Louetta Week 5

My week has been slow, not many lessons taught, travel takes a long time with the bikes, etc. The good thing about the bikes is that I can eat pretty much anything that I want, cause I just burn it all of. Since I've gotten here, I have gained 5 pounds,  This week was also a lot warmer than 2 weeks ago, it was in about the 50s-70s which was the bomb.  I actually picked up a nice sweat from the bike riding. On Friday we had a zone conference where we learned how to better teach the Plan de Salvacion, and introduced to us an initiative for December, it is called, He is the Gift. It's all about how Christ is the best gift that has ever been given on Christmas. The church is going all out, they are going to have stuff at Times Square, New York, and the YouTube headline area. We watched the video, and it was awesome, I felt the spirit so strongly during it. It is not out yet, but when it comes out (Dec 1 or something like that) I would say watch it for a family home evening or something like that. I am super excited for December now.

 

On Saturday it was raining on and off all day, entonces (so), there were puddles that we had to dodge, mud that we had to avoid etc. So we where going throughout the day, little success, no of our appointments where coming through, so we decided to go see this one Familia menos active (family less active). We knocked on their door, and one friend that was staying there answered, and told us that the family wasn't home, so we asked if we could teach him. He said we could and we taught him about the Restauracion (restoration), which he seemed to get pretty well. We got a soft commitment for baptism (said he would but don't have a date yet) from him, and he agreed. That brought our day up, and so we went along and it was about 8 when we called on of the members of our ward if we could talk with him and he said we could. He asked if we had eaten dinner yet, and we said no. So he got us burritos and tacos from a taco truck as well as some groceries that we had been needing. It was a great blessing to us to see that he would be willing to help us like that. He has been so kind to us every time we have seen him.

On Sunday I got a copy of the Ensign (conference edition) and have read about half of it right now. It is so awesome to be able to look back and see what all of the profetas (prophets) have told us and counseled us to do. It is so weird, ever since being on the mission all these spiritual things that may have seemed like a drag before, I'm so excited to do now. Before it was a little bit of a chore to read the Ensign, but now I cant wait to get the Liahona Confrencia Edition.

Something that is weird, I don't feel like I've been out in the field for almost a transfer (6 weeks). It seems like it was only a couple days ago that I was assigned to Louetta, but it was a couple of weeks ago. 

 

(Me: Are you going to someone's house for Thanksgiving?) Yeah, we will have about 2 dinners that day, or rather a lunch and a dinner

 

Much love as always, tell everyone that I say hi and that I love them!  Nic

 

Louetta Week 4

My week was great as always, and the over arching question is yes, my internet is slow. 

This week we got our car taken away from us for repairs, but I don't know if/when we will get it back. Entonces, we have been biking until there was a flat tire in my comps bike, and then we were walking. It has been real fun especially, with the wind chill and what not. On Friday and Saturday we probably walked about 7 miles per day, and then Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday we rode our bikes for about 9ish miles per day. It was grand fun. We don't have many opportunities to do street contacting right now, porque el frio , pero (it's cold, but) we have been doing some knocking/ following up on referrals. One referral that was annoying was on Thursday. We set up an appointment, and drove our bikes there (about 3 miles in the wind) and he was not there, so we called him three times, the first no answer, the second, "Bueno?" and then he hung up, and third his phone was off. We can't only work with the Spanish, but we try to just work with them. While we where knocking on Saturday we met an English speaking family that seemed really prepared to listen and learn about the gospel, but we won't be able to teach them, so we handed them off to the English Elders.  One day we got into a Bible Bashy lesson, but we couldn't leave because he would just keep on talking, and talking, so we finally had to just tell him that we had to go, and we got out of there. I got a letter from Mariah this week, it was pretty fun to hear from her and what she is doing right now. I have gotten both your letters and plan on writing you back today. 

I love you, you are great, i love my Yetins (Lathen), and all my sisters.

Nic

 

Did you go and buy a bike (sometimes we get to email back and forth a bit)?  No, the mission office gave me one. It is pretty nice, I might just take it with me everywhere I go.

 

Another little thing that happened, I was riding my bike, and then I biffed it. My pants got a pretty nice hole in them (see drop box) but I stitched them back up. (The picture he referred to in dropbox didn't get uploaded)

 

Was it one of your suit pants or regular pants? Are you warm on the bike, do you need gloves? It was one of the regular ones. I can just get gloves and a hat. I taught my comp how to Rubik's cube, and now he knows how, and we occasionally have little time trials to see if we can beat our best time. Right now I am at 1'49".

 

Transfers happen every 6 weeks, but I will be here until mid January or late February probably. My ward is great, there is a family that we go over to their house every Sunday for a meal, it is fantastic, she makes great food. In truth, I don't know much of the ward, but those that I do know have been really nice and willing to help us in our struggles. It is fairly busy at times though.

 

How do you know you aren't going to be transferred until Jan or Feb? Do the members feed you a lot? We have 12 week training as a newbie, so I will be in the same area for 2 transfers at least to do that training, and I will have the same comp for all of that training. It really depends on the week on how much we eat at members houses. I gotta bounce, maybe I'll get a little more time later today. I love you much, Have fun in Spain, and speak good Spanish.

 

 

 

Louetta Week 3

I received one letter, but I  have not checked the mail recently for the other. It is probably in there, the mail here is more reliable than Mexico. I did get a package from sister Vallette, had some cookies and a nice letter. Please tell her thank you!

I do miss Lathen, I think about him quite a bit, He just seems like he is getting older. Tell him that I love him and he rocks. I think it is really cool to hear about your obra misional (missionary work), and I am proud of you for doing that. As always, it is fun to hear what everyone is doing.

 

This week went pretty good, we had a member of the Quorum of the 70, Elder Corbridge and his wife, come and talk to us about our purpose as a missionary. It was pretty inspiring. The rest of the week went by pretty normal; Study, lunch and go out to teach people. It gets a little frustrating when you set up a time for someone, and then they aren't there. It kinda stinks, but whatever. We extended a baptisimal commitment, and the guy accepted. He still has a little bit to go, but we will work with him.

 

On Friday, pulling out of our apartment, on our way to district meeting, we got into an accident. No one was hurt, but the car is meh. We fixed what we could with duct tape, bless that stuff. I went on exchanges with my brother, Elder Christensen. I went to his area, and it was interesting to see how different missionaries are. We had some solid lessons that night. I tried a habanero chile, it wasn't too bad. Yesterday after church, I participated in my first Consejo del barrio (ward council meeting), and I think the Lord helped me understand what was going on a bit more than I normally could have, because I was able to understand the majority of it. 

 

I went to the temple on Wednesday, and it was a Spanish session. We went with a member that we have been using to help teach, and it was so amazing. I was so excited, it was like a teenage me going to an amusement park. I would have to say that this was the highlight of my week. If any of you ever get the chance to go to the temple, do it, it is worth it, and I know you will enjoy yourselves there. 

 

I love you, as always, all of you, from my dorky sisters, to my awesome dad, to my sweet little brother, to my marvelous mom, and to all of my wonderful friends and extended family. I truly have been blessed with this life that the Lord gave me.

Could I also get some pictures of dad balling it up?

 

I love you and the rest of the family, you are all the best, Elder Nic Atkinson

 

 

 

 

 

Louetta Week 2

This week was pretty slow, lots of walking, a fair amount of rejection, but whatever. We are fine food wise, we actually come up with some pretty cool stuff, like Nacho cheese on bread with stuffing, really good, you should try it.

The past two days have been really nice because of the car miles ( a new month, a new budget of driving miles). I got to meet some of the investigators that live farther away which was really cool.

On Halloween we had to be in by 6, don't know why, probably not to be tempted to get candy, but we had some Elders over and we ate pizza and played some games, pretty fun. I have yet to receive a letter, but I received the package from the Meise's.  Please tell them thank you.  I have all my bedding, and everything else, the blanket is really soft, I like it. Apparently it gets pretty cold here, who would have guessed, but I might need my coat later on, not now, it is still beautiful.

The language is going well, I speak so much better than I understand, but I  am getting better at both. I read the scriptures in Spanish for personal study every morning. It was a little strange this week, because we had a member help drive us around, and he preferred English, so I gave a prayer in English once and it was a little difficult. 

This week was pretty good, we stayed very local, so we just tried to get some more people around our apartments. I did my first door contacting, and it went pretty well. She turned out to be JW, but we had a nice conversation about the Bible. The week was all pretty much the same, contact and check on the people in our area, but it was pretty fun. Last Friday we had a Zone meeting, and I met my brother (another missionary that was trained by the same missionary Nic is being trained by) and he seems pretty cool, he is our Zone Leader.

 

We have better plans for p-day today, we are going to play a little church ball latter on. Tomorrow we have Zone Conference, where Elder Corbridge is coming to talk with us. I am pretty excited about that. 

 

Much love as always,

Nic