Elder Downs here! Another fast week. Funny how people gage how fast time is going. Mine is how fast I seem to be filling up my seven day pill box with my vitamins and a few prescripts! Weird, I know. Also hard to believe that next Sunday is Easter. Sherrie and I both have Sunday School classes that we teach, Sherrie has all of the teenagers 12 through 17, mine is the Missionary Preparation class of 4 - 7 students depending on the day. We both have been teaching to our "students" about the Savior, his Crucifixion and Resurrection and what His atonement has done for us all. Or let me say, we are teaching as we can best understand what the Savior did for us. It is so hard to wrap our arms around what He really did for us. As Neal A. Maxwell once said "Jesus did not find pleasure in hanging on the cross; joy came after duty and agony. He went to Gethsemane and Golgatha out of a sense of supreme service, not because it would meet his needs. He fulfilled all things by giving all in that remarkable and special act of service. He descended below all--taking more than all of us put together have taken--before being lifted up".
    That makes our little sacrifice of time in our lives to serve a mission quite minimal, but knowing we are doing it for Him is reassuring to us.
    Last night the big missionary fireside/party occurred that we and the young Elder Missionaries had been planning. As with any such fireside you hope for the moon as far as how many will attend. Could have been better, but we had a handful of non-members attend and two handfuls of less active people that came. Food was first, then the fireside in the chapel and then back to desserts and Marshallese dancing! Those Marshallese sure know how to have a good time and eat! I think we mentioned in a previous blog that we had been working with a man and his large three generation family who have been less active in the church for about three years. Two Sundays ago he and his extended family of  thirty showed up to attend our worship service. They filled up a third of the chapel!! Some of his family again came last night and some were there today also. So maybe we can get them turned around after all.
    I want to end tonight by saying that these past few weeks have been a little trying for us. Missing the family, not having as much success as we would like here, missing family, missing family, but reading about the Savior always brings it back into proper perspective. Elder Bednar in his book entitled Act In Doctrine spoke about striving to develop a more Christlike character in our lives. He spoke how the Savior in his moment of anguish upon the cross was not concerned as much for himself as he was for those around him. Likewise Elder Bednar gave examples of people he personally knows who have displayed the capacity that while they were in their own moment of despair, they were still able to recognize and appropriately minister to other people who were experiencing the very same challenge or adversity that was most immediately and forcefully pressing upon themselves at that moment in time.
    I guess when we all lean on the scripture of "line upon line, precept upon precept" we will in the process of time increasingly be able to reach outward when the natural tendency is for us to turn inward.
     Have a good week my friends and family.

Elder John