Easter Weekend

Hello,

It was a great week and a wonderful chance to think about the Savior and remember that He suffered and died for us and also rose again so that we can repent of our sins and some day return to live with Him. We had a really nice fast and testimony meeting and I bore my testimony about Christ. I think it was a good thing to do because I have never born my testimony in this branch before. I practiced one of my favorite Easter Songs, "He is Risen!" earlier in the week and we sang it in the meeting. It was a great time. We are so excited to hear the words of the prophets this coming weekend. Because we are so far ahead in the time zone we will have to wait.

On Saturday, we all met as a zone and had Zone Conference. It was a really great conference and we learned a lot. President Berrett is such a great teacher and leader. We learned about how we should be using the Book of Mormon more in our teaching. It's such a powerful tool in conversion and can answer so many questions. I think the Book of Mormon is one of the strongest sources of my personal testimony of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I've been given that testimony by the Holy Ghost, but everything just makes so much sense to me. While I've been on the mission I've come to realize that more and more. President Berrett wants to make sure that all of us really know the Book of Mormon so we can teach it effectively. He issued a challenge to read it cover to cover before the next Zone Conference which will be 62 days from last Saturday. At first that sounded like a really crazy goal but I have taken it really seriously and have noticed that it's really not hard to read. Any spare time that I find, especially in the morning and evening, I have been reading like crazy. Now I'm on 2 Nephi chapter 19. It's interesting that I'm reading so well because it seemed like it was so hard to read it before my mission. 

I noticed a tender mercy yesterday as I was walking along the street. That mercy is that a bird pooped on my shoe. Now you may be wondering how getting pooped on by a bird could possibly be a tender mercy. I realized that it was because if that particular drop of poop had come just a split second later it would have landed right in my hair. And that's gross. So I was very happy to get bird poop on my shoe. 

Anyway, everything is just great here in India. The hot season has started up and it is getting hotter and hotter every day. I've just accepted the fact that I will always be hot and sweaty. On the bright side, I have heard that mango season is May and June so I am just eccstatic because I love mangos. From what I have heard, mangos in India are superb.

Life is good! 

Love, Elder Thompson