Easter

Alright.  Time for a little catch up.  

So this year for Easter, I didn't really plan anything due to how busy I was with school work.  I was a little disappointed that nothing else had been planned by anyone else that I could hop in on that day (without having to be in charge) but figured something would pop up.  On Easter itself, nothing much came to fruition except a few guys in the ward invited a couple of us over to hang out.  However, the day before, the sister missionaries had planned a little something special for a few of us, which made me feel...well, special. (Truly.)  

They called on Friday night to see if I could come by the institute the next day at 5 for a little egg hunt they had planned.  I was swamped with school, but didn't want to miss it.  I was so glad I didn't, as it really was thoughtful and great.  Turns out they had invited just a few members and investigators who they spent a lot of time with.  There were nine of us who could make it (one other had been invited) and I think we all felt the love.  

When we got there, they explained that each of us had 5 eggs, especially for us, which were hidden in or around the institute.  My eggs were the 5 hot pink eggs.   Someone else had the 5 mint colored eggs, and so forth.  We couldn't pick up others' eggs, or tell them where they were if we came across them (but we definitely didn't follow that rule for more than 5 minutes).  It was a ton of fun.  We all ran around the institute, searching in obvious and not-so-obvious places for our eggs.  I was expecting the missionaries to have tied it in to some spiritual lesson for us, but they didn't, which for some reason made it seem extra sort of special...because they just wanted to serve us and give us something special and fun, just because they love us.  Well it worked, gosh darn it. :) 

I finished second or so, and then just watched the others as they searched, occaaaaasionally dropping hints of where I had seen their missing eggs.  

I just love the thoughtfulness of these sisters. 

Sister Little, myself,  Sister Austin, and Sister Reed, after I found all my hidden Easter eggs.

The others kept up their searches, some for quite awhile. (One person, Eric, didn't find his last egg until the next day at church. We all tried helping him, including the missionaries, but they couldn't remember where it was hidden.)

Nate searching more closely through some of the prickly bushes.

I wish you could have seen Nate's army crawl along the bushes out front looking for any rouge egg stuffed beneath their dense and prickly foliage.  He was expert, and we enjoyed watching him (especially since he went right past one of his eggs without realizing it--just a few inches above where his army crawl was looking in the bush ;) ).  

Kenji showing off the eggs of his that he'd found thus far

Once we are all about finished, we got together and took a group photo. These Elder's were the one's taking the pictures (all 5 sets of missionaries contributed notes for each person, the elders included).  They had my phone and kept saying they were having trouble getting it to work.  On the third try, they got one.  Turns out they were just faking it and taking pictures of themselves. :) )

Group Photo!  Back row:  Eric, Yang (investigator--just recently baptized!), and Suwoei (also a fairly recent convert, and a stud at helping the missionaries now).  Middle row: Sister Austin, Bridget (very recent convert--as of like a month), Megan (investigating), and Kenji.  Front row:  Sister Little, your's truly, Sister Reed, Nathan Nate-man the goober Mahler, and Gang (covert as of about one year).  

Each egg was filled with some candy, and a two notes--one from each member of a missionary companionship.  It was so thoughtful, and must have taken them so much time to write all of those individualized and personal notes for each person!  I loved them for it.

So despite not doing anything particularly special for Easter day, my "pre-"Easter was pretty great, and set up a wonderful feeling for the next day as I pondered and celebrated the life, death, and resurrection of our Savior.   Do we have a bunch of great missionaries in our ward, or what?!

Love 'em.