Dear Family,
Oh man, as of this past week,
the weather has really warmed up and it's gotten really humid. I feel
like I'm floating in water! Haha jk ;) Today it is raining and it kinda
stinks outside. I don't really know why... Owasso doesn't usually stink
quite like Springdale did. I'm sure I already told you this, but
Springdale had quite the interesting smells because of all the Tyson and
Cargill plants (chicken and turkey and such). What's funnier though, is
that it would smell different for each of the 7 days of the week. One
day it would be a good chicken smell - like fried chicken. But then the
next it would smell like rotting chicken carcasses. Yuck.
Well anyways, it's been a great week! Mom, that
positive, hard working spirit that you asked about is sure working hard
and is positive (most of the time). I love the work and the people, and
Owasso has become home for me. Of course, I don't always feel accepted,
but that's all part of the job. You're right - our battles with Satan
are more real than a lot of things. Satan will do anything to stop the
work. But I love the quote by Joseph Smith, "The standard of truth has
been erected. No unhallowed hand can stop the work... the truth of God
will go forth boldy, nobly, and independent..." I remember memorizing
that in my mission prep class at BYU and I repeat to myself whenever
times seem tough. Lucifer can do everything he can to stop the work from
progressing, but it certainly will still progress. The Lord knows who's
ready for His message.
We picked up a new investigator this week! Her name is
Paige (I'm trying to remember if I've mentioned her to you before. She's
friends with Chevi - who wanted us to bless her home) In the past we've
helped Paige move into her apartment and we painted it too (I found out
that I'm no good at painting. My clothes got absolutely covered in
paint!) While we did service for her, she mentioned that she wanted to
know Jesus Christ a little more. It seemed important to her. So Elder
Ivie and I dropped by her place on Tuesday just to see how she was doing
and to see if she was interested. We ended up having a really spiritual
conversation about prayer and Heavenly Father's love for us. Paige is a
single mom, so she has plenty of problems. But she is very prayerful.
She loves the comfort that she feels and knows that God has always been
there for her. I felt prompted to share 2 Ne. 32:8-9, which talks about
the Spirit teaching us to pray and the Devil teaching us not to pray.
Paige really identified with that scripture, and her curiosity in the
Book of Mormon grew. She then asked us, "Do you guys, like, have a copy
of the Book of Mormon I could have. For free?" And we were like, "Uh...
YES." And she was like, "And can you come teach me about the Book of
Mormon more in the future?" And we were like, "Uh... BIGGER YES." (haha
we didn't really say that) We're meeting with Paige tonight at 7:00.
Wish us luck!
Yesterday we brought Bro. Kennedy and his daughter over
to meet Tom and Belinda. Bro. Kennedy felt that he should meet them
because they sounded awesome and they were right down the street from
him. As always, they were happy to let us in and they immediately love
the Kennedys as well. Tom was sharing his usual riddles and puns (which I
totally love. I almost literally DIE from laughter when we go over to
their place), and we had some nice small-talk for a while. We were
getting close to leaving when Bro. Kennedy piped up and asked them to
come to one of our church services in the future. Tom said that
eventually they might because of how nice we've been, but he started
saying that we don't agree with some of the simple fundamentals of the
gospel. He shared his usual scripture in 1 Timothy about God coming down
in the flesh to save us all, and he asked us how we could believe in 3
seperate individuals (the Godhead). We tried to explain things, but were
getting nowhere. But before things got heated, Bro. Kennedy decided to
share with Tom and Belinda his conversion story. It was basically like,
"We may believe in many different things than you, but let me tell you
why I'm Mormon." Bro. Kennedy went on to share one of the most
beautiful, spiritual conversion stories I've ever heard. The spirit was
so strong that everyone was close to tears (well, Bro. Kennedy was
already crying). The spirit was able to testify to me that what he was
saying was true, and I know that Tom and Belinda felt it too. I looked
at them afterwards, and they both looked like they had been hit in the
face with a baseball bat. Afterwards, we talked as if nothing happened,
but hopefully the big fat seeds we planted will grow.
Time out! I am now
in Best Buy about an hour after the power went out in the library. All
of the computers shut down and I only had like 10 minutes left. Lame!
Right when I was getting to the good part in Tom and Belinda's story...
Oh well, I'll tell you more later. I can't stay on here forever.
Have a great week! Hugs and kisses (okay maybe not kisses. Gross!)
Love, Elder Atkin
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