ahh...Bentonville

Dear Family,

Howdy! It's been a good week to say the least. I'm so happy to have Elder Hironymous as my companion. Yeah, that's his name. We've only been together for a few days, but in some ways it seems like we've already been through an eternity. I cannot tell you how fun it's been to train this guy. Taking him tracting for the first time, teaching our first lesson to an investigator who thinks he's a gangster, studying together... Let's just say that I'm constantly laughing to myself :) I feel like I have a little brother in tow. It reminds me of when I was first trained almost 2 years ago. It really puts everything into perspective. Was I really that immature?

Elder Hironymous is from Webberville, Texas (near Austin) and he is the youngest of 5 - like me. He loves sports, his favorites being basketball, football, and soccer - like me. He's a pretty cool guy - like me!! Haha but really he's super different from me in many other ways. I have never met anyone that was more proud to be from Texas than this guy. To be honest, it's quite annoying sometimes... But I have to give him props for sticking up for his Longhorns in Razorback territory. Gosh, he takes it personal! I don't dare say anything bad about his favorite university. He has a UT flag, UT shorts, UT pajamas, UT this, UT that... I'm not sure if I'll like the color of burnt orange after these 2 transfers. But it's all fun.

Well, I don't have much to report as far as the work goes, but we're planning on having a killer upcoming week. We've already contacted a few of our investigators and we have an investigator named Dakota (the one who thinks he's a gangster) with a date for the 25th of May. I've been trying to help keep Elder H excited about everything and think that there is a lot to do. And there is! We have a whole stake to cover and there's a lot of people in the Rogers/Bentonville area.

Speaking of Bentonville. Talk about a nice town! I love it here. As you may know, Bentonville is Walmart headquarters. This means that there is some type of Walmart office on every corner. The fact that Walmart hires people from all parts of the world makes things a little bit interesting too. I cannot tell you how many Indian people we have already met. Most of them are Hindu, so they don't have a concept of Christ. I'm so used to teaching Christians that I just don't know what to do! I'll figure it out.

Since we don't have many investigators, we've just hit the streets and have done a lot of tracting. Our plan is to find tons and tons of people, keep the single adults for ourselves to teach, then hand off everyone else to the rest of the zone. All the missionaries will love us! Don't worry, I don't do it for that reason alone, but I like to think of myself in their shoes - receiving referral after referral from the YSA missionaries tracting in my area. I feel like I get to be Santa Claus in this situation.

We already love the branch and they love us. I had no idea that we'd have a full dinner calendar on our first sunday. The people here are just great. I'll admit that it's a little strange serving in a branch with people my age, but it opens up a lot of fun opportunities too. Our ward mission leader recently returned from his mission in California so he's pumped and ready to go. We're going to try and think of cool activities that the YSAs can invite their friends to. If y'all have any really cool ideas for activities or finding new investigators, let this guy know.

There's just so much to be excited and happy about. Elder Hironymous is absolutely terrified to teach and to testify, but I'll change that with a little help from the Lord. Every day we practice door approaches in companionship study. He's already getting a lot better. I can't wait to see what this upcoming week will bring. I hope y'all are doing fantastically well. I love you and pray for you.

Love, Elder Atkin

P.S. Here's a monumental picture for you. My one and only son :)

April 8, 2013 - Transfer stuff...

Dear Family,

My goodness, what a wonderful week! Despite our zone dropping below 100 lessons, Elder Heindel and I not reading 20, and a really bad zone meeting on Friday, I feel great. There's nothing quite like General Conference to uplift my spirits and give me confidence. With so many meetings getting in the way of our schedule, we did quite well - 4 new investigators and over 60% member present lessons. Sunday night was full of miracles as we taught many new investigators with our priest exchange in tow. He loved it! How can I be sad when we're having such great priest exchanges? How I wish I could've gone out with the missionaries a lot more than I did before my mission (1 time). I know that the experiences these young men are having will shape the way they start their missions and even give them extra incentive to serve in the first place. Nothing makes me happier than having a priest walk up to me at church and say, "So when are we going on exchanges again?" I hope our efforts help these young men serve missions.

Transfer calls came on Saturday and my dreams came true. I'm training!! You have no idea how much I've prayed to train someday. It's been one of the biggest heartaches of my mission, to be quite honest. Nevertheless, the Lord is merciful and I'll be privileged to be training in Rogers, Arkansas in the Rogers YSA branch. I'm so excited! I'll be ending my mission in the state I started it. I absolutely love Arkansas! Now comes the waiting game where I wait to find out who i'm training. He comes into the mission home on Wednesday and I'll get him on Thursday. Who knows who he is! What's his name? What does he look like? Where's he from? Haha I could go on and on :) I hope he reads this someday and realizes how excited I was to get him. I should be really interesting to serve in the YSA branch. That means that I won't have an absolute area to be restricted to and that we'll be proselyting in a different way. This means that I'm not necessarily going to be teaching everyone I meet, which could be tough, but I'm also excited to teach people my age. So many unknowns. I know the Lord will take care of me.

So yeah, I'm leaving Willard. Kind of sad to leave an area that I feel like I just came to yesterday. We have so many great things going on that it's ridiculous. I don't think I've ever found so many new investigators my whole mission as compared to these last 2 months. I always ask the Lord to pour out His Spirit upon this area and He truly has - I can't complain. Just to give you an idea of what Heavenly Father has helped us do in the last 2 months, we first came to an area with around 5 investigators, a few less-active families to work with, and a couple of potential investigators (mostly member referrals). Hours and hours of tracting and hunting later, we've handed out almost 100 Book of Mormons, we've found close to 30 new investigators, we're working with 15 less-active families, and we've found close to 60 potential investigators. Of course, not all of those potentials are solid, but many of them are starting to turn into new investigators. Last week I mentioned Lori. At our return appointment she came prepared with questions, she having read lots of the material we left with her. We had an excellent lesson on the Restoration and she sincerely wants to know if it's true. It feels good to know that it all started with a successful door approach a few weeks ago. I know that she'll get baptized. I can honestly say that I'm leaving Willard a lot better than I found it, which feels so satisfying. In a town of less than 5,000 we've seen miracles. So it will be hard to leave. I feel a little sad because I didn't really get close with anyone here, but I did my job and I did my best. Elder Heindel (bless his soul) will be staying here with Elder Fritschi and it'll be a transfer of harvesting. They're going to baptize like crazy!

Haha crazy story of the day: I mentioned that yesterday Elder Heindel and I had a great evening exchange. We went out to Walnut Grove to try by a family that we tracted into and said we could come back. Their names are Nikki and Shawn and they have two cute little boys. Luckily they were home and they let us right in. As we were introducing ourselves, they said we could have a seat on the couch. Elder Heindel sat down first, but then scooted over to give Josh (our priest exchange) some room to sit. As he moved over, he suddenly jumped up and yelped. He instantly grabbed his rear. In his hand was a large piece of glass that had stabbed him in the bum! He was trying not to make a big deal out of it, but he was obviously in pain. They responded by saying, "Darn, I thought we cleaned it all up." (referring to a broken pane of glass) Not wanting to prematurely end a first lesson, I said, "Aw, he's alright." But then I leaned over and whispered, "Dude, are you okay? Like is it bad?" To make a long story short he toughed it out and we finished the lesson, thus picking up 2 new investigators who want us to come back. Nikki especially liked the message of the Book of Mormon. My companion is such a champion! We're not too worried because we don't think the actual glass went into his buttock, but it sure bled a lot. We were joking around that he got in a knife fight. Hard core Walnut Grove! (pop. 600ish)

Well, as always, there's so many other stories from my week, but not enough time to share. If I did I would talk all about my last ZLC, our trainwreck of a zone meeting, and some of the crazy people I met. Love ya bunches! Happy birthday April! .....and.... Jesus loves you!

Love, Elder Atkin

April 1, 2013 - Great week!

Dear Family,

Hey thanks for the Easter package! You know how much I love snickerdoodles :) And those chips were pretty good. You betcha that I'm "bigger, bolder, thicker" - to be honest, I've gained over 50 pounds on my mission. The people just feed me so well out here! Ain't nothin' like some good old fashioned BBQ. Yum yum yum. It's tough to fit into my clothes nowadays, but I make it work. I've busted out a few pairs of pants, but no big deal. You might not really recognize me when I come home because of the extra poundage that's distributed throughout my body. I don't mind having a beer gut either...

I'm playin'. April fools! Don't worry, I haven't gained 50 pounds.

I'm happy to say that Elder Heindel and I had an awesome week! Despite a really slow start to the week, we taught a TON of people, we set a baptismal date with Kara for the 13th of April, and we found another 4 new investigators - all from tracting. I'm constantly amazed at how many people are being prepared to receive the Gospel, even if the missionaries have tracted their street a million times before us. I used to be afraid to knock a street that had recently been tracted, but now I have no fear. As long as we have the Spirit with us and we trust in God, we'll always find people.

Such is the case with Lynette. Lynette is an older woman who lives down the street from the Halles (members). When we first knocked on her door a few weeks ago she said that she wasn't feeling too well, but would like to talk to us some other time. She seemed extremely nice and spiritual so we stopped by every few days. We finally caught her on a good day on Wednesday as we were visiting people with Bro. Bird. She let us right in and we had a wonderful visit. Almost 2 hours later we left the house having taught about the Book of Mormon and committing her to read and pray about it. Lynette has such an amazing understanding of scripture that Bro. Bird even taught her about the Pearl of Great Price and the doctrines within. I about flipped out when he started, but I relaxed as she said that she already felt it was true. On more than one occasion she mentioned that the Spirit was really strong in the room and that she "felt" that the Book of Mormon was true. She's so amazing! Lynette has such a deep love of the Bible and is more spiritual than most members I've met. As we were leaving, she kindly said, "See you later! God loves ya." Yes he does, Lynette.

That's what I love about my mission. While I have met the most ignorant, hypocritical, selfish, and misled self-proclaimed "Christians" on my mission, I have also met the nicest, uplifting, loving, spiritually-minded God-fearing people who are truly trying their best to do what it right. How I wish that these people would become a part of the true church and receive the blessings thereof. It's just like the scripture says - they are "blinded by the craftiness of men." They would join the church in an instant if only the barriers of misconceptions and misinformation were removed. Most often those barriers can only be removed by missionary-minded members they're acquainted with. Just the fact that I have a nametag prevents me from talking to the most prepared people on this planet. It's downright silly sometimes how prepared some people are!

For example, we tracted into a lady named Lori who's divorced and has a 12-year-old son with aspergers. She immediately constructed a brick wall of, "Sorry, I'm Catholic," but we persisted and she let us come back (that's another long story that I'll have to tell you sometime). We visited her on Friday and had an awesome lesson. She is absolutely hilarious and her son is the coolest kid in the world. She explained that she was Catholic just because of it's tradition and family values. She recognizes the flaws in every church you can think of, and she totally hates Baptists (hooray, I found a new best friend). Every single thing she said she wished churches had we responded by saying our church had it. By the end she agreed to read and pray and we set a return appointment. Talk about GOLDEN. She just doesn't know it yet.

Well, I have to go, but thanks again for the package and all of your love. Have a great week!

Love, Elder Atkin

March 25, 2013

Dear Family,

I always love hearing about the talks that are being shared in church back home. It sounds like the story about the turkey wandering along the road must've been pretty funny :) And I'm sure April gave a really good talk in the Mendon 1st ward. I wish I could have heard it. You're right Mom, missions are an excellent opportunity to learn about the doctrines of the Gospel. While I'm really not that knowledgeable myself (I'm reminded of this every day as Elder Heindel corrects my crazy opinions on the spirit world, celestial glory, etc.), I can at least recognize that my understanding of Gospel principles has grown in the past couple of years. And judging by how intelligent April is I just know that her talks must be awesome!

One source of doctrine that I've gained the most knowledge from is - you guessed it - the Book of Mormon. I recently finished Mosiah and started Alma and it's been a blast to learn things that I never noticed in previous readings of the same book. As I started Alma chapter 1 I read about the people of the church who were "steadfast and immovable" and the priests who labored to "impart the word of God unto the people," but didn't do it for money. In verse 27 it mentions that the people helped each other out and imparted their substance to those in need. At the end of the verse it reads that "they did not wear costly apparel, yet they were neat and comely." When I read that, I thought to myself that that perfectly describes members of the church. People who aren't too fancy or wild in their appearance, but a people who like to look neat and nice. My definition of "neat and comely" is this: righteously classy. Take for instance Deiter F. Uchtdorf. This man always has fantastic ties and has the most wonderful hair. He's not in-your-face with his style, but yet he is righteously classy. What a stallion of a man! Just a thought :)

Anyways, on to the work. This week was a good one for us. We picked up 5 new investigators (all from tracting) and we taught 23 lessons - the best since I've been here. We're still struggling to set baptismal dates with our investigators, but both Elder Heindel and I feel impressed that we'll be able to set 2 dates by the end of this coming week. Our zone is equally doing just as well. We reached 130 lessons, which breaks any previous record for the Springfield zone. It's about an average of 14-15 lessons per area, which is near the best in the mission. Sometimes I get so frustrated with the elders in our zone, but I'm happy to see that they're actually working hard for the most part. I think that our zone meeting this last Monday was a real help to everyone. We talked about being in the moment and trusting in the Lord that you won't fail. We reminded our elders that no effort is wasted. I know the Lord will continue to bless this zone if we are obedient and are working hard. And we've been able to see that as we've jumped from 55 to 130 in just a couple of months. Cool stuff!

I also know that numbers aren't everything. I still have my frustrations because I want to see real growth. The kind of growth that is seen in progressing investigators, baptismal dates, church attendance, and most of all - baptisms. Elder Heindel and I have about 50 potential investigators (no lie) from our diligent hard work, but it's a struggle to get them from point A to point Z. Sorry if I've said this same stuff before, but I want to see it improve. But I'm still positive. I try to "rejoice" in the little miracles that happen each day. One little miracle is that Bro. Gould is doing awesome. He'd the one that's married to a member, comes to church every week, says he'll be baptized, but doesn't want to be pushed. We've been trying not to push him too much, but I just want the guy to get baptized already!! While I'm not able to say that we set a date with him this week, I'm able to say that we've had some great lessons with him recently. Yesterday we had a little miracle in our Gospel Principles class as we watched "Safety for the Soul" by Jeffrey R. Holland. Bro. Gould seemed to really liked it and he even recognized the scripture 2 Nephi 33:10-11 about the words of Christ because we had read it with him previously. He really opened up to us and even kind of bore his testimony to us. Baby steps...

Other little miracles include really good exchanges with some of the priests in our ward. We have some awesome priests, but they seem a little disinterested sometimes. They don't realize what a crucial period of time it is right now. Most of them have girlfriends. A few of them talk about missions like it's an afterthought. But this week we went with Slade and Joe on separate occasions and they had a blast. I pray and pray every time that we'll get into doors and that they'll have a good experience and the Lord came through for us. Slade even got to see us teach a first lesson to Karissa and Todd. Joe came up to us at church and said that he wanted to go with us again this week. I've never seen that from him before. Little miracles!

So life is wonderful. It's been as cold as all get out this week and we've gotten tons of snow. I'm about ready for spring, but you know how I love the winter wasteland. I'm still working my guts out. I'm still loving my companion. What else could I ask for than this wonderful experience! I'm very blessed.

Love, Elder Atkin

March 19, 2013 - Positivity!

Dear Family,

Howdy howdy howdy!

Sorry about last weeks email. I really felt bad about typing such a negative email so I thought I chose a better option, even if it was really short. I just need to be more positive! Positive in my emails, positive in my area, positive with the zone in meetings... The Lord doesn't like negative people. In a talk I recently read by Elder Tad R. Callister he mentioned that consecrated missionaries always have a smile and a good attitude because no matter what happens, they have the Gospel of Jesus Christ. There's no need for me to get down on everything. I should be happy that I've made it this far and that I'm blessed to be a part of this church. And how wonderful it is! Now that's something to be happy about. Word of advice from Elder Atkin this week: whenever you're frustrated/angry/sad/down, just remember who you are and what you have. Your problems will then seem tiny.

This week was definitely a finding week. I think that I must've tracted every single day. And I say that with all the gratitude and happiness that my soul can possess. Sadly, our weekly indicator for new investigators was a big fat 0, but man I had a blast. The Lord has definitely taught me a few lessons that I couldn't place a price on. 1) I know I've said this before, but I absolutely love meeting people. 2) God for sure loves each of his children, even when they have the biggest wad of chew dripping from their mouth or they answer the door with a beer in hand. 3) No effort is wasted. 4) I've met dozens and dozens of people that will someday be members of this church. Dead serious. 5) Tracting is NOT A WASTE OF TIME, as many missionaries like to say it is. If you do it right, don't set yourself up for failure, and show your love of the Gospel, you will have success. While we didn't have any new investigators, we have a list of potentials about a mile long. Now comes the struggle of just catching them at home. People sure are busy...

A few days ago we were out knocking doors in Ash Grove and we had a funny experience I thought y'all would appreciate. Elder Heindel and I were just finishing up a street before we headed back home for dinner when we came upon the last house. It was a small, run-down home that had a big sign on the fence that read: "WARNING: I'm a bitter gun owner clinging to my religion."  I'm usually not too scared when it comes to talking to people, but for some reason I just chickened out on this one. Ash Grove is a small town with strange people so I had every right to be. After a short pause I told Elder Heindel that we should probably skip this one and go back to the car. As I began to walk away my courageous companion grabbed my arm and said with a smile, "We're knocking on this door Elder." Oh great. I thought for sure I was going to get shot. Elder Heindel knocked on the door and I awaited my doom. But to my pleasant surprise, a nice old man named Frank answered the door. The same Frank that I previously mentioned had a gob of chew dripping out of the corner of his lips. *shudder* We told him who we were, what the Book of Mormon was, and asked him if we could come back. Once again to my surprise, he said, "Sure, why not." With the goofiest, toothless smile he wished us a good day and we were off. I guess it wasn't my time to die quite yet.

So yeah, Heavenly Father blesses us here and there in different ways that we don't expect. There's many other nice people we met this week that we hope to teach again in the future. Most of our investigators aren't really progressing right not, but they'll come around. I have the faith. Well, at least I hope I do... Either way, life is good and I'm happy.

Have a great week!

Love, Elder Atkin

March 11, 2013 - Another week in Paradise

Excerpt from Willie's letter:

Here's probably one of the greatest pictures of all time. Yesterday before church we found this intersection while hunting for good tracting spots. Can you believe it?? This is a once in a lifetime opportunity! I will forever remember where William Ave and Dennis St met - a place where the sun shines a little brighter :)

February 4, 2013 - New Transfer = New Opportunities

Dear Family,

So we finally get a new refrigerator after 25 years? Talk about bittersweet. Gosh, I feel like a part of me has died... Will I see our good ol' fridge in the next life? Haha I'm just kidding. You can make fun of me for saying this, but I'll miss that old tank of an appliance. It's all I've known! Well, life moves on.

Speaking of life moving on - I was reading the end of Jacob going into Enos this morning for personal study. As Jacob is finishing his account, he tells the story of one named Sherem - an anti-Christ who is convinced of his wrongdoing right before he dies. I haven't faced many anti-Christs on my mission, but I can sure relate to Jacob in the way that he gets extremely "anti'd" (aka religious bash, battle). But of course Jacob handles the situation like a champ by confounding Sherem in "all his words." He was simply able to do this because the Spirit of the Lord was within him. Just as the Doctrine and Covenants promises the Lord's missionaries repeatedly, Jacob was living right so that he was given what he should say in the very moment he needed it. Cool stuff! Anyway, Jacob ends his words by saying that "time passed away with us, and also our lives passed away like as it were unto a dream..." He also calls his people "wanderers" and a "lonesome and solemn people." As I was reading that I couldn't help but think about how life truly does pass away like a dream when we're living right and helping others come unto Christ. Jacob spent his whole life doing just that. Though we may feel "lonesome" or feel like "wanderers" in this strange world we live in, we can also be blessed like Jacob. Soon life will pass by like a dream and we will look back on the good times of helping people and serving God. Just a thought.

This week sure passed by like a dream. It was another hard working week where we experienced more of the extreme highs and lows of missionary work. Mom, as to answer you're question on how I deal with the roller coaster of the work - I simply pray, trust in the Lord, and move onward. It's not always easy. Heck, Crystal didn't seem as golden as we thought she was. Who knows, she might still be interested, but her husband got in the way. We dropped by this week and he answered the door. We explained that Crystal said we could come back. His response was this, "You know, we talk to God everyday... We're not going to be interested in what you have to share. My wife .... she's easily persuaded ..." Talk about a depressing walk back to the car. I feel like my heart's been broken so many times that I almost expect it sometimes. I always get my hopes up that they are "the one," only to find out later that they aren't.

Such is the case with Grahm (Crystal's neighbor). We've taught him twice now and he's so prepared for the Gospel that it's ridiculous. Both lessons were absolutely perfect and I can see how God has slowly led Grahm to eventually embrace the truth. It's almost too perfect. I can't help but get my hopes up for this one. He's fascinated by the Book of Mormon. He even asked us to show him which scriptures were most important for him to read to know that it's true. Both Elder Heindel and I about jumped out of our chairs to show him 3 Nephi 11, King Benjamin's address, 2 Nephi 31-33, etc. Man, if Grahm doesn't make it somebody might just have to piece my fragile heart back together! He's probably our most progressing investigator right now.

Despite the downfalls, there are wonderful things happening in our area. We taught 20 lessons and picked up 3 new investigators. 2 of them are a couple that we tracted into named Mark and Ashley. They are hard-core Pentecostal, but somewhat open-minded to the whole Book of Mormon thing. We taught a great lesson on the Restoration and afterward Mark asked us what our views were on speaking in tongues. We could tell that it was important to them. Haha Elder Heindel basically zipped his lips shut and looked at me to answer the question. In the most loving and respectful way I could I explained our church's view and the way I felt about it. I didn't want to flat out say that they were crazy. They accepted what I said, but I have a feeling that we'll be talking a lot more about it in the future. Hopefully they gain a testimony of the Book of Mormon before too long :) Good grief!

I hope y'all have a great week and a fun homecoming with April. Sure wish I could be there, but it can wait a few months. Take care, ya hear!

Love, Elder Atkin