Tuesday, April 22, 2014

I saw the Easter Bunny!!! (Conejo de la Pasqua)

My family!!

Happy Easter!  Thank you so much for the awesome Easter package!  It was really great!  I wore that tie that you gave me the next day (I got the package on Saturday), and I had a ton of people say how much they liked my tie. =)  I also got something from the Brown family; if you have a chance, please tell them thanks for me.

Well, lots of stuff happened this week.  Last Monday we went to lunch at a Mexican restaurant that I had never been to before.  It was the first time I've ordered in Spanish in a restaurant before! (that I can remember)  The waiter was really surprised that we knew Spanish...

Speaking of restaurants, we have had some exciting things happen at the local Chipotle.  Turns out one of the managers is a less active member, so when we went to pay for our food, she had told the guy at the register to give it to us for free!  She came out and talked to us for a while, then said that she would give us our food free whenever we came if she was there!  So we might be going to Chipotle more often now...

I went on exchanges with Elder Taylor this past week, and we had to make a stop at the DMV because he needed to get a new license.  Except guess what?  In Ohio, there are no DMV's!  Here they're called BMV's...  Weird...

With the combination of really nice weather and Easter weekend, tons of people were outside this past week, so we had lots of opportunities for street-contacting!  Because of that, we found so many new people that speak Spanish it's crazy!  We're really excited for all of these new people we've contacted.  All of these new contacts also gave us lots of opportunities to apply the Spanish missionary training we got a few weeks ago.  The work is going to explode in the area pretty soon!

We had my first real member referral this past week.  A sister in the English ward speaks Spanish and has become really good friends with a lady from Argentina who live near our home that we didn't know about.  This sister told us about her friend and asked us if we'd like to take over some Easter treats and introduce ourselves.  Of course we did!  We went over there, and this lady (B----) was very interested in the church.  She told us that she could see the peace and happiness in the sister that had befriended her, and she wanted that in her life.  She asked us what was different about our church than other churches.  Well... =) So we will be teaching B---- tomorrow in the home of this sister!  This was a great example to me of how important it is to be an example and a friend to those around us, as well as giving the missionaries referrals... =)

A missionary recently got home from Guatemala here in the English ward, and we took him out with us to teach for the first time this past week.  As luck would have it, all of our plans fell through.  So we decided that we would try a potential house that just happened to have 4 Guatemaltecos living in it.  This RM loved it!  He started talking to these 4 guys from Guatemala, and there was a few minutes where I didn't have a clue what was going on because they were just talking about all of the geography down there and using all sorts of Guatemalan slang that I didn't know.  He connected really well with these guys, and we were able to have a really good lesson and set up another appointment.  I put this in here because it was a good reminder to me that in order to help people accept the Gospel, we have to love them and be their friends first. 

And now the part you’ve all been waiting for…the part where I tell you about how I saw the Easter Bunny!!
Yep that’s right, even though Nachistis said she was going to hunt the Easter Bunny, she obviously
didn’t catch him, because we saw him in Huber Heights! We were headed back to our house Sunday night, and as we were driving through the neighborhood, we saw a little bunny hopping across the lawns. Obviously the Easter Bunny heading home after a long day of work!

I hope you had the opportunity to see the video the church put out for Easter.  If not, you can find it at mormon.org/BecauseofHim. (or something like that)  It was a really good video.  It helps put in perspective the real meaning of Easter.  I am so grateful for my Savior and for the sacrifice He made for me.  Because of Him I have the chance to work out my salvation.  I have the amazing opportunity to become a better person every day.  Every day I come short of perfection, but because of Him my weaknesses can become strengths and I can one day return to live with my Father in Heaven.  As President Porter puts it: "Every minute of every day is about the atonement."

Thank you so much for all you do for me and for each other!  I really enjoyed seeing all of the pictures of your Easter celebrations.  I laughed quite a bit at the difference in money found and at the dumb-looking lion-cat.  I bet he's not happy about that.  At all.

Well, that's about it!  Until next week!

Love,

Elder Foote       

Elder Foote's Easter Package