Something is different

Soooooo .... this week was awesome! In our area we have some investigators that have tons of potential, but just are too scared to really make any progress. It is intimidating to make BIG changes in our lives.  Occasionally, we feel somewhat disheartened watching these people not live up to their potential. Of course, last Sunday we had a baptism and I was overjoyed!  Since then, things have really started to get better.  

Pidilla, the man who was baptized last week has a kind of light shining in his eyes.  The story of the mission field is companions coming and going, this week we had transfers.  Padilla was really sad because Hermana Argueta was going home and Hermana DeBry was transferring to a new area. I was kinda concerned that Padilla had become converted to us and not to the gospel. I guess I worry too much because the day after transfers Padilla said he couldn't wait for Sunday to be be confirmed and receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. It was sooo exciting to watch Padilla become a member of the Church!!  

I can see how the gospel helps change people.  We went to teach a lesson to a family whose Mom was against letting her kids be baptized. She was friendly enough but felt that they were too young to make this kind of decision.  We decided to take a member along with us for the lesson, the member was speaking with this Mom in Spanish and I was talking to one of the daughters in English.  We had a good discussion, I realized that we needed to get going as we had been there long enough.  We asked if we could leave with a prayer and the Mom tells me that she is so happy that we were in her home, I replied with,"We love you guys, enjoy coming to your home and thank you for allowing us in".   To this the Mother replied, "No, I am glad that you can come to my home to teach my kids how to get ready for baptism"!  So EXCITING!  I LOVE being a missionary.  Now we are working on teaching the last few lessons, we still have some obstacles to overcome but I am so excited for this family.

I have a new companion! Hermana Brown from beautiful down town Rexburg! Hermana Brown's father is a math professor at BYUI.  I am no longer in a trio!!!!! It is bitter sweet because my new companion and I have a lot in common, we get along great. We both love Celtic music, love to sing and we really do get along amazing well. Unfortunately one of the things we have in common is not talking a lot during lessons.  So I have had to take it up a notch and start talking a lot more! I really am not 100% sure if what I am saying is always right, but I say it with a smile on my face!  I have had a lot more corrections but amazingly enough I am getting used to it and appreciate the corrections, before my mission I probably would have gotten irritated. So that is great.

It has been super cold here as of late, in fact on Saturday it was snowing. There was a stake activity planned for all the youth called "The mini MTC".  The youth gathered at the Stake Center to learn about being missionaries. After the lessons they were going to go out and be with the missionaries for the rest of the day to learn more about missions. It would have been a GREAT exercise for all of us, but because of the snow it was determined not safe to take the kids. OH, BTW, I am the driver now! No more getting out of the car and giving directions while my companion backs up!  WOO HOO.!  Back to the youth activity .... any way instead of driving to real lessons, we practiced at the church.  It was really harder than I thought  because I got paired up with a girl from an English ward and I have forgot a lot of words in English?  It worked out OK because the girl had to explain them to me, which is good ... well it isn't really that I forgot the words, it is just that I know them better in Spanish now. SOOOO, the language is coming, the snow has come, the spirit is amazing and I Love You all!

LOS QUIERO MUCHO!  y tambien deseo que todos de ustedes tienen una semana con Milagros y felizidad.

Love You,
Hermana Atkinson

Missionary of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints

Washington D.C. South Mission

Baptism !!

Hey!  What a GREAT week. WE HAD A BAPTISM!  Unfortunately the bad news is that I forgot to take pictures on my iPad but the good news is I have some being mailed to my parentals! What a great experience.  It was super cool to watch Padilla go through the change that the gospel brings.  When we first met Padilla, he was super shy and wouldn't even really talk to us.  I watched him grow to the point that after his baptism he stood in front of everyone and bore his testimony.  It was soooo precious.  Padilla requested that only his family attend the baptism so it was his family, the bishop and us.  Padilla's nieces and nephews sang, "When I Am Baptized" and I sang,"El Bautismo". We also made a cake,that and all the preparations pretty much took up our whole week. 

Funny story! One of our responsibility's was to fill the baptismal font with water. Unfortunately, the faucet to the font is always in the men's room.  We went in the bathroom and started the water, went into the font room to check everything and were planning on going out the Relief Society Room door .... but there was a meeting going on in the Relief Society Room and people were sitting in front of the door! WHAT to do?  We decided to just leave the way we had come in, through the Men's bath room.  Just as we got back into the Bathroom, in came an Elder.  It was awkward!

But yeah, transfers are this week so we have been helping Hermana Argueta pack up because she is going home.  :(

You all have a great week!  

Love 
Hermana Atkinson
Missionary of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints

The week of LOVE!!

Hello all!

Happy Valentines Day!!!!!  This has been a GREAT week that was really so much FUN!  We went bowling last Monday with a member and his cousin, don't worry, I took some pictures that I will send along. Anyway, that was really a blast, but when we were done bowling, we went to the MALL! You know it is the little things that I seem to miss the most, it has been so long since I went to a mall.  On top of the trip to the mall, I got to eat SUSHI!! AWESOME!!  Funny story ...... A member, whose name is Jorge, went bowling with us and went to eat Sushi with us.  Jorge kept asking me what was that pile of green stuff with my sushi?  I looked up the Spanish translation for Wasabi and it is literally "spicy radish".  I told Jorge it was spicy radish and that I didn't particularly care for it so, he  being a proud Mexican said that it probably wasn't that spicy so he picked it up and popped it into his mouth!  After like 5 seconds he was just like Mater from Cars 2!  HAHAHA.

I think that the most cool part of this week has to do with Jorge's cousin,who is investigating the church and is our date for sunday!  Usually, we as missionaries teach our investigators about the gospel, but this time he taught us ....  about the Restoration, then the Plan of Salvation,  the Gospel of Christ,  the Word of Wisdom, the Law of Chasity, and finally the 10 Commandments!! Talk about AWESOME!  I can't wait untill Sunday when he is baptized!!!!!!!

Sooooooooo, also this week I ate Sirviche, which normally isn't to bad. Sirviche is fish blended with salsa, I like it with hot sauce. The Sirviche I ate this week was not wonderful, it seems that it was mixed with way too much cilantro. I am beginning to think I may have a slight allergy to cilantro or something else mixed in the salsa because I had sooo many canker sores the next day.  

We had a Valentines party at the church and an investigator came. He asked one of my companion to dance, of course she said NO! ......  like 5 times! He kept talking to only her... needless to say the Elders are going to start teaching him!

Yesterday we made a goal to talk to everyone we saw that day.  We got yelled at, preached at, and then there was this group of about 6 guys washing their car listening to LOUD Hispanic music. They looked at us funny, me being me, just went right up and started talking. Normally after a short conversation, I get out a Mormon.org card, write our number on it and then tell them to call us with any questions.  Just then one of them called us princesses.  I strongly dislike being called a princess,  so I wrote the Elders phone number and then left.  I hope they come to church and live happily ever after, but never call me Princess again. I mean that in the most Christ like way because they really scared me!  So, yeah that's about all life has to offer today.... other then this piece of advice. If you are feeling down, read the conference talk, "None Were With Him",  by Elder Holland!  I loved it.

Love you all

Hermana Atkinson
Missionary of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints
Washington D.C. South Mission

Another Month gone!

Another WONDERFUL week in the mission field! The thing is I can't believe how fast time goes here, can you believe another month has come and gone??  

So let's see what has happened this week ...... We have one family here in the Ward that we go visit a lot, I guess they are living here as undocumented Americans.  It turns out that their Grandma is very sick in Mexico. Because of their circumstances, part of the family had decided to go back to be with Grandma and then just not ever come back here, but stay in Mexico. Right when that decision has been made, we knocked on their door. While we were sitting on their couch, this sweet little family was arguing about who would leave and never come back, and who would stay. During the height of this "discussion" the oldest son who is like 31 looked at me and said," Hermana Atkinson is going to sing so we can feel the spirit and decide what to do with the spirit in our home!" NO PRESSURE here! After a short pause, I began to sing, "Nearer, My God to Thee". Now just so you can understand how I feel at this moment, I have to say I was very sad to think that this sweet lady was thinking about leaving and not coming back!  You see she is honestly like my mission mom, and I love her with all my heart, so singing this was super hard for me!  I was emotional, as was she, her husband and everyone else in the room ..... as I started to sing, all I felt was peace.  BTW this hymn sounds better in Spanish! I promise. Somehow I was able to get through this entire hymn, after I was done everyone was still crying.  I look up and this Sister took her suit case and started taking things out and after 5 minutes of silence and her doing this I finally asked, "What are you doing"?  She walked over and gave me and my companions hugs and said she was staying!  She felt very strongly that her mom wouldn't want her to leave the kids and grandkids to be with her in Mexico.  We put her moms name in the temple for the prayer rolls 

Oh GREAT NEWS! We are going to have a baptism on the 14!! Sooooo funny story. Do you remember our investigator who was going to be baptized and then wasn't baptized and told us that he wanted to be baptized in two years?  I guess he had a dream and he called us over to his house and was like "Hermana's I need your help I had this dream and there was a guy in a small pool and he was wearing red and then I got scared and I ran away"!. Then he asked us what this dream meant.  We just looked at each other and were like,  uh let us do some research and we will get back to you.  So I studied like crazy about prophets that had dreams and different things about the color red and water oh and there were 5 pools... he also drew it for us and we are pretty sure that the pools are baptismal fonts!! hahaha   So we studied numbers and a ton of different things for like 4 hours and then we went to his house last night and we hadn't really discussed it all that much.  When we get into his place, he asked,"Hermana's, what do you think"? Amazingly, we all had the same ideas about what it meant. and after we told him he said he was going to be baptized. He decided that March was best, "The beginning of March I am going to be baptized in March"..The more we talked different things were discussed and somehow Valentines day came up and he was saying how he didn't have a valentine, and one of my companion said that should be the day he gets baptized to show his love for Christ.  AND he decided she was right, so we have a baptism for February .ary 14, best Valentines present EVER!

We are going bowling .... so I have to end this for now .... no pictures this week. SORRY.

Love you all!

Hermana Atkinson
Missionary of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints
Washington D.C. South MIssion