Dearest Family,
On Saturday we had dinner with a slightly crazy member. She
asked us to pray for her to know who to invite to dinner with us. We
showed up and she had invited her elderly Jehovah's Witness friend. My
first thought was, "Really??" But it turned out to be a good thing. We
shared a nice, non-threatening message. Carol was very nice about it.
Everyone wanted to get along. Then right as we were finishing, she
asked, "So why don't you use His real name?" Oh, dear. That is just
asking for us to fight. But we handled it very carefully and explained
that God is our father and we call Him Heavenly Father to show the close
relationship we have with Him and our love for Him. She took it well.
Then she requested that when we prayed we pray to Jehovah. Sister Aldous
looked to me as if to ask, "Are we allowed to do that?" There was a
sense of intensity in the air as I took my time gathering words. I
carefully explained that just as we respected her beliefs and her
devotion to them, we were also devoted to our beliefs and couldn't pray
that way. She took it very well. In the end, we both prayed and were
very happy. In the end, we were able to really help her out. Sister
Aldous is a nursing student and helped Carol know where to look to
legally plead her cause to be able to live with her husband in an
assisted living place. It was a miracle. I think that her heart was
softened toward us. A healthy dose of respect will go a long way.
That night we also taught a less active part member family
that we have been working with (the mom is semi-investigating) how to
have Family Home Evening. Their girls are ages 3 and 4 and sometimes are
crazy. We started with a prayer and a song, taught about who God is and
that we were created in His image. Then we played Head Shoulders Knees
and Toes as the activity and had a closing prayers. The girls loved it
and so did their parents. The three year old was really moving her hips
around so we changed it to Head, Shoulders, Hips, Knees and Toes. Don't
worry, it was appropriate and hilarious.
That night we saw Kristine, the less active with the huge 2
year old. We were only able to stop by for a minute, but little Gabriel
was so excited to see us. We took pictures with him wearing our name
tags--future missionary! During the middle of the prayer he let go of
our hands, went and picked up Sister Aldous' scripture bag, put it on
his arm, and came back to hold our hands again. Adorable. :)
Yesterday was a snow day. We stayed inside, studied, and
called people from our area book. It snowed so much!! The senior couples
live next door to us, and one of them invited us over for lunch, and
then sisters down the street invited us over for dinner, so we had a
great day. In making phone calls, most people didn't answer, and we
didn't have that many phone numbers anyway because our area is so new,
but the three people we did get a hold of all set up appointments with us
for this week! Wahoo! 100% success. Some elders and sisters put people
on date over the phone yesterday. Miracles happen.
Today it continued to snow. We are on P-Day, so we made a
snow man! that is, a snow sister! Her name is Sister Frost. Admire her
beauty, her lipstick, and her pamphlets and pass along cards. We laughed
so hard! Spatulas make great arms for snow men!
You may have heard the news, but this mission is getting
split come July! No one is surprised because we have 283 missionaries at
the moment with more coming next week and over the next few months. The
Kansas Wichita mission is coming soon. It's weird because some
missionaries who have served together will be suddenly in different
missions. Strange. All of my mission will have been in the Missouri
Independence Mission, still, though, so it is okay. There were actually
58 new missions created this week. Crazy! The work is being hastened!
I have a lot more funny stories to tell you, but it will have to
wait (emailing was cut short by a meeting.) I love you all Love,
Sister Atkin
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