November 14, 2011

Dear family,

 

Man, I never know how to start my emails. It's kinda awkward sometimes, ya know? Like even right now I'm like, "okay, this is a dumb way of starting an email. You should delete what you've said so far and write something else..." So I hope you know that I struggle with this. Every week. It's just one of those things. But hey, I can't complain. I like awkwardness. It's what I thrive on nowadays. I eat awkwardness for breakfast. My life is awkward, our investigators are awkward, Springdale is an awkward town.... I'm currently convinced that awkwardness is what missionary work is about. Here, let me explain:

 

Yesterday was a perfect example of awkwardness. We didn't have any set appointments, and so Elder Capitan and I just hit the pavement and visited anyone we could think of, from investigators to potentials to less-actives. Sometimes that's just what you do when things fall through. We first stopped by a former investigator named Richard. Nobody answered the door, so we decided to move on. We were stopped by this kid riding his bike around, and he told us about how he loves Jesus and likes going to church. We gave him a pass-along card and he got so excited that he dragged us to his family's apartment to talk to his mom. So we followed him. I was actually kind of excited to see what would happen. He dragged his mom outside and right when she saw us she flipped out and was like, "Aaahh! I'm busy!" and ran inside. We all just looked at each other in silence. Awkward!

 

Then as we were heading out, suddenly Richard comes walking up to us. He hurredly shook our hands and said that we should come on into his place. Elder Capitan and I were confused, but by all means we followed the man. As we were about to walk inside, his wife (who is blind and couch-bound because of a million health issues) starts yelling, "NO NO NO WAY NO NO You drank 4 beers and your drunk as a sailor NO NO we can't see the missionaries like this NO NO NO..." I then realized why Richard was acting so funny, and I couldn't help but laugh a little. Richard came back out onto the porch and started praising the Lord and apologizing and shaking our hands multiple times and stumbling around. It was so hilarious! We then thought it might be best to just leave before the drunk man did something stupid, and so we said goodbye. But Richard wouldn't have it. He dragged us back onto the porch and begged us to say a prayer with him. He huddled us all together and quickly said an incoherent prayer. Afterwards we agreed to come at a later time next week. Awkward!

 

Later last night, we decided to stop by an investigator who we haven't been able to contact for a while. We knocked on the door and a whole army ended up answering it. Come to find out, we had interrupted a religious meeting that the investigator was hosting, and the pastor (of the church the investigator currently attends) was even in attendance. Before we could say bye, they invited us in to share a spiritual thought with everyone. Call me a bad missionary, but to my dismay Elder Capitan shared something from the Book of Mormon. The pastor used to be Mormon. Awkward!

 

Next we stopped by Dawn's house to see how she was doing. She stepped outside with her boyfriend and they both started to smoke. Elder Capitan and I were both downwind from them, so you can only imagine me trying to not hack up a lung and to refrain from crying as we attempted a lesson on the Book of Mormon. Awkward!

 

Anyways. I've had enough of the awkwardness. And I'm tired of writing the word "awkward." But hopefully you can see that I'm an awkward missionary that faces awkward experiences every day. And now that I'm writing about it, I can only smile :) What an adventure! I'm actually starting to like smelling like smoke when I come home every day because I feel super legit. I feel like I'm getting down and dirty in missionary work. Awwwwwwww yeeeeeeeah :) Like I said last week, things have been picking up. Not big time, but definitely better. We still don't have anyone set with a baptismal date, but hopefully we can change that this week. It all comes one investigator at a time. One awkward lesson at a time.

 

I love the work and I love the people here. Recently we got our haircuts at a random hair salon in old school Springdale. The lady that runs the place is from El Salvador and she's super nice. She loves us so much that she's offered us free haircuts in the future. Money in the bank!!!! We've shared a little bit about the Book of Mormon with her and her husband, and they seem to like the idea that Christ came to the Americas and to their ancestors. They attend their Catholic church regularly, but they are very open. We might have to refer them to the Spanish Elders in the future, but we hope they gain enough interest to read, pray, and possibly attend church. Who knows!

 

I'm really starting to get close to the members here, and so it makes me want to stay here for a while longer. Darn, I was hoping I wouldn't get so attached! It's funny how as I've gotten closer to the members, they've become more trusting and more willing to have us over for dinner haha :) I'm sorta hoping to stay here until after Christmas, but ya never know... The Smith's have invited us over for Thanksgiving, and so I'm pretty sure we'll be fed VERY well. I pretty much love this time of year!

 

On Saturday we had Zone Conference. It was AMAZING. Our president is one of the most spiritual people I've ever met. It was so fun to be instructed by him and the assistants. We also got new phones, so that was exciting too.

 

Well, I don't know what else to say except that I'm loving life and I'm doing well. I love this gospel so much, and it's cool to look back and see how much I've learned already. Thanks for sharing about that lady's talk in sacrament meeting about Dallin H. Oaks. I truly feel like I know Jesus Christ more and more each day, and there's nothing more exciting than that! Man, it's so flipping awesome!

 

I love you so much!

 

Love, Elder Atkin

 

P.S. I'm so excited to get the Ensign from you! I look forward to getting it in the next couple of days. I heard a tiny bit about the missionaries in Dallas, but not much. I'm interested to see what that's all about too. And yes, I plan on taking a picture of myself with the letter M. I have no idea what for, but you've peaked my interest... :)

 

P.P.S. Sorry I haven't sent pictures in a while. You can look forward to receiving some next week. Thanks for sending the picture of mine and April's plaques next to each other. So cool!

P.P.P.S. Good luck in the play Rachel! Sounds like a blast! Hahaha I laughed really hard at the pictures Mom sent :)

 

P.P.P.P.S. Boring??? You're not boring Mom! I hope you know that I laughed BIG TIME when I read what you said about Utah Bear Poop, or Utah Moose Poop, or Utah Bull Crap. Hilarious! Mom, you're like the opposite of boring. I totally think that people will buy those. I would...

 

P.P.P.P.P.S. That's super cool that Dad's been way into geneology lately. I've been surprised at how much geneology and stories of my ancestors can be used in missionary work. I'll have to tell you about it next time.

 

P.P.P.P.P.P.S. I feel like I'm forgetting something... Oh well :) Tell everyone hi for me!