Sister and Elder Hintze: 4/3/23

 

Monday, April 3, 2023

Dear family and friends,

This is such a special time of year. I have always loved spring when the crocus begins to peek
their heads through the snow and the evidence of the creations of God is in its greatest splendor.
As a young girl, my family’s tradition during this time of year was to have a Passover Seder. I
have such wonderful memories of gathering around the beautiful table my mother would set with
my siblings, my parents, and my aunt, uncle, and cousins. Since I have come to understand and
embrace the role of Jesus Christ as the Savior of the world, my Jewish heritage has gained even
greater meaning to me. Passover is a remembrance and a celebration of the freedom of the
Israelites from Egyptian bondage. Through His great gift of the Atonement, our Savior, Jesus
Christ, has also blessed us with freedom from the bonds of death and has given us the gift of
eternal life.

In Matthew Chapter 26, we learn that Jesus told the disciples to prepare a place where they could
eat the Passover meal together. This last meal that the Savior ate, which we know as “The Last
Supper” was a Passover meal. He blessed and broke the bread and blessed the wine. He dipped
His hand in the dish. And then he instituted the bread and the wine as the sacrament to
remember Him. He sacrificed Himself as the ultimate Paschal lamb. At this Easter season, we
celebrate the empty tomb and His great resurrection, which led the way for each of us to have
hope in the resurrection for all.

For the past several weeks Elder Hintze and I have been focusing our efforts on putting together
a presentation of a Passover Seder. We are very excited about this event, which is coming up on
Thursday evening this week. We will conduct a Passover Seder based on the Seders that I
remember from my youth. I will sing the prayers in Hebrew over the candles and the wine and
we will even teach everyone to sing “Dayenu!” All of the guests will get to taste all of the
symbolic foods eaten at the Seder table. As is customary, we have invited four children to read
the Four Questions. And at the end of the Seder, we will have all of the kids go and look for the
hidden Afikomen and they will all be rewarded with a bag of chocolate coins. It’s promised to
be such a fun event. We have invited our ward and stake, community friends and neighbors, and
all of the missionaries to bring friends investigating the church and new members. Some of our
friends from the Baptist church where we volunteer each week will be coming. We are very
honored that there are three senior missionary couples coming from Atlanta (a one-and-a-halfhour drive!) I have asked someone to serve as a photographer, so hopefully, in next week’s
email I will have some pictures to share.

I love the words that our prophet spoke last Sunday in General Conference when he admonished
us to “avoid conflict and contention and move instead to compassion and reconciliation as we
commemorate the most transcendent and important event ever recorded on earth.” He said, “One
of the best ways we can honor the Savior is to become a peacemaker.” Whatever your faith and
your traditions at this time of year, I pray that you will have peace and joy in the renewal of life
that springs delivers.

May you have a wonderful Passover week, a blessed Holy Week, and a joyful Easter.

Much Love,
Elder and Sister Hintze