What a Great Week!

 

Dearest Family,

 

What a great week. :)

Wow.

So first of all, I LOVE Sister Aldous. We get along great. We laugh really hard. I guess I haven't done that in a while, but she is hilarious. Several very funny things have happened.

Her first day she forgot to take her luggage off of the transfer bus, so it got to ride all around the mission out to Wichita and back, and she didn't get it back until 5:30 that evening. What an adventure. But that's alright. We were able to laugh about it.

Then that night we had a great dinner with members, and I planned for us to drop by on an investigator that is so prepared and excited to meet with us, but her son has RSV, and that has prevented her from really ever meeting with us. So we just showed up. We had only 20 minutes, but we were able to teach a great first lesson together. Sister Aldous is a natural teacher. I had been coaching her all day, and so at the end of the lesson, she invited Toni (that's the investigator's name) to be baptized! Toni interrupted her to say yes, that is what she had always wanted, and even set a date! It was one of the most perfect lessons I have taught on my entire mission. We laughed and smiled and said prayers of gratitude all the way home. pumped.

Since then not every day has been that successful, but we teach well together, and she is ready to work hard and be obedient. We get along so well. I feel like the Lord is giving me a gift for my last transfer (pretend I didn't mention that).

Before her mission she hurt her knee and had to have surgery, which post-poned her MTC date, so she ices her knee every night. Her first night she forgot to put her icepack in the freezer, so she got in the freezer to use vegetables just for 10 minutes. She asked if it was okay if she used the peas, and I said, "Yes, I don't like peas." Then we both fell asleep, so she forgot to put them back in the freezer. In the morning when she got up she looked down and saw a stain on her brand new sheets. "The peas leaked!" She gasped. She stumbled sleepily into the bathroom. When the light came on, I heard loudly from the bathroom, "THOSE WEREN'T PEAS!!" as she found a large stain on her pajamas.

She came back to the bedroom and we turned on the light to find a large purple stain on her bed. She had grabbed a half used, open bag of BERRIES. I laughed so hard I thought I was going to die. They had melted everywhere. So we had to have some of the other sisters help us out and wash her sheets that day. There is still a faint purple spot, but we got most of it out. Oh, man, just laughed so hard. So did she.

Nothing too eventful has happened for the rest of the week, but we have started teaching a lost sheep named Kristine (she's a member technically, but her records are not in the ward). She's 24 and has a 2 year old. She only went to church from when she was 10 until she was 12 (although she read the Book of Mormon from front to back during that time). She was put into foster care after that, and her life has been really hard. Her 2 year old is 3 feet tall and weighs 50 pounds (what a normal 5 year old weighs). He's huge and adorable. He is projected to be 6'6". He's covered in rolls of fat.

We came back the next day after teaching her, and she had read a significant amount of the Book of Mormon. She was smoking with her baby in the room, which makes me sad, but she put it out and let us in. I am just so excited for her to come back. She's basically at an investigator's level of understanding. She's excited about coming back. She told us that she remembers feeling the Holy Ghost ("It's like this light, bursting inside...I don't know how to describe it", she said sheepishly), but she said she hasn't felt it for a long time. I know she felt it while we were there.

Her 2 year old is a bit crazy, and doesn't sit still well, but as we left the second time we said we wanted to leave with a prayer. He reached out for our hands. We just went for it, so we all held hands as we prayed and he stood perfectly still in silence as we prayed. It was amazing. After the prayer he didn't want to let go. He just wanted us to stay holding his hands. I'll have to send you a picture of it. It was so cute!

This week I have been studying the Gospel of Jesus Christ in the scriptures (faith, repentance, baptism, the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end). I have discovered that often when the gospel of Jesus Christ is taught, there is a reference made to the fact that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost are one and united. I realized it is because they are united in their purpose of helping us make it back, and the gospel is the way. That is why we are baptized "in the name of Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost". They work together to help us make it back, and Jesus Christ provided that way. It was a cool thing to read about.

The Visitors' Center is also doing great. It is pretty slow, so not much is happening there, but we have a lot of new sisters (four) and seven of the eight companionships were affected by the last transfer. We have a lot of fresh excitement, and it is really encouraging. I enjoy being there.

Wow! Life is so good!

I love you all!

 

Love,

Sister Atkin

 

P.S. Here is a picture of me with 3 of my 4 daughters. Sister Hodson wasn't there, and neither were Sister Crick and Sister Thompson, my grand daughters. My posterity is increasing! :)

 

Sister Lewis, me, Sister Aldous, and Sister Harding

 

Sister Aldous

Dear Family,

 

What a week!

So transfers were today so I am sitting her with my brand new companion, Sister Aldous. I love her already. She has a lot in common with me, and she's ready to be obedient and work hard. :)

Here's a story:

So about a month ago the Adams showed us a list of all of the new sisters coming out. The name of Sister Aldous stood out to me, but I didn't think too much of it. Then some of the sisters at the center (Two of my favorites) mentioned that their good friend was coming out soon to this very mission! Her name was Sister Aldous. I thought that was so exciting because I loved both of those sisters, so a friend of theirs is a friend of mine. I thought to myself that I would love to train her.

Then the time started getting closer and they started to be excited to have her come. I got excited too, and told them that I really wanted to train her, but I didn't know if I could because I would only get 5 weeks with her. I got kind of excited about the idea, but I had to prep myself to be not disappointed if I didn't get to train. But then I got the call! Then I had to prep myself to be not disappointed if it wasn't Sister Aldous. For some reason I really really wanted to train her even though I didn't know her. I think I even prayed about it. But I tried to not be too stuck on the idea.

As it got closer and closer I had to push away my excitement. I just wanted it to be her!

Then I got to transfer bus, and it was her!!! I just knew it!! I even wrote in my journal about wanting it to be her a few days ago.

Sister Aldous even looks a little like me. she has brown hair. She's a nursing student at BYU. She's from Portland. She's great. She likes laughing, being obedient, working hard, she's confident and happy, and wonderful. I'm excited. I got nervous and awkward at first because she's exactly what I wanted her to be. :) Hopefully I can work through that. We're going to be friends.

Sister Harding is going out to Manhattan, KS. She's serving in a singles' ward at the university, which is her biggest fear after serving in a Visitors' Center. She'll do great. I learned a lot from training her. She's grown so much and is so much less shy. I'm proud.

Last Saturday was the trainers' meeting for those training new missionaries. As we were leaving, President Keyes took time to shake all of our hands and talk to us for a second. He shook my hand and said, "There is no greater compliment for a missionary than to train at the end of their mission. It means you are trusted." I almost burst into tears right there. It meant so much to hear that from him. I trust him 100% and his opinion of me means a lot. I feel honored to be training again.

On Sunday we had a devotional at our church about temples. The temple president, Stake president and mission president all spoke. It was fabulous. There were as many musical numbers as speakers, and they were phenomenal. Our investigator loved it.

Also, remember Kris, who fell off of the face of the earth? We talked to his roommate yesterday, and he said he hasn't seen him for a month either, and all of his stuff is still there. I hope he didn't die... He thinks that Kris is out touring with his brother's band. I hope to see him again someday.

Another miracle. Our new investigator that I told you about that is a young mom. When we met her last week, she let us right in and we taught her the first lesson. It was awesome! Well, we went for our return appointment, and we knew we needed to bring a member with us. The member we felt good about is a young mom, too. Well, when we texted her to ask her to come with us to visit Shaleece, she asked, is that Shaleece ******** (sorry, I guess I should keep her privacy.) Yes!! That is her! Turns out, they had worked together for three years and were good friends! The perfect team up! She wasn't there for our appointment, but we have a connection now that can facebook her and stuff like that.

So life is good. I feel like things are really starting to get rolling in our area. I am so glad. I am so happy! I am ready to work my tail off. :)

I love you!

 

Love,

Sister Atkin

Big Changes!

 

Dear Family,

 

What a week!!

Sometimes it is hard to capture a week in an email, but I will attempt. (and send a lot of pictures).

So last Thursday after I emailed you we had the most awesome P-Day ever. We decided to hang out with the Godfreys, one of the senior couples. They aren't limited in miles, so we could go cool places. They have the same Preparation Day as we do. We decided to go to the Money Museum in the Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank. We were excited. It was a sunny beautiful day.

When we arrived, I immediately realized that I had forgotten my wallet at home. I was crushed. See, we knew that we couldn't get into that bank without a picture ID. We took a few pictures by the National WWI museum next door ($10 to get in=not this time).

We decided to give it a shot and try to get in anyway without my ID. Everyone else had theirs. First we had to go through intense security like at an airport. We had to put everything metal in dishes and sent it through a scanner. Then we walked through the metal detector. Everyone got through fine, and then it was my turn. I set everything off.

Te security guy had to do the wand detector on me. My boots have metal buckles and I had lipstick in one pocket and pennies in the other. I felt so blond.

Then he gave everyone a visitor's pass and let them through heavy glass doors--except me. No one seemed to notice me getting left behind. I watched the doors thud closed with my companion on the other side. Panic.

The security guy said, "Did you not get a pass? Oh, yeah. We can't let you in without an ID."

I blanked. I didn't know what to say.

"See here's the thing," I said calmly, "We're missionaries. I don't know if you know much about it, but we're companions," I said pointed at Sister Harding. "As missionaries we have this thing where we always stick together. If I can't go, she can't go. We have to be together."

He didn't really respond and walked off into the security booth. I stood there helpless. I was on the wrong side of security and and the wrong side of the door from my companion.

He came back, quietly handed me a pass and let me in. I thank ed him and promised to not cause any trouble. I was so relieved to be reunited with my companion! I broke into a Federal Reserve Bank! Wow. Not really because they have a million shots of my face probably. But still.

The museum was small but awesome. We saw a case will $40 million in it, and then we got to peak into the vault, which is basically a huge warehouse full of money. It was behind glass, and we could see the heavy doors that could seal that place tight. We watched robots lift hundreds of pounds of money. The vault was several stories high and we couldn't see the back. Just rows and shelves of money. wow. Then we made our own money, took our picture in money, and spotted the forgery. Super fun!

We went out to lunch to Gate's BBQ which just topped it all off. It had a real ol' KC feel to the place and the food was good. (Oklahoma Joe's is better. You'll have to try it someday).

That night we had a reception for the Adams at the Visitors' Center. Elder Adams was the Visitors' Center Director, and he went home last weekend. We held a reception for them, and it had a great turn out. I got to conduct, as usual. I just love the Adams. You will meet them later.

Then, we have had an amazing week in our area. We have found new investigators that are actually excited about learning more! The elders have given us so golden referrals, and we are just so pumped to be teaching. I feel like after all of our efforts, the work is finally starting to roll forward. I just get excited!

We found an awesome young mom, the elders referred us to another awesome young mom, and there is a part member family that is basically begging to take the lessons that we are going to start working with. There is also some investigators that we have been trying to teach that we finally are getting to teach. Miracles. You will hear more about all of them next time.

We also got our new director this week. Elder Brenchley and his wife. He has a lot of energy. He was an institute teacher and the MTC choir director. He is really nice, and learning fast. I have to swallow my pride a bit, but it is all good. He is making changes, and they are needed and good. He is just going to make my role a smaller one, but that is okay. I can take it. I just really love giving trainings, and I don't know if he will let me do that much anymore. We'll see. He is inspired and bringing new life to the center.

Yesterday was Zone Conference with Elder Gavarret of the Seventy. It was short, but good.

Okay. The biggest change though, is that transfer calls are coming next week. And last night I got a phone call. I'm training again. Yes, I will have five weeks left on my mission and I get to train again. I am so EXCITED! Whenever I thought about doing anything else with those weeks, it felt wrong. I don't even know how to do anything else but train. And man, I'm going to pour everything I have into this area and that sister for every minute I have left. I am so excited! I will just love her. So much. I am just thrilled. I was worried that I wouldn't get chosen again, but they picked me! Sister Harding is ready to go learn from another experience, too. She will do well full-pros.

I just feel so blessed. I don't know why the Lord and my mission president trust me so much, but it lifts me to try even harder. I am just so happy. Training four times? Unheard of. Could anyone love it more than I do? I doubt it.

I love you All!

 

Love,

Sister Atkin

All of the Visitors' Center sisters with the Adams

Me and Sister Harding with Apostle Sheldon

Random Stories Week

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

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

The End of the World Didn't Come

Dearest family,

Another good week as a missionary!

First of all mom, I DID get my package. :) Thank you so much! It arrived last Saturday. Apparently, my package, and one other Sister's package were miss-sent by the postal service, and arrived together (they were sent the same day from SLC). I am just glad to have it. I love the two cardigans! They are really cute. :) As soon as I opened it at the VC, I put the maroon one on. Thank you!

Sister Harding and I have already listened to the CD at least 10 times. We really like it a lot. The whole package was good! Dad, thank you for the flower. :) I like it a lot. :) The necklace is adorable (already worn it), the scarf is cute, and I hung the banner up above my bed even though Christmas is over. The Chex Mix and Oreos are delicious, and a pair of socks is required for it to be Christmas. Really, it was the perfect package. Enough to know that you love me, and not too much stuff to pack home in a couple of months. Thank you so much. :) In a way, it was kinda fun to have my own Christmas. :)

This week it snowed again! It was more snow than last time, but less icy  so we weren't snowed in. It's pretty. Not as cold as home, though. ;)

Yesterday we had two big miracles. On Sunday I was fasting that we would be able to find a family. I realized that PMG advises us to look for families to teach, and I have never taught a family on my entire mission! So under that inspiration, I decided to fast and pray for it.

Then yesterday we first went to a Part Member Family that the ward told us to visit. The dad works from home, so he was there. He is maybe in his late 20s and is from Utah. I don't know if he served a mission, but when he answered the door, he was very nice to us. He sounded up for us coming and visiting him and his wife. He gave us his number, but called us a few hours later to set up an appointment for tomorrow! She's RLDS, and they have a 3 year old daughter and another one on the way, due end of January. He was happy to see us and everything. Then our bishop texted to say that he talked to him on the phone, and he is really "receptive". We're excited!

Then we went to contact a referral we've had for a while but haven't been able to contact. We finally got to see him! His name is Nik, and he went to the Polynesian Cultural Center and took the tram tour, which is taken by sister missionaries, and includes the temple visitors' center in the tour. He loved it. His daughter is 8 and she loved it so much she went twice. He was really impressed by the temple. He is Hawaiian and was raised Catholic. He hasn't been to any church for 8 years. He seems really open and receptive. I told him our purpose, and he agreed to investigate and come to church! He is married and has a daughter, so it is a family! We are excited to meet his wife. His daughter is cute. We left in shock of how open he is. When we mentioned the spirit and asked him if he knew what that felt like, he immediately told us a story of the last time he went to church, which was right before he went to Iraq. He felt so much peace, and left feeling like everything was perfect, like he was on top of the world in that calmness.That feeling stayed with him for a long time and gave him a lot of peace in Iraq. His description of the spirit was right on. He knows exactly what that feels like and he would like to feel it again. We're seeing him on Saturday. :) wahoo!

Still no word from Kris, but I still have hope. Just in the Lord's timing.

As far as food news, we tried Waffle House, a fast food breakfast place that is in the Midwest and east. Really good food. Really greasy, but really good. I got a plain waffle with extra butter, and Sister Harding got a Pecan Waffle with melty chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, and syrup on top. I also got bacon. Shows our personalities, I guess.

Sister Harding has a really bad cold today. I hope she gets feeling better. Whenever anyone has something at the Visitors' Center, she gets it. I feel bad. I almost never get sick (knock on wood).

Also, Dad, you are the best. You definitly deserve the best dad award. Mom, you get the best mom award. I just feel so blessed. Thank you for everything!

Did you get my package to you? I think after you have downloaded those pictures you should send that camera card back out (with the pictures still on it) so that I can have those pictures. I need some of them still. Thanks!

I love you all! (sorry I don't have more to say)

Love,

Sister Atkin

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