Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Hello everyone!!

Merciful, where do I begin?

Lets see this week it felt like Sister Jones and I finally got our act together, haha. It all started with a deep clean of our apartment (I mopped the ceilings, haha). We reorganized our living room. We got a giant dry erase board from Home Depot for $13 and hung it up. And then we put our desks next to each other facing the wall---obviously we feel like we are working at a NASA command station or something. And we put lots of Jesus pictures up, so it is much better.

We didn't see an ant inside for a good 72 hours. But then we didn't clean up the Otter Pop cutting station (the tops of the wrappers and the paper towel), so that was that. We did have some traumatic bug experiences. There was a giant. GIANT. giant spider on our gate. gnarly picture to be sent home today. The worst was the other night. We had just gotten home. I went to put my hair up in a bun on top of my head (like every night) while Sister Jones made a call outside in our front gated dirt area (because we ain't got no service in our apartment). Then all of a sudden she yells at me "sister. bring your flashlight. and your camera. and the raid." that is never what you want, haha. I come out to find a literally 3-inch thick trail of ants. DISGUSTING. It was pitch black so we followed (and video-d) the trail with my very small flashlight. Followed it ALL AROUND THE OUTSIDE OF OUR APARTMENT. Like the entire thing. Like 100ft long trail. Those nasty creatures are so organized. It was fascinatingly awful. We could only see a few inches of teh trail at a time because of the size of the flashlight, so obviously the video is very dramatic when we randomly shine the light on a giant spiderweb and spider. Or when the ants would randomly shoot up the side wall of our apartment. Sister Jones tried to suppress my screams. It was impossible. The worst was in the back of our house (aka sketchville) we hit the light on a HUGE cockroach. That was the end of teh adventure. I refused to go any further. We used our entire can of Raid and didn't get 'em all. The bugs in this area are equal to the parallel parking anxiety of my last, hahaha.

The days this week have completely blurred together.

Oh my gosh, everyone of the others sisters are done writing their email but me. My bad. Okay this is going to be all over the place.

-operation #s.o.s. saveeeeee our singlessssssssss is in full force! Yay!!! well we are training our branch/stake people this sunday. But everything is scheduled out on how we're doing it (what we spent most of our week doing). We trained our zone last week! All the companionships are assigned 6 singles a week in their area. They are awesome! And setting up appointments for us like nuts! We are already seeing the miracles! We got our first real taste of it yesterday. Hearts are softening.

It is so nice to be back to teaching. After Sunday, we should be able to get back to purely teaching (which I have missed so much). But the past 6 weeks, Heavenly Father has asked us to necessarily do a different type of missionary work. We kind of felt like we were doing 45 peoples' jobs, but now it is all delegated out and we are just doing our part! yay! What changed my life is the following process: we would take any category (such as: our companionship, our branch, our investigators, our branch mission leader, how we find, how we baptize, visiting teaching, etc) and think about what the perfect world situation would be in great detail (for example: our branch mission leaders sets every appointment for us, we only teach members' friends, we outreach to all 800 less actives, etc). And then we would write out the 'now'. And then we would pray lots, study lots (in the online church handbook, etc) on the 'HOW' we get from where we are 'now' to the perfect situation. My new favorite phrase is "we all just need a to-do list!" And it is so true. Then you just have to 'inception' everyone into thinking their to-do list is their own idea. That's how we've gotten where we are right now. I don't know if that makes any sense, but it has completely changed my life on how I think about things. We have a very specific to-do list on how to improve and we are just shooting for it. I am sure it is not the perfect way to get to the "perfect world" situation, but it is fascinating how Heavenly Father is literally consecrating (or making holy) our efforts. One of the biggest realizations I have had since I have been on my mission is this: I thought I was coming here to help people, etc. But God could have done my work so easily himself. So why did He entrust part of His work to a very prideful imperfect 20 yr old girl? When He could do it so much better and so much more effectively Himself? Because He loves me. He wants me to learn and to grow. I thought Heavenly Father sent me here to help others, but He sent me here so He could help me. And that He could have the others here help me.

On Saturday we had a super cool experience! Elder Richards of the 70 came! He only met with the zone leaders and the sister training leaders. It was very intimate setting and a very special opportunity. He taught us about the word 'minister' and how Christ ministers. I do not have time right now to do it justice. But it was so cool. And he taught us about how it is all one work---the work of salvation #holla. I'm trying so hard. And Heavenly Father really is consecrating my efforts.

Loved the temple today. So much. Everything always comes back to Christ. Always.

I'm so happy! I love you all so much! And obviously go check out www.theysabranch.com! :)

Make it a great week!

Love, Sister Atkinson