Family and friends

LOVED FAMILY, FRIENDS, AND CHILDREN OF GOD, 

public announcment:

THere is a fruit here that looks like a....well kinda like a...no... well its like a apple in that its skin is thin, a pineapple in that its really sweet, a cucumber in that its longish, a yellow tomato and a warhead for sourness all inone!! not to metion it has a seed like a sea urchin with all its spines all up in the air....ya fun to eat if you want a lip peircing.

But it is bitter sweet like the warhead and you just keep eating it with a face mas happy and in pain all in the same time. 

But Good news is me and my companion hermana Custodio we don´t have transfers so we can see the baptism of the eternal investigator finally this week end and the bishop is going to baptize him. He makes me laugh so hard his wife and him fight like two older people (which they are) and it is something off of a mexican soap opera, but i have alot of respect for him he treats his wife with so much love. It is even part of why he is getting baptized he loves his wife so much! aww! 

And finally this sunday at church we had investigators make it to the sacrament meeting!! Even our favorite family with their son of nine years old! YAY they are the Cutest little family a but inactive but the dad made it and the two boys Fabrizio(yes with z) and jose. they LOVE to read the book of mormon and they understand better the gospel principles than any other investigator that we have. even a man of 25 years old has the hardest time understanding what is the book of mormon and these kids of nine and seven understand perfectly. I love teaching children they are so smart and filled with the spirit. The only bad part is thier little brother has the flu and well yep as we are visiting them almost every day me and my companion both sound like cartoon characters. We are couging a bit with runny noses and carry a roll of toilet paper everywhere we go and share the roll. sister papel hijenico? take it down pass it around. but were good and getting better. 

WE are also teaching a eighteen year old girl whose friend is member and she is very interested and sweet! She also came sunday.

We are really excited to see this sector progress in this next transfer with reinforced spiritual power and goals to get better and have the fight to combat the world!! MISSIONARIES ARE AWESOME!!! Keep your head up and just smile!! LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL!! 

Love Sister ATKINSON and the ZONA MARANGA!!!

New Sector

 

WOW BROCK!! really he is really chill he will be a great leader in the mission if the sisters dont ruffle his feathers like his sisters do.... ba ha ha and if they do he at least is prepared! And sorry turns out that the 5 de Mayo is a MEXICO thing!! So we eat rice just like every other day and potato and knock doors. woot. Sounds like once again womens confrence was a great sucess!! aww i miss that! but we are excited for here in the misison to have a sisters confrence with all the sisters and the presidents wife!! TOO COOL! 

 To open a sector one can really see the progresion quick! Its quite cool. How the first week knocking doors and talking to everyone and before you know it the next week we have appointments and we are hoping the thrid week we can have people to put baptism dates with. Its great to see how an area can progress! and of course the beautiful misisonaries progress too! WE are really close as companions we share everything....yes everything.,,, food, life stories, laughs, pictures, and a room the size of the room in my house but with two people just like me and MATI! but now we have to find space for our refrigerator and such but it is quite cozy in the house of the members. THey have to daughters SO CUTE they love you right off the bat and when you leave they throw their arms up in the air like they want to be carried and begin to cry....at first it was sad and i felt bad to leave them but then we got used to it and we try to sneak out the back door so they don{t see us leave and cry. AWW they use their BOTH first names Leah Victoria and DAphne sophia. so CUTE! 

WE found a family member who have three sons and it seems as if their whole world is falling down around them and we found them NOt for coincidence sunday in the eveing. the grandfather of the dad is dying and their cousin is getting married this weekend (if the grandpa doesnt die) and the birthday of their oldest son is this weekend.....wow. So we had a great family home eveing with them to help them feel the spirit and we taught about the army of helaman for the 3 little boys and they LOVED it! they will be great future misisonaries! Its great the energy they have for the gospel. 

THanks dad for the story it made me laugh. my grandpa is so funny. At times its really like camping in the mission when we got to this sector we had beds and that was it. so we lived out of our suitcases just as dad said when he told me you have to have good suitcases just in case! But now we are fully equiped with dresser drawrs and desks. its fun. GOod thing my Dad taught me how to be very efficient. Send love to everyone! Life IS GREAT SMILE LOTS! 

So i can give you a pre call this week to see if you found a video camera for the compu. and the members here said i can borrow their computer sunday in the afternoon so if we plan for five or six would be great!! well six here i think its one hour after. so like six or seven there?? awesome! 

GOOD LUCK WITH YOUR MIsison call brock er....elder ATKINSON !  i am rooting for SOUTH AMERICA!!! MAYBE BRAZIL!! OR VENEZUELA OR MEXICO!! well central or south america! love ya conner and mati keep up the good work! 

love you all 

Hermana ATKINSON!

Our first cucaracha!

 

WEll here we are in what they like to call ¨FALL¨in PERU, that subsuquently looks just like spring, and summer and winter. The plants are still green there is still LOTS of fog in the mornings and due to how close the ocean there is constant wind like in BRother Bear when they are enjoying the air over the cliff until it stops blowing and the two bears fall laughing to the ground. Its like that but there are THREE of us!! I think due to the change of weather the cocroaches begin to look for the warmer spots. THUS last night a screech comes from the study and YEP you guessed it MRS. WHite (well sister T) was found in the study with the broomstick and the CUPRIT!!!! A CUCARACHA THE SIZE OF A SMALL PERU!°!!! WEll needless to say we trapped it in the desk and sprayed RAID all around the desk shut the door and didn{t open it till the morning. But in the morning we open the door broom in hand to look for the creepie crawly and it is back up in the middle of the room we carefully approach it thinking its long gone dead to sweep it up and what does it do LEAP UP ON THE BROOM and take off!! EEK! so whacking it seven times segido we finally killed the cocroach......EEP! But hey we survived and we haven{t seen another cocroach since, mua ha ha. But hey its a party every night in three! WE laugh and talk all night and when we walk in the streets we say HI to people three times...Hi, buenas tardes, y hola. We are really learning to work well together to share the time in the lessons and my companions are really just SO powerfull! 

My old companion (I only say old because she was my companion before and she only has four months left in the mission!!!) HErmana S who has always been my example and a powerful missionary we are companions again with SISTER t from Cuzco who is always singing and happy. WE SING ALL THE DISNEY songs together!!! HEr in spanish and me in english. (even thumbalina!! which we are quickly called to repentance by hermana Santiago always the mother of the group serving us and keeping us on the right path) But to teach with three testimonies of the TRUTH who can deny the spirit that is there!!

THis week we have had a >MIRACLE and an answer to our prayers. When hermana S and I were companions in salamanca, stake SAN LUIS we prayed every day for a family to teach who in a year we could see them sealed in the temple! So we prayed every day and we didnt{ even have a baptism in that transfer together, but how GREAT is our Heavenly Father that he put us as companions again and as we were passing in the street headed for the house, a young mother called us in the street and presented her husband as a member of the church of Jesus Christ of latter day saints and she asked us if we could visit him because he was INACTIVE and she said she wanted to learn more about baptism. THey have three small children and ARE SO BEAUTIFUL AS A FAMLIY!!! WE have had the opportunity to visit them this week and get to know their dear children and they are just like OUR FAMILY. God really does listen to two missionaries praying for a family to find and JUST when they are both companions again through a mishap, but GOD ANSWERS PRAYERS!! I can´t even explain our hapiness and the testimony one recieves of God to know he loves us in our imperfectness and knows our desires. Maybe he doesn{t answer us when we think it is convenient for us but he knows when it is best for us to have our answers. In the universe we are so small and seemingly insignificant but our eternal progression and our personal lives is eVERYTHING FOR GOD. 

This was just confirmed in the story of General Confrence about the tomato plant (aww reminded me of the garden at home) That every tomato plant has the great potential to make one tomato and a million never ending line of seeds, But as the child learned if we are not careful that plant can wilt if not fed with water and sun. WE ARE THE SAME!! every one of us has this GREAT opportunity to live HAPPY with the knowlege of our potential and THAt we have EVERY DAY an opportunity to know that God sustains us with THE LIGHT OF CHRIST AND water from the living waters which is CHRIST!! THat we are cared for and He will never leave us in the dark we can GAIN THE HIGEST POTENTIAL THE EXALTACION!! 

The mission is really focusing on how we can find and teach families! I am so excited to teach focusing on familes cuz i know i have the chance to bear my testimony of my eternal family!! 

THIS BRINGS ME ETERNaL HAPPINESS!!  AS the presidents wife says, ¨to be happy is a habbit¨

My new goal is to wake up every morning singing (just like GRANDpa THRASHER TAUGHT us while camping) OH WHAT A BEAUTIFUL MORNING OH WHAT A BEAUTIFUL DAY I HAVE A WONDERFUL FEELING EVERYTHING IS GOING MY WAY!!!!!! 

LOVE from PERU

]SISter atkinson! 

have a HAPPY week putting in practice the words of the prophets! 

We Rock!!!

 

SO THIS WEEK WE JUST ROCK!!! 

WE had a great week with members to accompany us, visits with GREAT investigators that are progressing and have the desire to progress! They read and pray. STill enjoying my VAlentines package and CANDY!! My breakfast lunch and dinner! With my new companion hermana ALvarado we work OVERLY HARD! we maltratar doors every day and are just full of appointments with great people to teach and we look forward to every moment we have with them. The brother who is going to be baptized this weekend is just so prepared. He really is realizing that he can repent of his sins and that as a son of GOd he has GREAT WORTH! ITs funny how at times we can see ourselves in our investigators and the problems that they pass through we can give them personal experiences that we have had and passed through to help them overcome their problems! 

ME and my companion talk ALOT about life and we realized this week that as a companionship we have promised to help certain people that only our combination of experiences and character traits can help these people to progress. It is incredible how all KNOWING GOD IS! I can´t even imagine the weekly planning GOd does for his children. WHo is going to be where at what time and who can help them in that moment and represent Him. We just need to be OOBER careful that God can work through us and we ACT on the suggestions from the spirit. THis week i have really slowed down (to say really tried to listen to the spirit) to take the time to act according to the will of God and i really think the spirit has spoken to the hearts of the people we are visiting and they aren´t my words they are the words of God and i just share my testimony! Every day we can be the tools in the hands of God to change the WORLD!! woot todo poderosos!!

Funny story this week we went to visit a sister of 82 years old and her grandson of 8 years old.  opened the door and he is a bit.....odd......so he just shouted to his grandma ¨someone´s here for you¨   he told us we could pass he just left the door wide open, so we came in and sat down asked him how he was and what he was doing. he was putting together legos and he said ¨don´t talk to me i have to concentrate...¨we justa bout died lauging to make it worse there came a knock on the door and he said, ¨ANSWER THE DOOR¨ hermana alvarado and i looked at each other like REALLY? AFter a minute or two he got up and said ügh do i have to do everything around here??¨ THis was an eight year old ....we just about died laughing....!! best thing ever!! We really enjoy being companions everything is so funny with hermana ALvarado! 

WE are working hard and loving the work! 

THe photos are of my valentines package, the batman and my plack SUPER MISSIONARY!! and our valentienes breakfast of pancakes in the shape of hearts and our desks all decorated beautiful!! 

sorry mati i don´t know what happend with the pictures they did´t make it....i think....if you sent them for email i dont think they got here....

LOVE YOU ALL TONS!! 

KEEP ´SMILING!! 

HERMANA ATKINSON

Funny things that happen.

HI FAMILY!!! 

Told Mati I would keep track of all teh funny things that happened this week so short story number 1

My companion was wiping off her melted to her face eye liner (yes it{s that hot) and she started yelling from the bathroom I thought she dropped something but she came out danceing and said I have toilet paper disolving in MY EYE°!! we ran around like crazies for a bit not knowing what to do because the LAST THING you want to do is put limeño water in your eye! but it eventually I think it just disolved leaving her eye SUPA dry. 

We were RUNNING home like always to be home in time and just as we turned the corner my backpack opened and spilled all my books all over the street! oops so much for trying to get home on time. 

Saturday we were contacting and wow one of those saturdays when no one wanted to listen. one woman opened her little widow in her door and didn't even give us time to say HI let alone explain ourselves and two seconds opened the window and shut it again. I am pretty sure she thought we were Jehovas witnesses. But then we knocked on a house and a little kid of four years old peered out from the curtains and we asked if his mom was home and he disapeared to ask his mom he came back and said she wasn{t home....with the face that BK has when the lie is so obvious it hurts.....I don{t know where the laugh came from but just like water rushing out from a fire hydrant it just didn"t stop!!!! I tried to give him a card with Jesus on it, but it came out like this GIGGLE....this is.....ha ha ha ha .....a card .........can I......te he he he BA HA HA HA HA HA!!!!! i just couldn't do it. So funny. 

But good times.....ah

This week we magically met a young man of 28 years old who accepts the gospel like arroz con leche!!! Its amazing that he can capture the plan of salvation in one lesson and carried his book of mormon EVERYWHERE! He knows its true but as soon as he tried to explain to his family they all turned on him. Its so rough he feels so torn. He said if it was with his friends he{d just tell them to get lost, but its his own flesh and blood telling him that the things he is learning is not true. How astute is Satan. >He just lets it all loose. HE came to church sunday and felt very good but very poor with his jeans and t shirt and we tried to explain taht it doesn{t matter and he should just worry what God his heavenly father and king thinks. but He said it would probably be the last time he could visit with us due to his family and everything. Please pray for him He needs lost of help. HERMANO F .He really wants to be baptized but has to pass through this trail of faith. just like everyone some thier trials are the word of wisdom and others not married but the worst is when they don{t have any of these problems and its their own family. He needs alot of help. 

But i know God works miracles after we had fasted this sunday we were ready to go home at the end of the night and some investigators called to invite us to the birthday of their son. And I was just thinking in how long I hadn't had cake and my companion was thinking that it was the birthday of her mom this week and she didn't even eat cake and the family invited us to chocolate cake with chocolate frosting or what they put on top here!! Woot little miracles and great families that we will never forget! 

Love Hermana Atkinson  put your trust in God and all is well! He has a plan for all of you  like Elder Darcey said THERE ARE NO COINCEDENCES!! 

>Ps its so hot in peru the more humble streets in peru all play water ballon fights even in the windows of the bus and we were lucky enough to recieve one of these wet gifts almost got us wet WOOT they play carnivals aka EVERYONE GETS WET!! WOOT praying to not get wet  Love ya all!! 

Woot! The whole family!

Woot the family is now complete. with the baptism of the son M THE WHOLE Family is now baptized and he was able to be baptized by his dad who had a smile from ear to ear! The family is preparing to enter the temple in a year and be sealed for time and all eternity!! WOOT just a baptism so special to end the transfer!! WOOT! We even sang as misisonaries the four two elders and two hermanas (we kinda shanghayed the elders in to singing SURPRISE but it turned out great with violin and everything!!) 

We really have a great blessing that we are teaching a WHOLE FAMILY!! The family S they are SO Prepared the mom R, the dad O and their two daughters s and s. THEY ARE INCREDIBLE they are teaching me things! the spirit there is different than with any other investigators it's the PERFECT LESSONS because they are taught by the spirit and not by us! WE are so happy for them that they are progressing so fast they have a baptism date the whole family for the 19th of January!! What a blessing in our lives that we have the chance to get to know them. But of course it is just when we have transfers....we´ll have to see what happens!  I think my companion is going to train and I will have a change I have been here for six months! Half a year serving in Magdalena! I don´t want to go! After seeing the progress here and JUST LOVING SERVING HERE! I can never forget the love God feels for every one of his children here in Magdalena, but I´ll go where you want me to go senor over mountain or plain or sea i´ll say what you want me to say senor i´ll be who you want me to be!! 

Hope you all had amazing holidays and remember always how much Christ loves us and when we give him 100% he gives us double (as said by the family of hermana pardo who we got to talk to yesterday her mom is just amazing!! )!! How much are we really giving to our God? Give it your all and more! cuz we are on the winning side! 

Love you all have a great sprititually uplifiting week! 

mati i need a pic of your chipmonk!! 

brock get on those papers! 

conner! i hope my package for you all got there!. if not as says hermana pardo Piñas!! 

Closer to Christmas!!!

Monday December 10, 2012

A WEEK CLOSER TO CRHISTMAS!! We made our little christmas chain this week for me and my companion and the elders in our ward. On every little paper circle every day we have something to do that is christmassy like hug your companion sing himno number whatever and have a snow ball fight with paper. I am not 100% sure the elders understood the idea of the activity, but we are having fun with my companion. The elders had 2 BAPTISMS this weekend, so basically the misisonaries running around with their heads cut off for two days (whats new). with smiles from ear to ear. They were two brothers one that has 11 years and the other that is 15. The testimony of the younger is so strong and his feelings after he was baptized was JUST SO POWERFULL! it was like he was givng a talk in church, dear sisters and brothers I know GOd loves every one of us and when we do what HE says he blesses us with happiness!! A testimony so BIG in a kid so small. Really sweet baptism. 

This week I have really learned the importance of our relation personal with God. It is the basis for everything that follows in the gospel. If we love God we want to go to church and keep the commandments, and love our neighbor. and when we understand We are his children we act differently and serve others and have a personal dignity that is divinely attained through our conversations from God. This it is so critical to pray and read every day because how can we have a personal relation with God if we don´t talk to him or listen to the respuestas through his sacred scriptures. When we have this relation with God EVERYTHING IS POSSIBLE!! I learned this in a lessson in English this week where I tried to pray in english and wow.....ya fui ya. The joven we are teaching is really good and really intelligent but doesn´t believe he can have a personal relation with God. its really sad, but he is progressing when I got here in Magdalena almost six months ago he said he didn´t even believe in God. some people progress little by litte and others in leaps and bounds J defintiely is little by little! 

We have planned for the 29th a baptism of a young boy whose dad just got baptized last month after 15 years of invetstigating the church. M will be baptized by his dad the end of this month we are so excited!! He is so funny we always look forward to teaching him. and in general people who are excited about learnimg the gospel. 

Had lasagna with a family the other night and I was just so happy it wasn´t CHICKEN OR RICE!! YAY!! 

Excited to talk for christmas we have permission to talk the 26th for phone but I think really any day with skype. so just let me know what day is best for you all. 

Love you tons have a week full of prayer, scriptures, and get to know God better! 

Love your SISTER ATKINSON, awesome. 

Navidad!!!

So my companion is learning english. And she REALLY LOVES CHRISTMAS!! She is learning to sing jingle bells in english What an adventure....it's great fun to hear her try to pronounce the words in english.. maybe it would have been better if we started with I am a child of god.but she really loves christmas (to illustrate this point picture two very awesome and powerful sister misionaries walking down the street, book of mormon in hand and ready to share the gospel with every creature that moves. The scene is very wonderful and powerful like a classic black and white movie very serene and respectable. Just as Hermana Pardo sees lights and something green and colorfull off to the left....and begins to squeal and dance and ¨¨oh my goodness NAVIDAD!!¨ and all of a sudden our serene powerful moment turns into an anime cartoon with sister atkinson and her palm to her forehead and one of those sigh signs above her head and sister P prancing around happy with the life emitting cartoon images of hearts and christmas trees and presents and st. nicholas all over the place......¨Sister this is the fiftieth tree you have seen today THEY ARE ALL THE SAME!! but i really love my companion) She really never has had a christmas in her house (she was always working with her mom in their store selling toys all hours of the night) so this is the first christmas she can celebrate as A REAL CHRISTMAS. So i just have to smile every five minutes when she sees another christmas tree. but felizmente we are going to pass christmas together!!! BLESSINGS!!! 

Everyone has their tree up, in our house we usually put up the tree the last week of december but here it is a sin to not have your tree up the first day of december. pretty sure its a law. Its quite funny to count how many trees are in the apartment buildings of 18 floors. Ba ha ha. But the work is just moving right along we actually have people to teach and this is exciting. But they really are having problems attending church. if you could pray for R who's hija is sick, and R with his health and the wife our president of our mission. She has returned to the USA to have a surgury and is really passing for a hard time. We are without our MISSION MOM!! AHHHHHH!! Everthing may just fall apart. just keep her in your prayers and Hermana L in the ward had an attack in her brain and now is paralyzed she is 86 and was baptized just last year. Please keep these children of God in your prayers

But a funny time we had this week was when we were teaching an older lady very catholic and she invited us to her house. JUST IN TIME TO DECORATE HER HOUSE FOR CHRISTMAS! my companion was feliz with the vida!! over the moon happy. she was content to help a lady we just met decorate her house with the nativity and put up her lights and just little things she even gave us our first christmas gift!! Little doilies that she had hand stitched!! wow! God really blesses us with the greatest randomest blessings! but it meant the world for my companion who has never decorated her house or a tree! How misericordioso is our God. 

We are really hoping that the trials that our investigators are going through will pass and they can accomplish their baptisms. All is a trial of faith just keep the faith and do the work. all will be fine. 

Love you all have a GREAT MONTH OF DECEMBER and always remember the Why of christmas that Jesus was born with a great work to do. He accomplished the impossible so that we can have our families for eternity!! I think every month should be christmas in that we remember that christ died for us and we review our actions all the month and put new goals for what we can do better in the next month or year. 

sister atkinson, 

PS. remember those light shiny things you sent for halowween?? we totally took off the haloween part and wrapped them in thin wrapping paper and now they are our CHIRSTMAS lights and we found the smallest christmas tree in our room and tinsel!! we are hard core christmas in our room! so awesome we are so excited to work hard all this month sharing the gospel of christ! and singing christmas hymns! 

Gracias por su amor y caridad, ps I hope derick is still living and tasha and dia...and 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KANDIS B. I LOVE YOU SO MUCH SORRY I dont have your emai! but I hope all is well in the boy pool and that your studies are just rolling right along!! HAPPY 22!! WOOT love ya!  Hermana Atkinson