Happy Easter!

The Berdin Family! I love them!

Dear Family, 

Well, I survived Holy Week in the Philippines!! Haha, oh my heavens it is madness.  Good Friday was the craziest. There were parades of Catholics and crosses and fake bodies of Jesus EVERYWHERE. They even do human crucifictions here on the street! It was quite horrifying to be honest.  The weirdest thing though was that on Thursday and Friday, everything was shut down. There was no public transportation, no grocery stores open.  But then on Easter, it was like a totally normal day! I don’t even know if anyone remembered that it was Easter! 

Even though it was a super weird week with all of the good Friday stuff, I was somewhat grateful for this new perspective that I had on the Atonement.  It was a reminder of just how much Christ did suffer for us and that it really happened. But, I was so thankful for the celebration we were able to have yesterday to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  He Lives! And without His resurrection, his Atonement would be incomplete.  It is because of the resurrection that we will all live again and be resurrected.

And, incoincidentally, I learned a LOT about the Atonement and my Savior this week.  It started on Wednesday when I got lice!! Haha, yeah, lovely I know.  Did you know lice are actually brown bugs with legs? Yeah, I don’t know if its just here in the Philippines, but they are also huge. And there was like at least a hundred crawling around on my head.  Luckily though after some tears, I got some shampoo and my Philipina anak combed all of them out of my hair for me. Oh, the joys of living in the Philippines! I wonder what gross thing a child will share with me this week.... 

And then, this whole week I was trying to organize Shane’s baptism and for some reason I just felt totally alone! I felt like the ward wasn’t helping and I just felt like I was the only one who cared if the baptism worked out.  I was really stressed out all week and I kept praying that things would work out.  On Friday night I was the most stressed and I really didn’t know what was going to happen, if at 10 oclock the next morning we would have a baptism.  I finally gave up and just said “Heavenly Father, I have done everything that I can, can you please just help everything to work out?” I just had faith and went to sleep that night hoping it would be okay. 

Well, Saturday morning, 2 hours before the baptism was going to start, I got a text from the person who was appointed to fill up the baptismal font saying that he wasn’t feeling well and we had to cancel the baptism.  I was crushed! I was so upset and angry and I didn’t understand why this was happening! I texted everyone and told them that it was moved to the 18th, and then I just cried. I felt like this was some kind of joke.. First lice and now this.. After I turned everything over to the Lord, why didn’t He help it all work out? 

It was then that I was reminded that Jesus Christ came to strengthen US. Jesus Christ came and suffered and died for us so that He would know how to succor us.  Not so that He could fix everything and make everything work out just the way we want, but to help comfort us and make us stronger when things don’t go the way we want.  I felt His love and comfort from the Holy Ghost, and I was able to let go of the feelings that I had of resentment and sadness. And Shane is still going to be baptized! And I know that Heavenly Father will help that happen...just in his time... 2 weeks from now (: 

I am so thankful for Easter! I know that my Redeemer lives! He can be our comfort and our best friend and there for us to understand when nobody else is around.  I love being on a mission in the Philippines and I love this opportunity that I have to know my Savior better. 

Have a great week!! Xoxoxo

Sister Lockwood

Also, our prayers are being answered and we have recieved referrals in the 4th ward!! Yay! That is such a relief to me. Yesterday we ate at another family's house in the 4th ward, and it was so nice! She even let us eat some COOKIE DOUGH before she put cookies in!