Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Happy Easter—email from 04-09-12

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Well...wow. This week has been a crazy week. It hasn't felt like we worked in our area much...oh yeah...because we didn't. We had 5 different doctors appointments to go to for Sister Surtees. And then two trade offs in other areas. Oh and meetings and church. So we got to work together in our area for...well...Thursday evening? hahaha WOW!!!! But I love it. We have had some unique experiences through all of it. Sister Surtees Dr's appointment Monday was one of those. The nurse who was taking care of her noticed her nametag and said "I was raised in that Church." And so we asked a few questions and then it went back to medical stuff. Then as she walked out to get the Dr for his part she said "you're being here makes me feel like I need to go back." Then when she came back later and told Sister Surtees the tests she would be doing this week it scared Sister Surtees a little and she started to cry some. And that's when the dear nurse started to cry too. So they had a spiritual bonding moment and talked about what had her scared. And Sister Surtees told her "This is why we had to come all the way to Orange Park" Because for some mysterious reason even though there are specialists in Beaches we got sent to Orange Park 45 minutes away. And the nurse started to cry again and say " I know God sent you here for a reason." So we hope that we can help her go back to Church and begin feeling the blessings from that again. She was so sweet!

In all of our running around we still got a lot done. This biggest moment of the week was Jordan and Kiara's baptism. Missionaries have been working with the family since Halloween and I've been working with them since I got here in December. I feel like their my own family. So watching the two of them be baptized together yesterday was a huge moment for us and I was so happy to see this family starting the path. The sad part of all of it though is this...Kaloni their dad got sent out to sea the day before the baptism. His ship got called up for duty ahead of time and he got sent out for a while. But they still really wanted to go through with the baptism on Easter Sunday. So the Bishop baptized them instead. It was such a wonderful day! And the Elders that we share a building with had a baptism too! So it was a baptism filled day! I love days like that!

Then the Relief Society president called us in the afternoon and asked who we were going to for Easter Dinner...Sister Surtees sheepishly replied that no one had invited us. Sister Alexander said "Thank the Spirit for prompting me to call you then!" And they invited us to join them in the family Easter Dinner. They live in a country and yacht club here. I was BLOWN AWAY by the sizes on the houses and the yachts everyone had! Then we got to their house and we were taken into a fancy dining room with china and silver and goblets. I felt like a little kid in a palace and felt sooooo awkward. They looked like a Harvard scholars type family and we didn't know what to expect. But when the joke "What do you call ten rabbits walking backwards? ..... a receding hairline!" was told, we knew we would be comfortable. They were hilarious and fun to be with. I am so grateful she called us and fed us!

Oh, and I talked in sacrament meeting yesterday. They asked me to talk on the true meaning of Easter. It was a lot of pressure. But I had a really good week studying the history of Easter and the week of Christ's atonement and it's relation to the Passover. It was mind blowing!
Wow...this has gotten long...here are the pictures from the baptism!

The first two are Bishop Harding, Jordan, Kiara, and us! YAY!

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Oh and we taught a boy the Gospel of Jesus Christ with Easter Eggs this week! It was so much fun! I wrote the basic principles of the gospel on the eggs in white crayon and then we put them in the dye and pulled them out as we taught each principle. So here's some pictures from that activity.

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Oh... and the eggs around my neck...well...I was bored!

I love y'all! Keep up the change! It's a painful process sometimes but how do we expect our lives to get better unless we be the change once in a while?

love,

Sister McCracken

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