Louetta Week 14

HOLA! Mi madre favorita (y las otras personas)!

This week was pretty awesome. Last week I wrote about one of our investigators leaving, and us not knowing where he is, well this week he contacted us and we were able to continue teaching him, which is awesome! He went to a baptism that the Hermanas had on Friday, and then the kid that was just baptized was able to talk with him and bore testimony to him, which was awesome. On Saturday this investigator took us out to eat, which was fun, we talked about the baptism the night before, and other random gospel stuff. Something else really cool that happened was that someone that we contacted on Tuesday, just told him what times our meetings are at,  showed up to church on Sunday, it was awesome. This week we saw a lot of the members, trying to get less actives to go to church and what not, and that was pretty much all the cool stuff that happened.

 

Oh, last p-day, we played some basketball, and then we ate habañero peppers, don't do that they kill you, one is fine, but don't ever eat 2, the second one is killer. It was fun to do that, but it hurt quite a bit.

 

I am sorry I am not there to help shovel and clean, I know you miss me as a work horse, but why did Kiley not help you, shouldn't she be nicer than that? (I did it early and was letting her sleep).

 

I am jealous that Carissa is going to speak Tongan, I hear the Polys here speak in their own language and it is awesome, and she is going to understand it! She will have to teach me when i get home.

I love you all, best wishes!

 

Nic (Elder Atkinson)

 

 What it looks like to eat two habanero peppers

 

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

 

 

 

Louetta Week 10

Hello Mom and everyone else,

The big thing that happened this week was I got to Skype with my family. It was really fun to see them all and hear how everyone was doing. I loved that I go to see my little brother, and it means a lot to me that he is still thinking about me and missing me. It was also fun to hear Arielle play a song on the ukulele, and to just see how everyone is still the same dorky family that I left (especially Lilly). It was really fun to just sit and talk with all of them.

 

The rest of the week was pretty good, we got to go over to a members house Christmas Eve. I enjoyed going over there. They are a good family and have been very welcoming to Elder Grasse and I. While there, we had some dinner, some rice, noodles, chicken, and ribs, which was fantastic. After dinner, they gave all the missionaries their gifts, the first gift was a prank gift. I got toilet paper. Then they pulled out the real gifts and I got a nice long sleeve t. That was a fun Christmas eve. Then Christmas rolled around, got to call the fam, then we had a great dinner, hayaca, which was real good. We got to see the Skype call of the son of the family we were eating with, who is serving in the DC North Mission. It was fun to see him because we worked with him some before he left on his mission.

The rest of the week, we were pretty much just knocking and contacting people. It was kinda awkward, because the people didn't really want to let us in, but said that later would be better (out of the Christmas season). It was fun to go knocking, we met two people who seemed really interested in hearing more. 

 

I love you all, and you all are the best!! Nic

 

Louetta Christmas time!

Monday evening I received a letter from the ward mission leader in the ward Nic is serving in.  It was so exciting to hear these nice things said about Nic!

Dear Sister Atkinson,

This is Brother Mario E BerRios, ward mission leader at Louetta Ward.

 

It has been a great blessing for me to know and work with your son, Elder Atkinson. Since the first day in the mission field, I did feel the power and spiritual strength of him, who openly and very fluently spoke to me in Spanish. I was amazed at his talent and disposition to serve. Now, after this time serving in our ward with Elder Grasse, I can tell you again and again, you have done a wonderful work in raising such a powerful missionary. Thank you Sister Atkinson. Thank you to you, your husband, your children, and all those whose influences have helped to form this fine missionary.

 

Here, I am sending our family Christmas Greeting Card and some pictures from our Ward Christmas Program. May God bless you and yours, always. Your son is a powerful servant of the Lord.  

 

Sincerely, Brother BerRios

 

This was a special Christmas treat for me!  I am very grateful he took the time to share his thoughts of Nic as a missionary.

 

Christmas day we were able to chat with Nic.  He was at a member's home waiting for extra family to arrive and have dinner.  If was fun to see his smile and ask him questions without wondering if he would really answer! :)  He serves in a ward with 2 other sets of sister missionaries.  He and some missionaries went Christmas caroling during the beginning of the week.  He had a fun dinner and gifts given him from a member on Christmas eve.  He misses us, but isn't homesick!  No surprise there, it is just nice to hear. 

 

We love our missionary!

 

Louetta Week 9

Hello Mom!

1- I got the package, they were hoarding it until the party.

2- It is probably just a busier time so it is probably taking a bit long than normal (Speaking about another package).

3- I have not received Skype info yet, but yes it will be skype. It will be about 2 or 3 our time on Thursday, but knowing you guys, you will probably be home all day (When asking if he knew when we would chat Christmas Day).

4- I will be at a members house, and we will get dinner there (What will you be doing for Christmas). 

5-The week has been pretty good, the one thing that stressed me out the most (looking forward) turned out to not be all that stressful. It was called 8 Week Training, and we had to prepare outlines for it (really stressful). It was not that bad, President Mortensen basically just checked up on us to see how we are doing/adjusting. Then the trainers and trainees split, President went with us and the APs took the trainers. President asked us what we feel like would be the biggest struggle if we were to train next transfer. It was reassuring to hear the answers of everyone around, and President offered advice for each of our concerns. It was good to here his advice, and hopefully I can apply all of it. After that we did a lot of role playing (teaching the trainers) which was good, President also gave me some pointers to help me teach. I was glad that it didn't turn out to be overly stressful.

 

Something that was really fun was the Christmas Conference on Friday. It was a mission wide thing, so I got to see everyone in the mission. At this conference, we took a huge picture, had some teachings about the birth of Christ, and watched the Nativity. Then we had lunch, which was really good (especially the rolls). After lunch, we sang songs, had some musical numbers and testimonies. At the end of the conference, President started saying that "Santa" had gifts for us, I was really excited because I thought that that meant iPads, but when we went to the rooms to pick it up, it was the packages that they received over the past month. These are the big things that happened this week.

 

This month has been pretty good over all, we have this one less active that we have been working with, he is slowly (slowly what?  I am not sure what he meant here. :), but hopefully we will get him back. It has been a pretty good Christmas month to be a missionary. I feel it is easier to bring up the gospel since it is the time of Christ's birth (since the gospel is centered around Christ). The busy feeling comes and goes from day to day, but I feel busy most of the times.

 

I love you mom, and everyone else.

 

Have a Great Christmas. Nic