October 15, 2012

Dear Family,

Gee, I really don't know how to start an email these days... Umm, let's see........ the weather... Yeah, the weather!! How's the weather of there in Utah? It's sure been really nice here lately. Last week was actually kind of cold. It's fun to see the change in seasons. The trees here are starting to change colors and it's absolutely beautiful. I have a feeling that Elder Nordine and I are going to spend a lot of time raking up leaves for people. But I'm okay with that. I love doing service!

So yesterday was kind of a crazy day. It was our first day back in the new Stake Center and all of us were really excited. The meeting was planned to last 2 hours and the 2 Joplin wards would be combined. We were expecting a full house. As the meeting began, President Jones got up and began to talk about the effects of the tornado last year. He mentioned that as a result, Joplin 1st ward was "leadership rich" and that there was an imbalance of members between the two wards due to people moving out and such. At that point, I knew exactly what was coming. He then announced that the wards would be realigning boundaries. A collective gasp came from the congregation and everyone sat there with their mouths wide open. The boundary between 1st ward and 2nd ward would be changing for the first time in decades! You have to realize how big of a deal this is. There's been somewhat of a rivalry between the two wards for a very long time now. Kind of immature if you ask me. This has been a long time coming.

Well, Elder Nordine and I need to move now. Our current address is now in the 2nd ward boundaries, so we'll need to go apartment hunting in the next couple of days. It's such a bummer! I love the apartment we live in now, and I'm not excited to move all of our stuff - especially since I'll most likely get transferred in a couple of weeks. So is life. The worst part about all of this is that we lose a ton of investigators and less-actives we were working with to the 2nd ward elders. Those 5 new investigators that I mentioned last week? 3 of them are now in the other ward. Sigh....... Since yesterday, all of our plans are jumbled up. Elder Nordine and I have no idea what to do now.

We do keep some of my favorite investigators though, so it isn't that bad. We'll still be teaching Ashley and Kim and her family, as well as the Cox family (who we picked up last week). Kim and her family came to the sacrament meeting yesterday, so we were happy about that. It was the first time they attended church since I've been here. Kim has a baptismal date for the 22nd of December, and Bree and Brandon have their dates set for the 10th of November. Kim has to wait until then because that's when she'll get married to Dustin. Technically Dustin would also get baptized on the 22nd, but he hasn't fully agreed to it yet. He's still not sure about setting a date. He'll come around, though. Dustin's such an awesome guy! He's been off of smoking for over a month now. You should hear him pray. He talks to God like he would talk to a buddy of his. Disrespectful at times? Yes. Funny? Yes.

Ashley has been doing pretty good lately. She really enjoyed Conference last week, but she's been super busy with school so we haven't met in a while. Elder Nordine and I were a little sad yesterday because she didn't show up at church. We texted her and asked her why and she just responded that she didn't have a good reason. I guess sometimes people don't come just because they don't want to. At least she was honest with us. We're still trying to figure out what to do next. I'm pretty sure she's still smoking, but at least she's reading the scriptures that we send her each morning. Any ideas, family? We don't want to push her because we've come this far, but we need to take the next step. I just wish I could see her get baptized before I left Joplin. Boy would that be great!

I have to tell y'all about 2 of the 5 new investigators we picked up last week. They are so awesome! Their names are Bob and Kasey, and they were a media referral we received a long time ago. Over the past few months, I've tried by their place a few times, but they never answered. I had kind of given up on them and I wasn't really planning on going back. On Thursday we had an exchange with the assistants. Elder Treasure and I split off for the day, and we taught a couple of lessons and had a pretty effective day. But near the end of the day, we ran out of people to see. It was 8:40 and our only options were to either go in for the night, tract, or - you guessed it - try by Bob and Kasey 1 more time. I was really tempted to just go in for the night, but something told me to just try by. As we pulled up to the old double-wide trailer, I was hoping that nobody would be home. Call me a wimp, but everything about their place is creepy. But sure enough, there was a light on. I groaned as I stepped out of the car and walked up to the door with Elder Treasure. I just knew that someone would answer the door with a shotgun.

I knocked softly and stepped back bit. After a few seconds, the porch light flickered on and the door slowly creaked open. To my surprise, a really nice young lady opened the door, smiled, and pleasantly asked how we were doing. Shortly thereafter her husband (who also looked nice) came to the door and invited us right in. Come to find out, they had gotten the Book of Mormon that they requested, but nobody had ever come back. We asked them if they were interested in learning more about it and they happily agreed. We informed them of the open house coming up and they said they would attend. To add to my amazement, they invited us over for dinner the next week and thanked us profusely for coming. Before we left the house, Bob stopped us and said, "I would never turn down men of God. Thank you." Miracles! Just talking to someone who's nice is a miracle for me these days :)

So, tomorrow we're going to eat dinner with Bob and Kasey. I'm absolutely crushed because they are now Joplin 2nd's investigators, but I know that they'll be taken care of. I wish I could teach them in the future, but at least I was able to be there when we found them. That night I thanked Heavenly Father for prompting me to stop by one more time and for blessing me with the courage to be diligent. It's so worth it!

Well, y'all have a great week! I'll let you know if we get a new address soon.

Love, Elder Atkin