Dearest Family,
What a week. It's been good one, though!
Things are going well out here. My spirits are still high. :) This area is much harder, though. It is very wealthy, and we have no real investigators anymore. But we'll keep going and we'll find them. This temple open house has got to do something for the area. People out here are active in their own churches, and they know why they are attending their particular church, which makes things very difficult. But we keep going.
We did have a baptism this week, which was cool. I only met Edith once before she was baptized, but it was still wonderful. She's the nicest lady. Her daughter, son-in-law, grand-daughters, and grandson-in-law are all members, so it was a very happy day for them. Can you imagine watching grandma getting baptized? They all cried. She'll be an amazing member. I like her already. Her husband wasn't super happy about the idea (in fact, he's the reason she's waited so long. Apparently this has been 30 years in the making, although she only started meeting with missionaries this winter), but he let her be baptized. Everything went wonderfully. :)
One thing I forgot to tell you last week is that we are part time bike. That means every Wednesday we trade off the car with our district leader. They have it for a week, and then we have it for a week. When we don't have a car, we walk, bike, and get rides as much as possible. Honestly I thought I would never ride a bike on my mission. Silly me.
Last Wednesday we had an appointment with Edith. We couldn't find anyone to come with us or give us a ride, so I asked Sister Hinckley how far of a bike ride it was. She said it was about 3 miles. So I thought, "okay, we can handle that. We could do that in 40 minutes, even with hills". What I had forgotten was that Sister Hinckley is a horrible judge of distance. What she said was a block last Monday turned out to be nearly a mile, and we were very late. So we headed out. It was hot and my skirt was blowing all over the place, so eventually I gave up and let people see the basketball shorts I had on underneath. It turned out to be 6.5 miles, and it took us an hour (who knew there were so many hills in this part of Kansas). Edith felt horrible that we had ridden that far, and Sister Hinckley didn't feel well, so she drove us home, which was nice. We didn't have to ride our bikes for the rest of the day.
But, we are back on the bikes today. I checked the GPS to make sure it was only 3 miles to the library. Sister Hinckley still feels sick, so I don't know what we are going to do. I will be in very good shape by the end of the summer, though. Don't worry about me gaining the normal 30 pounds. And Wednesday can't come fast enough. :)
I really do like Sister Hinckley. Some things have been harder to work through, but she is very loving and works hard, so things will go well for us. She has her quirks, but we all do.
Mom, I'm not sure who Angela Sorensen's mom is. I've met so many people in the last few days that I don't remember! It sounds familiar that that did happen, but it is all a blur. That is also super sad about the Napoli's moving! Man, temple open houses are the best. You should be brave and invite them to meet with missionaries sometime. They are really ready, and if you did it "naturally and normally", they won't be offended even if they aren't interested. You and dad could even do practices like we do as missionaries. One of you could pretend to be Bill, and the other one could pretend to ask him to meet with missionaries. Or to just have dinner with you and the missionaries. It could be good. :) You guys are awesome.
We are inviting everyone to the open house--investigators, members, tracting contacts, everyone. They don't really check for tickets, so we invite people to go with us, or go on their own, or just go! It's basically all we talk about these days. The wealthy people who would never let missionaries in their homes are super interested in the open house, so it is our main approach right now. I'm sad that there is only a week left! I talked to a man about scouting yesterday because that is how he knows members, but he was still only interested in going to the open house, not meeting with us.
Exciting news is that one of my investigators in Lee's Summit is getting baptized this weekend! I have permission to go, so I just have to find a ride. I am so happy! It's the one that was saved on April 28th. His wife found me at the open house and was happy to the point of tears when she was telling me about it. Apparently the night they said goodbye to me was the night he told her that he was sure that he was getting baptized. She asked why, and he said he wanted to be baptized because he felt like it would make God happy. I am so happy! She also said that me and Sister Lewis were the perfect fit for him and that the time was right. He had met with two or three sets of missionaries before us, but somehow when we taught him, it clicked. The Lord prepared him and the Lord prepared us. :)
This week I have been studying Hebrews again. I love it! I've been learning a lot about the priesthood, and it is really starting to click for me. I have had to reread Hebrews 7 four or five times to try to make sense of it. I think (and you'll have to read it to understand) that the oath it talks about is that Christ would be a high priest forever after the order of Melchisedec (v 21 in the JST appendix) and then, the reason that His atonement is perfect is because of that Oath. V. 25 says that He is able to save us to the uttermost because "he ever liveth to make intercession for them". So the oath in addition to the resurrection were essential for Him to be able to cleanse us from sin. And it was all through the priesthood. I hope that makes sense, because it was cool for me.
Then, if you have time to study what I studied (I know I have more study time than most people do), cross reference these three sections: D&C 84:19-22, D&C 107:19-20,30-31, D&C 121:26-46. The idea is how cool the priesthood is. I don't know if this makes any sense at all. Really, knowledge, power, priesthood, and righteousness (or obedience to laws, which comes from knowledge of laws) are all connected.
Sorry, that makes no sense, but the priesthood is cool!
Anyway, I love you all! Have a great week!
Love,
Sister April Atkin
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