I'll Go Where You Want Me to Go, Dear Lord, I'll ....Stay....Where You Want Me to Stay!

Note from Dawn: sorry, this week's email is a little late getting posted, again. She used some missionary lingo that is not familiar to everyone and refers to a couple of things that also required explantions so I have [inserted] explantions throughout, surrounded by brackets. I hope this helps! Oh, and transfers are when missionaries are reassigned to live and serve in new areas with new companions. She has not been transfered yet. Thanks again to all of you.   

April 16, 2013
Hello, hello all!
Yes, I'm staying in UCLA and in the LA stake's single's ward!! Sadly, Sister Barney is leaving. But I'm so happy that she is not going back to serve only in the Visitor's Center---she's training and whitewashing [insert from Dawn; That means newly opening an area to have missionaries assigned to those specific wards] the Santa Monica stake's Young Single Adult ward! Basically, President was pleased with our trial run in our wards that they're opening YSA wards in Santa Monica and in the Huntington stakes with full-field sisters! Woohoo!! Also, I am training! AHHHH. [insert: She will be training a sister missionary who just arrived from the MTC] I'm now more excited, than freaking out, which is good. The 12-week program that missions started using last year (an extra hour of companionship study for the first 12 weeks in the field to help the trainee review doctrine and the teaching fundamentals and such) makes training a lot easier apparently. But! I'm excited. I have to go buy a gps today though. [insert: She will be the one driving (in LA) now and Ali will definately need a GPS!] Keep me and my new companion (that I'll meet tomorrow!) in your prayers! What's mind blowing is that this is the date when I originally was supposed to come out, this transfer with these new missionaries. Trust in the Lord's timing :)
I got Alex Heywood's wedding announcement! Congrats! SO CUTE. so excited for you!!
I got lots of emails today which seriously MADE MY DAY. Thanks everyone!
We have a lot to do today (like move Sis. Barney out, etc), so this will probably be a quick one.
We went on a hike in Malibu last p-day! Mom should post pics soon. So fun! Except the snake I almost stepped on. Sister Barney swears she saw a rattle. I love the wards we are in so much. The UCLA ward is having an open house church service in two weeks that will be a very non-member friendly day. Everyone is supposed to bring a friend. There are fancy invitations and everything. So exciting.
Larry Kump, West Virginia State Legislative sent me "a thank-you for your service" card today. No idea who that is or how he knows I'm on a mission. Let alone how he got my address. But! That was nice of him. I thought I would mention it in my email so you all will vote for him. #larrykump2013. [insert: Larry is a member of our church from the Eastern Panhandle. He attends our church in Sissonville when the legislature is in town. Her contact info is posted in the church bulletin.]
We have lots of people to work with this week! We had a ton of lessons planned this past week and...most of them... didn't happen for the lots of crazy reasons. But if there is one thing I have learned thus far, when things don't work out--they do! We had a lesson cancel, and then we randomly ran into someone we've been working with who desperately needed us at that exact moment. There are no coincidences!
I just spent 5 minutes of my time talking to one of my favorite sisters who is going home. Oops. No time. Last thing!
I'm sad to hear about Grandma Atkinson and Grandma Gibson's health, but I'm really not worried (and I usually worry). I'm at peace and I know that they are in good hands. The beauty of this gospel is the perspective we have of the resurrection (we will allllll be made perfect--spirits and bodies reunited). Send them my love and testimony of that. [Insert from Dawn: Grandma Gibson was in the hospital with pneumonia and very ill but she is finally getting better and is at home now. Grandma Atkinson is living with us and her dementia has gotten much worse in the month she has been here. Last week was rough for me so I still have not posted pictures....sorry. I hope to soon...]
Family. I stinking love my family. We are all part of an eternal family and God is our Father. Recognizing that all of these people I have been working with are literally children of God and my brothers and sisters makes it so eternal and so worth it. The first thing we teach in every lesson is that we are children of God and then, that we are sent here in families to learn and grow together. The Family: A Proclamation to the World (from the modern day prophet and apostes) says something to the effect 'Happiness in family life is most likely to achieved when founded upon the teachings of Christ.' I see evidence of this, and the opposite, of this everyday. And I'm even in a student ward.
Oh! We taught my first family! An Asian couple! He is doing a PhD research program at UCLA and they have a little boy. Yayyyy!
There is an old lady sitting across from me at the Family History Library who is getting SUPER excited about family history. I'm dying trying to hold my giggles in. [insert: that must be the library where the computer is located that she uses.]
Love you! Choose to be happy!!!
Make it a great week!
Love, Sister Atkinson