12/19/16

Dear Dad

Good Morning Citizens! I'm sure I've started an email off this way before. So I just want everyone to know that I'm sitting at this weird marble table thing and my hands are like so cold and stiff I can hardly type. Sorry If I get lazy and cop out half way through. 

This past week was pretty good. Our progressing investigator totally dropped us but you know... 

We have two appointments this week. The ward is still super awesome. The Craft family is so amazing I love them so much. They're the greatest. There are lots of cool families here. So many grad students. So many small babies. So many intellectual people. I feel like a huge noob. Everyone is super nice though. Since it's all grad students they aren't like 10s of years older than me so they can relate. I feel like the sisters in relief society are like my actual friends and not "the members of the ward." I don't know if that makes sense. Sometimes as a missionary you feel like you're not a real member of the ward you're just the missionaries in the ward. If you want to do some pretty legit service you should make the missionaries in your ward feel like you care about them as humans not just missionaries. We're representatives of Christ, but we're just human beings representing Him. He calls the weak and the simple to do his work you know! 

I had a really good week as far as growing spiritually. I've been able to feel the spirit like crazy. I've been trying to become as consecrated as possible these last 5 transfers. I have 27 weeks left in case anyone is interested in knowing. ): Time feels so fast. Every day is fast and every week is fast and every transfer is like none even existing. It's like being changed in the twinkling of an eye. Maybe my next few transfers will be miserable so time will drag. Hopefully not actually I'm not sure it would actually be slower. 

I've learned a lot of stuff from pondering this week. Here's one I wanted to share: 

In Luke chapter 14 Christ gives a few parables in verses 25-32. The parables involve sitting down before building a tower or going to war and examining the cost before making a decision. In verse 33 he says "So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple." He is saying that before we commit to follow the example of Jesus Christ by being baptized we must be willing to give up everything about ourselves as the cost of discipleship. The cost of building our spiritual tower or going to war against the adversary is EVERYTHING that we have. It is all of our sins, our weaknesses, our desires, our plans, everything must be placed on the alter of sacrifice before the Lord. Otherwise we will not be able to finish our course. If we hold any part of ourselves back the Lord will not be able to reach those parts to change them. Therefore, "...whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple." 

In Matthew 19 there is a story of a rich young ruler who is not willing to pay the price of discipleship. He is not willing to forsake all that he has. The apostle Peter, upon observing the situation states in verse 27, " Behold, we have forsaken all, and followed thee; what shall we have therefore?" to which Christ promises everlasting life. At this point the Apostles have forsaken all. In Matthew chapter 4 Christ invited them to follow him  "And they straightway left their nets, and followed him." 

However after Christ's death they go back to their old ways. They return to being fishermen. They have ceased to forsake everything. One of my favorite chapters is John 21 when Christ appears to the apostles after they have gone back to fishing and tells them to feed his sheep. He offers them another opportunity to forsake all and follow him.

Our savior knows that the price of discipleship is a high price for us to pay and he knows that we will sometimes fall short. If we listen to the Holy Ghost he will always correct our paths and help us return to discipleship just as the savior did for his apostles again and again. 

Here's another Sister Clark one liner: 

"The pictures we choose to hang on the walls of our minds are an image of who we become." -Sister Clark 

I know that what Sister Clark says is true. haha jk but really if we take time to ponder the scriptures and turn our thoughts to holy channels the act of pushing out all the clutter leaves plenty of room for the spirit to fill with additional light and knowledge. 

Here's some really cluttery quotes to impede this process for you: 

"I'm never going to be able to think of baboons without thinking of you again!!" -Sister Call

"Every time I stop liking boys I just LIKE BOYS AGAIN!!" -me 

"Every time I pee I just have to pee again. Sometimes these things happen." -Sister Call

"Ok! Remember you need a name with two syllables from the Book of Mormon for your team. What's yours?" -Sister Siaosi 

"MORON!" -Some Elder

"ok.... Morons." -Sister Siaosi 

"What do we win?" -Some Elder 

"I will pray and ask Heavenly Father to rain down blessings upon all the Morons." -Sister Siaosi 

"Is this your first call home?" -Elder Mills 

"Nope 3rd." -me 

"oh! I forgot how long you've been out." -Elder Mills 

"Drench me with knowledge, lessons, and teachings and I will be happy." -this guy who's preparing to serve a mission 

"In the scriptures ye is equivalent of y'all because it's the plural of you." -Elder Cardon 

"I was listening like 94%... your dad is a math professor at BYU?" -me 

"Yes" -Brother Cardon

"Ok then I was listening 100%" -me 

"Good listening." -Brother Cardon

"oh look a pod! Lets bust it open! Lets touch the seeds! Oh no! Pokey stuff in my finger! This is the exact kind of logic that makes the atonement necessary." -me 

Here's a reading assignment:
Shout out to dad

“That’s How the Light Gets In”
Tyler J. Jarvis

Have a Merry Christmas!! 

Sister Atchley

12/12/16

How's it going fam? 

We got to go to the temple this week. I love the temple. I received a lot of guidance on what to do with my life, so that's exciting. The other day the spirit told me that I need to think about what I want to do when I get home. I like.... don't even want to do that. I still have 6 months. Get off my case!! Not really though. Despise not the revelations of the Lord. Now I'm discouraged though because what the spirit said seems like it's going to be like really impossible. I guess it's ok. because "I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them."

Does anyone know if you have to attend byu to teach at the MTC? This is slightly irrelevant to the temple.  

We had zone conference this week. It was so good! Now we have a FANCY NEW STANDARD OF EXCELLENCE! It's super awesome! Our mission stopped counting contacts. Also week one of this transfer there were nine baptisms. That's more in one week than at any time in the past over 2 years. President Clark is killing it! He's so amazing! I love him so much! The other day was his birthday. What nice man! Remember when the whole mission was scared of him? Probably not, but that was a thing. 

We met with our investigator Suzel. She's super nice. She was like asking about baptism and about missions and about how to bear her testimony. She set a baptismal date. She's having a lot of hard struggles in her life right now though, but it's ok. The gospel can help. We're having dinner with her tonight. Sister Craft is a boss lady and she just invited her over because she was having us over. This ward is so amazing at everything and they stinkin love us. I'm so grateful.

Our Christmas party was this week. We helped out a lot. It was crazy! It was really good though. I don't like Christmas parties because I don't like too much noise and people and everything going on around me. It's stressful. ALSO they made us guard this candy table from a bunch of primary children who were there an hour early for Santa. NOT FUN!!! I had to pray for Christlike love for many young boys. Emailing is also stressful. I have a really big desire to share my life with everyone in a really positive way, but then I get to emailing and I don't know what to write about. Y'all should send me questions so I have some ideas. Also I basically forget everything I learned in any given week as soon as I start typing. 

Oh!!! Here's something I learned this week: 

It's really awfully hard to feel love from someone if you're mad at them. This includes Heavenly Father. 

Here's Some Sister Clark One Liners: 

"It's what we go through not what we don't go through that makes us who we are." -Sister Clark

"Thank you is a phrase that doesn't cost much, but we tend to be stingy with it." -Sister Clark

Here's some quotes: 

"What is this white people vs brown people?" -Elder Bowen

"Be the fork, there's already spaghetti prepared" -Sister Call

"The missionaries and the Elders" -Sister Orellana

the worst is when people are like the missionaries and the sisters. like what I'm not a missionary? Sister Orellana, switching it up. 

"My favorite thing about Elder Nattress is his hair product." -Elder Mills

"How old are you today 56?"-me 

"I'm 40!" -President Clark

"My Goodness!! You're so cute!" -President Clark

"My children will ruin it in two weeks. They'll polish fruit." -President Gallund

"How do you say your name?" -me 

"Like jet ski"- Elder Jeske 

"Oh yeah! Paco taco time." -Elder Sorensen 

"alright some personal stud and some comp stud." -Elder Sorensen

"Look guys! We got a gift and it's not even secret Santa!!" -Elder Bowen 

"you look like you're in a bowl." -Sister Call

"You're guarding this candy from everyone."-President Nelson

"Mostly from stake presidencies and bishoprics!" -me 

"What do you like about prophets?" -me 

"They shot arrows but they couldn't hit Joseph or... SOME boy! Whatever! I'm out!" - a 4 year old

The reading assignment is this:

 

Throughout the Book of Mormon we can see the pride cycle. Usually it happens over the course of many chapters. Read 4th Nephi and behold the entire pride cycle in one chapter. Ask yourself "In what ways am I prideful?" 

Have fun! 

Love Y'all! 

Sister Atchley

An actual Ewock

We all look dang good in this picture ok don't question it.

Sister Baker went home. RIP ): 

#WhereIsSisterBaker -me ever day

12/5/2016

WELL THIS WAS ONE OF THE CRAZIEST WEEKS OF THIS WHOLE MISSION! 

Doubling in is super hard. I have literally not been not stressed all week. I'm on the verge of strangling everyone that doesn't take care of the area book. There's like two to three copies of every teaching record in formers and literally two months missing from the progress records. I burned through like 10 sheets of hole protector stickers. Also for some reason there's always stuff in the area book that has no business being there like sheets from old training that happened in 2010. Sorry but I didn't realize preach my gospel listed "old trainings from 2010" as a necessary item to be filed under "potential investigators" 

This probably sounds like alien language. Basically our book that's supposed to be really nice is really ratchet instead. One of the teaching records is so mean. It's just like bagging on the investigator and at the end it says in big letters "CATMUL IS A GAYTARD" So I guess there was an Elder called Elder Catmul and apparently they got immature one day and wrote that in pen in the area book. Sad because PMG says we will be accountable to the lord for what we put in the area book. Somebody is going to have to explain that. 

The ward is really awesome. We met almost everyone in ward council. Our ward mission leader, Brother Armstrong, is SO AMAZING!! He's just really cool and really on fire. He was filling us in on who all of our investigators and recent converts are and he was like "we have these investigators" and "a lot of our investigators are getting ready for baptism." He's so enthusiastic. Also everyone loves us I think. Like I've felt nothing but love. We had an investigator at church and also we have an appointment tomorrow with a member present. Apparently in this ward ALL of our lessons are with a member present. Basically this ward is just the most amazing place ever. Newport Beach Zone #promisedland Also when I was a temple tour sister there was this Stake guy that I always saw and I was always like "oh man this guy is so cool I want to serve in NB so I can be friends with him." Guess what? HE'S IN MY WARD AND HE REMEMBERED WHO I AM!!!

Since we're the only missionaries in the ward they said we can participate in young men's because "you're this ward's missionaries and those boys need the exposure. They need to being seeing the tags." 

We had dinner with our recent convert, Guiti, and she is SO SWEET! She's like the cutest sweetest lady ever. She's been a member for about a year so she can come to the temple soon. 

I did forget how cold it is in Irvine compared to Mission Viejo. 

Sister Call is flipping amazing. She's super obedient and a really hard worker. She is working me to death. I might literally actually die. We need to slow down by 10% as per adjusting to missionary life. How do you quantify that? She's also just a really strong sister. We have a lot of the same things that we struggle with and that we've been trying to learn. She's also so so humble and patient with her super cranky prideful companion. She's a lifesaver. 

I secretly kinda feel like I'm going to one and done it in this ward. I hope not because I want to be in this ward for the rest of my mission. So I'm definitely not going to. 

This week was basically really good. I've also felt myself be strengthened to be able to be really outgoing and personable. I'm usually kind of outgoing and personable, but I've gotten over almost all of my anxiety. It said that would happen in my blessing when I got set apart. I'm not even afraid of talking on the phone anymore. It's a miracle. Heavenly Father is so good to me. He is even really patient when I'm stressed out. I'm so thankful. 

Here's not many quotes because I was like 5 days behind on my journal and my brain was jelly: 

"Dear Diary, today Sister Atchley scooted up to me on her buns and gave me a book." -Elder Radeke

"You look like your mom's attractive." -Elder Kennedy (to Elder Mueller) 

"How did you make this?" -Elder Kennedy

"I painted it." -me 

"you PAINTED this!?" -Elder Kennedy

"I never considered that you could answer the doorbell at Target." -Sister Baker

"You guys aren't awkward like most Sisters." -Elder Sawej 

"That guy was not adjusting your insurance he was trying to clone you. He has your dna." -me 

"AND HE HAS A PICTURE OF ME!" -Sister Call

"It'll put fumes in our smoothies!" -Sister Call

"There are 6 missionaries in the zone representing Texas. Just saying." -Elder Mills

"I'm from Oklahoma. It's right above Texas. Where the humility is." -Elder Tree

"There were iguanas infesting his pool so he got out his pellet gun and spent Christmas obliterating iguanas." -Elder Boggess 

"Oh well pick a Christlike Attribute anyway." -Elder Bowen

"Christlike attribute: Submissiveness to Christlike attributes." -Elder Boggess

"I really appreciate jogging right now. A sentence I never thought I'd say." -me 

I forced Sister Call to go jogging with me. I was really stressed.  

Weekly Assignment: 

read 3Nephi27 and look for where it talks about the doctrine of Christ. 

P.S. Sister Baker went home and I'm so so sad. I don't know how to be a missionary without Sister Baker. It's hard. Where are my inside jokes? 

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