Still in Kansas

Dear Family,

It has been another good week. As you probably gathered from the subject of my email, I am still in the same place! Still in Overland Park for another 6 weeks! I'm glad. I really thought and prayed about it, and I decided that I wanted to stay. And then it happened. Sister Hodson and I aren't done here. There is still things for us to do together. There are still somethings that I want to help her with, and we have some investigators I'm glad to still be here for. It was fun to see how many people celebrated that I stayed. It is nice to be loved. :)

Jesse is for sure being baptized on September 28th. We are very happy he set a solid baptism date that his foster parents would agree to. That is my one year mark, and two days after I probably will really be transferred. If I am sent back to one of the visitors' centers (which is 99% likely) I will be close enough to get a ride to come back for the baptism, so we are planning on that. His foster family will more than likely be willing to come get me (considering that I have the feeling that they want me as a future daughter-in-law intended for their son who was my Zone Leader in the MTC. Maybe we are imagining things, but it sure looks that way....) They are also trying to rig a way for me to go to Iola, but I don't think it will work out. It is close to 2 hours away from here. I don't think President Keyes would give permission.

Megan is doing great. We saw her this week, and she is still glowing. I sure do love her. She wrote me the sweetest letter. We are really really hoping to go to the temple with her soon. I miss the temple so much! It will be great.

Last P-Day we went with her and her cousin to Deanna Rose, the Children's Farmstead (petting zoo) that we volunteer at every week. We hadn't seen the whole thing, so we decided it would be fun. We can go to zoos, so we did. We bottle fed the goats. Sister Hodson got little hoof prints all over her skirt, and some milk slobber. It was hilarious.

We did have a bad night on Wednesday this week. We dropped by an investigator's house to see if we could teach her. Her mom answered the door (as always) so we ended up talking to her instead. It was dark out, and someone upstairs was loudly watching a murder horror movie. You know how I am with scary/intense movies. I can't do it! So I sat there, dying just from hearing it. I mentally shut down, and started humming Joseph's First Prayer and rhythmically petting the cat. Sister Hodson stepped up (not seeming to understand me elbowing her), and calmly, slowly taught a lesson. When we left, I burst into tears. She had no idea what for until I explained it to her. She hadn't even noticed! Anyway, it wasn't fun. I slept badly, and then I was stressed-sick and a little crazy in the morning. A nap at lunch time helped me shake it off, so I was okay. But I don't really look forward to seeing movies at all after my mission. I wasn't even good at it then...now I'll be even worse...

Sister Hodson and I had a few rough patches this week, but I am glad they happened, because we learned from them and will be better missionaries and companions now. I really do love her, and I'm glad I stayed. We work well together and we will be friends when we get home (we joke that we would be better friends than companions).

We tracted into this cool guy named Andrew. First thing, he warned us that he was a hard core atheist. He used to be Baptist, but then he studied about the origins of the Bible and Judaism and now can't believe any of it is true. He was very nice and conversational. he was educated, thought out, and willing to listen. It was nice. It was interesting because we've run into people who do believe in the Bible strictly because of evidence, and he was unconvinced because of evidence. Both groups are basing their faith (or lack of faith) on evidence. They came to opposite conclusions. To me, it just shows that you can't base faith on evidence. People can always find evidence to support what they already believe (we do it too!). That is why real intent is important (a willingness to be wrong in pursuit of the right or true answer). And most of all, that is why we need to ask God what is true. The Holy Ghost is real.

Andrew texted us two days later thanking us for coming over, and mentioned that he had read the three chapters I had recommended! That never happens! So we are staying in texting contact with him, and maybe someday his heart will soften. :)

We had some changes in our Zone. It was a good thing. I really like the new elders that came in. I think it will help our district and zone stay more focused. Good elders make a huge difference.

On Saturday, we had a dinner problem. It was hilarious. We had scheduled two dinners for ourselves--knowingly. They were both Part Member Families, so it was worth the sacrifice of feeling really sick. One of them cancelled that afternoon, which we were disappointed because we really wanted to see them (but she had a migraine). Not 3 minutes after she cancelled, we got a call from a less active that we had scheduled dinner with a month ago--she was expecting to feed us that night! At the very time that the other dinner fell through at! Well, we had just made an opening for her, so it fell into place. When I hung up the phone after saying, "Of course! Yes! It is in our plans to come over tonight!" we laughed and laughed. It was just too perfect. God protected us from having three dinners.

They rescheduled to have us for dinner the next day (so we were going to have two dinners two days in a row), but she still wasn't feeling up to it. But we survived! We practiced portion control, and didn't get sick. I didn't eat very much the next day, but we're doing good. :)

Well, this is taking too long. Life is good. :)
Have a great week! We will, too!

Love,

Sister Atkin