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