Gird up your loins, fresh courage take ---our God will never us forsake!

Hi all,

This is her regular email she wrote this knowing Grandma Rayma Atkinson was very ill and before learning of her Grandma's death.  Dawn

 

May 28, 2013

HELLO HELLO HELLO!
the hymn come, come ye saints (quoted above) is Sister Oldham and my theme song.
So many emails and letters today! I'm so grateful to have so many important people in my life. Seriously, I love you all. Please keep writing--it really makes a difference! (And I promise I'm writing everyone back today!)

Whew! Where do I even begin!

-CONGRATS DEANNA! YOU ARE GOING TO MAKE A BEAUTIFUL BRIDE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

-So sorry to hear about Grandma Atkinson. Please keep me posted and everyone else keep her and my family in your prayers. I'm so grateful for the knowledge we have of the plan of salvation!!

I have no idea where this transfer went! We know if we are training the week before on Wednesday night (but we don't know where or anything until Monday night). Anyways! Sister Oldham and I BOTH got the call! We just assumed we would be co-training in a trio, but when we went to the training meeting President Baker said that this transfer board looks crazy. Lots and lots of changes. He said they would move names around for a month, before they finally felt the confirmation from the Spirit that it was right. It just proves to me that this is God's work, and not man's. Pres. Baker would not choose to do half of the changes that are going on. It's awesome!! Two visitor center sisters are going full-field speaking Sign Language. (they don't know ASL, haha). So crazy. And and and Sister Oldham? Only being out 6 weeks in an English area and not finishing her own 12 week training program? She is leaving me to whitewash a new Spanish area on bikes!!! WE DIED last night. She is a little overwhelmed, but she is going to be so great! I am so proud of her. The Lord has so much trust in her. I am sad we only got one transfer together though! And we were awful at taking pictures... Ah! So excited. I will be staying!! And training!! So fun!! I knew it wasn't my time to leave yet. These are my people. I predict I'll stay here for another 2, and leave for a bike area in August, haha -_-

This week was great! Right now my mind is overstimulated with lots and lots of information, so I couldn't tell you what happened this week, haha. I remember it was great! Oh wait, I remember something I learned. Follow spiritual promptings. Always.
We were in a lesson this week in which we said we were not going to talk to our investigator about baptism. Because we talked to her about it last time and we didn't want to overwhelm her and such. Anyways, we're in the lesson and I get this very distinct prompting to invite her to be baptized again. I pushed it away and basically was like "no! She'll freak out and Sister Oldham will kill me." It came again. So I said a silent prayer in my head asking "do you really want me to invite her?" And I got that same confirming spiritual feeling that I always get when I know something is right. The same feeling I have in the temple or when I decided to come on a mission. Anyways, "okay okay! Heavenly Father!" I pushed it off for another 5 seconds before it was very distinct that I needed to open my mouth. And of course I did. Sister Oldham said she had had the same prompting 15 minutes before I did, but she had pushed it away as well. We talked a lot about acting on the spirit. Things like this happen all the time when teaching. It's why we have companions, haha. Anyways! Act on thoughts or feelings because they often are short windows of opportunity for Heavenly Father to use us as an instrument in His hands. So cool.

Well! exciting things lay ahead! I have a really good feeling about this new transfer! Fresh courage take! Our God will NEVER us forsake! I love you all. I love this work. I love being a missionary. Wow, I sound like a nerd.

Make it a great week!

all my love,
Sister Atkinson :)