I'm running behind this week. By the way, her return home date is June 11th!!!!
Written Monday April 28, 2014
Hi everyone!!
What a week! Transfers!
I am staying in Santa Monica!!!!! Yay!!! That means I will have had 3 areas on my mission, 4 transfers time periods in each, so I'm really grateful about that.
Mi princessa, Sister Lopez, is leaving but is staying close in Santa Monica Young Single Adult!
I got a call from President yesterday, "I feel like the Lord wants you to serve as a sister training leader.....again." Both president and I just laughed. I guess I didn't learn my lesson the first or second time as one, but I really am so humbled and grateful. #theLorddoeswhateverHewants #pleaseblessthatthethirdtimeisthecharm
Sister Black is coming here! She served near me when I was in Huntington Park YSA and we drove her around on p-days and everything, so I'm super excited! Plus she is a voice major, so I'll just let her do a solo every morning in companionship study.
Do you ever have those weeks where you just stop and want to yell "Satan. back off of me and back off of my people." Yeah. #canherespectus
All is well in our area. We were low in miles that we are allowed to use on the car for the month so we got back on the bikes a lot this week. #neededfreshair (well as fresh as smoggy LA can be).
We tracted and street contacted a lot this week. Are people as nuts or drunk as ever? Yes. Did two people actually let us in to their homes? Miracles. Did I overhear a preacher at a bible study yelling about placenta and have 2 Jehovah witnesses come to our door this morning and talk to us about how we were wrong (we didn't say anything) for a good 15 minutes? Nailed it. Did someone give us a 5 minute lecture on how a giant earthquake is coming and we're all going to die? Don't worry, we have our 72 hour emergency supply kits, haha. Anyways, we did have a lot of good conversations with people. But mostly, I was so sad that they wouldn't accept the restored gospel. I love listening to people's stories and gaining a perspective of why they believe what they believe and I totally get it! But, the restored gospel is either true or it's not---and I know it's true. This video that we showed to give hope to an investigator who told us she was afraid of being able to overcome addictions was on my mind all week as we talked to people: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_S3TI4bYerU
We had Mormon Helping Hands on Saturday at the high school where the movie 'Grease' was filmed! So that was the dream. [Note from Dawn: Mormon Helping Hands is an annual service day where Mormons state-wide participate in community service.]
Sunday afternoon we got a third companion! My good friend, Sister Schvanveldt in the Santa Monica YSA came with us for the two days because a missionary got her visa to Russia and left. So Sister Schvan's companion had to go be the driver for the missionaries the Russian missionary was with. Anyways, love her and it has been fun. But I had an eyeopening experience with it: Sundays are so hard for missionaries. You are so stressed running around making sure all of your people are taken care of at church as such. After our church, we met the YSA sisters at their church, stayed so they could take the sacrament, and then left. It was the first time I had been in a sacrament meeting in over a year where I wasn't the ward assigned missionaries. I felt so light as I sat there in peace as the sacred ordinance was performed. It was really special.
We have an investigator that is super sweet and in desperate need of the gospel But she is also a little bit of the type of old lady that belongs in a movie. Like we did service for her and helped her go to a store that she needed to go to on the bus and such (she's in a wheelchair). We had to leave apology notes with pass along cards to everyone she talked to. And I woke up twice this week from nightmares of not knowing how to best help her. But the love I have for her is definitely a gift from God and she needs the gospel and I love her a lot. Hilarious adventures.
Quote from a fireside this week, "You need a testimony that the gospel is true, but you also need a testimony that the gospel works. The first comes from the Spirit, the second comes from personal experiences."
I have seen too many miracles to not believe that the gospel is true and it really does work.
I know it, I live it, I love it.
I just laid awake last night for a couple hours with my mind just racing at all the people that I have met in my life. I just am so grateful.
Make it a great week everyone!
Love,
Sister Atkinson
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