Almost Christmas

Life is GREAT!!!!!

Just in case you are wondering what a Missionary does all day, my daily schedule is as follows:

Up by 6:20 AM, exercise, shower, breakfast,study alone, study with my companions, study language, lunch, then teaching, teaching, teaching, dinner, more teaching, planning for the next day and finally sleep( if we are lucky). This may seem like a lot, but it is really tons of fun. I LOVE IT OUT HERE!!!!!! 

Still no snow but I am praying for some before Christmas.

We had a very eventful week. We are teaching 2 new families. Both families came to church and the ward Christmas party. We were also able to go to the Temple and see the lights with one of the families. YES ... I will send pictures. Last Monday I went to go see the National Christmas Tree. YES ... I will also send pictures of that.

Spanish is slowly coming along. When members come up and tell me their problems, I can reply. I also can understand them. MIRACLES ARE HAPPENING! 

I went to my first Quinceanera this week. When a girl turns 15 in Hispanic culture, they believe this is the age that marks the transition from childhood to adulthood. They have a big party, organized dances and lots of cool traditions.... 

As far as food this week ...  we went to a sisters house, she is amazingly cool. I was extremely grateful for the whole chicken, plate of rice potatoes, salad and the fruit cake. I took it home, it was just enough for 3 or 4 meals. One of my companions decided to put some of her chicken in her pocket. She then asked if she could use the bathroom. She tried to flush the chicken down the toilet, but you can't flush chicken down the toilet. No more food in our pockets, lesson learned. One other thing, don't ever offer to make food for a Hispanic family. I made some French fries for a family. I told them if they made some quesadillas I would bring French Fries. I made my French Fries, put a ton of Chile Powder on them, they loved them. Now the Mother of the family just keeps saying, "You can get married, because you know how to cook"....... AWKWARD!

Oh, one more thing. The scary part of the week, I had to go to the hospital. We were at the Quinceanera and I had an allergic reaction to something. I was having a hard time breathing. The Mission President was called and off to the ER I went. I have to carry Benadryl and an inhaler with me. But everything is great. 

So yeah that was my week. I hope that you have a great week, a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Love,

Hermana Karlie Atkinson

Missionary of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints
Washington D.C. South Mission

Mexican Jumping Beans

Mexican Jumping Beans!!!

Soooooo this week has been going great! I am finally starting to feel comfortable around people and I am beginning to talk to them in Spanish!. I am learning the language slowly, but surely. The learning curve is steep, but worth it.

Yesterday we had 8 investigators at church! We have one with a baptismal date and 6 that want to be baptized, but have to have permission from parents or are still progressing through the lessons. So that's awesome! We have one prospect that is 7 years old and he is determined to be baptized next month as soon as he turns 8.

We also had a very fruitful week proselyting,surely, as we met with 9 new investigators and it seems like everything is going great in our area. Being so new to this whole missionary thing, I seem to have this dreadful feeling that I am doing everything wrong! I feel that I need to learn so much and that I might say or do something that I shouldn't. But yeah, other then that I love it out here! It seems that almost all of our members and investigators are illegal immigrants, but hey, I just love them anyway. It seem that they are super hard workers and amazing people with fascinating stories ….. and by the way, it is super funny how many illegal immigrants work cleaning government officials offices!!

So yeah I know the title sounds really racist but it is kinda true for this week. We were invited to attend some of the churches of our investigators, and we think it is always a good idea to attend other churches since we ask so many to attend ours! So off we go on Sunday to another Church's worship service ….. and honestly it wasn't terrible, it was just different compared to what I am used to. There was a sermon which I don't understand much of because its all in Spanish ….. and you know how good my Spanish is …... There were a lot of AMENs in Spanish! They also love to sing and dance and are cheering to loud music ... needless to say it was a learning experience for me, and a fun one!

Other then that, food wise we had one appointment this week and I asked the members if we could have quesadillas ….. so that was good and I offered to make some fries, hoping that they would approve .... now remember they are from Mexico and they like everything hot, really HOT! This is the family feeds us every Thursday ..... so any way I put enough chili powder to kill a cat on these fries, and then I made a couple of batches that didn't have any chili powder for all the missionaries. I didn't want the members to think we were skipping the hot stuff, so I put paprika on our fries so they looked hot!! I give the members my really hot fries …. and they were all in tears! Then you look at all 5 Hermanas and we are all eating the fries just fine.... which would have been great had the members not put more fries on my plate! I thought I was going to die.... tears were shed...

But I love your logo... Nice design and mom is looking good! I am so happy I have the opportunity to be out here. I don't want you to think I don't but, it is hard.... Harder then then I ever thought it was going to be, but I know I can get through it. Sorry about my complaining.

So cool things I have noticed this week is that there is always joy. I Love being here around the holidays! Emotionally this week has been a roller coaster, but on the other hand I have seen miracles.I love seeing the smiles on people's faces and how people want to give to others around this time of year. Any way, thank you so much for all the pictures, I love them and I hope your week will be fantastic.

But other then that I had a great week this week, all in all, life is great....

Until next week,

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

Thanksgiving and life in D.C.

Thanksgiving and life in D.C.

I hope everyone's Thanksgiving was amazing! Mine was great, we did a lot of visiting different people and helping out with so many different things …... mostly cooking and cleaning. So many of the people here have so little that it is truly humbling to remember how much I am blessed with. I am starting to understand more Spanish which is cool and now I get to hear some crazy insane stories about how people got here and what they are thankful for. They have so little and they are thankful for so much. It makes me think …...

I hope everyone enjoyed Thanksgiving! An addition to my “things I have learned file”, if someone asks if you want more food at dinner, just say,” yes please” and they will give you a little bit more food, if you say “no” they just put a LOT more on your plate and say that, “she doesn't know what she needs!”.

I don't mean to be rude, but I have eaten at least 5 lbs of cilantro with cabbage and onions at every meal with a smile on my face, pretending it is the best salad EVER ... So, other then that I have had some really interesting food selections already. I have found out that purple potato salad isn't bad... not sure why it was purple though, and turkey and a lot of hot sauce taste better then turkey without hot sauce for some reason, but the grass hoppers taste better then the turkey? But the Turkey is definitely better than the nasty soup with pig skin in it and sometimes I am grateful when I don't get meal appointments because while I don't mind most of the food it gets old after a bit.

It is still a little hard to be myself because I cant joke in Spanish. This week I am planning a language fast for one day. That means I wont speak any English for a full day .... wish me luck.

Thanks for all the pictues! The puppies are growing so fast. I have a new slogan for your puppy website,”life is better with a Dane!”. I was telling someone why I liked our dogs and that is the only real reason I had. Soooooooo, life is great here! We were having dinner with some ward members the other night and this is a great family ….. they feed us every week. Anyway, the Father dared me (the GREENIE) to eat a whole pepper. I'm not really sure what kind of pepper this is, but I just thought “What the heck”, and that's right, I ate it, the whole thing! Well, much to my surprise and especially to everyone around me, It wasn't that hot! And after I am done eating this thing I am told it was suppose to be an insanely hot pepper.... But I liked it! I guess my taste buds didn't get the memo that the pepper was suppose to be hot or maybe I am starting to fit in better already.

So we are teaching a lesser active family and they have a beautiful little girl named Nichole. She is absolutely the cutest thing ever. Her dad calls us,The Hermanitas, so when we come in to her house she just runs around and yells mis hermanitas mis hermanitas, then she runs and gives us hugs. When we sit down she always sits by me and asks if I have any stickers, she is adorable! All in all, I am better friends with the kids then with the adults because I have MANY stickers to share with them. So advice for others who are on missions or going on missions, ALWAYS HAVE STICKERS! I think if you get to know the kids, well the parents have to talk to you!

I bore my testimony in Spanish this Sunday because I had this great idea that if we all went up and bore our testimonies about our missions that maybe it would get the ward excited to help with missionary work. Out of the 9 missionaries in this ward, 3 of us went up and talked, My hands were shaking and my voice was cracking and I thought I said everything right. After the meeting a member here that went on his mission to Ecuador came up to me and offered to give me Spanish lessons ..... sooooooo I guess it wasn't as good as I thought. Oh well, I will learn more each and everyday. Until next week.

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

I Made it to Washington D.C.

I MADE IT TO D.C. ... The plane ride coming back to the states was amazing!  I will miss Mexico but I am so happy to be back in the States.  I was traveling with a large group of missionaries, but my seat assignment had me sitting FAR away from the rest of the group.  This seating arrangement left me a lot of missionary opportunities,  which probably would have been better if I actually knew how to speak Spanish..... oh well. The first night in D.C., we went to the mission home and ate lasagna and salad. BOXED LASAGNA has never tasted so good. The food at the MTC wasn't horrible, it was just ..... well, different.  In fact I kind of miss the verde enchiladas.....

We slept in a motel (never thought a motel bed would be soooooo comfortable) but it was amazing.  We had a transfer meeting and I met my training sisters... I AM IN ANOTHER TRIO!!!!!!! They are both super cool. I must need a lot of help because I keep ending up in trios.

We live in Alexandria, VA. The members here are awesome. My first night, we went to the Castanetas. They are super sweet. They tried to help me understand Spanish by speaking VERY slow.  They invited us to stay for dinner at their house. INTERESTING MEAL!  When we sat down at the dinner table, Jorge (he is 31) put a bowl of grasshoppers down on the table... GRASSHOPPERS! So I ate some...  Surprisingly, they weren't that bad. I am in a new environment, and figured, Hey, I will try something new. I won't be eating them again aanytime soon, but it was fun to try. I am not sure if that was a "you are a new missionary" meal or if they actually eat grasshoppers on a regular basis? .

I am really bad at telling people I am full, and find that the members get offended if you don't eat enough. I finally offered to take some of the food home. This made her feel better,  and I did eat it later. The Spanish Speaking people in this mission are so loving. They are always trying to feed you, give you stuff and love to hug. I have hugged more people this week then I did at my high school graduation.

Maribell, one of my investigators, is so sweet.  She tries to speak in English, I try to speak Spanish and somehow we understand each other.  I know that the power of God is helping us communicate. I am sooo excited to be here and to learn Spanish and to do everything that this short period in my life has to offer.

Since I have two Companions, I don't talk a lot (I know, hard to believe). I am slightly afraid to say something wrong. I know in time, with the Lord's help, I will learn the Spanish Language. I talk to the member's, they understand that I am just learning. I am very good at saying, "I am trying to learn Spanish". 

Life is Great ...

Love all of you,

Hermana Atkinson

Missionary of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints
Washington D.C. South Mission

Random Thoughts ...

My training sisters are CRAZY.

When we are in SCARY Neighborhoods, I repeat 2 Timothy 1:7 "For god hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of love and of power and of a sound mind."

I have an iPad, and will have a Facebook Account in two months.

I am about 8 miles from the White House. I can go to D.C. once every Transfer. (Every 6 weeks)

My P-Day activity this week is Going to the Masonic Temple.

GOOD BYE MEXICO!!

GOOD BYE MEXICO!!

Soooooo the time has come to say goodbye to Mexico :( and hello Washington D.C. :)!! In the past few days I have had to say a lot of goodbyes, which in many ways was hard but I WILL SURVIVE
( totally just sang that in my head)!

There were tears during those good byes, but they were tears of joy! I got to know so many missionaries here and I know that they all have amazing testimonies and are going to go out and do some amazingly good deeds in this world.

So this week has been a little bit weird. My teacher Hermano Hernadez is such an eccentric fellow! He decided it was necessary to tell me the difference between MONO and MANO, which is monkey and hand... so he was doing this in his broken English and he kept saying monkeys have hands but hands don't have monkeys... which I got the first time but I kept saying “ I don't understand”, so he kept explaining.... It was kinda funny or maybe I am a little twisted? I am really going to miss that guy. So all in all ….. a very good week.

I don't remember if I told you this but there was another tripanionship here in the CCM , a group of elders, and we called ourselves the Eldonahood.... that what happens when Elders name your friendship. Anyway because all of us were leaving we had to do workshops that were set up for companionship s(two) and since there were two trios yours truly was partnered with an Elder... don't worry my companions were within sight and sound but I have never felt so uncomfortable being near a boy before... (they have cooties) hahahaha! Well at least for 16 and ½ more months anyway!

Soooooo I have to say this, if someone in the CCM offers you an orange Popsicle TAKE IT!!!! best thing ever, it was mango and guava flavored and I have been craving one EVER since!! mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

Well besides the fact that the newer districts think I speak really good Spanish (haahaaahahaha jokes on them) and not understanding Spanish grammar to save my life, life is going great. I am not confident in the language but with time everything will get better... hopefully, if not those poor people I teach will be mighty confused.

So during my last few days here I finally have this food thing down ... This is my advice for anyone reading this that ends up here in the Mexico City CCM. Only get cantaloupe and honey dew for fruit, when they have the good salad stuff eat it! Don't eat the eggs and always get a Nutella and peanut butter sandwich at breakfast and REMEMBER if all else fails Tuesday night is Costco pizza night!!

Tomorrow I leave and I can't wait. I will miss the palm trees and parrots and the heat. I am always outside and there are birds everywhere, big beautifully colored rare Birds! It makes me kinda sad to leave because there are lots of flowers blooming here ….. but I am not sure what kind. It is a big compound and after today it wont be mine anymore. I am so excited to meet and talk to more people in Washington D.C.! So farewell from Mexico, my next letter will be from our Nations Capital, Washington D.C.!! (I wonder if there is snow??)

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

One more GLORIOUS week in Mexico!

It is soooooo insane to think that this is going to be my last week in Mexico! We are always so busy here, and it seems that there is always something special going on. I have been practicing to sing in a trio with 2 elders, and it is my favorite song, “How great thou art”, and yes I am singing tenor an octave up..... It is coming along very well and should be very nice. One of the Elders is from Minnesota, Elder Gross and then there is Elder Denton from Mesa Arizona. We practice every day and we will be singing on Sunday. Also, my district is singing “Come thou font” on Sunday, and we haven't practiced even one time! Well me being who I am and spending so much time singing in choir, I just feel the need to practice …..... right now! Oh well, I am sure it will sound beautiful anyway.

Only one more P Day left here in Mexico. The elders in my District keep getting stains in their shirts so we keep washing them for the Elders! I think I have done more loads of laundry here in Mexico than I have done all the rest of my life! We play this game and we call it ultimate ping pong! It is a trio of elders against our trio of sisters …. So picture this, playing basket ball with ping pond paddles and a ping pong ball! WILD and CRAZY fun. It is important to have a little fun mixed in with all the learning we do here. Spanish is getting easier everyday.

I just LOVE being a training sister, it is the best thing ever! I feel that it really causes you to forget about yourself and focus with everyone else. Everyday I have experiences to help others. There is a Sister here whose grandma passed away last week, and because of the strong feelings involved we have talked a lot this week! Recently, she asked for a blessing for comfort and asked me to be there for the blessing. May I just say that the priesthood is the greatest thing ever! I could see the peace come over my friend as she got the blessing and what a difference in her emotions and attitude since!

So I have noticed that Satan really tries to get in your head here. He really tries to make you feel worthless and like you aren't worthy of the blessings that Heavenly Father has given you, to the point even constructive criticism seems harsh and it really brings you down. I was having a rough time this week and was having a hard time controlling my emotions so I finally let my pride go and asked for a blessing. In that blessing I was promised that I was forgiven and an overwhelming feeling of peace came over me. I have never felt that peaceful in my life and then there was so much more that was said during the blessing, all I could feel was love, love from the lord, love for my district and zone and for what I am doing here! It was absolutely amazing.

Life here is finally starting to feel normal JUST IN TIME for us to prepare to leave! I just hope that I will be able to stay in contact with so many of the people that I have gotten to know here. I have learned to love them, I seriously can't imagine not interacting with them any more .... but so many new people and experiences are waiting for me in Washington D.C.!

As you can probably tell, it has been an emotional roller coaster week, but right now I couldn't be happier.

Until next week,
Hermana Atkinson
Missionary of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints
Washington D.C. South Mission

Hermana Atkinson

Out with the old and in with ME!

Soooooo my training sisters left to go to Peru (Training Sisters are like a Zone Leader, but for Sisters.).  BITTER SWEET!!!!  Whenever training sisters leave for their various missions, it is necessary to call new Training Sisters, someone new to help train and comfort GREENIES, and guess who they called...... That's right folks! Our cute little trio is now a cute little trio of SISTER TRAINING LEADERS!!!!!!!!!!!!

Because my Training sisters left,  I had a rough day yesterday.  I know that the Lord breaks you down so he can build you up.  I have been asking in my prayers to be moldable.  I find that each day I am humbled and then I grow. 

I came to the sudden realization, with my training sisters leaving,  that soon I to will have to leave! I have learned to love it here in this crazy and insane and amazing place.  I have made such good friends in my district and with so many others and I realize it is going to be terrible saying goodbye..... in 2 WEEKS!

In other news ....... Spanish is getting easier. Last night in my personal prayers, before I went to sleep, I realized I was praying in Spanish, in my head!  Kinda cool and kinda scary. During sacrament last Sunday, I gave a talk in Spanish..... crazy, cool and insane. Anyway, we have two Spanish teachers and quite honestly, now this may sound amazing, but, I can talk with them in Spanish now!  I actually understand most of what the are saying..... it must be the GIFT OF TONGUES. Speaking of Spanish, I have a STORY! We were learning imperfect which is a form of past tense and it is VERY confusing.  Tenses are CRAZY hard! I asked my Teacher Hermano Hernandez when I should use imperfect and his answer was "when its not perfect"........... WOW SO INSIGHTFUL!!!!!

Other then that nothing crazy with food this week, maybe I am just getting used to it. The Elders in my district think it is funny to put bananas in my purse! Sooooo I happen to have a lot of bananas..... Like a good 15 from this past week... YIPPEE!!!!! 

So other then that, here is my scripture of the week.....

Helaman 5:12 And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall.

Hermana Atkinson

Missionary of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, Washington D.C. South Mission