Easter Evening Fireside

On Easter Sunday we had a wonderful Fireside Presentation.

We celebrated the Resurrection of Jesus Christ 

with an evening that included testimonies of Christ,

through the spoken word and music.

Elder Mead, Elder Price, Elder Heward, Elder Carman, Elder Olsen, Elder Morote and Elder Manley

performed "El Cristo Es" (This is the Christ)

Sister Coleman and Sister South played a lovely violin duet with Elder Lavado on the piano.

"Yo Sé que Vive Mi Señor"

President Quiñones, of the Porvenir Stake,  shared his wonderful testimony of the Savior of the world, Jesus Christ.

Sister Schyler and Sister Wright sang a duet, "Sublime Salvador".

Thoughts and testimony of Jesus Christ was shared by President Rabanal of the Central Stake .

Sister Coleman, elder Olsen and Elder Drescher played a piano cello and violin trio, 

of "El Amor de Salvador."

Sinter Pineda Singing "Asombo Me Da"

President Marler bore his testimony of Jesus, and His loveland atoning sacrifice for us. 

The Missionary Choir Sang "I Believe in Christ", "Himno de la Pascua de la Resurrección", 

and "Cristo Ha Resucitado"

President Marler and President Dávila after the program.

Sister Messina and Sister Daleshca Carbajal after the program. 

Sister South and Sister Ramirez with a dear friend.

Brother and Sister Rodriguez (one of our past missionaries) joined us at the program.

Elder Heward, President Marler and President Bravo.  We were so grateful to have President Bravo

 as a friend, and to have him share his thoughts of the Savior with us.

Elder Drescher and Elder Manley.

The team that pulls it all together.  Elder Espinosa who runs the sound board and keeps the entire show running.  Elder Marshall and Elder Craft who set up the facility, and work with the Zone Leaders. Elder Olsen who organized the entire program, helped with practices for the individual groups.  Sister Angell and Sister Vaughan who sing in the choir, support and love the missionaries, and provide food for those who travel. Sister Marler who directs the Trujillo North Mission Choir and President Marler who has found great success in sharing the word of Christ in song and word with the people who live within the Trujillo North Mission Boundaries.  With his vision 1000's have enjoyed these programs immensely. 

Happy Easter

Mom's and Dad's we have been so busy with Multi-Zone Conference 

and attending the temple with the missionaries.  

I haven't had much time to blog.  I will try to catch up a little today.  

But, we all wanted to wish you a very Happy Easter.  

We love you all and thank you for your prayers,

                                                           Your love, and your support.  
                              We, of the Trujillo North Mission have the best parents in the world.

Casa Grande, Primavera and Este Zones

Esperanza, Porvenir and Central Zones

Cajamarca, Guadalupe and Sierra Zones

Baptisms in Trujillo

Our work as missionaries is to invite people to come unto Christ  

The missionaries work each day in a designated area, with companions

As they visit homes, by invitation of the family, they teach lessons about the doctrines of Christ

They teach the principles that he taught while upon the earth, about His love and 

His atoning sacrifice for them 

With this gift of His perfect life, His suffering in Gethsemane, His death on the cross, and His resurrection.  We too can raise from the dead, and be with our family and loved ones for all eternity  

The invitation to come unto Christ is an invitation to follow in His footsteps and one of the first things the Savior did as He began His ministry was to be baptized.  He said it was to fulfill all righteousness

For us Baptism is the door that leads us to path we are to walk for the rest of our lives

Baptism cleanses us from sin 

Baptism is a sacred ordinance, a saving ordinance

When we are baptized we become members of Christ's Church

In Christ's Church, we are baptized with Priesthood Authority, 

the same authority that John the Baptist held

We follow Christ and are baptized by immersion, that means that we are totally submerged in the water and come forth clean, new and pure…

We hope you enjoyed some of the pictures of our recent baptisms, and learned a little more about baptism in the Lord's Church

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Baptism pictures: 1.Elder Callata, Elder Rodriguez, Elder Rodriguez, Elder Garcia

2. Elder Burnuy and Elder Lopez

3. Elder Burnuy and Elder Lopez

4. Elder Diaz and Elder Dow   

Tyler Graff, our grandson

The passing of our grandson, Tyler:

A few have asked why I haven't blogged for the last few weeks.  I was unsure if I should blog this or not, but have decided that this is a part of our mission, it has affected all of our missionaries in the Trujillo Mission. It has certainly affected the Marler Family.

You may remember at our Multi Zone conferences, I talked about the Parable of the Sliver (La Parabola de la Astil). Our daughter Kim, Tyler's mom, gave me the idea, as she had used the sliver in a lesson with her Young Women Class at Church).   I had pictures of my grandson, Tyler, and pictures of his hand.  He was out playing and got a sliver in his hand and I used this message to talk about the importance of keeping bad thoughts and sinful ways out of our life.  That we need to keep our heads and hearts clean and pure, so that we don't fester, like a hand with a sliver.  

Our message was that the only way to prevent festering is to stay away from sin, bad thoughts, etc.  But we are not perfect and sometimes we make wrong choices, like playing with wood and getting a sliver under our skin, we have to take it out.  

The only way to remove sin from our lives is through repentance, and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.  Because of his atoning sacrifice, we are able to cast our sins, our burdens, our hurts and our short-cominging upon the Lord, and he will sustain us and forgive us, if we try to sin no more. 

From this lesson, our missionaries came to love Tyler, they saw pictures of him and asked regularly about him.  They came closer to the Savior, and they desired to be better missionaries. 

Then just a few weeks later, on April 18th, Tyler fell into a swimming pool.  We received a call from our son, Tyler's uncle, telling us what happened.  Our missionaries received a message to join us in prayer for Tyler and his family.  Tyler wasn't doing well, and we decided that I needed to be with our family.  

I was home to be with Tyler and his parents for a few hours on Easter Sunday, before he passed away. To hold Tyler in my arms one more time. Many family members were there with us, our three other daughters, two of our sisters and their husbands,  and most of the Graff family.  

Our daughter, Kim with Tyler a few months ago…one of the few times he stayed still for a picture…He was always active, playing, and trying to keep up with his older brother and sister

Our hearts are heavy, we have felt sadness, but we have also felt hope and joy.  Our faith teaches that families are eternal.  That if we follow God's plan for us, that we can all be together, as a family for eternity.  This gives us great comfort.  We know little Tyler is now with our Savior, Jesus Christ.  Children are perfect in Christ and his atonement.  He is also with many loving members of our family, who have passed on before,  who are now caring for him, and teaching him.  Tyler will be looking over us, one of the angels who will protect us.  We love him so very much, and always will.  

Tyler, Riley and A.J. outside the San Diego Temple where their parents were sealed together for all eternity.

I have only been back for one day, but the missionaries I have spoken to tell me that because of Tyler, they are working harder.  They want to do their best.  We are already seeing the fruits of there labors. They now, more fully understand the importance of the Gospel of Jesus Christ that they share with the world, and the importance of the great Plan of Salvation.  

A message from President Marler:

During the last two weeks, many wonderful things have happened here in the mission. I have shared the message of the resurrection of Jesus Christ with many people.  This message is one of hope, of love and of the Saviors redeeming sacrifice for us.  Interestingly enough, a little over 2000 years ago, on Thursday of this same week, Jesus Christ plead with His Father that the cup might pass from him as he knelt in the Garden of Gethsemane. The Father did not answer that prayer, even though His heart must have been breaking as ours was.  On Friday, 2000 years later, we plead with the Father that he might grant us a miracle and let Tyler live.  The Father, again, did not answer the prayer in the way we had hoped.  On Easter Sunday, little Tyler passed away.  Easter is the celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and on that first Easter Day, Christ lived again, and because of that, Tyler will too.  We know that this time apart is but a short one in the eyes of the Lord, and we will all be with Tyler again.

Kim and Arnie, A.J. Riley and Tyler
a forever family