were so excited. I then showed her D&C 76:51-53 and showed her the steps to return with our Heavenly Father, which are faith in Jesus Christ and His atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end. I showed her 1 Corinthians 15:40-41 where it talks about kingdoms of glory. Which I don't understand why other religions don't talk about that when it's in the Bible as well. We went back to D&C 76 and showed her the requirements for each kingdom and then asked her what one she was aiming for. She said the Celestial Kingdom with Christian! I asked Maureen if she was willing to follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized by someone holding the proper authority of God. She said, "don't push it! You already got one today!" but then said she has been thinking about it.
Of course, other things happened this week like service, lessons, my comp and I getting sick for the last two days and receiving a piano because a member/less active family found out I wanted to learn. I am so blessed and same with everyone else. We just have to learn to count our blessings and look at the little miracles every day instead of the negative things, it's all about attitude!
Love you all,
Sister Rexinger
