A Wonderful Christmas

Dear Family,

It was so good to talk to you the other day. It just felt so natural and normal. Like I left yesterday. I couldn't ask for a better family back home to support me. You are loving and not distracting, and very supportive. Thank you so much. :) (I still haven't received my package yet, but maybe today. I hope you sent it to the right address 517 W Walnut St. It's not a big deal, though. Stop worrying about it mom. I love you. :) ) Also, it was great to talk to Willie. He's the best. :) We really get what the other is doing right now. I love it.

 The storm hasn't gotten here yet, so I don't know if it will, but it is still VERY cold here in Missouri! Good thing that I have always been pretty good at being cold (not so much being hot...). Yesterday I wore socks over my tights, two jackets, gloves, scarf, and a hat. I was roasty toasty. I love bundling up.

For mom: The biggest thing I have learned about the atonement is that it applies to everything. It is the how for every part of the gospel. How do we forgive (he pays their debt to us and heals those wounds), how do we heal, how do we feel charity for others, how do we have faith to pay tithing(the atonement shows he is all powerful and has our best interests at heart so we can trust Him), how we have the power to do good things, how we have strength, how we serve=the atonement.

Charity is actually what I have been studying this week. I was thinking about it and realized that in the scriptures it never describes Charity as "Christ-like love" but always as the pure love of Christ. So it isn't even our love that we feel for them, but His love. We pray to be filled with His love for others, and that is how we have charity. And that is why we have to be pure to feel charity. The love Christ felt for each person in performing the atonement for them is Charity. And we have been promised that if we pray to be filled with that love (and we are commanded to do it), we can have it. How neat. I don't know if that paragraph made any sense, but just know I am learning a lot out here. Perhaps even someday I will learn to express what I am learning in a way that makes sense. (haha jk).

So Kris is officially avoiding us, which is really sad. We have tried our best. I know that Heavenly Father knows Kris and will take care of him. When the timing is right, God will know. We just have to trust Kris to God at this point. We hope he recontacts us soon.

This week we have been able to connect with some less active part member families, which has been really good. They are both letting us come back. Maybe it is finally the right timing for them.

Christmas Eve and Christmas day were great. We didn't really have appointments for those evenings, so we went out to try less actives and investigators. On Christmas Eve we were able to reconnect with Steve! He was a little drunk, but he said we could come back and he was interested in investigating again. His friend is interested, too (and he was sober). We are excited about that.

Actually, how that happened is a funny story. We knocked his door, and as we were walking away, Steve and two of his friends (Mack and Josh) came out the back door to see who it was. Steve had a beer in his hand, and one of his friends (Mack) had a very filthy mouth. I don't think he knew we were missionaries at first, but I am not one to beat around the bush. I explained very bluntly that we were basically nuns for a year and a half. I don't think that sunk in because he shouted out the window later for his friend to get Sister Harding's number because she was cute. We were glad when he went inside. (He also was yelling stuff about how he worshiped the devil like a 10 year old boy trying to mess with his sister. It was so immature).

After the annoying friend went inside we set up a return appointment with Steve, and then he went inside so we were just talking to the more seriously minded, sober friend Josh. He actually asked some legitimate questions and said he was willing to sit in our next appointment with Steve. It was cool. Meanwhile we could see the two drunk friends (Steve and Mack) "sneakily" peaking out the window through the curtains. Drunk people are so weird. When we looked up they literally dropped to the ground, giggling. It was weird.

As we walked away from the door, we could see Mack leaning out the back door with something in his hand that was on fire, yelling something more about the Devil. What a weirdo. Man, I just have to say that it is important to have good friends. Poor Steve. He's a good guy, but he has a dumb friend that was getting him to act rediculous. I don't know if that story makes any sense either, but Sister Harding and I got a good laugh out of it in the car.

Christmas Day we were able to drop by on Cecelia, which was good. She is so kind. We sung for them, which was alright. Sister Harding is tone deaf, and I am just average as you all know, so we really didn't sound good. When I tried to sing just one song by myself, I think I hurt her feelings. Oops. Cecelia still seemed to like it.

Yesterday I saw the dentist and....I have no cavities! Yay! He said that I just had some staining from having my retainer for so long, which is normal because it is hard to clean down there. He polished me up and cleaned the glue off and I am good to go. My mouth feels so clean. :) I don't know if I should see an Orthodontist out here or just wait 2 1/2 months...

Our Dental Assistant was named Julio and he happens to live in North Kansas City (the dentist was in Independence). He was really nice, so we gave him our card. He had never heard of mormons before. The Dentist is mormon, which is why the mission nurse recommended him to me. So when he came in, he was chatting to us all about the VC and the sisters in his ward. I am sure Julio knows now that the dentist is a member, too. He had a really curious look on his face. I hope he contacts us. They also had a bulletin board for business cards in the waiting room, so we put up a mormon.org card with our number on it. :) That made my day.

The other nice thing is that I gave them our insurance and they looked at it, and took my information, but as I was leaving, no one said anything about me paying or how to do that. So I rung the bell, and Julio popped right out of no where, excited and curious to answer my question.

"So how do I pay for this? What do I do?"
"The Dentist says not to worry about it."

"What? Really?"

Knodding.
"Thank you so much!!!"

So, my dental visit is free. I think that is a good Christmas present for you, dad. A cavity free, happy daughter with no bill attached. yay! (Not that you haven't paid any bills for me recently. Thank you so much! Thank you for paying for my mission! This means the world to me.)

Well, I can't think of much else to tell you. I am very happy, healthy, stable, stress free(ish), and I love my mission. Thank you for this gift of my mission.

Well, I hope you have a happy new year with plenty of 7 layer bean dip. I love you all.

Love,

Sister Atkin