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.
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