Happiness

Dearest Family,

I have had another great week. :) I do really love being out here. This is the greatest (hardest, but greatest) thing I have ever done.

Last Monday, after I emailed, we painted for half of the day. It was wonderful and relaxing. I loved it. The Elders have been begging us to come play sports for weeks, so we finally are going today. Hopefully they will play ultimate, and hopefully it will be fun.

But anyway, while we were painting, we got a phone call from one of our members. She sounded nervous, but she gave us a referral of one of our friends. She gave us his phone number and said he was expecting us to call and set up a time to meet with him. We did, and we ended up seeing him the next day. He works as a personal trainer, so he is this big built guy, but he is very religious, and really loves God. We set up to meet him during his break at the gym he works at with the member that referred him to us.

Next door to the gym is a little pottery/coffee shop. So we went in to meet there. The minute we walked in, the owner of the pottery place looked a little surprised, and then was trying to not sob as she tried to pull together a protein shake for our investigator. I wasn't paying attention, but then suddenly something caught my attention in her direction (the spirit). I could see her crying, and I just knew it had something to do with us (again, the spirit), but I didn't know why. So we went over to talk to her, and she just broke down. She is a recent convert, and the elders now live with her and her husband in a nearby ward. Her father is having some real health problems, and the elders have been a great help and given him (a nonmember) a blessing. But she had just received some bad news and the elders weren't home and she didn't know what to do or who to turn to. Then into her shop walked two sister missionaries, wearing a name tag that spoke comfort to her. So we ignored our investigator and member for a moment, held hands with this woman across the counter by the register, and prayed with her, for her, and for her father. It was amazing. I know that the Lord was looking out for her. She knows it, too. Sometimes it's crazy because I know we don't hold the priesthood, but there is still power in our calling. I don't know how it works, but sometimes when we pray for people I can feel the Lord blessing them somehow. This woman couldn't get a priesthood blessing when she needed comfort--no one was there--but sister missionaries could pray for her, and it helped. I love being a missionary.

Then we taught a lesson in her shop. Our new investigator, Dave, is wonderful. We met with him twice last week, and after the first lesson he said, "Is that it? Don't you have more for me?" He feels like we are slowing him down. He reads the Book of Mormon for an hour every night. He's marking it up and taking notes. Awesome! I'm excited for him to hear the plan of salvation tomorrow. :)

This week we had a Zone Meeting, which is really fun. We have those once a month instead of District Meeting. I always learn a lot (and I always play the piano. But that's fine). Anyway, it was great. At the end we were having a zone discussion about our zone goals. We were all kindly voicing our opinions. I thought about it, and voiced my opinion, even though it was a little different from other opinions, but I said it in a nice way. Some people agreed with me. Then one of the elders stepped up and rebuked the opinion that happened to be mostly mine for five minutes. He said I didn't have faith and that I needed to get on my knees and pray and ask the Lord this and this and this and change my heart (well, he didn't say me specifically, but that was pretty clear). Needless to say, I was a little bit mad. And got madder the longer he talked. I almost interrupted him, but I held my tongue and never responded. The Zone Leaders finally pulled it back together and ended the meeting. I was fuming inside, but throwing water on the flames because I knew I wouldn't bring the spirit back if I said anything. And just as much as it wasn't the place of this elder to rebuke me, it wasn't my place to correct him. That is the Zone Leaders' job. And then I got over it. Mom, aren't you proud of me?

haha, anyway, the Zone Leaders apologized later and said they would talk to him later about it, because he shouldn't have said that. That was a nice gesture of them.

The reason I tell you this story, is that sometimes it is really obvious that I am changing. We all know one of my weaknesses is voicing my opinions too quickly, and having a little bit of fire inside when I do, but I am learning to just control it and get over it. I was even able to shake this elder's hand and tell him to have a great day--with good feelings. Life is good. (By the way, that doesn't mean that I am not opinionated anymore. I still like a good discussion. :) but with good feelings. )

The other miracle of the week is that we received some inspiration for some of our investigators. It is a part member family where the parents aren't married. They are wonderful people with good intentions, but a very busy schedule. The dad is the only member. The mom prefers Spanish (but does speak English) so we gave them to the Spanish elders for a while, but that didn't work (for scheduling reasons) so they are our investigators again. We were trying to figure out what to do for them, when we had the thought that even though the parents are too busy to go to church, the kids aren't. So with the mom's permission (and approval--she's excited about it) we got two of their three boys to church this last Sunday. They really liked it. The parents almost came because they felt so guilty, but they had lost the address, so maybe next week. This was the best idea we had. We are going to focus for a bit on getting the oldest son baptized, and work on the mom later. She is open, but I think watching it work for her son will make a big difference. I feel so good about it. I'm excited. :)

Last night we had two dinners back to back. That was the first time that I thought that I actually might throw up in a dinner appointment. It got to the point that I knew that if I ate another bite, it wouldn't stay down. So I didn't. I hope they weren't offended. Sister Hodson hit the same point. I never want to do that again, but we have another double dinner on Saturday. Blech. The people we don't want to offend are the first dinner this time, which is better. Mom, I never want to eat dessert again in my whole life. And I want to go on a healthy diet when I get home. PLEASE. I hope I don't die before then (we still don't feel like eating).

Well, I love you all. Have a great day. :)

Love,

Sister Atkin

P.P.S. What I learned this week was about the Law of Sacrifice and the Sacrament. Still studying, but I quickly wrote this down during the sacrament yesterday:
The Law of Sacrifice:
sacrifice of animals was replaced by the sacrament (see BD sacrifices)
so originally the priest offered up burnt offerings to cleanse the people of their sins.
Now the priests (same title!) offer up our sacraments on His holy Day (D&C 59:9) to cleanse the people--in remembrance of the ultimate sacrifice.
It is still the same law of sacrifice.
So to live the law of sacrifice, I need to worthily and meaningfully take the sacrament weekly. (that is how I offer my broken heart and contrite spirit or my whole soul as an offering, which other scriptures reference as our sacrifice.)
It's comforting to know that I know understand how to live that law.