I gotta write a letter y'all. This is always super difficult for me because like 400 amazing things happened to me this week but I don't know which ones to share and/or I don't remember them all.
I talked to President Clark this week. It was awesome. President Clark is a very loving man. I told him all the things I was struggling with and he listened to me for a very long time which was good. Then he said "Sister Atchley at the end of this meeting I would like to give you a blessing, or... at least if we could say a prayer together." I was like blessing plz :'( Then he told me a lot of stuff about how to resist temptation and stuff. Then he talked about the doctrine of being converted to Christ. He said the Book of Mormon is the only place we find that doctrine and I have no proof but I believe him because I think he has the whole standard works memorized. He talked about how when we're converted to Christ that means that we will not return to the way we used to be. I studied the scriptures about it later and this was my favorite one:
3Nephi9:13 O all ye that are spared because ye were more righteous than they, will ye not now return unto me, and repent of your sins, and be converted, that I may heal you?
I learned that being converted to Christ means being healed by the atonement. As we reach out to our savior he heals us and changes us so that we have no more desire to do evil but to do good continually. Now I know one of the main reasons that I'm on a mission is to be healed. Also I understand part of my patriarchal blessing that has never made sense to me before. Amazing. Always follow promptings guys it's worth it every time.
President Clark also teared up a lot during our conversation which was so touching because he's a very serious business guy and you don't expect that sort of thing from him. I could just tell how much he cared about helping my soul. He said a bunch of really nice things too. I asked him how I could be sure I was going to be safe and He said "Sister Atchley from the spirit I feel in this meeting and from the email I read from you every week I can tell that you are someone who just loves the Lord." So basically I was sobbing because it's been a really long time since someone has pointed that out to me. I mean I obviously don't love the Lord to be seen of men, but at the beginning of my mission everyone said that all the time. I thought that because people had stopped pointing it out to me that my love wasn't deep enough that it displayed outwardly. So I've been worried that my love for the Lord hasn't been motivating me to be Christlike outwardly if that makes sense?
Then he gave me a blessing and said he was my friend. <3 <3 <3 He said "Sister Atchley, as your mission president *sniffle* ... and ... friend..." So anyway that's a story all about how President Clark is my friend. He's a really fortunate friend to have I'm so blessed.
The other really good thing that happened this week is that I went on exchanges with Sister Hollenbeck. We taught Helen. Both things were awesome.
Helen came to church this week. She made a huge effort and was super blessed for it because she LOVED CHURCH AND FELT THE SPIRIT. She's been having a hard time making it because something (It's satan y'all) always gets in her way. So yesterday we went to her house before church and made sure she got ready on time and made it out the door. As we were getting ready her dog took off out the door. I'm pretty sure dogs aren't subject to the will of God because they disrupt the spirit aggressively all the time. We'll go to pray at someone's house and their dog will lose it and bark and tear around the house and jump on you. We go to get Helen and Toby takes off into the complex. Luckily peepa - b gave me lots of practice dog wrangling so he didn't get vary far. We got judged hardcore rollin into church late by all the members of our ward who were getting there at the exact same time. #JustSayin The Sunday school lesson was on the law of Chastity and we thought it was going to be super awkward and a train wreck, but Helen was like "these are my personal beliefs I've lived the law of chastity all my life! You are never teaching me anything new or weird this is things I already believe!" true Helen that's because you are very converted to Christ and this is His church.
We taught her lesson the the gospel of Jesus Christ the other day and she was amazed. We read the scriptures with her and she was like "YEAH faith is like a seed! I had the seed planted when I was very young and I always am watering it all the time. For example when I was at my lowest point and I prayed to God and promised him that if he gave me a second chance to be strong again I would be baptized so now that's my ultimate goal so I can have my end of the promise because he already healed me." and "Oh yeah yes when you have more faith it causes you to do things that are bringing you closer to God and lord!" and "Yes! this is what I want to do! I want to be baptized so I can have his spirit more with me in my life because I will be clean like the death of my old life!" and also "I already know everything you teach is the truth I can see it in your eyes and I've actually been thinking since first time I came to your church that I want to be baptized to it. I just need to know what my faithfulness will be like afterwards!" She basically has put the entire doctrine of Christ together by herself and has just been waiting to find the right church. She was participating in the relief society lesson and everything. Someone was like "you have to have faith." and Helen was like "You can't just have faith you also have to have commitment to be faithful." Everyone though she was already a member.
My exchange with Sister Hollenbeck was really good. Everyone said a bunch of stuff like it was going to be hard and I was like really surprised when we had a great day and worked hard and had fun. I've learned a lot lately that when you just treat people like they've already reached their full potential they work harder to actually do it. So I just decided to treat Sister Hollenbeck like she was a normal person and a good missionary and SHE MIRACULOUSLY WAS! Also she opened up to me a lot about stuff she's had a hard time with on her mission.
It's kind of like how everyone always says Sister Shumway has no desire to be social and likes to not talk and she's introverted and blah blah, but I treat her like any other person I want to talk to and she TALKS TO ME FOR HOURS! Everyone is lowkey really similar because we're all children of God and when you treat others like they are a child of God they act like one.
Here the main lesson I wrote in my PMG:
The absence of your love will never motivate anyone to change for the better, but the presence of it can.
Here's some quotes real qick:
"there's a lady in Africa that has to carry her drinking water for the whole week for miles back to her home who has no sympathy that my finger hurts from carrying this laundry across this apartment complex." -me
"What an unusual application of a fake owl." -me
"You look like a goblin" -me
"I'm like a box troll, but a kan jam troll." -Elder Radeke
"I only take luscious pictures." -Elder Fife
"Hi my name is Wesley" -Elder Fife all the time
"I can't play frisbee I have no depth perception!!" -Sister Baker
"You don't like anything I say you remind me of!" -me
"I would think you were really nice if you said I remind you of.. a white tiger..." -Elder Keith
"I got a fortune cookie that said I would have the surprise in the next month. Today our investigator say he is getting baptized. Go to Panda Express and get a patriarchal blessing." -Elder Vaipulu
"Whhhhat a beautiful name!" -President Clark
Dad did a good job because every single older gentleman who has ever learned my full name has been like wow sooo beautiful. President Orgill said it was like a European princess.
"OH MY HECK IT'S SISTER ATCHLEY!! DUDE HOW ARE YOU DOING!?! WHAT THIS IS SO CRAZY!! CAN I TAKE A PICTURE OF YOU!?!" -Jake Henderson fav youth from my entire mission
"I've knit three whole stitched in this scarf! made with love from Sister Baker" -Sister Baker
"You know that light was red?" -cranky guy
"Yeah sir I'm soo sorry!" -Sister Baker
"DON'T BE SORRY TO ME!!" -guy
"WHAT DID HE WANT ME TO SAY!? Yeah sir I'm driving to the dmv to turn in my license right now!" -Sister Baker
"Did you guys know my first name is Daniel!?"-Elder Rassmussen
"Uh yeah that's what your mail all says." -Sister Baker
"IT'S NOT IT'S NICHOLAS!!" -Elder Rassmussen
"I can talk for 10 minutes no problem" -me
"I don't doubt it" -Elder Richardson
"I've never been around so many people I think are so cool before in my life" -me
"I can leave to balance things out." -Elder Richardson
"Do you hate comp inventory?" -me
"No I hate comp" -Elder Richardson
"He calls me Sister Rassmussen all the time" -Elder Rassmussen
"Some people's kids" -Elder Richardson
"Some people's dad." -Elder Rassmussen
"Hey Elder Radeke!" -Sister Baker
"What Sister Baker!?" -Elder Radeke
"Do you want some bread?" -Sister Baker
*crickets*
"Dude! She literally pulled a loaf of bread out of that bag!" -Some random greenie
"First of all he's this HUGE polish guy with like... a man bun right and he's like this big JACKED really tan guy. Super tan ok! So he like shook my and and CRUSHED IT. Basically I've never been so afraid of a girl's dad before." -Noah Holmes
"So let me get this straight.. you went on a date with this girl.... AND her dad?" -Sister Baker
*Sister Holmes nodding*
"I'm just imagining a ham with spider legs." -Sister Baker
"What are we going to do if we can't download the Book of Mormon?" -me
"DIE!!" -Sister Baker
*Incredibly angry aggressive political rant about Hillary Clinton that would probably get me on a government watch list if I typed out*
"haha so how's your Book of Mormon reading going?!?!" -Sister Baker
"Stop fishing for compliments!" -Sister Carr
"I'm feht!" -Elder Radeke
"You're not fat but you have weird skinny wrists." -me
*Elder Radeke busting up*
"Sister Atchley your testimony always brings the spirit I don't know how you do it. You must fast and pray and read the scriptures or something." -Elder Chain
"Audibly crapping" -us all the time
"Sister Baker will you tell Sister Atchley that I really appreciate her testimony?" -Elder Radeke
"Are we not on speaking terms?" -me
"I had a dream that my arm was a bread stick!" -Sister Baker
"NO it was actually really hard because I didn't wake up to the first alarm but it went off in my dream and I had to turn it off with my bread stick arm!!" -Sister Baker
The reading assignment is this:
The Balm of Gilead by Boyd K Packer
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