April 17, 2017 - Week 95

Mom,

Happy Easter!! How was it for all of you guys?? It's always such a peaceful weekend to be able to spend time with those we love the most and remember the Lord and his triumphant sacrifice, and resurrection and what it means for each one of us! Each day I gain more of an appreciation for the Lord`s sacrifice and His life. This year the dyed eggs and the Easter egg hunts were absent but it still was a great Easter Sunday for Elder Wood and me here in Choix. I tried to read a little bit about Resurrection Sunday yesterday. One of my favorite stories is in Luke 24 when the resurrected Lord appears to the two disciples on the road to Emaus and breaks bread with them, serves as a good reminder of the purpose the sacrament still has in our lives.

Many people this week were out of town because in Mexico they always do their spring break in conjunction with Holy Week. Which is both good and bad. We did the inagural branch activity and had a less than thrilling turnout haha. A couple of members came, but a family of investigators we had came and they really enjoyed themselves, so in my mind it was a success! Haha. The branch is progressing well and we are working hard with the members. This week none of them could give us food, so we had to fend for ourselves.

Working with the members more has yielded some good fruits in the form of great members references. I feel like the people from the tiny towns like Choix are a lot more receptive and know pretty much all of the members of the branch. One of those experiences was when we were working with the branch pres` wife, she introduced us to her friend. I think we caught her at a not-so ideal time cause she was very very tired and was even falling asleep at times. But then all of a sudden she opened up and started telling us about many questions she has had for a long time about her family and God`s plan for them. That launched into a long talk and also her confessing a long time desire to know if God has a church that he has established. So it was a really positive experience. Often times we don't know what will become of things like that, but it never ceases to amaze me the way the Lord answers prayers! We are still working with another family, they were on vacation all of week so we haven't seen them for over a week. Hopefully there will be a baptism in the next couple of weeks!!

This week I will be in Los Mochis working with Elder Callens, who is one of my good friends who started the mission the same time as me. We had Pday today, a zone conference tomorrow, and then a couple days to work together so I'm really looking forward to it. Hopefully I'll have some good experiences to write to you guys about next Monday! I can't believe that those 3 are getting married. It's coming up soon, if only you could be in more than one place at once. Really poor planning by them, they should've been more considerate. (hopefully my sarcasm rang through in text). Lol. Well, I hope you guys have a great week.. how many weeks are left of school, there cant be too many right?? I hope you guys know how much I love and pray for you all!!

All Love!!

Ryan