Louetta Week 13

Hey Mom and Everyone else!

Having a new companion is really different, just dynamics change and you are just trying to figure out what type of person he is and how he works. I miss how Elder Grasse knew about the area and could just take the lead, but now it falls more on me, with my knowledge of the area and all that. My new companion is named Elder Hernandez, he comes from Los Angeles, California. His parents come from El Salvador though, and he speaks pretty good Spanish, that's something that I'm happy about because mine is still spotty. In the picture with the new district, he is the one on the far right. It has been taking adjusting, but we seem to get along pretty well, which is always good. Since taking over, I have been the one driving, which has been really fun, I miss driving a lot. No, nothing too cool, just our Corolla. Being in charge of the area is pretty different because I don't have my dad (mission talk for training companion) to help me, and I feel just a little more pressure than usual to get everything done.

This week was pretty fun, driving, knocking ,seeing people, etc. Something that happened that was kind of a downer was that our investigator, who was doing really good and has read a lot from the Book of Mormon that we gave him, moved and we don't know where he is at right now. I wish we could still see him, but I don't have a clue where he is. Also this week we have been trying to see members so that I can help Elder Hernandez know them all, it has been OK, we will try to get more this week. The new district is pretty cool, I miss some from the old, but all the new ones that came in have seemed pretty cool. We went to the baptism of one of the hermanas in our ward, which was really fun to see, I want one now... Yesterday at church, we got there at around 9, left at 4:30 for dinner and was back by 6 for a fireside, so we basically spent the whole day at church, which was so much fun. The fireside last night was pretty good, I was part of a missionary choir which was fun, we sang all sorts of stuff in Spanish (child's prayer and the EFY medley). It was fun to go and see all the Spanish  missionaries in the stake, fun to see Elder Grasse after this little bit. This week was a good week and I expect more like it this transfer with Elder Hernandez.

 

2 Peanut Butter Patties, 1 Samoas, Thanks! (when I asked what kind of cookies he wants) 

 

I love you mom, I would love to stay and talk for a bit (sometimes we can email back and forth), but we are going to go play basketball with the district.  Love you a lot!!!!!

 

I love you all!

Nic (Elder Atkinson)

 

 

 

 

Louetta Week 12

Mom

I am staying here for another transfer at least, and I am really sad about losing Elder Grasse. He and I had a lot of fun together, he taught me so much, how to knock, teach etc. But it will be fun to see who I get tomorrow, and start the next chapter of my mission. This week was a good last week with Elder Grasse, we visited this menos active (less active), and he really seems to be making a turn around. We saw him yesterday and he just seemed different, in a good way. This week on Thursday we got a call from an English member and she said that she wanted her husband to learn about the gospel. It was cool because we went right over, and taught him the restoration. He is a religious guy and seemed very smart in the gospel. It seemed to really connect with him. It was cool, and we were able to teach him a short plan of salvation lesson on Saturday. Every Tuesday we have a Book of Mormon class that he said he would try to get to. That was probably the highlight of the week.

 

Something not so good that happened this week was our car didn't start all of the time, so we had to get it jumped a few times. It was scary, because every time we turned on the car we where crossing our fingers that it would turn on. We went to get that fixed today, so we don't have to worry about that anymore. 

 

Next week I'll tell you about my new comp, and my thoughts on him. No, I haven't gotten the tootsie rolls yet, but we will be by the office tomorrow to check. I am glad that everyone is enjoying life.

 

Love you all!! Nic

 

How could I have forgotten, I also got stuff to make Philly cheese steaks this past week, and made them twice, they were super delicious. You would have been proud of me.

 

I love you mom, I got to go.

Have a great week and pray for a good comp for me!

 

 

Louetta Week 11

Hello!

 

We got back to the apartment normal time on New Years, but we didn't got to bed till about 12:30, there were a lot of fireworks that went off at midnight, very noisy. It was a lot easier this week than Christmas week, just because it wasn't Christmas. We did a lot of knocking this week again, and on Thursday we found someone who is bomb. We knocked on her door, and gave her a card, with the BoM on the back, and she started asking questions about it. We explained to her what it was, and she told us that she was interested. It was awesome because I've never been told, straight up, that someone was interested. We are going to see her sometime this week.

 

Friday we had exchanges, I stayed here again with Elder Wildman. It was a pretty good day, we looked for some of the people on our ward list and went to try to visit them. We found that a lot of people have moved, but the problem is that we don't know where. It was fun to do the exchange, but while we were out knocking, it started to rain heavily, on and off, on and off. So, needless to say we got wet. We went over to see a menos active (less active) Saturday night, and we taught him a pretty good lesson, humility, faith, and then on Sunday while we were greeting, he walks in. I was really happy to see him, and I gave him a big hug.

 

Oh, a sadder thing, we don't get all our studies on Sunday, we have correlation at 9, and consejo (ward council) at 11:30, so it's a little hard to do all our studies.

 

One thing that happened last p-day, after emailing, was that Elder Grasse's uncle and grandpa picked us up and toke us to a sushi buffet. It was awesome because I got to meet some of his family, and eat some awesome sushi. 

 

Transfers are going to happen next week, so if you want to be safe don't send any letters here. Yes I got the thank you card and I loved the card that everyone chose for me. The cold has not fully arrived, its been about 50 constantly the past week.

 

I love you all, you guys rock. Thanks for sending me updates on everyone, I love to hear about them. I hope little boy does better in church.

 

Nic