December 17, 2012

Dear Family,

Guess what? This week I met a nice Jehovah's Witness lady while we were tracting... Did you catch that? A nice Jehovah's Witness. Elder Richards and I were tracting on Saturday and we knocked her door up in Carl Junction. We introduced ourselves and told her that we were out spreading a little Christmas joy in her neighborhood. She informed us that she was a Jehovah's Witness, but that she respected what we did and was very cordial about it. We had a very intelligent conversation about our religions and some of the differences and similarities that we have. I was so impressed by how respectful she was that I just had to ask her why some JW's were so hostile toward us. She said that they weren't taught to be mean to Mormons at church and she didn't really know why. We came to the conclusion that maybe it was because of the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith. As we left her house we wished her a Merry Christmas, then laughed as we realized that they don't celebrate Christmas. Good thing her door was closed...

I've come to realize that whenever we ask for respect for our beliefs, we should be just as quick to love and understand those of other faiths. I'll admit that I still don't know a lot about other religions and that I often make jokes about "gettin' saved." I'm not going to be perfect, and I still think that the performance of being saved is ridiculous, but it's opened my eyes to the way people think. Jehovah's Witnesses are good people who are trying to get to heaven too! (too bad only 144,000 of them will make it) I just wish we could reach a better understanding so that they don't act so weird around us.

Anyway. Elder Nordine got shipped off to Willard on Thursday and now I'm with Elder Richards. We've already hit it off quite nicely :) He replaced me in Springdale, so it was nice to get an update on the area that I was raised in. Sadly, none of the investigators I taught made it to baptism - including Betty (my first BoM placed), Dawn, Haydee, and such. Elder Richards is from Ririe, Idaho (near Rexburg, Rigby, and Idaho Falls) and he's been out just as long as April has. He actually remembered April from the MTC because he was in the neighboring district (same as Elder Ivie). He played football and wrestling in high school and he has 2 older sisters and a younger brother. He's considerably shorter than me, but that's not a problem. Honestly, I was excited to get a new companion. I loved Elder Nordine, but we needed something new because we were too good of friends. I was about ready to rip off his head. We spent the last 3 days together saying goodbye to his favorite people, which is one of my BIGGEST pet peeves. Not to sound like Mr. Perfect, but I hate wasting time saying goodbye to people. If I really loved them enough, I'll come back and visit them someday. I'm sure they'd understand.

So when I got Elder Richards on Thursday, we hit the streets hard right away. We prayerfully selected streets in Carl Junction to tract (similar to that other experience I shared a while back) and did our best to spread the Christmas joy. On each street we picked, we gave away a Book of Mormon to someone who said they'd read it and pray about it. Heavenly Father is still 100% for every time we do this. Now I know to never pick a street at random without praying first. I've had way too much success to do otherwise. We always find somebody. Now I've been praying to find that person who's ready to get baptized. Recently I've felt so strongly that there is someone in our area ready to be baptized that I just haven't found yet. We've been fasting and praying to find that person. It's only a matter of time now.

Erin and Ruben are still doing well. They came to the ward Christmas party on Saturday and had a great time. They're starting to feel really comfortable with the church. The only problem is that we're not sure if they're going to reach the 29th for baptism because we're having a hard time teaching them. They've been really busy. When we do see them, they get really distracted and it's hard to teach principles. Yesterday I had to cool off in the car after our lesson because I tried to start teaching the Plan of Salvation like 5 times and they got distracted after 5 seconds each time. We'll try teaching in a different way next time. Dawn and Jason are doing well, but we received a very discouraging text from Dawn a few days ago. They moved! And even worse? It's in Joplin 2nd ward. They are so close to us, and yet they aren't in our area so we won't be teaching them. I'm so tired of giving Joplin 2nd our investigators, referrals, less-actives, and favorite members! Our investigators are dwindling away one by one... But at least Elder Richards likes to tract. Elder Nordine didn't like to tract and so I had to drag him along. Now I got a tracting machine. We'll be finding a lot more investigators soon enough.

Honestly, I'm so happy to still be in Joplin. Whether I'm here for only 6 weeks or even longer, I'm excited to still work in this decrepit little city. A man named Tony put it best when he said, "It's the crotch of America. Everything just kind of sinks into this area (sinking motion with his hands)." I always feel good when members come up and say, "Elder Atkin, I'm so glad you're still around." Besides the many reasons for wanting to stay here, I really want to help this man named Bro. Everett get to the temple. We started teaching him recently after Bro. Green gave us his baptismal program from 2008 and his address. Bro. Everett was active for about a year after his baptism but then returned to his old ways. When we found him, he was at an extreme low and very depressed. Since then (2 weeks ago), he's come to the Christmas party and to church yesterday. And he loved it! We're slowly helping him find his faith again and help him gain friends in the church. I love Brother Everett. He reminds me of Mr. Kruger from the movie :)

Well, have a great week and be safe. Spread some Christmas joy!!!!

Love, Elder Atkin

December 10, 2012

Dear Family,

What a great week! Heavenly Father continues to bless us with a measure of success despite my imperfections. I feel so weak and so mediocre at times, but yet He trusts me enough to watch over His little flock here in Joplin, Missouri. And guess what? That will continue for at least another 6 weeks! We received transfer calls on Saturday night and Elder Nordine is getting shipped off to Willard, Missouri. Can you believe that I'm still here in Joplin? We're thinking that the Lord is keeping me here because there must be something I haven't quite gotten right yet. Haha I still have so much to learn!

 

Saturday was definitely a rough day. Elder Nordine and I have been together for 3 transfers and we just weren't quite ready to be done with each other. The whole day I could just feel the weight of the pending call that would come that night. We were in a sort of funk, I guess. I thought for sure that I was leaving and I was bracing myself for the inevitable. We visited a few people, including Kim and Bri (who are doing just great ever since their baptism. They can't wait for the ward Christmas party). We had dinner with Bro. Groesbeck at Moe's (comparable to Cafe Rio or Costa Vida. Delish!) and then headed out to Galena afterward to see Dawn and Jason. Right as we arrived at their apartment, they informed us that they were at the hospital in Pittsburg and couldn't meet with us. Great, a wasted trip to Galena. At least that's what I thought.

 

As we got back into Bro. Groesbeck's Audi (he's a wealthy businessman), he started driving into the heart of Galena. My surprise was soon answered as he said that he felt there were some streets that we needed to tract out sometime that he wanted to show to us. We soon pulled up to a house and he looked at me and said, "I feel that we need to knock on this house." I looked towards the house and instantly smiled. It was the McDonalds - an active family in the ward. Assuming that Bro. Groesbeck was playing a joke on us, I agreed and headed toward the front door. I tried to hide my laughter. Is he serious? We knocked a couple of times with no answer. I finally turned to Elder Nordine and Bro. Groesbeck. "Well, maybe y'all should try by another time. I feel strongly about this." It was then that I realized he had no idea who lived there. I then told him that it was the McDonalds. He was like, "Are you kidding me??" We had a good laugh about that one. I was so surprised that out of all of the doors in Galena, he knocked on one of the only members' doors. As we got back into the car, Bro. Groesbeck turned to us and said, "Elders, while that was pretty funny, I do feel like we were led to this street and that you need to find someone here. The Spirit is stronger on this street because there are members of the church. Someone is being prepared for you right here." I then realized that Bro. Groesbeck really was inspired. It was no coincidence that we knocked on the McDonald's door and there's no denying the promptings that Bro. Groesbeck felt. You can bet a million bucks that we're going back to that street in Galena. Someone needs the gospel :)

 

We then drove back to his house in Joplin where our car was. We sat inside for just a few minutes and chatted with him and his wife before we went home. Right as we were about to leave, Bro. Groesbeck asked us if he could play something on his guitar for us. We both said yes and then he went upstairs. As he was tuning his guitar, we chatted a little bit more with Sis. Groesbeck (who is adorable, by the way. She reminds me of you, Mom). Then Bro. Groesbeck started to play. I was instantly surprised to hear both a good singing voice and excellent guitar playing. I had no idea! Here's the dean of the business college at MSSU who doesn't seem to have an ounce of musical skill just strumming like a pro. And I mean PRO. He played 2 songs for us that he wrote himself. They both were very mellow songs that talked about holding Christ's hand and loving your brother. As I sat there on the couch, I felt such a peace in my heart. I had been so worried about transfer calls, so worried about our investigators (they all have so many problems, it's frightening), and so worried about myself. Here I'm supposed to be feeling the joy of Christmas, yet I'm all wound up about stuff. I know this might sound really cheesy, but Bro. Groesbeck's simple tunes calmed me right on down. That's the power of music! Sometimes music will speak to us more clear than any words could. Mom, I'm sure that you can understand how I feel, having gone to that concert in the conference center.

 

So anyways. Basically I was fine for the rest of the night. We got the transfer calls and I found out that I would be getting Elder Richards. I know nothing about him except that he replaced me in Springdale way back in the day. Elder Nordine is super bummed to have to move a little over a month before the end of his mission, but he'll get over it. Most of all we're just sad that we're not companions anymore. Who knew that I could be such good pals with a theater nerd from Vegas?? Oh well, that's the power of the gospel.

 

Ruben and Erin are doing good..... Kinda. Spiritually? Great! Temporally? Not so good. They are behind on bills, Ruben might have to head out on the road for Christmas to earn money, and they have the constant drama of false charges to deal with (long story). They good news is that many friends and aquaintances are on their side with the court cases and such, including the social workers and foster parents that are taking care of their son, Joey. Both Ruben and Erin came to church yesterday and LOVED it. They both know it's true, and Erin loves the power of the priesthood. She called us at 6:31 this morning because she wanted a blessing to help her get the week started right. They have a big court date on the 14th looming, so she's trying to not have a breakdown. Add on top of that the Word of Wisdom, which takes away her precious coffee and we have a major meltdown just waiting to happen :) Ruben has expressed that he still wants to get baptized on the 29th if things pan out the way they want to. And Erin has accepted the invitation to be baptized if we can't locate her records in the church's database. All of us know that a miracle can and will happen if Ruben and Erin are faithful, and Erin was promised in a previous blessing that Joey would be home for Christmas if they trust the Lord and follow him. Gosh, I would do anything to help Erin and Ruben stay strong and put the gospel first. Lots of prayers...

 

This week I also got to go caroling with all of the zone leaders in Tulsa in the neighborhood of the mission home. We got one lady to cry :) And guess who else is surprisingly musically talented? President Shumway - also a businessman. It was a blast! We had one house where the people looked at us out their windows like we were crazy and walked away. Awkward. Elder Nordine and I also went caroling with the youth in our ward on Wednesday and we handed out a few "Joy to the World" DVDs. Just spreadin' the Christmas joy like champs, that's all.

 

Well, if I had more time I'd tell you about the frozen fish that I gave Elder Staley as a white elephant gift, the lesson we had with a less active member who reminds me of Mr. Kruger on the movie, teaching Dawn and Jason about God and who he is, and much more. Things are going well here and I feel happy today. What a blessing.

Love, Elder Atkin

December 3, 2012

Dear Family,

Before I totally forget, I thought I'd share a cool link with y'all that you might enjoy. I was looking on the church's websites before I started this email and found this: http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/two-churches-forge-bond-after-devastating-storm. The article is about the friendship between the Joplin wards and the local Community of Christ (RLDS) since the tornado in May last year. You'll have to read the article to understand all that has gone on, but the coolest part is that I've totally been a part of this! The first few pictures are of members of our church painting the chapel and font of the Community of Christ church here in Joplin. I was there! I'm super bummed that they don't have a picture of me in my service clothes, painting like a champ. Either way it's been awesome to gain such great relationships with members of the Community of Christ church. We call each other cousins all the time :) Last night our church invited a lot of our "cousins" to come and watch the First Presidency Christmas devotional with us (so yeah, I did get a chance to watch it Mom. I loved it!). Afterward there were some refreshments in the gym and I was able to chat with a few of the nicest people. There's this one guy named Ben Peterson who I talked to. He's 80 years young and still going strong. He told me about his experience with the tornado and how blessed he is. Funniest part? He used to be very anti-Mormon when he was younger. Now he's a member of the RLDS church. Figure that one out for me...

This week has really gotten me into the Christmas spirit. We had zone conference on Wednesday and President Shumway introduced us to the church's new Christmas campaign. If you haven't already heard about it, the top story at mormonnewsroom.org talks about it or you can just look up mormon.org/christmas. Basically our church is spending millions of dollars on spreading Christmas joy. Sounds good to me! Our job is to talk to as many people as we can about this website and to spread the message of hope that comes through Christ. At zone conference we practiced door approaches/lessons that were specifically tailored to the Christmas message. President Shumway also wants us to share this with members so that they can in turn spread it themselves. Elder Nordine and I have already had some fun talking about the meaning of Christmas with members at dinners. I've decided that I'm going to make this the best Christmas I've ever experienced.

Yesterday was quite the crazy day. As we showed up before sacrament meeting, everyone was frantically talking about the church being vandalized the night before. Sure enough, we walked passed everybody to the south-side doors on the church. One of the doors had been smashed with a huge rock! Come to find out, the police called President Jones late last night after they discovered the smashed door while driving around. I'm sure there's a lot more to the story, but everyone thinks that somebody just doesn't like us. Probably some dumb kid whose parents hate Mormons. How immature.

To add to the excitement to the day, the new Joplin YSA branch had it's first sacrament meeting since being organized recently. There were about 40 to 50 people in attendance, and Elder Nordine and I are going to cover the branch until further notice. It was cool to hear from the Stake Presidency as they talked about how historical this day truly was. I guess the Joplin stake has been talking about creating a singles branch for years now. President Jones talked about how he thinks this will help the youth stay active in their transition into married life. What a blessing!

This week we were able to set a baptismal date with Ruben for the 29th of December. What's cool about it is that Ruben asked Bro. Wilstead (his friend in the church) to baptize him. Bro. Wilstead happily accepted and told Ruben that he'd be his first-ever baptism. Just like me! It's been neat to see the Lord bless Ruben and Erin as they have met with us through the past few weeks. I'm a firm believer that if somebody puts the gospel first in their lives, the Lord will take care of everything. And boy has he ever. Ruben got a random bonus at work, somehow their mortgage is paid off for two months, and many other cool things have happened recently - all since Bro. Borup gave Erin a priesthood blessing on Monday. Now our biggest hold up is the Word of Wisdom. Ruben smokes and Erin drinks coffee like it's nobody's business. We warned Ruben on Friday that now that he's set a date for baptism, the adversary is going to try extra hard to bring them both down. It'll be important that they keep coming to church and meeting with us.

Other than that, we taught some great lessons to new investigators in Galena and in Carl Junction. The one's in Carl Junction are students at Ozark Christian College and are training to become ministers and such. If we had time, I'd tell you about our first lesson on Thursday. Just know that I was so nervous going into it because I thought that they were going to tear us apart. OCC is extremely anti-Mormon and I am sure that they have been trained on how to talk to Mormon missionaries. Luckily, they were very nice and asked really good questions, but I have a feeling that it was because we had a member with us. They've asked us to come back again, so we'll see how that goes.

Have a great week! Tell Joey hi for me when he gets back home. Have fun walking Sunny in the mornings. Keep being awesome :)

Love, Elder Atkin

P.S. Here's a picture of me and our Christmas tree that a member donated to us (sorry I'm such a goof!). We didn't have any ornaments so we found random pictures, a tie, some candy canes, a little Joplin flag, a ping pong ball, and a picture of Christ to put on top. We're still looking for someone in the ward that might have extra Christmas lights we can use. Fun times as a missionary!

November 26, 2012 - Thanksgiving

Dear Family,

Do you know what I'm thankful for? Members who feed us copious amounts of food during the holidays! Since Thursday, our fridge has been packed with Thanksgiving leftovers and all sorts of goodies. You may laugh at this, but I really am seriously thankful for this. Knowing that we have good food to come home to is a big deal for us. And it sure saves me a lot of money. This week was just a really fun time to spend with members and non-members alike. Elder Nordine and I are really becoming good friends with a lot of people in the ward.

But even more than turkey, stuffing, and mashed potatoes, I am grateful for baptisms! Saturday was such a special day for both Kim and Bri as well as I. It's been a long time coming for their family, and I'm happy to say that everything went so well. Beforehand, I was super nervous and worried that not very many people would show up, but we ended up having a good turnout. You see, Kim and Bri still don't know very many people in the ward, so we had trouble finding people to come to the baptism. But after a lot of prayers and many phone calls, we were able to get the relief society president, Bishop, and a few other members there. When it came time for me to baptize them, only Bri had to be immersed more than once. Not that it's a bad thing, because that's why we have witnesses, but I just think it's funny that none of the baptisms I've been a part of have gone perfectly. A toe or a knee or something always comes up or something similar. In Bri's case the water was just a little bit too shallow so I had to really push her down under causing her knee to come up. But as she came out of the water, she slipped and fell back in (or in other words, I dropped her). Bri was such a champ about it, though, and she just laughed it off and let me do it again. After the program was over, she made fun of me and said that I did okay for my first baptisms. Don't worry, we're pals :)

Almost just as cool as the baptism was an experience that Kim had the day before her baptism. I've told y'all before about how Heavenly Father has been removing the obstacles in Kim and Bri's way so that they could be baptized, but there was just one more left before Saturday. Recently Kim informed us that she got a job as a bartender to help pay some bills and keep the family on their feet. She could still get baptized because she doesn't drink herself, but both Elder Nordine and I felt like it wouldn't be the best environment for her to be in. But of course a job is a job, so we told her to pray about it and look for other options. Right before the baptism, Kim told me that she had gotten fired from her job. Instinctively I offered my condolences, but secretly I was happy that she didn't have to work their anymore. But to my pleasant surprise, she told me that she had been praying and praying and praying about it and that for the week leading up to the baptism she had this battle going on inside of her. She asked God to take care of the situation for her so she could do what he wanted her to do. On Friday as she walked into work, the manager informed her that she was getting fired because she didn't drink with everyone else. Instead of being sad about it, Kim was instantly happy because she knew that Heavenly Father had taken care of it for her and that she didn't have to feel worried anymore. Isn't that awesome??

So life is good right now. It's always hard to teach a lot of lessons during the week of Thanksgiving and other holidays, but we still taught some good lessons. Our next investigator that's closest to baptism is Ruben, and he's now come to church two weeks in a row now. His wife, who's a member, came to church with him yesterday for the first time since she was 10 years old. To make a long story short, her family quit going to church when she was 10, but ever since she's felt this pull to come back to the Mormon church. For over 30 years now she's gone to church after church with Ruben, but has always felt that something's missing. Just recently, they met some members of the church who referred us to them. They've been going through a lot of rough things lately, including false abuse charges against Erin (Ruben's wife) that has caused their adopted son to be put in a foster home. Gosh, it's just absolutely devastating. But the cool part is that they recognize that they've come in contact with us right at this time for a reason. It's no coincidence. Ruben has accepted to be baptized when he knows that it's true.

The Coxes are doing just okay right now. They still haven't quit their addictions, so we're going to have to move their baptismal date to a later time. We haven't been seeing them as much lately, which concerns me, but I think they'll be okay. They're just very busy and they're having a hard time acting on their faith. They know that God can help them quit tobacco, but at the same time they don't. You know what I'm saying? It's just tough to help somebody realize that. Hopefully we'll see them tomorrow.

I'm out of time, but there's so many other miracles I wanted to share with you! Well, I guess I'll have to write 'em in my journal for a later time. Thanks for the advice, Mom :) Y'all take care now, ya hear?

Love, Elder Atkin

P.S. Here's a picture of Elder Nordine and I with Kim, Bri, and Levi (Bri's son) right before the baptism.