October 1, 2012

Dear Family,

Today is a great day! Do you know why it is a great day?? Because it's Monday!! And it's a new month, which means we have a fresh $130 on our cards and a fresh allotment of 1,600 miles to use on the car. The possibilities are endless! The world is mine to conquer :) I have to admit that I didn't budget very well the past couple of months and so that's why I had to use my home debit card a few times for random purchases. I'm super determined this month that I'll use my money wisely and not have to do that again. Haha we'll see what I have to say on the subject 3 weeks from now...

But really, today is an excellent day. Probably partly due to the fact that yesterday was an excellent day. I just flippin' LOVE Sundays! I think I used to say that I loved Sundays in the past because I wanted to look like a good boy and to impress (I don't know who). But I can honestly and sincerely say that Sundays are what I live for. They're what keep me goin'. They're my spiritual "fix." Haha okay that sounded a little weird, but you catch my drift. Anyway, I guess the best part about yesterday is that it was fast and testimony meeting in church. Yesterday was the last Sunday we'd be spending in the Carthage building, so everyone was extra excited. But surprisingly, nobody really talked about it too much in their testimonies. Instead, most of the testimonies were just heartfelt and sincere witnesses of the Savior. For some crazy reason my eyes really enjoyed leaking during the meeting. I realized that so often I come to church thinking about my investigators and everything like that so I forget about myself. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but I concluded that sometimes a full-time missionary for the church needs to be fed once in a while, too. I was really bummed that we didn't have any investigators at sacrament meeting, but it gave me time to really focus on everything around me. As each person got up and bore their testimonies (many of which were very emotional), I just felt wonderful. I felt so at peace, and I literally felt like I had been filled. Every now and then the Lord gives me a little reminder that he loves me! Something I've been trying to get in the habit of is to write down each of these instances in my study journal I carry with me. It's kind of cool to look back and realize how many times the Spirit has touched my heart in only the past few months.

Before church yesterday, I was able to go to another church because we were invited. The man who invited us is named Keith, and we met him here at the University. To make a long story short - he was really interested in what we had to say. We made a deal with him that we'd come to his church if he came to ours. He wholeheartedly agreed and expressed his desire to attend services in the new building. So after a few weeks, we finally called him up. The church Keith goes to is the Park Plaza Christian church, which is a non-denominational, family-oriented church. In other words, just another average feel-good local church. Sorry, I know that may sound harsh of me, but there are so many of these churches that I just don't even bother. The services were at 10:30, but we went to the Sunday school beforehand at 9:30. I was actually super excited because Keith had hyped us all up about his teacher who would be teaching from Isaiah. Apparently the guy has a Th.D. and has been doing this for 40 years. I was sincerely pumped for this! We showed up yesterday morning and Keith was right there at the doors waiting for us. As we walked in, he shook our hands and gave each of us a program. We then sat down and the class started. Keith introduced us real quick-like, and then the teacher began. The lesson ended up being quite boring and confusing. The teacher mixed in a lot of his own firey opinion and he never asked what anyone else thought. It wasn't a Bible study, it was a Bible lecture. My excitement faded to disappointment and confusion. The hype was not met. I didn't feel the Spirit. I felt like I had walked in with an open mind, but in the end I wasn't satisfied. If I had more time, I'd talk about the specifics of the doctrine, but just know that the guy was totally off. I think that's another reason why I felt so good at church (which was right afterward). Our church is so amazing! I'll never be able to deny the difference in feelings that I felt between our churches. Anyway, enough about that. I must say that it was kinda cool to go to a different church though.

While we didn't have any investigators in sacrament meeting, Ashley did show up for Gospel Principles. I was stoked beyond belief! She's been doing a lot better lately, and she ended up really enjoying church. We talked about the coming forth of scripture in Gospel Principles and then we had a combined fifth Sunday lesson on the new Strength of Youth pamphlet. Ashley loved it! She told us that it's probably the best church services she attended so far. Touchdown! I know that we'll still see ups and downs with Ashley, but at least she's doing good right now. She still wants us to text her scriptures each day to help her out. She even told us that she's starting to agree with our beliefs. The Spirit's workin' on her :)

Well, that's all from this elder for now. The work is going great and I get to head to Tulsa today for ZLC. Have a good one!

Love, Elder Atkin

P.S. I just realized that this whole email was about just Sunday... Don't worry, the rest of the week was good too :)