Dearest Family,
What a week. I don't even know how to describe it.
So
last week for Preparation Day we went and toured all of the stuff
across the street from the Visitors' Center. It was a really fun day.
It actually was pretty warm, so it was a good day to do it.
We started out at the white church on the lot that has the original
cornerstones--The Church of Christ Temple Lot. They have a small
"Visitors' Center" room on the back of their church about the history.
We wandered around on the grass and found the marker-stones (above where
the cornerstones are believed to be), which were all very close
together. One of them had a packet of paper encased in plastic lying
next to it. The paper was titled, "Baptism for the Dead Availeth
Nothing". I think they know that those evil Mormons would be wondering
around to look at those cornerstones=perfect place to leave anti stuff
lying around. How subtle.
Then we went in the Visitors' Center and met the famous Apostle
Sheldon that runs the place. He's 90. We had fun talking to him. He
taught history mingled with comments about how false our church is and
how true their church is. Whenever he went off on a tangent of how false
we were, we didn't want to argue with him, but we didn't want to smile
and nod either, so we just stared at him. Sister Harding awkwardly
laughed a few times, which made it even better. But we smiled and made
kind comments whenever we could, so he actually really liked us. In a
glass case were the stones found in excavation. They had letters carved
into them to indicate that one was the SWCT (south west corner temple)
and one was forty feet west of it (40W). The letters were actually
carved into the rock, but Apostle Sheldon wanted them to be more
visible, so he painted on the rocks personally to show the lettering. I
almost died. Painting on an artifact like this one. Crazy.
He gave us each for free 3 postcards that were labelled 15 cents,
and we took some free brochures about the site. His ride came to pick
him up, so he put on his hat and his coat. Then we asked if we could get
a picture with him. He agreed and asked if it was okay if he put his
arms around us. We reluctantly agreed and got an awkward picture.
Priceless. I'll send it next week.
Then we headed over to the Community of Christ Temple. I had been
there before, but Sister Harding hadn't. It was cool. No apostles this
time. Dwight, our tour guide, was stony, but actually pretty funny.
The reason our Preparation Day moved was because last Thursday was
Zone Meeting, which was exactly what I needed. It was a good recharge
and a good lift. I learned a lot and felt the power to do it.
I
also have been thinking a lot recently about how blessed I am to have
had such a stable childhood. There is no way that I could do what I am
doing now--being a missionary, training, being sister leader,
etc.--without that. I have been working a lot recently with sisters that
didn't have the childhood that I did, and if I didn't have that
background of strength, I couldn't do it. Their burdens would knock me
over. But because of a happy childhood, I can help lift the hands that
hang down. It is still hard and it hurts some days, but I can help!
Thank you mom and dad!
On Sunday we had a miracle. We got to our dinner appointment early,
so we parked and walked down the street a little ways. We knocked one
door--nope. I looked and said, "that house," pointing off down the
street a ways.
So we knocked it. The man who opened the door is Patrick. His
coworker is LDS and has given him all the pamphlets and a Book of
Mormon. He has lds.org pages saved as bookmarks on his laptop. He even promised to go to church once, but never went.
"I guess that this is a sign that I actually should. Okay. We'll go
next Sunday. God has given me enough hints. I need to check this out."
Miracle!
Monday was also an interesting day. We tried Terry, a
former investigator. Turns out that she lives in a trailer park we
didn't know existed. "Wildwood Mobile Estates" or something like that.
"Estates." hm.
We knocked on her door and after telling us she didn't want to join
our church, she let us in. It was a small place and he husband was
smoking, so it was a bit hard to breathe. Her rat-dog didn't like us
much. We had the strangest conversation for an hour. By the end of it, I
was glad to be able to go out and breathe again. Smoking is bad for
you.
We testified of the gospel as she lit up and drank her coffee. She
told us the full lot of a movie, about her rough past, and about her
entire lengthy medical history which is too graphic to share. Sister
Harding and I did not look at each other the whole time. She barely held
herself together. For some reason I don't understand, Sister Harding
set up a time for us to go back. So this adventure will have a part two.
That same day we met two homeless guys. They didn't really look all
that homeless--no plastic bags or shopping carts and they were fairly
clean--but on closer look, they were wearing about 4 jackets each to
stay warm. Poor guys. They were brothers. It was such a strange
conversation. But we gave them pamphlets and copies of the Book of
Mormon. We gave their phone number to the elders in the area where they
"lived". We'll just have to wait and see.
So yep, life is good. We had a couple of rough moments this week,
but we don't need to get into that. I had a really cool experience where
the spirit was not there, and I prayed and prayed and had the
impression to sing. Random. I didn't really want to do it, but I sang I
Believe in Christ and I Stand All Amazed from memory. By the end, the
spirit was so strong that my voice was horrible, but it was still a cool
experience. So I have learned that if I ever get discouraged or have
negative feelings about anything, if I sing the spirit will come back,
no matter how horrible my voice sounds.
Well, I love you all. Have a wonderful week!
Love,
Sister Atkin
No comments:
Post a Comment