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!