Staying Put ...

Hello all!!!!

 This has been a pretty good week. Like always, I have bad days and good days, but all in all it was
pretty good. My Biggest accomplishment this week ... I wrote 2 or more pages in my journal everyday. I also wrote in my gratitude journal everyday. If your'e wondering, a gratitude journal is where I write down things I am grateful for every day. It has helped me become more positive. I'm sure most of you know I can be really negative and grumpy. My goal is to write 5 things that I am grateful for everyday. Plus, I get a bonus out of it, next thanksgiving I won't struggle to come with anything around the dinner table. I will have a huge list of things. This has been a huge accomplishment for me, I have always struggled writing in a journal.
Last Week was transfer week. We received the best news, Hermana Evans and I are staying together this transfer. How nice is that! We heard the wonderful news on Tuesday. When our district leader texted us,  Hermana Evans tackled me. 
Before that happened we had the most amazing Lesson with this one less active/ investigating
family. The mom has really opened up with us. She has been thinking about the changes she wants to see in her life and her families life.  I just love her. 
Wednesday we had zone training which is always fun. We broke off into groups and I was put into a
group with only elders. It was a awkward but fine. You guys will never believe this, but elders still act like teenage
boys. Except now they think all girls have cooties. After training we went to Michael's house to teach his friend a lesson (He is the one in the picture). HIs friend never showed up. Michael did agree to tract with us Saturday. It was so nice, he decided to come out on Friday and Saturday.
Other then that I can't really think of anything else to say. Oh well, maybe a couple more things... Friday we had a meeting, After the meeting a set of Elders, that live in our apartment complex, decided to race us home. They won, but they also totally cheated. They slowed down at a green light and waited until it turned turned yellow. We got stuck at the red light.... I was soooo mad.  Not really, because it was all for fun. For anyone who is
thinking of doing this please note that most missions are receiving a nifty little device called a teewee. This device records your speed, how fast you brake, take turns and accelerate. It pretty much does everything. It records what time you get home and where your car is at all times during the day. All this gets reported to the Mission President. If you brake to many of these violations, your driving privileges are revoked.
As of yet we have not received this, but we are at the end of May. I would advise everyone to not race the elders. 
I really can't think of anything else.
Have a Great Week!
Love, 
Hermana Atkinson

Spiritual thought. Be Still by Hilary Weeks It's a great song, I hope you take the time to listen to it.
Be Still by Hillary Weeks

Another Week

Ok, so let's start with last Monday. I went fishing and didn't catch a thing! But I did manage to lose a 10 dollar lure...... Yep I feel dumb. It was still a fun day.

Then on Tuesday we went to district meeting, then to a 1/2 mission conference. We talked about being bold. Which I absolutely loved. Then Tuesday night we went and taught eddy. It was so cute they made all these plans for Saturday, which fell through, but it was still nice.

Then on Wednesday we went and cleaned a house for service. I love the lady we went to help, but I hate teenage boys bedrooms. There was mold and lollipops on the ground. She asked me to get under a bed to clean it out and there was a used Q-tip...... I thought I was gonna throw up. But on the bright side I got some yummy tacos after I washed my hands....  And then I spent a lot of time this week at Tara and Jocelyn's  house. 

On Sunday I got to skype my family which is probably why I can't really think of anything to say. I got my nails done today. 

Food this week ...  Tacitus and tacos and causarellena which is like mashed potatoes with tuna. 

I finished a journal. Every page..... I was so proud and I have used up 2 pens. Life's small accomplishments.

Life is pretty much the same here in Springfield. There is traffic and busses are terrible. But I love it.

This coming up week is transfers week and I am  hopeful that my companion and I are staying together. Ok this is really the end of the the letter love you all.  

Love Hermana Atkinson Sent from my iPad

Spiritual thought for the week.

Yep, Life is Going Great !!!

I am way behind on getting Karlie's blogs out ... This is her blog from May 4, 2015

This week was good. It was long but good.  On Tuesday  we had a sisters conference, we spent the afternoon being trained. So that was fun. The lunch was amazing..... It was a spinach salad and it was quite amazing! Then on Wednesday we went on exchange, my sister training leaders are English speaking so I taught 5 lessons all by myself and translated what she wanted to say. It was sooooo hard.  I was sooooooooo happy to be back with Hermana Evans on Thursday. We spoke in Spanish the rest of the day. I love being in the Spanish program 

it is hard to learn a new language but I seriously love it.  I love that I can go up to someone and talk to them in their native tongue. They start to respect me more it is amazing. I love these people. With all of my heart. 

We went to a fireside for new and returning members and my recent converts Samantha and Vannessa bore their testimonies. It has been spiritually fulfilling to watch people over come their fears and really learn

more about this gospel. There are so many amazing things that happen as they start to change... 

We taught relief society and we gave everyone a Book of Mormon and told them they had to give it out..... Oh and we went knocking on doors, a 6 year old boy stole a sticker from us...... How rude right..... 

Yep that's about it for this week other then I found out that on Saturday I get to go to the temple with Vannessa and samantha. I am sooooooo exciting.

 love you all have a marvelous week! 

Oh I almost forgot I memorized the standard of truth this week it was pretty cool.

You guys should read it and memorize it because it is awesome.

“The Standard of Truth has been erected; no unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing; … the truth of God will go forth boldly, nobly, and independent, till it has penetrated every continent, visited every clime, swept every country, and sounded in every ear, till the purposes of God shall be accomplished, and the Great Jehovah shall say the work is done.” 

Cute el Salvadorian in Little Honduras

Yep great title isn't it..... 

This week has been fun. We started This past week with a family home evening about the divinity of women. It was an all girl's night. We had a less active member come and join us. She actually talked. I know it doesn't seem like much but it was exciting. To make things even more exciting, we had a tornado warning, we had to stay at this members house till 10. We played a lot of UNO. 
The less active girl asked us to come to her house. She wanted us to come over the next day, we went over and made her breakfast... it was AMAZING.
Then on Wednesday we were knocking doors in this apartment complex and everyone was from Honduras. We were doing the missionary thing (talking and knocking) and showing a cool video called He Lives. If you have a couple of minutes, it is a very inspiring film and only 2 minutes long.
He Lives
It was a GREAT day.
I was talking to this lady and she said that she was from el Salvador. She was going back to visit and will be back in a couple of weeks. I said that I loved el Salvadorian food, she offered to make me some when she comes back from el Salvador. I hope I am not transferred in 2 weeks because she comes back the day of transfers...so yeah I could use your prayers with that. Other then that the food has been ok... I am not a big fan of Peruvian rice but it isn't bad I just don't like cilantro. But I will survive.

*** I am going to start putting my favorites talks or Scriptures that I have read during the week. I was reading through this talk and just loved it. The talk is called None Were with Him, By Elder Holland. If you have time you should read through the whole talk.
https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2009/04/none-were-with-him?lang=eng

"Thursday with its Paschal Lamb, atoning Friday with its cross, Resurrection Sunday with its empty tomb—may we declare ourselves to be more fully disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ, not in word only and not only in the flush of comfortable times but in deed and in courage and in faith, including when the path is lonely and when our cross is difficult to bear. This Easter week and always, may we stand by Jesus Christ “at all times and in all things, and in all places that [we] may be in, even until death,” ²¹ for surely that is how He stood by us when it was unto death and when He had to stand entirely and utterly alone."  ------ Elder Holland

Love you all,
Hermana Atkinson

ext  monday

Transfer

I did not get Karlie's letter out last week. I have combined both weeks into this one ..

D'Anne

Hey one and all!! 

April 13, 2015

I got transferred this week, I am now serving in Little River which is right next to Old Town. So let's be honest I knew I was leaving and so did most the members. Last Monday was a teary goodbye with Jorge and Padilla.  They are actually headed to Utah right now. When I got home from saying goodbye to them, I got the call. It was the assistants to President Riggs. They called and said I was finished with my training. The next night, I got a call saying I was leaving. I am a little bummed, but so grateful for the time I served in Old Town.

It is so weird being at the centre of the political world and not knowing any of the politics.... It is probably for the best though. I told one of the members my political beliefs and he told me to get out of his house. Good thing he was kidding and we are still friends.

Wednesday was my 6 month mark, I am already 1/3 of the way done. Time has really flown by so fast, I am extremely grateful for all the new people I have met. I feel torn, I leave in a year, and I am so excited to see my family. On the other hand, I am going to miss the people here.  Getting back to Wednesday, We had a Spanish meeting for all the missionaries in the Spanish program. We decided that we are going to start speaking only Spanish. It will be interesting and super fun. I love a CHALLENGE.

Thursday was transfer meeting and now I am in the Little River Ward. Friday, there was a wedding, I was able to help with the cakes. With a new area comes new food. I am starting to eat Bolivian food which is different.... I still end up eating a lot of chicken and rice. 

My new companion is from Utah, her name is Hermana Evans. We get along

great. I am training her and she is awesome, she has such confidence and is amazing.

And her Spanish is super good....

Spring is in the air and I love it. We went to see the cherry blossoms in D.C., it was gorgeous! If you are planning a trip to D.C., You have to come this time of year. I loved every second of it. We went as a foursome, Hermana Debry, her new companion and of course my new companion. I think everyone in my mission had the same idea. we pretty much saw our whole mission. like everyone was there..... 

So yep that's how life is going for me in D.C.

Love,

Hermana Atkinson

April 20, 2014

 

We have zone conference this week, so this morning we decided to clean the car. We went shopping and spent toooo much money. We decided to buy flowers for the senior couple missionaries for Mother's Day. They are all so sweet, it just seemed like the right thing to do.

Mother's Day is just a couple of weeks away... I am so excited I get to skype my family.  I am going to ask a member tonight if we can come to her house to Skype. Only problem is, I don't remember my Skype password, but I'm sure I will figure it out.

On Tuesday we went to go eat at a member's house. She used Chile de Arbol, which is pretty much death on a stick. Does everyone remember the seed story, where I couldn't feel my tongue... same chile. Yeah it was hot, super hot. To make things worse the Elders came, she was feeding them after she was feeding us. They all got to see us struggle to eat it. Then of course they laughed at us, I wish I could of stayed long enough to see them eat. They would of been crying. I managed to eat all of mine and drink 3 glasses of water, which was more then I can say for the rest of the Hermanas. They left half of it on their plates and left the house with watery eyes. So yeah, that was my excitement of the week.

With this transfer comes new challenges. We went to go talk to the Bishop. Since we are new in the ward, we were going to see if he needed any help. He started talking soooo fast, it was kinda scary.  Actually everyone talks really fast..... yep its a struggle. We are not teaching anybody and no Baptism's lined up. Our teaching pool is shallow... it is hard because in my old area we knocked apartment buildings where as here everyone lives in houses. We pray everyday for the Lord to guide us to someone that is searching for the gospel. I know that he will answer our prayers. So for now, we are living as righteous as we can, and doing all we can to find someone to teach.

"Get on Your Knees and Pray, Then Get on Your Feet and Work."

President Hinckley

I hope all of you have a GREAT week.

Love,

Hermana Atkinson

Happy Easter !!!

HAPPY EASTER

Happy Easter Everyone! I hope you all enjoyed your Easter dinner and family fun. I ate pupusas, so if I haven’t explained a pupusa before it is like a stuffed corn tortilla, it has pork or beans or cheese or well pretty much anything inside! Then you eat it with salsa and it seems disrespectful to eat them with silverware, so yeah …. That’s a cool dinner.

I got to watch conference this week and it was great!  I watched conference in Spanish on Saturday. We went to a member’s house, it was interesting to say the least.  I felt like a little kid again trying to understand all the big words that everyone was using, but I did catch most of what was going on.I watched the Sunday morning session in English ( I insisted on watching Elder Holland in English) and half of the Sunday evening session in Spanish.  I loved Conference; it was so cool and uplifting.  I especially loved Elder Holland’s talk and also the one about songs and we can’t dance if we don’t know the music! At least that was how it went in Spanish but I am not 100 percent sure that’s how it went in English because it seemed the translations were a little off …. Or maybe I was a little bit off!  hahaha

Last week I wrote you from D.C. in the Library of Congress; while we were there we met a member who worked there. He gave us a tour of his department and then he showed us where all the books are stored  in the library. So they have like 193 miles of shelving but they still have to store SO many books on the ground. We got to see a first edition Book of Mormon that has Martin Harris’s signature... it was awesome... Sorry, I couldn’t take pictures!

Soooooo, transfer week!  I think I am being transferred so I was trying to visit everyone and get all my pictures in and I have written a ton of notes, I won’t know for sure if I am moving until Tuesday, then I will be able to tell you guys my new address on either Thursday or Friday.

This week we took our recent converts out with us to go knocking doors, which was AWESOME! They are 13 and 15; I am so excited to see them grow more in the church.

Not a whole lot more happened this week, but another food story …. We were visiting some members that pretty much just love to give us food!  They gave me some homemade juice that had papaya, lettuce, pineapple in it and beet juice.... it was UNIQUE!

Oh well, other than that my companion got her first tick, ever,  this week, so I pulled it off for her, she is still a little flipped out about it, LOL! Thank you Thor for teaching us all about ticks and thank you dogs for making me immune to pulling them off.... LOL!! Thats all this week!

I Love You all,

Hermana Atkinson

Library of Congress

Hello Everyone!  I am at the library of congress writing to you right now.  So how awesome is that! I am a little late writing today because I got to go to the Washington D.C. Temple this morning. Double awesome!  I did family names I dug up myself and one of my recent converts actually was baptized for my family members!  Soooooo yea, that gets an AWESOME as well!!

Padilla (Baptized a few weeks ago) and Hermana DeBry at the temple.  Notice we are not wearing jackets on this beautiful sun shiny day (though it was a little chilly).  It is GREAT to see and feel the sunshine. 

My companion was pretty sick this week, so we were in the apartment most of the time.  That makes for a short letter home.  That's why I sent so many pictures!

Jorge and Padilla at the temple with us today.  I hope everyone has a great week!  I Love you all!!

Hermana Atkinson