In Lee's Summit 2nd Ward

Oh, Mom! Dad! Rachel! Family!

I'm here, I'm here, I'm here.

What a long crazy week. I have so much to say that it's hard to know where to begin.

First of all, my companion. Sister Madi Dodd. It is totally crazy that we are both from Logan. We know a lot of the same people, she just went to Logan High. Her dad owns advanced heating and air. She's studying graphic design at USU. She worked at the chiropracters in Hyram, so I wonder if Rachel ran into her (that's where Rachel went, right?). She's blonde, cute, athletic (did soccer and basketball), and I really like her. Of course it is a hard adjustment because she knows everyone here and I don't, but that will come. We have an apartment to ourselves. It's kinda old, but it works, and we deal with it. It has some pretty ugly wallpaper. Some other sisters live in a neighboring apartment. I'm grateful for all of my bedding because it's been getting cold. I've stayed nice and warm every night. :)

We are in the Independence Visitor's center. We do half days. The schedule is all over the place so that we sometimes have mornings or sometimes evenings in our area. It has been SUPER slow. No one is coming in anymore. I came just in time for the slow season. I haven't given my own tour yet, not because I don't want to, but because there are no tours to take. I've learned the history pretty fast, and I love it. I think the Lord is trying to teach me patience and how to use my time wisely here. The first few days it was really frustrating to just sit on a couch for hours and hours, just staring out the window at the Community of Christ temple out of our front window. I'm learning how to appreciate that time and use it for studying. Needless to say, I am very caught up in my journal. I'm halfway done with this journal already!! I love the senior couples here. They tell us stories and hold study sessions during the slow times. They are wonderful. :)

Anyone that says I have a soft mission is crazy, though. It can be frustrating to not be able to do the work in our area. I think it is way harder to be sitting on a couch than to be out on the streets teaching, contacting (mom, remember your bean experience? okay, it wasn't that bad, but really the first few days were boring.). We do have an area. It's the Lee's Summit 2nd ward. It covers a portion of a town called Lee's Summit and part of Kansas City, so we have a range of people. We have the rich end of Lee's Summit, and the poor end of Kansas City. Our area is 30 minutes away from the Visitors' Center, so we spend a lot of our time driving. It can be very frustrating. If we have the morning shift at the VC,  we have personal study 8-9, VC 9-3, Companion study 3-5 (they have two hours just for the newbies), so we won't get out to our area until 5:30. Then if we have a dinner appointment (hopefully we do, or we'll starve), we have about an hour, maybe two in our area until we have to head back. That happens some days. We are expected to meet the same goals as the other areas that have full time missionaries. So it's hard.

But it's amazing how much the Lord blesses us and helps us get the numbers anyway. We don't usually meet the standards of excellence, but we get surprisingly close. When I got here they had just had 2 baptisms in the ward, so we were starting over from scratch - on the finding stage. But we still had two investigators at church, and we found 3 people this week that invited us to come back. So the work is still progressing.

Okay. About the people I've met. Because honestly, meeting people is the best part of a mission. And the most important part.

One of the first homes I actually got to go in (we don't ever get in through tracting, though we try. I've now been rejected like a true missionary. :)  ) was that of Keara, a new member. She's taking the new member lessons, and I think she really needs the support of the missionaries. It's amazing what the gospel has done for her. She has the saddest background story a person could have. She's been a smoker and a drinker since she was a kid because of her parents. She was married and has two kids, but had to leave when her husband started shooting up on serious drugs. She and her boys lived in domestic violence shelters for a while, and now she lives with her dad and some other random people. She's lost most of the people she was close to. But then, through an inactive member she heard about the church. She thought it was the most romantic sounding church ever - sealed for eternity? so she rode buses all day to get to a library and checked out the Book of Mormon. She couldn't put it down. Long story short, she's now a member. She still struggles staying away from alcohol, but she really wants to go through the temple. She's awesome. I pray for her because the house she lives in is horrible. We went to teach her, and walking in there felt like I was breathing an ashtray. Everyone there smokes and there was beer all over the kitchen. I don't know how she lives with it constantly there, reminding her of her addiction. It was really a dark place. her sister-in-law lives there, and is professionally a stripper. Her poor little boys! I hope she can move out! when we left I smelled like smoke, was lightheaded, and a little sick. My stomach took a while to settle.

what I've noticed a lot out here is that people are in dire need of the gospel. A lot of these people have been through the very worst things. Everyone smokes. everyone drinks. Everyone has tried drugs. It's a little hard for me to imagine teaching about eternal families to people who have horrible families. All the families out here are broken. Satan is trying really hard to destroy families!! I don't think I've seen any nonmembers with a complete family. they've all experienced divorce, abuse, neglect. it is awful.

But it is also amazing what the atonement can do for them. I am starting to see that I had no comprehension of "infinite" atonement before. If He can heal these people of all that they have been through, how can anyone doubt the power of the atonement to heal them and forgive their sins? If he can lift these people's burdens - Keara's - He definitely can lift mine! I would have thought her past repair, past saving, but that is what is so cool about the atonement! It knows NO bounds!!

We did find one non-broken family to teach. I'm excited. Their house isn't dark like most of the homes I've seen. the mother obviously loves her kids. :) they seem ready. I hope so! we're teaching their family on Friday. She said that her 6-year-old daughter asked her what God was, and she didn't know how to answer. She told her about how everyone has different ideas and explained them to her. Then her daughter asked, "but how will I know?" I just want to teach them!!!!

we also visited a referal. It happened to be a guy who is professionally a traveling preacher. sister Dodd had given him a Book of Mormon before, and asked him how he liked it. He loves it. He says it reminds him of the Old Testament, and really bridges the old and the new for him. He thinks Nephi is an awesome guy. But I don't think we'll be teaching him. He's not really the listening kind. He's the talking kind - he teaches other people how to come to Jesus. That's what he does. So he was preachin' to us on his front porch, praisin' Jesus for what we are doing the whole time. And we prayed with him right there, outside, holding hands. we all took turns saying prayers, (him saying "praise Jesus", and "amen" and "mmm-hmmm" the whole time). it was awesome. :) We might visit him again sometime, but really, there would be no way for us to get a word in to teach a lesson. I hope he teaches people from the Book of Mormon as he travels. that would be funny. :) He told us to stay with Jesus and to get people off the streets. We'll try. :)

of all of the sisters at the VC, we are the only ones in a different zone (because our area is so far away), but their zone has adopted us. They are super nice. This is a very unique zone - waaaay more sisters than elders because of the VC. So they only send the very best elders to the Independence Zone because of not only how special of a place it is, but also because only the best elders could handle being with sisters all of the time. The others would get distracted or create drama. So the elders are amazing. they ride bikes. the sisters share cars (nice ones - '11, and '12). Anyway, sometimes we do early morning sports at 6. We've played Quidditch (I'll explain that to you sometime. Amazing!) and ultimate. The problem is that I'm learning how to be a missionary still. this morning I totally ran into an elder when playing Ultimate frisbee, and his face was as if i had slapped him, or maybe kissed him. He kept apollogizing. I need to cool it down and play way less agressive. Oops. I felt kinda dumb. I had just forgotten.

Well, I've got to go email president.

But it has been a good week. I've gotten both of dad's letters - they made my day. :) I love mail!

I don't have my camera cord, but I think I'll print some pictures and mail them to you, so look forward to that. :)

(sorry about my capitalization. This shift key is not good.)

Oh, send letters to the mission office. They bring over my mail every day. That will be my address for at least 4 months or so - two transfers.

I love you! Thank you for writing me! You are the best!

Loooooooooooove,

your favorite Sister with a capital S,

Sister April Atkin