He is Risen!

I hope you have all had a wonderful Easter. Ours was truly amazing and wonderful. We decided to do all the secular part of Easter yesterday so we could focus more as a family on the Savior today. We had a big candy hunt with Brett's extended family and then went out to dinner. We came home and got ready for bed and gave the kids their Easter outfits and a little gift. Then we got out some special Easter eggs that mom gave me. These eggs have a little slip of paper that gives a scriptural account of the Easter story and a little trinket to represent what they're talking about. Each egg has a number and you're supposed to open one each day before Easter. We decided to do it all in one night. It was awesome. Reading about the crucifixion of the Savior and His Ressurection really set the stage nicely. The spirit was in our home and we were ready for a wonderful day of worship. Our church service was wonderful. The choir did a program that had speakers interspersed into it. I was just in love with the songs we sang. I was so excited to be singing them this morning. The results were incredible. The spirit in our meeting was so strong; it was beautiful. It is amazing how the spirit can help a ward choir and help the audience be touched. We had an investigator there along with the full-time missionaries. We were so excited about that. It was the perfect day for her and her daughter to come. The spirit really was strong.

As I came home from church, I opened my email to write to my brother and sister, who are both serving missions. I was hit with the headlines of the day and all the frustration and turmoil of the world came rushing to my mind. It made me realize how much I need the Sabbath day and how grateful I am for the Sabbath. It truly is a day to rest from the cares of the world, if we let it be. That is the trick. We have to be disciplined enough to not get into all the same things we do during the week, and then the Sabbath truly is a day of rest, a different day to rejuvenate, inspire, and to focus on those things that are at the center of our dwelling: Christ and the Gospel. How truly blessed I feel to have the gospel in it's fullness in our lives.

Here is a vidoe clip set to picture and music from Elder Holland's talk from General Conference last week.