Week 74 in the Field - Capture the Flag, Rivera Family, and The Resurrection

Weekly Letter March 21st 2016

Hey guys, I hope everyone has had a great week.

This week was pretty cool; we played water balloon capture the flag with the branch youth for our weekly activity and were able to teach a lot of lessons. We're teaching a cool new family whose last name is Rivera. This week we taught them about the Restoration and they came to church on Sunday. We're working with Nelson so that he can quit smoking and Brenda and her children went on vacation this week but we're hoping to meet with them soon.

As Easter approaches, I hope that each of us will ponder on the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Joseph Fielding Smith wrote of the resurrection, "Now, we have not power to lay down our lives and take them again. But Jesus had power to lay down his life, and he had power to take it up again...He came into the world to die that we might live, and his atonement for sin and death is the force by which we are raised to immortality and eternal life. So Jesus Christ did for us something that we could not do for ourselves, through his infinite atonement. On the third day after the crucifixion he took up his body and gained the keys of the resurrection, and thus has power to open the graves for all men, but this he could not do until he had first passed through death himself and conquered."

I offer to you my testimony that Jesus of Nazareth is indeed Jesus the Christ and that He did indeed rise from the dead. Without the resurrection, Christianity would be but a collection of instructive stores and wise sayings. With the doctrine of the resurrection clear in our minds, Jesus Christ and his gospel become the path to eternal life - a never ending state of happiness made possible through the atonement of our savior. I love you all, have a great week.

-Elder Dawson

To Grandma:

What special plans are being made to celebrate Easter in your areas?

Easter here is "Semana Santa" (Holy Week) and it is basically a week long trip to the river. I don´t think the branch has any special activities planned. Mostly all of the traditions are catholic in nature and people carry huge representations of Jesus on the cross around in the streets (it takes like 20 people to carry them) and they bang on turtle shells and sing hymns.

Will you get another chance to go to the temple in Guatemala before you come home? 

Depends if I go back to the capital or not, we´re too far away here to go to the temple.

By the way, what was on the dish in the photo you sent a couple of weeks ago?---It looked interesting! 

Diced Radish, a lime, black beans, fried chicken patties, potatoes, and green beans.

Did you eat it?

Yes.

Love you grandma! Thanks for the email, have a great week!