Sunshine!

Dear Family,

 

This week has been a rainy one. Yesterday it finally cleared up just in time to make for a beautiful Sunday. The temperature was in the 60's to low 70's and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. With all of the rain we've had, everything is green and in full bloom. After companionship study yesterday we were so happy and full of energy that we jumped on our bikes and rode to our appointment with Aaron. Elder H seems to get depressed when the thunderstorms roll in so it was good to see his spirits up. It's moments like these that I truly understand an "opposition in all things." Even the weather! How the rainclouds of life help us appreciate the days of sunshine, and vise versa.

 

Such a beautiful day was coupled with wonderful church services. In elders quorum we reviewed President Monson's talk from the 2012 October General Conference called "Consider the Blessings." In the talk Pres. Monson shares a few experiences in which the Lord answered his prayers and brought about blessings in his life and others. At the beginning of the talk he challenges each of us to take a step back a realize what we are grateful for. Tyler (our branch mission leader) was teaching the lesson and he asked us to think about what we had been blessed with. Naturally, I thought about how much I love all of God's creations and being in the good ol' outdoors. But as I continued to ponder an interesting thought came into my mind, most definitely from the Spirit. I receive so many blessings from the people I'm surrounded by. And even more than that is the blessing of learning from those individuals. My mission has helped me realize that there is always something to be learned from each one of God's children, whether good or bad. It may sound silly, but I'm grateful for each moment I'm with someone - learning from their wisdom or thier mistakes. Kinda makes even the smallest and least of conversations with a human being seem like a glorious opportunity to learn something new! Sorry if I'm not making any sense... Either way I'm grateful. I'm just glad I'm a missionary and that I'm learning. God sent us to this earth to become functionally independent learners.

 

Saturday was a day full of miracles. Heck, this week was full of miracles. I don't know what we did right, but I guess the Lord saw fit to dump a few tender mercies on us. I don't have enough time to share each story, but I'll tell y'all about Steven. On Saturday night we had just finished tracting down in Lowell when we headed back up to Bentonville for our dinner appointment. As we were getting close, I looked at the clock and realized that we had 12 minutes until our dinner appointment. Talk about inconvenient! Not enough time to really get anything done, but too much time to just sit in front of John's apartment until dinner (April, I'm sure you'd understand). But as I was wondering what to do, the Lord simply took charge of the situation. Before I knew what I was doing I took a left at the stop sign, took another left next to a soccer field, and there we found ourselves in front of a few apartments - hidden from the view of the busy street. I felt a strong pull to these apartments and I already saw the door that I knew we needed to knock on.

 

Before Elder H could ask what the heck was going on, he followed me to the first door in the small complex. I knocked once, didn't feel it, didn't wait, then headed to the door previously mentioned. We knocked and a young man with long hair and a beard stepped out to greet us. We explained who we were and began to talk to him. He said he believed in Christ, but he was acting really weird. After a few minutes of talking and asking questions I looked at the clock and asked him if we could come back in an hour. Steven's laughter and irreverence suddenly changed to complete seriousness. "Where are you going? Can I come with you? Take me with you! I'll do anything. I'll walk. I'll knock doors with you. I need God in my life. Take me with you. I knew that you were going to knock on my door - I could feel it..." We were shocked. I didn't know what to say. After begging us some more, I didn't know to say anything more than, "Get dressed. We'll call our dinner and see if you can come." To make a long story short, Steven came to our dinner and we taught him about everything from the Book of Mormon to the Spirit to modern-day prophets. It was amazing! I barely ate anything at all. We're going to see Steven again tomorrow.

 

I know that the Lord is in control of his work. When he needs to get something done, he leads his servants through the Spirit. There was no way that I could've found Steven otherwise. It's my guess that it would've been years before the missionaries tracted those apartments again. I'm so grateful that I was able to be an instrument in the Lord's hand that evening. Isn't that so cool??!! The other little miracle with this story is that Steven didn't make it to church yesterday (he also begged to come to church with us) because he had some stuff come up. The reason why it's a miracle is because the OKC temple president and his wife gave talks on eternal marriage and covenants that were specifically catered to an all-member audience. They were good talks, but I would've been so embarrassed if Steven had come and listened to the in-depth doctrine. Gosh, they went deep! It was almost even over my head... He'll enjoy fast and testimony meeting next Sunday. Along with Steven, we found another new investigator and a couple other potentials through tracting. Cool thing is that most of them are YSAs!! What a miracle! Our hard work is finally paying off.

 

Should be a great week coming up. We can only keep improving and getting better. I'll have many many more stories to share with you on Mother's Day. Take care and be safe.

 

Love, Elder Atkin