The End. And the Beginning.

Well folks, this is it. April comes home this Friday. This means that she will now be back in charge of the posting on this blog. I hope that you have enjoyed her letters as much as we have. And I also hope that you have forgiven me for the times that I have fallen a little behind in posting them.

If you want to attend April's Homecoming address, here is the info:

Sunday March 10 at 1:00 p.m. in the College Ward chapel.

Adios!

-Amy

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas. Or Maybe Utah...

Dearest Family,

What a great week! I might possibly be the happiest I have been on my entire mission. This is just so much fun. I can't even tell you how much of a gem Sister Aldous is. We are constantly laughing, working hard, learning the gospel, teaching, eating, teasing, and everything else good. I just love her to pieces. She went to BYU, too, and I don't know if we would have been friends if we had met there, but we sure are friends here. She's great.

So we haven't been out of our apartment much this week. Wednesday of last week we didn't have a car, so we didn't get to go anywhere, and then we were snowed in all day Thursday. On Friday we were snowed in until we had to be at the Visitors' Center. It was a good time, though. Sister Aldous and I got a lot of studies in. We cleaned, made cookies, watched all of the District 1, studied, painted, organized, etc. We actually had a lot of fun.

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

I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!

Dearest Family,

 

I am just so happy I don't even know how to tell you about it.

First of all, Sister Aldous is awesome. She makes me laugh and she's good at talking and listening. We have a grand time together and life is never boring. So much has happened since last week, I hope to fit it all in.

First of all, last P-Day we lost our phone. It was our no car day, so we didn't have a phone or a car. We had set up one ride out to our area, but we couldn't set up any of the other rides we needed (including the one home) because we didn't have a phone. It was crazy. So when our member picked us up, we used her phone to make some calls. When we called our investigator to let her know we were running late she told us that a car wash had called her on our phone to tell her that they had it. It had fallen out when we were vacuuming the car. So that was embarrassing, but at least we knew where our phone was. We weren't able to recover it until the next day. It was quite the adventure.

But the thing is, the Lord works in mysterious ways. Because we didn't have our phone, we didn't have a team up set up for our lesson. So last minute we asked our ride if she would just stay and teach with us and give us another ride after the lesson (super demanding, and we would have never asked if we hadn't been put in such a situation). She at first wasn't excited about it, but agreed. It turned out perfect. She really hit it off with our investigator and now she wants to come with us to every lesson with her. It helped our investigator feel comfortable talking about quitting smoking. So perfect!

Then we were late to our dinner and they were mad until they found out that we didn't have a phone or a car, so they forgave us. Then the lady that gave us a ride home (back to Independence from the area, about 20 minutes) was a crazy old lady. I just thought she was a nice lady, but she grumbled the whole way and told us horror stories of bad things that happened to missionaries, in addition to the fact that she was a horrible driver. She drove so slow that we missed our ride home from the Visitors' Center (and we still didn't have a phone). But some sisters came back for us and it all worked out. I almost cried when we finally made it home, but it was all worth it. We did get our phone back the next day.

The other miracle about that is that the morning of the day we lost our phone, we took a picture of ourselves on a whim and made it the background of our phone. When the car wash found it, they saw our name tags in the picture and recognized that it was the missionaries, so they knew who to keep it for.

Then last Wednesday was interviews with the mission president. It was a great day. I learned a lot and was uplifted. I was upset because the elders made me bear my testimony because I am going home soon, and so I was a mess. Of course I cried. How do you capture a mission and a testimony in 2 minutes? You can't. Then I had to clean up real quick to be interviewed.

President Keyes didn't have very much to say. "This is our last interview, isn't it," he said. "Well, know that you have been an extraordinary missionary. Not just a good missionary, but an extraordinary one. You will leave a real hole in the mission."

And that was basically all we had to say. I joked about how I would ask to stay but I know he needs my spot for all of the new missionaries coming out. I cried for a bit, but I cleaned up and moved forward and kept working hard that day.

Another crazy thing happened, though. Ever since Sister Aldous came out, I felt like she had real potential, and could even possibly train after I leave--after just 5 weeks. We had conversations about it a few times. Only one missionary has trained after one transfer--6 weeks--ever in this mission, but I still felt like she could do it. I felt it pretty strongly, actually. It was all speculation, of course.

Well, Sister Aldous was the last person to be interviewed, and they had gone long so everyone else was gone. While she was being interviewed, President Keyes stepped out and asked me to join them. He told me that he was talking to Sister Aldous about an impression that he had received that she could train after 5 weeks. I think he was waiting for us to tell him he was crazy, but I wasn't surprised because I had received that same impression. He asked me about it, and we told him we had already talked about it.

So President Keyes has asked me to train Sister Aldous in just 5 weeks. He's given us permission to have 3 hours of companion study a day (similar to having language study on top of training), and he wants us to finish the 12 week training program in 5. It is still not for sure that it will happen because he hasn't finished praying about it, but he has asked us to prepare. We aren't supposed to tell anyone in the mission, so it is a secret. Don't tell anyone that could leak it to the other missionaries here.

Anyway, I love how the Lord is giving me one last project to really sprint to the finish. I am having so much fun teaching her. She is learning fast, and I am just pouring everything I know into her.

It is neat because I can feel that everything I have learned has prepared me for this day to teach her. She is just soaking it up. I know the Lord is mindful, and he is taking care of us. Things that I have learned in the scriptures have come out and been meaningful to her.

The other thing is that (this is another secret) they are making this a full proselyting area next transfer, so Sister Aldous won't be in the Visitors' Center anymore. Full proselyting is very different from Part time Proselyting, so I am trying to teach her how to plan really well. What a cool thing she will do!

To top that off, President Keyes is considering putting 9 or 10 sets of missionaries in the Visitors' Center instead of 8 (another secret). So he has asked me and Sister Sant, the other Sister Trainer, to pilot schedules for more sisters allowing them to have full proselyting days. Another project. I love projects!

It has been a crazy fun week.

I feel a little bad because I haven't been as focused on taking presentations at the Visitors' Center because I have so much else to do, but I think the Lord knows that I am having to prioritize.

Other cool story: the other night Sister Aldous and I only had about a half an hour and we decided to tract. We had faith, and we found two awesome women! I am way better at teaching women than men. It was a real miracle. We were able to hit our weekly goal!

Last night we visited a Part Member Family. The dad is totally active and is a temple worker, but his wife is not super open. We've been working on her for a while. Sometime when we come over, she'll just scoot on her wheel chair and hide. Last night, she stayed and laughed and talked and really enjoyed herself. It was the most open she's ever been! She even let us share a scripture about prayer and pray with her! Sister Aldous is allergic to cats, and their apartment reeks of cat and dog, so she is still fighting allergies today, but it was worth it.

Oh!! And yesterday, I got a letter from Selene!!! I hadn't heard from her since June, and it was a pretty sad letter and she moved right after she sent it, so I couldn't write and I had no idea how she was doing. I worried that she had gone inactive and that I had lost her. So I just had to shelf it, and leave her to God to take care of. I couldn't spend time fretting, so I just trusted it to God. Well, she's still active and she's doing great! Life isn't perfect, but she is handling it and is planning on going to the temple soon!! Next week is her year mark. If she goes soon, I might get to go with her through the temple before I go home. I cried when I got her letter. All of our prayers worked.

I am just so happy right now. I feel myself still growing and I am not trunky at all. I realize that I am going home soon and I accept that, but I have a lot of work left to do in between here and there. I love what I am doing and I am busy. This is the best work ever!

Well, That's all, folks!

I love you!

 

Love,

Sister Atkin

Another Week In Heaven

Dearest Family,

 

Man, I just love being a missionary so much. I love what I am doing. The work is truly being hastened and it is amazing to be a part of it!

First of all, Sister Aldous is so amazing. I just love her! She is a great missionary and will do great things out here. She pushes me to be better and allows me to push her to be better. We work very well together.

We were able to reconnect with two of our investigators this week, so we now are working with three awesome part member families. They might be longer term projects, but we love them so much and I just know that all of them will be baptized at some point. They all want it, we just have a few hurdles to overcome beforehand.

First is Kylee. She really wants this. She works on Sundays, though, and knows that she wants to be rid of her bad habits of smoking and coffee before she joins. It is just going to be hard, and she doesn't feel ready to make that inevitable battle. I really enjoy teaching her.

Then there is Toni, who avoided us for a bit, but loved the Plan of Salvation when we were able to teach her. She just has to be willing to act when we aren't there. She wants to be baptized, but doesn't keep appointments, read, or come to church. We're working on that.

Then there is Cece. She wants it. Her husband tells us that she doesn't, but she stood up for herself and us when we were last over there. She has started coming to church activities by herself. (He's an active member. Long story) I love her so much! If she wasn't married to him, she could be baptized in a week. But the church doesn't encourage breaking up families, so we will figure this out...

Also, at the Visitors' Center this week we took a group of nonmembers through that were great. Well, kinda. So here's the story. One (not a member) of them had been through the center before with a member friend and loved it. So she brough back her whole family from Lincoln, Nebraska to show them the Visitors' Center and visit other sights in Kansas City. She told them excitedly about the history part and God's Plan for His Family. It was great! We started taking them through and she was eating it up. The problem was that her neice (10 years old?) was less excited. She constantly was complaining about being bored, asking questions, touching everything, and being flat out rude. She didn't listen or allow anyone else to listen. It was so frustrating. But we pushed through and invited them to have missionaries at the end. Before the excited one could say anything, her sister (the kid's mom) said no. So the excited one didn't say anything. rats!

So we took them upstairs to show them a few more things and while the annoying girl and her mom were in the bathroom, we talked to the excited one, and managed to give everyone in the group a copy of the Book of Mormon, and got her phone number so that we can call her next week, and hopefully convince her to allow missionaries to come over later. I love it when nonmembers love the church so much that they do missionary work! It was so great.

Wow. I don't even know how to tell you about everything and how I am feeling. I just love being here so much. I am just pretending I am never going home. When people ask me how long I have been out I say "Oh, Over a year." I always laughed at missionaries that did that, but now I totally understand. The other day someone asked, and Sister Aldous said, "Oh, she's been out 18 months." Aaah! Not true! She now knows not to say that. But really, she's great. Sometimes I feel selfish with how happy I am with her.

There are a lot of changes happening in our mission right now. That is probably true all around the world, but it is fun to see it here. Today President Keyes called me with a new puzzle to solve, and he said, "Sister Atkin, right now you have the most knowledge and experience in the mission on this. Pretty soon all of that knowledge and experience is going home. So I need you to figure this out for me." I don't even know if he realizes how much it means for me to to hear him say that. I actually had a rough day yesterday. Sometimes Satan just works on us hard. He was trying to convince me that I haven't made a difference in this ward because we haven't baptized (except Sandy, but she would have happened anyway). But Sister Aldous continues to build me up, and President Keyes never says too much, but he says enough to help me feel appreciated, loved, and important, while still staying humble. I love him. I have made a difference here. I started this area, and I have built the foundation so that the work can continue to grow here. I just need to remember that. And it isn't about me anyway.

I wish I had more to say, but just know that I love you. I know that this work is true! This is the Lord's Kingdom on earth, and He wants everyone to have a chance to be a part of it. I love this work!

I love you!

Have a great week!

 

Love,

Sister Atkin

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