April 1, 2013

Happy Easter!

I won´t lie, I didn´t even remember it was Easter yesterday until we got to church. Holidays in the mission are weird. Still it´s amazing that I forgot since all of Spain has been off work and celebrating all week. Well ¨celebrating.¨ It´s very different how the Catholic church celebrates Easter. There´s Holy Thursday, which I don´t remember what you do for that, Good Friday where you can´t eat meat and big processions all week long with giant images of the crucifixion. It´s different but it´s very focused on Christ, which is cool. 

We didn´t do much special for Easter. The bishop gave a great lesson about the Atonement and forgiving ourselves the last hour of church (he´s really cool and German) and he also invited us to eat at his house, but we already had an eating appointment with a recent convert. It was really good food, so no worries. The other companionship did eat with the bishop and they brought home giant Kinder eggs for us and hid them in the piso, so that was fun. (Kinder eggs are German chocolate eggs with toys inside them. They´re delicious). Of course we also got the van towed so that was kind of a damper on the day. But it all turned out OK. We also went over to President´s house for dessert as a kind of good-bye to Elder Johnson. He has left and I am on my own now. No worries though, I think I´ve got the hang of things here in the office. I´m starting to get things organized and get a system for things that works for me, so that´s good. 

So, we don´t live in the mission home, but we do go over there pretty often and we do have a lot of interaction with President Jackson and his wife, which is cool. We basically know everything that´s going on in the whole mission. We live in a piso close by. 

I got to go back to Barrio 6 this week for a baptism the other elders here had (we don´t have a font in our chapel. In summer we do baptisms in the bishop´s pool. He´s German and rich) which was so much fun! I got to see Beatriz and Kancho right after he finished doing baptisms in the temple for the first time! It was amazing! I also got to see a bunch of the members and friends there, so that was super cool. It already feels like so long ago that I was there. 

I´m glad you guys are enjoying your Easter and spring break even if it´s a little different than usual. A cabin in the redwoods? That sounds amazing! Are you really saving that much money with me out of the house? Haha! Well, maybe not that much if it´s just a wood stove. That´s OK though, I love the smell of woodsmoke. I hope you enjoy your vacation and make the most of the time there. Send me some sweet pictures! 

That´s awesome that Bekah has made a decision, although I must admit I´m a little surprised by her choice. I thought for sure she would go back east for school. Seattle is awesome though! I could totally live there and go to school. I bet Grandma and Grandpa and pretty excited about that. :) 

Ohh, a mystery package! I´m excited. Would you like me to write you back with a list of the contents? Haha! Thanks for thinking of me and sending a package, I´m super excited to open it!

Well, sorry if this seems short. I´m not too sure what else to write. Office work is not the most exciting thing in the world. As such, I shall share with you an awesome scripture that I found this week and then go. I hope you all know how much I love you. I thank the Lord all the time for blessing me with such an amazing family and such great friends. Thank you for all you do for me. Take care!

Romans 8:38-39

38 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,

 39 Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to^aseparate us from the ^blove of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Cool, eh? I love you!

Elder Cousins

 

PS I forgot. A bit of news for all readers. The rules about e-mail have been changed. We are now allowed to write friends as well as family members. So feel free to send me an e-mail and I promise to be better about responding than I am with letters. :)