Dear Family,
Happy
Valentines to you too! Thanks so so so much for the package. It was
perfect in every way - well timed, candy packed, and super thoughtful. I
love my family so much :) Besides, your mail is almost all the mail I
get nowadays. Not like I'm complaining or anything, but I think people
just get tired of replying to my letters. I pretty much just expect a
weekly letter or two. I loved the card that you sent too. My parents are
so goofy hahaha! I seriously laughed until tears came. Oh boy, what a
hoot.
Why yes, Mom, I have had another good week. This
week marks two in a row for new investigators! That's unheard of around
here! Well, I guess Ashley was technically a former, but she feels new
because we're starting all over. This last week I missed our appointment
with her because we were on exchanges with the zone leaders :( But it
was a great exchange! Elder Jensen stayed in Owasso with Elder Gutierrez
and I went down to Tulsa with Elder Wright. Elder Jensen had a really
successful day while I was gone (I hate it when that happens), and they
had a great lesson with Ashley on the Plan of Salvation. She's beggining
to be more receptive, and so we think we'll extend the baptismal
invitation next week. Elder Jensen also asked if her husband would be
interested, and so she's going to ask him to listen in on the lesson
too. Sweet!
Yesterday we had a little miracle, I guess. We went on
splits with Bro. Kimball and his son, and we went to visit a less-active
we stop by often. Her name is Deb. She's usually busy or we don't have a
male with us so we have to talk on her doorstep. But this time we were
able to have a male with us AND she was home. Elder Jensen and I didn't
think much of it, but we thought it would be good to stop by. Deb's
husband (who's usually not there because he's often out getting hi off
of drugs) answered the door and let us right in. So what usually is just
a stop-by ended up being quite the partay! Gary (the husband) usually
isn't all there (if ya know what I mean), and so we just talked to Deb
and her grandson, Branden, who lives with them. We shared Ezekiel 37
with her and talked about the Book of Mormon and the Bible going hand in
hand with each other to form the fulness of the everlasting gospel. The
spirit was able to be there and we had a great discussion about the
scriptures and how they can help us. Deb eventually just flat out told
us that she knows she needs to come to church, even though she's in so
much pain (she's basically made of metal from so many surgeries). It was
perfect that we had Bro. Kimball with us because he piped up and said
that he'd love to help her get to church, even if she could only make it
to sacrament meeting. We talked about how that's the most important
meeting of the day, and she agreed that she'd come next week. I thought
we'd never get Deb to church! And even better - We've been sort of
hinting each time we see her that we would love to teach Branden and
eventually baptize him, and she agreed to let us come tomorrow and start
teaching Branden. Badda bing badda boom new investigator! Branden is a
really good kid and he remembers liking primary, so I'm excited to start
teaching him.
We were able to reach 20 this week, even though (once
again) yesterday we had to work our tails off. You're probably thinking
that numbers is all we focus on nowadays! But I really have seen the
benefits of trying to get these 20 lessons. Take Deb and David for
example. We're trying to see as many people as we can, and we wouldn't
have seen them if we hadn't set this goal. Sundays are turning into our
toughest days. But David has come to church 4 times in a row now! Haha
we had to wake him up with a text yesterday, but he showed up and had a
great time - even if he was in jeans and his shirt was half unbuttoned,
showing his gnarly chest hair. David is quite the beast :) After church
we went and had a great lesson with him about overcoming Satan and his
temptations. We compared David's experiences with Moses' experience of
seeing God face-to-face and then seeing Satan. David has had some really
neat experiences lately, and he can't let Satan make him forget that.
It was a great lesson.
Well, I'm still chuggin' along, dear family. This next
week we're going to tract tract tract our guts out. It'll be great :)
And guess what? Zeke is in my district now because of an emergency
transfer that happened! And guess what again??? I'm going on exchanges
with him this week because I'm district leader (we do it with everybody
in the district) I'll let you know how that goes :)
I'm so sad to hear that Grandma broke her hip!!! Tell
her that I love her and miss her. I hate it when things like that happen
back home :(
Have a great week! I hope it's
snowing in Cache Valley. Because it snowed here last night! It was only
two inches, but it is SO beautiful! Everyone around here is freaking out
haha
Love, Elder Atkin
P.S. That's sweet that Thomas got married! And Frank is in a tripanionship? Cool!
No comments:
Post a Comment