December 17, 2012

Dear Family,

Guess what? This week I met a nice Jehovah's Witness lady while we were tracting... Did you catch that? A nice Jehovah's Witness. Elder Richards and I were tracting on Saturday and we knocked her door up in Carl Junction. We introduced ourselves and told her that we were out spreading a little Christmas joy in her neighborhood. She informed us that she was a Jehovah's Witness, but that she respected what we did and was very cordial about it. We had a very intelligent conversation about our religions and some of the differences and similarities that we have. I was so impressed by how respectful she was that I just had to ask her why some JW's were so hostile toward us. She said that they weren't taught to be mean to Mormons at church and she didn't really know why. We came to the conclusion that maybe it was because of the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith. As we left her house we wished her a Merry Christmas, then laughed as we realized that they don't celebrate Christmas. Good thing her door was closed...

I've come to realize that whenever we ask for respect for our beliefs, we should be just as quick to love and understand those of other faiths. I'll admit that I still don't know a lot about other religions and that I often make jokes about "gettin' saved." I'm not going to be perfect, and I still think that the performance of being saved is ridiculous, but it's opened my eyes to the way people think. Jehovah's Witnesses are good people who are trying to get to heaven too! (too bad only 144,000 of them will make it) I just wish we could reach a better understanding so that they don't act so weird around us.

Anyway. Elder Nordine got shipped off to Willard on Thursday and now I'm with Elder Richards. We've already hit it off quite nicely :) He replaced me in Springdale, so it was nice to get an update on the area that I was raised in. Sadly, none of the investigators I taught made it to baptism - including Betty (my first BoM placed), Dawn, Haydee, and such. Elder Richards is from Ririe, Idaho (near Rexburg, Rigby, and Idaho Falls) and he's been out just as long as April has. He actually remembered April from the MTC because he was in the neighboring district (same as Elder Ivie). He played football and wrestling in high school and he has 2 older sisters and a younger brother. He's considerably shorter than me, but that's not a problem. Honestly, I was excited to get a new companion. I loved Elder Nordine, but we needed something new because we were too good of friends. I was about ready to rip off his head. We spent the last 3 days together saying goodbye to his favorite people, which is one of my BIGGEST pet peeves. Not to sound like Mr. Perfect, but I hate wasting time saying goodbye to people. If I really loved them enough, I'll come back and visit them someday. I'm sure they'd understand.

So when I got Elder Richards on Thursday, we hit the streets hard right away. We prayerfully selected streets in Carl Junction to tract (similar to that other experience I shared a while back) and did our best to spread the Christmas joy. On each street we picked, we gave away a Book of Mormon to someone who said they'd read it and pray about it. Heavenly Father is still 100% for every time we do this. Now I know to never pick a street at random without praying first. I've had way too much success to do otherwise. We always find somebody. Now I've been praying to find that person who's ready to get baptized. Recently I've felt so strongly that there is someone in our area ready to be baptized that I just haven't found yet. We've been fasting and praying to find that person. It's only a matter of time now.

Erin and Ruben are still doing well. They came to the ward Christmas party on Saturday and had a great time. They're starting to feel really comfortable with the church. The only problem is that we're not sure if they're going to reach the 29th for baptism because we're having a hard time teaching them. They've been really busy. When we do see them, they get really distracted and it's hard to teach principles. Yesterday I had to cool off in the car after our lesson because I tried to start teaching the Plan of Salvation like 5 times and they got distracted after 5 seconds each time. We'll try teaching in a different way next time. Dawn and Jason are doing well, but we received a very discouraging text from Dawn a few days ago. They moved! And even worse? It's in Joplin 2nd ward. They are so close to us, and yet they aren't in our area so we won't be teaching them. I'm so tired of giving Joplin 2nd our investigators, referrals, less-actives, and favorite members! Our investigators are dwindling away one by one... But at least Elder Richards likes to tract. Elder Nordine didn't like to tract and so I had to drag him along. Now I got a tracting machine. We'll be finding a lot more investigators soon enough.

Honestly, I'm so happy to still be in Joplin. Whether I'm here for only 6 weeks or even longer, I'm excited to still work in this decrepit little city. A man named Tony put it best when he said, "It's the crotch of America. Everything just kind of sinks into this area (sinking motion with his hands)." I always feel good when members come up and say, "Elder Atkin, I'm so glad you're still around." Besides the many reasons for wanting to stay here, I really want to help this man named Bro. Everett get to the temple. We started teaching him recently after Bro. Green gave us his baptismal program from 2008 and his address. Bro. Everett was active for about a year after his baptism but then returned to his old ways. When we found him, he was at an extreme low and very depressed. Since then (2 weeks ago), he's come to the Christmas party and to church yesterday. And he loved it! We're slowly helping him find his faith again and help him gain friends in the church. I love Brother Everett. He reminds me of Mr. Kruger from the movie :)

Well, have a great week and be safe. Spread some Christmas joy!!!!

Love, Elder Atkin

December 10, 2012

Dear Family,

What a great week! Heavenly Father continues to bless us with a measure of success despite my imperfections. I feel so weak and so mediocre at times, but yet He trusts me enough to watch over His little flock here in Joplin, Missouri. And guess what? That will continue for at least another 6 weeks! We received transfer calls on Saturday night and Elder Nordine is getting shipped off to Willard, Missouri. Can you believe that I'm still here in Joplin? We're thinking that the Lord is keeping me here because there must be something I haven't quite gotten right yet. Haha I still have so much to learn!

 

Saturday was definitely a rough day. Elder Nordine and I have been together for 3 transfers and we just weren't quite ready to be done with each other. The whole day I could just feel the weight of the pending call that would come that night. We were in a sort of funk, I guess. I thought for sure that I was leaving and I was bracing myself for the inevitable. We visited a few people, including Kim and Bri (who are doing just great ever since their baptism. They can't wait for the ward Christmas party). We had dinner with Bro. Groesbeck at Moe's (comparable to Cafe Rio or Costa Vida. Delish!) and then headed out to Galena afterward to see Dawn and Jason. Right as we arrived at their apartment, they informed us that they were at the hospital in Pittsburg and couldn't meet with us. Great, a wasted trip to Galena. At least that's what I thought.

 

As we got back into Bro. Groesbeck's Audi (he's a wealthy businessman), he started driving into the heart of Galena. My surprise was soon answered as he said that he felt there were some streets that we needed to tract out sometime that he wanted to show to us. We soon pulled up to a house and he looked at me and said, "I feel that we need to knock on this house." I looked towards the house and instantly smiled. It was the McDonalds - an active family in the ward. Assuming that Bro. Groesbeck was playing a joke on us, I agreed and headed toward the front door. I tried to hide my laughter. Is he serious? We knocked a couple of times with no answer. I finally turned to Elder Nordine and Bro. Groesbeck. "Well, maybe y'all should try by another time. I feel strongly about this." It was then that I realized he had no idea who lived there. I then told him that it was the McDonalds. He was like, "Are you kidding me??" We had a good laugh about that one. I was so surprised that out of all of the doors in Galena, he knocked on one of the only members' doors. As we got back into the car, Bro. Groesbeck turned to us and said, "Elders, while that was pretty funny, I do feel like we were led to this street and that you need to find someone here. The Spirit is stronger on this street because there are members of the church. Someone is being prepared for you right here." I then realized that Bro. Groesbeck really was inspired. It was no coincidence that we knocked on the McDonald's door and there's no denying the promptings that Bro. Groesbeck felt. You can bet a million bucks that we're going back to that street in Galena. Someone needs the gospel :)

 

We then drove back to his house in Joplin where our car was. We sat inside for just a few minutes and chatted with him and his wife before we went home. Right as we were about to leave, Bro. Groesbeck asked us if he could play something on his guitar for us. We both said yes and then he went upstairs. As he was tuning his guitar, we chatted a little bit more with Sis. Groesbeck (who is adorable, by the way. She reminds me of you, Mom). Then Bro. Groesbeck started to play. I was instantly surprised to hear both a good singing voice and excellent guitar playing. I had no idea! Here's the dean of the business college at MSSU who doesn't seem to have an ounce of musical skill just strumming like a pro. And I mean PRO. He played 2 songs for us that he wrote himself. They both were very mellow songs that talked about holding Christ's hand and loving your brother. As I sat there on the couch, I felt such a peace in my heart. I had been so worried about transfer calls, so worried about our investigators (they all have so many problems, it's frightening), and so worried about myself. Here I'm supposed to be feeling the joy of Christmas, yet I'm all wound up about stuff. I know this might sound really cheesy, but Bro. Groesbeck's simple tunes calmed me right on down. That's the power of music! Sometimes music will speak to us more clear than any words could. Mom, I'm sure that you can understand how I feel, having gone to that concert in the conference center.

 

So anyways. Basically I was fine for the rest of the night. We got the transfer calls and I found out that I would be getting Elder Richards. I know nothing about him except that he replaced me in Springdale way back in the day. Elder Nordine is super bummed to have to move a little over a month before the end of his mission, but he'll get over it. Most of all we're just sad that we're not companions anymore. Who knew that I could be such good pals with a theater nerd from Vegas?? Oh well, that's the power of the gospel.

 

Ruben and Erin are doing good..... Kinda. Spiritually? Great! Temporally? Not so good. They are behind on bills, Ruben might have to head out on the road for Christmas to earn money, and they have the constant drama of false charges to deal with (long story). They good news is that many friends and aquaintances are on their side with the court cases and such, including the social workers and foster parents that are taking care of their son, Joey. Both Ruben and Erin came to church yesterday and LOVED it. They both know it's true, and Erin loves the power of the priesthood. She called us at 6:31 this morning because she wanted a blessing to help her get the week started right. They have a big court date on the 14th looming, so she's trying to not have a breakdown. Add on top of that the Word of Wisdom, which takes away her precious coffee and we have a major meltdown just waiting to happen :) Ruben has expressed that he still wants to get baptized on the 29th if things pan out the way they want to. And Erin has accepted the invitation to be baptized if we can't locate her records in the church's database. All of us know that a miracle can and will happen if Ruben and Erin are faithful, and Erin was promised in a previous blessing that Joey would be home for Christmas if they trust the Lord and follow him. Gosh, I would do anything to help Erin and Ruben stay strong and put the gospel first. Lots of prayers...

 

This week I also got to go caroling with all of the zone leaders in Tulsa in the neighborhood of the mission home. We got one lady to cry :) And guess who else is surprisingly musically talented? President Shumway - also a businessman. It was a blast! We had one house where the people looked at us out their windows like we were crazy and walked away. Awkward. Elder Nordine and I also went caroling with the youth in our ward on Wednesday and we handed out a few "Joy to the World" DVDs. Just spreadin' the Christmas joy like champs, that's all.

 

Well, if I had more time I'd tell you about the frozen fish that I gave Elder Staley as a white elephant gift, the lesson we had with a less active member who reminds me of Mr. Kruger on the movie, teaching Dawn and Jason about God and who he is, and much more. Things are going well here and I feel happy today. What a blessing.

Love, Elder Atkin

December 3, 2012

Dear Family,

Before I totally forget, I thought I'd share a cool link with y'all that you might enjoy. I was looking on the church's websites before I started this email and found this: http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/two-churches-forge-bond-after-devastating-storm. The article is about the friendship between the Joplin wards and the local Community of Christ (RLDS) since the tornado in May last year. You'll have to read the article to understand all that has gone on, but the coolest part is that I've totally been a part of this! The first few pictures are of members of our church painting the chapel and font of the Community of Christ church here in Joplin. I was there! I'm super bummed that they don't have a picture of me in my service clothes, painting like a champ. Either way it's been awesome to gain such great relationships with members of the Community of Christ church. We call each other cousins all the time :) Last night our church invited a lot of our "cousins" to come and watch the First Presidency Christmas devotional with us (so yeah, I did get a chance to watch it Mom. I loved it!). Afterward there were some refreshments in the gym and I was able to chat with a few of the nicest people. There's this one guy named Ben Peterson who I talked to. He's 80 years young and still going strong. He told me about his experience with the tornado and how blessed he is. Funniest part? He used to be very anti-Mormon when he was younger. Now he's a member of the RLDS church. Figure that one out for me...

This week has really gotten me into the Christmas spirit. We had zone conference on Wednesday and President Shumway introduced us to the church's new Christmas campaign. If you haven't already heard about it, the top story at mormonnewsroom.org talks about it or you can just look up mormon.org/christmas. Basically our church is spending millions of dollars on spreading Christmas joy. Sounds good to me! Our job is to talk to as many people as we can about this website and to spread the message of hope that comes through Christ. At zone conference we practiced door approaches/lessons that were specifically tailored to the Christmas message. President Shumway also wants us to share this with members so that they can in turn spread it themselves. Elder Nordine and I have already had some fun talking about the meaning of Christmas with members at dinners. I've decided that I'm going to make this the best Christmas I've ever experienced.

Yesterday was quite the crazy day. As we showed up before sacrament meeting, everyone was frantically talking about the church being vandalized the night before. Sure enough, we walked passed everybody to the south-side doors on the church. One of the doors had been smashed with a huge rock! Come to find out, the police called President Jones late last night after they discovered the smashed door while driving around. I'm sure there's a lot more to the story, but everyone thinks that somebody just doesn't like us. Probably some dumb kid whose parents hate Mormons. How immature.

To add to the excitement to the day, the new Joplin YSA branch had it's first sacrament meeting since being organized recently. There were about 40 to 50 people in attendance, and Elder Nordine and I are going to cover the branch until further notice. It was cool to hear from the Stake Presidency as they talked about how historical this day truly was. I guess the Joplin stake has been talking about creating a singles branch for years now. President Jones talked about how he thinks this will help the youth stay active in their transition into married life. What a blessing!

This week we were able to set a baptismal date with Ruben for the 29th of December. What's cool about it is that Ruben asked Bro. Wilstead (his friend in the church) to baptize him. Bro. Wilstead happily accepted and told Ruben that he'd be his first-ever baptism. Just like me! It's been neat to see the Lord bless Ruben and Erin as they have met with us through the past few weeks. I'm a firm believer that if somebody puts the gospel first in their lives, the Lord will take care of everything. And boy has he ever. Ruben got a random bonus at work, somehow their mortgage is paid off for two months, and many other cool things have happened recently - all since Bro. Borup gave Erin a priesthood blessing on Monday. Now our biggest hold up is the Word of Wisdom. Ruben smokes and Erin drinks coffee like it's nobody's business. We warned Ruben on Friday that now that he's set a date for baptism, the adversary is going to try extra hard to bring them both down. It'll be important that they keep coming to church and meeting with us.

Other than that, we taught some great lessons to new investigators in Galena and in Carl Junction. The one's in Carl Junction are students at Ozark Christian College and are training to become ministers and such. If we had time, I'd tell you about our first lesson on Thursday. Just know that I was so nervous going into it because I thought that they were going to tear us apart. OCC is extremely anti-Mormon and I am sure that they have been trained on how to talk to Mormon missionaries. Luckily, they were very nice and asked really good questions, but I have a feeling that it was because we had a member with us. They've asked us to come back again, so we'll see how that goes.

Have a great week! Tell Joey hi for me when he gets back home. Have fun walking Sunny in the mornings. Keep being awesome :)

Love, Elder Atkin

P.S. Here's a picture of me and our Christmas tree that a member donated to us (sorry I'm such a goof!). We didn't have any ornaments so we found random pictures, a tie, some candy canes, a little Joplin flag, a ping pong ball, and a picture of Christ to put on top. We're still looking for someone in the ward that might have extra Christmas lights we can use. Fun times as a missionary!

November 26, 2012 - Thanksgiving

Dear Family,

Do you know what I'm thankful for? Members who feed us copious amounts of food during the holidays! Since Thursday, our fridge has been packed with Thanksgiving leftovers and all sorts of goodies. You may laugh at this, but I really am seriously thankful for this. Knowing that we have good food to come home to is a big deal for us. And it sure saves me a lot of money. This week was just a really fun time to spend with members and non-members alike. Elder Nordine and I are really becoming good friends with a lot of people in the ward.

But even more than turkey, stuffing, and mashed potatoes, I am grateful for baptisms! Saturday was such a special day for both Kim and Bri as well as I. It's been a long time coming for their family, and I'm happy to say that everything went so well. Beforehand, I was super nervous and worried that not very many people would show up, but we ended up having a good turnout. You see, Kim and Bri still don't know very many people in the ward, so we had trouble finding people to come to the baptism. But after a lot of prayers and many phone calls, we were able to get the relief society president, Bishop, and a few other members there. When it came time for me to baptize them, only Bri had to be immersed more than once. Not that it's a bad thing, because that's why we have witnesses, but I just think it's funny that none of the baptisms I've been a part of have gone perfectly. A toe or a knee or something always comes up or something similar. In Bri's case the water was just a little bit too shallow so I had to really push her down under causing her knee to come up. But as she came out of the water, she slipped and fell back in (or in other words, I dropped her). Bri was such a champ about it, though, and she just laughed it off and let me do it again. After the program was over, she made fun of me and said that I did okay for my first baptisms. Don't worry, we're pals :)

Almost just as cool as the baptism was an experience that Kim had the day before her baptism. I've told y'all before about how Heavenly Father has been removing the obstacles in Kim and Bri's way so that they could be baptized, but there was just one more left before Saturday. Recently Kim informed us that she got a job as a bartender to help pay some bills and keep the family on their feet. She could still get baptized because she doesn't drink herself, but both Elder Nordine and I felt like it wouldn't be the best environment for her to be in. But of course a job is a job, so we told her to pray about it and look for other options. Right before the baptism, Kim told me that she had gotten fired from her job. Instinctively I offered my condolences, but secretly I was happy that she didn't have to work their anymore. But to my pleasant surprise, she told me that she had been praying and praying and praying about it and that for the week leading up to the baptism she had this battle going on inside of her. She asked God to take care of the situation for her so she could do what he wanted her to do. On Friday as she walked into work, the manager informed her that she was getting fired because she didn't drink with everyone else. Instead of being sad about it, Kim was instantly happy because she knew that Heavenly Father had taken care of it for her and that she didn't have to feel worried anymore. Isn't that awesome??

So life is good right now. It's always hard to teach a lot of lessons during the week of Thanksgiving and other holidays, but we still taught some good lessons. Our next investigator that's closest to baptism is Ruben, and he's now come to church two weeks in a row now. His wife, who's a member, came to church with him yesterday for the first time since she was 10 years old. To make a long story short, her family quit going to church when she was 10, but ever since she's felt this pull to come back to the Mormon church. For over 30 years now she's gone to church after church with Ruben, but has always felt that something's missing. Just recently, they met some members of the church who referred us to them. They've been going through a lot of rough things lately, including false abuse charges against Erin (Ruben's wife) that has caused their adopted son to be put in a foster home. Gosh, it's just absolutely devastating. But the cool part is that they recognize that they've come in contact with us right at this time for a reason. It's no coincidence. Ruben has accepted to be baptized when he knows that it's true.

The Coxes are doing just okay right now. They still haven't quit their addictions, so we're going to have to move their baptismal date to a later time. We haven't been seeing them as much lately, which concerns me, but I think they'll be okay. They're just very busy and they're having a hard time acting on their faith. They know that God can help them quit tobacco, but at the same time they don't. You know what I'm saying? It's just tough to help somebody realize that. Hopefully we'll see them tomorrow.

I'm out of time, but there's so many other miracles I wanted to share with you! Well, I guess I'll have to write 'em in my journal for a later time. Thanks for the advice, Mom :) Y'all take care now, ya hear?

Love, Elder Atkin

P.S. Here's a picture of Elder Nordine and I with Kim, Bri, and Levi (Bri's son) right before the baptism.

November 19, 2012 - A letter to my family!

Dear Family,

Today is a good day! Besides the fact that Elder Nordine is sick as a dog, it's been a fun preparation day so far. Our district just got done hiking a couple of hours ago. Hiking is nowhere near as awesome here as it is in Utah and such, but there are a few cool places out here in the hills of the Ozarks. Today we packed up some lunches and hiked the trail to (excuse me for this title, but I wasn't the one to make it up) "Mother Nature's Butt Crack." Overlooking a river just south of Joplin is a series of cliffs with a trail running along the edge. It's about a 50 foot drop, but nothing too scary. After about a mile of hiking is a crack that dives right into the cliff that people can climb down to the bottom of the cliffs through. It's pretty cool! Elder Nordine stayed at the Joplin 2nd elders' apartment with Elder Holmes during all of this. Poor guy :( He got some kind of food poisoning last night and has been puking non-stop ever since. I actually had a horrible night trying to sleep because of how loud his ralphing was. Ugh! But I have no room to complain. At least I'm not sick.

Mom, that's pretty cool that you got to teach the 10 and 11 year-old age group about Moroni. I might've already mentioned this to y'all before, but Moroni is one of my favorite Book of Mormon characters. Well, I have a lot of favorite Book of Mormon characters, but Moroni really does have a special place in my heart. One of the most heart-wrenching scriptures is found in the book of Mormon (within the Book of Mormon haha), in which Moroni writes about his father's death. If I remember correctly, Moroni mentions 3 or 4 times that he doesn't know what he's going to do or where he's going go, but "it mattereth not." He sounds so sad! Imagine being in his place, being hunted by Lamanites, being absolutely alone, and yet writing some of his father's words and including his own powerful testimony. Despite such dreary circumstances, Moroni was able to teach us some priceless doctrines, including some of his final words on how one could come to know that the Book of Mormon is true. What a man!

I've discovered that quite often I am very hard on myself as a missionary. I look at some of my weaknesses and the problems in our area and such and I let them really get me down. I know it's the adversary, but I still let it happen. I think it's because I want (and have wanted for the past 16 months) my mission to change me. Pre-mission Elder Atkin didn't know much about missionary life, but I at least knew that this type of experience could really direct my life for the better. I get so frustrated when I feel like I'm not learning or progressing. It makes me sick! But lately as I've read the Book of Mormon again, it's really brought comfort to me. Reading the stories of Alma and the sons of Mosiah make my problems seem very small. Heck, Moroni makes me look like a wimp. It feels good to be able to say that at least I know that the Book of Mormon has become a huge part of my life. I just feel so good whenever I read it. Honestly, I don't know if I could have said that before my mission. It's funny - I know that the Book of Mormon brings me comfort, but I still struggle to help other people feel those same feelings. I'm working on it :) By the way Dad, those scriptures you sent me this past week in Moroni 8,9, and 10 were just what I needed. How did you know?? Gosh, my parents must be in-tune with the Spirit or somethin'...

Speaking of the Spirit: Elder Nordine and I have been working on relying on the Holy Ghost more in our missionary work lately. We were really inspired in our latest ZLC and in a recent dinner appointment with our new ward mission leader to do this. We both agree that we've learned that the Lord really can lead us to his children through the Spirit, if we just listen. You know those stories you always hear about missionaries being led to a door where somebody just got done praying and they want to be baptized? Well, I certainly have always lacked the faith for those sort of things to happen. But with these recent meetings we've had, I've felt something stir within me (okay that sounded cheesy). The question came to my mind, "Why not, Elder Atkin?" I realized that Heavenly Father isn't trying to make it hard for us to find the prepared ones. It's not some kind of game. Don't you think he wants us to find those who are ready?!

So Elder Nordine and I decided to put it to the test. On Friday we had a wide open day and we decided to tract. But this wasn't going to be any ordinary tracting day, this was going to be a Spiritually-guided tracting experience. That day we probably prayed 100 times. We asked the Lord to lead us to what streets he wanted us to knock doors on. We then narrowed it down by picking 15 streets at random on a map. Then between the two of us, we individually picked 5 streets and then showed each other. If there were any matches, we'd knock those streets. The results? 1 street in Joplin, and 2 in Carl Junction. The whole day I was trying not to doubt and to have the faith that the Lord would lead us. To make a long story short, a miracle happened. We didn't have wild success of any kind, we didn't dunk thousands of people in the water, etc. On each of the 3 streets we found one person who was interested and that we were able to teach and give a BoM to. 3 streets, 3 people, 3 lessons, 3 BoMs. Now that may sound small to you, but it was huge for me. Heavenly Father is currently 3 for 3 in our new method of finding. That's 100% :) So that's where were at right now. I expect more miracles to happen this week.

Yesterday was a really good Sunday. It was the primary program, so you can only imagine how happy I was during Sacrament Meeting :) I'm pretty sure that we spent the whole meeting laughing our guts out. The Stills made it again and they are totally ready for their baptism this Saturday. I'm so excited!! In our last lesson with them, Kim informed me that both she and Bri want me to baptize them. I about burst into tears right then and there because I haven't baptized anyone on my mission yet. I keep telling elders that I feel like it's not my place, but I think that I secretly wanted to do it so bad. It's been a long time coming. Hopefully I can recite the baptismal prayer without crying like a baby haha! Man, it just feels so good. I know that Kim and Bri's lives are going to change forever on Saturday.

Sadly, the Coxes didn't make it to church for the 3rd time in a row. We're thinking it's because they didn't quit their addictions like we had planned on Saturday, and that they're ashamed to tell us. We'll just have to show 'em some love. I think that you putting their names in the temple will really help, Mom. Thanks. We might talk to them about the addiction recovery manual/class that's held in Carthage (ehem, Annie get off my back. Just kiddin'). We'll have to reset their date for a week or two later, but it will be a good thing. I felt like it was a little rushed.

Well, I'm out of time! Golly, there was so much more I wanted to tell you about. I guess that's what a journal is for, eh? Which reminds me that I need to be better at doing that... Have a great week! Wish us luck in our finding adventures!

Love, Elder Atkin

November 12, 2012 - Cold!

Dear Family,

Whew! What a busy week! It seems like Elder Nordine and I just haven't been able to catch a break. I'm so tired nowadays. It seems like I'm always in need of a good nap. You'd think that today would be a good day to catch up on rest, but it hasn't been. We had a zone activity where we played flour ball (you throw nylons filled with flour at each other) for a few hours. But it was really a lot of fun, so I can't complain. Haha the weird things that us missionaries do to entertain ourselves :)

This week was actually a really good week. We taught double-digit lessons, picked up a new part-member family named the Hernandezes (super prepared!), and we were able to get Kim and Bri to church after a few weeks of absence. They really enjoyed church, despite the fact that Kim's been really struggling lately because of the rough things that they've been going through. The good news is that their testimonies are just as strong as ever, but it's just hard to see them both really sad and down, especially in church when everyone else is so happy :( Sometimes I just wish I could make everything better for my investigators! I just wish I could take their pains and trials away. But I know that they're being tested for a reason. It's really making them stronger, even if they don't quite realize it yet. I just hope that we can make it to the 24th okay. Yesterday I promised Kim that her baptism would be a very fulfilling experience that would help lighten the burdens that she is currently bearing. I felt like I was inspired in the comforting words that I said, but I really really hope that I'm right. It's just that I know that baptism and confirmation can do that for people. It's not just a fun little experience where people feel the Spirit. It's an opportunity to know of God's love, be cleansed of sin, and to feel the atonement of Jesus Christ. I can't wait! It's about time.

The Coxes are still doing pretty well, but we're now entering crunch time before their baptisms on the 1st of December. They still haven't kicked their addictions to smoking and chewing tobacco, so we're praying for a miracle to happen. They want to quit so bad, but the temptation is so great at times. I was a little bit frustrated this week because last week Will promised that his current can of chew would be his last, but it didn't end up happening. We showed up for a lesson earlier this week and I found out from Vicki that he went and bought more. I was really depressed that night, but surprisingly since then I've felt an assurance and hope that things would work out. Both of them know that this Saturday is the day that they need to be tobacco-free by. They good thing is that the Coxes really trust us, so it's not awkward when we ask them about their addictions and see how their doing. In the past, I was a little worried that we were too good of friends with them (we really are like best friends. Will and I are going to go extreme cat-fishing after my mission with you, Dad. It'll be the 3 Wills Hahaha!), but recently it's really helped because the Coxes trust us and know that we'll help them in any way we can. Once again, I can't wait for this family to get baptized :)

Funny story of the week: So on Monday morning before we went to ZLC last week, Elder Nordine came to me and asked if I could trim up his hair a little bit. You see, I happen to have some hair clippers of my own that I inherited from the apartment in Springdale at the beginning of my mission. I've actually gotten really good at giving myself haircuts, which saves me a lot of money. Sometimes other elders will ask me for a haircut, which I gladly give them. But I admit that sometimes I don't give the best haircuts. Such was the case this last Monday :) Elder Nordine didn't really want a full-on haircut, but he did want me to shave off the scraggly hairs on the back of his neck. It would only take a few seconds, so I agreed and we went into his bathroom. I asked him how high up on his neck he wanted me to shave and he showed me by marking it with his finger. I then grabbed the razor, cut straight into his hair, and shaved downward. No problem.

Later that day, we traveled to Tulsa for our ZLC meetings. As we were sitting in the mission home waiting for dinner to start, I couldn't help but look over at my companion as he talked to other missionaries. I immediately almost died of laughter. Elder Nordine looked so ridiculous! I had done exactly what he asked me to do, but his hair looked absolutely horrible. Imagine an L-shape on the back of his head because I shaved directly into the back and then down. It's kinda hard to explain, but either way it looked ridiculous. To make a long story short, Elder Nordine was super mad at me (kinda) and he's still in need of a haircut. On Wednesday at our zone training meeting, I pointed it out to our zone and he punched me in the face! He was planning on just a little tap to the cheek, but I accidentally leaned into the punch and he made full contact. He was super embarrassed, but I only laughed and so did the whole zone. The zone's joke now is that if you do anything wrong at all, Nordine will punch you in the face in front of the zone. Good times :)

Well, I'm already out of time, but I love you! Have a great week!

Love, Elder Atkin

November 5, 2012

Dear Family,

You know what I was thinking about recently? Only a few years ago, our little family was all together in Cache Valley, UT. Now we are all so far apart. Annie and Neal are in North Carolina, April and I are in Missouri, Rachel's been in Provo, Amy and Marc have been all over the place in Utah... When I thought about all this, naturally I was a little sad about the distance between us all, but at the same time it is pretty cool. The Atkin family is spreading abroad! Our amazingly awesome influence is being felt across the world :) And yet, I feel very close to everyone at times. I think that it's not only because we love each other so much, but because we all share something beautiful in common: our testimonies of the Gospel. I asked Elder Nordine the other day, "What did I do to deserve to be born in the covenant into an amazing family that is all active in the church?" There are answers to this question, but I still wonder. Out of billions of people in the world, I got to be an Atkin! Wow...

So how is everyone doing? I know I'm not always the best at writing emails and letters, but it should be obvious (based on the first paragraph) that I think about y'all often. I blame it on the mission. Not due to homesickness, but because of the the experiences that I've been a part of. For example, I've been in situations where I think to myself, "What would ______ do right now?" (insert your name in the blank) All of you are so much more patient, loving, friendly, etc. than me! Patience is actually something that I've been struggling with lately. As mentioned last week, it just seems like Satan has been working extra hard lately. Not only on our investigators, but on myself. I've been really snappy, easily angered, and kind of mean. It makes me sick just thinking about it. Luckily I'm companions with a very fun-loving and patient elder, but I really want to improve. I should always be happy, but that hasn't always been the case lately. Today we're going to ZLC in Tulsa, so I'm hoping that President Shumway shares some things that will give me a good spiritual kick in the pants. Any suggestions on how to help me become more kind and patient? I really need it.

This week was a somewhat rough week. We taught some really good lessons to the Coxes and the Sands, but our efforts didn't really show number-wise. We had about 6 or 7 appointments cancel throughout the week, which is always frustrating. Nobody showed up at church :( On Thursday we had a lesson with Ashley in which she stormed out. We were meeting with her in the first place because she came to church last week. As we started the lesson, the Spirit was obviously not there and it was really awkward the whole time. She wasn't really paying attention very much so I interrupted Elder Nordine's thought and asked her what we could do for her. She started crying and said something about her family's recent troubles. We tried to comfort her and we talked a little bit about the Holy Ghost and it's purpose. That's when she stood up and exclaimed, "Just because I'm going through a hard time doesn't mean I don't have the Spirit!" She grabbed her daughter's arm and ran out of the room, leaving Elder Nordine and I with shocked looks on our faces. We drove home in silence. Oh well, another week with Ashley :)

The Stills (Bri included) are especially going through a tough time right now. Branden ran away from home and walked all the way to his dad's place in Carthage. They didn't make it to church yesterday because they just have had too much to deal with lately. Last night we went over and gave them each priesthood blessings to help them have the strength to keep going. It's just been one thing after another. The good news is that this morning Kim sent us a text, telling us that the blessing helped her out tremendously and that she knows that God is there. It was truly an answer to many prayers.

So, yeah. A lot of junk has happened recently, but things are still going well in our area. We still have the Stills and the Coxes set for baptism, so that's encouraging. The Coxes didn't make it to church, but they are definitely progressing. The youth helped us with a service project on Saturday putting up the roofing on their house. It's been fun to see the Coxes meet more and more people in the church and receive the fellowship that they need.

Well, I've got to get going, but it's sure good to hear from y'all. I'm doing pretty good nowadays, but I want to be better. Pray that your son will have the strength and courage to do some tracting and street contacting this week. We need more new investigators and I've been kind of a wimp lately. I'll admit that it's been a while since we've gone finding. Time to man up!

Love, Elder Atkin
P.S. Here's a picture  it's of Elder Nordine and I in our Halloween costumes acting like goofs in the car. Yeah, we're weird :)

October 29, 2012 - Crazy times

Dear Family,

Guess what?? I didn't get transferred!! Surprise, surprise! I thought for sure that I was out of here. Elder Nordine and I have already been together two transfers and it's not too common for missionaries to serve together for 3. Y'all have no idea how happy I am right now :) Elder Nordine and I are best buds and we have a lot of awesome things going on right now in our area. We have 5 baptisms lined up for the end of this month and we have a couple more that I could see us setting in the next couple of weeks. We also picked up 3 new investigators last night. The work is exploding!

When we got our transfer calls on Saturday, I actually had kind of a neat experience. Within the last couple of weeks, I'll admit that I've been praying really hard that I would get to stay here one more transfer. In each of my prayers, I'd thank Heavenly Father for how long he's kept me in Joplin, but then plead for him to keep me here so I could be with Elder Nordine, see the Coxes and the Stills get baptized, etc. Looking back, I can't help but laugh at my logic. But hey, I would always tell Him that I would go where he wants me and that it's all up to his will. I wanted to stay so bad for such selfish reasons! When Saturday rolled around, I was so nervous the whole day that I could barely work. We met with the Coxes and saw a few other people, but that didn't help because I realized how much I love them. At 9:00, we received a call from the assistants and they told us where everyone in the zone was going. When Elder Treasure went through everyone except for Elder Nordine and I, I sheepishly asked, "Is that it?? Are you done??" Elder Treasure replied in the affirmative. I hung up the phone and shouted for joy. 6 more weeks! That night as I was saying my prayers, I thanked the Lord for answering my prayers. Despite my selfish reasons for wanting to stay, the Lord saw it fit that I stay in Joplin for a little longer. It meant so much to me that he would answer my prayers. I figure that I'll know why in the future. But it sure does give me motivation to work my hardest these next 6 weeks! Not that I haven't been, but I'm going to raise the bar even further. Now if only Heavenly Father could grant my plea to train someday....

This week actually went quite well. Ashley is back on the radar again (surprise) because she decided to randomly show up at church yesterday. Afterward, she told us that she really enjoyed it and that she wanted to meet with us on Thursday. Hooray! What really made me the most happy was after Gospel Principles class, I pulled her aside real quick and apologized. I had been so worried that I had offended her last week over the phone, so I told her that I was sorry if I said anything mean. She assured me that I didn't do anything wrong and that she was just unhappy because of her family situations. Whew! Burden lifted.

The Coxes also made it to church yesterday after us seeing them every other day this week. This was the first time they've attended church and they both really liked it. Will (yeah, he has the same name as you and I, Dad. Will-power!) admitted that he felt a little "lost" in the crowd of people, but last night we assured him that things would definitely improve. With all of the recent changes, everyone is running around like a bunch of chickens with their heads cut off. On Friday we were able to set a date with them for December 1st, and they're super excited about that. They're actually becoming some of my favorite people that I've met so far on my mission. They told me last night that they were so happy and releived that I was staying in Joplin for a little longer. It made me feel loved :) Elder Nordine and I have grown to love serving these people who need so much. This week alone we carpeted their home, we moved a load of stuff from a storage unit into their house, we went to Galena and picked up roofing for them... I feel like their run-down house has become my project. This coming Saturday we're going to get some of the youth to come out and help us put up the roofing.

Sadly, the Stills couldn't make it to church because of another emergency. We received a text in church from Kim, informing us that Branden had run away and it had been over 24 hours. That's 2 weeks in a row now that something crazy has prevented them from coming to church. Both Elder Nordine and I looked at each other in disbelief. The devil is working so hard on our investigators sometimes that it makes me angry. I just get so tired of his influence! He's doing everything he can to prevent people from entering the waters of baptism. That's why I'm so pumped that more missionaries are going to be coming out now. More missionaries = stronger influence for good.

On Wednesday we actually had some leaders from Salt Lake come and instruct us in the Joplin Stake center. In a way, it was similar to zone conference, but it had a totally different feel. One of the reasons why they came out here is to talk about some of the changes that are coming in the future and how we'll deal with them. If you haven't realized already, the whole face of the church's missionary effort has changed dramatically. Usually the church receives between 600 and 700 missionary applications weekly. Since General Conference, the church has received about 4,000 applications each week, if not more! President Shumway informed us that the way that affects our mission is that the total number of missionaries the OTM can handle will go from 190 to 250. That's 60 new missionaries, 30 new areas, and 60 trainers!! I'm really starting to believe it when church leaders say that the Lord is "hastening" his work. I'm witnessing it each day. I feel so blessed to be a missionary at such an exciting time! There's so much happening in the world right now that you can't help but get that feeling of urgency. I can almost feel it in the air every day.

Well, have a great week! I'm guessing that it's getting cold over there, too. I love it :) Yes, Mom. Please send me the article about the Joplin Stake Center.

"Who's on the Lord's side, who? Now is the time to show!"

Love, Elder Atkin

P.S. I'm glad to hear that Annie and Neal are safe and sound so far. Everyone's been telling me about this "storm of the century."
P.P.S. Here's some recent pictures. Sorry, the first one's kind of blurry, but it's of me carving pumpkins with the YSA here in Joplin. The second one is of me making funny faces while Elder Nordine is taking a nap last preparation day :)

October 22, 2012

Dear Family,

So how's life? How's the presidential race? With November coming up quick, more and more people are asking us questions about Romney and such. It's ALL people talk about these days! I don't even watch the news, but yet I usually get a play-by-play of the latest debate, etc. For some reason I get the feeling that this election is more important than elections in the past. Some people I've met are legitimately worried about the future of their families. It gets me all worried in return. It's sure a sign of the times. There is more increasingly good things said about the church these days. Same goes for the bad. Crazy... By the way, I know I should've brought this up like 3 months ago, but is it too late for someone like me to vote with an absentee ballot? I don't even know if I registered back home, but everyone keeps asking me about it. Just curious.

Meanwhile, in Joplin, Missouri - Elder Atkin is in his little missionary bubble. Thoughts of future life and presidential races and football are swept away by thoughts of baptismal dates and what tie he'll wear for the day. Hmmm... Today I think I'll wear my plaid, multi-colored tie that was made from imported wool from Scotland. I found it at the D.A.V. Thrift store for $1!!! D.A.V. Thrift is probably one of my favorite places on the planet. Goodwill comes in at a close 2nd, and then the Salvation Army after that. That's where I found a suit for only $6. Cha-ching!

Anyway. Most of our investigators are doing pretty good. Kim and her family weren't able to make it to church yesterday, but they're still on their way towards their baptisms on November 24th. I don't remember if I told you this already, but Dustin moved out (Kim's boyfriend), Pete moved out (Bri's boyfriend), and Cameron moved back in (Bri's husband who ran away a few months ago). It's been one crazy mess, but things are slowly falling in to place as Kim, Bri, and Brandon have decided to live the gospel. It was going to be really difficult to worry about Kim and Dustin getting married and Bri and Pete getting married, but we don't have to worry about that anymore. And since Cameron came back, he's decided that he wants to learn and get baptized. When he showed up, Bri quickly forgave him and let him back in. He decided to come back because he knew he needed to be in his two sons' lives. Both Kim and Bri have talked about how they know that they need to live the Gospel and keep the commandments, and that they couldn't do it with Dustin and Pete around. That's what can happen when people keep their commitments and read their scriptures! This family has figured out something that many investigators can't do. It's awesome :)

Sadly, Ashley is back on the downward slope again :( We met with her on Thursday and had an amazing lesson with her. She even told us that she wants to be baptized! We left the lesson on cloud 9, only to get a tearful call from her Friday morning telling us that she can't meet with us anymore. She didn't even give us a reason why. Before I could ask her anything she hung up. I was super depressed for the rest of the day. I didn't even want to go outside. I'm just so sick of getting my hopes up and then having them shattered into pieces! Ashley's dropped us like 3 times before, but this time was different. I could barely understand her because she was crying so much. We figure it's because of pressure from her family this time. Her uncle isn't the biggest fan of Mormonism. Maybe she'll call us in a few weeks. Sigh...........

On a brighter note, we had a few miracles this week. This weekend there was an open house in the new stake center for anybody and everybody to come and see what a Mormon church looks like. It was a really enjoyable three days as we were able to talk to people, give tours, and answer questions. We didn't get quite the turnout that we were hoping for, but some cool people came through. A few older couples who live nearby came in and said that they watched the building go up for the past year and couldn't wait to go inside. A lot of members brought their friends. I spent most of the time just sitting at a desk with a guest book, directing people to different places. On Saturday, during a slow period I was able to give a tour to a Methodist couple. They attend church very actively at the Methodist church in downtown Joplin, but they couldn't pass up on seeing what "candidate Romney's church" looked like. I'm sure you can guess who they were voting for :) Anyway, they both asked really good questions and planned on coming back to do genealogy in the family history center. Afterward, the wife (I wish I could remember her name) told me that she was a music teacher and that she LOVED MOTAB with all her heart. To quote her, "There's all the good choirs on this earth, and then there's the Mormon Tabernacle Choir." She enjoyed my comments and answers to her questions so much that she invited Elder Nordine and I to come to her church in the future. She's going to fire up the pipe organ for us! I'm both excited to go to her church, and to answer more of her questions. She's really, really interested. It was a miracle for me because I felt like April for a brief second. She gets to give tours all the time, but this was something new to me. And I loved it so much! There's nothing more exciting than bearing your testimony in your own church to honest, good people who are seeking Christ.

While I don't have time to write about the other miracles we saw, I do want y'all to know that I believe in a God of miracles. He's preparing people everyday to receive the Gospel. I love witnessing His work. Keep your chins up! The Lord loves you :)

Love, Elder Atkin

October 15, 2012

Dear Family,

Gee, I really don't know how to start an email these days... Umm, let's see........ the weather... Yeah, the weather!! How's the weather of there in Utah? It's sure been really nice here lately. Last week was actually kind of cold. It's fun to see the change in seasons. The trees here are starting to change colors and it's absolutely beautiful. I have a feeling that Elder Nordine and I are going to spend a lot of time raking up leaves for people. But I'm okay with that. I love doing service!

So yesterday was kind of a crazy day. It was our first day back in the new Stake Center and all of us were really excited. The meeting was planned to last 2 hours and the 2 Joplin wards would be combined. We were expecting a full house. As the meeting began, President Jones got up and began to talk about the effects of the tornado last year. He mentioned that as a result, Joplin 1st ward was "leadership rich" and that there was an imbalance of members between the two wards due to people moving out and such. At that point, I knew exactly what was coming. He then announced that the wards would be realigning boundaries. A collective gasp came from the congregation and everyone sat there with their mouths wide open. The boundary between 1st ward and 2nd ward would be changing for the first time in decades! You have to realize how big of a deal this is. There's been somewhat of a rivalry between the two wards for a very long time now. Kind of immature if you ask me. This has been a long time coming.

Well, Elder Nordine and I need to move now. Our current address is now in the 2nd ward boundaries, so we'll need to go apartment hunting in the next couple of days. It's such a bummer! I love the apartment we live in now, and I'm not excited to move all of our stuff - especially since I'll most likely get transferred in a couple of weeks. So is life. The worst part about all of this is that we lose a ton of investigators and less-actives we were working with to the 2nd ward elders. Those 5 new investigators that I mentioned last week? 3 of them are now in the other ward. Sigh....... Since yesterday, all of our plans are jumbled up. Elder Nordine and I have no idea what to do now.

We do keep some of my favorite investigators though, so it isn't that bad. We'll still be teaching Ashley and Kim and her family, as well as the Cox family (who we picked up last week). Kim and her family came to the sacrament meeting yesterday, so we were happy about that. It was the first time they attended church since I've been here. Kim has a baptismal date for the 22nd of December, and Bree and Brandon have their dates set for the 10th of November. Kim has to wait until then because that's when she'll get married to Dustin. Technically Dustin would also get baptized on the 22nd, but he hasn't fully agreed to it yet. He's still not sure about setting a date. He'll come around, though. Dustin's such an awesome guy! He's been off of smoking for over a month now. You should hear him pray. He talks to God like he would talk to a buddy of his. Disrespectful at times? Yes. Funny? Yes.

Ashley has been doing pretty good lately. She really enjoyed Conference last week, but she's been super busy with school so we haven't met in a while. Elder Nordine and I were a little sad yesterday because she didn't show up at church. We texted her and asked her why and she just responded that she didn't have a good reason. I guess sometimes people don't come just because they don't want to. At least she was honest with us. We're still trying to figure out what to do next. I'm pretty sure she's still smoking, but at least she's reading the scriptures that we send her each morning. Any ideas, family? We don't want to push her because we've come this far, but we need to take the next step. I just wish I could see her get baptized before I left Joplin. Boy would that be great!

I have to tell y'all about 2 of the 5 new investigators we picked up last week. They are so awesome! Their names are Bob and Kasey, and they were a media referral we received a long time ago. Over the past few months, I've tried by their place a few times, but they never answered. I had kind of given up on them and I wasn't really planning on going back. On Thursday we had an exchange with the assistants. Elder Treasure and I split off for the day, and we taught a couple of lessons and had a pretty effective day. But near the end of the day, we ran out of people to see. It was 8:40 and our only options were to either go in for the night, tract, or - you guessed it - try by Bob and Kasey 1 more time. I was really tempted to just go in for the night, but something told me to just try by. As we pulled up to the old double-wide trailer, I was hoping that nobody would be home. Call me a wimp, but everything about their place is creepy. But sure enough, there was a light on. I groaned as I stepped out of the car and walked up to the door with Elder Treasure. I just knew that someone would answer the door with a shotgun.

I knocked softly and stepped back bit. After a few seconds, the porch light flickered on and the door slowly creaked open. To my surprise, a really nice young lady opened the door, smiled, and pleasantly asked how we were doing. Shortly thereafter her husband (who also looked nice) came to the door and invited us right in. Come to find out, they had gotten the Book of Mormon that they requested, but nobody had ever come back. We asked them if they were interested in learning more about it and they happily agreed. We informed them of the open house coming up and they said they would attend. To add to my amazement, they invited us over for dinner the next week and thanked us profusely for coming. Before we left the house, Bob stopped us and said, "I would never turn down men of God. Thank you." Miracles! Just talking to someone who's nice is a miracle for me these days :)

So, tomorrow we're going to eat dinner with Bob and Kasey. I'm absolutely crushed because they are now Joplin 2nd's investigators, but I know that they'll be taken care of. I wish I could teach them in the future, but at least I was able to be there when we found them. That night I thanked Heavenly Father for prompting me to stop by one more time and for blessing me with the courage to be diligent. It's so worth it!

Well, y'all have a great week! I'll let you know if we get a new address soon.

Love, Elder Atkin

October 8, 2012 - Conference!

Dear Family,

What a great week! Elder Nordine and I picked up 5 new investigators, set 3 baptismal dates, and had 7 investigators watch General Conference. Yeehaw! Heavenly Father has truly blessed us. Sometimes I really wonder why, but we must be doing something right.

This General Conference has got to be the best conference I've ever seen in my whole life!! I loved every single talk and I took notes like a mad man. My favorite talk? Jeffrey R. Holland's talk. Us missionaries have nicknamed him "The Bulldog" because of 1) how epic his talks are and 2) because he even looks like a bulldog :) Either way his talk really spoke to me and made me want to be better. The Bulldog never fails. My second favorite talk? President Monson's announcement about lowering the age of new full-time missionaries. CRAZY! Our whole district was watching conference at the Carthage building and it took everything we had to not jump up and shout. You see, we were in the chapel. Afterward, we couldn't help but talk about all of the possibilities for the future. Here are some of my thoughts:

-I think that the church is prepping to open China to missionary work. This rumor has been going on since Pres. Monson was a child (jk I don't know), I really think that it will happen soon. Membership is going to skyrocket!
-This one's obvious, but the number of missionaries is going to double within the next few years.
-There's going to be A TON more sister missionaries. It will be more and more common for church members to have sisters covering their wards.
-Twice as many elders are now going to marry Sister RM's. Heck, triple. It's going to be tough for someone like me to get married :)
-Church schools like BYU will have barely any 18-year-old freshmen.

I'm just super excited! It'll be fun to see how things changed.

Okay, so this is super random, but the librarian is kicking me off of the computer right now. I don't really have time to explain. Sorry! Maybe I'll send you a short email tomorrow. Just know that I'm doing great and so is our area. Love you all!

Love, Elder Atkin

October 1, 2012

Dear Family,

Today is a great day! Do you know why it is a great day?? Because it's Monday!! And it's a new month, which means we have a fresh $130 on our cards and a fresh allotment of 1,600 miles to use on the car. The possibilities are endless! The world is mine to conquer :) I have to admit that I didn't budget very well the past couple of months and so that's why I had to use my home debit card a few times for random purchases. I'm super determined this month that I'll use my money wisely and not have to do that again. Haha we'll see what I have to say on the subject 3 weeks from now...

But really, today is an excellent day. Probably partly due to the fact that yesterday was an excellent day. I just flippin' LOVE Sundays! I think I used to say that I loved Sundays in the past because I wanted to look like a good boy and to impress (I don't know who). But I can honestly and sincerely say that Sundays are what I live for. They're what keep me goin'. They're my spiritual "fix." Haha okay that sounded a little weird, but you catch my drift. Anyway, I guess the best part about yesterday is that it was fast and testimony meeting in church. Yesterday was the last Sunday we'd be spending in the Carthage building, so everyone was extra excited. But surprisingly, nobody really talked about it too much in their testimonies. Instead, most of the testimonies were just heartfelt and sincere witnesses of the Savior. For some crazy reason my eyes really enjoyed leaking during the meeting. I realized that so often I come to church thinking about my investigators and everything like that so I forget about myself. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but I concluded that sometimes a full-time missionary for the church needs to be fed once in a while, too. I was really bummed that we didn't have any investigators at sacrament meeting, but it gave me time to really focus on everything around me. As each person got up and bore their testimonies (many of which were very emotional), I just felt wonderful. I felt so at peace, and I literally felt like I had been filled. Every now and then the Lord gives me a little reminder that he loves me! Something I've been trying to get in the habit of is to write down each of these instances in my study journal I carry with me. It's kind of cool to look back and realize how many times the Spirit has touched my heart in only the past few months.

Before church yesterday, I was able to go to another church because we were invited. The man who invited us is named Keith, and we met him here at the University. To make a long story short - he was really interested in what we had to say. We made a deal with him that we'd come to his church if he came to ours. He wholeheartedly agreed and expressed his desire to attend services in the new building. So after a few weeks, we finally called him up. The church Keith goes to is the Park Plaza Christian church, which is a non-denominational, family-oriented church. In other words, just another average feel-good local church. Sorry, I know that may sound harsh of me, but there are so many of these churches that I just don't even bother. The services were at 10:30, but we went to the Sunday school beforehand at 9:30. I was actually super excited because Keith had hyped us all up about his teacher who would be teaching from Isaiah. Apparently the guy has a Th.D. and has been doing this for 40 years. I was sincerely pumped for this! We showed up yesterday morning and Keith was right there at the doors waiting for us. As we walked in, he shook our hands and gave each of us a program. We then sat down and the class started. Keith introduced us real quick-like, and then the teacher began. The lesson ended up being quite boring and confusing. The teacher mixed in a lot of his own firey opinion and he never asked what anyone else thought. It wasn't a Bible study, it was a Bible lecture. My excitement faded to disappointment and confusion. The hype was not met. I didn't feel the Spirit. I felt like I had walked in with an open mind, but in the end I wasn't satisfied. If I had more time, I'd talk about the specifics of the doctrine, but just know that the guy was totally off. I think that's another reason why I felt so good at church (which was right afterward). Our church is so amazing! I'll never be able to deny the difference in feelings that I felt between our churches. Anyway, enough about that. I must say that it was kinda cool to go to a different church though.

While we didn't have any investigators in sacrament meeting, Ashley did show up for Gospel Principles. I was stoked beyond belief! She's been doing a lot better lately, and she ended up really enjoying church. We talked about the coming forth of scripture in Gospel Principles and then we had a combined fifth Sunday lesson on the new Strength of Youth pamphlet. Ashley loved it! She told us that it's probably the best church services she attended so far. Touchdown! I know that we'll still see ups and downs with Ashley, but at least she's doing good right now. She still wants us to text her scriptures each day to help her out. She even told us that she's starting to agree with our beliefs. The Spirit's workin' on her :)

Well, that's all from this elder for now. The work is going great and I get to head to Tulsa today for ZLC. Have a good one!

Love, Elder Atkin

P.S. I just realized that this whole email was about just Sunday... Don't worry, the rest of the week was good too :)

September 24, 2012 - The ups and downs

Dear Family,

Well, another week on the roller coaster ride, folks. Just when you think everything is great and perfect, weird things happen. Don't worry, nothing horrible happened. Just another week as a missionary happened, that's all. We just ride the ups and downs...

Just when we thought Ashley was coming back around again, she flipped out on us. We taught her like normal on Tuesday and Thursday, and they were both great lessons. She gets really frustrated with her addiction to smoking, but both Elder Nordine and I felt like our lessons were very positive and that they were really helping her out. On Thursday we talked a lot about being excited about the little victories in life. Ashley gets so angry with herself even though she's smoking less and less. We encouraged her to reward herself for the little things that she does well and to be happy about her progress. She's not going to stop in just a day. As we left the lesson, she promised to read her scriptures more faithfully and to call/text us any and every time she's tempted to smoke. We also promised her that we'd text a scripture every morning to help her stay focused. I felt good about it. Elder Nordine felt good about it.

We worked the rest of the afternoon, had dinner, and then went on our exchange with Bro. Blake. We visited the Duekers (Sis. Dueker is a recent convert) and we talked about building our testimonies in Jesus Christ. I love the scripture in Matthew 16 that mentions Christ asking Peter and the apostles who they think he is. Peter replies (and I might be butchering this), "Thou art the Christ, the son of the living God." Jesus praises him because "flesh and blood" hadn't revealed it to him, but his Father in Heaven. Anyway, we talked about how it's more important for us to learn from the Spirit than from "flesh and blood," or the world. It was an awesome lesson and the Spirit was really strong. We were feeling very good about ourselves, but as we got into Bro. Blake's car, a series of texts flooded in from Ashley. Our happiness quickly turned to confusion and disappointment as Ashley told us that she was tired of trying to be something she wasn't, for the way people talked to her, and such. Basically, she was done with us once again. She was tired of being mistreated. Usually in a situation like this I would be okay, but I was really angry. I was the one that felt mistreated. I was the one that felt like I had been wronged. She had called us earlier in the week to fully investigate the church, but now she was dropping us again. We texted her back and told her that we would give her some space until she figured things out. Elder Nordine and I didn't have a good sleep that night. A couple of days later, Ashley called us and apologized for freaking out. She explained that she was just getting so upset about her addiction that it causes her to do weird things. So that's where we are right now. Kind of in-between good and bad. She doesn't hate us, but we're still giving her some space. Gosh, it's always a crazy day with Ashley around...

Kim and her family are still doing well. They didn't show up last night to the stake center dedication (sad day. It was amazing!), but they are still meeting with us. Now it's just a waiting game for when Dustin gets his divorce finalized and him and Pete quit smoking. We're prayin' for them... So many people smoke out here!! I'm convinced that life would be so much better for a lot of people if they just didn't smoke. My testimony of the Word of Wisdom is ROCK SOLID. I've seen too many blessings that come from living it, and too many problems that come from the opposite. Heavenly Father sure is smart.

Funny story of the week: Elder Nordine and I were reading scriptures in the park downtown the other day and street-contacting people. As we were sitting there, a homeless guy walked past us and up next to the road, like he was about to cross it. He didn't look very happy, and as he let a string of choice cuss words fly out of his mouth, he plainly and quite simply did the unthinkable - he raised his fist to the sky and flipped off God. Now I know that might sound horrible, but that's really what he did! And I totally laughed! It was sad, but soooooo ridiculously hilarious! Man, he must've been having quite the bad day to give the bird to the heavens. Poor homeless guy :( He ended up coming back to the park and spent a good 15 minutes blatantly littering the ground in front of us and shouting racial slurs. This guy was NUTS. I'm kind of wondering if he has some mental problems... Nevertheless our park experience ended on a high note as a man that looked just like Santa Claus walked past us and said hello. I mean, this guy was the #1 Santa Claus look-alike of ALL TIME. He even had a pipe he was smoking! This guy was legit. Oh, the good ol' days of proselyting in Joplin, Missouri :) It's always an adventure street-contacting here, even if barely anybody is interested.

Sorry I don't have much time to write about much else today, but life is still great. Webb City officially has its own elders now, so Elder Nordine and I are just covering the Joplin 1st ward now. We move into the new building on the 14th of October, so that will be fun. No more having to drive to Carthage for church. Yay! Sorry, Mom. I still don't have the address for the member that worked on my toe. I promise that I'll remember next week.

I love you so much! Have a great week.

Love, Elder Atkin

P.S. Included is a picture of our district after district meeting a couple of weeks ago. Elder Nordine and I are in the middle sportin' cowboy hats. Yeehaw!!
P.P.S. I heard about the heart-breaker in Boise, Dad :( But win or lose............... Go Cougars!!!

September 17, 2012 - Tender mercies!

Dear Family,

Thanks so much for the picture of the Wellsville Mountains! That, my friends, is the definition of a tender mercy :) It's hard for me to believe that mountains even exist anymore. The tallest things around here are water towers. You know how in Utah every town on the bench has it's high school's initials painted onto the mountain side? They do that same thing here, but on the water towers. I just think it's kind of funny.

Speaking of tender mercies, Elder Nordine and I had a huge miracle this week. Remember Ashley? And remember how she basically dropped us? We're teaching her again. Surprise, surprise! We had told Ashley that we were going to back off and that if she needed anything to call us, but I thought that was the end of it. She was just reading way too much anti and she didn't really have a desire to learn from us. I thought it was over. But out of nowhere, on Monday she gave us a call right before we left to go to Tulsa for ZLC. I answered the phone, mostly expecting her to quote something from the Journal of Discourses or something. But instead she informed me that due to much thought and prayer recently, she had come to the conclusion that she needed to make a decision and stick to it. When I asked her what her decision was, she simply replied, "I pick you guys." After about a whole minute of whoopin' and hollerin', I was able to calm myself down enough to chat with her and ask why she had made that decision. She didn't give me a straight up answer, but she told me that despite our differences in opinion, no other church had ever reached out to her in the same way we did. Ashley simply couldn't get over the fact that no matter where she was at, we'd be there for her and we cared about her. She was amazed that we wouldn't give up on her. I couldn't help but feel really good about myself at that moment. Aren't we so awesome!?? Or rather, isn't the church we belong to so awesome!?? It's only fitting that Christ's true church has 50,000+ missionaries that not only teach about the Gospel, but reach out and befriend individuals who are struggling. Let's not forget the general populous of members, though. Y'all can give yourselves a pat on the back for engaging in such acts as Visiting and Home Teaching, as well as donating offerings to help those who are in need. The overall help that we give to the world is absolutely unmatched. These are the moments when I start humming the tune of "I Belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints" to myself.

So yeah, Ashley's back on the radar. She admitted to us that she had only half-heartedly investigated the church (as well as other churches) over the past few months. She knew she needed to change, but she wasn't really sticking to something. She mentioned to me over the phone that she couldn't stop thinking about what I had told her before she dropped us. I said quite bluntly that if ours wasn't the true church of Jesus Christ, that she needed to keep on looking for the rest of her life. I was serious! If ours is not it, then she needs to move on and make it a life quest to find it. Because it's here. And the scriptures say that too many times to deny it. Anyway, she agreed to meet us on Friday and talk about things. I ended up taking Elder Park with me because we were on exchanges. We had an amazing lesson with Ashley as we helped her understand some of our doctrines and why we believe what we believe. At the end of the lesson, we committed her to have a sort of "trial run" with us for the next 3 weeks. I told her that if she studied and prayed daily, attended church with us, didn't look at any anti, and kept our commitments for 3 weeks, she'd find an answer and know if it all was true or not. She accepted the challenge. So here we are now, 3 days later and still right on track. Ashley came to Stake Conference yesterday (she thought it was boring, but good) and we had a lesson at the church afterward. We were very surprised when she informed us that she wanted to pay tithing and receive of those promised blessings (Malachi 3). After we taught her about that principle, we gave her a priesthood blessing to help her overcome her smoking addiction. She really liked the blessing that we gave her, and she promised to try her best to quit. Elder Nordine and I are going to meet with her tomorrow and see where she's at. I can tell that the Spirit is really softening her heart! Please pray for Ashley! I know she can quit.

Besides Ashley, our area is slowly gaining momentum. We met with Kim Still for the first time in a couple of months on Wednesday. This is the 2nd miracle of the week. Get this - we show up, expecting to teach just her and her son Branden. As we walked up to the front porch, we were greeted by 5 people (3 of which I'd never met). I reached for my backpack, expecting a Bible Bash to commence, but soon relaxed as I noticed Gospel Principle manuals, Book of Mormons, and Bibles scattered across the table. Elder Nordine and I joined the circle of people around the table. We started the usual small-talk, but Kim quickly cut us off. She then looked me in the eyes and exclaimed, "I want to be baptized and go to the temple. So does Branden. So does Dustin, my boyfriend. I'm not sure about Pete and Bree here, but that's the plan. And I know that I need to marry Dustin first and he needs to quit smoking (Dustin nods in agreement), but we can do that. I just want to get baptized!" My jaw hit the ground. Bree then piped in and said she wanted to be baptized too. My head started spinning. We asked Pete if that was his plan also, but he said not yet. He did say that he wanted to learn, though. Isn't that crazy!? Elder Nordine and I then fumbled through a quick Restoration lesson, but everyone already knew the answers. Kim then told us that they'd been watching the "Mormon Channel" for years and they study out of the Gospel Principles manual daily as a group. I about fainted! Here were a bunch of people that I had barely met before and thought weren't interested. Now they want to go to the new church in Joplin and be a forever family. I was blown away. I'll be sure to update you on that one in the future.

Guess what? I just finished the Book of Mormon again this morning! I've been reading it kind of slow over the past few months because I'm reading a lot of other things, but either way it feels good to finish it again. Our zone has set a goal to read the Book of Mormon all at the same time in 3 months (2 transfers), so that'll be good. Oh yeah, we had transfer calls on Saturday. I'm staying in Joplin for at least another transfer with Elder Nordine! Golly, didn't that come quick?? Time is really flying by...

Have a great week, everyone! Go hike a mountain for me :)

Love, Elder Atkin

P.S. I heard about the BYU-Utah game. Sad day :( Oh well. Go Cougars!
P.P.S. We received a referral the other day for a lady who found out she's a direct descendant of David Whitmer and she's never read the Book of Mormon. We went over to her house and she's super nice! Hopefully we can start teaching her as well.

September 10, 2012 - Short Week

Dear Family,

Holy Hannah, it feels like I just sat at this computer a few hours ago to email you! Well, I guess it really was a short week since I last emailed you. That and this week just smoked right on past. Time flies when you're having fun.

We had a baptism on Saturday!! It was incredible. You know those days in life that are just absolutely amazing and you want them to last forever? Saturday was like that. It was all-around the perfect day. Earlier in the day the Carthage elders had a baptism in the same building and so we attended that and just stayed afterward to prepare for ours. Their investigator who was getting baptized was a really nice Hispanic lady named Sonia. The coolest part about it was that her baptism would complete her little family because her husband was already a member. I guess the story is that he (the husband) has had a really hard life and has struggled with many addictions. At one point in his life, some members of the church in Carthage took him in and tried to help him become better. He eventually joined the church, turned his life around, and then finally met Sonia a few years ago. He still struggles with some Word of Wisdom problems, but he's working on it so they can go to the temple in the future and be sealed as a family. Everyone in attendance cried during the whole thing. The Spirit was so strong! I can't wait until they can be sealed together forever :)

I have to admit I was a little worried about Alexis' baptism. Carthage had a lot of people show up and everything went so smoothly. I was a little bit intimidated and I felt unprepared for some reason. I was suddenly worried that not very many people would show up. I was about to panic, but then I remembered that I could pray. This may sound very simple and kind of funny, but hey - sometimes I forget! I quickly said a prayer thanking Heavenly Father for the opportunity to have the baptism, and I asked that everything would go well and that Alexis would feel loved. Immediately afterward I felt at peace and I knew all would be well. And guess what? It did go well... and then some! Many people from the Webb City ward showed up to support Alexis, even though they didn't know her. We were able to get the program finished and everything ready just in time. What a miracle! The baptism went very well, and I was so happy to see Alexis' cousin do his very first baptism as a priest.

When we finally got home late Saturday night, Elder Nordine and I collapsed from exhaustion. It was go go go all day, and when we finally could relax, we were DONE. I sure had a good sleep that night. There's nothing more satisfying than being exhausted after a long day as a missionary. Heck, we helped someone move the morning of the baptism. We even had time to proselyte. It's amazing what you can do in one day!

Heavenly Father has been blessing Elder Nordine and I so much lately. Sometimes I feel like I don't deserve all of the blessings and miracles we receive each day. We were so discouraged to see many of our investigators - including Ashley - drop us recently. I felt hopeless, especially with Alexis soon getting baptized. We wouldn't have anyone to teach afterward! But suddenly Kim called us the day of the baptism and told us that she wanted to meet with us again. We dropped by the Henleys for the millionth time and they answered! They're still interested! We picked up a new investigator by visiting a less-active family. We're teaching him on Thursday. His last name? Adkins! We received a media referral today for a woman who's a descendant of David Whitmer. So many miracles!!!

I love the Gospel and I love this work. I can honestly say that I'm getting "lost" in it. It's part of me. It's who I am. It's all I want to do. I hope and pray that it can stay that way. I don't ever want it to end :)

I'm out of time. Have a great week! You should send me a picture of the Wellsvilles with all of the changing colors.

Love, Elder Atkin

September 5, 2012

Dear Family,

Sorry you didn't get an email from me on Monday. I'm sure by now you've figured out that we couldn't email because it was Labor Day. We also couldn't email yesterday because we had a zone conference down in Arkansas. I wasn't too sad because we had Elder Choi of the 70 come and instruct us. The perks of being a missionary :)

The zone conference - or "mission tour" - was combined with the Rogers zone so that's why it was in Arkansas. We left early in the morning so we could get there by 9:00. It was so awesome! It didn't really hit me until I walked in the Rogers stake center that we were going to be instructed by a General Authority. It ended up being one of the best zone conferences of my mission. I was expecting Elder Choi to be very serious and intimidating, but he was actually very funny, loving, and spiritually uplifting. Him and his wife didn't bring any notes so I could tell that they were just teaching us by the spirit. Though it was hard to understand Elder Choi at times (he's from Korea), the Spirit was so strong. He talked to us about faith and how the Gospel is "delicious" (Alma 32). He also instructed us on planning for the future and how we should be ready to turn our plans over to the Lord's plans. He related his own experiences with schooling and business and that each of those plans ended up preparing him for accepting the Lord's plans in callings and service. Being a successful businessman prepared him for later taking care of church finances. My favorite quote from the whole entire meeting was this: "These two years are the best time of your life to prepare to be trusted." It's Elder Choi's hope that we prepare to be trusted by our friends, families, spouses, and ultimately our Heavenly Father. Am I learning how to be trusted after my mission? It's a great question.

As I mentioned, Elder and Sister Choi were very funny. At random intervals throughout the meeting, Elder Choi would call his wife up to stand next to him and speak. The first time he asked her to stand up and tell us why she picked him for a husband. It was hilarious! She said that the only reason why she picked him wasn't for his looks, but for his work-ethic and his testimony. She then said that after all these years he's finally somewhat handsome :) Haha they were just so cute together. I just loved sitting there in the chapel and taking notes for most of the day. They had so many good things to say. As I've said in the past, there's nothing like a zone meeting to get me pumped to share the gospel! Elder and Sister Choi repeatedly mentioned how "shiny" we all were. They told us that we had light in our eyes and that we glowed with brightness. They also told us to never let that light diminish. People will see the light in our eyes and our shiny countenances. I felt super special... and shiny :) I was thinking about it afterward and I came to the conclusion that as members of the Lord's church, we all are entitled to that light in our eyes and the shining faces. We shouldn't ever do anything that would take that light away from us.

Recently I've been reading in Mormon and in Ether in the Book of Mormon. It's been interesting to read about how quickly people forgot the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The book of 4 Nephi is a short one, but it perfectly shows how a group of people fall into apostasy. While it is sad to read about people rejecting the prophets and the "pride cycle," it's taught me a lot about staying strong in the midst of wickedness. There's no way to beat around the bush on this one, folks: we live in a wicked world that is increasingly "dwindling in unbelief." We shouldn't get all depressed about it, but it's important that we stay sharp. Sharp like Mormon and his son, Moroni. Moroni was all alone with blood-thirsty Lamanites constantly battling each other and trying to hunt him down. And yet he was still able to put together the last few books in the Book of Mormon and teach us some awesome principles. I always feel so sad for Moroni. He must've been so lonely :( But he knew what was true and it gave him strength. As we live in these latter-days, we may feel lonely ourselves. There's much to be afraid about. But it's becoming more and more clear to me what strength the Gospel and the Book of Mormon provides. That's why it's SO important! There's my sermon for the day...

Gosh, I didn't leave much time to talk about our area. Things are going well. Alexis is ready for this Saturday and we couldn't be happier! Her cousin is baptizing her for his very first time as a priest. Cool stuff :) Ashley had to cancel on us this last week, but we're meeting with her tomorrow. I'm anxious to see what happens. We've been doing a lot more finding lately, and we sure have a lot of potential investigators, so I'm excited to see things pick up around here. We've been in somewhat of a dry spell lately. But not when it comes to actual rain (haha). It's dumped rain within the past 2 weeks. Everything is green once again.

Have a great week! Thanks for your support and your emails. I love you!

Love, Elder Atkin

P.S. Go Cougars!