HAPPY EASTER!!!!

Dear Family & Friends,

HAPPY EASTER!!  What a wonderful time of the year!!  The resurrection of the Savior and the renewal of life are so uplifting and full of joy and peace!!

This past week went pretty well in the office.  Jim had a few emergencies (such as power ready to be cut off) to take care of but was also able to actually get things done that he was needing to do.  I sent out letters, got 5 new missionary recommends in the emails on Tuesday so had busy days taking care of everything that needs to be done for them.  I also started working on the Departure Notebooks that will be given to the Departing Missionaries at the end of April.

Each week President Wakolo sends out an email to all the missionaries.  He often includes experiences that missionaries had shared with him.  I am going to share one now:

“This week was walk week. . . . It rained last walk week, and we got stuck in it, and it rained this walk week, and we got stuck in it again!  It always seems to rain a lot on our walk week.  Oh well, though, it broke my companion in!  Ha ha!  Nothing like walking over 15 miles a day to start off your mission!  As you would say, ‘sweet is the work!!’  However, the Lord blessed us for putting up with the rain by leading us to someone very elect.  We found him at a different investigator’s house.  He let us in and let us teach him the restoration, and the lesson went awesome!  He understood everything, from the priesthood, to dispensations, and the purpose of reading and praying about the Book of Mormon!  We said at the start of the lesson that we weren’t perfect teachers, but that the spirit would be the teacher for him, and we invited him to look for it, and he recognized it, but he also said that we were pretty close to prefect teachers!!  We did teach well, but it wasn’t us, it was the spirit.  I have definitely felt the spirit more in my missionary work in the past weeks, and I’ve definitely noticed its impact on our investigators and even on me.  I know the right things to say at the right, time, what scriptures to use at the right time, the right questions to ask, and how to overcome people’s concern when they have them.  It’s awesome!  Because the spirit was there so strong, he accepted a baptismal date as well.  He is awesome and I hope he will progress.”

Powerful!!!  So proud of our good missionaries and the good work they are doing.

A big thing that happened a week ago was that the musical, “Book of Mormon,” was performed in Memphis, which is part of our mission.  So the mission president went over and the missionaries had permission to stay up and hand out Books of Mormon to people as they went in and out of the theater.  They handed out over 2,000 Books of Mormon.  Some people were rude, but many were nice and accepted the gift.  And the missionaries got lots of referrals!! 

We went out to dinner on Wednesday night (Fridays and Saturdays are just too busy!!) and enjoyed that.  On Friday we watched the Mormon Tabernacle Choir presentation of “Messiah.”  How majestic!!  Saturday was cleaning and catching up day.  Then we went to Larry’s to watch the kids show us tricks on the trampoline, the adults played some badminton and later Gary joined us, we all colored eggs, then we ate some delicious barbecued ribs that Larry had been cooking for awhile.  Then we drove to our chapel and I watched the Women’s Session Broadcast while Jim worked in the office.  Went home and to bed.

Then this morning, we attended our ward and enjoyed and wonderful Easter program with beautiful music and wonderful talks about the Savior’s Atonement and Resurrection.  After the block, we followed Larry and Holly to their friend’s house in Hot Springs where we had a delicious potluck dinner, followed by a great Easter egg hunt, and enjoying lots of dessert and visiting. 

Now we are home and enjoying the peace of the Easter Sabbath Day.

This is Elder Hartzell, I just wanted to add a testimony about personal revelation.  When I was perplexed with a particular finance problem when we served in Japan, I received an answer almost immediately after a fervent prayer. This week I was struggling with another financial question, and didn’t know how to proceed. This answer came by waking me up at 3:30 AM so I could write down this procedure that I needed.  I was again so thankful for answers that come in various ways.  When we have done all that we can, then the Lord will help us find the answers we seek.  The struggle is part of the journey and from which we grow the most.

Our love to you all,

Elder and Sister Hartzell

This is our official "Welcome to the Mission" photograph, standing with President and Sister Wakolo