A Beautiful Birthday

Hollah!

 

What a wonderful week. It's just been crazy. So hopefully I remember everything I want to tell you about!

 

Matt, our 17 year-old investigator is progressing well. We've decided to not teach him any lessons outside of a member's home (or the Visitors' Center, of course). So we met with him twice this week and things went well! He's so good. We're hoping to take him to the temple openhouse tomorrow.

 

Then we got a new investigator John on Tuesday. He married a member last weekend, and we've been trying to meet with him for a while now, but it finally worked out. We taught him in a member's home, too, and it was perfect. He's so golden! The only thing holding him back is that his wife, who is a convert, but isn't really excited about the church. She just doesn't really care that he's wanting to learn more. Which puts a damper on things. But we keep trying. Maybe in the end he'll convert her. He said yes to baptism. :) He recognizes that God has sent him a lot of hints recently, and he loves the temple already. I'm excited for them to go.

 

Then last Wednesday we finally got trained on the temple openhouse stuff. Elder Walker of the Seventy, the man over the temple board, came and spoke to us. It was amazing to see all 42 of the sisters in the mission in one place all at the same time. Sister Power! It was crazy to see Sister Dodd again. It feels like a lifetime ago that we were companions. I've changed and grown SO much since then. I just feel like an entirely different person. We got our own tour through the temple. It is beautiful. Just absolutely beautiful. I felt like I was home again when I was inside. At one point it was like I could almost feel the long white dress around my ankles. I just am so excited to be able to go back. I think I'm spiritually in a place where there is a lot more I can learn there. I just love the temple so much!!!

 

Then on Friday, Sister Lewis and I acted as substitute travelling preachers. It was pretty cool. A woman in our ward lives in an old person apartment complex. They have "chapel" every Friday and ask preachers in the area to come. Well, around Easter and Christmas everyone is so busy with their own congregations that they can never find anyone to come out. This member of our ward is in charge of scheduling the preachers, so she asked us to come and speak on Good Friday. What an opportunity!!! So Sister Lewis and I gave our sermons. They were really short, (together a total of 15 minutes), but they were powerful, and well recieved. These people were so nice! We got to mingle with them afterwards and talk to them. Hopefully all of them will go to the temple open house. Don't get me wrong, there was only about 15 people there, but it was still a cool opportunity. They loved us. So if this sister invites any of them to meet with missionaries, they won't be afraid because they already know who we are and that we are those "young sweet girls".

 

My sermon was about how "It isn't over". After Christ died and declared, "It is finished," His followers thought that this amazing adventure they had all been on for the last three years was over. Mary Magdalene was heart broken. Thomas wouldn't believe what anyone told him. And Peter returned to fishing, his prior employment. They thought it was over. But then Christ showed himself to Mary to help her stop weeping and showed Himself to doubting Thomas so that he would believe. After the miracle of the fishes, Christ asked Peter if he loved Him "more than these", meaning the fish, his employment. Peter, who had thrice denied the Savior, now had a chance to declare his love for Him three times. Because of that love, his call was now to "Feed my sheep", and continue the work of the Savior. Because it wasn't over, Because Christ rose from the dead, Because He did all that He promised to do, the work goes forward and now it is up to us to make sure the whole world knows about it. The message of Easter is that it isn't over! And we need to live up to it!

I was proud of my first sermon. I learned a lot in writing it. :)

 

Then Saturday was my birthday. The Best Birthday EVER.

So first thing we woke up and went walking. There is a cemetary nearby that opens at sunrise, and for the first time, it opened in time for us to go walking in it. It is really old and really cool. It was fun to find the tombstones that date back to when the saints were here in Independence. It is the coolest cemetary I've ever seen. And the sunrise was beautiful.

 

Then I hurriedly made my own birthday cake. :) It's so fun to back that it was really a gift to see everyone love the pumpkin crumb cake. :) We were on shift at the VC in the morning, so I opened my package there. What a fun package!

 

Then we were on shift at the VC. It was a crazy day because everyone that was going to the temple open house came to the VC, too. We were very busy. We were on our feet for the whole 6 hours. Just when I would finish with one group, I would get another one. So I finished one tour, and then Elder Wells ushered me over to another group. "This is Sister Atkin," he said,"she will be your sister missionary today." It was a young women's group. One of the leaders said, "Sister Atkin? Do you have a brother in Oklahoma?" Come to find out, the group of young women were from the Elm Creek ward in Owasso Oklahoma!!! The odds that I would see them and be their sister missionary are absolutely zero (if we're rounding decimals, anyway). We were all so excited and got a picture together. One of the girl's dad is the ward mission leader, so she sees "Elder Atkin" nearly every day. I took them through the God's Plan for His Family presentation, and cried through the whole thing, thinking about Willie and how much I miss him, and how much this meant to me. One of the leaders gave me a big hug from him (she's never hugged him. She'll just shake his hand firmly). At the end of the presentation I talked about family. I told them how close Willie and I are, and how important temples are for keeping families together forever. I encouraged them all to stay temple worthy to receive those blessings. I just cried. Then I said, "I just have to let you all know that you are part of a miracle today. Today is my birthday. You are my gift from my brother and from God today. So thank you." We all cried. I think that was the best gift I could have ever received for my birthday. They all know Willie! "He doesn't look a thing like you. Tall, red hair." We laughed about what a goof he is. They really like him (the leaders. Don't worry about the young women). :)

I took several amazing tours that day. The spirit was there. I love the Visitors' Center!

 

Then we were off to spend the rest of our day at the opening night of the Temple Openhouse. For the first bit we preset the movie at the beginning (in the stake center), introducing their hosts and the comment cards we hoped they would fill out at the end. That was alright. My feet and back started to get really sore.

 

Then we switched it up and we were in the reception area after the tour. It's in the cultural hall of the stake center. There were cookies and some more displays about the temple. We wandered around and talked to everyone, especially non-members, answering questions. It was wonderful. The first people I talked to were rude (saying that it was all "man made") but everyone else was really kind. Some major seeds were planted in some hearts. I met a nonmember couple that had lived in Logan for a few years. They were the kindest people and I accidentally assumed they were members at first. Someday they will join the church. They have a ton of member friends, and they loved the temple. They had driven from clear out in Kansas to come. I talked to a lot of people who were nonmembers but came because they have family that are members. It was a wonderful night.

 

We didn't get to leave the temple until 10, so we didn't get home until 10:30. It felt so weird! President Keyes said "Just do your best", so we rushed and got to bed fast and planned the next day. What a wonderful, exhuasting day!! Oh, the final miracle was that we had to park a half a mile from the temple, and at 10, walking that far sounded awful. We got a little ways, then a man with a golf cart gave us all a ride back to our car!

 

The next day was Easter. We were still SO tired, but it was a good day. :) We had dinner with the Hatt family. The husband is not a member, but he's the one we set for a date for when he was saved. They fed us some good BBQ. I am definitely excited for that part of summer. YUM. In class today he was asking questions like, "so what if someone was baptized? How would they get the priesthood?" So the bishop ran through some hypothetical situations about a man named "Jason" (that's his first name). He's totally getting baptized.

 

Well, that's pretty much what has happened this week. Life is good. :)

This morning in my studies I learned another cool thing. Hopefully I can make it make sense. I was reading in Alma 41 about the law of restoration. It talks about how we are restored to good if we do good. It is justice (v.3). We are our own judges (v. 7) to do good or evil, because according to justice that will be what is restored to us. If we live in a "state of nature" (v. 11) we are living contrary to the nature of God, and thus the nature of happiness. So where is the atonement in this process? Well, we learn in Mosiah 3:19 that the natural man is an enemy to God, so we have to put off the natural man and become a saint. So we have to change our natures until, as Moroni 7:48 "when he shall appear we4 shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is; that we may have this hope; that we may be purified even as he is pure." So back to the law of restoration. The idea is that in this life our goal is to change our natures. We must change until we are like him. That is how we can justly be restored to him. Isn't that awesome? So the atonement pays for our mistakes, but we must be judged according to who we are. We must change our natures through His grace. Awesome.

Well, I gotta go. I'll try to send pictures, but I'm out of time. I love you!!

Love,

Sister Atkin