Week 83!

hey there!!!
this week has been super interresting because we´ve been flying everywhere doing things!  first off, on monday we went to Mercedes to do a district leaders meeting with all the district leaders of the zone then we came back to Fray Bentos for the rest of P Day and to work.  the next morning i left at 8 in the morning to go back to Mercedes to do divisions, be there for the District meeting in Mercedes, and to fix a few problems with some of the missionaries that they were having in between each other.  Divisions were super cool because i went with one of the District Leaders Elder Baer, the same Elder that was in Tacuarembó with me a little while back.  i was with him to work on what we`re trying to do as a Zone in Mercedes.  what we`ve realized is that Mercedes is like a sleeping Giant, it`s got all the potential to explode and to have lots of success.  we`re just trying to give it that little spark.  but it was super fun with Elder Baer because he`s a total stud and i know that he`ll help the district go up and have more success.  i came back to Fray Bentos on wednesday and we had a normal day of work.  then thursday we had divisions AGAIN with a companionship in Mercedes but this time i stayed and Elder Verdugo left.  i stayed with a kid from Mesa, Arizona named Elder Burton.  he just started the mission one change ago so he`s still pretty new.  he actually was going to BYUI before he left on his
mission and he saw my pictures and said that Lindsey looked SUPER FAMILIAR.  i got soo confused but then i realized that he was up in Rexburg during Fall Semester of BYUI and he probably saw her at some point up there.  we changed back on friday morning and on friday and saturday we`ve been trying to get meetings set up with the satke president so we`ll see what happens in this next week.  so we`ve been running al over the place but there was one thing that i thought was really cool that happened during divisiones was when i stayed here we took a member to one of our lessons with us and the lesson fell through,  i was thinking ¨whatin the world can we do with this member to help her feel the spirit?¨  so i asked her if she new anyone around here that we could possibly go to to try to share the gospel with and she thought, and thought, and thought....  then she thought of someone named Nadie so we went over and she is an Ex-Jehova`s Witness and we started talking with her and she ended up getting SUPER interrested
when we talked about the importance the families are and how the family can be eternal and she got super emotional and started to cry. it was super cool and SHE CAME TO CHURCH this sunday and LOVED it!!!! we`ll see how far she goes, she`s definitely has the desires to change some things in her life and she`s excited!!!  alright but i gotta go, this week we also have interviews with Presidente Heaton,
love you all,
Elder Tyler Atkinson

Week 82!

yo wassup everybody!!!!????

 

i´m hoping great because so am i!!!  i´m a little bit sick but it´s all good i just have a caugh and a runny nose so i´m sniffing all day so my head is kind of hurting but it´s all good i THINK i´ll live through this trial haha  haha but we´re doing good down here in Fray Bentos!  we´re in a small branch of like 30 members again but i like it that way because then you know you have a lot of work to do!  because i´m zone leader here in fray bentos we do a lot of traveling. because the full zone is actually 3 cities/towns.  so the towns are Fray Bentos(4 companionships) , Mercedes(4 companioships), and Dolores(2 companionships).  it´ll be ful but tough.  random fact, if you didn´t know the word DOLORES means in english PAINS, so in my zone there are 4 Elders in PAINS hahaha.  but being a zone leader isn´t too much different than being a regular missionary.  the only things that you have to do is try to help the district leaders have success in their districts, go to zone leaders meeting every months and try to figure out how to help every companionship succeed.  it´s kind of like a bit mind exhausting role.  this week we are going to have a meeting with the stake president about a stake missionary plan and how we can help him reach what he wants to do in the stake with everything, trying to make sure that the members, bishops, liders, and missionaries are all on the same page.  we´re recently trying to work with the missionaries on how to keep them animated and how we can keep slowly raising the bar and eventually explode the area!  it´ll be lots of hard work but we´re working super hard.  my comp is hilarious, hisname is Elder Verdugo, and he´s from sanora, Mexico.  he said that it´s like 15 minutes away from Rocky Point.  he´s super good and he know how to talk to the investigators SUPER well!  i think we´re going to have quite a bit of success together! so i´m excited and ready to kiid on rollin!

love you all,

Elder Atkinson

Week 81!

hey there everyone!!!

so how's life going????  i'm doing super good and we have CHANGES!!!!  i'm leaving to a town called "Fray Bentos" with a Mexican called Elder Verdugo.  Elder Duke is staying here with a latino named Elder Lòpez.  it'll be super good for him to have a latin comp because he'll be able to learn a CRAP TON!!!  one thing that's interresting with me is that i'm going to Fray Bentos to be a Zone Leader.  Elder Verdugo has one change more than me.  we'll see how that goes.  i think it will be fun but also a TON of responcibility.  but it's been super fun training Elder Duke and i can tell that he's grown a lot being with him.  so that was fun.  this last week was also the Patria Gaucho which is the biggest gaucho party in all of uruguay.  it was super cool because it had a rodeo, random places to buy gaucho stuff, BBQs, and old restored stuff like houses, schools, hospital, church, and ranches there to see how it was way back in the day.  it was super cool!!!  i bought a few things there, a "Rasta" which is a huge gaucho belt and a "Mate de Pata Vaca"  which is a mate but made out of a cow hoove.  it's actually pretty freaking awesome i'd have to say myself.  but anyways, this week was actually super good because we found some super cool people in the area that are total studs!!!  we found this kid named Alvaro who's 15 and looks like a little punk he's got tattoos all over the place but they aren't even good tattoos they're totally crappy tattoos that you would expect from a Pirate to these types of tattoos.  but he actually has super good questions and he's asked us a few times when he can be baptized.  his mom is a member but she's less active so now we're trying to activate her and her family. so it'll be super cool.  the sad thing is that my computer is being soo slow that i don't have anymore time to write... sorry.
love you all,
Elder Atkinson

Week 80!

well hey there everyone!!!
how has life been going for all of you guys??? it sounds like from you email you're all doing great!!!  so have i!!  we've been having quite a few miracles happen in these past few days!  for us, we had been struggling trying to find good new investigators to teach that are actually good...  so this last sunday we fasted to find out what we could doto find some quality investigators.  while in church, one of the recent converts that hasn't been going for the past two months to church decided to come, for some reason i felt that we NEEDED to pass by her house that same afternoon.  without notice we passed by her house and we started talking, her son Àngel (the one that we baptized) asked me for one of the three pictures that i usually carry around to show people a litle bit about my family and he asked me for the one of me riding the dirtbike.  i gave it to him to look at and he ended up runnung out of the room into another room and i hear, "you see!!!  i told you that he likes dirtbikes!!!"  suddenly a 23 year old guy comes out.  i've seen this guy before and it hasn't been for good stuff...  he was a guy that 2 months ago was arrested because he was in possetion of 5 stolen motorcycles in his back yard...  so i was thinking well, let's see what happens.  we start talking a little about dirtbikes and stuff like that,  then i start talking about the gospel.  his name is Atanacio (the guy version of Anastacia haha) but it turns out to be that he's a total stud!!!  he has lots of questions about the church and we passed by yesterday and he shared with us a story.  he said that he was talking to his neighbor about stuff like churches and he said that this guy was saying that HIS church was the ONLY true church and that there was no other choice but wasn't explaining why or giving any sort of reason he just said that he was just going nuts pretty much.  he said that we are different, because we say that we're the true churc but that also we were giving explanations and we told him to not trust in our words but that he could find out for HIMSELF by praying to GOD.  so he's turning into a big stud and told us that he want's to go to the church this week!!  we'll see what happens!  also something interresting that happened this week was that a flood came through Tacuarembò, not like 10 feet of water but literally like 3 feet in most places and the river that passes through tacuarambò that is usually 5 feet deep was 50 feet deep and instead of being a river it was a LITERAL lake!!!  like even bigger than Palmer lake and everything!!  luckily we live on a hill so the flood didn't get us!!!  but this last wee we've been trying to do lots of service projects for people that`s houses were flooded.  luckily it's almost back to normal!!!  all the roads are dry and everything!!!  but thanks for al your emails and also i did get you package mom!!! THANKS and it's a super SICK TIE!!!
love you all,
Elder Atkinson