Happy Easter!

Good morning everybody!
Well, things have been going really great here the past few days. The Lord has really been blessing us to find a lot of people to teach and work with and it is great! The Lord gave us 5 or so new investigators this past week that were asking us to be taught. Not having to go out there tracting and searching as hard as possible, but we were blessed to have them contact us. It literally felt like the Lord dropped them into our laps this past week. We are so happy and grateful. The weather has finally stopped being so bipolar - nice sunshiney days or at least just rainy days, no more snow or freezing cold. Only a little bit chilly now and again. What a blessing. That means that I have started to wear sunscreen and started to smell like the beach or lifeguarding again. Oh well, at least it isn't a bad smell. So far I have managed not to get sunburned really at all yet. My goal is to keep it that way as much as possible. The only problem is remembering to take the time to reapply after so many hours. We get so busy working and doing stuff that I don't even notice that my skin is starting to heat up and turn pink at all. I am so used to being burned all the time I guess that I don't even think about it, but I am getting better.

We started to teach the most amazingly prepared people ever! It is a part member family and they are in their early 20's. David (less active) and Danielle Evans (non member). We found them through a member, Sister Davies who lives across the street. David's friend growing up is their son and he is an expert with computers, so David asked him to come and fix their family computer so they could get it up and running again. While he was fixing the computer, he was talking about how his wife had just received a priesthood blessing and the change it had brought to her life and the comfort that it had given. Then he left. Danielle started to ask questions about what priesthood blessings were and how they work. She then went to the Davies' house and asked for a copy of the Book of Mormon so they could learn more. David suggested they go to the church the next Sunday and so they went for all three hours and were blown away by it. We finally received the referral from Sister Davies as we were contacting in the neighborhood, she pulled over in her car and suggested that we stop by the Evans' home right away. So we did. David wasn't there so Danielle took down our phone number and promised to have her husband call us back. Then he called us back early the very next morning and wanted to set up an appointment that day. When we got there, we found that she had already read all of first Nephi and that they had purchased more scriptures to study from the distribution center. She already had gained a witness for herself that the Book of Mormon was true. One way was through the story of Nephi and the Broken Bow. She explained that she had studied archery just the year before and how different bows have to have exactly the right arrow to fit them for the tension and physics to be right. Then she talked about how in the Book of Mormon that Nephi made different arrows to fit his new wood bow and she said Joseph Smith could not have known the physics behind it. So it had to be true. Plus she explained the peace and comfort that had come to her the past week reading from its pages. She knew it was true logically as well as spiritually. How cool is that?!? She wholeheartedly acceted a baptismal commitment for May 1 and is so excited for it. We met with them again the next day and we were all almost in tears as we shared the plan of salvation and she totally broke down as she offered the closing prayer. They have been very prepared by the Lord and it is so amazing! David had to go out of town this week, but we are going to keep checking up on Danielle and then teach both of them again this Saturday. It is truly a miracle and we love them so much! We have been thanking the Lord so much too!

We have finally started to work with Steve's wife, Tammi, as well. Austin and Hunter, their sons, are set to get baptized in the next two weeks. All that is left is to pick a date and stick to it. Tammi has been having a lot of struggles and trials in her life the past little bit and so requested a priesthood blessing. We went over there with Brother Newman and he gave it to her and then we taught her the message of the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ (otherwise known as the first lesson). She soaked it in like a sponge and showed up to church the next Sunday. We are so excited for that and so is Steve!

Then we started to teaching a nonmarried, part member couple a few doors down from the Evans' house. They are Morgan Struvel and Spencer Truesdall. Morgan has a strong desire for their baby daugther to be blessed in the LDS church and to grow up living its values. Because of that, she accepted the invitation to meet with us and to learn more about the church. Spencer is excited to get back active as well. The main problem so far is that Morgan very strongly believes in reincarnation and isn't really willing to consider anything else. We will be teaching about the resurrection next and see what happens to them as we teach. But both are open to having us meet and Spencer even said the closing prayer last week and they were both very accepting about believing in Joseph Smith and believing in prophets and the restored priesthood. She even accepted the commitment to be baptized when the time comes that she gets an answer to her prayer. We just need to get them married fast.

We are also hoping to start teaching a few other very prepared people soon as well. We are following up with the bishops and members that gave us the referrals and working on helping those people to really start investigating the church and start to work towards baptism. It is awesome! I don't think I have ever been blessed with so many people to teach my whole mission and we have been praying in gratitude for the past week and then I fasted in gratitude this past Sunday.

The zone leaders invited all the district leaders and their companions over for studies yesterday and that was a moving powerful experience. They trained us on how missionaries are very good at talking and explaining but very bad at actually experiencing what it means to teach with the Spirit and power and authority of God. So they demonstrated for us how it is to be done. They used the verses in 3 Nephi 11 where Christ invites all to come unto Him and feel the prints of the nails and the spear print in his side. It was very powerful, then they had us get down and all pray, one-by-one to receive a reconfirmation that the Book of Mormon was true. It was overpowering and I cried. I seem to do that a lot more lately when I feel the Spirit, I cry. I never use to cry, so I don't know what happened but I did. I felt the Spirit so strong. Elder Gomes and I were then blessed to have the same experience as we taught later on that day to Jennifer Golson. The Spirit was so strong and she was crying and I was crying. She really opened up and told us about all that has been happening in her life. She has been truly touched by the Spirit of the Lord, especially after she went in and met with the bishop. All her sins and pain seem to have literally been lifted away. So we went over the Atonement and all that Jesus Christ does for us and it was so AWESOME! Jennifer is finally so excited to come to church this Sunday and to work towards becoming fully active. She is also now down to smoking about 2 cigarettes a day and she was so excited that she can finally start to smell and taste things again. She told us next how missionaries visited at exactly the right moment. She told God that if He wanted her back, He needed to send missionaries to help her make that step. We showed up on her birhday and she was hung over so she didn't come up to talk to us. But she thought about how far off her life was and where she needed to go. When we stopped back by again, she was ready and humble to start learing the gospel. The amazing miracle was that she was the only name on a list of about 300 names of less actives in that ward that we were impressed to stop by. Everyone else didn't feel right, she was the only one that stuck out to us at all and it was the Spirit telling us that. My goal now is to be humble enough and follow the Spirit enough to have that happen in every lesson. Everytime that we open our mouths to share the gospel I want that experience, where the Spirit just speaks through us and Heavenly Father can truly use us as His instruments. That is what I have been praying for.

Anyway, this week has been fantastic! We have really been missionaries and have really been blessed with everything that is going on. I am going to buy a new camera today (so don't send me one when you read this - my other two both died and no matter what I try to do, I can't get them working, nor can anyone else) finally so I can start sending home pictures soon. I plan to take so many pictures! So look forward to that next week. As for a release date, I don't know and at this point I don't want to know at all, just saying. Whenever I am told, I will let you know, but for now, don't worry about it. It won't be in time to attend school at all for fall semester, but should be for next winter semester. And I have got letters from several people who want to room with me and so that should be taken care of. I am so excited for Easter this weekend! The past week my mind has really been reflecting on the Atonement of Jesus Christ and all that He did for us. It is the greatest miracle and the best ever!

I love you all and pray for you all! I hope Easter is good and that the Easter baskets aren't too hard to find on Sunday morning, haha. The clothes are perfect and fit well, so thank you so much!
Love,
Elder Ryan Hughes