Happy Easter and General Conference!!!

Hello Family! How was your Easter and General Conference weekend?! Thank you so much for the e-mails and...the EASTER PACKAGE! That was so wonderful! I actually got it on Friday and I was trying to be really patient and good and wait until Easter morning to open it, but I just couldn't do it! The shirts are SO cute (it was so fun to wear something new on Easter...made me think of being home), the ADORABLE jewelry, the CTR rings (that is just enough to give out as a handout for my primary lesson), and of course the cards filled with love and enthusiasm! My Easter couldn't have been better! We were at the church Saturday night and all of Sunday, and to make Easter a little bit more special in between the conference sessions I arranged a dinner with all of the Elders in my district. It was so much fun to have everyone bring a little something to add to the dinner and it turned out to be really delicious! We had Hawaain Haystacks and I was so impressed with all that the Elders did! Their mothers would be proud! Zuster Stapleton and I also made up some Easter bags for each of the Elders. We bought chocolate eggs and bunnies...but something was missing from that Easter treat sack. I just had to throw in a couple of pieces of fruit in each bag to really make it feel like Easter for me! I also just had to make some deviled eggs for dinner and they were also really tasty! But even better than all of the treats and dinner were the wonderful sessions of General Conference! It was so amazing to hear the powerful testimonies of the prophet and apostles as they bore testimony of the risen Lord, Jesus Christ. They didn´t share anything new but the Spirit that accompanied their words touched my heart and strengthened my testimony. I KNOW THAT JESUS CHRIST LIVES! What joy that sweet sentence gives! We were so blessed to have 2 investigators, Roger and Gea, come to conference. It was a very special experience for them and they received a lot of personal answers to the questions that have been on their minds. We are so blessed by a loving Heavenly Father to have a prophet on the earth today to lead us, teach us, and help us return back to our Heavenly Father.
Things are going really well here in Groningen! I did do the piano lessons this week and it all went really well! Gabriel is 6 years old and such a cute little boy. He was really shy at first but he warmed up quickly! I am always so amazed at how fast little children learn! I played some games with him to help him learn all of the notes and he totally has it down. It was funny because Zr. Stapleton even started to play along with all of the games and she decided that she is going to learn the basics of the piano along with Gabriel! Anyway, I am looking forward to the next lesson and I know that Heavenly Father is really helping me with this one. He really magnifies our talents and capabilities as we are willing to share them!
So, I roped myself into yet another assignment with the members here! I am going to make dinner for the whole Young Single Adult Centrum just 3 days before my talk in church and my primary lesson. I volunteered to do it but I didn´t know that it would fall within the same week as the other two assignments. Oh well! It will work out! But now the trick is figuring out what I am actually going to make! They are all expecting some amazing American meal but I have no recipes and no idea what I am going to do! Please send me any ideas that you have! There are usually 12 to 20 people there so it will be exciting! Thanks for your help and pray for me!
Things are going well with investigators. Emily is really being bombarded with anti material right now so we are really trying to strengthen her. Lotte is still planning on coming to church on Sunday so we are really excited! We found a new investigator, Yvonne, this week and she is really positive! Things are picking up and I know that the Lord is preparing many people.
Zone Conference is this week at the temple and I can hardly wait! I miss the temple so much and I know that it will be an amazing experience to go back! Zr. Stapleton is actually doing the work for her father when we go so I know it will be really spiritual. It will be so great to gather with all of the missionaries and be taught by President and Zuster Brubaker!
I love you so much and I hope that you have a wonderful week! You are in my prayers, by name, and by needs! Love,Laur
I think that that is one of the most amazing things that I have seen so far on my mission, just how fast a person can change because they feel the influence of the Holy Ghost. We actually had an experience like that on Friday during our consecrated hour. We were knocking on a few doors and I felt really impressed to go to an apartment building I could see on a side street. We knocked on the first five doors of the building and either no one was home or no one had interest. I started to wonder if I had really felt the Spirit prompt me to head in that direction or if I was totally out of tune. We had one more door to knock on and I was hoping that we would see a miracle. An older woman came to the door and the second she saw our name badges she said, "Not interested!“ and started to shut the door. I don't know what Zuster Stapleton or I said next that made her open the door back up and talk to us about the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ for the next 15 minutes but there was a mighty change, a change that can only happen through the Spirit. We testified of Jesus Christ and the Book of Mormon and she even accepted a copy. We also shared a little bit about the temples and life after death. By the end she had tears in her eyes and was eager to let us come back to teach her more. It was such a sweet experience!