May 27, 2014

Dear Family,

It has been one great week. It was kick started with an amazing zone conference on Tuesday. I was sitting in zone confernce thinking about how I used to go to EFY for a week to learn about the gospel and have a good time, and Mom and Dad paid so I could go have a great week. As a missionary, this is my life! I get to learn about the gospel every day and live it! And President Eaton is a top quality teacher. We had an amazing discussion about the Atonement at the beginning of the conference. There were about 50 missionaries in one room, all studying and sharing about the Atonement and what we had learned about Christ on our missions. It was a powerful discussion. One scripture that was shared that I loved was D&C 3:9-10

" 9 Behold, thou art Joseph, and thou wast chosen to do the work of the Lord, but because of transgression, if thou art not aware thou wilt fall.

 10 But remember, God is merciful; therefore, repent of that which thou hast done which is contrary to the commandment which I gave you, and thou art still chosen, and art again called to the work;"

The Lord tells Joseph that he has made mistakes, but because of the Atonement of Christ, Joseph can repent, and he is still a chosen servant. Each of us are the same. We will not be called to be prophets of God, but we each have a role to play in God's kingdom, whether it be as a teacher, leader, missionary, friend, or a mother! And we are not perfect and we make mistakes, but we can always repent. We never lose value in the eyes of the Lord. I love the talk by Brad Wilcox "His Grace is Sufficient." He talks about how Christ's grace doesn't "make up" the difference. It makes ALL the difference. You can find it on lds.org if you just put it in the search box.

The rest of the week was great as well. We are working on talking with everyone we see. We find miracles when we do! But sometimes it can be discouraging, when people don't want to talk with us, appointments fall through, or people just aren't as committed or honest as they seem. But it's all in good fun. We "just keep swimming!" as Dory did. Sister Evans-Bottoms quoted that this week to a lady who was recently baptized. I think that's fitting. But anyways, we had a lesson with a man this week who wasn't at a previous appointment. We saw him walking down the road one day, parked and jumped out of our car, and talked with him. He said we caught him and that he would meet with us again! He seems to be holding a lot of weight about the things of his past. He believes in Christ, but is having a hard time allowing Christ to help him. He lives alone, and he is on oxygen. We taught him on his doorstep about the Restoration. We invited him to church, and he said we would come, but we weren't sure if he would. It got to be Sunday, we were sitting in church, and Sister Evans-Bottoms tapped me and told me to look over, and he came! He had to leave early, but he told us to stop by on Tuesday! It was so exciting! It's the best thing ever when we try so hard to help them understand how Christ can help them, and then to see them enjoying church, or reading the Book of Mormon, or praying with us, especially when they are going through a lot of trials. Best feeling ever. The gospel is just so awesome!

We had two awesome opportunities to serve this week! One, we helped move a family into their new apartment. It was so fun to get to know them and help them and to see their burden be made just a little lighter. We love to help people do physical labor, but we don't get a lot of opportunities to do it. I think people don't realize we have pants we can change into and that we don't always wear skirts! Something that touched me was that the oldest daughter in this family thanked us for listening to her talk about her art hobby as we took a short break in the moving process. It feels good to know that we can help others just by listening to them. Sometimes that means the most to people! Another opportunity we had to serve came from the downstairs neighbor of one of our investigators. This lady's name is Lori. She has an amazing story, and I feel ok sharing it, because she says she likes to share it to help others. The reason we were helping her was because she just had knee surgery! it was funny how we met her too. We were just coming out of a lesson with our investigator and this dog came running at us, barking. Lori told us he was harmless and then we started talking with her and found out about her knee and we offered to come help her with stuff. She readily accepted! It was awesome how Heavenly Father placed her in our path. We came over the next day and helped her clean a little bit, and she shared her story with us. She is 31 but has been through enough stuff for 3 lifetimes! She suffered different kinds of abuse when she was young. She left home at the age of 14 and was homeless for a while. She used some pretty awful drugs in the process. And she was atheist the whole time. She had had some pretty bad experiences with church. Then she started to wonder what she was missing that her friends of faith had that she did not have. She said the last thing she turned to was God. But when she did she really turned! She has such strong faith now in Christ and has become a completely different person. Her face was glowing with happiness even though she had been through so many awful things. She truly has become a "new creature in Christ," she told us. (2 Cor. 5:17) She told us she has many atheist friends that are so upset with her change, but that she keeps telling them of Christ. I shared with her the story of Abinadi in the Book of Mormon, and how he was preaching to people who wanted to kill him! But he kept preaching, because he knew that's what Heavenly Father wanted and needed him to do. And because of that Alma heard the message about Christ and went on to teach and baptize hundreds. She appreciated that story. She said that her door is open for us if we ever need anything. She is such an awesome lady! By the way Mosiah 12-18 might just be my new favorite chapters in the Book of Mormon. They are so awesome! They tell Abinadi's and Alma's stories. And they are all about the coming of Christ!

Well, I've got to go! Love you all sooooo much!

Love,

Sister Mecate

May 19, 2014

Dear Family,

Yes, I made it to 22! My life is complete! Haha, I'm kidding. I'm excited for all that I will keep learning as I get older. It's a weird feeling to have a birthday on a mission, because every day is very similar. It feels just like any other day (besides all the wonderful birthday wishes I have received!) This birthday will be wonderful, because I'm sure Heavenly Father has some miracles to share with Sister Evans-Bottoms and I as we open our mouths to share the gospel. He always does. I must make one complaint before I begin the rest of my email. I have had to lower my standards and throw away things that could have been recycled! I almost died of the horror! Washington has failed me. In Maple Valley we had recycling dumpsters. But here in Auburn, we only have a trash compacter, which I guess is better than nothing. I was just horrified as I watched all of our plastic and cardboard items go into a trash dumpster. What has this world come to?! Anyways, it's ok, I moved on. I will just have to live with it. Bringing souls unto Christ is more important than my personal quest to save the earth. But I think there are some connections we can make between the two. The earth has really become polluted as mankind as progressed in knowledge and technology. We have to make a constant effort to keep the earth clean with all the awful things we are putting in it. There are many programs formed to remove pollution that has already contaminated the earth. Similarly, the earth is spiritually polluted in many ways. Many of God's commandments have been forgotten. As we live the gospel, we can keep ourselves clean from spiritual pollution. There are many programs we have that provide us with the knowledge and protection we need to remove pollution or to keep it from ever entering our homes-seminary, church, mutual, family scripture study and prayer, family home evening, general conference. The Lord has provided us with endless sources in which we can find spiritual strength, protection, and peace in a world that is doing everything possible to take those things away. Not to mention, we have a living prophet of God on the earth! who gives us counsel and guidance from the Lord himself so that we can obtain the greatest blessings of this life, and we can return to live with our Heavenly Father again. "And hehath said that: Inasmuch as ye shall keep my commandments ye shall prosper in the land; but inasmuch as yewill not keep my commandments ye shall be cut off from my presence." 2 Nephi 1:20. We must never forget the commandments of God, because they are what will bring us the greatest joy and happiness. So many of God's children have! That is why we must share these things with them. And the Lord will help us as we do.

This week has been filled with miracles. We have been striving to talk with everyone that we see about the gospel. One thing that we talked about in district meeting was sharing our testimonies. As we implemented that counsel this week, we not only had better conversations with others, I myself felt my testimony strengthen as I shared it!

We had a lesson with a young man who lives with is brother and sister. He works for a concrete company at the age of 19-lots of hard labor! We were able to teach him and his brother the restoration. The Spirit was so strong! His brother said he had spent time in jail before and that he felt good talking about God and Jesus Christ. It felt peaceful. When we asked the young man to pray and ask whether Joseph Smith was a prophet, he humbly said he would. As he started to pray, he got a little nervous and told us about how he always got the chills (in a good way!) when he prayed. We told him that was the Spirit! We invited him to be baptized after he prayed and he said it was something he needed to talk to his mom about, but he gladly invited us back to his home, and was so excited to read the Book of Mormon. When we got up to leave after that lesson, none of us wanted to go, because the Spirit was so strong. When you are so happy in a moment, and you know that God's Spirit is with you, it's hard to leave. I love when we are able to teach those who are humble and sincere in heart. They teach me so much.

Later that week, we met a lady who has been taught by missionaries before. She gladly invited us back to her home. When we went the next day, she wanted to know what her purpose was, so we started teaching the plan of salvation. She said, "Yes, I already know this! I just want to know how I can be a part of God's church!" So we went ahead and set a baptismal date for her! She is so sweet and meek and wants to serve God. We left the Plan of Salvation pamphlet with her, and when we came back she told us she read it and she thought it was written just for her! We have been praying to find those who are prepared to hear about the gospel, and Heavenly Father hears our prayers. He is leading us to them. Because He loves us, He will always hear and answer His children's prayers.

I love you all so much. Thank you for the birthday wishes. Have a great day at home for me, and I will have a great day here!

Love,

Sister Mecate

May 13, 2014

Dear Family,

I am so happy I got to see your beautiful faces! I must say, nobody's personality has changed one bit! It's fantastic! You guys keep me going. Thanks for all that you do!

I was thinking about what Dad said, that every Sunday was the best thing of the year. I would have to agree. Sunday's are the best. When we go to church and take the sacrament, we get to start over again. We renew our covenants with God, and we receive power from on high to continue on in life and do better the next week than we did the last. We get to be surrounded by people who also go through struggles and have hectic lives, but who believe in Jesus Christ as well. And what I love is that God always seems to answer my prayers through those at church who speak or teach. Sometimes I even receive answers to prayers I have not yet prayed, God knows me so well! And this past Sunday was wonderful, because we got to celebrate the wonderful gift of motherhood and all that our moms have done for us. Our Bishop gave an especially touching talk about the roles that women play in life. He talked about how women should be treated with the greatest respect, and how we have certain spiritual gifts that men do not because of our motherly nature. Women and men were created to work together in marriage to raise God's Spirit children! I am so grateful for families. "The family is ordained of God." (The Family: A proclamation to the world) Families are central to God's plan. I am so grateful to know that because of the Savior, we can be with our families forever, and especially because I get to be with MY wonderful family!

This week we have seen miracles as we have talked with lots of people! I think I keep saying this every week, but it's true! We met one lady this week who has more Mormon friends than not. She said she is more spiritual than religious, but she has a wayward son that she is struggling to help. We testified of how our message can help her. We told her of Alma who prayed for his wayward son, Alma the younger, in the Book of Mormon. She wanted a copy of her own so she could read the story! We are going back to teach her whole family next week. We also have met very many interesting people as we have talked with everyone. Life is never boring here in Auburn!

Oh, I cannot believe I forgot to tell you this, but Riley and Devaughn, the two little boys we were teaching in Maple Valley, got baptized last week! I will have to get some pictures printed out and send them! Also, their cousins Trsistan and Colton were baptized. I was allowed to drive back to Maple Valley for the baptism. There was a special Spirit there. I was especially touched when Riley was baptized, because I didn't know if it would be scary for him to go under the water. But he did, and he seemed very happy! Then they were all confirmed and given the Gift of the Holy Ghost there. It was a blessing to get to go back and be there that day!

I'm out of time! I love you guys!

Love,

Sister Mecate

May 5, 2014

Dear Family,

It's been one great week. First of all, the sun came out! Second of all, that means people come out! We talked to so many people this week, and we saw so many miracles from it. We talked to one guy about the apostasy, the restoration, and about God's mercy. His wife said she definitely wasn't interested in talking about religion. Before we could ask if we could come back to talk with him, he said,"Well, ya, I'm definitely interested. I'm off of work Tuesday. Would that work?" I've never had anyone invite us back before we could ask! It was awesome! And he is an awesome guy! We will have to talk with his wife to get her to feel of the Spirit! And then yesterday we talked to a couple about the restoration. They were outside watching their nieces, nephew, and daughter. After we talked with them for a while, the guy told us he was "baptized Mormon" when he was younger, but that he wanted to be re-baptized now that he knew more what it was about. We didn't explain that he wouldn't need to be re-baptized, but we will later. He's been through a lot in his life and he recognizes the need to make good choices. He and his girlfriend also want to be married. And they want to come to church with is on Sunday. We are going back this week to teach them more. It is such a neat feeling to talk with so many people and to meet those who are seeking light. And to see how God leads and guides His children. I know that he is truly aware of each of us!

Yesterday, taking the sacrament was more powerful than it has been other weeks. I really felt the need to have a Savior for all the world. I was really seeking the comfort and healing balm of the Atonement, because of some of the sad things that I've seen happen in the world. There are many, many, bad things that happen in this world. And many people suffer and go through things they would never desire or choose for themselves. It is heart-braking. But God does not desire for His children to suffer. If people don't know about Jesus Christ, they might not understand that. Everyone needs Him-they need a Savior. I have probably quoted this from Preach My Gospel before, but I love it so I will again. "All that is unfair about life can be made right through the Atonement of Jesus Christ." That means that whatever aches we carry in our hearts or whatever pains we suffer physically, we can be healed through the Atonement, no matter how great the sin, how difficult the trial, or how trying the offense. It is all covered by His Atonement. And I am so grateful to be able to, every week, partake of the sacrament, be cleansed of my sins, and to feel the love of the Savior as I renew my covenants with Heavenly Father. And every moment of every day we have the opportunity to find peace through prayer. It's an open invitation. It's never God that draws away from us-we draw away from Him.We live in a fallen world. But we can get glimpses of heaven as we live the gospel, continually striving to come closer to the Savior each day. This is what everyone needs to know! "Wherefore, how great the importance to make these things known unto theinhabitants of the earth, that they may know that there is no flesh that can dwell in the presence of God, ^asave itbe through the merits, and mercy, and grace of the Holy Messiah, who ^blayeth down his life according to theflesh, and taketh it again by the power of the Spirit, that he may bring to pass the ^cresurrection of the dead,being the first that should rise." 2 Nephi 2:8

Oh, I almost forgot. We had one of the best Restoration lessons of my whole mission this week, all because of one little boy's faith. Some of the Hermanas that used to be in the White River Ward referred us to a lady that they taught once. We went and taught her and her 4 kids about the Restoration. One of her sons was so into it. He prayed at the end and asked Heavenly Father, very specifically, if He really appeared to Joseph Smith, and if what we taught was true. It was the sweetest prayer, how he prayed with so much faith! And after the prayer, he was just beaming! He told us he felt peaceful, and we told him that was the Spirit! He said he believes it's true. He asked for a Book of Mormon before we could offer him one. The only problem is his step mom is really controlling, so we hope she lets him keep learning! Imagine if we all prayed with the faith of children.

 "Doctrine and Covenants section 8 teaches that revelation is knowledge—“knowledge of whatsoever things [we]ask in faith, with an honest heart, believing that [we] shall receive.”⁷ 

And the Lord tells us how we will receive this revelation. He says, “I will tell you in your mind and in your heart,by the Holy Ghost, which shall come upon you and which shall dwell in your heart.”⁸ 

Thus we are taught that revelation can be obtained by asking in faith, with an honest heart, and believing we willreceive.

But notice that the Lord made it very clear when He warned, “Remember that without faith you can do nothing;therefore ask in faith.”⁹ Faith requires work, such as studying it out in your mind, then asking in prayer if it isright." (Elder Aidukaitis-"If Ye Lack Wisdom.")

This little boy is such an inspiration to me with his faith. I hope we can keep teaching him! Oh, and he also thanked us more than once for coming-and he's 10!
Well, time is about up. I love you all! I am so excited to talk to you guys on Sunday! If you ever have any questions for me, let me know!

Love,

Sister Mecate

April 28, 2014

Dear Family,

I cannot believe I forgot to say Happy Anniversary to Mom and Dad! In my defense, I knew it was going to be your anniversary, but when I sit down at the computer to sometimes I forget everything I am going to say! So anyways, Happy Anniversary! I love you so much! It sounds like you had a fun Spring break.

I have also had a great week. It wasn't what we were expecting, but we were blessed in many ways by Heavenly Father. That's what He likes to do-surprises us with what we weren't expecting! For example, we had more set appointments this week than we have ever had so far, and then almost all of them cancelled. So we had to have a bit more faith in order to find people to teach, and we did talk to lots of awesome people! And now hopefully we will be able to teach them this upcoming week. Yesterday, our mission held our first ever mission devotional. We had a missionary choir, which I sang in, and a testimonies from recent converts to the church, and some awesome videos from mormonchannel.org mixed in. It was a wonderful program about the Restoration of the gospel and how we can each receive answers from Heavenly Father through prayer. It was amazing to hear their testimonies of how the power of the priesthood has been restored. One man talked about how an academic understanding of religion is important, but knowing truth through how we feel is more important. Another man (who was just baptized into my ward by the elders!) talked about the role and mission of the Holy Ghost, and read Moroni 10:3-5, "...And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things." At his baptism he bore a beautiful testimony on faith. He is an awesome individual. Another lady, who is just a hoot, talked about how the power of the priesthood blessed her leaders to be inspired with the perfect things to say for her, including the prophet during General Conference. Because of the power of the priesthood, baptism can cleanse us of our sins, and we can receive the Gift of the Holy Ghost. And another woman talked about her conversion story. She belonged to another faith. She had a daughter that struggled with drugs. The daughter went missing one day. While this mother was out looking for her daughter, the missionaries showed up on her doorstep and talked to her son. They ended up praying with him and asking that his sister would be found. Not longer than an hour later, his sister was found. The missionaries went back and taught them about the restored gospel. This woman bore her testimony of how, after being a member fro 4 months, she know that this is God's church, and that the priesthood, or God's power, has been restored to the earth. Once again, it was an awesome program!

We got to help our friend this week, Sister Hughes, organize her apartment. They just moved in a few months ago. Sister Hughes is one of the coolest people ever. She graduated from BYU, and is trying to join the Navy. We've been teaching her husband, Chad, some of the lessons. He's not a member. Sister Hughes is seriously so awesome. She has so much love and so much faith. She knows God hears her and will answer her prayers. You can just feel that she is close with God. I am so grateful to know her.

I have really loved being in anew area. It's nice to have a fresh start. And it's a neat experience to have to adjust to the way missionary work needs to be done in a certain area. Most of Auburn is completely different from Maple Valley, but I love both places! One thing that is the same between areas is that we must always be seeking to do Heavenly Father's will. The Holy Ghost will always tell us what we need to do if we will listen. Something I feel that I need to work on is to slow down and take the time to listen. So often, I want to go out and just get stuff done! It's hard for me to take the time to sit still and listen. I've been that way all my life-I just want to be busy doing lots of good things. But if we will take the time to go to the Lord and ask Him with sincerity of heart, He will tell us of the best things that we can be doing. He will lead us to people we need to meet, or to the job we have been seeking, or to the answer we need to find. He will lead us if we listen. It has been great working with Sister Evans-Bottoms. She has great strengths. She's been through a lot in her life. It's been a great learning experience working with someone who has already been trained and has a way of doing things. We are loving being in this area together. Oh, and I got to see Sister Kirschner and Sister Margaritis at the choir! I love those girls! Sister Kirschner and I had a great time talking about all the people in Maple Valley. Oh, and Riley and Devaughn, those little boys I taught there, are getting baptized on Saturday! So I will get to go see them. It will be great.

I love you all lots. You are in my prayers. Have a wonderful week! The greatest thing you can do to make it a wonderful week is to live the gospel! "But learn that he who doeth the works of ^arighteousness shall receive his^breward, even ^cpeace in this world, and ^deternal life in the world to come." D&C 59:23.

Love,

Sister Mecate

April 21, 2014

Dear Family,

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter! I really enjoyed mine. We had teriayki chicken with home made teriayki sauce-so good! We had dinner with the Ta'a Family. They are just awesome. Sister Ta'a is Tongan and Brother Ta'a is half Samoan and Half Irish and is a convert to the church. We definitely had a lot of good laughs at their home. We are also going to start teaching their son's girlfriend, Brittany! She is so nice and she is just trying to learn what she can about different churches. I told her about Dad's conversion story and I think that really peeked her interest. Church was wonderful as well. All of the talks were about the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Brother Bolles talked a lot about how Jesus Christ is there for us over and over and over again. We can never overuse the Atonement. When we hit our lowest lows, Christ picks us up and we are able to keep going, and we realize after the fact that we were able to keep going because of him. It's very similar to the message that was shared in that video that I shared with you last week called "Because of Him." I hope you all were able to watch it! It's so good!

We had interviews with President Eaton this week. I just feel so blessed to be in this mission. He is great. I feel very inspired and motivated, especially with this week being Easter, to really make changes within myself. I've obviously been working on this my whole mission, as we all do throughout our lives, but I really do feel a new drive in my heart to let Christ in. And that requires a lot of faith. But that's what I tell people to do every day! I was thinking, as I was sitting in church listening to the talks, about the phrase "the grass isn't always greener on the other side." And in reality it isn't! I'm not sure why we as human beings make up this idea that we want something different than what we have, and if we get something different, then we want what we had before. At least, I've experienced this. Anyways, I just started thinking, I need to focus more on making the grass green where I stand! The grass may sometimes look greener on the other side, but I think more often than not, it's just a figment of our imaginations. Heavenly Father gives us certain things in our lives for a reason. He loves us, and He wants us to be happy. "Adam fell that men might be; and men are, that they might have joy." (2 Nephi 2:25) "For behold, this is my work and my glory-to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man." (Moses 1:39) I need to spend more time making the grass green where I stand. We can only find true peace when we are happy with what we have been given in life, especially concerning our own weaknesses and shortcomings. That's not to say that we should settle. We are to "come unto Christ, and be perfected in him" as we live the gospel, and that won't happen in a day. (Moroni 10:32) But we are commanded to "cheerfully do all things that lie in our power," trust in Christ and keep moving forward. (D&C 123:17) In metaphorical terms we are to get down on our hands and knees and nourish the grass where we stand, do our best to make it green, and then rely on the Lord for the rest! In doing this, I know that we find true happiness! Dad, you used to bug me about "Y," when I started complaining too much. I would say "why do we have to do this" or "why do I have to do that?" Just like that ungrateful attitude I had when I was little and had to do something I didn't want to, we can fall into the trap of feeling that way about life. But if we turn it around ask "why does Heavenly Father want me to go through this? What does He want me to learn?" we become much happier!

Things here in Auburn are going great! We meet wonderful (and very interesting people) every day. And I love all the members here. The gospel is just wonderful, I must say! Let us hope and pray that we might be able to share that light and happiness with others as we serve them and as we serve our Heavenly Father. I love you all so much! Have a wonderful week! Mother's day is just around the corner! Along my 22nd birthday-I'm gettin' old! Can't wait to see your faces!

Love,

Sister Mecate

April 14, 2014

Dear family,

Last week I talked about the atonement and Nephi's experience with it. I studied this in Elder Bednar's talk called, "The Enabling Power of the Atonement." So before I forget, you should check out that talk, especially with Easter coming up! Which leads me to my next point! The church has created a video about Jesus Christ called "Because of Him." Visit http://easter.mormon.org/ to watch it and read the story about Jesus' sacrifice for us. It's filled with the Spirit and is a wonderful reminder that Jesus Christ suffered and died for each one of us. He made it so that we could be saved from the storms of this life and from our own weaknesses, fears, and mistakes. Because He died and lived again, so can we. There is no greater knowledge than this, that we have a Savior, that we have a Heavenly Father who would not leave us to bear the burdens of this life alone, that we might have hope, and that we might be able to become free through the atonement of Jesus Christ. I feel privileged to be a representative of Jesus Christ at this time of year, similarly to how I felt around Christmas. I am grateful that we can know every day of the year of the principles of the gospel, that we can have faith in Christ and repent, we can receive strength from baptismal covenants, and rely on the Holy Ghost for peace, comfort, and guidance.

This week was great! We taught lots of lessons and met a lot of people. I am still getting used to all the people here! I just want to talk to them all, but that's not exactly possible. That's why I really need the guidance of the Spirit! By the way, I can't wait to tell you all about the some of the super awkward moments that I've had! I have a feeling I'm getting a little too comfortable with uncomfortable moments. I think I'm going to be super awkward when I get home! Anyways, this week we read the Book of Mormon with one of our investigators and his grandma. It was awesome how they both applied it to themselves. They made the connection with how Lehi and his family were similar to Jospeh and Mary when they were commanded to pack up and leave everything to follow God's plan for them. They also noticed how Nephi was similar to Joseph of Egypt in that he was young, yet he was made a ruler over his brothers because of his righteousness. Those were some eye opening observations to me! I love the Spirit of
the Book of Mormon and I love reading it with others. I always learn so much. We also got to meet one of the families who has 2 boys about to be baptized. The elders in our ward have been teaching them, and we are kind of going to be like on-the-side teachers, I guess. I love those boys! One is 9 and one is 7. They have some trouble concentrating so lessons are a bit crazy, but are so fun. They are just the sweetest and they are so excited to come to church.

The ward members are great. We are slowly, but surely, getting to know them. President Eaton's father and step-mother actually live in our ward! They are so great! Brother Eaton is making us birthday cards, because he apparently has some awesome cartooning skills. We went over to practice teaching them about the Restoration and the Spirit was so strong from all the comments they made. They are awesome people.

 All the families that we've visited are great. One lady in our ward is someone I've met before at zone conferences. She mends our clothes for us. She is so great! I can't remember her name, because it's pretty unique, but she is awesome. She told us how the missionaries taught her years ago and it took her 11 months to decide she wanted to join the church.

I hope you all have a wonderful Easter. I will be thinking about you guys! And even though I've been booted out of the Easter Egg Hunt, because I'm an "adult," I will miss the great fun that we always have! (I hope they still give you some candy, Brooke!) And I hope that we can all remember, amidst the fluffy bunnies, colorful eggs, and yummy candy, that our Savior, Jesus Christ, lives and that we each have the opportunity every day feel of His love in our lives. I LOVE YOU!!!!!!!

Love,

Sister Mecate