Email April 21, 2014

Hello Family! So I had my first holiday here and it was really fun! And yes, the Easter bunny definitely came thanks to you mom :) I really don't think we need that much candy but we keep eating it haha, Sister Mickelsen says you're trying to make us fat but she loves you anyway. We went to church and it was packed (When I say packed I mean like 50 people instead of our regular 30 to 40 haha but it's still good). The little girls in activity days made us little candies and gave us hugs and then we went to Bishop Rhodenizer's house for dinner with the other Elders in our area, Elder Whitney and Elder Garza. Elder Whitney is from St. George and we love to talk about track together haha and Elder Garza is from Washington. We had ham and potatoes with this really good ham sauce and cream cheese squares. Their little kids loved to show off for us haha they're super cute. We had a baptism on Saturday, her name is Kaitlynn Leonardi who is 18 and she was taught by the Elders. Sister Mickelsen and I helped her get dressed and ready after the baptism and she was crying saying how clean she felt. The spirit was amazing there and she couldn't stop smiling. She got confirmed yesterday and is now the newest member of the church! She's the best. We have a neighbor in our apartments named Freddie and he's like in his 40's that we always wave to in the morning and we set a lot of appointments up with him to teach him and he's always either not home or doesn't answer. We would always take a member that lives right below us, Sister Pugh, but he was never home. So we were walking down the street one day and apparently Freddie saw us and hid behind the bushes so we couldn't see him and Sister Pugh saw the whole thing! We didn't notice anything but Sister Pugh told us when we got back haha and so we knocked on his door a couple days later and he had a ton of family there and the first thing his wife said to us was "He was hiding from you!" We were laughing pretty hard. We finally made another appointment with him so we'll see if he pulls through. We also visited a less active member, Bro. Merlo. He broke his hip a couple weeks ago and is now in a nursing home. We visited him Saturday night and taught him a lesson on Christ and about the resurrection. You could tell he was happy to have us there and before we left Sister Mickelsen had a thought that we should sing to him. We were kind of confused but we got her hymn book out and sang "I Stand All Amazed" you could feel the spirit so strongly that filled the room and after we were done he had tears in his eyes and said "Thank you, that's just what I needed." we then noticed that people were standing in the hall listening to us the whole time and they kept saying we sounded like angels. It was a really cool experience. I want you all to know that I have a strong testimony of this gospel, I know, without a doubt that Jesus Christ suffered and died for each and every one of us. He lives. He knows all of us and is our savior. I testify to you all that this gospel is true and Heavenly Father is aware of all of us and I leave these things with you in the name of Jesus Christ amen. I wanted to share my testimony with you as my Easter present, kinda cheesy I know but since I'm not there this is all I can give you haha. I hope you all had a wonderful week and I love you guys so much. Sister Gordon:) Also if you have time watch "Because of Him" on lds.org. so good!!