January 30, 2012- Yea Verily

Dear Family,

 

Hey what's up? You finally took down the Christmas stuff? Sad day :( Well, it had to happen someday. I guess it makes sense because it took you so long to put it up. Oh well, we're all already looking towards this coming Christmas already, right? Haha jk :)

 

I'm glad you enjoy my letters, Mom and Dad (and whoever else dares to read them). I always feel like they're lame and the same as the week previous, but I try to keep you informed. I'm sure I've said this before, but I seem to always forget to tell you a story or something every week. I walk out of the library with shame... Not really, but still. I want my letters to be interesting. It's just that it seems to be the same thing every week sometimes, ya know? The same amount of rejection, and similar numbers. It's hard to not get caught into the daily grind of things. Good thing I'm with Elder Jensen! We have such a fun time :) This week we decided to build a fort in our room when we got home for the night one day. I'll include a picture. It was epic! And we totally slept in it. The Mitchells are really starting to like us haha

 

But really I need to remember that there are little miracles every day. I've been trying to focus on little tender mercies here and there. I get the middle finger from so many passing cars every day, that I sometimes forget. But I guess it's a tender mercy that Elder Jensen and I are starting to be able to laugh it off. When people would yell profanities out there car windows, it used to really affect my spirit, but I guess I'm getting more and more desensitized to it. "They must be having a bad day, Elder Jensen," I would say. "Yeah, I think they really like us, Elder Atkin." Hee hee

 

Time for some good stuff. We got our 20 lessons again!! Hooray!! I've tried to explain it well in the past, but I still don't think you understand how awesome this really is. We flipping worked our tails off this past week, and it paid off. Last night both Elder Jensen and I slept soundly :) It shouldn't be that hard to get 20, but it is when half our appointments are cancelling. People just don't want to see us!!! Ugh... But we did it. And the ward helped us.

 

I'm really starting to just loooooooooooooove the Elm Creek ward. There are so many cool members! There were two days in a row that we had men go on splits with us during the evening and the appointments would fall through. In other words, they used their gas money to take us places and we didn't get to teach anybody. But yet the first one (Bro. Christensen) took us out for banana splits afterwards at Braums (best ice cream EVAR. And they dump - I mean DUMP - chocolate and caramel on it), and the second one (Bro. Wing) took us to Baja Jacks for some bomb-diggety burritos. Yes sir!

 

Within the last week we were also able to have some really good lessons with some less actives again. I'm constantly being taught that missionary work is much much more than finding new investigators. I mentioned David last week. We met with him a couple more times this week and we invited him to play basketball with us on Saturday (the Elder's quorum has weekly basketball at the church. Great fellowshipping opportunity). He absolutely stunk at basketball (haha no offense), but he loved it. We met with him last night and he exclaimed that he couldn't believe how good it felt to play BBall with a bunch of priesthood brethren. He said it was like a breath of fresh air. He came to church again yesterday, but he had to leave early because of his whiny nephew. He told us that it was the first time he was ever disappointed to leave church early. He felt a void. And he knew it. We committed him to make it to the temple in the future. He's on his way.

 

Another less-active we visited was Eddie. Eddie is a really tough guy that is amazing at martial arts. He works as a security guard. We saw him on Saturday and I was supposed to bring a video to watch. To be honest, it would've been an easy lesson. But to my dismay, as we showed up I noticed that I had forgot it. We were soon to realize that I was inspired because we had another one of those smack-in-the-face spiritual lessons. Eddie opened up to us as we shared 2 Ne. 32:3 (talking about feasting upon the words of Christ) and got really emotional. He knows that he needs to do better and come back to church. We'll see him more in the future. I know for a fact that if I had brought the video, we wouldn't have had that lesson. Tender mercies, my friends, tender mercies.

 

Well, I gotta go. I love you so much! Thanks for always making me feel so good with your letters/emails! You're the best :)

 

Love, Elder Atkin

 

P.S. Here's the picture of our fort like I told you. And the other picture.... Even the ducks at the Elm Creek park's pond don't want to listen to the gospel! Haha we go to the park every now and then to try and contact people. It's all because this January has been so warm! It's supposed to get near 70 today. Sis. Mitchell is taking us to the Tulsa Zoo. I love preparation days :) The last picture is of a beautiful water feature we found in Owasso. SOOO pretty!! You like?? :)

 

Fort

Teaching the Ducks

The water feature

 

January 23, 2012- 20 Stinkin' Lessons

Dear Family,

 

This week has lasted forever! It seemed like so many things happened but barely anything happened at the same time. But first of all, I'm happy to report that we were successful in our attempt at 20 lessons. We had to work our tails off (I'll tell you more about that in a minute), but it was worth it. As explained in the past, some of them were taught to active members, but more than half (11) were normal lessons. Those are the best numbers I've gotten since Springdale! I really feel like things are turning around for the better.

 

And being District Leader so far? It's great! I was nervous for district meeting on Wednesday, but it all turned out well. Currently we are going through the addiction recovery manual put out by the church, one lesson after another. This last week we studied Lesson 6 - "A Change of Heart", which talks all about how one can continue to stay away from their past addictions. President really wants us to incorporate the lessons into our own missionary lives, and I thought that lesson 6 was perfect for me at this time. Lessons 1-5 are really good at helping someone quit their addictions, but lessons 6 is all about keeping from going back. Often times people will try to quit an addiction, but they turn right back once they face a trial or sadness. A true change of heart comes when one focuses on the teachings of Jesus Christ and is willing to let His atonement change them. Pride is often the biggest issue someone faces in this process, but focusing on Christlike attributes can help turn that pride into a strength. Anyways, I could talk about this all day, but I would suggest you order one for yourselves. Great stuff! I think that every member should read it and go through the steps. Besides, we all have bad habits and addictions in our everyday lives. Just a thought...

 

Back to the 20 lessons thing. It's awesome! It's like somebody switched on the missionary lightswitch. I could feel a difference at church yesterday. Ever since Bishop Carroll got on his soap box in Priesthood Meeting last Sunday and told the brethren about the plan of attack, ward members have been increasingly interested in the work in the area. Last week I mentioned that we had a really good meeting with the ward council about the ward mission plan and such. We decided that we'd make a calendar on the ward's website so people can log on and see what Elder Jensen and I are doing every day. I thought it would take a while to put it up, but sure enough a couple hours later we heard that Bro. Sudweeks (ward clerk) had already made one. And our schedule was already up. I never thought that being an accountable missionary would gain so much trust from ward members. I've heard about past disobedient Elm Creek elders, and so I think that the ward finds it refreshing. Most of our plans so far have just been talk. But it's funny to see how just a little bit of talking can change everything. I've learned that it's so vital to communicate with the ward mission leader and ward missionaries every day. That's how it's supposed to work.

 

But it really was a successful week. We met with a bunch of less-actives and cool member families to teach the Restoration. Everyone has been positive so far. But throughout all of our hard work in getting these lessons, one name sticks out to me: David. David is a less-active that I had only met with once before this week. It was near the beginning of last transfer, and I felt like he was never going to come back to church. After that, we sort of forgot him for the longest time. But we thought we try him this week to get our 20. It was so amazing! David had lost his job recently, and he was really happy to see us. So many negative things are happening in his life right now, and he's sort of at a cross-roads. We showed up at the perfect time. It was the most spiritual lesson I've been in my whole mission. He said that he wanted to come back to church and change his life. How were we to know?!! I feel like the Lord led us to David that day. He needed us. And we needed him more than we realized. We met with him two more times last week and he came to church for all three hours. I'll be sure to keep you updated on how that goes.

 

I love you so much and I know the gospel's true! Have a great week.

 

Love, Elder Atkin

 

P.S. I included some pictures today! The first two are of a really random whale dock thingy off the side of the road in Catoosa. Little did I know that Route 66 runs through Catoosa and that like 40 years ago this whale was quite the happening place. It juts out into a small lake and has a couple of slides on it and a place to dive off of. It may have been fun for the local residents in the past, but now the water is all murky and the whale looks like it's falling apart. We just had to take a few pictures each of us getting eaten though :) The third one is of the snow we received a couple of weeks ago. It was so exciting! I was flippin' out. Oklahoma weather has been crazy. Some days it is super cold and windy and other days it gets up into the 70's. Either way there hasn't been too many storms lately, just good ol' sunshine.

 

P.P.S. I totally loved Floyd's letters! I haven't been to Harrison, Arkansas, but I have heard all about it from Elder Capitan. It's weird how Floyd's letters make Harrison sound pretty tame compared to nowadays. People out there are quite racist and they hate Mormons. It's fun to make comparisons with his mission experience. I sure haven't gotten chiggers that bad yet (knock on wood)! I kinda miss the rolling hills of northwestern Arkansas. Oklahoma is way too flat.

 

P.P.P.S. Bye bye Frank! Good luck! And tell the Grandparents hi for me!

 

Route 66

Elder Atkin Getting eaten by the whale

Snow!!!!

 

January 17, 2012- A New Transfer

Dear family,

Man, I didn't realize that there was ANOTHER holiday this week. I told you last time that I wouldn't make it a habit of emailing you on Tuesdays. So much for that, thanks to Martin Luther King Jr.! Haha it's not that bad, it just seems like I keep on having to wait extra long to read your emails and stuff. No more of that!

Well it sounds like you had a lot of fun in Arizona! Thanks for sending pictures, the cousins all look so much older since the last time I saw them... And yes, Eliza looks adorable :) That's super funny that Grandpa is getting good at Angry Birds hahaha. I hear that the Kindle is quite the hot item lately. A member of our ward took us to Tulsa for a meeting yesterday and he showed us his new Kindle. He thinks it's really popular because it can do 80-90% of what the iPad can do for 1/3 the price. Man, I want one! I could have the whole gospel library in one little device. Well, maybe in two years.

Mom, I totally understand what you mean when you mentioned that you want to use your time better. It's always a constant battle for missionaries too. Before my mission I thought that missionaries were perfect and that it would be easy to set up appointments and such. Not always true. Plans constantly fall through, and it's hard to get appointments in the first place. Sometimes it's hard to know what to do all the time. You can't always just tract if you don't have things scheduled. Well, you can, but it's not always effective if you're not excited about it and you have the right mindset. And you have to remember - Tulsa is the belt buckle of the Bible belt. You ever heard that? And Owasso? Owasso is the shiny glimmer of light reflecting off that belt buckle. Anyways. Elder Jensen and I often pray that we can make good use of our time and come up with effective plans. Our focus lately has been filling up our schedule to the best of our abilities so that we don't just slack off. There's always a good balance, Mom. As you search for that balance prayerfully, cool things can really happen. Maybe some of your projects can be service-oriented? Hmmm...

This week has been a really good one. I mean awesome!! No new investigators... BUT AWESOME! Haha :) I've mentioned in the past that we have a really good Ward Mission Leader and Bishop, but this week is when it really all came together. This is the sort of thing that Elder Jensen and I have been praying for, so fasten your seatbelts. Last week both Bro. Kennedy and the Bishop went to a ward mission leader training with the stake president and other people. They both got some really cool ideas and basically got the missionary fire lit within. According to them, it was very spiritually uplifting and a lot of amazing promises were made. Bishop Carroll had a one-on-one with the Stake President, and he expressed his concerns with our goal of 12 baptisms for 2012 in Elm Creek (Did I mention that Elm Creek had 0 for 2011?). President Johnson assured him that if the ward helps the missionaries acheive 20 lessons per week, we'll get our baptisms. Bishop Carroll truly feels like it was inspired and he's determined to get us teaching.

So that's basically it. We're going to start teaching 20 lessons a week, no matter what. Even if we have to teach active members the discussions, we're going to get our 20. Of course, active member lessons don't count in our weekly numbers that we report (key indicators), but they sure count on the bishop's key indicators. Our goal now is to start asking families if we can teach their families the discussions for 1. practice and 2. to bring the spirit of missionary work into their home. We're focusing on less-actives of course, but also families with prospective missionaries and families that are struggling. This all might sound kinda weird, but you don't know how excited I am right now! It feels like we're doing something groundbreaking in Owasso. The ward members are actually excited about this! I really felt the spirit when we were discussing this with Bishop and Bro. Kennedy, and I believe in the Stake President. We've already started extending invitations and I look forward to updating you in the future. Y'all should tell me what you think. Does it sound effective? I'm excited for this new transfer. So many cool things happening. The Lord will certainly bless us in many seen and unseen ways.

I hope all is well back home and that it's snowing loads and loads. It was 75 degrees yesterday! I felt like it was summer. Wow, what a lame winter. I want it to snow! Thanks for emailing me and for your love. I love you too! The gospel's so true.

Love, Elder Atkin

P.S. Be sure to tell me how Frank's farewell goes. And wish him luck for me. What a man!

P.P.S. Sorry I forgot pictures again :(

P.P.P.S. I like being District Leader so far. I already had 2 baptismal interviews on Sunday, and they went great! Both of them are ready for baptism, and it was a great experience for me too. Wish me luck with District Meeting this week!

January 10, 2011- Oh the weather outside is.... delightful...

Dear family,

 

Do you know what I just realized? It's January and it feels like summer here! The nights get pretty cold and we have to scrape the ice off the car every now and then, but it gets pretty warm during the day. The other day it got up to like 70 degrees when we were tracting! I really wish it would just like dump a foot of snow right now and drop the temperature to near zero. Call me crazy, but I miss that. Oklahoma doesn't cease to amaze me...

 

Yep, Mom. I'm officially a fourth of the way done. Don't worry, I'm never really counting, but I couldn't help but notice last Friday that I had hit my 6 month mark. It's gone by so quickly! Springdale seriously seems like a distant memory in a distant world. I already don't remember what it's like there. I guess I just love Owasso a lot. A lot of missionaries keep on telling me that I have to burn a tie since I hit my 6 month mark. How lame is that? I tell them that I think it's a dumb tradition and that I'd rather keep all of my clothing items. Some missionaries think I'm lame for saying such. What the heck?? Whoever made up that tradition was probably some missionary a long time ago who got a mustard stain on his tie, decided to burn it because he likes fire, and then claimed that it would be a new tradition that all missionaries must follow. Yeah whatever. I'm also supposed to burn a shirt on my year mark, burn some pants on my 18 month mark, and burn a suit right before I go home (or something like that. I'm not an expert in the vain and foolish things of this world). Great! Either way I'm excited to move forward. I also wonder what my next 1/4 will be like. I do know how it's going to start though.

 

I'm gonna be a district leader!! I'm going to be a district leader??...... I don't know if I already told you, but Saturday was transfer calls. Holy cats this last transfer went by in a flash! It seems like I just met Elder Jensen. Anyways. On Saturday we were anticipating transfer calls starting at 9 PM. We went out to eat at a Chinese Buffet (another tradition. This time it's one in Owasso. The tradition is to get the Mongolian grill and read your fortune aloud to everyone. I think it was started by Elder Jensen) for lunch. My fortune read, "An unexpected event will soon bring you fortune." I'm no superstitious guy, but I couldn't help but think, "Oh, my. Today is transfer calls." So eveningtime rolls around and we receive a call from the assistants. Elder Jensen finds out that he's staying (yay that's what we wanted), and then I find out that I'm staying (yay again). I thought the conversation would be over, but then Elder Noice was like, "Elder Atkin, we also decided that it would be fit for the Ranch Creek district to make you district leader at this time." Surprise surprise! Being a district leader isn't THAT big of a deal, but it certainly is to me. I still feel like I'm brand new, and so I really don't know what I'll be doing. Good thing there is a big fat district leader binder that tells me what to do. So what do you think? Should I be excited? This coming Sunday I already have 2 baptismal interviews with girls who'll be in the singles ward. Oh great....

 

So yeah, transfer calls were exciting. Overall it was an exciting week I guess. Well, more exciting than the past. No new investigators to report :( But we did have a great lesson with Jim! :) But I wasn't there because we were on exchanges :( But we will see him again :) Elder Jensen and Elder Padgett were able to go over to Jim's place with our ward mission leader (Bro. Kennedy) and have a smack-down lesson with Jim. From what I heard from Elder Jensen, they asked Jim a bunch of really good questions, bore solemn testimony, and committed him to reading the Book of Mormon every day this week. Jim still expressed his usual feelings of non-committalness, but he was honest with us and shared his feelings. He still doesn't think he'll be comfortable at church and he doesn't think that he'll get an answer to his prayers about the Book of Mormon or the Church. But we'll keep trying. We're not quite ready to drop him yet (like so many missionaries have done before), but I just hope that we don't have to keep going through this. Jim needs a solid kick in the pants, if you ask me.

 

We're still waiting to hear about Violet. She wasn't at church again, so we'll have to try to contact the Brits or just hunt her down ourselves. She sounded so golden!! I'm sorry if I sound so repetitive, but I WANT TO TEACH SOMEBODY NEW. I've decided that the Lord must have something in store for me that I just haven't seen yet. I just need to trust him, I guess. I don't feel like Elder Jensen and I are doing anything wrong, but yet there are no new investigators every week. Do we need to tract all day every day? Or even more than that? What does it take? We've been focusing our studies on finding lately. Do I sound sad and depressed? Because I'm not. I'm seriously so happy! But I just can't imagine how happy I'll be when we have some solid investigators. Elder Jensen and I are SO eager. We're ready to pounce on anybody that wants to listen. We're like a lion.... waiting in the shadows.... on the prowl... looking for..... new investigators to teach the Gospel of Jesus Christ!!!!!!!!!!

 

Man, I love the church so much. I feel unbelieveably good at Sacrament Meeting each week. You'd think that I'd feel hopeless with how little of teaching we've been doing, but it really only makes me more and more ready to go. I'm pumped! The blessings that come from church attendance and obedience are becoming clearer and clearer to me. It's almost flipping tangible. All I can do now is look for ways to work harder, look for ways to be more obedient, and look for ways to help people the best I can. The Lord will bless me somehow. I don't know how, but he will.

 

Well, enough with the rambling. I'm so excited for Rachel to move down to Provo! And the new car??! Awesome!! I hope y'all have a great week. Be safe and be happy. Amen :)

 

Love, Elder Atkin

 

P.S. Sorry I didn't write you yesterday. We had a zone outing and we didn't have time to email. I promise that it won't become a regular thing.

 

P.P.S. Dad, did you watch the National Championship? I heard about it. 21-0! Craziness...

January 3, 2012 -Happy New Year!

Dear Family,

 

Hey sorry I wasn't able to get an email to you yesterday. You guessed it Mom - it was a holiday and so the library is closed. I guess you can just remember that for the future. But I'm happy to be able to be emailing you now!

 

Alrighty, before I forget. I'm pretty sure I totally forgot to tell you that we were moving to a different home in the ward this week. We actually moved in with the Mitchells yesterday. Did I already tell you that? Hmmm.... Anyways, the new address to send mail and such to is:

 

10304 E. 94th Ct. North

Owasso, OK 74055

 

I'll probably continue to get mail at the Stapleys for at least a few days, but they don't live too far away so it won't be a problem. Speaking of which, I'm totally going to miss the Stapleys!! I haven't told you too much about them, but I seriously love them so much. They made us feel at home and we didn't have to worry about them breathing down our necks, if ya know what I mean. They were in Arizona for the past couple of weeks, so when I think about it I only lived with them for a little over half the time I was there. But it was still a good time. Honestly, I was kinda bummed that we were moving to the Mitchells because they seemed less exciting, but everything's worked out so far. And guess what? They're super awesome too! It's funny because I don't think they've had missionaries in their home before. They really want to make us comfortable and happy. Yesterday after we had unpacked all of our stuff we were sitting around and I told Elder Jensen that I was jealous that he had two pictures on his wall next to his bed, and I had none. I was totally joking around, but I'm pretty sure Sister Mitchell heard me. Last night we went and ate out and went to Walmart. When we came back, there was a nice picture of Jesus hanging above my bed. Creepy...... We both laughed about that :) I could feel bad about it, but I'm pretty sure Sister Mitchell loved putting it up.

 

So yeah, yesterday was spent packing and moving and unpacking. I kinda hate moving, but at the same time I love it. It's fun to live in new places (especially when the beds are really comfortable) and to reorganize my stuff. My desk was getting a little messy at the Stapleys, but now it's all nice and tidy. I'm sure we're going to have a fun time at the Mitchells. Elder Jensen is really hoping that he doesn't get transferred because he's getting tired of packing and unpacking. I don't want him to get tranferred either because we're totally bros.

 

We weren't able to get any appointments with anyone this last week, so I'm guessing it's because of the holidays. Sorry Mom, I'll have to update you on Jim next week. Thanks for praying for him though! We ended up spending most our time dropping in on people, planning for the future, and tracting. Saturday was our super tracting day. We scoped out some neighborhoods with Bro. Stapley in the morning, ate lunch at Subway (the ward gave us gift cards for Subway. Oh yeah!), and then we spent the rest of the day knocking. Lately we've been tracting in the nicer neighborhoods because the poorer side of Owasso has been tracted like crazy in the past. I find that missionaries tend to tract in the poorer areas before the richer areas because the people seem more accepting. President Merkley has taught us that everyone needs the gospel, and with the right tactics and frame of mind, multi-million dollar homes can become good targets. I certainly believe that, but sadly we didn't have too much success. Most people are really nice, but they just aren't interested. On Saturday we met a bunch of people that attend Church On The Move. COTM (we'll abbreviate it) is a really popular church in Owasso, and some people even travel for miles to go to it. I hear that it has a 12,000 member congregation. But, of course, it's just another church that tries to please people with social events, great facilities, and a great preacher. Some people simply told us that COTM is the most fun place to worship. Family, I'm sure you can tell me what's wrong with that.

 

I'd have to say that our biggest success of the week is that we got a "golden referral" for a lady that has been attending our ward. We haven't been able to meet her officially yet, but according to Elder Jensen it's someone who he thought was already a member. She regularly attends church with some ward members, but she finally wants to be taught. We're hoping that we can meet up with her this week, because Elder Jensen and I are DYING to teach somebody new.

 

Makaela is engaged??? Holy frijoles I just gotta quit being surprised by these sorts of things. Tell her congrats for me. It sounds like y'all had fun at the Ashton's on New Years. We didn't stay up until midnight. Even if we had wanted to, we're always tired by 10:00. But Elder Jensen and I did make some New Years resolutions! I made a resolution that I will write in my journal at least every other day. Don't worry mom, I'm writing in it, but I just need to do better. It's ridiculous. I want to remember these two years!

 

Well, I'm outta time again. Thanks for the emails and for everything! I heard about the BYU game. Exciting!!!! There were a lot of happy and sad people around here... Anyways. Talk to you later, pals.

 

Love, Elder Atkin