The Portland Adventure: He lives.

Happy, happy Easter, my loves! It was such a beautiful week and I feel
like I learned so very much about my Savior and myself. I have so much
greater of an understanding of the resurrection of Jesus Christ and
what that truly means for each one of us. I know that Jesus Christ
truly did break the bonds of death and now has made it possible for
each of us to do the same - we all will live again! What a beautiful,
happy message? The resurrection of Jesus Christ teaches us that He did
what He had professed to do. He claimed to be the Son of God, which is
a huge claim that could only be proven by something as magnificent as
the atonement. That atonement was completed with the resurrection.
Because He rose from the dead, we all can know that He truly was the
Son of God, the things He taught were truth and the plan He laid out
for us really is what will bring us home to our Heavenly Father. I
think it is absolutely incredible that God gives such miraculous,
incredible signs to prove that He is there, to give us little room to
disbelieve. To prove that we would live again He gave His own Son and
it worked. Jesus Christ performed His atonement and lives today! To
prove to us that His gospel has been restored to the earth again today
He has given us the Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ.
We would not have the Book of Mormon today without God reaching out to
His children through a prophet and giving us this ancient record that
teaches us of God's plan. Our Heavenly Father is a God of action, He
is actively doing things all around us, all the time to encourage us
to believe in both Him and Jesus Christ. I am eternally grateful for
the resurrection of my Savior and the Book of Mormon as well, and for
the witness that I have gained of their truthfulness. I know that my
Redeemer lives!

I came across this article in one of the Church magazines, it says:
The Atonement of Jesus Christ was an indispensable part of our
Heavenly Father's plan for His Son's earthly mission and for our
salvation. How grateful we should be that our Heavenly Father did not
intercede but rather withheld His fatherly instinct to rescue His
Beloved Son. Because of His eternal love for you and for me, He
allowed Jesus to complete His foreordained mission to become our
Redeemer. Jesus Christ, the Savior and Redeemer of all mankind, is not
dead." -Elder M. Russell Ballard of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles

I hope you can feel of the love that I have for my Savior through
this, I never want to lose this feeling of conviction that I have
gained here on my mission. I know Him now more than ever before and I
know each of you can come to know Him better too - it is definitely a
constant growing experience! Onto recapping this week!

It was another really good week, looking back now I am having a hard
time believing that it was only one week ago! It feels like I've been
here ages, in a very good way. We had a lot of moments this week where
we were in the right place at the right time. I love that! It always
reminds me that I truly am doing Heavenly Father's work, not mine or
Sister Benson's, but His. One of my favorite examples of it this week
was on Tuesday! There is a woman who was just baptized a couple of
months ago in this ward, her name is Wendy. A couple of days after I
got here, before I had even met her, her 23 year old daughter was in a
severe motorcycle accident. She was completely broken and has been in
the ICU this past week. We have been doing service for her by feeding
her 3 huge, nasty dogs. We then decided on Tuesday we would go over
and clean her house some too since she had not been there for awhile
and everything had just been abandoned where it was at the time of the
accident. We had been there for about 30 minutes, when Sister Benson
came in and asked if the garage door had been open when we had gotten
there..."Uh, no. That's really going to freak me out now!" We go out
together to look in the garage and find that Wendy had randomly come
home to take a shower since she had been gone for so long! It was the
most perfect timing. She came running up, bawling and fell into my
companions arms and just kept repeating how grateful she was that we
were there. I love being placed in situations by God, it always ends
up how it needs to! She just cried and cried and was finally able to
let everything all out because she has been holding it all in since
being at the hospital. We really felt like angels, just going about
and helping God's daughter who was in desperate need. It reminded me
of my experience in Aloha with Rozlyn!

We had a happy and sad lesson this week with Kyle! He is 20 so we
really want him to start going to the Young Single Adult ward rather
than the family ward. That is why the lesson was sad, he handed him
over to the sisters in the YSA ward. It will be so good for him, but
we are so sad that we don't get to help teach him anymore. He is so
amazing and working with him, even for just a short time, taught me so
much! We set a baptism date with him though in the lesson that we
handed him over, so we will be seeing him again! He is so excited to
be baptized!

I was blessed to have an interview with President Morby this week. I
love interviews and having an opportunity to talk with him and get
advice and feel motivated to work even more! I shared with him one of
my favorite scriptures. It is in the Old Testament, Jeremiah 31:33-34.
You should look it up and read it! It is beautiful, I look forward to
the day that it will be fulfilled and have seen it begin to be
fulfilled within myself. I love the gospel! President reminded me that
I am here in Oak Hills for a reason and helped me to brainstorm ideas
to help the area really pick up. He also reminded me that I have
something special to offer here and that I personally am needed here.
There have been such amazing, strong sisters serving here before me
that it really is hard to feel like I have anything to offer that
hasn't already been offered, this area is just so different than
Aloha, haha. It was so nice to have that confirmation from him and
from the Lord that I do have something to offer! Heavenly Father will
help me to figure out what it is.

I love you so much, family and friends! You mean so much to me. I love
and appreciate your emails and letters and packages, they make my
heart swell! I feel so close to you out here. Guess what. I did a
musical performance with my companion. It was actually really good!
We'll send you a copy once we record it ;) Love ya!