Easter Feast!

Lindquist is my mother's maiden name!

     Hello friends and family! How are you all doing? I am doing great! Yesterday was a bit of a strange but very rewarding Easter! At church we had three investigators come, the most we have had since I have been here. Having a very broad area it makes it hard to get everyone to church. During  priesthood, we had a chance to pull out one of our investigators named Hector who is a really smart 20 year old. He attends UC Davis and is majoring in bio-chemistry! He is so great I love him so much. We taught him the Plan of Salvation with one of the members in the room next door. Just the week before, when I was on an exchange with Elder Pinnock, he had promised Hector that if he read the Book of Mormon everyday he would have work everyday. Hector  hadn't had consistent work in a while. He works in the fields picking oranges with his mom. This week he was able to read the Book of Mormon everyday and he had work for every single one of those days! They end work on Saturday and have only Sunday off. On Saturday night right after he had gotten off of work it began to thunder and just began to pour! He said it was one of the hardest rains he has seen in Orange Cove since he has lived there. The funny thing is if it would have rained the day before, he would have been out of work for three days while the fields have to dry before they start picking again! I knew and he knew that his answer had come directly from God. 
     I have also come to know that God hears the promises and acts on their authority which we have through the priesthood! Hector said that he has attended church other places in California because his mom is a member. He has had lessons with senior missionaries, but he said that nothing had ever clicked or came that powerful to him! He has read up to the book of Alma in less than 3 weeks. We are having his baptism this Sunday in between General Conference! Hector has become one of my great friends and we are always so happy when we get to go out to his house way out in the middle of nowhere in Orange cove! Having been out here in Fresno I have already seen many of the promises from Heavenly Father that have been in my Patriarchal blessing. 
     This week has been really focused on Jesus Christ and His crucifixion and resurrection. I can honestly say this week more than any other has had a huge impact on my testimony of our Savior Jesus Christ! I really felt my love for Him as I partook of the sacrament yesterday and was really able to feel His love He has for me and for all our brothers and sisters! 
     Yesterday we also had an emergency zone conference so we did not get the Easter dinner we were hoping for. As a mission we had kind of lost our focus on baptism and had focused too much on finding people to teach. We had very large teaching pools and a small amount of progressing investigators!  We have been called unto repentance as a mission.  After having a very loving chastisement from our mission President, we were all very spiritually edified on how we need to change as missionaries and focus on the thing that is central to our purpose as missionaries which is baptism and confirmation! We have now changed our 3 hours of finding down to 2. And have added the power of 1 to our mission again, where every area in the mission is responsible for 1 baptism every month which I am very excited about! I know that as I pray to God to continue to put prepared people in our path, and for our goals we have set for baptism for the month of April and also putting faith into action, God will always fulfill! 
     Our president always gives us a good bye hug before he leaves and he always tells me, "Son, I am grateful you are here in this mission and you have been sent here for a reason"! I am so glad for the opportunity each week I have to be a California, Fresno missionary! This week was solid and I am still having such a fun time here in Reedley. I know God lives! Christ is risen! He is our Savior! I hope you all have a great week and really use this Easter to be a springboard to be consecrated members of the Church of Jesus Christ, to recognize our shortcomings and strive to be better! Love you all! 

Elder Tanner Aiken