Easter Cookies, Haiti, Epic Easter Weekend

We try to think of different ways to share Gospel messages with our pickleball friends.  Since this week was Easter, we decided to put a message of "The Greatest Easter Story Ever Told!" (3 Nephi 11:1-17) on nice paper and attach it to a plate of cookies.  Elder Gary Stevenson, in the April 2023 General Conference, talked about sharing the Easter Story of Christ's resurrection and visit to the people in ancient America.  So that's what we decided to do.  I made a batch of sugar cookies and cut them out in egg shapes, and we decorated them with frosting. We also made a pan of mint brownies.  I got the cookies made on Tuesday, but we ran out of time to finish everything up to be ready to deliver on our Wednesday morning pickleball day.  So we woke up at 5 am Wednesday, made the brownies, plated the cookies and brownies, added the prepared message and headed off to pickleball with two big boxes containing 20 plates of cookies.  Yes, they were well received!  I started to tell our friends that the cookies might expand their waistline, but the message would change their life!  I hope it does!

We saved three plates of cookies to give to our neighbors.  We have one neighbor that we've come to know a bit ever since we delivered Christmas cookies to he and his family a few months ago.  His name is Jason, and he loved our Christmas cookies.  A couple of weeks ago I was just walking out our front door with freshly baked banana muffins to take to District Council, when Jason walked by.  I offered him a muffin, which he took with him on his way.  So we knocked on his door this evening, and he was sure excited to see us!  He said he loved the banana muffin!  He's so nice whenever I see him.  I hope he reads the message included with the cookies.  

Our Haitian convert, Jay, texted Stan earlier this week and said he would like to meet with us to talk about something on his mind.  We set up a meeting time at the Church on Friday.  We had no idea what his concern was, so we went with a prayerful attitude hoping to help.  You may have read in the news recently of all the civil unrest in Haiti.  He told us he feels like his family is safe, but he's still concerned about their well being and that of his friends and their community.  He would like to figure out a way to collect some money to send to them so they can buy food, or send food over to them.  There is so much corruption in the government there.  We told him about the Church's Humanitarian program, and that most likely the Church was helping with some Humanitarian needs in his country.  His family aren't members of the Church, but we were able to find (on Tools) the location of the Church nearest to his family, and the Branch Presidents name and phone #.  Jay was happy to get that information so he could share it with his family.  I admire Jay for his desire to help and give anything above what he needs to pay his bills.  He's quite an amazing young man.  He's currently looking for another job.  He's not getting very many hours with his current employment.  He's a hard worker and pretty industrious, so hopefully he'll find something soon.  We will continue to see how we can help him.

Saturday was an EPIC Day!  We  met with our ward at the Church at 8:30 am, had a prayer, and then headed off to the Los Angeles Temple, a 2 1/2 hour drive.  We traveled through a massive rain storm, but we all arrived safely.  The LA Temple is really big; in fact, it is the largest working temple (Salt Lake is bigger).  We could see the temple spire from quite a ways away, it is much taller than the spires on the more recent temples.  

We had 21 YSA's attend the temple.  They were scheduled to do Baptisms, Endowments, and Sealings.  We went down to the baptistry first, and our group hadn't arrived yet.  So Stan went back upstairs to wait for them there.  After a while, our group started to filter in so I stood up to walk over to them.  As I was greeting the YSA, I looked up, and there were Elder & Sister Riddle, the couple we served in the office with on our New Jersey mission!  They are currently serving in Anaheim on a mission, but who would have guessed that we would run into them in the temple.  They had just arrived to attend a wedding when Stan walked up stairs to find our group.  It was a  miracle that they happened to run into each other.  So they came down to the basement so I could see them.  It was wonderful to give them hugs and say "Hi"!  

This day was made extra special because two of our new converts, Eric and Angelica, were with us in the temple for their first time.  Stan was able to baptize Eric for some of his family, and Angelica was baptized for her half-sister, who died several years ago.  It was a special day for each of them.

After we finished in the Baptistry, Stan and I went up to the Sealing rooms and met with the Bishop and his wife and their daughter and her husband to do Sealings with them.  I loved hearing the prayer, which reminded me of the covenants Stan and I have made and of the promised blessings that the Lord has in store for us.  The Spirit was so sweet!

After we finished, all of our group met up together in a covered pavilion behind the temple and Bishop bought Chick fil A for us to feed our hungry tummy's!  It was a glorious day.  

Happy Easter!

We had a packed, eventful day!  It was another glorious day!

At 7 am, we started off driving up to San Diego to go to the MCRD Base (Marine Corp Recruitment Depot).  Stan had been asked to put together a musical number for their sacrament meeting, which started at 8:30 am.

Elder Paulson played the piano, Sister Palmer played the violin, and Stan played the cello.  They performed "Consider the Lilies".  They did it beautifully.  Music has a way of bringing in the Spirit like nothing else.  

After the talks, the graduating recruits had an opportunity to bear testimony. A couple of those that went up to the podium weren't even members, but one said that he "knows the Church is true!"  There was another young man that said he hadn't been active for a couple of years before joining the military.  Now he's active, and he blessed the Sacrament!  It was a blessing for us to have the opportunity to be there.

As soon as we got home, I started working on dinner.  We invited the Sisters and Elders that serve with us in the YSA ward to come to dinner this evening.  But, before I could make dinner, I had to make our Easter breakfast tradition, Eggs a la Goldenrod!

We left for Church early, so Stan could practice with the trio that were playing the same Hymn "Consider the Lilies" for our Sacrament meeting. Only this time, Stan was playing the piano (the Elder that played the piano this morning couldn't come to our meeting).  Elder Provencio played the cello, taking Stan's place.  I want to insert in here how hard Stan worked on putting this musical # together.  When he found out that the other Elder couldn't play the piano, he called a few people, but no one was available to play.  So he started practicing.  It is not an easy piano accompaniment!  But, he worked on it all week, and he pulled it off.  I'm so proud of him.  He's amazing!

The whole Sacrament meeting, from the speakers and including the musical number, was a beautiful spiritual experience.  Afterwards, Stan said there were some mistakes in the musical #, but I believe the spirit conveyed the message of the music and no one noticed any mistakes.  

Then, we came home and had a wonderful, glorious time on a Zoom call with our family.  I'm so grateful for technology. It was fabulous seeing and talking to everyone, and sharing "The Greatest Easter Story Ever Told" with our family.  We love and miss our family so much!

The Sisters and Elders arrived for dinner and we had a fun evening together sharing yummy Easter dinner, and teaching them about our family tradition, The Easter Egg Roll!  They loved it.  The winner got to share what gospel message we can learn from the Egg Roll.  

It was a great evening and the end of an epic weekend.