Easter Week and General Conferrence, April 4-12, 2020

Easter Sunday is always special.  It represents new life through the buds of Spring and hope of Eternal Life through the Resurrection of our Savior, Jesus Christ. I think I love Spring the best of all the seasons.  It comes at the end of a cold winter with a breath of warmth and lots of sunshine.  Baby animals are born and flowers start miraculously popping up from the cold hard ground.  The grass magically turns green and there are blossoms all around on so many trees.  It truly looks like Popcorn Popping on the Apricot Trees!

I love that the Resurrection was in the Spring.  It is so symbolic of new life, continued life, perfect life.  I love my Savior for coming to the earth, living a perfect life, and by his own choice giving up that life, suffering for my sins and pains and sorrows and those of all humanity because He loves us, because His Father and our Father loves us and wants to give us every opportunity to come back to them.  What a beautiful and comforting gift.  I love them for that gift and for the gift of being here on earth at this time.

Last weekend we had our church's General Conference.  It was historic because this is the 200th Anniversary of the Restoration of the Gospel and of the First Vision.  It was also very memorable because of the corona virus and no one being able to attend conference in person.  We watched from our homes all over the world as our Prophet, Apostles and other general leaders spoke to us.  I was especially touched by our Prophet, Russel M. Nelson's talks.  He gave comfort and hope during this trying times.  We don't need to fear if we trust in the Lord. He presented this new proclamation to the world regarding the restoration. He also gave an apostolic blessing to the whole world concerning the pandemic and asked for a worldwide day of prayer and fasting.  He announced several new temples including one in Shanghai, China and another in Dubai!  That is amazing!

I loved the talks that were given at General Conference.  I especially loved Elder Holland's talk.  It was full of hope and compassion.

As conference ended, Easter week began.  What a blessing Easter is.  It's fun to have Easter egg hunts and Easter baskets and all that special stuff, but the best part is celebrating our Savior being risen from the dead.  What a glorious event!  What a glorious gift!

We had a fun Easter week, quarantine surprise.  The door bell rang one day and I answered it and Jaimee, Sophie, Tucker and Austin were standing on our porch!  I knew she was taking the kids to visit her mom in Idaho, but had no idea that they were going to stop by here!  I can't even express how happy this made me.  We had a nice social distanced visit with them.  They came back the next day and we had a little Easter egg hunt and I had some Easter baskets for them.  (I got up early and went to senior shopping hour at the dollar store to get some goodies). We also had a fun bike ride around our neighborhood.

Saturday before Easter, we dyed Easter eggs with Violet. 

Easter Sunday was different than any other we have ever had.  We can't go to church so we have church at home.  Mike and I had our own little service including the Sacrament.  It was very special.  Hannah and Chase joined us for singing at the piano.  We sang all the Easter songs in the hymn book. We have four-part harmony so it was really fun.

Violet got a little Easter basket with some goodies and little toys.  She was delighted!

 

We had a delicious Easter dinner with Eric joining us.  Everyone contributed something.  Chase supplied a Honey Baked Ham that his company gave him for Christmas (gift card to The Honey-baked Ham Store).  It was really great!

Violet got a pretty new Easter dress!

Easter was beautiful and special.  We missed having a large family dinner, but since we couldn't, we did the best we could under the circumstances.  We hope everyone had a special day and that Easter has a meaningful part in our lives.