Miracles and Easter

-Thanks so much for sending pictures, I love seeing them, especially BYU Lax....i miss lacrosse....
-I will probably have Skype capabilities for Mother’s Day. I'll check more in depth.
-Well I thought we were going to have a District Meeting on Wednesday where we'd do Pizza, (Alex is treating the sisters and elders to lunch for his birthday)but it's a Zone Meeting...oops...I may need a few extra dollars in my primary account. Sorry!
-My pants are starting to wear out a bit. I'm going to look for some fabric but I may just ask you to send some if that's alright.

Well I'll start this off by saying I'm going to transfer day!!!! I'm not being transferred though but I'll be up there to get my new companion. There's a chance it could be a new missionary...I think Elder M.is pretty excited to be transferred. Not because of our companionship but because our work is so so tough and sometimes he feels like we're not making any progress here. Hopefully I'll get my Preach My Gospel at transfer day that I'm having get leather bound. It's been 6 MONTHS! It's always fun to go to transfer day and see old friends. This will be a tough week as work goes because we have exchanges later today, our Zone Meeting, Transfer Day, and then General Conference.

Mom, you wondered about the 29 year old man and if we had contact with him...we sure did! With his schedule we can only teach him on Sunday afternoons after church so we didn't teach him before church. We texted him to remind him and prayed he'd come to church. Well he showed up about an hour early to church with Book of Mormon in hand and sat down quietly and started reading. Because Conference is next week for us, this past week was Fast and Testimony meeting. During the meeting he asked me if he could bear his testimony. I was a little apprehensive but felt like it was ok. So he went up and started bearing his testimony. Through his tears he said he didn't believe in God at a certain point in his life. He told the story of how we "accidenty" met him. He said that "Brother Elder Yost and Brother Elder M." as he called us left him a Book of Mormon and challenged him to read. This may be a little dramatic, but he had a Parley Pratt like experience where he could not stop reading. He said, "As I started reading this Book, I felt peace, happiness, and joy I have never felt before in my life. I want to repent, I want to be a better person, I want to follow Jesus Christ." He said, I KNOW the Book of Mormon is true, the Holy Spirit has born witness to my heart." He then said, "I've been to a lot of Churches; I thought this one would be the same. But when I walked in the front door this morning, I felt like I was walking into the presence of the Lord." Needless to say I'm beaming from ear to ear, speechless. We honestly just gave him a Book of Mormon and challenged him to read. This is probably the biggest miracle I've seen on my mission so far. After his very lengthy testimony he sat down and all the members wanted to shake his hand as he went back to his seat! Later that day I was teaching him in the Gospel Essentials class, and I asked him if he had any questions. He said he had one. He'd read in the Book of Mormon that we need to be baptize, and he wanted to know when he could be baptized. I honestly was speechless; he probably thought I was mute! This man is not married yet, so we need to get that squared away and hopefully him and his wife will be baptized at the same time.


This man will give us additional Priesthood Leadership. This man has known about the Book of Mormon for a whole week and he has a strong testimony. Also in ward council we were talking about Less-Actives and home teaching. They are trying to understand the importance of home teaching. I continue to share with them how important fellowship is to our Less-Actives and how they need to feel the love of the members. Please pray for little our Branch.

I thought the other day about that Easter Book mom made that she brought out each Easter, and specifically about Palm Sunday. It is so amazing how the Savior came into Jerusalem with shouts of Hosanna and "Praise be to the Son of David", and within a few days he was crucified. I've often wondered how in the world is that possible. I recently watched the Bible videos (on lds.org) where the Savior is in Gethsemane. It is completely and utterly incomprehensible to us the pain he had to bear. May we remember the true meaning of Easter this week, not just on Sunday. May we remember the Savior's journey. As Elder Holland said, we all need to take at least a step into Gethsemane. We'll never understand what those grueling hours in Gethsemane to the cross were like, but in order to more fully appreciate him and his love, we must venture in even just a tad. Despite all that was before the Savior, he emerged from Gethsemane victorious, and so can we. Here in the Philippines the cross is so visible and everywhere. May we celebrate the true meaning of this week, and that is He is Risen. May we stand by him in all things and in all places, and we two, will emerge triumphant from whatever we may face through his grace and love.

I love you all!!!