hola hola hola
sounds like a lot has gone on in this last week!!! i think that a bit has happened with me too! first off i gotta talk about the food that we've had for these passed 13 days straight... for every single lunch we've had........ RICE......... it's not like rice is bad or anything but, having rice for everyday for almost 2 weeks takes a tole on your body... in more than one way ;) we had rice with sauce, rice and mayonase, rice and bits of hot dogs, plain rice, rice with milanesas, and rice with tomatoes. literally every typre of rice you can make. haha these past couple of days i've been literally choking down the food just because my body can't handle soo much rice. i'm hoping that tomorrow it's something different.... LUCKILY today we've got p day so i'll probably make a hom sandwich or something. but i'm not going to continue in more rice talk. today are changes, and SHOCKER we're staying the same! i'm still training Elder Duke and i'm still district leader. but Elder Washburn is leaving and a few more elders are leaving as well. but what have we done this week??? whelp we had an activity with the ward and it was a dessert competition. i didn't win... but i ALMOST DID!!! i made a cake with strawberry jello in it! it was actually super good and it won third place-ish. but the lady who won made a thing called a Chajà which is like a long like rolled up cinnamon roll type thing with fruits and other random stuff on it. it was SUPA GOOD!!! haha so that was super cool and also in our ward there was a baptism but by the other elders in the ward. we had the baptismal service right after church on sunday and it turned out super good. a lady named Silvia who has around 35 years was the one who got baptized. when i was doing her baptismal interview i was talking to her about her testimony and i could really feel that she had recieved her answer and this testimony about the gospel and the church. it was super cool to be able to witness that! she shared her testimony in the baptism and the spirit was SOOO strong and it was super cool because her 16 year old daughter was there who isn't a member to be able to listen to that testimony and feel the spirit during the baptism. but that's really all that has gone on this week... but thanks for all of you writting me and for all your love and prayers,
love,
Elder Atkinson
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Monday, January 23, 2012
Week 74!
well HOWDY,
how's everyone doing??? i'm thinking that OVERALL good. obviously there are stressful times in our lives but we all have to learn to suck it up ;) hahaha kidding. but my week has been overall good. we've been working a lot more with the members of the ward and they've been super happy. this week we're doing a dessert contest and we'll see who has the best dessert out of all of Barrio Lòpez. i have to try to think of something to do porque Elder Duke doesn't know how to cook anything (or so he's told me)... but it'll be fun! but anyways i have a super cool story that happened to us this week. so we have an investigator named Hugo that is about 75 years old but he looks super young like MOST 60 years old. he's been an investigator for a whils and he's investigated the church before also abd has a little problem with tithing... we've been praying and praying trying to figure out what we need to do to help Hugo resolve this problem with Tithing. we felt that we should bring the Bishop to our lesson with him. we know that Bishops have an invaluable influence in the missionary work and in the lives of the people inside of their ward. so he went with us and it was SPECTACULAR!!!! the bishop was talking with him and told him that it even wasn't really a decision of paying or not but he talked to him about how it is way more of a step of really SHOWING faith in our lives. that if you really know that these things are true and you know that the teachings of Christ are true than you know what you have to do and that you will DO IT!!! i could feel that spirit so much in the lession it was CRAZY!!! so we challenged Hugo to really find out if this is the REAL church of Christ and to pray to find that out! so we'll see what happens with that. but the lesson was so great and i could feel the spirit BIG TIME!!! i know that Bishops have the keys to their wards and that if they start working and trying to do visits with the missionaries that EACH WARD will EXPLODE!!! it was so cool and the bishop told us that he wants to go on more visits with us!!!!!!!!! we also had an investigador in church yesterday!!! her name is Mariana and she's 16 years old. she's a friend of one of the ward missionaries and we just started working with her this week! we'll see what happens with her because for now she doesn't want to accept a baptismal date until she KNOWS that this is the only true church. i totally understand that and it'll be fun to see what happens! but hey i love you all and can't wait till next week!
Love,
Elder Atkinson
how's everyone doing??? i'm thinking that OVERALL good. obviously there are stressful times in our lives but we all have to learn to suck it up ;) hahaha kidding. but my week has been overall good. we've been working a lot more with the members of the ward and they've been super happy. this week we're doing a dessert contest and we'll see who has the best dessert out of all of Barrio Lòpez. i have to try to think of something to do porque Elder Duke doesn't know how to cook anything (or so he's told me)... but it'll be fun! but anyways i have a super cool story that happened to us this week. so we have an investigator named Hugo that is about 75 years old but he looks super young like MOST 60 years old. he's been an investigator for a whils and he's investigated the church before also abd has a little problem with tithing... we've been praying and praying trying to figure out what we need to do to help Hugo resolve this problem with Tithing. we felt that we should bring the Bishop to our lesson with him. we know that Bishops have an invaluable influence in the missionary work and in the lives of the people inside of their ward. so he went with us and it was SPECTACULAR!!!! the bishop was talking with him and told him that it even wasn't really a decision of paying or not but he talked to him about how it is way more of a step of really SHOWING faith in our lives. that if you really know that these things are true and you know that the teachings of Christ are true than you know what you have to do and that you will DO IT!!! i could feel that spirit so much in the lession it was CRAZY!!! so we challenged Hugo to really find out if this is the REAL church of Christ and to pray to find that out! so we'll see what happens with that. but the lesson was so great and i could feel the spirit BIG TIME!!! i know that Bishops have the keys to their wards and that if they start working and trying to do visits with the missionaries that EACH WARD will EXPLODE!!! it was so cool and the bishop told us that he wants to go on more visits with us!!!!!!!!! we also had an investigador in church yesterday!!! her name is Mariana and she's 16 years old. she's a friend of one of the ward missionaries and we just started working with her this week! we'll see what happens with her because for now she doesn't want to accept a baptismal date until she KNOWS that this is the only true church. i totally understand that and it'll be fun to see what happens! but hey i love you all and can't wait till next week!
Love,
Elder Atkinson
Monday, January 16, 2012
Week 73!
hey there all y'all,
how life going with all you guys in the United States??? my life has been quite well down here in the wonderful place of Tacuarembò, Uruguay!!!! soo... what did i do this week? we didn't do a whole lot but i'll try to tell you all of the things that i did in good detail. so on monday Elder Duke and i went and did a "Choque de fuerza" in the area of the hermanas. that wants to say that we went to their area and we visted old investigators and we knocked doors for a couple hours trying to help them raise up their area and give them the opportunity to get douple the work done in that short amount of time. we found a guy named cesar, he's kind of an old guy that has about 70 years. but he just loves to talk and talk and talk!!!! it was super funny because half way through he went to get us a drink and elder duke turns to me and says, "i have no idea wnat we've been talking about for the last 15 minutes" it turns out that we keep talking and Elder duke had no idea what we were saying for the whole 45 minutes we were with him. luckily i asked elder duke a few questins during the lesson trying to keep him involved and saying a few things so that he could share his testimony and things like that. so it was pretty funny. but on tuesday we had interviews with President Heaton, i love that guys so much and i really do feel how much he is praying for us and how much revelacion he recieves for us that it's really AMAZING all that he does at the age he has. he remindes me a lot of Grandpa with the way he talks to everyone and the way he shows his love to everyone through his actions and what he says. on wednesday i did divisiones with Elder Washburn in my district and we went over to his side. it's just the other side of the ward but it was lots of fun. we went by this one guys who is an investigetor of them and who is super poor. what he does as a living is that he makes jewelry out of old coins that he finds; he makes that into stuff like rings, key chains, necklaces, earings, and other stuf like that. we both decided to buy rings from this guy. they weren't too expensive, only 100 pesos ($5 in USA) and it's actually pretty cool. but we visited quite a few of their investigators and it was lots of fun. we also this week did divisions with the bishopric of the ward. i went with the second councilor "Hermano Cuadro" he's a RM that served in 2004 in Paraguay. he's soo cool and it really is so amazing getting the bishopric to do visits with us to visit our investigators because the investogator really does feel the spirit everytime thay talk aand it helps them realize that the members are normal people that obviously LIVE the standards of the gospel. so i had a wonderful time doing divisions with the bishopric and we're going to try to do it once a week if possible. but honestly besides that we didn't have anything else special happen here in Barrio Lòpez. i'm still having a BLAST and i'm learning something new every single day and that is the most important. i love you all and can't wait to hear more,
LUV,
Elder Atkinson
how life going with all you guys in the United States??? my life has been quite well down here in the wonderful place of Tacuarembò, Uruguay!!!! soo... what did i do this week? we didn't do a whole lot but i'll try to tell you all of the things that i did in good detail. so on monday Elder Duke and i went and did a "Choque de fuerza" in the area of the hermanas. that wants to say that we went to their area and we visted old investigators and we knocked doors for a couple hours trying to help them raise up their area and give them the opportunity to get douple the work done in that short amount of time. we found a guy named cesar, he's kind of an old guy that has about 70 years. but he just loves to talk and talk and talk!!!! it was super funny because half way through he went to get us a drink and elder duke turns to me and says, "i have no idea wnat we've been talking about for the last 15 minutes" it turns out that we keep talking and Elder duke had no idea what we were saying for the whole 45 minutes we were with him. luckily i asked elder duke a few questins during the lesson trying to keep him involved and saying a few things so that he could share his testimony and things like that. so it was pretty funny. but on tuesday we had interviews with President Heaton, i love that guys so much and i really do feel how much he is praying for us and how much revelacion he recieves for us that it's really AMAZING all that he does at the age he has. he remindes me a lot of Grandpa with the way he talks to everyone and the way he shows his love to everyone through his actions and what he says. on wednesday i did divisiones with Elder Washburn in my district and we went over to his side. it's just the other side of the ward but it was lots of fun. we went by this one guys who is an investigetor of them and who is super poor. what he does as a living is that he makes jewelry out of old coins that he finds; he makes that into stuff like rings, key chains, necklaces, earings, and other stuf like that. we both decided to buy rings from this guy. they weren't too expensive, only 100 pesos ($5 in USA) and it's actually pretty cool. but we visited quite a few of their investigators and it was lots of fun. we also this week did divisions with the bishopric of the ward. i went with the second councilor "Hermano Cuadro" he's a RM that served in 2004 in Paraguay. he's soo cool and it really is so amazing getting the bishopric to do visits with us to visit our investigators because the investogator really does feel the spirit everytime thay talk aand it helps them realize that the members are normal people that obviously LIVE the standards of the gospel. so i had a wonderful time doing divisions with the bishopric and we're going to try to do it once a week if possible. but honestly besides that we didn't have anything else special happen here in Barrio Lòpez. i'm still having a BLAST and i'm learning something new every single day and that is the most important. i love you all and can't wait to hear more,
LUV,
Elder Atkinson
Monday, January 9, 2012
Week 72!
well HOWDY,
this week was a lot better talking about success wise. first off i did a mini division with the other elders of the ward Elder Washburn and Elder Tyree. this time i decided to go with the Elder Tyree and work with him. it was pretty interresting not because of who he is, but because of the people we talked to while we were with him. we first went over to an investigador named Blanca. she's a 60 year old woman who has been listening to the missionaries for about two months without results... we started talking to her, trying to figure out why she didn't want to get baptized. when halfway through the lesson she says, "i i've been needing to tell you guys something, i was talking with my granddaughter these past couple of weeks and i realized, i'm already a member of this church!" HUH???? i asked her if she knew what church we were from and everything to make sure that she wasn't confused or anything and she wasn't mistaken. she whips out a picture and it's a picture of her baptism in the church! with the elders and everything. i was trying soo hard to figure out how she had forgotten something that BIG. she's not even old enough to forget things like that!!!! but oh well.. i also did divisions with the Zone leaders this week. i stayed in my area and elder duke went over there with Elder Sheppard. Elder Vilchez came ands worked with me for the day. it was super fun and it seemed like for the first time in lots of time that all of our plans worked the exact way that we wanted them to. we found some super cool people and we were able to get a lot of things done. we also found quite a few good investigators. almost all of them are friends of the new convert named lourdes. she has been so stinkin excited after visiting the temple because now this is what she wasnts to do, help all of her friends feel the eternal blessings that the gospel brings! it has been a great opportunity for me to be able to see the great change in her life trying to follow christ in everything. she is now trying to change her work because every now and then she has to work on sundays so now she is trying soo hard to find a job that she doesn't have to do that. but that was kind of my week in a nut shell... this area has been getting better and better so i can't wait to see what else this area has in store for me.
love you all,
Elder Atkinson
this week was a lot better talking about success wise. first off i did a mini division with the other elders of the ward Elder Washburn and Elder Tyree. this time i decided to go with the Elder Tyree and work with him. it was pretty interresting not because of who he is, but because of the people we talked to while we were with him. we first went over to an investigador named Blanca. she's a 60 year old woman who has been listening to the missionaries for about two months without results... we started talking to her, trying to figure out why she didn't want to get baptized. when halfway through the lesson she says, "i i've been needing to tell you guys something, i was talking with my granddaughter these past couple of weeks and i realized, i'm already a member of this church!" HUH???? i asked her if she knew what church we were from and everything to make sure that she wasn't confused or anything and she wasn't mistaken. she whips out a picture and it's a picture of her baptism in the church! with the elders and everything. i was trying soo hard to figure out how she had forgotten something that BIG. she's not even old enough to forget things like that!!!! but oh well.. i also did divisions with the Zone leaders this week. i stayed in my area and elder duke went over there with Elder Sheppard. Elder Vilchez came ands worked with me for the day. it was super fun and it seemed like for the first time in lots of time that all of our plans worked the exact way that we wanted them to. we found some super cool people and we were able to get a lot of things done. we also found quite a few good investigators. almost all of them are friends of the new convert named lourdes. she has been so stinkin excited after visiting the temple because now this is what she wasnts to do, help all of her friends feel the eternal blessings that the gospel brings! it has been a great opportunity for me to be able to see the great change in her life trying to follow christ in everything. she is now trying to change her work because every now and then she has to work on sundays so now she is trying soo hard to find a job that she doesn't have to do that. but that was kind of my week in a nut shell... this area has been getting better and better so i can't wait to see what else this area has in store for me.
love you all,
Elder Atkinson
Monday, January 2, 2012
Week 71!
my family,
how has is been for you guys? i've been good! we've had some ups and downs in this last week. i'll say the downs first to get them over with so i can tell the funny/cool/espiritual stuff after. this week was super hard trying to find people to teach... we struggled because still a lot of people were gone from our area visiting still for the holidays. so trying to have lessions with our investigadors was tough and it was hard trying to find new people... so those are the only "down" parts of the week! everything else is good. HILARIOUS STORY!!!!!! so on monday we went out after P Day and went to work and we had to visit a lady that lived super far away. on the way back at like 7:30 ish or so elder Duke tells me, "hey i think i gotta go to the bathroom" alright, "is it an emergency?" i ask. "no not yet, it's just a slight pressure" he replies. i then question, "can you make it to the house or do we need to stop by a member's house?" he then answers "i think i can make it to the house, if not we'll just go to a close member" so we start walking towards the house to go to the bathroom. we start getting closer (only 7 minutes away from the house) and he says "IT'S AN EMERGENCY!!!" we start swiftly walking to a members house. we get to his drive way and my comp stops walking swiftly... i look and he's clenching his whole body... and i automatically smell a very STRONG odor of something not pleasent... he then tells me, "it's no use going to the members house... i need a shower... :(" hahaha so we walked the 5 minutes home trying to walk fast so that no one could tell from his smell or his dirty pants. he went into the bathroom and took a shower. but the bathroom smelled hatrocious (no idea how to smell that) even after he cleaned up all the remanents. after the fact he told me that that expirience was the most forcefull and the fastest bodily movement he has EVER had!!! i could not stop laughing i was literally crying after the fact. good times in the mission. but also Lourdes (the one that just got baptized) went to the temple last week to do baptisms for the dead and was soo excited when she came back. we did a reference activity with her and she gave us 8 references that are super good ones that we are going to work with this week! so overall i can't complain with this week. it's been great! love you all!!!
love,
Elder Atkinson
P.S. i got your letter with pictures!!! THANKS A TON!!!
how has is been for you guys? i've been good! we've had some ups and downs in this last week. i'll say the downs first to get them over with so i can tell the funny/cool/espiritual stuff after. this week was super hard trying to find people to teach... we struggled because still a lot of people were gone from our area visiting still for the holidays. so trying to have lessions with our investigadors was tough and it was hard trying to find new people... so those are the only "down" parts of the week! everything else is good. HILARIOUS STORY!!!!!! so on monday we went out after P Day and went to work and we had to visit a lady that lived super far away. on the way back at like 7:30 ish or so elder Duke tells me, "hey i think i gotta go to the bathroom" alright, "is it an emergency?" i ask. "no not yet, it's just a slight pressure" he replies. i then question, "can you make it to the house or do we need to stop by a member's house?" he then answers "i think i can make it to the house, if not we'll just go to a close member" so we start walking towards the house to go to the bathroom. we start getting closer (only 7 minutes away from the house) and he says "IT'S AN EMERGENCY!!!" we start swiftly walking to a members house. we get to his drive way and my comp stops walking swiftly... i look and he's clenching his whole body... and i automatically smell a very STRONG odor of something not pleasent... he then tells me, "it's no use going to the members house... i need a shower... :(" hahaha so we walked the 5 minutes home trying to walk fast so that no one could tell from his smell or his dirty pants. he went into the bathroom and took a shower. but the bathroom smelled hatrocious (no idea how to smell that) even after he cleaned up all the remanents. after the fact he told me that that expirience was the most forcefull and the fastest bodily movement he has EVER had!!! i could not stop laughing i was literally crying after the fact. good times in the mission. but also Lourdes (the one that just got baptized) went to the temple last week to do baptisms for the dead and was soo excited when she came back. we did a reference activity with her and she gave us 8 references that are super good ones that we are going to work with this week! so overall i can't complain with this week. it's been great! love you all!!!
love,
Elder Atkinson
P.S. i got your letter with pictures!!! THANKS A TON!!!
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