Another Week as a Missionary

Dearest Family,

Another week as a missionary! I love being here.

So last Thursday I don't know if I mentioned it, but Sister Harding got a really bad cold. It's been going around a lot out here, and three of the sisters at the Visitors' Center got it. Don't worry, I didn't get it. I never get sick anymore.

Well, she didn't sleep at all on P-day and stayed up to write letters, so I figured that she must be good enough to go out. So we did. We went and visited and taught two people that night. We probably shouldn't have. She was not in good shape. When we got home I told her to skip planning--we were staying in the next day--and she should go to bed. So she did. The next day we had Friday Morning Training Meeting at the VC, which I can't miss because I am the main act, so she got up to come and sleep in the VC. I don't understand her because she did her hair and makeup and got all dressed and everything, knowing that she would just be sleeping all day. Girls... haha, jk

Friday Morning Training is always fun. I look forward to it every week. We do some really cool stuff, like scavenger hunts and large timelines and Christmas trees... This time we just set goals as a center and wrote notes to our 2014 selves, which is going to be very interesting to read. We also presented our new theme scripture: D&C 123:17. So good. :)

That morning I left Sister Harding asleep at the VC and took another sister (that was on shift) with me so that I could go to District Meeting. It was actually really fun. Then we came back, I took my companion to the store to buy medicine, and then I took her home. She took some time to wind down, but ended up sleeping from 5 until 6:30 the next morning. I got a lot of stuff done. Our Area Book looks great now. :)

Sunday was also an unusual day because we missed church! Weird! Sister Harding was better by then, but the VC schedule for Sundays had to change for the new year to accommodate everyone's new church times. The problem is that our church is usually at 1, so we are on the morning shift, but we had combined Ward Conference at 10:30 that morning, so we totally missed it. We snuck into the back of another ward to take the sacrament so we didn't miss that at least. It was crazy because the ward we snuck into was probably 90% polynesian, mostly Samoan. Headsets were available to anyone who needed the meeting translated into Samoan. I felt like we were in a foreign country. The elders were white as white could be, too. haha.

Sunday night we had a lot of success meeting people. I like that, but none of our appointments go through anymore. It's frustrating because real missionary work is consistent lessons, not squeezing in a message when you finally catch someone at home. We'll keep trying, though.

Yesterday I did an exchange, with Sisters serving in the Lee's Summit 2nd area. It was cool, because that is where I was born. But the spirit directed the exchange in weird way. Sister Harding went out with the new sister in her area, and I went out with Sister Wilson in my area. Usually I would go with the new sister. But it turned out great, and Sister Harding had a great time. I'm glad.

Sister Wilson and I had no appointments and no one to see--no investigators, potentials, formers, or even less actives. We have burned out the little Area Book we have. So we wrote down areas we wanted to go to and basically tracted the whole time. Great. We taught one guy that wants missionaries, but he lives in Overland Park (oh, the irony). We'll send it out. We also met some other cool people, and it was a fun morning.

The funnest part of our day is that we decided to go on an adventure and check out a tiny town in the boonies that we have never been to before: Birmingham, Missouri, probably population 102. On our way out we passed this sign that advertised the largest underground business district in the world. Sure enough, the largest hill in the area had random semi truck-docks sticking out the bottom. It was huge! And very random... Apparently it's a big deal.

But then we drove over a small rise topped by train tracks and Birmingham came into view. I felt like we had just driven fifty years into the past. In front of the town was a large, tilled field obviously used for crops in non-winter months. The street plan of the town was maybe 6 clustered, small blocks. It had a real eery feel to it. We knocked a few doors, but the only lady that answered was baptist and not interested. We also tried a house that had roughly nine cats lounging around on the front porch--which quickly scattered when we walked up. There were a ton of little cat houses all lined up on the porch, and American flags plastering everything. It was weird. we walked about half of the town in 10 minutes and decided it probably wasn't worth our time. But it was a good adventure.

I really like Sister Wilson. I feel like we have the same life. Her mission mirrors mine, and her brother is on a mission and sends her hilarious emails, too. I like her a lot.

Well, sorry that I don't have more news this week, but life is good. I am happy, healthy, and busy. I have a lot of events coming up in the next few weeks that I am really enjoying planning for. I love this kind of thing! Honestly, I think I live for my calling as Sister Trainer. It gives me something to be excited about that I feel like I am good at and is helping a lot of people. It is my joy when I am otherwise discouraged. Funny how what could be a stress causer is a real stress relief because they are problems I can fix, things I can control. It is great.

I love you!

 

Love,
Sister Atkin