"And he was withdrawn from them about a stone's cast, and kneeled down, and prayed, saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.  And there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him.  And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and he sweat as it were great drops of blood falling to the ground."  (Luke 22:41-44)

 

"And behold, I am the light and the life of the world; and I have drunk out of that bitter cup which the Father hath given me, and have glorified the Father in taking upon me the sins of the world, in the which I have suffered the will of the Father in all things from the beginning."

(3 Nephi 11:11)

 

 

"Jesus saith unto her, Woman, why weepest thou?  whom seekest thou?  She, supposing him to be the gardener, saith unto him, Sir, if thou have borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away.  Jesus saith unto her, Mary.  She turned herself, and saith unto him, Rabboni; which is to say, Master.  Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God."  (John 20:15-17)

 

The Easter celebration should call to our minds the line we hear so often at Christmas: "Remember the reason for the season!"  The resurrection of our Savior has been called the greatest thing that has happened for mankind in the history of the world.  We now have an everlasting life, going on beyond the grave, not just this life only and that's it!  Let us move beyond the bunnies and colored eggs and candy, and give thanks for the mission and sacrifice of our Savior Jesus Christ.

 

Sister Tiff is a master cheftess and puts together some pretty awesome meals and treats.  Here she is making cookies for the Dalhousie University students, as well as a cake for Elder Tiff's 70th birthday!

 



Doesn't that look good?!  Yes - it was!!

This is Sister Ott, one of four lady missionaries in our area.  She had her birthday a few days before ET's, so she was allowed to share some of the cake with him.

We went to Windsor a week ago, and while there took a few pictures.  Elder Tiffany's fascinated with the colorful homes.  Sadly, they don't show up quite as bright in pictures as they do in real life.

This yellow house is right next door to the purple one above.  Many streets throughout Nova Scotia sport multi-colored homes.  It's like a rainbow on every street.

This is an LDS chapel in Windsor, Nova Scotia.  It's not functioning right now, as the number of saints in the area isn't large enough to support such a large building, due to transient and migrating members.

This is the Halifax YSA Branch Presidency - Pres. Richard Moses in the back, Bro. Aalders in the front, and Elder Tiff.  On ET's birthday, they served a cake and wished him many more (birthdays).

This was actually the third cake for Elder Tiff.

This is a group of YSA waiting for Elder T to stop talking and cut the cake.

More YSA.

We had an opportunity to visit a couple of Sister T's siblings.  Above, we have Sister Tiffany, sister-in-law Sylvia, and Lil, Joni's sister.

This is three of the four Roy family children still with us.  Lil, Albert, and Joni.

Of course we're going to eat!

Because Albert's birthday is March 29th, the two of us were honored with another cake.  Notice only two candles for us to blow out.

Sister Tiff at her parent's grave site in Liverpool, Nova Scotia.

Yet another cake (this makes 5!) at the Davison's.

 A very dear friend for many years - Anna Davison.  Always a wonderful hostess (and a great cook!).

Andrea and Ofa - daughter and granddaughter of Anna -

whom we love very much.

Also at dinner at Anna's was John and Linda Caulfield.

They don't come much better!

Stewiacke is about 30 miles north of Halifax.  At this point, we're just as close to the equator as we are to the North Pole.

If you want to see the famous Green Gables, Ann's home,

this ferry will take you to Prince Edward Island.

But you'll have to wait until later in the spring, unless you drive across the 8 mile long Confederation Bridge between P.E.I. and New Brunswick.

This is one of the first signs you will see when departing the ferry from PEI.

And this directs you to Pictou, Nova Scotia, home of the first Scottish settlement in this part of the New World - established in 1773.  Nova Scotia means New Scotland.

The Hector was a ship famous for having brought the first Scottish settlers to Nova Scotia. It carried 189 Highlanders and took 11 weeks, with smallpox and dysentery claiming 18 children.

This is a home in Pictou. Notice the door above the add-on.  This is called a "mother-in-law door." Normally these doors have nothing below them but a lot of space between them and the ground.  Many homes have these!

We visited New Glasgow, a town close to Pictou, to monitor a seminary class and do a little in-service with the teacher.

Elder Roberts, April -1/4 of the seminary class, Sis. Laura MacKinnon -the teacher, and Elder Widdup.  Often there are only two students, with four registered, but tonight only one made it.  Sis. MacKinnon is a YSA in the branch and volunteers to teach whomever will show up, and she does a good job, too.

Short Elder Henderson, a new missionary, and tall Elder Gibbs (6'8") have just been assigned to the YSA branch.  They are wonderful young men whom we love dearly.

We took Carmelita, a relatively new member from the Philippines, to Peggy's Cove on a beautiful sun-shiney day, with temperatures in the high 40s F, and wind chill at about 20 F.

On Easter Sunday we had a fireside at the stake center in Dartmouth.  Pictured above is our member/missionary choir at rehearsal on Saturday.  Our conductor was Elder Call who took a sabbatical from his position as music department chairman at BYU-Idaho, to come on a mission with his wife.  He and his wife are amazing musicians.

Sis. Drew (right) and Sis. Broadhead -missionaries, were vocalists for the fireside.  Their singing talent is very professional and even more beautiful.

Here we have Sis. Call (piano), Elder Woodward (cello), Elder Waldie (viola), Elder Call (violin), and the two sisters in rehearsal.  Sis. Hart (missionary, not pictured) played the flute for a different number. The fireside was very spiritual, with talks given by Samantha Jong (YSA), Pres. Leavitt (mission president), and Pres. Evans (Stake President).  300 were in attendance and all were very impressed by the spirit and talent. Elder Woodward is from Centerville, Utah.

After rehearsal we went to dinner at Jungle Jim's Restaurant with (from left) Sisters Tiffany, Broadhead, Kowalski, Lee, and Ott.  We enjoyed our first burger in about 6 months, and poutine - a favorite dish in the Canada Maritimes of fries, cheese curds, and gravy.  Sounds gross?  NOT AT ALL!!  Very yummy!!

These young men are our Assistants to the President of the mission - Elder Baskin and Elder Morin.  Elder Baskin, from Kaysville, Utah, served with us previously and Elder Morin is from Quebec, French speaking, and new to our area, but both are fantastic missionaries and loved by everyone!

 

We had a great opportunity to serve at the temple twice for both of the last two weeks.  We were there for our usual service on this last Thursday evening, then back on Friday early morning until noon.  Because it was Good Friday, there were extra services throughout the day, with filled-to- capacity rooms in all areas of the temple all day long.  Canadians take their holidays very seriously, with almost every business closed on those days - even Walmart.  There were no cars in any store parking lot all that day!  It's the same for all of the major holidays.  You have to plan for it, but it's very refreshing to see them give their workers a day off.