#GraciasaEl

Hoppy Easter! Did you all love Easter? Because I sure did! I hope you all got a chance to watch the church's video that they put out for Easter. If not, watch it and then you can hashtag it #BecauseofHim or if you are really cool you can do it in Spanish #GraciasaEl. We have been sharing it with people all week long. It was fun because we don't have i-pads so we were asking random strangers to share a video and then we would have to ask them to pull out their mobile device or i-pad. It was great! I absolutely LOVED IT!

     This week was fantastic! Honestly, there's nothing too crazy to report, but being on a mission is the best so why wouldn't it be a fantastic week? Something really cool though: we have a less-active family in our ward (who am I kidding? they're completely inactive). They used to be super gung-ho, but then the mom had to take a job where she worked on Sunday and then the family stopped going because the dad works nights and it is too much of a hassle to get all 7 of their kids to church. I have a huge testimony of the gospel because I see their kids' lives and it makes me sad. They have so much potential! One of their sons is 15. We got talking to him and found out that he has an addiction to Marijuana. We were floored. That isn't uncommon here, but it makes me SO SAD! We tried to talk to him about his future and what he wants for his life. He tried to argue with us, but both Hermana Dando and I have been teenagers at one point and we tried to use all of those same arguments not too many years ago. I felt like my parents-and she did too. We had to giggle about it. However, we finally got him to commit to come to church with us. He was freaking out that we were pulling him away from his friends for 4/20, but he agreed in the end (4/20 is like the national smoke pot day...the things you learn on a mission). We went over to his house yesterday morning with Sister Potter and he was all ready, looking very nice, and sober. We were so proud of him! We sat by him in church and I know he was feeling the Spirit. The Potters spoke and they were super powerful! The boy wouldn't sing with us, but he kept looking very intently at the hymns and he was thinking about it. He met a lot of the boys in YM and Brother Potter-the YM president-took him home. Brother Potter told us later that the boy said that he wanted to come to the activities and maybe to church again. Also, they are having a Boy Scout hike this weekend that he wants to go on. Good leaders are so key in these kids' lives. This isn't Morgan where you can spit and hit 10 Mormon families. This is Stockton where you are lucky if your kid can make it through high school without trying 3 or 4 kinds of drugs. We are really working hard with him! Keep him in your prayers!

     We also had another less-active boy in our ward come to an activity. His family was baptized in Utah, moved our here and went completely inactive. They have 4 boys: 18, 17, 15 and 12. We went over for dinner at their house and the 12 year-old asked us about activities for the youth. He wanted to come and check it out. As it turns out, they were having a combined activity and were having a cook-off. We were able to get Gustavo there and he absolutely loved it! Hermana Dando and I were the taste-testers. We really sacrificed on that one...;) Gustavo said that he really had fun and that he wanted to go to church on Sunday. Sadly, we weren't able to get ahold of him. However, he really wants to go on the camp out. He made lots of friends and already knew a couple of them. We think that he can be the one that will help his family come back.

     Our investigator Teresa is doing well. We just need to get her to church. That is the common problem here...we're still working on combating that.

     Easter was fabulous! Church was great and then the Potters invited us to come over for dinner. They invited an investigator family-who in turn invited some friends. It was so great! A lot of the people there only spoke Spanish so I had to translate all dinner, but it was such a privilege. The Potters are an amazing family. We were able to share the Easter video and bear our testimonies to them about the Savior and his Atonement. It was very touching. I love being able to share the gospel. It is such a great blessing. I can't think of anything else that would make me more happy right now! After our message the kids broke eggs filled with confetti all over our heads...it was EVERYWHERE! 

     We also had a bit of fun at dinner because it was Sister Abbott's birthday. Sister Potter made a cake and we all sang to her. Also this: we broke into their apartment and stole Sister Abbott's dad's e-mail address and he was able to write her a very cute Happy Birthday note. She started to cry a little bit :) After we cleaned up dinner the Potters insisted that we stick around to sing Easter hymns. It was so nice to be able to spend Easter in their home. I am so blessed!

    I'm sure you are all just dying to know what happened with transfers...well....WE'RE STAYING TOGETHER AGAIN!!! BOO-YAH! I can't wait! 

Love always, 

Hermana Freestone

1. egg mess!

2. Cinco de Mayo preview :)

3. happy year mark to me