Dear Family,
I'm
glad that you enjoyed April and I's letters from last week. What an
experience!! Pretty much everyone in my ward now totally loves April
(Sister Atkin) to death. Bro. Braisted can't stop talking about it with
me, and I can't get enough of it. The young women gave me a picture of
them with April. Maybe I'll try to get a copy for y'all. I feel so
refreshed! I feel like a brand new missionary! I want to tract all day
(even though Elder Ivie doesn't want to). The opportunities are endless
when you feel as good as I do.
Haha I'm glad you got the picture of Elder Ivie and I
and the Ranch Creek elders. That picture is of us cleaning the
Lovelace's bathroom. They're getting ready to move and they've had us
come over twice now to paint and pack and move stuff and clean. I love
service! Bro. Lovelace has a strange disease that made him lose 6 years
of memory about 2 months ago. It's crazy!! He's pretty much normal now
(besides a few seizures), but he's just beginning to accept that he has
two extra children and he went to Japan a few years ago. I do not envy
his situation. They're cool though. Bro. Lovelace swears like a sailor.
The members out here a great :)
Right now we're in
the process of waiting for a few people to take the discussions. Don't
worry, we work still, we're not literally waiting. But a few different
members now have a few people who have agreed to start meeting with us.
How exciting is that! You have to understand that getting a single
member referral out here is a huge deal. Like, I've been praying for
this forever. Referrals are especially awesome because like I mentioned
before, Elder Ivie is really quiet (except around people he knows) and
can barely talk to random people on the street, let alone tracting. It's
so hard for me to gain the confidence to spend time finding (and even
teaching), when I know that it's all on me. Sometimes I try forcing
Elder Ivie to share a spiritual thought or talk to somebody, but it's
really not effective. Don't get me wrong, I love Elder Ivie to death,
but he just needs to open his mouth. I can't teach an area on my own.
That's partly why we haven't been finding too many new investigators
lately. Would you want to go and tract all day by yourself? That's what
it's like. But things are improving. We've talked about how we're going
to try and give each other positive encouragement. We feel like it can
help both of us be more confident in our efforts as ministers.
It's been a blessing for Elder Bennett (Ranch Creek) to
get Elder Burr from the MTC. Elder Burr is excited just like any other
greeny, but he's really smart too. He already seems like a seasoned
veteran, and his confidence and go-get-'em attitude is really wearing
off onto me. This whole past while I've been needing a kick-start, and
so all these past events have really helped me out. Now that I know that
God cares, I can do anything, right? We'll see.
Sorry this'll be cut short, but I was emailing April
back and forth a little bit. She got transferred! I'm so excited for her
to get to full proselyting. I'm excited to hear about her experiences
in the "cliffside" of Kansas.
Have a great week! Love and peace, my homies!
Love, Elder Atkin
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