Hi everyone!!!
This week was great!
-Our investigators are slowly but surely moving forward. The biggest hurdle seems to be quitting smoking for almost all of them. Mom sent me a cutesy quote from general conference and we put it in our investigator's dashboard and every time she is tempted she quotes it. It says "You have the Savior of the world on your side...how can you fail?" I've learned a lot about having hope and faith in people; never doubting their potential. If God never gives up on me, how in the world could I give up on someone else?
-Sister Black is just a powerhouse and it's really fun to be her companion. This week was her birthday and we celebrated by going to Tender Greens (welcome to healthy Santa Monica) and I threw balloons at her when she woke up.
-One of our sweet investigators talked about how his life started changing when he came to church and how he can feel the light that has come in to his life. #heartmelted #lovehim
-Fruit just always tastes better in Cali. This week Sister Black looked at this weird looking fruit and decided to buy it. It was like green jello seed pods and cactus-y yellow on the outside. That's about as exotic as it gets on my mission, haha.
-Tracted in to this one woman who started telling us about aliens and conspiracy theories with a giant cockatoo bird on her shoulder. The bird proceeded to climb onto our shoulders and eat the eraser off of my pencil. I always think I've experienced it all and then things like that happen.
-Good to go on exchanges again!! And we went to the ghetto of mid-city. I realized how much I miss the ghetto. 20/25 people you contact will actually talk to you. 20/50 on a good day in our area will have a conversation with you, haha. Took a paparazzi picture of the house from the tv show The Bachelor, so that was fun.
-We talked to Flo's counterpart from the Progressive Commercials on the street this week. Super nice guy. Knew a ton about church history and our doctrine and tried to completely destroy our faith in a loving way. I hate experiences like that and I've had one too many in my life, haha. But my testimony never fails me. Respectfully, I was able to just bear a simple testimony of my faith in Jesus Christ, the Book of Mormon, and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It's simply just true.
-We met a guy on the street last night who was one of Clay Christensen's students and then one of his coworkers. As in Elder Christensen of the 70? [an LDS general authority and author of the awesome member missionary book? Harvard bigwig? Yeah. Him. Of course, Elder Christensen had him over for a first lesson with missionaries before. Once again: NOT. A. COINCIDENCE. Come on people, just face it---the church is true. Okay? Okay.
-A woman fell asleep ON my companion during a lesson this week. In our defense, she is in her 90s and has dementia.
-We ask everyone for referrals. We asked someone we tracted into if there was anyone in her complex that could use an uplifting song? She told us about her neighbor around the corner. We knocked on his door. He lives all alone and had just started his second round of chemotherapy that morning. We sang him the hymn "Where Can I Turn for Peace?", and I am telling you there were angels singing with us. It was one of those sacred moments where you know you are exactly where God needs you to be at an exact moment.
-We had our leadership meeting and zone conference this week on diligence. You better believe we're working working working!
-A lot of you have asked me how I'm feeling about going home. Honestly, I'm so busy I don't spend too much time thinking about it. And when people ask I just tell them I go home 'later this summer'. :) Yesterday, it did hit me though. Talking to the fambam on skype was so nice! [Note from Dawn: Yay! She got to talk to us for Mother's Day.] I love you all so much and I am excited to see you and move forward. My mission isn't supposed to be the best year and a half of my life; it is supposed to be the best year and a half for my life. I did get emotional yesterday for different reasons. I do honestly feel sick about leaving my mission, missionary mode, and the people here. Of course the feelings of inadequacy or nervousness, etc. are all mixed in there, but I want to reassure you all I really am in a good place. President called us last night about something sister training leader related but I asked him, "President. what would you say to a missionary who has some anxiety about going home?" He just laughed and knew I was talking about myself. He reassured me how normal the feelings I have are and how everything will be just fine. So for now, I'll just keep taking everything one day at a time and continue to give the Lord all I have.
MAKE IT A GREAT WEEK! LOVE YOU ALL!!!
Sister Atkinson
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