surprise: red hair!

Hello family and all the cool people in the world,

Yes, as the subject line says, hair that once was brown is now red, and not “fire truck” yuck red, but a really nice auburn type glowing red. I think it looks rather nice. Too bad it's not my hair, but my companions. Yes, my hair is still the color it's always been (although I have been finding a few white hairs lately ;} ) My companion wanted to dye her hair red - go for it. But then I realized that I was the one that needed to dye it......uh, I had NO idea what I was doing, but it turned out nice, and now I think that maybe I'll go into being a cosmetologist when I get home....or not. But Cherisse will be proud that I did that and did it successfully. lol! Anyways, Happy April Fools!

And Happy Easter! or in Romanian, Paste Fericit! (said pahshtay faireecheat) This week was a good one. We will be having a baptism this Saturday (so exciting) but it's not Lili. She wants to move hers back but we don't know when. However, Denisa is getting baptized on Saturday and she is so excited, she can't stop calling us to make sure she knows when we're meeting and everything else that's going to happen. It is so neat to see how much she wants this. She even defended it to her friends who are Pentecostal when they told her "all you need is faith and to believe in Christ" and she said "yes, I believe and I have faith, and that's why I want to be baptized and follow Christ in everything that He has done." It was neat.

And surely, Christ has shown us the way and is the perfect example for us. And this week has been a great one to remember that with Easter - of course every week is a good week to remember, but it seems a holiday sets time apart for us to remember. Jesus Christ is our Savior and Redeemer. He not only taught us the gospel that would save our lives, but He lived that gospel through obedience to God, through loving all those around him, through His baptism all the way to submitting to the suffering in the Garden of Gethsemane and on the cross. And then He received the blessing of the Father and was given the power to overcome all of these things and seal it with His Life, or the Resurrection. He made it possible for all of us to receive this blessing and I am so grateful that I know that He lives, and that through His grace, and our desire, we will all live again.

Also. I was able to watch parts of General Conference at the senior missionary couple's apartment, which was amazing - not all of it, but parts. (Every 6 months, the Prophet and Apostles and other church leaders speak to the whole church and the world via satellite transmission.) And President Monson's talk about the resurrection was so touching. Hearing a prophet of God testify that the plan of salvation is perfect, that it covers all of us, and that through the living Christ we will all live, strengthened my testimony in a way that is not describable. It didn't change any of my knowledge, and he didn't even say anything that was new to me, but the Spirit of God bore witness to my spirit that what he was saying was true, and it pierced my soul.

I couldn't stop thinking of Grandma and Grandpa Coy, and how happy they will be to be resurrected and sealed to us for eternity, about Elder Davis and Elder Burrows who are now serving their mission on the other side of the veil assisting the work of the Lord by our sides, about all the many friends that I have gained and lost for a time. And then I thought of a quote that was promised to Joseph Smith "Your friends at first are friends at last."

(If any of you did not get to see this and you would like to hear a prophet of God, you can go on the internet to: lds.org then select “gospel library” then select “General Conference” Then it will say: “Select a language to start watching” You will probably want to select “English”. Then it will give you choices of which session to see. President Thomas S. Monson was the last speaker in the Sunday AM session. So, after selecting “Sunday AM” it will give pictures of the speakers and the choir below the screen in the order they presented. Just hit the right arrow to scroll over to President Monson and click on his picture with his name below. I hope you will make time to do this! It was amazing!)

I know that joy is found here on the earth through the knowledge and conviction available to us through the Spirit of God. Joy is promised to us to continue beyond the grave and into eternity. This eternity is physical, it is not just a dream or a wish, but it is a reality that will be realized to each one of us, and I am looking forward to that day when the fullness of joy that I have strove to apply in my daily life will be found in my eternity. This is possible for each one of us, and this because of God's everlasting love and Christ's infinite atonement. How wonderful it is to know that God has not left us - His children - without a way to come home.

So for Easter… We went to the midnight mass at the big Orthodox church, which was different than last years in a few ways, - one of which being that I could actually understand a big majority of what the priest was saying. For those of you who don't remember from last year, what happens across the country is the groups of priests go inside the big church to receive the "flame of Christ" which is then held in the priest's hand on a candle or lamp, or however that priest decides to do it. Then in large grandeur they all come out of the church singing their chants and the priest commands all to come and receive the light of Christ, the light of heaven, and he lights the candles of the people near him (everyone has a candle) and then they light the candles of the people close to them and so on until the light has spread to each and every person in the crowd. And the crowd is HUGE just to let you know. It is neat symbolism The light of Christ is inside each of us and can be received as we strengthen our faith on true principles, centered on Jesus Christ, and then act upon them under the direction of the restored priesthood, or authority of God the Father. So then he sings with his choir, and the crowd sings their part a million times.

Translated version - Christ resurrected from the dead, the dead on death stepping. And those from the grave, life, He is giving them. That's it. The part about the stepping, to erase confusion, that's one way that they say "to break" like if you break a law, they say that you step on the law. So there you go.

And then the priest gives everyone his advice for the year about how we can keep the light of Christ alive in us - complete with his words of how they should believe the truth given to them and not seek for more, because the truth they have is all that exists, (which is sad advice because it is not true - light will always add upon light so that our understanding can continue to increase. This is God's plan and His way) but he also says good things like how we should serve one another, search the scriptures, and follow the admonitions of Christ. He ended his speech by admonishing all to not say "hello" or "buna ziua" for 40 days, but to replace it with the greeting "Hristos a inviat" (Christ resurrected) with the response "adevarat a inviat" (truly He resurrected). And so that's what we do now. On the street we remember Christ's resurrection in our greetings with others. That’s neat.

So as for the temporal Easter, The Easter bunny did come to me and Sora Hardy, but he couldn't find any baskets in our apartment, so he just put some treats in one of our cooking pots and mixing bowls - he obviously couldn't find any good hiding places in our apartment either because it was just left on our kitchen table. But it was probably safest there so that the cockroaches wouldn't get them lol. But we had fun.

It was a really good week - I'll try to send pictures next week. Our normal internet place was closed for the Easter holiday, and these computers don't let us put ‘usb’ chords in it or anything. Anyways, I hope that you all had a lovely Easter full of joy.

Oh, before I go, funny Romanian thing for the week - they have some of the weirdest superstitions, and I just found one of them yesterday: If someone brushes a broom on your legs, superstition states that you won't get married. I found it out because Sora Hardy was sweeping and accidentally brushed against my legs when she passed. Andrei, an investigator that was at church with us, freaked out. Sad day for me...but I think I'll be ok. But it was funny. Sora Hardy then teased him to no end trying to touch his legs with the broom - he was pretty good at deflecting it so he's still safe. Anyways, I love you all so so very much, and I'll have more stories for next week. Yay, I love stories.

Always, --Sora Karina