Smiling Faces, Beautiful Places: Week 41 - West Columbia, SC

Happy (belated) Easter everyone :) I hope everyone was able to have a good Easter and that you were able to remember our Savior and His atoning sacrifice throughout the day yesterday.

First things first! We were told by our mission office that our mail for the missionaries is being tampered with! I've had a letter sent to me where the envelope was cut in half but that's not the worst that's happening. I guess that missionaries have sent packages home but when their families open up the packages, there's nothing in it. The mission office suspects it has to do with people who don't like Mormons and the titles "Elder" and "Sister" on the mail. We're going to be trying a new thing where we don't put Elder or Sister on letters. So when you write to me, please just put Amy Christensen. Hopefully that will help settle things!

So I had a really cool experience this week! I've had a prompting to ask Tanya about her Hispanic neighbors for a while now. So a few days ago, we asked her if her neighbors would be interested in hearing more about the gospel. Right in the middle of our meeting, she gets up and says "I don't know. I'll go ask them right now!" So she did! Long story short, her neighbors said that they'd let the Spanish Elders come over! The Spanish Elders went over and put the mom on date to be baptized and yesterday the whole family came to church! They loved it! It's really helped Tanya strengthen her testimony and now she kind of just has this fire in her belly about the gospel. It's pretty awesome! I'm so proud of her.

Easter was alright. We didn't really do much. We just went out to work. Nothing too special. But we ate Otter Pops. That was pretty cool. I decided that eating Otter Pops on Easter is going to be my new Easter tradition now because of it!

Now here comes the follow up! Were y'all able to watch the Because of Him video and share it on Facebook? I hope you were! If not, you missed out big time! As missionaries, we used that as a finding tool the whole week! It was so awesome! We showed it to members, less-actives, and non-members. Even ones that didn't want anything to do with the church, they couldn't deny how awesome it was! One of our less-actives started crying during Because of Him! True story. I know that video was made to help us strengthen our faith in Jesus Christ. I know that Because of Him we can live again. He made it so we can have a new beginning again and again and again. I'm truly grateful for Christ's example and for all that he's done for me personally.

Well, I've got to get heading out. I love y'all and hope y'all have a blessed week!

- Sister Amy Christensen