HOT

Dearest Family,

I love all of you sooo much. I just have to thank you for how supportive you are of me. I just feel so blessed today.
It's been a good week! We were on bikes, and it was over 100 for most of the week, but it was actually an amazing week. I've been pretty discouraged about the bikes recently, but God just showed me this week that I don't have to be. :)
First of all, last monday we started teaching another teenager. He's a foster son of a family in one of the wards (actually, his foster brother was my Zone Leader in the MTC. Small world). For having been in foster care basically his whole life, he is an optimistic, happy kid. I really do think he will choose to be baptized. So now our two most solid investigators are teenagers. :)

Then on Tuesday were exchanges. For sisters, exchanges are a much bigger deal because we are so spread out. We do exchanges with the sisters in Lawrence, Kansas (where KU is), which is about an hour away. I went up to Lawrence for the day, and Sister Hodson got to take over the area. It was a day of miracles. It was fun to see the progress of someone else's investigators and celebrate with them. I was with Sister Van Camp, who was the only other sister to come out with me. She is a full pros sister (not VC--it's in our calls, so our missions are different), so I didn't know her well in the MTC, but she is very nice. We were both a little nervous that we hadn't learned as much as the other sister, but it was fun to see her again and see how much we have grown in the last nine months. I've been out nine months! Aaaahhh!

Then on Wednesday was District Meeting, which was fine, except that it means that we give up the car. I was feeling pretty discouraged about it. I wasn't feeling super great in the first place, and then it was 105 on the heat index. HOT. Honestly, I wasn't in the best mood about it. We had no appointments until late in the evening, and no dinner appointment. It was a day of what looked like really horribly miserable tracting. But then we just went off of faith, and headed out into the heat anyway. 

We decided it would be unhealthy and unsafe to bike in the heat, so we started walking. We got maybe a half a mile away when a van honked at us, and then slowed to a stop. It was a member. She was driving her son to the orthodontist basically in the same direction as the place we were walking to (2 miles away). So she gave us a ride. Then, when she dropped us off we stood on the corner for a second while Sister Hodson was on the phone, and a member walked out of one of the houses--I had no idea she lived there. She told us that when we were done in the neighborhood, she could give us a ride home and to just knock on her door. Sweet! Our day looked suddenly very much brighter.

We ended up walking around and tracting for an hour, which was long enough to make me more sweaty than I have ever been in my life, but we had water, and we were in good moods. I think people felt bad for us, so they weren't as mean. Then we were able to see an investigator that we hadn't seen for a long time and teach her! She let us in her air conditioned home and gave us ice water. It was a total miracle. We felt so blessed!! So it ended up being the highlight of our week. We know God is aware of us, and even cares about us getting discouraged in the heat. What a wonderful day. :)

On Thursday, a member and her nonmember boyfriend drove us around all day. He was visiting from Alabama, and she didn't have any exciting plans for him, so they drove around the missionaries. It was an interesting day. I hope we gave him a good impression. Her parents were really excited about it. He's a hard core Episcopalian, so he probably won't join, but he's reading the Book of Mormon for her, and it was an interesting day for everyone involved. We taught him the full plan of salvation in the car.

Friday we also got rides. There is sister that just moved in the ward that is 7 months pregnant and bored, so she volunteered to drive us all day. We had another good day. We actually were in a car or in an appointment all day. It was awesome. It was a little weird because the sister that drove us around is actually younger than me (old maid alert!) and is pregnant, but no big deal. I'm glad to be here.

There is a less active in the ward that Sister Hodson and I have hit it off with recently. Her husband has health problems, so it is hard for her to get him up to go to church, so she hasn't gone for a while. But since we started dropping in on her, she's started showing up to church. Every week. We didn't even say anything about church because it didn't feel right. She LOVES us. Actually, I really love her, too. I feel like I'm cheating whenever I visit her because we all love it so much, but there is a definite correlation between our visits and her attending church. I think we are her favorites. :) She's having us over for dinner tonight. She's taken some vacation time this week and she has said several times, "If you need a ride or anything, Call me. I'm on vacation." Most people don't have that feeling about the missionaries talking to them while they are on vacation, but I think we are the highlight of her vacation. :)

We also really really love the Christenson family. I know I've told you about them before, but they had us over for Sunday dinner and to teach Megan. Again, I feel like I'm cheating to have so much fun on my mission sometimes, but it is good to be happy. They are bugging us to try to get special permission to stay out late and watch fireworks with them on Wednesday. I think we really will, but not because we want to stay out late (=tired), but because Megan's mom and two nonmembers they want us to meet will be there. It will be a great finding opportunity, and Megan's mom really is the only missing piece to get her all ready for baptism. Megan really wants it and her mom will let her, but her mom isn't really supportive, and Megan is hanging back until her mom softens. We hope this could be a chance to soften her mother's heart towards us and the church.

Today we have rides again, so we didn't have to bike to the library, which is a huge blessing. I just feel so blessed!!
Transfers are this thursday, but I really don't think I will be moved. We'll find out tomorrow. Sister Hodson is in training, so I think I will stay. I haven't been here very long either. Either way, we are moving on Saturday to a young family's home in the Stanley ward (we live in the Red Bridge Ward currently). We're excited. They are a wonderful family. They also live in a very very wealthy neighborhood, which will be interesting. Nice in that we will get the basement of their house with its kitchenette to ourselves. They have kids ages 6, 4, and 2, so that will be fun.

Also coming up this month is that we are getting some sisters on mini-missions! Nineteen year old girls from nearby get to come stay with us and be missionaries for 3 days. I'm so excited. It will be a lot of fun. They sleep in our room and everything. We are getting three of these girls in July.

I really do feel like I belong here, now. After all I heard before I got here about how this is a "hard" area, it isn't true, and I'm learning to really love it. We taught 15 lessons this week which is a new record for me! Next up, we are going to teach 20 lessons a week! Yes! (that includes lessons to investigators with and without members there, and also lessons to less actives, but that's it).

Anyway, I love you all! Have a wonderful week!

Love,

Sister April Atkin

P.S. I guess the funny story of the week is that girl that we are teaching that was raised by lesbians. We taught her repentance and basically laid it all out on the line for her. I was pretty bold, but I felt strongly about it. We felt like we should drop her, probably, but we couldn't figure out how. Then she texted us that night and dropped us saying that she didn't want to meet with us anymore. It was late, so we laughed and went to bed without responding. In the morning, she called us. She does a lot of things for attention, so I think our lack of response to her dramatic dropping us killed her. So she called us and didn't let us drop her. Now she wants to get her Young Women's medallion. Go figure. Anyway, now we will help her get that. Just a funny turn of events.