Easter: What a week!

I was so excited for Easter this year. We have been loving the Come Follow Me each Sunday. I listen to Emily Belle Freeman and Dave Butler who do a YouTube video each week for CFM. They were doing a special for Easter and it was going to be a short YouTube video to watch each night as a family and do a little activity. I also sent out a family text each day copying a short blurb from Mormon.org that told what was happening each day in Jesus time. So I grabbed all my photos of Easter week and put the pictures that went with each day up.  The videos from Emily and David were focusing on the people who were around Jesus at Easter, not the events. Emily was selling an Easter Nativity on her website but I knew Garry could make one, so he made me and Mikel one each. It has the people in it they were talking about. We started with Lazarus and the activity was to plant wheat on dirt and within three days it would grow into grass. We were to get a branch one day representing the people of Jerusalem waving palms and branches as Jesus entered. Day two was Simon. We got jute and tied a piece around our wrist to remind us to watch for someone shouldering a burden and then try to help them. Day three was Joseph and Nicodemus. Our activity was to write on a piece of paper what the sacrifice of Jesus Christ means to us and put it in a plastic egg and hang it on our branch. Day four was Mary Magdalene. Our activity was to dye red Easter Eggs using yellow onion skins. Then when we have Easter dinner on Sunday, we set one at every place setting and then on that Sunday, the grandmother is to bear her testimony before dinner starts of Jesus Christ. So I had my mom send me her testimony and Talon read it to us all before dinner. Day 5 was Emmaus. The activity was to pick a scripture that stands out to each of us about Christ and the strength that scripture gives us. We then wrote it on a little banner shaped paper and hunt it on our branch. Day 6 was Thomas. Our activity was to get some white Easter lilies. This was the only activity I didn't do. I had also bought a replica of the statues of the Christus and his disciples. I love it and love having it up as we talk about the people around Christ.

Sunday morning came and everyone got a little treat. Mikel sent me some photos of Jaxon's morning too. I set the table for dinner with some of our Easter activities and everyone's dyed egg. I made two cute, simple, festive desserts for dinner. They turned out adorable! This is the testimony of Grandma that Talon read to us before dinner:

Sorry, Kim, I can't talk and cry at the same time, so you will have to

read it!   Love you!!  Mom

I have been invited here today to join in this family feast, and to bear my testimony of Jesus Christ.  I thank you for the invitation, and have thought long and hard about my testimony.  First, I ask, why the grandmother?  Why not the Grandfather?  My answer was and is:  The grandmother, being a woman, has been closer to Christ because she is a woman who has naturally been given the gift of nurturing.  She has deeper emotions and feelings about Christ, because of her closeness to the feelings, pain, and suffering of others.  Christ was very protecting of women, especially of his mother, Mary, and the other women who were at his Crucifixion and resurrection.

As a very young child, I was taught a simple prayer: Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep.  If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take.  I knelt by my bed and said my prayer every night, as did my sister, as our mother stood by.  That was all the religion we were ever taught in our home.  I remember thinking to myself, what if I die tonight, where will I be?  Where will my soul be?  For that matter, what is a soul?  Who is the Lord?

It was many years before my questions were answered.    When I was a

Junior in High School, I began going to church with Ron Waite.  Most of my friends were LDS, so I felt right at home.  Before long, I became acquainted with Jesus, God and the Holy Ghost.  I loved learning about them, and about the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  I loved knowing about the Book of Mormon.  Most of all, I loved going to church because of the good people who I associated with.  However, it wasn't until I was a Junior in College that I finally took the opportunity to join the church.  I was baptized with 20 missionaries and one Catholic roommate as my witnesses.

Since then, Jesus Christ has become my best friend.  I know Him.  I talk to Him, I plead with Him, I have even bargained with Him.  I actually cry whenever I think of the last week of Jesus's life, the suffering He endured, the pain He felt, and the rejection He endured. However, the event, I know, was prophesied.  Jesus knew far ahead of time what He would be asked to do.  He died for us, not just so our sins would be forgiven, but also so our burdens, pain, and suffering would be lightened. He voluntarily carried out His Father's plan.  In doing so, He died for us!

For all of mankind!  He was an example of obedience, of love, and of every human trait that is good.  He faced his death with faith and with willingness to obey.

I have experienced the blessings of the atonement many times in my life.

Sin is not a big temptation for me.  Early in my life, I decided to avoid the enticings of Satan, to be good, and to try to live the way Christ would want me to live.  I decided to be a disciple of Christ.  I have repented, I have forgiven myself and others.  To me, though, a very important part of  the atonement is the gift whereby Christ takes upon himself my suffering, pain, remorselessness, and burdens.  Have I suffered?

Yes!  Many times, not only have I suffered because of my own physical and emotional pain, but I have suffered whenever one of my loved ones suffered!  Many times, I have prayed to have the faith to rescue someone I love, to know what to do, to have the burden lifted, or to have the spirit or body healed.  I have prayed, fasted, cried, and begged to have pain relieved.  I have suffered when loved ones have died;  when my Father died, when my Mother died, when Reed died, even when someone I barely knew died!  I have turned to Jesus Christ to find comfort and peace. All of my suffering has been shared with Jesus Christ, because he died for me.

Without his companionship, I don't know if I could have overcome my pain and suffering!  I thank Jesus every night in my prayers for his willing atonement!

Jesus lives!  He is here for us, we need only to ask for his guidance and help.  Prayers are answered if they are given.  Sometimes, faith is required to wait for the answers, but they will come.  Jesus loves us, He knows us, He is our advocate with the Father.  He went about doing good during one of the most wicked times to be on Earth..  We should and can follow His example.  The world we live in is wicked, and getting worse every day!  Be strong, be prayerful, have Faith in Jesus Christ, do good, and be watchful.  He loves you and me, and every person who has ever been or will ever be.  Come follow Him, and be among the Saints of the Latter Days.  Love Him as He has loved you!!  This is my testimony.  In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen

After dinner, we colored eggs and made our last project which were rolls. You take a marshmallow and roll it in melted butter and cinnamon/sugar. Then you wrap the roll around it and roll the roll in butter and cinnamon/sugar. Then you bake them and the marshmallow melts and when you split the roll open, it's empty.  They were easy and super yummy! The day ended making some deviled eggs and egg salad and the next morning I was at WM bright and early getting candy on clearance! It was a great week. I know my testimony of the Savior was strengthened and I love and appreciate him even more.