Hey
thanks for the Easter package! You know how much I love snickerdoodles
:) And those chips were pretty good. You betcha that I'm "bigger,
bolder, thicker" - to be honest, I've gained over 50 pounds on my
mission. The people just feed me so well out here! Ain't nothin' like
some good old fashioned BBQ. Yum yum yum. It's tough to fit into my
clothes nowadays, but I make it work. I've busted out a few pairs of
pants, but no big deal. You might not really recognize me when I come
home because of the extra poundage that's distributed throughout my
body. I don't mind having a beer gut either...
I'm playin'. April fools! Don't worry, I haven't gained 50 pounds.
I'm
happy to say that Elder Heindel and I had an awesome week! Despite a
really slow start to the week, we taught a TON of people, we set a
baptismal date with Kara for the 13th of April, and we found another 4
new investigators - all from tracting. I'm constantly amazed at how many
people are being prepared to receive the Gospel, even if the
missionaries have tracted their street a million times before us. I used
to be afraid to knock a street that had recently been tracted, but now I
have no fear. As long as we have the Spirit with us and we trust in
God, we'll always find people.
Such
is the case with Lynette. Lynette is an older woman who lives down the
street from the Halles (members). When we first knocked on her door a
few weeks ago she said that she wasn't feeling too well, but would like
to talk to us some other time. She seemed extremely nice and spiritual
so we stopped by every few days. We finally caught her on a good day on
Wednesday as we were visiting people with Bro. Bird. She let us right in
and we had a wonderful visit. Almost 2 hours later we left the house
having taught about the Book of Mormon and committing her to read and
pray about it. Lynette has such an amazing understanding of scripture
that Bro. Bird even taught her about the Pearl of Great Price and the
doctrines within. I about flipped out when he started, but I relaxed as
she said that she already felt it was true. On more than
one occasion she mentioned that the Spirit was really strong in the room
and that she "felt" that the Book of Mormon was true. She's so amazing!
Lynette has such a deep love of the Bible and is more spiritual than
most members I've met. As we were leaving, she kindly said, "See you
later! God loves ya." Yes he does, Lynette.
That's
what I love about my mission. While I have met the most ignorant,
hypocritical, selfish, and misled self-proclaimed "Christians" on my
mission, I have also met the nicest, uplifting, loving,
spiritually-minded God-fearing people who are truly trying their best to
do what it right. How I wish that these people would become a part of
the true church and receive the blessings thereof. It's just like the
scripture says - they are "blinded by the craftiness of men." They would
join the church in an instant if only the barriers of misconceptions
and misinformation were removed. Most often those barriers can only be
removed by missionary-minded members they're acquainted with. Just the
fact that I have a nametag prevents me from talking to the most prepared
people on this planet. It's downright silly sometimes how prepared some
people are!
For
example, we tracted into a lady named Lori who's divorced and has a
12-year-old son with aspergers. She immediately constructed a brick wall
of, "Sorry, I'm Catholic," but we persisted and she let us come back
(that's another long story that I'll have to tell you sometime). We
visited her on Friday and had an awesome lesson. She is absolutely
hilarious and her son is the coolest kid in the world. She explained
that she was Catholic just because of it's tradition and family values.
She recognizes the flaws in every church you can think of, and she
totally hates Baptists (hooray, I found a new best friend). Every single
thing she said she wished churches had we responded by saying our
church had it. By the end she agreed to read and pray and we set a
return appointment. Talk about GOLDEN. She just doesn't know it yet.
Well, I have to go, but thanks again for the package and all of your love. Have a great week!
Love, Elder Atkin
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