Happy Thanksgiving!!

Dear Family,

I am loving my companion. It's funny because we are so different, even though we are from the same home town. I have a lot to learn, but she is patient with me. We are getting along well. I think I must get annoying sometimes with all of my questions, or when I get flustered over how our schedule works, but I try to make up for it by cooking for her (I'm known for it now. I make pancakes on Sundays and my cookies and pumpkin crumb cake are legendary. I squeeze in time to make them right before bed).

I am healthy. I haven't gotten sick. I could be more healthy, though. I spend all of my time sitting --- either in the car or in the VC or at home...it gets old. I really don't want to get fat. So I'm working on being more healthy. It is just hard to exercise in our living room on the days we don't have morning sports. But morning sports aren't always fun either. We are still trying to teach a few of the elders how to chill out. Sister Dodd got a huge goose egg last week from an elder body slamming her into the wall so he could steal her frisbee. So, yeah. They got talked to about that. We'll see if things improve.

I'm not going to be transferred for a long time. President Keyes really likes keeping missionaries in the same place for a long time. What will probably happen is that Sister Dodd will be here with me for my first two transfers, then she will probably go out full pros again. Then I will take over the area with a new companion and stay at least two more transfers. So I probably won't move until early next spring/summerish. I'll keep you updated on that, but really, I'm here for a while.

Okay. About this week. I need to remember to bring my journal when I email you.

We've been working with Lyric, and she's amazing. I don't know how long it will take, but I really think she will be baptized. Last Sunday we went over with the plan to invite her to read the Book of Mormon five minutes every day, and also invite her to baptism. I was worried that that was too much to ask (how many members do we know that struggle doing that much). But Sister Dodd invited her and there was no problem. She didn't seem to think it was that large of a request. She's really honest with us, so if she wasn't going to do it, she would have just told us she wasn't, so I think she actually will (read, that is). As for the baptism invite, she didn't seem that surprised by that either. She said she doesn't know yet, but if she did know, she would be baptized (which is all we ask for, really). She just needs to find out for herself that it is true. She is so open minded and open hearted. She has tried out a lot of religions, and none of them really worked for her. But if she really knew this was true, I think she would stick with it. A big part of that is the ward -- they make or break converts. The sense of community in our church is one of our hugest strengths (and weaknesses at some times, but mostly not). I just love Lyric to pieces. The more I learn about her, the more I am amazed. She is about 70, and is African American. When she was a young mother she went to school and became a hospital lab tech (like Mindy is training to do). She showed us her graduating photo, and the class that started out with 60ish students ended up with 5, and the other 4 were white. I did the math and realized that she went to school during the civil rights movement-- all while she had young kids. She's amazing. Eventually she decided they didn't pay her enough, so now she's doing something for internal revenue for something. She could retire whenever she wanted to.

Anyway, so this week we are just praying our hearts out that she gets her answer as she reads and prays. The Book of Mormon is such a powerful book. I just have to have faith in it. After all, it was the faith of Alma and Amulek, and Nephi and Lehi, and Ammon (some of the greatest missionaries ever) that converted the people (see Ether 12:13-16). Conversion is a miracle, and faith proceeds the miracle. So if no one else is stepping up, I better be working my faith hard. Then these people here in Lee's Summit can build their faith.

Another happy thing this week is that I took the most amazing tour of my life. It was absolutely amazing. When they left, Elder Wells (one of the senior missionaries), commented on how much I was glowing. I seriously walked on clouds for a couple of days because of this one tour.

So what happened was that these two older couples walked into the Visitors' Center. They were nonmembers, so I asked how much they knew about our church. One of the men studied religion at university, but didn't know much about our religion specifically. The others didn't know much either. Although later it came out that one of the women knew a lot about history, and another knew a lot about science. So together, they were a very well educated to group, which, thinking back, should have been intimidating. But it wasn't because they had come to us to learn more about our beliefs.
I told them what we have and asked what they wanted to see. One woman wanted to see the Christus, and the theologian wanted to see the history part. In the end they decided they wanted to see the Scriptures and Revelation room first. The very first kiosk in the room is about temples, so they learned a bit about that. Then they looked at the Book of Mormon kiosk and learned a bit about that. The whole time they were asking me amazing questions. It was clear they all had a sound understanding of religion, and knew the best questions to ask to really come to understand our religion. They asked me about baptism (infant or adult? instructed or uninstructed?), about proxy baptisms, and about the Book of Mormon. It was wonderful. I really felt like I was given the words to say so that I could be simple and short while still really giving a good explanation.

Then we headed downstairs to the history portion of the VC. Obviously I couldn't start with Missouri, so I started with the first vision. I explained how our church was started, and kind of a timeline of how things happened. I was amazed at the words coming out of my mouth. They asked about Moroni's role in instructing Joseph Smith. We talked about Zion a bit (super interesting to hear the theologian's view on what that meant), and they liked the idea. They asked questions about the United Order and whether or not "Zion" was now in SLC. I love questions!
Then we went in the cabin to hear the journal entry audios and I just briefly talked about how having purpose helps us handle all kinds of difficulties. They really liked that.

Then we moved to the printing press room. We ended up staying there for over a half an hour, just talking. I obviously told them the history of W. W. Phelps, but we talked about so many other things. We talked about the nature of our open canon and how the D&C compares to the Bible and the Book of Mormon. We talked about women and the priesthood. We talked about how science and religion work together in our church. One of the women said, "Really, that is something that interests me. You clearly are a believer, but you are studying physics. And as a woman. How does that work?" And I got to go off on my most favorite subject ever. You know how much I love talking about that. We had a wonderful discussion. They seemed really impressed, and agreed with everything I said. Really, the church doesn't need to have an official stand on things that don't pertain to our salvation. Science is another method of searching for truth, and as long as we maintain faith in God, it can be a very valid way of searching for truth.

One of the women seemed bothered that women can't hold the priesthood in our religion. I explained to her that women have a very important role in our church, and how I don't feel like I am less than a man ever. She was amazed that they let women serve missions. Then I explained Relief Society to her, and she really seemed to like it. It satisfied her. And I realized for the first time that that is the ultimate answer to the women in the priesthood question. God clearly loves his daughters, and we have a very important role. Relief Society shows that.
The theologian continued to ask me awesome questions, like if we have seven sacraments like Catholics, and what are our burial practices, and things like that. They also asked a lot of questions about the LDS breakoff groups around here, and were interested to hear that we are the only group that has retained the temple ceremonies. No one else has temples like we do. They were really impressed with the sense of community we have in our religion as well -- that the members here take care of the missionaries.

(I'm sorry this is such a long story. It was amazing!) Really, it was a wonderful experience because I know that it wasn't an accident that I took that tour. God knows my talents, and He is using them to forward his work. In one tour, I used the knowledge I gained from AP US History, AP European History, World Religions at BYU, the History and Philosophy of Science at BYU, and my particular interests in science and religion. Not only was I prepared with the knowledge I needed for that tour, my personality clicked with them perfectly. I loved these people. When they found out that I wasn't going home for Christmas, they were amazed. They said that if I didn't already have someone taking care of me for Christmas, they would have invited me over for Hanuka. At one point they joked about taking me home with them. We just really worked well together.

As they left, they thanked me over and over again. One of the women said she was so impressed with my "poise". They promised that they would go to the Kansas City Temple openhouse in the spring -- they are really excited about it. I offered them a copy of the Book of Mormon. The theologian already had one in his library, but the other couple was excited to get one. They all seemed fairly firm in their beliefs, but they were interested in ours, and seemed open to learn more about it. One of the women really loved the idea of sealing families. So they won't be baptized next week, but I planted seeds. And I felt love for these strangers. We laughed together, we learned together, and "we understood one another and were edified together." I hope to see them in Heaven.
I am also amazed at how much I was led to what to say. A lot of things I have learned through the years were brought to my rememberance so that I could answer their questions and understand what their questions even meant. I was given the words. And I found myself explaining things in simple ways that I had never even thought of before. It was a true miracle.

As for things to look forward to hearing about, my Thanksgiving dinner today is going to be a real tale to tell. Remember Keara, our recent convert that has been through so much? She invited us to dinner with her entire nonmember family. So that is going to be awesome. Talk about a missionary opportunity. Her baptism is recent enough that I think we are going to get a lot of questions. Her family seems fine with us coming, but like I said, it is going to be interesting. Even if we do get drilled, it will be good. :) I'm actually really excited. :)

Well, I better go, but I sure do love you. Thanks for being so amazing. I amazed at how much I am blessed by having a nearly perfect family. I love it.
I might send another email with more pictures, so look for that.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!!
Love,
Sister Atkin

P.S. if you can't tell, I'm super happy this week. Life is good. What a blessing it is to be an instrument in the Lord's hands!! It's cool that He allows me to be a part of His work.