Hi guys, I still have no pictures but Brittany is going to help me this week so if all goes well you can see what she did while in Provo at the MTC and then if she sends more next week, we will be up to date! Thanks for your support of her. Dawn
hello all!
Today the sun is shining and is just one of those days you can't
help but smile!
A big shout out to those who have written me letters and who
commented on the ol' blog posts. Thanks! (my mom even forwarded me the zorz from
Colton. Scotts-love you and hope you're doing well! Sar-love you! Write me!)
Taylor is your competition this week? Good luck! Kel-heard you asked mom what to
send me, haha--Gum! We chew it during our studies. Thanks so much! Love and miss
you all!
I forgot my journal at home, so lets see what I can remember from
this week!
-yes mom, our apartment is furnished. and yes we get fed almost
every night :) we pass around that meal calendar at church until it's full,
haha. We get a lot of pizza and soups and spaghetti from the young singles and
lots of creative dishes from the young marrieds. We even have gotten swiped into
the cafeteria at the dorms :) Sis. Barney is a health nut and she is keeping me
healthy. Except she never eats the candy we get....aka more for me. haha, just
kidding--we give candy to everyone! we leave it on doorsteps, give it to
investigators, hand it out on campus, etc. Candy is the way to people's hearts.
Also, Sis. Barney let me graduate to running out in the real world. The
(c)ankles are really holding up, haha and I actually enjoy running now.
(#miracleshappen. oh and yes, I still make my bed every morning :D ) We see so
many homeless people. This one homeless guy we run past every morning, we
need to be friends because we see him every day. It is hilarious to watch
people's reactions as two tall white girls run past them at 6:30 in the morning
and quite cheerfully say hello or good morning. People think that people in L.A.
are mean, but really they just are too passionate with the car horn. People are
generally really nice to us. One woman in the laundromat this morning randomly
told me I had beautiful complexion, haha...and I have rosatia!
-we had
another young woman serve as a mini missionary this weekend! She may or may not have taught some false
doctrine in one of our lessons, haha, but it was so fun to have her!
-we
spoke in church yesterday, haha. missionary work was the topic. obviously. I
talked about how "every member a missionary" really means every member is a
disciple of Christ. Part of our covenant or promise we make at baptism is to
stand as a witness of God at all times, in all things, and in all places. I
might have Christ's name literally written on the bottom of my name badge but when we are
baptized we all promise to write His name on our hearts. We are disciples or
learners of Him. We are all learning and trying to become like Him and to say,
do, invite, serve and testify as He would.
I feel like I haven't really told
you much about Sister Barney. We get along so well. We love working and we love
people and we love teaching and we love laughing and we love the LDS singer, Alex Boye. "This
companionship really is a trio--me, you, and Al." Remember how I found that 90s
pop cd of Alex Boye doing hymn covers like he was a Backstreet Boy? All day.
Everyday.
Yesterday in the UCLA ward council, it was so fulfilling to see
their surprised faces by how much work we are doing. I love working on campus.
-Ashley is doing well! We met with her a couple of times anddddd she came to
church! My favorite lesson we had this week with her was when we addressed her
concerns about baptism and watched lots of Mormon Messages videos and talked a lot
about faith. I love that girl so much. She is telling her Mom tonight about
being baptized on March 9 or 10 so keep her (and her Mom) in your prayers!
-Allan. Oh Allan. I get so passionate about the gospel in our lessons with
him. Sister Barney said after one of our lessons with him this week that all of
my experiences in life help me with teach him and explain things to him. (shout
out to growing up in the Bible Belt ;) ) We talked about the Book of Mormon a
lot in our two lessons this week. We talked about the Book of Mormon logically
(using that "essay assignment" thing Dad did once? It was in a book Mom gave me.
It basically talks about how it's impossible that it was made up by Joseph
Smith) and then how we have to understand it spiritually and watched the
Restoration dvd. I basically tell him in every lesson that I refuse to give up
on him, haha. He asks deep questions and I love studying in the mornings so I
can be super prepared for our lessons with him.
-Kent! Kent is a new
investigator who is from Salt Lake (go figure), but he never took the lessons
from the missionaries. He has Aspergers (sp?) and is super smart and super
sweet. He is really dedicated to school and struggles making time, but he has
felt the Spirit and keeps saying "it all makes sense". Love him.
-Kelly. Have
I told you about her before? She is a sweetheart whose best friend is Mormon.
She comes to church almost every week and basically lives a Mormon life, but
doesn't want to be baptized because she thinks that confirmation will come
naturally rather then really working for it. She's a tough one. :)
Is that
too much information about some of our investigators? I hope that isn't too
much. We talk about having that desire to know all the time. Lots of the time
people don't know what they are missing.
We are struggling finding people to
teach in the Young Single Adult Ward. Some of our UCLA students can go to the YSA ward instead.
It's hard to place people. We are doing lots and lots of work with less actives
in the YSA ward which I definitely love, but we are praying that we can finally
contact one of our several referrals for that ward (nobody picks up the phone
and nobody is ever home. we even leave sweet notes and chocolate. :) )
-this
week was the first time I have knocked on the door and knew the person saw us
and hid in the back so she didn't have to answer, hahaha. Oh mercy.
-oh oh
oh 58 new missions world wide?! HOW EXCITING.
-I love working hard and I'm
determined to make better use of all of our time. The days when we are so tired we crawl into
bed are my favorite. The other days where we have to sit in meetings and only
can have a couple of appointments I get anxious.
-I'm particularly grateful
for the Priesthood this week. And the Gospel Principles book explains things so
well
-I didn't see any celebrities from the Oscars, haha We stayed away from
that part of town yesterday.
I'm just so happy and grateful today! I love you
all so much! Remember to smile and to pray :)
Thanks for everything!
Make it a great week!
Love,
Sister Atkinson :)
p.s. lots of
pictures will be sent home on my card next week. stay tuned :) Mom did you ever
figure out how to post them? I left instructions on that page... Oh and tell
Ashley thanks so much for her package!!!!!!!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment