Hey mumsy,
I am quite glad to hear that Easter went so well for
all of you. Sounds like you had a great time with darling Alaynna at the Easter
egg hunt. I can't believe how big she is now! Each picture you send she looks
so much bigger and different. I am starting to see the "Ashley" in
her. But the pictures of her from Christmas and now are so so so different. Can’t
believe it. Lacey is darling as ever and always smiling. And Levi looks like a
stud. We have such a wonderful family. Glad to hear that everything is going
well. Not too excited about dad's knee but it will all go well.
Easter here in Brasil is a
different experience for sure. The custom is to buy a gigantic chocolate egg
and give it to your loved ones. They can be pretty expensive and Friday is a
holiday and Saturday along with Sunday. Nothing is open these days. Everyone
traveled we had gone downtown to visit some other missionaries and it literally
looked like a ghost town. It was pretty strange.
Sunday rolled along and we had been expecting our
beloved family to show up. They didn’t. We did have a recent convert's mother
show up and she liked it a lot. She is progressing really well. Elder Batista
and I were really hoping for something special we could do this Easter for
Christ. A bum walked in the front of the church and asked if he could
participate in the meetings. He was young, 24, and dirty. His clothes probably hadn’t
been washed in months. He paid so much attention and didn’t ask for anything. I
wanted so badly to let him go to our house to shower and to give him clothes
and other things but we couldn’t. He really liked the meetings and we invited
him to come back for the activity we will be having this week and the next Sunday
too. We had gotten our chocolate egg from the ward along with a bunch of food
from the relief society. We put it all in a bag along with ten dollars and gave
it to him. I hope that he had a great Easter, because the opportunity that he
gave us made my Easter. I could help but think of this guy and how he would be
with his own family and young children in the church. All dressed in white
baptizing his own family members. I know he has such huge future and i am so
excited to see him change his life. I hope more than anything that he comes back.
The rest of the week was great. The normal routine, but it was great.
I am so happy to be here on
the mission. I am so happy for each opportunity that the lord blesses us with
to serve. I hope you all have a wonderful week and are also blessed with so
many opportunities to serve others.
Elder Paynter
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