Sister Alex Hartvigsen-- April 10, 2012

Dear Family, I hope that you all had a wonderful Easter. I know I did.
On Friday more than 14 thousand people came to see the Easter Pageant.
It was so busy and so much fun. That night I was assigned to be
outside with the crowds and talk to them. It was a blast. At the end
of the night, a member of the pageant came up to me and asked if I
spoke Spanish. He then led me to a group of people and explained that
the 15 year old boy spoke no English and wanted to learn more about
the Church. It got his information and permission from his legal
guardian and was able to get him in contact with missionaries in his
area yesterday. It is really cool because as part of a new program, I
will have to opportunity to stay in contact with this kid through chat
on mormon.org as well as phone calls as he is taught. This is really
nice because before when we were able to contact someone and they
accepted the missionaries they kinda went into a black hole and we
didn't ever know what was going on with them after. No we have the
chance to follow up and see more of the results. Another really cool
thing that happened was on Sunday night as I was at the back desk, a
family came up to me to ask a question. They looked at my tag and then
got really excited. They are Hartvigsens too! From what we could
figure out they are from a different branch of the family tree, They
live is Alpine UT. The Dad's name is Darrin but he gets our Darrin's
info and mail a lot. I told them to look me up on facebook after the
mission to see if we can figure out the family history here. it was
really cool. This week was really good and we saw many miracles in
the visitors center as a result of the Easter Pageant. There was a
very special spirit there and we found out that several of our
investigators came and really felt the Spirit and were touched by the
message. We had a lesson with a part member family this week and we
talked about Easter and what they learned from General conference. We
also talked about Alma 7 and the Atonement of the Savior. We stopped
by an investigators home and invited her to the Easter pageant and
taught her children how to pray and after a little reluctance her 9
year old offered the prayer. It was cool. On Wednesday we had an
unplanned teaching opportunity as we were leaving the Sands
apartments. We were stopped by the son in a part member family.
Normally he doesn't really talk to us much ( he is a typical 19 year
old) but he came over and started to talk. We talked to him about why
we came on our mission and then talked about how he can find peace in
his life through the gospel. We talked to him about prayer and how we
can recognize the answers to our prayers. He said that he would meet
with us but wouldn't set a specific time. This week we have really
been trying to focus on talking to everyone and teach when we find and
find when we teach. It has been a really cool experience especially in
the VC. It is impossible to tell who will be interested in our message
so what my responsibility is is to invite everyone and give them the
chance. We haven't had a lot of people very open to listening but it
has helped our confidence as we have done it.
Last night we had this amazing lesson with one of our investigators.
We talked him about the plan of Salvation and what the purpose is of
our lives here on Earth. The Spirit was so strong. We had an amazing
member with us who invited him to come to church with him this Sunday
and really backed up what we were teaching. It makes such a huge
difference when we work with the members together. it is so important
to have good friends in this process and also helps people see that we
are normal people and how the gospel blesses lives. This lesson was
one of those Yay! moments of my mission. On our next lesson with him
on Wednesday we are going to challenge him to be baptized. This man is
very prepared and eager to learn more. We are really excited to see
his progression.
Have a great week!

I love you all
Love Alex