8/29/2016

THIS IS A PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT: 

There are now cinnamon Jolly Ranchers! They're the greatest thing ever!

So I finished another journal. I have a journal entry for every day of my mission so far. If you've met me before you can be impressed by that. 

This week was pretty good I guess. We had Zone Conference. President Clark didn't throw down and change everything like we expected him to. I was kind of disappointed not gonna lie. I don't want to be compelled in all things, but like I also tend to choose to not have the spirit of contention rather than to be bossy about particular things that I feel are less obedient/diligent than I would like to be. It's hard. I'm never quite sure what the balance is. I just know that comp unity is the most important part of missionary work, because the spirit can't be in situations when people who are working together aren't unified. 

D&C 6:32 Verily, verily, I say unto you, as I said unto my disciples, where two or three are gathered together in my name, as touching one thing, behold, there will I be in the midst of them—even so am I in the midst of you.

and also 

3Nephi 11:29 For verily, verily I say unto you, he that hath the spirit of contention is not of me, but is of the devil, who is the father of contention, and he stirreth up the hearts of men to contend with anger, one with another.

but on the other hand

D&C 121:43 Reproving betimes with sharpness, when moved upon by the Holy Ghost; and then showing forth afterwards an increase of love toward him whom thou hast reproved, lest he esteem thee to be his enemy;

 44 That he may know that thy faithfulness is stronger than the cords of death.

Basically I can't practice the difference between sharpness and sass so I choose to just not say anything which is probably a wrong choice too, but anyway y'all probably aren't getting anything out of this sorry. 

I had to double dinner it for the first time this week. I feel like when the missionaries came to teach us they sometimes had to double dinner. Sorry guys. You should have said something. 

So what had happened was: 

There's this guy who is in charge of our dinner calendar, but I think he doesn't like us. He always sasses us hardcore about us picking up our calendar on Monday. Of course when we went over on Monday and there was no calendar. So we called and texted him LIKE 50 TIMES and so did the Elders. However, he "didn't get any of our calls or texts." On Friday we assumed we had no dinner and went home and ate. As soon as we finished eating this guy calls us and is like "Sisters what the heck are you doing you're supposed to be at the LeSuers for dinner right now!!" so we were like "GOOD THING WE KNOW THAT BECAUSE OF OUR DINNER CALENDAR THAT WE DON'T ACTUALLY HAVE!!" and he was like "When I don't get the calendar out you have to call me and get me to do it Sisters this is a serious problem you can't miss dinners you'll lose member trust." 

We were having a really hard time being Christ like about the situation. Luckily the LeSuers were not upset with us and it was a pleasant dinner. 

We got new counselors in the mission presidency. One of them is super good at member missionary work. He said that while he was a bishop he learned that "All of the problems that ward council faces can be solved by missionary work." He shared a story about how this family's marriage was saved because the children invited some of their friends to take the lessons and the parents let missionaries teach them in their home. He said that this family was on the verge of divorce and they just stopped having problems. I was able to come up with a ton of reasons that is a true statement. 

I had the opportunity to go on exchanges with Sister Shumway this week and it was awesome. We were able to just work hard and get so much done. Nothing was huge and miraculous but we were able to experience the happiness that comes from just doing what Heavenly Father wants you to do. I wan't to be Sister Shumway's companion in Las Flores so bad. It would be great. 

Here's some quotes: 

"Wow you guys hauled buns. Oh! Sorry! I don't mean to be crude! Your poor ears!" -Sister Newberry 

"Hey Sister Atchley do you want some cheap pastels?" -Elder Dayton

"yeah are they good?" -me 

"no they're cheap!" -Elder Dayton 

"yeah, but do they work?" -me 

"PROBABLY NOT!" -Elder Dayton

"Cool I'm down." -me 

"No the zone leaders are gonna see me be trendy!" -me

"Hey sisters.... you're so trendy!" -Elder Radeke 

"Dang it!" -me 

"We always just call Elder Radeke 'the zone leaders' and Elder White 'white' it's awkward because Elder Radeke's companion isn't even a zone leader." -Sister Baker

"Isn't she SO CUTE!" -Sister Smith

"DON'T RESPOND TO THAT!!"-Me

"I'M NOT GONNA COMMENT ON THAT!! What do think I'm gonna say?!? Oh yeah she's SO cute!!" -Elder Radeke 

"I was thinking about my strengths the other day and I realized I'm really good at merging on the freeway. Not everyone can say that you know!" -Sister Baker

"Sisters! You are always smiling. It lifts my spirits!" -President Clark

#Starstruck 

"Twinkies are made of wheat, but that's not what you should be eating." -Elder Finlaysen 

"I... guess we're singing now." -Elder Natress

"Watermelon is a gentle fruit." -Elder White

"Oh wait! Why am I even standing in this line!?" -Elder Dayton standing in the desert line

"Thanks for not sitting in front of me." -me 

"OH NO SISTER ATCHLEY! Did I do that!?" -Elder Fuell

"No I was being sincere!" -me 

"You aren't taller than people very often are you?" -me 

"WHAT NO! I just don't stand up straight." -Elder Fife

"It's ok don't feel bad. I'm literally the shortest sister in the mission." -me 

"I feel that way sometimes." -Elder Fife

"Are you the shortest Elder in the zone?" -me 

"No it's Elder Anthony." -Elder Fife

"Oh duh of COURSE." -me 

"Holy Cow! I love Sister Atchley she's savage!" -Elder Radeke 

"THERE'S SHOE RACKS!!" -Elder Anthony 

"Come on Elder White you gotta be IN the picture not OF the picture." -Elder Richardson 

"Well missionary work fixes everything har har." -Bishop

"Don't just take my word for it when you can experience it for yourself." -Elder Center

"Do you think if I ask my district leader to help me identify ways I can improve he'll do it or nah?" -me 

"Yeah Elder Anthony? Definitely." -Sister Wimmer 

"Elder Anthony is going with Elder Capasso!" -Elder Radeke 

"WOOO I GET TO EAT WAFERS!" -Elder Anthony

"You're from Texas!? No way!!" -Elder Fife

"It only took one invitation for me to stop drinking tea forever." -me 

"You're a convert?!? What no way!!" -Elder Fife

"Hi My name is Sister Atchley have we met?" -me 

"I've been out for two months." -Elder Fife

"Wait what? No way!" -me 

"There's a fundamental lack of communication between the two of you." -Brother Nelson

"Sister Atchley I honestly couldn't think of a single thing. You're a great missionary and every single thing you say makes me feel the spirit so you're doing great." -Elder Anthony 

This is probably the hugest compliment I've ever gotten. 

Everyone thinks Elder Anthony is a hater and doesn't understand love, but I can tell he's one of the Elders that loves me the most out of all the Elders in the mission. I can tell because it's obvious that he respects me and he cares about the things that I learn. 

Here's a reading assignment. 

I was having trouble feeling the spirit and this touched my heart. 

Guided Safely Home by Marcus B Nash

Love Y'all!! 

8/22/2016

I feel like I don't have a ton to report on this week. Sister Baker got kind of sick so it was hard for us to get much done. Also our companionship just struggles to get much done anyway. I'm kind of having a bit of a hard time with it because I want to get many things done. We had two really good weeks at the beginning of this transfer though so I know it's possible. 

I was on exchanges a lot with Sister Shumway because we gave a training together in zone training meeting. That's probably the coolest thing from this week honestly. Sister Shumway is great because she is super humble and has the spirit. It was good to hang out with her because we just talked about spiritual things the whole time. We did a little missionary work together too. 

So anyway. Sister Shumway and Sister Wimmer were asked to give a training in zone training meeting, but Sister Wimmer didn't actually want to so she was like "why don't Sister Atchley and Sister Shumway give the training and me and Sister Baker make cookies? Sister Atchley LOVES giving trainings." and the zone leaders were like "yeah alright!" 

The training was pretty cool. Basically it was based on the Bible Dictionary definition of elect. "An 'election of grace'... has reference to one’s situation in mortality; that is, being born at a time, at a place, and in circumstances where one will come in favorable contact with the gospel." and about how nobody is in a better position to "come into favorable contact with the gospel" than full time missionaries. We talked about the importance of personal conversion. 

The best part was that we made everyone split into groups of three and actually teach EACH OTHER instead of role playing. We made everyone teach the restoration. It was cool because no matter what group I listened in on the spirit was so strong. I learned that one of the main things that brings the spirit to a lesson is the people teaching and the person being taught knowing and loving each other. If you know and love someone you will teach to their needs and they will be edified. 

Elder Anthony said "This was cool because I've never had two people that love me sit me down in somewhat of an intervention setting and teach doctrine to my needs. It was one of the coolest things I've ever felt." Then I also realized that most of the people I serve around don't know what it's like to be on the receiving end of a missionary discussion. Therefore they aren't as aware of the power that's in them. It was just a really cool experience. President Clark was there. He winked at me. #StarStruck 

The other good thing that happened this week was that BROTHER TRIPPE IS THE COOLEST WARD MISSION LEADER EVER!! He's an animal. He's brand new, he was out mountain biking with non members and recent converts in the Alicia Park ward and broke his collar bone into three pieces on Saturday. So he strapped it down and showed up to ward council at 8:30. Then he went to like 3 other meetings he had on Sunday AND had correlation with us. He's going to get surgery on it today. ALSO his district cross country coach meeting was at the same time as the stake mission meeting so he just called his administrators and said forget that. He may or may not have just peaced out on coaching. Basically he doesn't mess around with magnifying his calling. He made us make a list of things that this ward doesn't do effectively and things that make doing missionary work hard and he was like angry about them too. He was like ALL THIS HAS TO CHANGE ELDERS AND SISTERS!! He's great. He's a convert so he has no idea what missionary work is like except that he has two rm sons. He asks them what he can do to be a good ward mission leader. They are obviously just going to tell him what they liked about their best ward mission leaders and what they didn't like about their worst ones. Also he trust that we the full time missionaries are called of God to do missionary work here, so he like.... listens to our opinions and stuff.  Then he's like super humble so he just does the stuff that needs to be done and he cares about our well being. On top of all of this he's really hilarious and sassy. 

So basically I'm probably going to get transferred haha. 

Anyway here's some quotes:

"Oh! Don't all leave because of me! Nothing kills a party like me showing up." -Sister Clark

"Is there a church approved way to dispose of a giant cardboard Jesus?" -Sister Baker

"Cut a slot in its hand and fill it with pass along cards." -me 

"Maybe they're only awkward because they're always around competent people." -me 

"Maybe they'll realize if everyone around them is awkward too." -Sister Shumway

"Aspire to greatness instead of acquiescing to mediocrity." -President Clark

"The members should be able to tell you love each other." -Elder Ball

*HARD NO headshake* -Elder Radeke 

"MAHINA! Sitting on Kitters is not how you make friends!" -Aysia

"Mahina's like how do you know do you even have friends?" -me 

"Oh my bad Mahina you're right, carry on." -Aysia 

"You've seen my missionaries!" -me 

"I wasn't paying attention." -Elder Mueller

"Dang that's a typical male response." -Elder Center

"What do Sisters say about Elders?" -Elder Center

"We mostly complain about whose pants are too tight and who has tiny hands." -me 

"Not you though Elder Mueller. You have loose pants. Everyone appreciates it." -Sister Baker

"My pants are pretty conservative!" -Elder Center

"They were more conservative at the beginning of your mission." -me 

"DANG I gotta put 30 pounds SOMEWHERE ok?!" -Elder Center

"I'M going to be the fat component of a fat/thin relationship." -Elder Center

"I haven't been paying attention to anything he's saying." -Sister Baker

"He's saying that after you get baptized you become a tool." -me 

"Oh yeah I didn't see ANY kind of giggling and carrying on back here." -Brother Trippe

"It was your son." -Sister Baker

"You'd be surprised what I do when I'm injured." -Brother Trippe

"It's a barbecue, we bring as many non members as possible..." -Brother Larsen

"What and cook THEM?" -Brother Trippe

"You don't have to be able to see it to manhandle it!" -Brother Trippe 

Sorry about the lack of quality reading assignments.

Here's one anyway:

The Power of a Personal Testimony by President Uchtdorf

8/15/16

Dear Dad

Just so you know there are fewer than 6 months between now and Valentine's Day. Better start getting my birthday presents ready. #entitlement
The other day we were talking about how, because of the equalized missionary fund, people whose children go to places that probably actually cost like $12.00 per month and they probably sleep like in a hut or whatever and eat nothing but rice still have to pay $400 per month so that we can live in a two bedroom apartment in Mission Viejo California and cool our room down to 70 degrees at night. #datprivilegetho

I can justify not feeling bad about it because the people who live in those other missions afflictions have made them humble so they are in a preparation to hear the word.

Speaking of humility and being in a preparation to hear the word:

Remember how I talked about Zach? We had a really great pass off lesson with the YSA Elders. By YSA Elders I mean Elder Radeke, and Elder Anthony because they were on exchanges. Poor Zach, all these random missionaries showing up and talking to him. They didn't even get his number. Way to go Elders. 

Anyway, Zach was great. He is super humble. The spirit was killer in the lesson. You could just feel it so strong. We talked to him about the plan of salvation. We asked him if he'd thought about the things we taught him last time and he said, "Yes definitely, I have faith now." He kept saying things like "I fee like I have a choice to make right now that will effect my life for eternity, but it's like a test of my faith at the same time." and  "I've been struggling to make this choice for a long time, but my heart is definitely pulling me in this direction." and "Finding my faith is important to me, but like it's really important for me to find a way to make the outward commitment to God through like baptism but I'm just worried about what my dad will think." and also "I'm like 26 years old and I'm so dumb about this kind of stuff still. I just don't even know how to think of it or anything." He is just ready to make the commitment, but he's worried about being disowned, because he comes from a Jewish background. Apparently this is really common, especially in Mission Viejo. There are like 4 known Jewish converts in the zone. Some of them are currently disowned by their family. That's strong. I'm super glad nothing like that happened to me when I got baptized. 

Remember when I talked about Helen? Probably not because we met her back in like June. Well we met her again this week. Twice. We were finally able to teach her. She committed to being baptized as soon as she finds out it's true. Helen is like Zach in that she is exceedingly faithful. She just wants to be baptized. We asked her if she would be baptized and she was like "Honestly I already decided that being baptized and having an outward commitment of my faith is the most important goal for me in my life. I just have to find the right way." She's really amazing. She moved to Texas from Iran when she was 24 years old. She's like 54 now, but she said that she's been following Christ her whole life, now she wants to find a way to thank him for everything he has done for her. She said that she has such a close relationship with the Savior, but she wants it to be closer by officially declaring that she is Christian through the outward act of baptism. She said that she has always accepted Christ her own way, but she knows that when He accepts her it has to be HIS way. She also said that when she finds the right way she will know because He will tell her in her heart that it is right. She knows exactly what the spirit feels like too. Mostly we just go over there and she teaches us about having a relationship with the savior and about having the spirit and the importance of baptism and we're like "yeah but did you know that before you were born you were with God." 

Something I've realized this week is that when someone gets baptized the missionaries didn't find, teach, prepare, and baptize them. Missionaries just come in at the very tail end of YEARS of preparation by our Heavenly Father. We come in in the very last act of the play and do a bunch of big flashy stuff and take all the credit. I have a new deeper understanding of the promise in Preach My Gospel that as you are faithful Heavenly Father will lead you to people who are prepared to receive the restored gospel. Zach and Helen are both CLEARLY searching for what is right and for both of them we just didn't know what to do and decided to go contacting. The Spirit prompted us to go contacting in the places that they were in, and when we were there he prompted us to talk to them. These events aren't rewards to us for anything that we have done, but they are rewards for Zach and for Helen because they are humble and they are crying out for the truth. 

Pretty cool. 

Some other eventful stuff happened this week. 

I was deaf in my right ear for like 3 days because.... just never put q-tips in your ears y'all. TRUST ME it's not a great idea. 

We got a new ward mission leader.

I spoke in sacrament meeting.

We vacuumed our floor for the first time in like probably a year because the vacuum was broken and didn't work. 

Side note: I pulled like 5 pounds of hair out of a vacuum this week. Good thing someone taught me how to be a little handy. 

Quotes: 

"I can't talk because of my dog." -A guy

"I messed up this 90cent pack of noodles? Better eat it anyway I'm not rich!" -Sister Baker 

"He's from Northern Utah, HEAVY accent, mostly works with lambs." -Sister Wimmer describing Elder Rasmussen 

"I promise I didn't wet my pants in case you were wondering. It's uh... mountain dew." -Elder Radeke

"How do you know!? Have you ever been a succulent!?........... This is the stupidest conversation I've ever been a part of." -Brother Yokochi 

​"Good thing he's mowing.... cause all this grass..... is getting out of hand...." -Sister Baker

"Where do you FIND investigators like that?!" -Elder Radeke

"Uh...... the park....." -Sister Baker

"Can you even grow a handlebar  mustache?" -Me 

".... The MOMENT I can I will!" -Elder Center

"It's Shakespeare, you would know except you're a preppy." -me 

"NO!!! Or I'm just DUMB!" -Elder Mueller 

"WHAT She tried to clean her ear but she done fetched it up!" -Elder Center

"No problem... I can carry a giant 50 pound baby!" -Sister Hobbs  

"I'm gonna eat another tortilla.... I'm really stressed." -Sister Wimmer 

Reading assignment is Alma 22 because I relate really well to the king of the Lamanites. 

Love you guys!

#plottwist

 I found Amber in the Lego store.

 Dat View Tho.

 Lizard

 One time over with the vacuum. Comon people.

 I found Totoro at the toy store.

Sister Baker's got mad skillz

8/8//2016 1000/1000/10000

You may be wondering why there's a note card taped to our car. The note card is obscuring the giant F WORD SOMEONE WROTE ON THERE THIS WEEK! Come on man! Be a decent human being! #persecution 

Anyway other than that this week was pretty good. I got way really homesick. I really just want a big bowl of beans. We have lots of really good dinners, and many of the members are terrific cooks, but nobody makes beans. Then if they do they aren't the same. Other things I miss are barbecue, chicken fried steak, and texmex. 

I feel like I learned a lot and had a really good week, but it's hard for me to write everything down in this email. I was gonna share all these scriptures but I forgot my planner so I don't remember what they were. 

We had exchanges this week. I learned a lot from Sister Downs. Pretty soon I'm going to start having Sister training leaders who have been out for less time than I have. Oh well that's normal.

While we were on exchanges we met Carmen in the park. She said she never walks through the park so she knew it was a "God thing". I was super excited because we though she hated us, but she was kinda upset when we saw her. She kept talking about how "why would God want her when she's ugly and nobody even likes her and there are so many other people on earth that people love and she doesn't even know why she's here." I asked her if she thought I liked her and she was like :'( yes. I love Carmen so much. I'm just sad that so much stuff could happen to one human being. She told us not to leave her. We also had a scheduled meeting with her this week, in which she asked a lot of questions that we were able to answer. Her birthday is this week on the 14th. We're confused on how to extend an invitation to go to ARP. I'm sure the spirit will direct. 

We also taught this guy named Zach. He was super amazing! He's this 26 year old Jewish guy who decided he wanted nothing to do with it when he was 13. Now he's reached the age of 26 and is embarrassed that he doesn't know how he feels about a higher power or how to live his life. So basically he's really humble and really searching for the truth. 

"What's your understanding of prophets?" -me 

"Well I stopped learning about all this stuff when I was 13 like I said, but I guess my understanding is that they're a person who receives inspiration from God and then they carry it to the people?" -Zach 

He's just super great and awesome. We're passing him to the YSA this week. 

The way we met him was that we like super awkwardly approached this group of punk 20 year olds. We were even like "I don't what to talk to these people because they all look like punks and they look like their our age. mer." as we were walking up. Then he started asking all these questions and his punk friends harassed him. Never judge a book I guess. Also #ThePowerOfContacting. 

We prayed to know who we were going to pass too and the spirit chastised us. Elders. Obviously. 

We were at dinner the other day and the 8 year old shared a scripture with US. It was D&C 130:1-2. 

"Why do you like this scripture?" -me 

"I don't know when I read it I just felt the spirit.... My favorite part is where is says which glory we do not now enjoy." -Cole 

Anyway some funny stuff happened: 

Namely we got the f word written on our car in permanent marker. 

"You aren't old enough to buy any of this!" -me 

"That's not true. Elder Vaipulu's 21." -Elder Gee

"What that mean? We buy drink here?" -Elder Vaipulu 

"Yeah, but i'm NOT going for coors." -Elder Gee

We ran into the Elders in the alcohol section of Target. Before you start to judge, the alcohol section of target is like 50% of the groceries section of Target.   

"I don't what to go to hell because I have cataracts. All that fire would not be good on my eyes. Also check this out... have you SEEN my skin?" -Carmen 

"A is so cute! If I was going to sell a human being I could get A LOT of money for her!" -Carmen

"Basically Sister Atchley knows everything about missionary work and she has the gift of discernment and she always has the spirit. Y'all should listen to everything she says." -Elder Center

"If you're both physical touch.. just touch each other more" -Elder Center

"My temple recommend is not on me so if the second coming happens I'm in trouble." -Elder White 

"I'm sure they can look it up." -me 

"Chyeah the angel's got his little iPad... uh... what's your membership number." -Elder White

"Dang... Joseph Smith's membership number is 2." -Elder White

"I was decorating this little guy and I was like you know who could do this way better? SISTER ATCHLEY!!!" -Elder Radeke 

"So what happened?" -Apartment manager

"Someone wrote the f word on our car in permanent marker." -Sister Baker 

"Wow I'm sorry.  I don't even know how to write that." -manager 

"SURELY no one would key our car." -me 

"SURELY NO ONE WOULD WRITE THE F WORD ON OUR CAR IN PERMANENT MARKER!!" -Sister Baker 

"Are you thinking of a grey elephant in Denmark?" -me 

"No I'm thinking of a black and white ostrich in the Dominican Republic get at me." -Sister Baker 

"So... are dances like.... common in your church?" -Zach 

"I think Heavenly Father is so done with us right now." -Sister Baker 

"Always fatter never taller." -Sister Baker 

"That's like the title of the movie about my life." -me 

"Same" -Sister Baker 

"We're gonna bring you something for your birthday." -me 

"well ok but it doesn't HAVE to be marijuana." -Carmen

"The only concern is his work schedule. He works on Sunday." -Elder Center

"Just get him fired." -Bishop's son 

"SISTERS! I know you aren't in charge of the Elders, but do you think they know how to get to the church?" -Bishop 

"Questionable." -Sister Baker 

"The bears only eat the female salmon because the female salmon have more fat on their bodies than the male ones." -Brother Byrne

"huh.. it's just like female humans." -me 

*loses it* -Everyone 

I have an invitation rather than a reading assignment this week: 

Set some time aside to say a prayer. Pray until you clearly feel the spirit, however long that takes. After you're feeling the spirit pray as it directs. 

Love Y'all!!

Here's my homies the succulents. 

The little round leaf one is the big round leaf one's baby. The other one is adopted, but cuter. 

8/1/2016

I'm pleased to announce that we are just worn out from doing missionary work this week. I was super unsatisfied with the amount of finding we were doing. We were getting discouraged because, due to the heat, not many people are in the parks. In Oak Creek there are like 50 parks, and they're always full of people. All my finding efforts have been street contacting until this point. I have been praying for ways to motivate us to do more stuff and be less lame. I suggested having a Window of Heaven every day. So we set a goal to have one hour of tracting every day this week. I haven't gone tracting very much before because it is just the worst in Oak Creek, but we have experienced SO MUCH SUCCESS. We found 13 potential investigators just this week and taught 3 lessons to people. It's been really amazing. I have such a strong testimony of finding though our own efforts. I personally have found it to be the most effective method of lifting people and sharing the Lord's light with the largest number of people. We probably honestly knocked upwards of 100 doors because we got 70 contacts this week and all but like 4 of them were from tracting. It was amazing that the Lord strengthened us to work in the heat. Especially me because I'm the hugest baby when it comes to being hot and sweaty. It hasn't really bothered me that much this week though. However, we are always dissapointed in ourselves because we will be nasty sweaty hot messes and a member will be like "Oh yeah! Sisters it's SO hot. It was 86 today." We'll be like "are you kidding me...."

Lots of cool stuff happened to us this week. I got invited in to teach someone a lesson for the first time. He was a really friendly older man who had a lot of concerns about the bible. I was like dude! Me as well before I met the missionaries. He appreciated that I had issues with some of the same things that he had issues with. He was also open to the idea that I had answers. He said something like "I just have a lot of doubts and see a lot of holes and that means either the bible is wrong or I'm missing some additional insight. I always keep my eyes open for it." We're hoping to go back and teach him sometime soon. Also record for the friendliest person who has ever talked to us with the opening line "Yeah I've seen the play." 

Elder Anthony is CRUSHING it as our district leader. He's like a whole different Elder Anthony. He did a complete 180. I wasn't worried because Elder Anthony is totally devoted to doing what the Lord asks so I knew that he would never exercise unrighteous dominion. He made the most practical and motivating district goals though, and he apologized to us for the way he may have been last transfer. He also keeps asking us what he can do to make us happier and to help us progress. He honestly just really cares about everyone. Elder Anthony is great. Also he's the only person I've been in the same zone as for literally my entire mission. We had a HILARIOUS unity activity created by yours truly and companion. We made a bunch of get to know you questions and would you rathers and made everyone ask someone else in the district some of the questions. Then we made everyone introduce themselves and the other person. It started out ok, but really quickly turned into a district roast. Elder Anthony did the most hilarious impression of me I have ever seen in my life. I was rolling. Anyway the point being, I really look up to people who just do what Heavenly Father wants them to do. Also you never know how humble someone can be. Also you can't love someone unless you know and understand them and you can't come to know and understand someone without developing love for them. 

I've been getting really homesick and night and missing Matthew. I like miss him all day though, but especially at night. We found all these really old church magazines and one of them had an article where the tagline was "Whether you believe you can, or believe you cannot, you are right" I was like "huh my dad always says this...."

We taught sharing time in primary. I made a folder that looks like the Salt Lake temple out of two poster boards and had the children draw a picture of themselves and chuck it in there. #ObjectLessons 

It was cool because I got to consecrate my talents, and also because I didn't even stress about how awful my temple looked. 

I forgot to photograph the succulents again. I'll do it when I get home probably. 

Get ready for some funny times: 

We were tracting and this guy opened the door. We had a hard time not laughing because his appearance took us by surprise. He looked exactly like what it would be like if an egg had a baby with Mr. Clean. Also he had a tan line from wearing shades. 

"This kid has GOT to be Mormon." -me and Sister Baker

"What ward are you guys in?" -cashier 

Our only evidence was the fact that he was really clean looking and working super hard while straight cheesin it with all these braces. He was like 17 probably. Solid kid. 

"It was totally demolished." -Sister Baker

"Totally demolished sounds like something I would do to like...... a plate of nachos..." -me 

"oh...... I was thinking a toilet....." -Sister Baker

"true....." -me 

SISTER SHOBER IS DEAD!!! )': )':

"BYE MOM!!!" -Me 

"DAUGHTER!!!" -Sister 

"Make sure your tears stay on the clothing and don't get any on the carpet." -Elder Seegmiller

"I'm Elder Hook. I like swimming and playing pokemon, but I won't be dong that for two years...." -Elder Hook 

He just went home too. 

We met all the greenies they were mostly cool. There are two in our district. 

"Stop eating! We have to take this picture!!" -Sister Baker

"What are you two doing here?" -Sister Seegmiller 

"Eating the mission office food." -me 

Elder Center demolished the high score on this arcade that Brother Yokochi has. 

"I don't know why I'm so good at it. I never play video games." -Elder Center

"You probably just have a lot of hand eye coordination from doing... cowboy... stuff..." -me 

"oh my heck!!" -Elder Center 

"The whole time I was in there I wanted to make you breakfast, but I was like..... what does Sister Atchley even eat for breakfast!?!" -Sister Baker 

This is funny because I basically only eat toast and grapes ever except at member dinners. Don't worry it's by choice I have heaps of money. 

"Hopefully somebody does PARK US IN AGAIN I HAD TO FOLD THE MIRROR!!" -Sister Baker

"The car with the biggest lift kit in the world is going to come and park directly over us." -me

"oh hey it's nidoking" -me 

"oh you know what they're called?"-Sister Degraw 

#dontjudge

"Sister Atchley reminds me of that one main jazz cat from aristocats" -Sister Baker

"If he doesn't say Toby Maguire he's straight wrong." -me  

"Elder Anthony looks like Toby Maguire it's kinda freaky." -Elder Rassmussen 

"Hi I'm Toby Maguire." -Elder Anthony 

"My missionaries are just so great they're just so good. They baptized me so good!" -Elder Anthony 

"Well... My missionaries, so great, they just wore long shorts!" -Elder Anthony 

"I wanna eat cake." -me 

"YOU CAN EAT THE CAKE DURING WEEKLY PLANNING!" -Sister Baker

"We have a 5 second rule in primary." -Adult

"more like 5 century rule!" -kid 

"This person's name starts with M" -Adult

"MY NAME IS MATHAN!" -nathan 

"It's probably because he was taking steroids, stuff makes you break out... In case you were wondering why I have so much acne." -Sister Wimmer

Reading Assignment:
The Shoes of a Winner by Elder Robert L. Backman

If you want to be slightly uncomfortable:
Brad and Jenny by Jack Weyland

Love Y'all!