Week 17!

hey there my family that i get to talk to on the phone in 5 days!! ¡FAH!

how's life going?  i'm doing absolutely wonderful down here!  before i start my email i wanted to tell you that i will call you at 7:00 at night my time! which is 2:00 your time!!! i will call you and it will to make sure i can get through but if i don't call within 15 minutes of that please call this number 47236649 that is my house number but i don't know the number to get INTO uruguay so you probably will have to look that up on the internet.  so thanks for that!!!!  now onto the fun stuff of the week!  we had divisions this week!  this was the very first time i've done divisions and gone to a different area so i was pretty excited!  i went with my zone leader (Elder White from Las Vegas) he's HUGE and stinking hilarious! we talked almost non stop about funny poop stories and things around that subject! hahaha he's a great guy and i learned a lot of things from him.  we found a recently dead dog on the side of the road and it made him get sick!  it was soooo funny!  another story with him was that we were walking in the total campo and we pass this house that had a HORSE of a dog in the yard but it was just chilling on the ground, but right as we walked by it Elder White kind of nudges me towards it and it just FLIPPED out and jumps at me but luckily it was chained to a wall but it still came within a foot of ripping apart my face!  i ALMOST peed my pants!  haha funny story, i taught Elder Ashby how to "Jerk" because he was on the mission during that whole dance craze! haha it's soo funny seeing him practice in our house! haha we started a game to keep our days light and lively, it's called "Jerk Where No Man's Jerked Before" we just try to see random areas during the day and "Jerk" where no one else has before haha it's actually a lot of fun!  hahaha i've ALSO taken up a new hobby! KNITTING!!  Elder Ashby just taught me how to knit so for a couple minutes before i go to bed i do some knitting ;) haha

Can't wait to talk to you guys on SATURDAY!!!

Elder Atkinson

Week 16!

¡Hola familia!

¿Comò estan? ¿Todo bien? this week was great! ¡FAH! i got TWO of your packages!  one from you guys and one from the Taylors!  thanks sooo much for thinking of me!  i haven't opened the presents yet in case you were wondering.  i want this christmas to be very special!!!!  thaks for the lil treats as well! and also Elder Ashby says thanks for his lil gift bag as well!  he thinks you all are VERY SWEET!  hahaha i'm not sure when my next email session is going to be so just as a heads up, i'll call you on December 25 at about 7 at night, Uruguay time. i think that is like 3 or 4 in the afternoon your time!  so wait for a call during that time!!!!!  this week was pretty interesting!  story numero uno: we were knocking houses like always trying to find some new people, we knock on this door and a guy that was working across the street was telling us (in spanish) "What are YOU two doing at that door?" "we're trying to meet new people in the neighborhood" we answered. "he points to the top of the house and is trying to tell us something that we had no idea what he was saying so he says "WOMEN, of the night" and points at the top of the house again and we realized there was a "Red Light" on the top of the house.  haha once we realized that we started dying laughing.  i never thought that i would ever tract into a "RED LIGHT" house hahaha so that was a pretty funny story. story numero dos: we ran into that scary looking lady that yelled "Paysandùùùùù`!" needless to say we ran as fast as we could once again to get away from her!  ewwww i have chills going down my back just thinking about that lady.... hahah the food here in fairly bland... the most cammon food we get fed from members and stuff is a big pile of rice with peas, corn, potatoes, a few other vegtables, and smothered in Mayonase.  every now and then someone will mix it up and have some tuna or some chicken in it!  their solution to any type of food is dump mayonase on it.  i've had cow tongue a few other times since i've been here. we play soccar every single P Day, since i didn't play a whole lot before my mission i've been trying my best and i've been getting better and better every week. haha i've started collecting a certain type of treat here.  it's called an alfajor as of right now i have around 40 different types of alfajors.  if you don't know what they are feel free to ask harris what they are.   thanks for all your love and prayers i can feel them down here!  btw i sent a letter to you with some pics in it i hope you get it before christmas!!!  honestly i have no idea if we are aloud to email this next monday because of christmas that next saturday but i'll definitely email you if we get that chance next monday!

LOVE YOU BUTT LOADS,

Elder Tyler Atkinson

Week 15!

hey there my fam!!!

sorry i didn't email you yesterday.  we didn't have P Day yesterday
because today is the last day of CHANGES! i am done with my first
change (6 weeks)  haha it's FLYING by so stinking fast!  haha oh yeah
i am feeling so much better this week!  i feeel like i am at 100% so
we're working as hard as we possibly can.  i am staying in Paysandù
with Elder Ashby for this next change too.  oh i finally got your
first package that was send November 1st.  you guys are way too
stinking sweet!!!  oh and Elder Ashby says thanks soo much for the
little bag of treats!!!  hahaha i guess it takes a little bit longer
than expected to get here hahaha we found a really great family this
last week, it's a single mom with 4 kids.  she was very interrested
and read the pamphlet we gave her.  the second visit we had with her
and her family she said that she wanted her son to be baptized into
our church and that her oldest daughter (24 years old) wants to be a
missionary for OUR church and us talking with her family was the very
first time they had ever heard of us before!  haha yeah i thought that
was a pretty interresting story!  oh hey by the way, EVERYONE down
here does the finger snap thing!!!!!  no joke i mean like it is used
for phrases like "ooohhh YEAH!!!" or "DO WORK" or stuff kind of like
that hahaha so i guess i'm not that special ;) hahathis sunday was
pretty cool because our sacrament attendance was 31 PEOPLE!!!  that's
the most we've had there in over a year so it was pretty exciting but
none of our investigators came... so that was upsetting especially
because we were expecting 8 people in church so it was a bittersweet
feeling.  we didn't get to see the first presidency devotional down
here because they did a live broadcast from the stake center ah 11 at
night so we weren't aloud to watch... but we are watching a recording
of it for our end of the year party so we'll get to see it in like a
week of two.  thanks for all of your prayers andthoughts for me!!!

can't wait to call you guys in 18 days!!

LOVE YOU TONS,
Elder Atkinson

Week 14!

hahaha hey there my good old family!!!!

thanks for the pic i really love it!!!  haha i'm glad to hear that you got the letter i sent!  it took about tree and a half weeks to get there WOW  this week i went on a two day division with a latino, his name is Elder Arancibia, he's a chileno and knows NO english.  i think that i'm getting better and better at spanish because i really didn't have a problem talking to him the whole time we were together.  it was a lot of fun!!!!  FUNNY STORY, while we were on our divisionson the second day (Wednesday) we had to stop working about two hours early because Elder Arancibia had a little problem,  he was "chafting" WAY BAD hahaha it was soo stinking funny because i didn't get what he was saying and he had to discribe it to me because i didn't know the word he used for it!  haha it was definitely a funny experience.  also this week we had to go to a different area (Nuevo Paysandù) because my Comp is a District Leader and he had to do a baptismal interview.  it was for this really old lady who was one of the sweetest ladies i've met here.  she was having some personal doubts about getting baptized because of the "Law of Tithing" because she thought that you had to give a TON of money to the church for tithing so we talked with her for like a half an hour on what tithing is and she ended up being great!  i talked to the elders who taught her and they said that they have taught her about three or four times about the law of tithing so it was kind of weird that she had that doubt again, but oh well.   this week i have been pretty sick... :(  not too much fun...  i got a really bad cough, headaches, and lots of SNOT.  but i'm starting to feel better now, it was pretty annoying because it was so bad that i couldn't go out and work on saturday...  both of us were practically dying on saturday.  and this week on sunday was quite an interresting day.  there was less than 20 people at sacrement meeting...  probably only 15 people were at church...  we are working the hardest we can!!!  hey i was thinking that for christmas i would call you so you can get the number and then you guys could call me back does that sound good?  i can't wait to hear more from you!!! (none of your letters or packages have gotten here yet)  but it's all good!!!!

LOVE YA,

Elder Atkinson

Week 13!

hey there my good ol family!!!
so far i have recieved NOTHING from you guys yet... sorry but they
probably will bw here soon! :)  this week was a pretty good one.  it's
awesome to hear how well everything has been going!  i'm really sorry
this this email may not be very long... it's because the internet cafe
we went to today is TERRIBLE!!!  and super slow!  it's so annoying!
but anyways, we had a Zone Conference this week,  the President and
his wife came up and gave us talks on companionship studies and how to
work hard.  they were really good talks and were very inspiring! :)
guess what???????  this is my ONE MONTH anniversary in URUGUAY!!!
yeah i know time is stinking flying by :)  it's truly crazy!  this
last friday my companionship and the sister missionaries combined both
of our wards (because we meet in the same building) and we did an
activity!!!  we told everyong that we were going to a trip and we were
flying to Hawaii, we made the ward building like an airport and the
plane was the stage.  during the flight we told them that we didn't
put in enought gas in the plan and me and my comp (the pilots of the
flight) grabbed out parachutes and jumped off the plane.  haha when
all the people came out we had ponchos, mustaches and mexican hats on.
 we crashed into MEXICO!!!  haha it was a lot of fun and we had 2 of
our investigatores come to it!!!  in total we had around 60 PEOPLE
THERE!!!  for an activity of only 2 wards for here, that is a HUGE
success!!!  this sunday everyone came up to us and thanked us for how
great the activity was!  haha i had a lot of fun doing it :)  thanks
for all your love and i'm going to try to send you some pics really
quick so HEADS UP!!!

LOVE YA,
Elder Atkinson

Week 12!

hahaha ok ok family!!!!

¡hey! how's life going for all of you?  i'm am doing great in the
wonderful land of Paysandù.  in case you are wondering what my actual
address is for google earth, it is 1107 Dr. Herrera in the city of
paysandù, the district of Paysandù.  this week has been FULL of
AMAZING experiences!!! the main one was this last saturday, we were
knocking doors in the one area and getting no success with that like
usual knocking...  we were knocking past one of our investagators
(Idina and her daughter Valentina) that we were going to drop pretty
soon because they are never at home and when they are home they don't
have time.  i saw their door and had a small feeling saying, "just
knock one more time" i told my comp that i wanted to knock the door
and he said, "ok, if they're not there we're going to drop them"  so
we went over and i knocked.  they were there! and not only that but
they had read EVERYTHING we asked them to read.  we started talking to
them and we had an AWESOME lesson!  we committed them to go to church
and they said that they would try to come.  they next morning we
remembered that we didn't tell them what to wear!!!  so Elder Ashby
thought of cutting out one of the papers of a Pamphlet we had that had
dressing standards on it and circled the important parts and also
wrote on it "come in what you have" and on our way to church we
slipped it under the door of their house.  because they said that they
didn't want us to go pick them up we didn't knock or anything.  but
THEY CAME TO CHURCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  not only did both of them go
to church but Valentina brought 2 of her 3 daughters as well!!!  i
could tell that they felt the spirit so strongly in the sacrement
meeting.  oh yeah, both me and my companion had to give talks in
sacrement meeting.  i talked for about ten or so minutes and elder
ashby spoke for about fifteen to twenty minutes.  he did a stinking
great job!!!! and i only messed up on one word the whole talk!!! i has
pretty excited about that AND it was my first week having an
investigator come to church.


ok dad this one is for you:  since i've been on my mission i have
noticed something.  how much the strength of the members affects the
church and how it is run.  i have a strong testimony that simply by
bringing your friends and family to sacrement meeting it brings a
different spirit to their countenounces.  i remember inviting all my
friends to go play basketball and stuff like that at the church but
one of my biggest regrets is not even thinking to invite them to
attend church.  i know that this family that just attended church did
feel the spirit and will recieve MANY blessings from going to church.
i know with all of my heart that this church is the ONLY true church.
if i didn't know that this was true, i would DEFINITELY not fly all
the way down to Uruguay and be down here for two years.  this is some
of the toughest work i've ever done before but it feels absolutely
AMAZING knowing that it ALL is going to the Lord.  thanks for all of
your support and prayers!

i love you all and ¡¡¡HLJ!!!

Elder Tyler Atkinson

Week 11!

¡hola!

hey there family! how's life going in good ol' Colorado?  i'm doing stinking great!!! just as a heads up, a have to drive down to Montevideo AGAIN this next monday, so i have no idea what day this nest wek i will be able to email you BUT i know we will get time to email sometime next week.  but anyways... (nacho voice) haha this week was pretty darn quick! (considering i wrote you on wednesday hahaha) it has been soo stinking HOT.  i sweat while i'm in bed going to sleep!!! we don't have air conditioning or anything and when we keep the window open every single bug in the WHOLE WORLD ends up in our room.  but it's all good.  this last p-day we went to the ZOO!!!  it was free, and in uruguay, so you can imagine what it must have been like.  there was a whole 10 different animals in the zoo, and was kept up by one old guy that lives with like 20 dogs.  the weather here has been HOT and HUMID the past 2 weeks.  RANDOM FACT, ever since i have been here i have to poop all the time.  ¡NO JOKE! but the food here is pretty good!  when they serve you they serve you soo much and then if they ask if you want more you feel rude if you say "no" so you have to eat like two HUGE plates full of food.  most of the food is either pastas or something that's like rice, chopped up boiled eggs, some veggies, lots of mayonayse and if the person is well off they will put some sort of meat in there. usually like chicken or pork.  this week we really tried to focus on teaching wilth the spirit by reaching and trying to find a "question from Heaven" we learned what that was during our training thing last week.  it really helps make sure that you are trying to stay intune with the spirit always in our lives.  we had another lession with teresa this week and she read ALL that we asked her to and MORE!!!!!  how cool is that? i'll answer that one for you-EXTREMELY COOL!!!  she says that all that she is reading are answers to prayers and questions that she has in her life.  we still have to work a lot on her to start actually coming to church but i think she is getting close and might go this next week!!!  i'm so excited to hear about Lindsey and Shaun bearing their testimonies in sacrement meeting!!!!  that's awesome!  that's one thing that i really wished i would have done more back home...  just from experiences down here it has made me realize how important it is to actually SHARE your testimony with others.  NOTHING and i mean NOTHING is better to say while you are teaching than to bear your testimony!  people will honestly feel your spirit soo much if you just share with them what you KNOW to be true.  though i may not be able to speak the language i do know how to bear my testimony and i know that the people who hear it are able to feel what i am trying to say.

i'm soo grateful to hear from all of you and can't wait to hear more!!!!

LOVE YOU ALL,

Elder Tyler Atkinson

Week 10!

hey there my family,

i'm sorry i didn't email until today...  my comp. and i have to take a bus down to Montevideo for a training conference for two days.  it was actually really really cool.  it helped us on some things that we need to change about the way we teach people.  it had some VERY good ideas for us to try on some people.  the language is coming great!  i can actually listen pretty well, i get what their saying for the most part haha just speaking it is what i'm working on right now.  haha and you know how i told you that our ward has 40 people that attend? that's actually false... that's as many people that attended stake conference.  haha so this week was my first time in my ward.  and the average sacrement attentence for that is around 22-23 people...  my companion and i DEFINITELY have our work cut our for us.  hahahaha it's pretty difficult because pretty much EVERYONE here works on sundays (even the Bishop) so getting people to church, especially investigators, is pretty tough.  we have around 8-10 main investigators in our area.  the one that we're most excited about is a lady named Teresa, she's a single mom with a 15 year old daughter who is VERY much overweight because she has some sort of illness.  her husband died like 3 years ago, she seems very interested in the gospel.  this last week we taught her about the Book of Mormon and the restoration and we challenged her that is she prays and recieves an answer about our church to be baptized, she said yes if she KNOWS that this is true.  so i got pretty excited about that.  we're going to go talk to her tomorrow and see how she's doing.  oh by the way, the Longshore's nephew is my Zone Leader!!! (Elder Longshore) haha  he is stinking hilarious!  the rules for emailing are as so, "we can read our emails fairly quick, and then we have 30 of typing time"  oh funny story,  so this sunday we were walking from our apartment to an appointment we had with an inactive member and the lady starts walking towards us.  this lady is the creepiest looking lady i have ever seen; she's probably around 35 years old but i could tell that because she's done so much drugs she lookd like she's 50 years old, she is wearing tattered clothes her hair probably hasn't been washed in 15 years, and she has about 4 teeth in her mouth and she was chewing on something that looked like tar... haha she comes up to us and says in english, "Do you speak english??" we replied, "yes" she says, "i had my first love at 15, his name was Juan-Pablo and he spoke english, and I LOVE YOU TOOOOOO!!!!!!!" we started to run away because of how creepy is was. the last things she says is "Paysandu!!!" she was the creepiest person i've ever seen.  ok i got to go... sorry...

LOVE YOU ALL,

Elder Atkinson

Week 9!

hey hey hey there grand family of mine!!!!

 

how is life going?  i am wonderfully in URUGUAY!!!  i'm in a city called Paysandu, it's a city over on the west boarder of Uruguay. (you should be able to see it on the map i think) haha it's a really awesome place.  my area has bot rich and REALLY poor and they are all soo nice and willing to listen to what we are saying.  my trainer's name is Elder Ashby, he's from beaverton, Oregon.  he's been out for about a year and three months.  he's a totally awesome guy.  VERY hard worker, excited about the gospel, wanting to do anything he can to spread they gospel.  i can already tell that he is going to teach me a TON about how to work on my mission.  our ward is a normal sized ward for out here, about 40 people attend, but it seems like there is a BIG problem with inactivity...  so we're trying to help the members and find people to teach at the same time.  so we're both working our butts off trying to get people to come to church.  i know that we are going to have to work really really hard to try to change this place but both of us have a positive attitude and i know that we will be able to change this ward :)  so far the weather has been BEAUTIFUL!!!  because it hasn't hit summer yet and it's our of the rainy season of winter! haha my apartment is quite large for here actually.  we have a small room for us, a very small study, a fairly decent sized living room and a small-ish kitchen.  the problem is that the mission president just bought it so there's barely any furniture.  hahahahaha but it's all good.  my mission president is really really nice; he's kind of a more laid back guy but still has a GREAT spirit and knows how to be a mission president.  his spanish is WAY better than mine but because he didn't use his spanish too much after he served his mission he's still a little bit rusty haha but his wife knows close to NO spanish whatsoever haha so i got to talk to her for a while and she is soo nice and sweet and i can tell that she really really cares about the missionaries.  oh man... the first day i got here our flight was delayed for about 2 hours and once we got to Uruguay they mission president threw us in the car and went to the mission home as fast as he could.  we had an opening meeting thing where i met Elder Ashby and had an interview with the President and then we took a bus to our area.  the bus drive took about 5 hours to get to our area!!! yeah it was kind of a long drive and we didn't get to our area till about 11 at night.  i haven't been able to see nick oakey yet but he did call me and say welcome and to see how i was doing, it was very nice of him haha.  haha i think i'm getting a little faster at typing don't you think ;) haha

 

anyways i lov you all a BUNCH,

Elder Tyler Atkinson

 

P.S. my p-days are usually on mondays but sometimes it's going to change due to scheduling difficulties hahaha if you send me letters send them to the mission home.  and if you would like to have friends and others who i cannot email send their email to the urugoests Gmail account or whatever you want to call it because it does it a little different.  i love you tons and can't wait to hear back from you.

**Elder Atkinson's new email address is urugoest@gmail.com and put Elder Tyler Atkinson in the subject line. (All emails go to the mission home and they forward it to the missionaries.) His mission president said that they have to watch exactly what the missionaries are receiving...so i guess that's how they are doing it down there.

Week 8

hey there my dear old family!!!!

how is life in the United States?  i'm having a total blast with getting prepared for leaving TOMORROW!!!  it's starting to hit me that i'm actually a missionary!  it's kind of an interresting feeling.  haha my spanish is getting better and better each day... (or so i think) haha but it's all good.  so are you guys getting ready for Halloween?  if you didn't know, they don't celebrate it down here or anything like it.  my flight leaves from Buenos Aires tomorrow at 8:30.  it's about a 30 minutes flight and i have no idea what's happening after that... hahahaha i guess i'll just have to tell you what actually goes on later.  haha  this week we went to another new area for prosilitismo, a town about 20 minutes away from the CCM called Atalaya.  oh my goodness we were in the GANG LAND!!!!  a few HUGE guys covered in tattoos asked me and Elder Bush what our rings (CTR rings) ment because they were nice looking.  haha they got less interrested once they realized that they were religious rings haha we taught them a small lesson about the gospel and they let us go on our way with some advice about some roads that we SHOULD NOT go down haha.  it was a struggle to find people to teach because we met some members in the area and they said that this area gets a lot of the missionaries from the CCM so it gets fished out pretty quickly.  but we met this man named Vito and he is a strong PRACTICING Catholic and wasn't very interrested in our message but something that the lord did changed his attitude to us while we were talking about the Book of Mormon.  he got soo interrested in what we were saying that we promised that he would read and he was so greatful for the book that he gave us FREE waterbottles haha it really shows how the lord can change someone's attitude for who is ready to hear the gospel.  he promised that he would go to church and that we could send over other missionaries to teach him whenever they feel like it.  i could really tell that this man was TRULY interrested in the spirit of the message and everything.

LOVE YOU BUNCHES!!!!!

Elder Atkinson

P.S. hey i'm going to try to send some pics right now so HEADS UP for a few minutes!!!

Leaving the MTC!

Elder Atkinson will be leaving the MTC on October 22! His new contact information is posted in the sidebar.

Week 7!

hey hey hey there family!!!!!

greeting from ARGENTINA!!!!  life is going GREAT!!!  in case you didn't know, i'm leaving for Uruguay a week from TOMORROW!!!!!!!!!!  yeah i know it's crazy, we've been working as hard as we possibly can to be prepared for leaving.  haha i just got your letter that says it was sent here on september 28 haha ALL of you are soo sweet!!!  i have been truly blessed to have such a great family as you are :)  oh yeah because i had a new area with him this last week.  it was still in Ituzaingó but in a different part of the city.  it was his area and my old companions kept my area.  we went and visited this old lady who must have been 90 years old, her name is Torisia.  we taught her a lesson about the plan of salvacion and while we were talking about how through the Atonement of Jesus Christ all of our sins caan be washed away and she started crying and crying because of how beautiful of an idea that is.  when we were teaching her i got sooooo excited to be able to teach EVERYDAY in like a week.  the area that we were in last week was in the total ghetto: dirt roads, tin shacks with spraypaint all over it, run down buildings, and CRAZY dogs.  but when you go to places like that you find some of the most humble people that you will ever meet in your entire life.  everyone is willing to listen and if they're not interrested then they tell you in a loving way.  that was one of the greatest days of works i've had so far.  the new elders that just flew in a week ago are really cool.  their names are Elder Peterson, Elder Barton, and Elder Harris, Elder Barton and harris are from Utah (South Jordan and Salt Lake)  but elder peterson is fron san diego.  they seem pretty cool and they're going to my mission so i thought that was pretty exciting.  my spanish is a "work in progress" i can tell that i've learned a ton but it is still no where NEAR fluent.  haha the Temple here is ALSO a "work is progress" and probably will be for the next two years at the rate they are going. haha the CCM is right across the street from the Temple but the temple just looks like ruins because they're renovating it for it's twenty year renovation or something.  so... it's really not even a pretty site to look at or anything hahaha but it's all good.  hahaha thanks for the love and prayers.

Love,

Elder Atkinson

oh hey P.S. would you be able to send me some white church pants because they say that i need them in Uruguay.  just send it to my mission home or something.  my sizes are 30x30 thanks a ton!!!!

Week 6!

:hey there my super awesome family!!!!

yes i was able to recieve a shower and drink now hahaha.  i got a shower on friday.  guess what???  i have a new companion, yeah i know right? in the class below us (the 3 weekers) one of the elders really knows spanish well so they bumped him from his class and now he's my companion.  his name is Elder Bush.  he's a really cool guy, he's from Shelly Idaho,  i'm having a blast down here.  for General Conference we watched priesthood session live (9:00-11:00 in argentina) and we watched the sunday sessions live too (1:00 and 5:00) because we went proscelyting on saturday we only got to watch one session on saturday that was recorded (the morning session) and we watched the saturday afternoon session on sunday morning before the live sessions that afternoon.  my favorite talk of general conference was probabliy patrick kearon of the seventy, he talked during the priesthood session and for some reason i was really drawn into his talk.  i also really likes elder Holland's talk, he always know how to interest me and get my attention.  we've been learning the finishing parts of our grammar and should finish all of our grammar by the middle of next week!!!  it's not fun learning grammar.... but we've been learning a ton about the gospel and i get soo excited to be able to fly to URUGUAY in three weeks and teach them all the gospel!!!!!  how's everything going back home?  on Tuesday the North American elders that we've had here since i've been here left for the Uruguay, Montevideo mission...  it's kinda weird not having them here because we've grown soo close to one another.  we got some new latinos today, i met one of my roommates so far, his name in Elder Alveréz, he's from a small town in central Argentina.  the other elder in our room hasn't showed up yet but he's going to be a Chileno.  that is sooooooo crazy that lindsey gets to register for college next week!!!!!  man... that was QUICK!!!!!  i'm very glad to hear that all of you are doing AMAZINGLY well!!!  just to let you know, i have some pictures for you but we don't have enough time to send them until the day before we get to leave from the CCM.  so in like 2 and a half weeks or so i will be able to send you some pretty INTERESTING photos ;) haha i hope you are all doing amazing and i love you tons.

can't wait to hear more!!! LOVE YA,

Elder Atkinson

Week 5

hey there my good ol' family!!!

 

greetings from the argentina CCM.  this week has definitely been an interresting week to say the least.  first off we got a new area for prosilitismo.  i really like it there, it's in a town called Ituzaingo (it-too-sign-go) it love it.  it's a fairly nice place.  a little above ghetto reputation but it's still nice.  while procelyting we found a guy named Raúl, he's probably late 50s, speaks no english and was very nice.  we got to talking to him about the gospel and he seemed very interrested.  we were talking to him about the book of mormon and everything when all of the sudden he said "where is your church?" we told him and before we even commited him to go to church he said, "ok i'll go be there at nine this sunday!"  how CRAZY is that??? anyways we challenged him to read parts of the Book of Mormon and to pray about it.  i have been praying and i hope that everything goes well! :) haha so that was DEFINITELY the highlight of the week.  but now on to some interresting things... so... on monday we woke up took a shower and the day started.  a little after lunch while we were in our class the power goes off... but it turned on like 20 seconds after the lights go off.  so we thought nothing about it.  THAT NIGHT, Hermanna George (the president's wife) comes in to our room and tells us that the pumps that give us water to drink and to LIVE are broken.......... and that we don't have electricity (since the power our we've been running on generators) and it's been that way since then!!! none of us have taken showers since monday..... and Presidente George said that it will be that way till probably SATURDAY because of how AMAZING everything gets done here!!!  so we will have to see how interresting this place gets with all that going on...  we only have enough water for pooping (we don't flush for pee).  every day Presidente George has to go our and get clean drinking water.. soo.... this week has definitely been a learning expirience for all of us in the Argentina CCM. hahahahabut i can't wait for general conference this weekend!!!!!!!!!!  everyone is stinking PUMPED for it.  but anyways... what else is up? how's school going lindsey and shaun? let me know what up? thanks for being such a loving and caring family!  you guys really are the best!!! LOVE you ALLLLLLLL!!!!!!!

 

Much love and faith,

Elder Atkinson

Letter to the Taylor's

We got this letter on 9/29/10 and I thought that you might want to read some of it :)

How is life in the wonderful land of Provo? How is my "task" going (wink wink)? HAHA Just kidding, that's gross... But I was just thinking about you guys on this Beautiful P-day so I decided to write you guys. I really appreciate all of your e-mails and the Dear Elders! I was kind of curious how I JUST today got all the dear elders from like August 25 and everything. But oh well... So Harris, how is work? and school? anything exciting going on? oh by the way... "Somos Misioneros de la Iglesia de Jesucristo." Y "Somos representantes de Jesucristo" me and my companions are getting REALLY good at saying that from our Proselitismos. Melissa, any luck on the whole job thing yet? So... BYU... what the heck? looses to AFA? DUMB!!! That is NEVER supposed to happen. But whatever... Time to move on, I have more important things to worry about, like the Salvation of SOULS!! I'm having a total BLAST here, the Spanish is "starting" to come along! We are getting really excited for our proselyting, we get to teach the guy named Julio-Juan, we are trying our absolute best to prepare to teach him about the Plan of Salvation. We are getting PUMPED UP to try to teach him the TRUTH! It's so cool that we get to start teaching the gospel here soooo early! It really is the gift of tongues in action, I mean we can't speak fluently... But it truly is a blessing from our Father in Heaven that we are able to learn a brand new language so quickly. I just keep thanking Heavenly Father for all of the blessings that he has given ALL of us! It is such a comfort to know that Heavenly Father IS watching over us and blesses us for doing the right things. Oh btw... I found an amazing scripture for you to read it is D&C 50:23-24. I just learned about this scripture today and it is one of my ABSOLUTE favorite scriptures :) Btw... I didn't get to finish this letter on P-day so now it is Sunday (P-day and Sundays are the ONLY days we are allowed to write lettters) So I'll speed you up to date on everything that has gone on. HAHA well... I should probably update you on the Julio-Juan thing that I talked about in my email. SO, we come back and start talking to him about all the commitments that we gave him to do. He said that he read the Book of Mormon and prayed about it and Joseph Smith. But he said that he still didn't think that Joseph was a prophet... So we are like "OH NO... THIS ISN'T GOING TO GO WELL..." But we keep going anyways. We start talking about the Great Apostasy and the Restoration. He wasn't that in to it UNTIL we got to the 1st Vision; Once we started that, the spirit went off like a BOMB! We just kept testifying about the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith. He finally committed to reading the Book of Mormon more and we gave him a Liahonna. He told us that he will go to Church NEXT SUNDAY even! But this is kind of a bitter-sweet thing because we can't go back because we're getting transfered to a new area. But it's all good :) well, I hope you two have a great time (not in a sick way of course) HAHA till the next time we contact each other!

!Love you two tons!

Elder Atkinson

Letter to the Butikofers!

*Written letter received 9/29/10

SCOTT, CHRISTINE + ZOEY,

HOW IS THE LIFE OF THE SEATTLE BUTIKOFERS GOING? SORRY IT TOOK ME SO LONG TO WRITE YOU GUYS A LETTER...I NEVER GOT  YOUR NEW ADDRESS...:( I'M SO SORRY ABOUT THAT!! SO SCOTT, HOW'S MEDICAL SCHOOL GOING? WHAT HAS BEEN THE MOST INTERESTING THING THAT YOU HAVE LEARNED IN YOUR CLASSES SO FAR? CHRISTINE, I REALLY APPRECIATE YOU SENDING ME EMAILS EVERY WEEK! IT REALLY REALLY MEANS A LOT TO FIND OUT WHAT HAS BEEN GOING ON IN ALL OF YOUR FAMILY'S LIVES. I REALLY ENJOY THE PICTURES THAT  YOU SEND TO ME :) IT ALSO IS SO STINKING AWESOME OF YOU TO DO A BLOG FOR MY MISSION! ZOEY, THANKS FOR BEING MY FIRST NIECE, I CAN'T WAIT TO SEE HOW QUICKLY YOU GROW UP! YOU'RE SOO STINKING CUTE THAT I CAN'T WAIT EVERY WEEK TO SEE YOUR PICTURES! BTW...I FORGOT TO ASK, BUT HOW'S MY TASK GOING? HAVE YOU STARTED YET? IF SO, HOW MUCH DO YOU HAVE? IF NOT, YOU STILL HAVE 23 MONTHS TO PERFECT IT! HAHA. SO...WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE PART OF SEATTLE RIGHT NOW? I'M HAVING A BLAST DOWN HERE IN ARGENTINA! :) SPANISH IS GOING GREAT! IT'S REALLY COOL BECAUSE WHEN ME AND MY COMPANIONS GO OUT PROSELYTING ON SATURDAYS, I'M STARTING TO UNDERSTAND A TON MORE! I'M NOWHERE UNDERSTANDING ALL OF IT BUT WE CAN USUALLY COMMUNICATE WITH EACH OTHER AND THROUGH THE HOLY GHOST, THEY CAN UNDERSTAND THE LESSONS WE TEACH! I HAVE DEFINITELY SEEN THE GIFT OF TONGUES ON MY MISSION ALREADY!! I MEAN NOT THAT I HAVE BEEN ABLE TO SPEAK PERFECTLY BUT THAT IT IS TRULY A MIRACLE THAT I HAVE BEEN ABLE TO LEARN SO MUCH SPANISH FROM KNOWING NO SPANISH A MONTH AGO. BUT EVEN THOUGH IT IS SO TOUGH TO LEARN THE LANGUAGE, I HAVE BEEN HAVING THE TIME OF MY LIFE DOWN HERE! ALL OF THE MISSIONARIES ARE SO AWESOME! THEY ARE ALL FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT AND ARE ALL SO WILLING TO HELP OTHERS WITH ANYTHING THAT THEY MIGHT NEED HELP WITH. EVEN THOUGH I'VE ONLY BEEN HERE FOR ONE MONTH, I HAVE LEARNED SO MUCH. FROM LEARNING THE LANGUAGE, TO HOW IMPORTANT THE PRINCIPLES OF THE GOSPEL ARE, TO HOW FAR I CAN PUSH MYSELF AND WITH THE HELP OF THE LORD YOU CAN PUSH YOURSELF SO MUCH FURTHER. LIKE DAD ALWAYS SAYS, "WORK LIKE IT'S ALL UP TO YOU, AND PRAY LIKE IT'S ALL UP TO THE LORD." THOSE ARE TRUE WORDS OF WISDOM. OH MAN! I AM GETTING SO EXCITED TO WATCH GENERAL CONFERENCE IN LIKE TWO WEEKS! DOWN HERE YOU GET SO EXCITED AT EVERYTHING! LIKE I'M LIKE A LITTLE KID WAITING FOR CHRISTMAS TO COME. HAHA. WELL I HOPE THAT YOU 3 ARE DOING GREAT! I CANT' WAIT TO HEAR MORE FROM YOU GUYS!

LOVE YOU GUYS,

ELDER ATKINSON

Week 4

hey there my dear good ol' family!!!!

i just got your LETTERS!!!!!!!!  you guys are the best family ever!!!  when i saw the stickers in the letter i started dying laughing!  haha ok ok Julio-Juan update: ok so we were really really pumped to go talk to him; we we´re soo stinking prepared.  we get there and start talking to him.  we asked him if he read the parts of the Book of Mormon that we asked him to and he said that he did.  we got so excited, we asked him if he prayed and he said that he did but didn't believe that  Joseph Smith was a prophet.  so we were pretty dang bumbed... but we decided to keep going with the lesson anyways (the lesson was on the Apostacy and the Restoration) we're teaching him just normal doctrine stuff and he wasn't that interrested in what we were saying, BUT as soon as we talked about the the first vision the spirit was soo strong and i could tell that he was feeling the spirit so we let him have some time and then we kept testifying and the spirit was exploding!!!!!  so we challenged him to read more parts of the book of mormon and pray some more.  he told us that not this week (because he had to work) but NEXT sunday he promised that he was going to go to church.  it's totally awesome how the spirit makes up for our lacking in spanish.  we are being transferred to a new area for proseliting so... we can't teach Julio anymore... but we told him that other elders will come and teach him and we gave his address to other missionaries that that area is ACTUALLY part of their mission haha.  where the CCM is is on the outskirts of Buenos Aires.  it's like right on the border of nice houses and really poor houses.  everytime we play basketball for excercise this guy with a horse and a crappy ol' wagon drives by and blows his whistle at us! it's actually really really funny.  BTW Lindsey, just letting you know if i was home right now i would KNOCK the CRAP out of that punk's face!!!! but that's off topic... just kidding hahahahahaha but seriously i would.  haha wow!!! i'm already half way done with my CCM experience!!! crazy i know!!!

thanks for keeping me in touch with the up and up stuff,

LOVE YOU ALL!!!!!!

Elder Tyler Robert Atkinson 

Week 3

Hey there family!!!!!

 

i just got the dear elder notes that you guys sent to me!!!! you guys are soo stinking sweet to think of me!!!!  but this week was awesome!  this last saturday during prosceliting we started to talk to a security guard that just sits on a corner and watches people.  his name is Julio Juan and we talked to him for like an hour and a half about the gospel.  we taught him the ENTIRE first lesson (in spanish) and he seemed really interrested in what we were saying.  we gave him some sections of the Book of Mormon to read and pray about and he said that he would!  we scheduled an appointment to come back this coming week to talk with him!!! i'm soo freaking excited for it because we're learning all of this new stuff about how to teach him.  we keep learning soo much that it's unbelievable!!!!  sorry if my spelling is bad.... it's tough already to spell just trying to learn spanish.  we try to speak as much spanish as possible.  this last week we did our first english fast (going the whole day without talking english) it was really tough but it really really works.  the area that we are assigned to proscelite in is called Hurlingham, it's in the TOTAL ghetto.  crazy stray dogs everywhere, run down houses, and it's just nuts here.  we will be there for one more week then we change areas.  the CCM president is really nice.  he's filled with the spirit, striaght to the point, and is a GREAT teacher.  on P-Days we have two REAL classes, one in the morning before lunch, and one right after dinner.  in between that we gat a half hour to email, an hour to do service (cleaning up the building), and the rest is usually just whatever you would like to do: journal, letters, sports, nap, study, pretty much anything within the mission rules.  it's amazing the spirit here, a couple weeks ago we watched the testaments movie and EVERYONE was balling at the end of it because the spirit was so strong in the room.  that's a good way to describe what the spirit is like ALL the time here!!! it's unlike ANYTHING i've ever felt before.  it's truly an amazing feeling that i wish that you could feel.  thanks for keeping me updated on all the thing that are going on in all of your lives!!! i love you all a freaking TON!!!

 

love,

Elder Atkinson

Letter to Atkinsons

Written letter received 9/13/2010  :)

 

DEAR FAMILY,

HOW'S IT GOING?  I'M DOING WONDERFUL HERE IN ARGENTINA.  THE FLIGHT OVER HERE WAS REALLY LONG...I WAS SITTING BY MYSELF FOR 3 HOURS IN DALLAS WAITING FOR THE FLIGHT.  SOME LATINO PEOPLE KEPT COMING UP AND ASKING ME THINGS IN SPANISH BECAUSE OF MY TAN SKIN AND MY SPANISH NAME TAG.  I HAD TO KEEP SAYING, "NO HABLA ESPANOL" HAHA  I DIDN'T MEET THE OTHER ELDERS I WAS SUPPOSED TO MEET TILL 5 MINUTES BEFORE THE PLANE TOOK OFF.  THE FLIGHT WAS ABOUT 10 HOURS AND ALL OF US TRIED TO SLEEP FOR MOST OF THE FLIGHT WE DIDN'T TALK TOO MUCH.  THE ELDERS I MET NAMES ARE ELDER SHAW & ELDER HENDRICKSON, THEY''RE PRETTY COOL.  BOTH ARE FROM UTAH, AND NEVER TOOK SPANISH EITHER.  ALL THREE OF US ARE COMPANIONS TOGETHER AND I'M THE SENIOR COMPANION.  THE FOOD HERE HAS BEEN PRETTY GOOD SO FAR.  MY FIRST MEAL HERE I HAD A BEAN & BEEF STEW WITH COW TONGUE.  IT DIDN'T TASTE BAD, BUT IT WASN'T GREAT EITHER.  ON FRIDAY, WE HAD AN AMAZING BBQ, IT WAS A STEAK EMPENADA AND A HUGE SAUSAGE.  THE MTC HERE IS TINY!!!  IT HAS ABOUT 50 MISSIONARIES HERE TOTAL, ABOUT 20 OF THEM ARE WHITE.  THE REST ARE LATINOS THAT DON'T SPEAK A LICK OF ENGLISH.  SO WE'RE LEARNING SPANISH PRETTY QUICKLY HERE.  WE'VE LEARNED TO BEAR OUR TESTIMONIES & PRAY IN SPANISH ALREADY.  WE HAVE TO PRAY IN ESPANOL FOR EVERY PRAYER.  THE LATINOS ALWAYS CALL US "GRINGO LOCO" WHENEVER WE WALK AROUND THEM.  GRINGO LOCO MEANS CRAZY AMERICANS BECAUSE WE GO AROUND AND ACT ALL WIERD BY SINGING AND DANCING ALL OVER THE PLACE.  HOW'S YOUR EVERYDAY SCRIPTURE STUDY GOING?  I'M GETTING REALLY EXCITED BECAUSE NEXT SATURDAY WE GET TO GO PROSCELITING!!!  EVERYSATURDAY FROM NOW ON WE WILL GET TO DO IT.  IN SPANISH IT'S CALLED "PROSELATISONO" (that's what his writing looks like :)  WE'LL GO TO PROSILITE FOR 2 HOURS ON SATURDAY :) .  THE LATINOS THINK I LOOK LIKE EMINEM SO WHENEVER I WALK BY THEY CALL ME EMINEM OR SLIM SHADY.  IT CRACKS ME UP!!  THEY JUST POPPED INTO MY ROOM AND YELLED "SHADY!!".  MOST OF THEM ARE EITHER FROM CHILE, COLOMBIA OR MEXICO.  I'VE ALREADY LEARNED TONS FROM THE TEACHERS AND FROM THE OTHER MISSIONARIES HERE.  THE MAIN THING THEY'VE TAUGHT ME HAS BEEN DON'T GIVE UP, KNOW THAT YOU'RE NOT GOING TO GET IT AT THE START, TRY YOUR BEST AND MOST IMPORTANTLY, JUST HAVE FUN.  LINDSEY & SHAUN, I KNOW THAT BEING AT SCHOOL ISN'T FUN...JUST KNOW THAT IT MIGHT TAKE A LITTLE WHILE TO LEARN CERTAIN CONCEPTS AND HAVE FUN!!!  MOM & DAD THANKS FOR ALL OF YOUR PRAYERS.  I CAN HONESTLY SAY THAT I CAN FEEL THEM IN ACTION DOWN HERE!  I LOVE YOU ALL.  

LOVE, ELDER ATKINSON

PS.  I WAS ABOUT TO SEND THIS TO YOU GUYS BUT I HAD SOME PRETTY COOL THINGS GO ON THE PAST COUPLE DAYS THAT I WANTED TO TELL YOU.  YESTERDAY WAS THE FIRST TIME WE'VE DONE PROSCELITING BEFORE!  WE WENT OUT TO A PLACE CALLED "HURLINGHTON", WE WERE OUT THERE FROM 10 AM TO 5 PM.  IT WAS POURING RAIN THE WHOLE TIME.  AS A COMPANIONSHIP WE GAVE AWAY 10 CHURCH PAMPHLETS AND ONE BOOK OF MORMON.  I THINK WE DID PRETTY GOOD FOR ONLY BEING OUT HERE A WEEK.  THE ARGENTINIANS TALK SOO FAST!!!  WE COULD BARELY HEAR ANYTHING THEY WERE SAYING.  WE WOULD JUST KEEP NODDING OUR HEADS AND SAY "SI" ALL THE TIME. HAHA FOR OUR FIRST TIME, WE WERE ONLY SUPPOSED TO BE OUT FOR A COUPLE HOURS, BUT BECAUSE WE WERE PROSCELITING AN HOUR AWAY THEY KEPT US OUT THERE AS LONG AS THE OTHER GUYS.  WE ARE SOO PUMPED TO GO OUT AND DI IT AGAIN NEXT SATURDAY.  THE SPIRIT HERE IS AMAZING!  ALL OF THESE ELDERS AND SISTERS HERE, THEY ARE SO FULL OF LIFE AND ALL ARE EXCITED ABOUT THE GOSPEL AND ARESO EXCITED THAT THEY CAN SHARE IT WITH THE PEOPLE HERE.  BECAUSE WE ARE ABLE TO TEACH THE GOSPEL WHILE WE ARE IN THE MTC, IT IS POSSIBLE TO GET BAPTISMS BEFORE WE EVEN GET TO OUR ACTUAL MISSION.  ONE COMPANIONSHIP HERE ALREADY HAS A BAPTISMAL DATE SET FOR ONE INVESTIGATOR, AND ANOTHER COMPANIONSHIP IS GOING TO CHALLENGE THEIR INVESTIGATOR PRETTY SOON.  ALL OF THE STORIES OF THESE ELDERS JUST BEARS TESTIMONY TO ME THAT I KNOW THAT THIS IS WHERE I'M SUPPOSED TO BE :)  I WOULDN'T WANT TO BE ANWHERE ELSE IN THE WORLD THAN WHERE I AM RIGHT NOW.  THIS IS DEFINITELY A VERY DIFFICULT WORK, BUT IT HAS ALREADY BEEN A MAJOR BLESSING IN MY LIFE.  I CAN TELL WHY SO MANY PEOPLE CHANGE FROM BEING AN IMMATURE PUNK INTO A MAN WHILE THEY'RE HERE, YOU HAVE TO BE COMPLETELY HUMBLE AND WORK YOUR BUTT OFF EVERYDAY!  I'M SORRY FOR THE SHORT EMAILS...WE ONLY GET A HALF HOUR AND THE KEYBOARD IS A SPANISH ONE SO IT'S PRETTY DIFFICULT.  I'M TRYING MY BEST TO SPEED UP.   LOVE YOU ALL.

LOVE, ELDER ATKINSON

Week 2

HEY FAMILY,

this week went by sooooooo fast.  prosceliting went AMAZING!!!!!  we went out for 7 hours and it was raining the whole time.  everyone we talked to spoke so stinking fast! we would try to pick out church words like "the church" or "gospel" and thing like that. we gave away one book of mormon and like 8 or 9 pamphlets on the church.  everyone here is VERY Catholic and barely anyone will listen to what we say to them but it's a ton of fun!!! i can't wait to do it again.  my companions are really cool i'm getting really close to them.  i'm also becomeing friends with an elder named Elder Clarke he's from california and is freaking hilarious!!!! he's helped me a lot with my spanish because he is three weeks ahead of me.  he says that he might go to school at BYUI after his mission, i thought that was way cool.  another cool kid i ment here is named Elder Bhuener (pronounced Beaner)  i told him that if he does end up going there i'd love him to be in my apartment.  my spanish is getting better and better, we learned how to teach the first lesson already.  one of my teachers (Hermanna Paradiso) said that she had Nick Oakey as one of her students when he was here.  i thought that was pretty interresting.  up here on sundays we go to the MTC ward, there's two wards here.  one for the americans, and one for the Latinos.  sundays are my absolute favorite days here.  it's so calm and peaceful.  we go to church, eat lunch, relax and write in our journals and write letters for like a couple of hours, have zone conference, eat dinner and watch a church movie.  it's soo weird that i've been out for like two weeks already!!!! it totally feels like it's been a couple of days since i've seen you.  i'm soo proud of you and your daily family scripture readings!!!! i'm absolutely shocked with how much i have learned in spanish already.  i mean i'm nowhere near fluent or anything but i can speak to the latinos and they can understand me pretty well.  i can't wait to hear more that goes on with all of you guys!!! I LOVE YOU TONS!!!!

 

Elder Atkinson

 

P.S.  we aren't aloud to take pictures here till the third sunday because that's when ALL the latinos go and one group of north americans go... so you won't have pictures till at least next week... sorry....

Week 1

¡¡¡Hola mi familia!!!

 

i´m doing soo great in the argentina MTC. i have learned a ton from the teachers here. i´ve learned tobear my testimony, pray, and teach the first lesson in spanish already!  i only have a half hour to write in here but i´m trying to write as fast as i possibly can.  the flight was really long, the two elders i met in the airport are my companions.  they´re names are elder shaw and elder hendrickson.  if you didn´t know by now i´m actually in here for 9 weeks instead of 4.  the 4 weeks is for missionaries that originally went to the provo MTC already.  the whether here is like what spring would be in colorado but with humidity.  so not too hot and not too cold.  the MTC here is tiny, there´s probably only 50 elders here.  and only 20 of us are americans.  the size of the MTC is about half the size of my dorm building.  i´m having an absolute blast.  i´m learning tons about the gospel.  on this coming saturday we get to go prosceliting for about four hours. it´s super awesome how quickly you pick up the language here.  the Latinos are awesome!!! they are trying to help us as much as they can with our spanish.  i´m so greatful to hear that all of you guys are doing well :) the Lord has truly blessed me with such an amazing family that cares about me.  thanks to all of you guys for your prayers.  it´s such a comfort to know that you are thinking anout me and praying for me.  the food here is great!!!! a lil strabge but great, the first day i was here a ate cow tongue and lamb meat.  it got me a little worried about the rest of the week, but the rest was really good.  we had great food the rest of the week. i hope to be able to write a lil faster next week. i love you all soo much!!!

 

Love you TONS,

Elder Atkinson

A Small Back Track to Ty's Farwell

Grandma Atkinson, Grandma and Grandpa McBride, and Harris and I were able to go out to Colorado for Ty's Mission Farewell. We got to do a few different activities as a family before he left. We went to a driving range to hit some golf balls. It was so funny because I think that everyone broke at least 10 tees. It was fun to get some practice in and hang with Ty.

Mom, Lindsey, Shaun, Ty, Harris and I got to go fishing together too. It was funny because by the time that we got to the ponds, it was almost pitch black. We did not catch anything but we got a lot of casting practice ;) Ty also got to un-snag quite a few peoples lines from out of the cat tails.

On Sunday Tyler gave his farewell talk and did such a great job! He made all of us cry, even the Bishop. He bore such a strong testimony, that no one in that meeting would doubt that he knows of the power of the gospel. After church we had a little photo shoot to get some last pictures with Tyler.

Later that night mom and dad had a little get-together for friends to say goodbye to Ty for two years. The Young Women in the ward came and sang Ty a special farewell song to him and it was so cute! He really is going to be a great missionary.