Kamusta kayo,

Wow, Easter is already over! I can't believe it. People get kind of crazy here for Easter but it wasn't too bad. We saw a HUGE parade of about thirty thousand people walking down the street carrying their Santos (basically a huge Christ, Mary, or cross that they made). They closed down a major street to do it too. They also closed another street, built a huge stage, and did a seven day play of Christ's life and death. Some of the stuff they did wasn't exactly how the Bible describes it. There was one scene where they had "Roman" soldiers marching back and forth on the stage and every time the soldiers came out, the band would play "Onward Christian Soldiers" haha.

I had a nice Easter feast too. The APs took me and my companion out to eat on Saturday to a Mexican restaurant! They had burritos that weigh about a pound! It was awesome! I haven’t had a good Mexican meal in over a year and a half. It was the best Easter dinner I’ve ever had. Rice is good and all but a little variety never hurt anyone haha :)

This week had some ups and downs but it was good overall. We found this awesome new investigator. She is really receptive to the spirit so she already believes that Joseph Smith is a true Prophet. She even understands that because this is the true church, she needs to be baptized; she understands all of this and we have only taught her twice. Right after that lesson however, we got some upsetting news.

We have an investigator, Vanessa, who has been going to church for about six months with her grandma. Her mom is really busy so we can’t teacher her, but she was totally fine with Vanessa being baptized and us teaching her when she got time. We taught Vanessa everything and got her ready to be interviewed for baptism.

The day of the interview we went over to their house to see Vanessa crying. We don’t know the whole story, but for some reason Vanessa's mom doesn’t want anything to do with us and doesn’t want Vanessa to be baptized. She got in a fight with her boyfriend so we think she is just taking it out on us. We tried talking to her but any time we get close to her she yells at us and runs away. So we are just praying and hoping the Lord will soften her heart again.

So that is my week... I love you all and you are in my prayers.

Love, Elder Smith