Happy Father's Day!

Hello Family,

whew. this week. where to start.

Well, first of all, Dad, I hope you had a great Father's Day! I thought of you! Several people asked if we got to call you, too, but we don't. I'm sorry it's not very fair. I do love you, though, and I hope that you got my card and letter. You are the best. I hope you enjoyed your strawberry pie. I actually had some lemon meringue pie last night, which I don't like nearly as much, but it was still pie so I thought of you.

Well, family, I hate to disappoint, but I don't really have much to talk about this week. It was kind of a rough week. I am feeling pretty upbeat, so don't worry about me. It just was a rough week. We were on bikes for most of it, and most of our investigators don't want to see us very often, forgot, or are out of town or something. We also had a member ride forget us, leaving us sitting at the stake center for an hour, missing an appointment. *shrug* life happens. Wednesday I was feeling pretty stressed, but we pray and we move forward. Most of the stress came from worrying about other people, really. An elder from my MTC district wrote me, and it sounds like he might go home. He's discouraged and disobedient (they usually go together). So I was worrying about him. Then another elder in our zone talked to Sister Hodson and I about his personal struggles (similar, but less extreme situation), and then I'm a trainer so I was worrying about Sister Hodson having the experience she needs to be the kind of missionary she can be. So, yeah. I guess I'm related to you, mom, after all. :)

So to be honest, we spent most of the last week riding our bikes around, getting really sweaty and not accomplishing very much. We did have a few small miracles. One day all of our lessons fell through, but somehow my stubborn fire came out, and we taught 3 member present lessons anyway. That was a good day.

One of our investigators won't set appointments, but is always happy when we drop by. The hard thing is bringing in the gospel to his scattered conversation as he paces and tinkers with stuff in his garage. Sister Hodson surprised me by, with no introduction, jumping in and teaching him the plan of salvation because she wanted to. I was super impressed. :) He was, too. His favorite part was the spirit world. It made sense to him. So we're making slow progress. Maybe someday we'll pin down this self employed man for an appointment. We have what he needs!

Flower did come to church, which was great. One of the speakers was weird, but she didn't seem bothered by it. Or by the fact that we sang about heavenly mother in the song "O My Father". I'm grateful that the Lord is in control of this work, because there are some things that are definitely out of our control. haha. :) She asks great questions like, "So why do we have to eat Christ's body and drink His blood? I get that it is just symbolic, but isn't that a little morbid?" So I answer her questions the best I can. How would you answer that? I turned to what I learned in Jesus the Christ and said that I always think about how when you eat something, it becomes a part of you. I want Christ to be a part of who I am. I'm taking His name upon me, right?

We also spent some time calling a ton of numbers in the Area Book one of the bike days. It actually was a really good thing. One of them came to church and is excited to meet with us again. She's a former investigator. She knows a family in the ward very well, so they will help us. We hope that goes somewhere. She was adopted from Korea by a lesbian couple, which is interesting, but she really loves this somewhat perfect family in our ward.

In answer to your question mom, we haven't talked to that mean guy. We won't. In my weekly letter to the mission president I told him about it, and he wrote me back to say that this man was not ready for the gospel, and to not try to see him again. He pointed me to a verse in Alma about softening our hearts and how the hard hearted can't learn. I'm so glad that we didn't go see him, either.


Good luck with the Napolis! I'm so excited to hear how that goes. They are really the perfect kind of investigator. As a missionary, I would dream of teaching them, especially with the wonderful neighbors who befriended them in on the lesson. You should read the lessons in Preach My Gospel to help you prepare for the right moment to share the gospel with them.


Actually, I'm sure you already know this story, but one of the Book of Mormon stories that Sister Hodson and I looked at this week is the one of Ammon and the father of King Lamoni. It applies to this situation. Let's start where Lamoni invites Ammon to go with him to meet his father. Then the Lord tells Ammon to not go, because the father of King Lamoni would kill Ammon, and besides, his brethren were in prison and needed Ammon's help to get out. King Lamoni is like, "great! I'll come along. I know you got this, because with the Lord's help you can do anything, but I can help and make it easier because I know that king." So they start traveling to go get his brethren out of prison. And guess who they run into. King Lamoni's father. The one who was going to kill Ammon.

So they start talking, and king Lamoni's father is mad at Lamoni for not coming to his feast, so he goes to kill him. Ammon stops him, so the father says, "that's right! You are the real problem! You prevented him from coming! I will kill you instead!" So they have a little fight, and Ammon wins. All Ammon demands in exchange for the king's life is that his brethren will be set free, and that he will not be mad at Lamoni and will give Lamoni the right to rule his kingdom on his own. King Lamoni's father is so impressed that he gives the demands, and also wants to meet with missionaries.
So the thing about this story is that it was in the Lord's will all along that King Lamoni's father run into Ammon and hear about the gospel. It just had to happen in the right way or it would be a bad experience for everyone. So Ammon listened to the spirit, and the missionary moment came in the right way (even if that was a little scary at first with the swords and stuff, it was the right way).

So what I am saying is that you should just pray for the spirit to guide you to know the right opportunity to introduce the Napolis to the gospel, and how you can help them have all of the many blessings you have. Sorry that was a long story.
Anyway, I love you all! Have an amazing week! I will, too, so my email will be more exciting next week. :)


Love,

Sister April Atkin