He is risen!

Dear wonderful family,

Happy Easter-- Christ the Lord lives and what an amazing thing that is! Because He overcame the bands of spiritual death on the cross, and the bands of physical death when He was resurrected, we can all live with our Father in Heaven again, and we WILL all be resurrected after death. The gospel of Jesus Christ really is good news and it is so true.

The Lord helped us find a sweet woman when we were knocking on doors named Sarah Fox. She is in her early 20s and has two little guys (ages 2 and 1). We had a return appointment with her this last week and taught her about the restoration. She has been quite prepared by the Lord and we know we were lead to their home. We will be having a lesson with her and her husband this week, and I am excited to continue teaching them! She was really excited when we told her about the Book of Mormon, and before we could even invite her to read and pray about it, she asked us if she could have a copy. She was unable to make it to church yesterday, because she was already scheduled to work, but, I'm hopeful about the future. I just know we were sent to this family for the two darling little boys. They will be excellent missionaries one day-- they're part of the Lord's priesthood army!

Yesterday after church, we had an amazing lesson with Jeff Boyd. We haven't really been teaching him since before Christmas. If you will remember, he was progressing towards baptism, got scared, and backed way way off. Because of the circumstances, we had no other choice but to back way way off too. We had dinner with their family Friday evening (where I had liver and onions for the first time... If you've never had it, you're not missing much!), and we felt impressed to talk about the Book of Enos with him, which really focuses on prayer and the effort we must put into our prayers being answered. Well, after dinner, we ended up talking about how the Book of Mormon was translated and Joseph Smith and such, and we ran out of time to talk about Enos. We asked him to read it and set up an appointment to discuss it after Church on Sunday. He surprised us and showed up to church, and he had even read his assignment! When we talked after church, we had a lesson where the spirit was the strongest I had ever felt in a lesson with him. He told us how he really related to Enos, and how he felt like he was reading about who he could be. We talked about the relationship between desires, faith, and work. We talked about how converts are the key to their ancestor's salvation in the spirit world, and about how they are also the key to their progenitor's salvation, and then we asked him what he was willing to do to receive an answer to his prayers. He said, "well, I should probably come to church every week. Maybe I should dust off this book (motioning to the Book of Mormon in his hands), and I really need to pray." Oh man, I was so excited to hear him say these things, because he's finally starting to connect the dots-- but the real excitement came when we asked him if he would do them. In times past, whenever we would leave a commitment with him, he would always say, "I don't want to make any promises" or "I'll try" but this time, he said, "Yes. I will. " We then asked him if he would work towards being baptized, and he said, "Go big or go home, right? Yes." Now, "Go big or go home" is a phrase I always use... and he's catching the vision-- Truly, it was an Easter miracle, and I know the Lord has been softening his heart!

I have really been studying the Atonement this week. I am so grateful for my Savior, the Atonement, and the perfect love both He and our Father in Heaven has for us. I feel like I have grown so much in my understanding of this central aspect of the gospel, and I know that I will continue to learn more as I study it throughout my life. How fortunate we are to have the scriptures!

Life is great. Being a missionary is great. The gospel is phenomenally true.

Have a wonderful week, and share the good news of the gospel!

Love, Sister Chelsea Lynn LeSueur