Dear Family,
How's life for you? Life is good for this elder!
Miracle of the week: Ashley came to church!!! It was so unexpected
that we almost didn't even know what to do with ourselves. She's been
kinda flakey in the past, so when she said that she'd come to church
eventually, we kinda lost faith. When you hear something like that a
million times and it doesn't happen, then it's hard to have faith. But
out of nowhere a few days before church, Ashley texted us and said, "Hey
elders. I'll see you on Sunday :)" We knew immediately that it was a
direct cause of our 40-day missionary fast in the ward. Man, it was one
of the best Sundays of my mission! It was one of those Sundays where you
feel exhausted after church because you do everything to make them feel
happy and welcomed and involved at all 3 hours of the block. And that's
exactly what happened. There were awesome talks in sacrament meeting,
Bro. Blake taught an awesome Gospel Principles class, and Relief Society
was... awesome, I guess haha. The ward did everything perfect when it
came to fellowshipping - everyone said hi and shook Ashley's hand. After
church she looked so happy! She thanked us and set up an appointment
with us at the Richins's house on Wednesday (Sis. Richins is her new
best friend). She said that though she still has tons of questions and
praying to do, it was the best church service she's ever attended.
Hooray! Elder Quinn and I are planning on extending the baptismal
commitment on Wednesday.
Shelby is getting really close to her baptism, so we're pumped.
We've taught her most of the lessons now, so all we have to do is
prepare her for her interview this Saturday. I just can't say enough how
golden she is! She accepts every commitment we extend without
hesitation. She has such faith. It's been cool to see how much she has
changed since we began teaching her not that long ago. She looks more
and more happy each time, as if something is clicking in her life. At
our lesson on Thursday, she invited her older sister to attend and see
what it was like. We had planned to teach the Word of Wisdom, but we
wondered if it was still the lesson we should teach since Ashley (her
sister) would be there. After a little bit of thought and prayer, we
realized that we were fearing that Ashley would be weirded out by our
lesson. We were worried that the lesson would scare her off. But we felt
prompted to go ahead with the lesson despite it being her first. It
ended up being the best Word of Wisdom lesson I've ever taught, and we
were able to commit Ashley to live the Word of Wisdom for a week. We
don't know if she'll want to be taught in the future, but the Spirit was
there and it wasn't awkward at all. Afterward I realized that I was
fearing man more than God when we wanted to change the lesson. So what
if it's on the Word of Wisdom? The Spirit can still be there! And it
definitely was. I've learned that we could teach any principle to
anybody if the Spirit is there.
There have been so many miracles
lately, I just can't even begin to share them all! After rescheduling
about 5-6 times with us, the Loftons finally set up a lunch/lesson
appointment with us. Looking back at it, I think Satan was doing
everything he could to prevent us from meeting. He knew that good would
come out of it. We ended up staying for 2 hours teaching the Plan of
Salvation to Challes and her mom. We answered tons of Sis. Lofton's
questions and helped her understand that we aren't some crazy cult. She
was so drawn in to what we were teaching. She told us that everything
made so much sense to her - more than anything she'd been taught in the
Baptist church before. Before we could even ask her to consider baptism,
she explained that she felt that this would be the church for her to
get baptized in. I about leapt of the coach and moon-walked :) Challes
is more eager than ever to get baptized as well. She has a date for the
4th, but she needs to attend our ward first. She's been going to 2nd
ward because her boyfriend goes there, but she has to be baptized into
the 1st ward. It's kinda complicated, but we have faith that it will
work out.
Besides that, we've been picking up at least 1 new investigator
each week. Once again, it's all thanks to the fast. Of course, not all
of our new investigators get baptized, let alone even progress. But the
more new investies we get, the more investies we get to help progress
towards eventual baptism. We have a few follow-up appointments with new
investigators this week, so we'll see how that goes. Totally righteous!
I love the Gospel of Jesus Christ and I love you! Thanks for everything and have a great Pioneer Day.
3 Nephi 5:13 - Y'all should memorize this.
Love, Elder Atkin
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