Tuesday, January 3, 2012

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

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