Easter Seasons

Wow-first time really using a blog, but I hope it goes well!

Hello everyone! Hello all families, members, friends, and fellow Elders and Sisters. Thanks for reading! I just wanted to share a short message with everyone, and let you know what we're doing as missionaries to help the area that we are in grow. And the things we do to assist the members of the church in this area with their struggles.

For you first time readers, my name is Elder Mark Petersen, and I'm a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints or otherwise the Mormon church :)! I'm serving and in the Rochester, New York mission, and am currently located near Buffalo, New York-a real special privilege  Our job or our purpose rather as missionaries is to invite people all around the world to come unto Christ, and exercise faith in him because of what he did for each and every one of us, as children of God. Hopefully, if you're reading this, you have a belief in God, or at least know that there is one, or believe in some higher power-if you don't, that's great too, and I hope I can give you a good, uplifting message.

We teach in our church that Jesus Christ came down to the world into Jerusalem to teach, minister, and establish his church upon the earth. God, the Eternal Father, sent him down to earth for a purpose, and because he loves all of us. That purpose was to teach the people of himself and his teachings, and to atone or take upon himself the sins and pains of the world. This is what we refer to as the Atonement of Christ. Before going to his death and crucifixion, Christ and his apostles stayed in the Garden of Gethsemane.  During the night, Christ left his apostles, and went by himself and began the Atonement. Every single ill feeling and bad emotion known to man; hate, anger, sadness, anxiousness, fear, etc.,every sickness, every evil, and every bad thing of the world fell upon his shoulders. The pain and anguish was so great that he began to sweat drops of blood from his body's pores-an experience that would have caused any normal to die instantly.

It's during this Easter season that we remember the sacrifice that Jesus Christ has done for us, and that he now has prepared a way for all of us to return to him and our Father in Heaven through his Atonement and Resurrection. I invite all of you who read this to ponder the message about Christ and about his experiences. Christ, the Lord, is Risen again, and he knows us. I leave you with what he told the people after his Resurrection:

"And as they thus spake, Jesus himself stood in the midst of them, and saith unto them. Peace be unto you. But they were terrified and afrighted, and supposed that they had seen a spirit. And he said unto them, Why are ye troubled? and why do thoughts arise in your hearts? Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see me have."

Luke 24: 36

To the people and members of the Lancaster area, I give you my care and support, and hope I can get to know you better this Easter season, and watch as we all grow together in Christ. For those back home or for those who are serving missions elsewhere that I know-I give you my love and sincere affections. I know that we're doing other things that cause us to be parted, but I know as we all serve, and pray, and continue in Christ, that we'll all be just fine :).

I wish everyone a Happy Easter! Make sure you don't gorge to much on Easter candy, ha-ha!

Till next time, Bye!