Okay, my computer went down, and I lost Elder Atwood's blog address, but I did a google search and found it that way. It was so simple; I don't know why I didn't think of it before. It was nice to be able to see Elder Brown's emails again.
hey mom,
well yea this is my new e mail. they gave me a new e mail because i was receiving a whole bunch of junk and it was getting really annoying. my president told me to tell you that if you are going to post my letters online, that you need to erase my e mail address before. I am not sure if you do or not, but i am just obeying orders in telling you. well it sounds like you week was really awesome this past week. or really busy. i am not sure, but that is awesome that the little kids really like Trish. It sounds like she is a really nice lady. Is she Rod’s age? that is good that she is really cool. it is really funny to think that logan is still really small, i think he is going to be like that for the rest of his life. i sure hope not. So when is thanksgiving? they really don’t celebrate it here so that is why i am not sure when it is. so that is pretty awesome i hope i get fat like everyone else in that time. that is weird how fast the time is going, the year is almost over with only a month and a half left, it`s just another proof that i don`t have time to slack off, and that i need to always work with all of my might. the other day I went on splits with my zone leader and i took him around my whole area showing him the people that we are teaching and showing them how they are progressing, and I worked him so hard that day that we were both just beat, we seriously didn`t want to move after that, but the next day we got up, and we both did some exercises, and i lifted weights, but i hadn`t lifted so much weight in a long time, and i got way sore. it was way funny. i really love doing those divisions though because i get to see how other people teach and i can learn more doctrine, and basically i love it because i learn so much when i do that. i always feel like a better missionary after. it was soo cool though, that day when we were teaching you could just see the people being touched by the spirit, you could definitely see it in their eyes. and almost everyone that we talked to that day wants to learn more, and we have a whole bunch of appointments this week. it is going to be way awesome. well before all of that, Tuesday they cut off our water and so we didn`t have water for a day, until i got tired of having to go to another missionary’s house, so i saw that it still had the water meter, all that they did was take out a tube and shut the valve. so what i did was take a regular hose, i put a washer in the screw in side and then for the other side i took the huge rubber workout band that they give us in the mtc and i put the hose in the tube and i tide the rubber band around the tube and hose, and now it doesn`t even leak so it is good as new. and now we have water in the house. so technically we aren`t robbing any water but we did get our water earlier than we were supposed to. so i did that and all is good. and then wedensday we were teaching alejandra and her son, and they were way excited to get baptized, but the day before her baptism she got way sick, and had to go to the hospital because her throat was so swollen that she couldn`t breath, so she didn`t get baptized due to that, but she is still planning on it. i think things are just going to keep happening until the baptism. i can really see that satan is trying to make her not get baptized. i can see it clear as glass. it is really sad to have to see her go through all of these trails, but i know that there must be an opposition in all things, she has been so happy in these past few weeks knowing us, but she has also seen some really bad things happen in her life, but she just tells us that she wouldn`t change them for the world. she is way awesome, but just needs a little help to actually make it to the waters and stay faithful in the church. but over all her intentions are really good, her heart is in the right place, she just needs to complete with her word, and she will be baptized. There are things that we are not going to be able to control, but we can always do the things that the Lord commands. well Jesus, the other person that we have been teaching is really awesome also, he is the one that went to choir and sings really good. the other day we went to his house and he showed us a disc where he was singing, it sounded almost like josh groban, but at first i didn`t know it was him singing, and then i asked him, who is this person singing, and he was like it is me, and i was just floored, i was like, why aren`t you singing professionally, and he was like i wouldn`t like to be famous. and i was like wow you sing really good. and he promised to give me a cd of him singing. after that we taught him about the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and he accepted to be baptized, i swear he is definitely ready to be baptized, he goes to choir by himself without anyone reminding him, and he goes to church, actually a little bit early, but he goes by himself without anyone telling him to go. he is really one of the elected. but he is set up to be baptized this sunday and his little kids in three weeks from today. i think he will be able to baptize his little kids, but his little kids are way awesome, we taught them the other day and after we gave them some pamphlets and they read the pamphlets that very second, like they didn`t do anything until it was all the way read. but it was way awesome, the only bad thing is that his wife really doesn`t want to listen to us. it is because she is scared about what her family might say, but i think with time she will start to see the blessing of the Gospel in the life of her husband, and she will want the same blessing in her life and she will be baptized, but only time and hard work will tell. well that is about it that was way cool from my week, i studied something this week that was way awesome, but right now i can`t remember what it is. i think right after i leave internet i will forget, but just to let you know it was awesome. when i find out i will write it down and i will tell you next week. so right now i don`t really have all that much time, but i love you soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much. you are the best ever. sorry i didn`t write that much.
love,robert
Monday, November 9, 2009
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
> Subject: Re: > From: robertatwood> Date: Mon, 27 Jul 2009 19:09:46 +0000> >
hey dad,>
well i am going to write you the long one because i don´t think i am going to be here in time for when mom writes me. well this week was a really wierd week, i got to feeling better, but i got sick again, and then sister Clark was thinking that i got a parasite. that is because i lost about 8 pounds in two weeks, but i took some parasite medicine and i feel a lot better now. well i guess that this week wasn´t as wierd as i thought, we just did some visits that were really awesome, and our investigators are progressing really well. we have been teaching this one lady and she has been in teaching for about a year, and while we were teaching her i asked her when are you going to be baptized, and then she told me i want to be baptized next week, so she had another interview with president clark and then after the interview, president clark called me and told me elder atwood i think that your investigator is ready to be baptized, she has given me the best answers that i have ever heard in my life, he then told me that i have never seen someone more prepared to be baptized. i agreed with him and i told him that sometimes she has said somethings that have left me in aw. so we are going to be baptizing her sometime this week, i am just not exactly sure what day. and there is another investigator that we have named america and she wants to get baptized, but she feels like she can´t for what she did in the past, she told us that she feels bad for leaving her children while she was trying to make money for them in the united states, we told her that it wasn´t a sin, and we explained more things about the atonement and how we can be forgiven for our sins, and most importantly we have to learn how to forgive ourselves. that is about it with my week, not too much, but i don´t have too much time this week, i love you all and i hope that you have a great week.
> love,> elder robert atwood
hey dad,>
well i am going to write you the long one because i don´t think i am going to be here in time for when mom writes me. well this week was a really wierd week, i got to feeling better, but i got sick again, and then sister Clark was thinking that i got a parasite. that is because i lost about 8 pounds in two weeks, but i took some parasite medicine and i feel a lot better now. well i guess that this week wasn´t as wierd as i thought, we just did some visits that were really awesome, and our investigators are progressing really well. we have been teaching this one lady and she has been in teaching for about a year, and while we were teaching her i asked her when are you going to be baptized, and then she told me i want to be baptized next week, so she had another interview with president clark and then after the interview, president clark called me and told me elder atwood i think that your investigator is ready to be baptized, she has given me the best answers that i have ever heard in my life, he then told me that i have never seen someone more prepared to be baptized. i agreed with him and i told him that sometimes she has said somethings that have left me in aw. so we are going to be baptizing her sometime this week, i am just not exactly sure what day. and there is another investigator that we have named america and she wants to get baptized, but she feels like she can´t for what she did in the past, she told us that she feels bad for leaving her children while she was trying to make money for them in the united states, we told her that it wasn´t a sin, and we explained more things about the atonement and how we can be forgiven for our sins, and most importantly we have to learn how to forgive ourselves. that is about it with my week, not too much, but i don´t have too much time this week, i love you all and i hope that you have a great week.
> love,> elder robert atwood
Monday, July 20, 2009
> hey mom,>
how is it going, i am doing good, just have a slight request from you, could you send me a little bit of money so that i can buy a type of medicine. that is if you want. thank you so very much for the package, if i can get it, i hope that the people at the border don´t rob me. well this week has gone by really fast, but it has been really satisfying, we haven´t had too much success this week, but we worked really hard and i felt that the Lord was pleased with us and that is all that matters with me. it seemed that almost every single one of our appointments fell through, but we didn´t let that stop us, and we had opportunities to find other people that want to hear the Gospel. we found three people that i think will be baptized before the middle of next month. that will be awesome, every time we talk with them about the Gospel their eyes light up, and they get all excited and start asking a bunch of questions. it makes it really exciting and seeing the change in their eyes makes all of this worth while. oh their names are antonio, Guadalupe and guadalupe, we call them Lupita una, y lupita dos. lupita is short for guadalupe. well there hasn´t been too many more things interesting than that. Brandon´s mom is doing really well, she wants to be baptized more and more every day, but can´t until she goes to church. oh and her sister has been listening to us too, but her husband doesn´t want them to change their religion, and the other day her husband was there and he was listening, and the spirit was so strong while we were there, that he got up and left because it felt like he was starting to believe. i hope that they take this road, i know that this will bless them tremendously. well that is about it for this week, i love you so much mom, let me know how everything goes with camping and send me pictures.>
love,>
elder robert
how is it going, i am doing good, just have a slight request from you, could you send me a little bit of money so that i can buy a type of medicine. that is if you want. thank you so very much for the package, if i can get it, i hope that the people at the border don´t rob me. well this week has gone by really fast, but it has been really satisfying, we haven´t had too much success this week, but we worked really hard and i felt that the Lord was pleased with us and that is all that matters with me. it seemed that almost every single one of our appointments fell through, but we didn´t let that stop us, and we had opportunities to find other people that want to hear the Gospel. we found three people that i think will be baptized before the middle of next month. that will be awesome, every time we talk with them about the Gospel their eyes light up, and they get all excited and start asking a bunch of questions. it makes it really exciting and seeing the change in their eyes makes all of this worth while. oh their names are antonio, Guadalupe and guadalupe, we call them Lupita una, y lupita dos. lupita is short for guadalupe. well there hasn´t been too many more things interesting than that. Brandon´s mom is doing really well, she wants to be baptized more and more every day, but can´t until she goes to church. oh and her sister has been listening to us too, but her husband doesn´t want them to change their religion, and the other day her husband was there and he was listening, and the spirit was so strong while we were there, that he got up and left because it felt like he was starting to believe. i hope that they take this road, i know that this will bless them tremendously. well that is about it for this week, i love you so much mom, let me know how everything goes with camping and send me pictures.>
love,>
elder robert
Monday, July 13, 2009
Subject: Re: > From: robertatwood Date: Mon, 13 Jul 2009 19:38:17 +0000>
hey mom,>
how are you doing? that is really awesome that Brogan got his mission call. well for my shoes i prefer the hushpuppies better. i can buy the repellent here. well my week was a really strange week, well tuesday we went out and i was talking to one of my investigators, and she has been investigating for about a year now, but she has showed some interest to be baptized now, but right now she says she can´t. but she wont tell me why. so we have been trying to get her to tell us why she can´t be baptized, her name is Isabel. she is really awesome, but she just doesn´t really believe in the power of forgiveness. i think she will be baptized one day and i hope that it is soon, we are going to schedule una intervista with the mission president soon. so i hope that will help her out a little bit. wednesday we went to talk to karla (the girl who got baptized) and her brother brandon(the one who got baptized the week before) and he mom America. we taught the all about how we should keep the sabbath day holy, because they are still green and they need a lot of help right now on keeping the commandment of God. oh and thursday was way awesome, this day we were walking and i felt like we needed to go to one member´s store, and when we got there i found him really badly sick. he had a high fever, he had no energy and he was throwing up like crazy, and then when we got there he asked us if we would give him a blessing, and so we did, and in the blessing i told him that he would get up and feel better and have energy to do his work, and then he got up and said i feel the same, and then i told him to have faith and it will come, and he said, if it doesn´t come i am going to kill you. then in about ten minutes he was all the way better, it was amazing i kid you not, it was like something just took the weight off of his shoulders, he looked really bad one minute and about two seconds later, he had color in his face and he was able to eat what he wanted, without any problems, he was eating meat and cake before i left, it was so weird/cool to see something like that, and the even more cool part about that was that isabel was there to witness it. and the brother after he felt better, he told me that he is never going to sin again. y viernes we had splits with the zone leaders and i went to the area of the zone leaders and i used bikes, and it was way fun until my butt started hurting. and then after my butt started hurting, it all went down hill after that, i rolled my bike tire in poop and the poop flung up all up and down my pants, and then that night i got way sick and i couldn´t sleep for nothing, i had to get up every five minutes to go throw up or the other thing, and it was way bad, i lost all of the liquids in my body i believe, and in the morning i didn´t have any energy to do anything, i felt way horrible, i couldn´t keep any liquid in my body, then they gave me a blessing and after the blessing i was able to keep liquids down, but before that sister clark was way scared. and she said that if i couldn´t keep anything down, i would have to go to the hospital for an i v, but luckily i didn´t have to go to the hospital, i was just stuck in bed until today, but that is o.k. it really gave me a chance to realize that God really does play a role in our health also. it is really good to know that he is there for whatever reason, we just need to ask, and like a good father, He will respond. well that is about all that i did this week, i love you soo much mom, i hope that you have a great week.>
love,> elder robert shane atwood>
p.s. i am all the way better now so don´t worry>
hey mom,>
how are you doing? that is really awesome that Brogan got his mission call. well for my shoes i prefer the hushpuppies better. i can buy the repellent here. well my week was a really strange week, well tuesday we went out and i was talking to one of my investigators, and she has been investigating for about a year now, but she has showed some interest to be baptized now, but right now she says she can´t. but she wont tell me why. so we have been trying to get her to tell us why she can´t be baptized, her name is Isabel. she is really awesome, but she just doesn´t really believe in the power of forgiveness. i think she will be baptized one day and i hope that it is soon, we are going to schedule una intervista with the mission president soon. so i hope that will help her out a little bit. wednesday we went to talk to karla (the girl who got baptized) and her brother brandon(the one who got baptized the week before) and he mom America. we taught the all about how we should keep the sabbath day holy, because they are still green and they need a lot of help right now on keeping the commandment of God. oh and thursday was way awesome, this day we were walking and i felt like we needed to go to one member´s store, and when we got there i found him really badly sick. he had a high fever, he had no energy and he was throwing up like crazy, and then when we got there he asked us if we would give him a blessing, and so we did, and in the blessing i told him that he would get up and feel better and have energy to do his work, and then he got up and said i feel the same, and then i told him to have faith and it will come, and he said, if it doesn´t come i am going to kill you. then in about ten minutes he was all the way better, it was amazing i kid you not, it was like something just took the weight off of his shoulders, he looked really bad one minute and about two seconds later, he had color in his face and he was able to eat what he wanted, without any problems, he was eating meat and cake before i left, it was so weird/cool to see something like that, and the even more cool part about that was that isabel was there to witness it. and the brother after he felt better, he told me that he is never going to sin again. y viernes we had splits with the zone leaders and i went to the area of the zone leaders and i used bikes, and it was way fun until my butt started hurting. and then after my butt started hurting, it all went down hill after that, i rolled my bike tire in poop and the poop flung up all up and down my pants, and then that night i got way sick and i couldn´t sleep for nothing, i had to get up every five minutes to go throw up or the other thing, and it was way bad, i lost all of the liquids in my body i believe, and in the morning i didn´t have any energy to do anything, i felt way horrible, i couldn´t keep any liquid in my body, then they gave me a blessing and after the blessing i was able to keep liquids down, but before that sister clark was way scared. and she said that if i couldn´t keep anything down, i would have to go to the hospital for an i v, but luckily i didn´t have to go to the hospital, i was just stuck in bed until today, but that is o.k. it really gave me a chance to realize that God really does play a role in our health also. it is really good to know that he is there for whatever reason, we just need to ask, and like a good father, He will respond. well that is about all that i did this week, i love you soo much mom, i hope that you have a great week.>
love,> elder robert shane atwood>
p.s. i am all the way better now so don´t worry>
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
hey mom,
how is everything with you? i am really good down here in mexico, i guess i need to tell you what i need down here in mexico. well i need some insect repellent. oh i think i need to get some new shoes soon, if you send some, make sure to send each shoe in a different box. my shoes right now are all falling apart because we walk about 10 miles a day. well i really don´t need anything, but those are things that i would like to have. oh and socks. well this week was way awesome, we had one baptism on friday. it was way cool to. because we planned out everything a week before, and a lot of people showed up and the people who spoke did a really good job. the spirit was so strong, that when it was time to go, the girl who got baptized, her mom didn´t want to leave because of the feeling that she felt. And she told me that she wants to get baptized as well, and so she will probably be baptized in two weeks. but seriously, when we serve the Lord with all of our heart, might, mind, and strength, God really blesses us in finding people who are ready to hear the Gospel, and he blesses us with the ability to speak with the spirit, and when we do that we have the power of conversion. without the spirit, it is impossible to find out the truth, we should always look for guidance of the Lord. i am so grateful to be able to see what the Lord does for me and my companion. there are some days where it just feels like we are just walking in the hot sun, but when i have faith, it always seems to work out. well today we have been having a lot of fun, i woke up and then i went strait downstairs and started to wash my clothes, and then after that we went to the stake center and we watched al otro lado del cielo(other side of heaven) and we had popcorn with big cola, that is the name of the drink. and then after that we went to a buffet, and it was way good, i think i had about 4 plates, well it was just a game to see who could eat the most, and i almost one, but there was a fatter elder next to me, so i couldn´t win. but after that, we went to the hospital because there was a brother in the ward who got beat up really bad, the bad people took him and beat him in the head and stomped his face in, he is in a lot of pain right now, but we gave him a blessing, and we blessed him that he would get better fast. it was way awesome to see him after the blessing, because he was all calm and he fell right asleep. well i have to go, i love you mom, and keep me up with the details.
love,robert
p.s. whenever you send me a box i need the number of the box and the postal service.
how is everything with you? i am really good down here in mexico, i guess i need to tell you what i need down here in mexico. well i need some insect repellent. oh i think i need to get some new shoes soon, if you send some, make sure to send each shoe in a different box. my shoes right now are all falling apart because we walk about 10 miles a day. well i really don´t need anything, but those are things that i would like to have. oh and socks. well this week was way awesome, we had one baptism on friday. it was way cool to. because we planned out everything a week before, and a lot of people showed up and the people who spoke did a really good job. the spirit was so strong, that when it was time to go, the girl who got baptized, her mom didn´t want to leave because of the feeling that she felt. And she told me that she wants to get baptized as well, and so she will probably be baptized in two weeks. but seriously, when we serve the Lord with all of our heart, might, mind, and strength, God really blesses us in finding people who are ready to hear the Gospel, and he blesses us with the ability to speak with the spirit, and when we do that we have the power of conversion. without the spirit, it is impossible to find out the truth, we should always look for guidance of the Lord. i am so grateful to be able to see what the Lord does for me and my companion. there are some days where it just feels like we are just walking in the hot sun, but when i have faith, it always seems to work out. well today we have been having a lot of fun, i woke up and then i went strait downstairs and started to wash my clothes, and then after that we went to the stake center and we watched al otro lado del cielo(other side of heaven) and we had popcorn with big cola, that is the name of the drink. and then after that we went to a buffet, and it was way good, i think i had about 4 plates, well it was just a game to see who could eat the most, and i almost one, but there was a fatter elder next to me, so i couldn´t win. but after that, we went to the hospital because there was a brother in the ward who got beat up really bad, the bad people took him and beat him in the head and stomped his face in, he is in a lot of pain right now, but we gave him a blessing, and we blessed him that he would get better fast. it was way awesome to see him after the blessing, because he was all calm and he fell right asleep. well i have to go, i love you mom, and keep me up with the details.
love,robert
p.s. whenever you send me a box i need the number of the box and the postal service.
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
6/22/09
> Subject: Re: > From: robertatwood@myldsmail.net> To: telliehike@hotmail.com> Date: Mon, 22 Jun 2009 22:58:33 +0000> > > hey mom,> sorry that i had to write a short e mail last week, well i thought that the joke was way funny, i thought you were serious at first so i started to tell everyone that i was going to study about flowers and so it was good to be able to tell the people that i was going to study something more manly. That is sad to hear about Benjamin, i remember him pretty well, seeing him made me think that no matter how hard that i felt the mission was i could look at him, seeing that he has some type of illness, but he is still doing all that he can to work for the lord, but it is really cool now to know that he is on the other side of the veil carrying on his missionary work for the Lord trying to bring those Lost souls to the light. I could tell that he has a great testimony for this church, it is sad to see people die, but like you said, i am glad to know that there is more after this life, like life goes on and there is pure happiness. It makes everything in this life so much more comforting knowing the plan of salvation, many people ask me if i am scared being in an area so dangerous. i tell them not really because i know that God is protecting me and i know that there is more after this life, i love this plan so much, it is perfect, because it was created by a perfect God. But lets see what has happened this week, well tuesday we had a baptism with Brandon, it was so funny, when i was performing the ordinance i didn´t really explain to him how it was exactly, because he has seen a few movies on how it was done, so i didn´t really think about it, and so when i went to dunk him he tried to go forward and so i slanged him back and he tried to stick his hand out of the water, so i had to pretty much submerge myself so that he was baptized completely. oh ya the water was soooooo cold, there wasn´t a hot water knob, so i put it on full blast of cold water, and brandon was so cold that he didn´t say anything until he got outside. and then wednesday we went out knocking doors for a long time, but we were knocking in an area where there was a lot of businesses that looked like houses and there wasn´t really anyone who wanted to listen. and then thursday we planed and then we went to the dangerous part of our area and we went to lunch, and then after that we went with one of our investigators that will be baptized in two weeks i think, it is because she has been investigating the church for about a year now, and she has been waiting for this one ex missionary to come back to baptize her, and he is back now so she will be baptized soon. well i think i told you how everything went down with my comp last week. so about two weeks ago there was an elder who ran away and when they found them he got put with me and elder agüero got put with his old comp. i don´t know why he ran away, he told me that he can´t handle pressure for a long time, and he went a little crazy, so he got moved down to jr comp. that is about it with all of that, he is a really cool person and he is really pumped up to work. i think we are going to have a lot of success in these few weeks together. well so saturday we knocked doors for a long time again and nobody really wanted to listen, more they wanted to prove that our religion is wrong. i just tell them about prayer, and they can find out for themselves, because there is no use in bible bashing, the spirit goes away and you can´t really teach that well after. after that we went to brandon's house to teach his mom, and sister, but while we were teaching there was a shooting for about 5 minutes not too far away from where we were, we just sat on the floor and we just talked, and then we put on a movie of the church and they didn´t let us leave for about four hours, well that was about my week, i can tell that the Lord is protecting me a lot and without him i think i would have already been dead. well mom, i love you so much, i hope that you have a great week.> love,> elder robert
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
hey mom,
Well i had transfers this week and i got switched to the Area right next to my old one, but the funny thing is, is that it is really poor and it is the Most dangerous area in the mission, but that is o.k. we just have some special rules and if we follow those rules we will be o.k. my new house is really awesome except for the bathroom, when you sit down on the toilet, your knees touch the door and push it open a little bit, and when you take a shower, your leggs are touching the toilet, it is really awesome. But yea i am really excited for this transfer, it is like we are going to open up this area, because right now there aren´t that many investigators. This week with my companion elder Agüero and i we had to go to so many houses knocking doors to find people to teach, it was one week of a lot of walking, but it was the most satisfying work because i really felt that i had nothing left at the end of the day, but God always gave me the strength to do what i needed to the next day, it wasn´t until today that i felt beat, but now i feel ready for a better weak. We contacted this one family and the mother of the family let us in and asked us if we could talk to the family because right now my children don´t believe in God and they walk really bad stealing things and what not, and i told her that God gives us a chance to repent and our faith is like a seed that will grow, but by the end of the lesson that we had taught the spirit was extremely strong, everyone in the room had tears in their eyes, even the dad who was working on some plans in the next room felt the spirit to come join us in the middle of the lesson. It was so awesome, i knew that they all felt like they wanted to change, and i know they can, i told them it is going to be hard, but with the help of the spirit, we can do anything. that was my favorite experience for the week. i don´t really have too much time this week, but i would like to tell you that i love you mom, and i hope you have a great week,
love elder robert
p.s. i wanted to get my papers in because i only have about a year left and i have no plan after i get home, and plus everyone keeps asking what i am going to do after the mission and i usually don´t know what to say, but i am not sure if i want to do stuff with flowers, maybe it will be cool. but don´t worry i am 100% focused on the mission.
Well i had transfers this week and i got switched to the Area right next to my old one, but the funny thing is, is that it is really poor and it is the Most dangerous area in the mission, but that is o.k. we just have some special rules and if we follow those rules we will be o.k. my new house is really awesome except for the bathroom, when you sit down on the toilet, your knees touch the door and push it open a little bit, and when you take a shower, your leggs are touching the toilet, it is really awesome. But yea i am really excited for this transfer, it is like we are going to open up this area, because right now there aren´t that many investigators. This week with my companion elder Agüero and i we had to go to so many houses knocking doors to find people to teach, it was one week of a lot of walking, but it was the most satisfying work because i really felt that i had nothing left at the end of the day, but God always gave me the strength to do what i needed to the next day, it wasn´t until today that i felt beat, but now i feel ready for a better weak. We contacted this one family and the mother of the family let us in and asked us if we could talk to the family because right now my children don´t believe in God and they walk really bad stealing things and what not, and i told her that God gives us a chance to repent and our faith is like a seed that will grow, but by the end of the lesson that we had taught the spirit was extremely strong, everyone in the room had tears in their eyes, even the dad who was working on some plans in the next room felt the spirit to come join us in the middle of the lesson. It was so awesome, i knew that they all felt like they wanted to change, and i know they can, i told them it is going to be hard, but with the help of the spirit, we can do anything. that was my favorite experience for the week. i don´t really have too much time this week, but i would like to tell you that i love you mom, and i hope you have a great week,
love elder robert
p.s. i wanted to get my papers in because i only have about a year left and i have no plan after i get home, and plus everyone keeps asking what i am going to do after the mission and i usually don´t know what to say, but i am not sure if i want to do stuff with flowers, maybe it will be cool. but don´t worry i am 100% focused on the mission.
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
> Subject: Re: > From: robertatwood@myldsmail.net
> hey mom,>
well i don´t think i ever thanked you for the box, but i am going to do it again just in case i didn´t. thanks mom for the box that you sent me, and for the money you put in the bank for me. well lets see, i am really good right now, i am still pretty healthy i think, i don´t really hurt anywhere. Just a little bit in my big toe and nothing more. so i think i am going to go to the store today and buy the vitamins. oh so yea we are teaching a family that doesn´t really speak spanish, but they didn´t have too much time this week to listen to us. but they really want something better in their lives, it is really hard to say stuff in english, i always say it in the way i would say in spanish, and i always say a word in spanish. but yea we are finding a lot of different investigators right now, because a lot of our investigators don´t want to progress right now, i am sure one day they will accept this in their lives, but right now isn´t their time, and i have no time to waist in finding the people who are need of this gospel right now. well it is true that everyone needs this in their lives, but my time is too short to waist it. we are going to keep on visiting them, but i am sure missionaries in the future will find them and teach them what they need. because there is a time a place for everything. we still visit them and everything but not as frequent as before, but these investigators that we have now showed up to sacrament meeting all by themselves walking a couple miles to the church building, i was so touched to see that someone really really wants to know that this is true, by showing up by foot and seeing how some people find it hard to go to church because they have to wake up early. but after it was all done every single one of them said that they can´t wait until next sunday to go to church. their names are dolores, sylvia, jose luis, and i can´t remember who is the other person but she is really cool. Julio the person that we baptized still is really strong in the church, they are already talking about going to the temple and doing baptisms for the dead for their family. He seems to have more faith in the church than a lot of the members right now. When he started out he was only taking the discussion because of his wife, until we challenged him to pray and when he did that, he had no choice but to follow his prompting because he said he knew he could not deny it. but i am just way excited for him right now and i hope all goes well with him. well right now i am not sure if i have transfers or not , but i sure hope i don´t, but if i do i know it is for the best and my talents are needed elsewhere. but i would love to stay here. oh ya mom, i have a favor to ask of you, will you if you have time send an application for me or get an application for me to go to byui. If you could that would be great, i love you so much mom,
Have a great week o.k.>
love,> robert atwood
> hey mom,>
well i don´t think i ever thanked you for the box, but i am going to do it again just in case i didn´t. thanks mom for the box that you sent me, and for the money you put in the bank for me. well lets see, i am really good right now, i am still pretty healthy i think, i don´t really hurt anywhere. Just a little bit in my big toe and nothing more. so i think i am going to go to the store today and buy the vitamins. oh so yea we are teaching a family that doesn´t really speak spanish, but they didn´t have too much time this week to listen to us. but they really want something better in their lives, it is really hard to say stuff in english, i always say it in the way i would say in spanish, and i always say a word in spanish. but yea we are finding a lot of different investigators right now, because a lot of our investigators don´t want to progress right now, i am sure one day they will accept this in their lives, but right now isn´t their time, and i have no time to waist in finding the people who are need of this gospel right now. well it is true that everyone needs this in their lives, but my time is too short to waist it. we are going to keep on visiting them, but i am sure missionaries in the future will find them and teach them what they need. because there is a time a place for everything. we still visit them and everything but not as frequent as before, but these investigators that we have now showed up to sacrament meeting all by themselves walking a couple miles to the church building, i was so touched to see that someone really really wants to know that this is true, by showing up by foot and seeing how some people find it hard to go to church because they have to wake up early. but after it was all done every single one of them said that they can´t wait until next sunday to go to church. their names are dolores, sylvia, jose luis, and i can´t remember who is the other person but she is really cool. Julio the person that we baptized still is really strong in the church, they are already talking about going to the temple and doing baptisms for the dead for their family. He seems to have more faith in the church than a lot of the members right now. When he started out he was only taking the discussion because of his wife, until we challenged him to pray and when he did that, he had no choice but to follow his prompting because he said he knew he could not deny it. but i am just way excited for him right now and i hope all goes well with him. well right now i am not sure if i have transfers or not , but i sure hope i don´t, but if i do i know it is for the best and my talents are needed elsewhere. but i would love to stay here. oh ya mom, i have a favor to ask of you, will you if you have time send an application for me or get an application for me to go to byui. If you could that would be great, i love you so much mom,
Have a great week o.k.>
love,> robert atwood
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
5/18/09
hey mom,
well my week has just been awesome, just doing the normal stuff, but my weeks are never boring. there is always something new to learn everyday, well lets see what i did this week. Tuesday we went walking in the street after a lesson with one of our converts, and there was this gangster who looked like he was a gangsters from the 80´s he had short with a plaid shirt tucked in and a black belt that went to his belly, he had a cain, and a dress hat on which looked pretty cool, but he came up to us and we started talking and we asked him if we could go over to his house to talk, and then he leaned over to his friend and said that you need to go over to my house when the missionaries come over because they have the truth, then we left and then when we visited him he had to go to work, but he was like i am so sorry, but they just called me to work, but he told us to go over to his house this tuesday, so we will see what happens, i am pretty sure that he will be baptized soon, because he know literally everything about the church, he has been reading the book of mormon and everything. The day after that, we went to lunch and for some reason the sister was running a little late, so we went back a little later, and after we ate, we went back out in the street and we contacted this one guy who got deported from the u.s. but before we asked if we could go to his house he asked us when could we go to his house, we were like what? but we took down his directions and we went to his house. and when we went there he told us that he has his wife and kids in the u.s. and they are going to come down here in june, but they don´t speak any spanish hardly, so he told me i will have to teach them about the gospel. he told us that he already has a testimony in the church but he needs to do it with his family, so i am hoping that his family gets down here soon. what else, oh right now our investigators are doing really good, they are all progressing, but they find it hard to get themselves up early in the morning to go to church. We have this one investigator, her name is Dolores and we have been working with her for about 6 weeks now, and now she has a testimony that this is true, but she has fear because her father is something big in the catholic church, but i am going to send her a talk by president Hinckley that talks about how the church is true and nothing else matters. but that is really true, when we know that the church is true, we should fear the opinion of other people, because we know that in the end we will be on the right hand of God. I am glad to know that this is true and to know if i do all i can, i will be there on the right hand of God. So i guess you could say that i have been truly blessed, even when the hardest storm hits me. thank you all for your prayers. i really need them, i know i can´t do it on my own. it sounds that you are all doing fine at home trying to stay healthy, well i was doing good for a while trying to eat healthy until someone sent me a whole box load of chocolates, oh ya, mom, did you put money in my account, i need to buy those multivitamins or however you spell it. wow i really am forgetting english, my recent convert speaks english, but i have learned to talk like him and i think it is right until i really think about it, and yea i will have to talk to you guys through kris on christmas, so that you guys can understand me, well i have to go mom, i love you sooooooooooooooooooooo much, and tell Brogan that i am excited for him to be sending in his papers.
love,> robert atwood
well my week has just been awesome, just doing the normal stuff, but my weeks are never boring. there is always something new to learn everyday, well lets see what i did this week. Tuesday we went walking in the street after a lesson with one of our converts, and there was this gangster who looked like he was a gangsters from the 80´s he had short with a plaid shirt tucked in and a black belt that went to his belly, he had a cain, and a dress hat on which looked pretty cool, but he came up to us and we started talking and we asked him if we could go over to his house to talk, and then he leaned over to his friend and said that you need to go over to my house when the missionaries come over because they have the truth, then we left and then when we visited him he had to go to work, but he was like i am so sorry, but they just called me to work, but he told us to go over to his house this tuesday, so we will see what happens, i am pretty sure that he will be baptized soon, because he know literally everything about the church, he has been reading the book of mormon and everything. The day after that, we went to lunch and for some reason the sister was running a little late, so we went back a little later, and after we ate, we went back out in the street and we contacted this one guy who got deported from the u.s. but before we asked if we could go to his house he asked us when could we go to his house, we were like what? but we took down his directions and we went to his house. and when we went there he told us that he has his wife and kids in the u.s. and they are going to come down here in june, but they don´t speak any spanish hardly, so he told me i will have to teach them about the gospel. he told us that he already has a testimony in the church but he needs to do it with his family, so i am hoping that his family gets down here soon. what else, oh right now our investigators are doing really good, they are all progressing, but they find it hard to get themselves up early in the morning to go to church. We have this one investigator, her name is Dolores and we have been working with her for about 6 weeks now, and now she has a testimony that this is true, but she has fear because her father is something big in the catholic church, but i am going to send her a talk by president Hinckley that talks about how the church is true and nothing else matters. but that is really true, when we know that the church is true, we should fear the opinion of other people, because we know that in the end we will be on the right hand of God. I am glad to know that this is true and to know if i do all i can, i will be there on the right hand of God. So i guess you could say that i have been truly blessed, even when the hardest storm hits me. thank you all for your prayers. i really need them, i know i can´t do it on my own. it sounds that you are all doing fine at home trying to stay healthy, well i was doing good for a while trying to eat healthy until someone sent me a whole box load of chocolates, oh ya, mom, did you put money in my account, i need to buy those multivitamins or however you spell it. wow i really am forgetting english, my recent convert speaks english, but i have learned to talk like him and i think it is right until i really think about it, and yea i will have to talk to you guys through kris on christmas, so that you guys can understand me, well i have to go mom, i love you sooooooooooooooooooooo much, and tell Brogan that i am excited for him to be sending in his papers.
love,> robert atwood
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Email 5/5/09
> Subject: Re: > From: robertatwood@myldsmail.net> To: telliehike@hotmail.com> Date: Mon, 4 May 2009 22:22:36 +0000> > >
hey mom,> well this week was a really short one, but the work was a little bit harder, because the people here are really scared of the flu, and the government is making it out to be worse than it really is, but we are a lot safer in torreon than a lot of other places, because the virus lives in humid and cool places and torreon is the opposite of that. and they say that the heat here kills the virus. but my health has been really good lately, (knock on wood). well nothing really funny happened this week, we just walked in the hot sun for hours and hours this week and i am a lot redder, i don´t tan, i just get more red, and i am wearing sun screen everyday, i think i need to put it on two times a day. but yea with all of the people saying we couldn´t come over this week, we still had the opportunity to teach. we had an opportunity to teach those two old people that you were asking about that were from a different faith and the minister put bad things in their head, when we taught them, we taught them about the restoration again so that they could understand it better, it was really cool, the spirit was definitely there to testify to them that this is real. the part that was really cool was when we taught about prayer, they were so excited to hear that God really listens and that God really answers, the lady knew that God answers prayers and had a testimony of that, she told us that her religion doesn´t teach that though, I felt as we were teaching them that they are definite baptisms, but it all depends on their answer, and i know that if they pray, they will receive their answer that this is true. we have another appointment with them tomorrow and we are going to challenge them for baptism, so tomorrow will be interesting. well the kids that had the baptismal date couldn´t be baptized this week because of the flu, here in mexico right now we can´t have big gatherings of people, so we postponed it until this sunday. For this reason we didn´t have church this sunday, it felt weird to not have church, but we went to the houses of many members and with the permission of the bishop we gave the sacrament to the members and shared some scriptures and sang hymns, and that was about it, then we went to the next house. this week was pretty fun, i don´t know why, but it has just felt like our lessons have been a lot more effective. well mom i don´t want to say too much because i want to be able to talk on sunday. i will call on saturday to confirm the time, because i am still not sure on what time, but you are going to call the relief society president´s house. are you going to invite kim? your decision is fine with me because you know it is mother´s day. well mom, i love you sooooooooooooooooo much, i hope that you have a great week, make sure you take precautions this week and keep yourself healthy. i love you and have fun this week also.>
love,> robert shane atwood
hey mom,> well this week was a really short one, but the work was a little bit harder, because the people here are really scared of the flu, and the government is making it out to be worse than it really is, but we are a lot safer in torreon than a lot of other places, because the virus lives in humid and cool places and torreon is the opposite of that. and they say that the heat here kills the virus. but my health has been really good lately, (knock on wood). well nothing really funny happened this week, we just walked in the hot sun for hours and hours this week and i am a lot redder, i don´t tan, i just get more red, and i am wearing sun screen everyday, i think i need to put it on two times a day. but yea with all of the people saying we couldn´t come over this week, we still had the opportunity to teach. we had an opportunity to teach those two old people that you were asking about that were from a different faith and the minister put bad things in their head, when we taught them, we taught them about the restoration again so that they could understand it better, it was really cool, the spirit was definitely there to testify to them that this is real. the part that was really cool was when we taught about prayer, they were so excited to hear that God really listens and that God really answers, the lady knew that God answers prayers and had a testimony of that, she told us that her religion doesn´t teach that though, I felt as we were teaching them that they are definite baptisms, but it all depends on their answer, and i know that if they pray, they will receive their answer that this is true. we have another appointment with them tomorrow and we are going to challenge them for baptism, so tomorrow will be interesting. well the kids that had the baptismal date couldn´t be baptized this week because of the flu, here in mexico right now we can´t have big gatherings of people, so we postponed it until this sunday. For this reason we didn´t have church this sunday, it felt weird to not have church, but we went to the houses of many members and with the permission of the bishop we gave the sacrament to the members and shared some scriptures and sang hymns, and that was about it, then we went to the next house. this week was pretty fun, i don´t know why, but it has just felt like our lessons have been a lot more effective. well mom i don´t want to say too much because i want to be able to talk on sunday. i will call on saturday to confirm the time, because i am still not sure on what time, but you are going to call the relief society president´s house. are you going to invite kim? your decision is fine with me because you know it is mother´s day. well mom, i love you sooooooooooooooooo much, i hope that you have a great week, make sure you take precautions this week and keep yourself healthy. i love you and have fun this week also.>
love,> robert shane atwood
Monday, April 13, 2009
Date: Mon, 13 Apr 2009 23:50:20 +0000> >
hello friends and family,>
well this past week was more or less really lazy, because this week was easter and easter here is the whole week, and everyone are on vacation and a lot of drunk people in the street so we tried to plan so we wouldn´t have to be in the street that long, but that only help until saturday night, on saturday i did splits with a priest in the ward and he is just a little guy, but we went out and we taught some really cool lessons and when the time was up and he needed to be in his house. so we were walking to his house and then this drunk guy told me to come over, so i did, and then he had me help him get up and so it did, then he put up his fists like he wanted to fight and said, lets go. i then said to him i am not going to fight you, you can´t even stand. then he said o.k. and tried to shake my hand really hard using all of his strength just to hurt me, but it didn´t hurt, but to be nice and to not make him mad i acted like it hurt. he laughed and then he almost fell over, then his friends came out and said don´t talk to that idiot, and told me to come over, and so i did, and i talked to them about how i am a missionary and how i am from las vegas, and they were all shocked that i was down here in mexico just to serve them and they said that they had a lot of respect for me. but then the drunk came up to me again and grabbed my arm, and squeezed my arm really hard and then i again acted like it hurt and i said wow this guy is strong, he must be a wrestler in the wwf. then the drunk guy looked at me again like he wanted to fight me, and then he took a step towards me and he almost fell, but luckily he caught himself on a tree, but then i said sit down before you fall, and i took a bucket, and i flipped it over and i made him sit down, and then i talked with his friends and they are really cool, and then they told me when i really want to talk about God, with out this drunk, i am here every day and you can come whenever you want, and they said i am always welcome, but then the drunk guy went over to this priest and put his arm around his neck really tight and then i went over to him and grabbed his arm and put my other hand on his neck so that he would let him go, so he did and we left, but it was funny, because this drunk guy wanted to fight us, and through this we got a really cool contact, i really hope something good happens with the drunks friends. but this whole week, we taught some really cool people, all of our investigators are progressing really good. the family of seven, just have a hard time getting everyone ready for church on sunday´s, but they really want to go. All of our investigators are overcoming such great trials, and i know that through this, they overcoming those trials, you can see the difference every time we visit them, and the only way that they have changed is through their faith and prayers and willingness for change. well i don´t have too much time today, but i love you all and i hope you all have a great week, oh yeah well today i have transfers, i am still in the same area, but i got a new companion, his name is elder martinez. well i love you all> love,> elder robert atwood
hello friends and family,>
well this past week was more or less really lazy, because this week was easter and easter here is the whole week, and everyone are on vacation and a lot of drunk people in the street so we tried to plan so we wouldn´t have to be in the street that long, but that only help until saturday night, on saturday i did splits with a priest in the ward and he is just a little guy, but we went out and we taught some really cool lessons and when the time was up and he needed to be in his house. so we were walking to his house and then this drunk guy told me to come over, so i did, and then he had me help him get up and so it did, then he put up his fists like he wanted to fight and said, lets go. i then said to him i am not going to fight you, you can´t even stand. then he said o.k. and tried to shake my hand really hard using all of his strength just to hurt me, but it didn´t hurt, but to be nice and to not make him mad i acted like it hurt. he laughed and then he almost fell over, then his friends came out and said don´t talk to that idiot, and told me to come over, and so i did, and i talked to them about how i am a missionary and how i am from las vegas, and they were all shocked that i was down here in mexico just to serve them and they said that they had a lot of respect for me. but then the drunk came up to me again and grabbed my arm, and squeezed my arm really hard and then i again acted like it hurt and i said wow this guy is strong, he must be a wrestler in the wwf. then the drunk guy looked at me again like he wanted to fight me, and then he took a step towards me and he almost fell, but luckily he caught himself on a tree, but then i said sit down before you fall, and i took a bucket, and i flipped it over and i made him sit down, and then i talked with his friends and they are really cool, and then they told me when i really want to talk about God, with out this drunk, i am here every day and you can come whenever you want, and they said i am always welcome, but then the drunk guy went over to this priest and put his arm around his neck really tight and then i went over to him and grabbed his arm and put my other hand on his neck so that he would let him go, so he did and we left, but it was funny, because this drunk guy wanted to fight us, and through this we got a really cool contact, i really hope something good happens with the drunks friends. but this whole week, we taught some really cool people, all of our investigators are progressing really good. the family of seven, just have a hard time getting everyone ready for church on sunday´s, but they really want to go. All of our investigators are overcoming such great trials, and i know that through this, they overcoming those trials, you can see the difference every time we visit them, and the only way that they have changed is through their faith and prayers and willingness for change. well i don´t have too much time today, but i love you all and i hope you all have a great week, oh yeah well today i have transfers, i am still in the same area, but i got a new companion, his name is elder martinez. well i love you all> love,> elder robert atwood
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
> Subject: Re: > From: robertatwood@myldsmail.net> To: telliehike@hotmail.com> Date: Mon, 23 Mar 2009 22:07:59 +0000>
> > hello family and friends.>
well this week has been a really good week. we had a baptism on sunday and it was just awesome, i had the opportunity to baptize this kid of 14 years. we have been teaching mario for some time and his family is all members except for him, but his family are inactive, he has been going to church lately and has come to the knowledge that it is true, he was so very excited this whole week to be baptized, he couldn´t stop thinking about it. but it came to the day of his baptism, he started to get nervous. he then asked me, what am i going to do if i sin again, i can´t be baptized twice, then i told him no te preculpas or don´t worry about that, that is why we have the sacrament. the sacrament is like a mini baptism all over again, through this you can be clean of your sin again, just like with you baptism, if we take of the sacrament worthily God will not remember those sins anymore, then he got the confidence to be baptized again, then after i baptized him, i asked him, how do you feel? how does it feel to have all of your sins taken from you? he then told me that he didn´t feel any different, and then my jaw dropped, then he said just kidding, he told me that it is something that he could not really explain, it was like an overwhelming feeling of love and peace. he said that i really feel clean, it is so awesome when we are baptized, it is the first covenant that we make with God, a covenant is a two way promise. and through this promise we can be forgiven of our sins and we open the door that leads us to God, but it isn´t the end, we progress and we try to better ourselves and we make more promises and God always makes a promise in return. i can´t describe the overwhelming spirit that was in the baptism of someone that you taught that knew little to nothing of God that now knows the greatest thing, that you are his child and he wants you to return to Him, and that through this he can return to live with him.> but other than the baptism we have had many opportunities to teach the people the Gospel and see many changes in the lives of many, there is one person named gustavo, he has problems with smoking and drinking, but he has been cutting it out little by little and i swear every time that i see him i see more of the light of christ in his face, yea the mission is crazy awesome to be able to witness all of this, but there are also other crazy things that happen too, the other day i was walking and there was this dog underneath a car and i couldn´t see the dog, but when i walked by the dog jumped out and bit my leg, it didn´t bite hard enough to do anything but i was in shock that i dog finally bit me after all of the dogs that have tried to bite me, the first one to actually do it, was a little tiny dog. o.k. that is about the only thing that is crazy in the mission. Mexico is starting to get pretty normal to me and i can´t notice if something is really different that i can really write about. but back to the investigators. pedro still has a hard time getting to the church on Sundays, but he really likes the church, i haven´t had a chance to talk to him about that lately so i will have to talk to you about that next week, well Julio the other that is going to get baptized this week, he really likes the church and all, but he said that he need a profound answer to his prayers to know that it is true, then we taught him through the spirit we can know the truth of all things and we told him the fruits of the spirit and what he would feel. we also told him that the spirit answers in many different ways, but the Lord will always answer in a way that is best for us. by what he has told us what he has felt,( he felt love, peace, and other feeling really good.) it sounds to me that he has already found an answer. this happens a lot in the mission, people feel this in their prayers, but they sometimes don´t put two and two together, they don´t realize that they have received an answer. i sure hope that he receives an answer and i can´t wait to see what happens, well i have to go for now, i hope you all have a great week. >
love,> elder robert atwood>
> > hello family and friends.>
well this week has been a really good week. we had a baptism on sunday and it was just awesome, i had the opportunity to baptize this kid of 14 years. we have been teaching mario for some time and his family is all members except for him, but his family are inactive, he has been going to church lately and has come to the knowledge that it is true, he was so very excited this whole week to be baptized, he couldn´t stop thinking about it. but it came to the day of his baptism, he started to get nervous. he then asked me, what am i going to do if i sin again, i can´t be baptized twice, then i told him no te preculpas or don´t worry about that, that is why we have the sacrament. the sacrament is like a mini baptism all over again, through this you can be clean of your sin again, just like with you baptism, if we take of the sacrament worthily God will not remember those sins anymore, then he got the confidence to be baptized again, then after i baptized him, i asked him, how do you feel? how does it feel to have all of your sins taken from you? he then told me that he didn´t feel any different, and then my jaw dropped, then he said just kidding, he told me that it is something that he could not really explain, it was like an overwhelming feeling of love and peace. he said that i really feel clean, it is so awesome when we are baptized, it is the first covenant that we make with God, a covenant is a two way promise. and through this promise we can be forgiven of our sins and we open the door that leads us to God, but it isn´t the end, we progress and we try to better ourselves and we make more promises and God always makes a promise in return. i can´t describe the overwhelming spirit that was in the baptism of someone that you taught that knew little to nothing of God that now knows the greatest thing, that you are his child and he wants you to return to Him, and that through this he can return to live with him.> but other than the baptism we have had many opportunities to teach the people the Gospel and see many changes in the lives of many, there is one person named gustavo, he has problems with smoking and drinking, but he has been cutting it out little by little and i swear every time that i see him i see more of the light of christ in his face, yea the mission is crazy awesome to be able to witness all of this, but there are also other crazy things that happen too, the other day i was walking and there was this dog underneath a car and i couldn´t see the dog, but when i walked by the dog jumped out and bit my leg, it didn´t bite hard enough to do anything but i was in shock that i dog finally bit me after all of the dogs that have tried to bite me, the first one to actually do it, was a little tiny dog. o.k. that is about the only thing that is crazy in the mission. Mexico is starting to get pretty normal to me and i can´t notice if something is really different that i can really write about. but back to the investigators. pedro still has a hard time getting to the church on Sundays, but he really likes the church, i haven´t had a chance to talk to him about that lately so i will have to talk to you about that next week, well Julio the other that is going to get baptized this week, he really likes the church and all, but he said that he need a profound answer to his prayers to know that it is true, then we taught him through the spirit we can know the truth of all things and we told him the fruits of the spirit and what he would feel. we also told him that the spirit answers in many different ways, but the Lord will always answer in a way that is best for us. by what he has told us what he has felt,( he felt love, peace, and other feeling really good.) it sounds to me that he has already found an answer. this happens a lot in the mission, people feel this in their prayers, but they sometimes don´t put two and two together, they don´t realize that they have received an answer. i sure hope that he receives an answer and i can´t wait to see what happens, well i have to go for now, i hope you all have a great week. >
love,> elder robert atwood>
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
hello family and friends.
well this week was awesome. i received a new companion. his name is elder avila. he is a mexican from chiapas. he is really cool he is really tiny. he is about 100lbs., but he is a really hard worker. we have beenhaving some big success in this area. not much out of the ordinary hadhappened this week but we could definitely see the lords hand in every step of the way. the first thing that happened is that we got a call fromthe zone leaders that one member had been sick and is in the hospital inour area. so we went down to the hospital to find that this lady had a tumor the size of an orange on her throat. so we explained to her about faith and through faith and the priesthood you can be healed if it is thewill of the lord. i then told her what ever happens trust what the Lordhas in store for you. because this life is a life if probation and the life to come is where all the Gold lies. we then gave her a blessing andi anointed and i felt so much love in that room. and the cool thing aboutthat was there was another person who had blood poisoning and she was cleaning out her blood and she was in a lot of pain. but her mom saw us giving the blessing and after the blessing with her she said can you givemy daughter a blessing. her daughter couldn't hear anything becauseof the pain, but right when we started the blessing you could just feelsome relaxation in her body. you could feel her temperature drop a little.it was so awesome. that was a huge testimony builder that the priesthoodreally is the power of God given to his children. i know that if we have faith.and it is the Fathers will, everything is possible.we then left feeling like we never wanted to sin again because of the strongspirit that was in there. but we are human and i am sure we did sin=again. but another thing that happened this week is that every time we =thought we had nothing to do besides nock doors, there was someone to teach.you could tell that these peoples hearts were being open to the messagethat we brought. i just hope that one day that they will pray for themselvesthat they could know the truth and i know if they pray i know that they will receive the answer that this is true because this is the only true church on the face of the planet. if everything goes as i hope this transfer we are going to have five baptisms. Mayela prayed the othernight about our message and she told us that she feels it is true and sheknows it is true, but right now she said she can't go because shefeels that right now she has a responsibility to take care of her mom, whois really sick. we offered to teach her but then she said it would be no use because she has alshymer. but tonight we are going to teach herthe plan of salvation. and we are going to tell her that she can live with her mom after this life. i know that she will be baptized one day, but if she has prayed about this thing with her mom, and she has receivedher answer, i can't say anything to stop her from doing that, i can only just teach her and show her that i care and i will always be there for her family. the other baptism that we might have is gustavo. he isabout 25 years old and he drinks and he smokes and we just taught him the word of wisdom and he has been trying to cut these things out of his life. i don't know how that went, but i will give you an update next week. but you can just see the change on his face at what joy the gospel brings in his life. when we first saw him he looked all down and didn't like to talk much, but now he doesn't shut up and you can just see a brightness on his face. seeing this makes all the trials of a mission disappear. nothing hard matters and you are just satisfied with the happinesswith other people. well pedro is the baptism that we were supposed to have this week. pedro is about 24 years old his parents are really faithful in the church. pedro has been having some problems with taking the decision of being baptized. because his friends keep telling him that he should wait longer and learn more, but he tells us that he knows that joseph smith is a true prophet and he knows that this is the true gospel. i then said to him that yea it is little time that you have been learning about the church, but you have prayed and asked a perfect source to know if this is true, you have asked God and God has told you that this is true and this is what he wants you to do. if you are worried aboutwhat you friends think, don't be, if they make fun of you for doing the right thing, are they really your friends. then i explained the talk of gordon b. hinckley. how there was this boy who felt like leavingthe church because of the persecution from everyone. but then he said you know it is true, you know that joseph smith was a prophet, what elsematters. but yea that is about it. but nothing else matters if this church is true, because you can have the assurance that after this life there is something great in store for you. i know there is a greater/happyperfect life after this one. well i have to go. i love you all and i hope that you have a great week.
love,elder robert atwood
well this week was awesome. i received a new companion. his name is elder avila. he is a mexican from chiapas. he is really cool he is really tiny. he is about 100lbs., but he is a really hard worker. we have beenhaving some big success in this area. not much out of the ordinary hadhappened this week but we could definitely see the lords hand in every step of the way. the first thing that happened is that we got a call fromthe zone leaders that one member had been sick and is in the hospital inour area. so we went down to the hospital to find that this lady had a tumor the size of an orange on her throat. so we explained to her about faith and through faith and the priesthood you can be healed if it is thewill of the lord. i then told her what ever happens trust what the Lordhas in store for you. because this life is a life if probation and the life to come is where all the Gold lies. we then gave her a blessing andi anointed and i felt so much love in that room. and the cool thing aboutthat was there was another person who had blood poisoning and she was cleaning out her blood and she was in a lot of pain. but her mom saw us giving the blessing and after the blessing with her she said can you givemy daughter a blessing. her daughter couldn't hear anything becauseof the pain, but right when we started the blessing you could just feelsome relaxation in her body. you could feel her temperature drop a little.it was so awesome. that was a huge testimony builder that the priesthoodreally is the power of God given to his children. i know that if we have faith.and it is the Fathers will, everything is possible.we then left feeling like we never wanted to sin again because of the strongspirit that was in there. but we are human and i am sure we did sin=again. but another thing that happened this week is that every time we =thought we had nothing to do besides nock doors, there was someone to teach.you could tell that these peoples hearts were being open to the messagethat we brought. i just hope that one day that they will pray for themselvesthat they could know the truth and i know if they pray i know that they will receive the answer that this is true because this is the only true church on the face of the planet. if everything goes as i hope this transfer we are going to have five baptisms. Mayela prayed the othernight about our message and she told us that she feels it is true and sheknows it is true, but right now she said she can't go because shefeels that right now she has a responsibility to take care of her mom, whois really sick. we offered to teach her but then she said it would be no use because she has alshymer. but tonight we are going to teach herthe plan of salvation. and we are going to tell her that she can live with her mom after this life. i know that she will be baptized one day, but if she has prayed about this thing with her mom, and she has receivedher answer, i can't say anything to stop her from doing that, i can only just teach her and show her that i care and i will always be there for her family. the other baptism that we might have is gustavo. he isabout 25 years old and he drinks and he smokes and we just taught him the word of wisdom and he has been trying to cut these things out of his life. i don't know how that went, but i will give you an update next week. but you can just see the change on his face at what joy the gospel brings in his life. when we first saw him he looked all down and didn't like to talk much, but now he doesn't shut up and you can just see a brightness on his face. seeing this makes all the trials of a mission disappear. nothing hard matters and you are just satisfied with the happinesswith other people. well pedro is the baptism that we were supposed to have this week. pedro is about 24 years old his parents are really faithful in the church. pedro has been having some problems with taking the decision of being baptized. because his friends keep telling him that he should wait longer and learn more, but he tells us that he knows that joseph smith is a true prophet and he knows that this is the true gospel. i then said to him that yea it is little time that you have been learning about the church, but you have prayed and asked a perfect source to know if this is true, you have asked God and God has told you that this is true and this is what he wants you to do. if you are worried aboutwhat you friends think, don't be, if they make fun of you for doing the right thing, are they really your friends. then i explained the talk of gordon b. hinckley. how there was this boy who felt like leavingthe church because of the persecution from everyone. but then he said you know it is true, you know that joseph smith was a prophet, what elsematters. but yea that is about it. but nothing else matters if this church is true, because you can have the assurance that after this life there is something great in store for you. i know there is a greater/happyperfect life after this one. well i have to go. i love you all and i hope that you have a great week.
love,elder robert atwood
Monday, February 23, 2009
> Subject: Re: > From: robertatwood@myldsmail.net> To: telliehike@hotmail.com> Date: Mon, 23 Feb 2009 21:05:42 +0000>
> hey mom, >
how is everything going for you. well i am going to re-read your letter and try to answer all thy many questions one by one. my week was really good it was really short, shorter than normal. i think it is because my comp and i have been trying extremely hard at being exactly obedient. like we try not to let one rule pass us by. like waking up and moving right at 6:30. and planning the full 30 minutes and doing our studies the best we can. it has made the difference in our week that is so incomprehensible. i think that is how you spell it. the past few weeks we weren´t as obedient as we should be. then i realized that we weren´t being obedient and it was like a smack in my face. i said to myself it is really easy to fall in this rut of disobedience if you let little rules slide by. in this few weeks, we had success, but we didn´t have all the success that we should of been having. we just had average in our numbers and you know me, i just always want to succeed in what ever i do. i looked at that as a booster. we started being obedient and we just found so much more people to teach and when we would teach we taught with conviction. i could tell they felt the spirit when we taught because i felt it. if it was a changing point in their lives it was a changing point in mine. i realized for myself once again that it may seem easier to take these shortcuts and do stuff the easy way and slack off a bit, but actually we aren´t happier when we do this. the only way that we can be truly happy is when we do the things how the lord wants us to do it. not how we want to. It will always be better the Lord´s way 100% of the time. i don´t have any doubt about that. I just feel like we have the spirit all the time now and like i never feel depressed. it just makes missionary work so much easier when you have all the blessings of the spirit. well next question. i sent two different ones to kim so you can invite her over and come and look at hers and yours. wow, mom you have no idea how fast my mission is going. sometimes it feels like i have been a missionary forever, but at the same time it feels like these six months have gone by in just a matter of weeks. i wont get depressed about how fast the time has gone until i have six more months left in the mission, so i will be o.k. for about a year. but after that who knows how i will feel. this just reminds me again that i don´t have anytime to lose. i need to work hard when i need to work and i need to do all i can to prepare and teach these people so that they can have eternal life with God. Their eternal salvation lies in my hands and i can´t let them down. yea i have lost a little bit more weight. but i think the fat is just going to my belly. i hate these good tortillas here. i swear they eat tortillas with everything. the new pants that i had bought were pretty tight when i bought them and now they are starting to get looser. oh and daisy is the dog of zayra(oh and she made a huge comeback. she is getting baptized next week hopefully) oh and with the santa thing i used about two huge pillows and i used a whole bunch of different clothing. it was so hot trying to be santa. i am not too sure who baptized the little santos girl. the problem is that she is afraid of water and i am not sure if she feels comfortable with anyone else. and with ricardo, he hasn´t got baptized yet because he is still out of town, but he is still planning on getting baptized. and the cool thing about that too is that his parents are going to get baptized. oh and so much more people that elder rincon and i found are getting baptized. elder rincon said that it is all thanks to me, but i am not sure about that. he said that his new comp. is really lazy, so he said these baptisms are more yours than his. i don´t really care about the numbers, but i sure am happy that i am seeing fruits of our labor. and that people are opening the door to the way of God so that they can be blessed forever and ever. well mom i think i felt your hug all the way down here because i had a dream you hugged me the other day. oh the guy that we fasted for has a baptismal date for next sunday, but he still isn´t sure if he wants to get baptized yet, but he does like the church a lot and feels it is true, but he just needs to take a few things out of his life first like the things with the word of wisdom. but i am sure that he will get baptized and all next transfer. the other family is doing great. they are still all having a hard time getting to the church and all but they are all pistols. they always remember what we teach and say every time we come over there is such a peaceful presence and when we leave they feel it leave too. i taught them that that was the spirit trying to tell you that you can have this in your home all the time if you are baptized. it is so amazing to have the ability to have the spirit to be with you always. well i have had some other cool experiences this week that i need to tell you also. this week i have been being more obedient and more prepared like i told you before. this past saturday i had divisions with a 14 year old boy and he was so nervous. it was funny because he looked like he was going to pass out when i knocked the first door. but after about 10 doors he got used to it and then i knocked a door that i should have never knocked. i swear it was the wicked witch of the west. she opened the door and said i don´t want to anything with you guys you can basically die for all i care, i don´t ever want to hear about joe smith or your stupid religion i am telling you once and pointed to me i already told you twice and if you annoy me again i will call the police. then i got mad at her and i said calm down i knock doors all day and i can´t remember them all. if you don´t want to listen just tell me no and i will respect that. i have never done anything to you. then we left and i was like i need to have a lesson in this street. i feel that we are going to have a lesson in this street. then i took out a pamphlet of the restoration and then i said we are going to give this to someone in this street. then i knocked two more doors and a lady came out and she seemed so excited to hear this message and i let the 14 year old boy explain the pamphlet and you could see his heart beating through his shirt. then after that i explain fully about the restoration. it felt really good and she seems like a golden investigator and we have an appointment with her in a few days so i will see how it goes in a few days. then we went to lunch and then after lunch we had a few appointments and then an appointment fell through so we had time to knock some more doors. we only had about an hour left until the divisions were over so the first door we knocked i knocked the door of a father of the catholic church and he didn´t let us know that he was a father until we got halfway through our lesson. but when he let us know he was a father he tried all he could to prove us wrong and i was like oh no what am i going to do. my comp doesn´t know that much. then for some reason i knew exactly where all the scriptures i needed to use were in the bible. and i swear if i had not prepared this guy would have smashed me. but i ended up leaving that guy wondering about his religion. he told me that he knew everything about our religion, but he got almost all of his information from a church website. then i quizzed him about our religion to show him he knew nothing and then i told him that if he didn´t get his message from a website of our church, the information probably isn´t correct and you need to look at the information on that. but in the end we respected each other and gave one another a blessing the way that we do it. and then he said if i pass by i can knock his door again and chat and i was like yea, i will because i will have my comp who knows a lot more than me. but i am not here to prove him wrong, just here to show him the truth and he can accept it if he wants. well mom i love you so much and i hope that you enjoy this extremely long letter. i love you>
love,> elder robert atwood
> hey mom, >
how is everything going for you. well i am going to re-read your letter and try to answer all thy many questions one by one. my week was really good it was really short, shorter than normal. i think it is because my comp and i have been trying extremely hard at being exactly obedient. like we try not to let one rule pass us by. like waking up and moving right at 6:30. and planning the full 30 minutes and doing our studies the best we can. it has made the difference in our week that is so incomprehensible. i think that is how you spell it. the past few weeks we weren´t as obedient as we should be. then i realized that we weren´t being obedient and it was like a smack in my face. i said to myself it is really easy to fall in this rut of disobedience if you let little rules slide by. in this few weeks, we had success, but we didn´t have all the success that we should of been having. we just had average in our numbers and you know me, i just always want to succeed in what ever i do. i looked at that as a booster. we started being obedient and we just found so much more people to teach and when we would teach we taught with conviction. i could tell they felt the spirit when we taught because i felt it. if it was a changing point in their lives it was a changing point in mine. i realized for myself once again that it may seem easier to take these shortcuts and do stuff the easy way and slack off a bit, but actually we aren´t happier when we do this. the only way that we can be truly happy is when we do the things how the lord wants us to do it. not how we want to. It will always be better the Lord´s way 100% of the time. i don´t have any doubt about that. I just feel like we have the spirit all the time now and like i never feel depressed. it just makes missionary work so much easier when you have all the blessings of the spirit. well next question. i sent two different ones to kim so you can invite her over and come and look at hers and yours. wow, mom you have no idea how fast my mission is going. sometimes it feels like i have been a missionary forever, but at the same time it feels like these six months have gone by in just a matter of weeks. i wont get depressed about how fast the time has gone until i have six more months left in the mission, so i will be o.k. for about a year. but after that who knows how i will feel. this just reminds me again that i don´t have anytime to lose. i need to work hard when i need to work and i need to do all i can to prepare and teach these people so that they can have eternal life with God. Their eternal salvation lies in my hands and i can´t let them down. yea i have lost a little bit more weight. but i think the fat is just going to my belly. i hate these good tortillas here. i swear they eat tortillas with everything. the new pants that i had bought were pretty tight when i bought them and now they are starting to get looser. oh and daisy is the dog of zayra(oh and she made a huge comeback. she is getting baptized next week hopefully) oh and with the santa thing i used about two huge pillows and i used a whole bunch of different clothing. it was so hot trying to be santa. i am not too sure who baptized the little santos girl. the problem is that she is afraid of water and i am not sure if she feels comfortable with anyone else. and with ricardo, he hasn´t got baptized yet because he is still out of town, but he is still planning on getting baptized. and the cool thing about that too is that his parents are going to get baptized. oh and so much more people that elder rincon and i found are getting baptized. elder rincon said that it is all thanks to me, but i am not sure about that. he said that his new comp. is really lazy, so he said these baptisms are more yours than his. i don´t really care about the numbers, but i sure am happy that i am seeing fruits of our labor. and that people are opening the door to the way of God so that they can be blessed forever and ever. well mom i think i felt your hug all the way down here because i had a dream you hugged me the other day. oh the guy that we fasted for has a baptismal date for next sunday, but he still isn´t sure if he wants to get baptized yet, but he does like the church a lot and feels it is true, but he just needs to take a few things out of his life first like the things with the word of wisdom. but i am sure that he will get baptized and all next transfer. the other family is doing great. they are still all having a hard time getting to the church and all but they are all pistols. they always remember what we teach and say every time we come over there is such a peaceful presence and when we leave they feel it leave too. i taught them that that was the spirit trying to tell you that you can have this in your home all the time if you are baptized. it is so amazing to have the ability to have the spirit to be with you always. well i have had some other cool experiences this week that i need to tell you also. this week i have been being more obedient and more prepared like i told you before. this past saturday i had divisions with a 14 year old boy and he was so nervous. it was funny because he looked like he was going to pass out when i knocked the first door. but after about 10 doors he got used to it and then i knocked a door that i should have never knocked. i swear it was the wicked witch of the west. she opened the door and said i don´t want to anything with you guys you can basically die for all i care, i don´t ever want to hear about joe smith or your stupid religion i am telling you once and pointed to me i already told you twice and if you annoy me again i will call the police. then i got mad at her and i said calm down i knock doors all day and i can´t remember them all. if you don´t want to listen just tell me no and i will respect that. i have never done anything to you. then we left and i was like i need to have a lesson in this street. i feel that we are going to have a lesson in this street. then i took out a pamphlet of the restoration and then i said we are going to give this to someone in this street. then i knocked two more doors and a lady came out and she seemed so excited to hear this message and i let the 14 year old boy explain the pamphlet and you could see his heart beating through his shirt. then after that i explain fully about the restoration. it felt really good and she seems like a golden investigator and we have an appointment with her in a few days so i will see how it goes in a few days. then we went to lunch and then after lunch we had a few appointments and then an appointment fell through so we had time to knock some more doors. we only had about an hour left until the divisions were over so the first door we knocked i knocked the door of a father of the catholic church and he didn´t let us know that he was a father until we got halfway through our lesson. but when he let us know he was a father he tried all he could to prove us wrong and i was like oh no what am i going to do. my comp doesn´t know that much. then for some reason i knew exactly where all the scriptures i needed to use were in the bible. and i swear if i had not prepared this guy would have smashed me. but i ended up leaving that guy wondering about his religion. he told me that he knew everything about our religion, but he got almost all of his information from a church website. then i quizzed him about our religion to show him he knew nothing and then i told him that if he didn´t get his message from a website of our church, the information probably isn´t correct and you need to look at the information on that. but in the end we respected each other and gave one another a blessing the way that we do it. and then he said if i pass by i can knock his door again and chat and i was like yea, i will because i will have my comp who knows a lot more than me. but i am not here to prove him wrong, just here to show him the truth and he can accept it if he wants. well mom i love you so much and i hope that you enjoy this extremely long letter. i love you>
love,> elder robert atwood
Monday, February 9, 2009
mama,
¿ por que tu no me escribiste? todo el día yo estaba esperando para tu email, pero no mensaje. o.k. i was just kidding about you not writing me. well this past week mom has been really cool. i tried to be the tough guy with one of our investigators by eating really hot hot hot sauce. they invited us to go to dinner with them and teach them after so we went with them and they said to me. you eat chile and i was like yea i can eat chile. so i ordered the hotest thing on the menu. it was a habenero hot sauce. it was hot but i bore it like a man, and they were like wow a gringo can eat chile, so they kept on ordering me things that were really hot and i was like nooooooooooooo, but i didn´t let them know i thought it was hot. i think about after the fifth taco i couldn´t feel anything anymore. so i acted all good for that whole night, but when i got home, my stomach was all messed up. i thought i was going to die for about two days. but i feel good now. so how is everything for you guys. well we are starting to see great success in our area. we have about nine investigators right now. one is a huge drug addict and we are helping him right now to quit the drugs. it is really hard for him, but you can see the joy the gospel brings to him. i told him it is not going to be easy to quit these drugs, but i know that through Jesus Christ we can do all things. that is true. what ever problem that we have we can over come it if we just put our trust in the Lord. Not much really happened this week just a whole bunch of knocking doors. i love knocking doors. it is so funny sometimes. my companion and i try to see who can get into more doors and when the people start to reject us we start saying really funny things and sometimes they let us in. But other than that we are starting to work with the members more and i hope this will help progress our work. well i don´t have too much time. i love you mom and who ever else reads this letter.
love,elder robert atwood
p.s. happy valentines day.
p.s.s thank you for the money mom, i found some really cheap pants that cost about $15 each and i bought two. they are a bit long, but i hemned them myself for the moment until i find a place that will hemn my pants.
¿ por que tu no me escribiste? todo el día yo estaba esperando para tu email, pero no mensaje. o.k. i was just kidding about you not writing me. well this past week mom has been really cool. i tried to be the tough guy with one of our investigators by eating really hot hot hot sauce. they invited us to go to dinner with them and teach them after so we went with them and they said to me. you eat chile and i was like yea i can eat chile. so i ordered the hotest thing on the menu. it was a habenero hot sauce. it was hot but i bore it like a man, and they were like wow a gringo can eat chile, so they kept on ordering me things that were really hot and i was like nooooooooooooo, but i didn´t let them know i thought it was hot. i think about after the fifth taco i couldn´t feel anything anymore. so i acted all good for that whole night, but when i got home, my stomach was all messed up. i thought i was going to die for about two days. but i feel good now. so how is everything for you guys. well we are starting to see great success in our area. we have about nine investigators right now. one is a huge drug addict and we are helping him right now to quit the drugs. it is really hard for him, but you can see the joy the gospel brings to him. i told him it is not going to be easy to quit these drugs, but i know that through Jesus Christ we can do all things. that is true. what ever problem that we have we can over come it if we just put our trust in the Lord. Not much really happened this week just a whole bunch of knocking doors. i love knocking doors. it is so funny sometimes. my companion and i try to see who can get into more doors and when the people start to reject us we start saying really funny things and sometimes they let us in. But other than that we are starting to work with the members more and i hope this will help progress our work. well i don´t have too much time. i love you mom and who ever else reads this letter.
love,elder robert atwood
p.s. happy valentines day.
p.s.s thank you for the money mom, i found some really cheap pants that cost about $15 each and i bought two. they are a bit long, but i hemned them myself for the moment until i find a place that will hemn my pants.
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Date: Mon, 2 Feb 2009
mom,
i swear that i put in my last e mail that i love you. i swear i did. but oh well i will say it right now because i love you so much that i would say it every week without hesitation. well this week was a really cool week. i almost got eaten by a dog the other day. it came running up at me and my companion and this was no tiny dog. so i tried to kick it in the face, but i missed and i shoved my backpack in its face and pushed it. then my comp and i were trying to get away and then it came back for us and then we turned around and ran at the dog yelling and the dog got really scared and fell to the ground and got up really fast and ran away. yea we felt like men at that moment. then the next day we see that same dog giving this lady some trouble on her bike. she was like get away dog then took this huge rock and chucked the rock at the dog and barely missed. i was like dang how did that old lady throw that huge rock. but the funny part is that she threw that rock into traffic, but the rock didn´t hit anyone's car. but other than that i don´t have that many crazy stories this week. the thing that is really cool this week is that, that last door we knocked on, she is really cool. her name is mayela and her mom is having troubles with life right now because she is almost 90 and about to die. we have been teaching her, but her mom doesn´t have time for us, but that is o.k. but we have been teaching mayela and she is like how is it so easy for you guys to answer the questions that i have had my whole entire life. we said it is because we have the fullness of the gospel and she basically said she believes that this church is true and said that every time she talks with us she feels something different. and then she introduced us to here whole family and now we are teaching her family. they are all so cool and they are all way excited about the gospel. and they invited me to eat and they were all so amazed how i can eat the hot sauce down here and think it isn´t hot. we have had a lot of lessons this week, i love sharing the story of joseph smith. because when people here i saw two personages, they are like wait so you believe that God and Jesus Christ are separate and they are like can you show me in the bible. then i show them, but i the thing i like to tell them the most is about prayer, that is how we can know for sure that God and Jesus are separate. i tell them that i know that through you prayers you can know all things. i tell them i am just a man, i can lie to you right now, but if you ask God, he will tell you the truth, because God never lies, if he lies he would cease to be God. i know that the power of prayer is real and i know that if you put your faith in God, God will give you an answer, and the answer will be simple. it is true or it is a lie. and for me i know that this is the truth and that we have the fullness of the Gospel. well mom i LOVE you so much. i want you to have a great week. i am really grateful to have a mom who love the Lord as much as i do or even more. i want to come to know the Lord as much as you some day. i know that i still have a far way to go, i know this because i am not perfect. i love the savior mom, more than i thought i did. there is a quote that i read today that i really loved. it said to have faith in God includes to have faith in his timing. i know that sometimes as a missionary these people who are rich don´t have time for me right now, and i get discouraged for these people. i know that God has a plan for these people some day and maybe i am just one of the stepping stones for them so that they will want to hear the truth one day. well i have to go mom. i love you, thank you for your faith mom. your faith has helped me become the man who i am today. i love you.
love,elder robert atwood
mom,
i swear that i put in my last e mail that i love you. i swear i did. but oh well i will say it right now because i love you so much that i would say it every week without hesitation. well this week was a really cool week. i almost got eaten by a dog the other day. it came running up at me and my companion and this was no tiny dog. so i tried to kick it in the face, but i missed and i shoved my backpack in its face and pushed it. then my comp and i were trying to get away and then it came back for us and then we turned around and ran at the dog yelling and the dog got really scared and fell to the ground and got up really fast and ran away. yea we felt like men at that moment. then the next day we see that same dog giving this lady some trouble on her bike. she was like get away dog then took this huge rock and chucked the rock at the dog and barely missed. i was like dang how did that old lady throw that huge rock. but the funny part is that she threw that rock into traffic, but the rock didn´t hit anyone's car. but other than that i don´t have that many crazy stories this week. the thing that is really cool this week is that, that last door we knocked on, she is really cool. her name is mayela and her mom is having troubles with life right now because she is almost 90 and about to die. we have been teaching her, but her mom doesn´t have time for us, but that is o.k. but we have been teaching mayela and she is like how is it so easy for you guys to answer the questions that i have had my whole entire life. we said it is because we have the fullness of the gospel and she basically said she believes that this church is true and said that every time she talks with us she feels something different. and then she introduced us to here whole family and now we are teaching her family. they are all so cool and they are all way excited about the gospel. and they invited me to eat and they were all so amazed how i can eat the hot sauce down here and think it isn´t hot. we have had a lot of lessons this week, i love sharing the story of joseph smith. because when people here i saw two personages, they are like wait so you believe that God and Jesus Christ are separate and they are like can you show me in the bible. then i show them, but i the thing i like to tell them the most is about prayer, that is how we can know for sure that God and Jesus are separate. i tell them that i know that through you prayers you can know all things. i tell them i am just a man, i can lie to you right now, but if you ask God, he will tell you the truth, because God never lies, if he lies he would cease to be God. i know that the power of prayer is real and i know that if you put your faith in God, God will give you an answer, and the answer will be simple. it is true or it is a lie. and for me i know that this is the truth and that we have the fullness of the Gospel. well mom i LOVE you so much. i want you to have a great week. i am really grateful to have a mom who love the Lord as much as i do or even more. i want to come to know the Lord as much as you some day. i know that i still have a far way to go, i know this because i am not perfect. i love the savior mom, more than i thought i did. there is a quote that i read today that i really loved. it said to have faith in God includes to have faith in his timing. i know that sometimes as a missionary these people who are rich don´t have time for me right now, and i get discouraged for these people. i know that God has a plan for these people some day and maybe i am just one of the stepping stones for them so that they will want to hear the truth one day. well i have to go mom. i love you, thank you for your faith mom. your faith has helped me become the man who i am today. i love you.
love,elder robert atwood
Monday, January 26, 2009
1/26/09
Family and friends,
well this week was a really good week. it was really fast because my companion and i pretty much re opened this area after a couple months without missionaries. and it has been pretty hard to teach because we live in the richest part of torreón. but it is o.k. because there are people ready to hear the gospel in all places, if not i wouldn´t be in this area. but it has been really cool because there is a lot of shade to walk and it doesn´t make it so hot to walk in. also there is so many orange trees and they look so good so my comp and i took one and we pealed it and it smelled so good. so my comp was more brave and he took a huge bite. he acted like it was good and then i took a bite. it tasted like a straight up lemon. it was so gross. actually it was more sour than a lemon. so i quickly spit that out. well my elder miranda and i have been working really hard like i said before. my second day here my comp and i were knocking doors all day. and no one really was letting us in and it was five minutes until we needed to return to our house, so we started to walk back and we had this feeling that our work wasn´t done and that we had more lesson in us. so we knocked our last door. and this lady came out and said we could teach her for five minutes and nothing more. but she loved our message of the restored gospel so much that five minutes quickly turned into an hour and a dinner. it was the best sandwich of my life. She is definitely prepared to hear the Gospel. if we had just given up on before that house we would have never found her. other than that everything is going great. people that were in our area before said to my companion and i. how did you teach thirty lessons in torreon jardines. because usually the other ones never got in the houses. then i told him, if you think that your area is bad, it will be bad and you won´t have anyone to teach. if you think that your area is the best, you will teach and be baptized. it is kind of like that with every situation. the last talk by elder wirthlin was the so true, come what may and love it. or venga lo que venga, disfrutalo. i know that, that is true. everything is for our good and through every trial there will be a blessing through obedience. i love this work and i love more the people. there is no place i would rather be right now. i have to go, but i love you all and i hope that you all have a great week.
love,> elder robert atwood
well this week was a really good week. it was really fast because my companion and i pretty much re opened this area after a couple months without missionaries. and it has been pretty hard to teach because we live in the richest part of torreón. but it is o.k. because there are people ready to hear the gospel in all places, if not i wouldn´t be in this area. but it has been really cool because there is a lot of shade to walk and it doesn´t make it so hot to walk in. also there is so many orange trees and they look so good so my comp and i took one and we pealed it and it smelled so good. so my comp was more brave and he took a huge bite. he acted like it was good and then i took a bite. it tasted like a straight up lemon. it was so gross. actually it was more sour than a lemon. so i quickly spit that out. well my elder miranda and i have been working really hard like i said before. my second day here my comp and i were knocking doors all day. and no one really was letting us in and it was five minutes until we needed to return to our house, so we started to walk back and we had this feeling that our work wasn´t done and that we had more lesson in us. so we knocked our last door. and this lady came out and said we could teach her for five minutes and nothing more. but she loved our message of the restored gospel so much that five minutes quickly turned into an hour and a dinner. it was the best sandwich of my life. She is definitely prepared to hear the Gospel. if we had just given up on before that house we would have never found her. other than that everything is going great. people that were in our area before said to my companion and i. how did you teach thirty lessons in torreon jardines. because usually the other ones never got in the houses. then i told him, if you think that your area is bad, it will be bad and you won´t have anyone to teach. if you think that your area is the best, you will teach and be baptized. it is kind of like that with every situation. the last talk by elder wirthlin was the so true, come what may and love it. or venga lo que venga, disfrutalo. i know that, that is true. everything is for our good and through every trial there will be a blessing through obedience. i love this work and i love more the people. there is no place i would rather be right now. i have to go, but i love you all and i hope that you all have a great week.
love,> elder robert atwood
Monday, January 19, 2009
From: robertatwood@myldsmail.net To: Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2009 22
hey mom,
well this week was pretty cool. hugo is one of our investigators and he => has been drinking for 26 days non stop. we helped him quit and now he has been sober for over a week. that is really good for him. he has been searching for the truth for so long, but hasn't been able to find it . then i told him to pray about the things that we have been teaching him. i told him to pray with faith and thank God for the things that he has given you. then he told me how can i give thanks to god when he just totally destroyed my life. he said all my problems are because of God. Then i totally planched him. which means i totally ironed him straight. i said to him you think that God has given you things bad in your life. i said, i am not sure what problems you have in your life right now, but we should never blame god for our troubles. if it was an action from another person, God can't control free agency. Even so if God gave you this struggle it is for your good. then i showed him the scripture that said every experience that we have weather they be good or bad, is for our good. i then showed him ether 12 27 it was the one that talks about how if we come unto christ that he we make these week things that we have strong. then i told him. if you come unto christ and you let him help you through this hard time, he will make these week things strong unto you, because he has promised it and God doesn't lie or he would cease to be our God. i then told him to pray again and he said he would do it . He did it and he said he didn't receive an answer. Then we went to the scripture in 2 corinthians saying the attributes of the holy ghost and he said he had all of those feelings. He still wants a bigger answer , but he has come a long way from when we first saw him. but when i heard that i thought of the scripture that said you have had signs enough. will you tempt your God for more signs. i know we don't always get answers the way that we want, but when we get those answers we need to follow them so we can make our loving heavenly father happy. well for other investigators like the jehovah's witness lady. she didn't live in our area so she is with different elders and i haven't heard too much about her. but ya we have some really cool investigators right now and i feel that one day they will all be baptized, but their time is coming sooner or later. today i just got transferred out of my area so actually i don't have investigators right now, but when i found out i was going to be changed, i dropped my head and i really felt like crying. it felt like i was going to leave my second home. i have grown to love the people in that area so much. i hope that one day i will be able to go back and visit them some day. i never knew how you could have so much love for someone you have never really know before. i don't really know what to say about my feeling. i felt like i didn't do all that i wanted to do and that i was leaving to early and that God wouldn'tbe pleased with my work, but when i was on the bus to torreon i said a pray and asked God if he was pleased with my work and just an overwhelming feeling of the spirit surrounded me and said you have done your work there. and now you are called where you are needed. this is where you need to be right now. but i felt love and i now feel more confident for my new area today. i know wherever i am called i am needed for my talents and abilities. i just know i will be blessed if i stay obedient. the only thing i am worried for right now is my other investigators. i have grown a huge love for them and they feel like my literal sibling of the flesh. well i have to go. i am pressing for time right now. i love you all and i hope that you all have a great week.
love, elder robert atwood
hey mom,
well this week was pretty cool. hugo is one of our investigators and he => has been drinking for 26 days non stop. we helped him quit and now he has been sober for over a week. that is really good for him. he has been searching for the truth for so long, but hasn't been able to find it . then i told him to pray about the things that we have been teaching him. i told him to pray with faith and thank God for the things that he has given you. then he told me how can i give thanks to god when he just totally destroyed my life. he said all my problems are because of God. Then i totally planched him. which means i totally ironed him straight. i said to him you think that God has given you things bad in your life. i said, i am not sure what problems you have in your life right now, but we should never blame god for our troubles. if it was an action from another person, God can't control free agency. Even so if God gave you this struggle it is for your good. then i showed him the scripture that said every experience that we have weather they be good or bad, is for our good. i then showed him ether 12 27 it was the one that talks about how if we come unto christ that he we make these week things that we have strong. then i told him. if you come unto christ and you let him help you through this hard time, he will make these week things strong unto you, because he has promised it and God doesn't lie or he would cease to be our God. i then told him to pray again and he said he would do it . He did it and he said he didn't receive an answer. Then we went to the scripture in 2 corinthians saying the attributes of the holy ghost and he said he had all of those feelings. He still wants a bigger answer , but he has come a long way from when we first saw him. but when i heard that i thought of the scripture that said you have had signs enough. will you tempt your God for more signs. i know we don't always get answers the way that we want, but when we get those answers we need to follow them so we can make our loving heavenly father happy. well for other investigators like the jehovah's witness lady. she didn't live in our area so she is with different elders and i haven't heard too much about her. but ya we have some really cool investigators right now and i feel that one day they will all be baptized, but their time is coming sooner or later. today i just got transferred out of my area so actually i don't have investigators right now, but when i found out i was going to be changed, i dropped my head and i really felt like crying. it felt like i was going to leave my second home. i have grown to love the people in that area so much. i hope that one day i will be able to go back and visit them some day. i never knew how you could have so much love for someone you have never really know before. i don't really know what to say about my feeling. i felt like i didn't do all that i wanted to do and that i was leaving to early and that God wouldn'tbe pleased with my work, but when i was on the bus to torreon i said a pray and asked God if he was pleased with my work and just an overwhelming feeling of the spirit surrounded me and said you have done your work there. and now you are called where you are needed. this is where you need to be right now. but i felt love and i now feel more confident for my new area today. i know wherever i am called i am needed for my talents and abilities. i just know i will be blessed if i stay obedient. the only thing i am worried for right now is my other investigators. i have grown a huge love for them and they feel like my literal sibling of the flesh. well i have to go. i am pressing for time right now. i love you all and i hope that you all have a great week.
love, elder robert atwood
Thursday, January 15, 2009
From: Robert Atwood (robertatwood@myldsmail.net)
hey mom,
well this week has been going good and my wrist is getting better. that is good that you can finally getting back to work. my comp and i are finally starting to see success in our ward. i am going to baptize (if i am still in the area) this little girl next week. she said she is scared to be baptized because she doesn´t want to drown. so i have been teaching her(really hard teaching an 8 year old) and she feels really comfortable with me. and so she said that she wants me to baptize her. that is if her dad wakes up and does something about the baptizm. her dad is hermano santos. sorry mom i don´t have time today to write a long one so i am going to wrap this up. i had the opportunity to give a blessing in spanish the other day. it was so cool because usually it doesn´t really flow as well as i would hope every time i give a blessing, but this time when i gave the blessing the words were just flowing, and the feelings that i was able to feel is unspeakable. i can´t begin to describe the feelings. it was so cool because after the blessing the dad of the lady i was giving the blessing started crying and it was like he didn´t want me to leave after. i didn´t want to leave either because the spirit was so strong, but we had to because it was our bedtime. i gave the lady the blessing because she is pregnant and she has been having a little bit of trouble with the baby. i gave here a blessing to let her know the baby was going to be o.k. and that if you live your covenants like obeying the commandments and basically what that quote was that you showed me. it was so awesome. i felt like i could die that day and be o.k. well mom, i love you i hope that you have a great week.
love,elder robert atwood
p.s. can i buy some new pants because my other brown pants are starting to get way too big for me?
well this week has been going good and my wrist is getting better. that is good that you can finally getting back to work. my comp and i are finally starting to see success in our ward. i am going to baptize (if i am still in the area) this little girl next week. she said she is scared to be baptized because she doesn´t want to drown. so i have been teaching her(really hard teaching an 8 year old) and she feels really comfortable with me. and so she said that she wants me to baptize her. that is if her dad wakes up and does something about the baptizm. her dad is hermano santos. sorry mom i don´t have time today to write a long one so i am going to wrap this up. i had the opportunity to give a blessing in spanish the other day. it was so cool because usually it doesn´t really flow as well as i would hope every time i give a blessing, but this time when i gave the blessing the words were just flowing, and the feelings that i was able to feel is unspeakable. i can´t begin to describe the feelings. it was so cool because after the blessing the dad of the lady i was giving the blessing started crying and it was like he didn´t want me to leave after. i didn´t want to leave either because the spirit was so strong, but we had to because it was our bedtime. i gave the lady the blessing because she is pregnant and she has been having a little bit of trouble with the baby. i gave here a blessing to let her know the baby was going to be o.k. and that if you live your covenants like obeying the commandments and basically what that quote was that you showed me. it was so awesome. i felt like i could die that day and be o.k. well mom, i love you i hope that you have a great week.
love,elder robert atwood
p.s. can i buy some new pants because my other brown pants are starting to get way too big for me?
Monday, January 5, 2009
mom,
how are you doing mom, well everything is going o.k., this week we had a really rough and cool week at the same time. a lot of emotion, it was hard to cope with a lot of things this week, but we did see blessings at the same time so it was a little easier. this week there were a lot of people who were depressed during the season so they tried to not obey the word of wisdom. there was this one member that has been trying to drink coffee and we saw this huge tub of coffee on the table and then we had a lesson and he told us to take it. so we did. oh ya i also took another littler thing of coffee and i was in a lesson with another member and when i unzipped my backpack to get my scriptures and the coffee rolled out onto the floor and rolled for a little bit, but luckily no body saw so i was safe or they saw and they didnt say anything. the reason I have alcohol in my house is one of our investigators is really depressed and we told her not to drink it, so we took it, but that didnt help here. she just ended up drinking so much. she said she didn't want to hear any more about our church. i felt bad for her and i thought maybe it was because of us, but then i realized we did all that we could do, but she doesnt want to help herself. nothing will happen unless you want to help yourself. (this was the girl that was going to get baptized this sunday) I feel bad for her rejecting the gospel, but i cant help to not feel bad for her situation anymore. well that is enough complaining for one e mail. well this sunday was awesome. there was this lady who came to church the other day. (investigator) she came up to me and elder rincon and asked is this the jehovahs witness church. we said no, but we are in church services right now if you would like to come in. she said. i am allowed. so we told her yes and she was like well i will give it a try. so she went in and she loved it. then after that we gave her a tour of the church. she loved how we could have holidays and celebrations. she was like wow i almost joined the wrong church. She said i am glad i came to this church by accident. then i thought in my mind. this definitely was not an accident. God really does work in mysterious ways. Also it is getting so much easier to understand people and to speak it. it is still a struggle, but it doesnt hurt my brain like it used to. i think that this was one of the blessing by staying faithful through my trails. i know that when things are tough we will be blessed if we do one thing, if we follow and keep the commandments of God. it may not always be easy, but the blessing is always worth it. well mom, i dont have time to write another long e mail so if you could, could you send this to other people and take out whatever you would like to. well mom i love you so much, you are the best, sorry that i wrote a little earlier. i woke up at 5 this morning and i travelled for two hours to a different part of durango for p day. it only cost 5 dollars and i got to watch the mummy on the bus and the bus was so comfortable and the movie was in english with spanish subtitles and my comp was like lucky. well i have to go. i love you mom.love,elder robert shane atwood (your son remember)jk, you remember
how are you doing mom, well everything is going o.k., this week we had a really rough and cool week at the same time. a lot of emotion, it was hard to cope with a lot of things this week, but we did see blessings at the same time so it was a little easier. this week there were a lot of people who were depressed during the season so they tried to not obey the word of wisdom. there was this one member that has been trying to drink coffee and we saw this huge tub of coffee on the table and then we had a lesson and he told us to take it. so we did. oh ya i also took another littler thing of coffee and i was in a lesson with another member and when i unzipped my backpack to get my scriptures and the coffee rolled out onto the floor and rolled for a little bit, but luckily no body saw so i was safe or they saw and they didnt say anything. the reason I have alcohol in my house is one of our investigators is really depressed and we told her not to drink it, so we took it, but that didnt help here. she just ended up drinking so much. she said she didn't want to hear any more about our church. i felt bad for her and i thought maybe it was because of us, but then i realized we did all that we could do, but she doesnt want to help herself. nothing will happen unless you want to help yourself. (this was the girl that was going to get baptized this sunday) I feel bad for her rejecting the gospel, but i cant help to not feel bad for her situation anymore. well that is enough complaining for one e mail. well this sunday was awesome. there was this lady who came to church the other day. (investigator) she came up to me and elder rincon and asked is this the jehovahs witness church. we said no, but we are in church services right now if you would like to come in. she said. i am allowed. so we told her yes and she was like well i will give it a try. so she went in and she loved it. then after that we gave her a tour of the church. she loved how we could have holidays and celebrations. she was like wow i almost joined the wrong church. She said i am glad i came to this church by accident. then i thought in my mind. this definitely was not an accident. God really does work in mysterious ways. Also it is getting so much easier to understand people and to speak it. it is still a struggle, but it doesnt hurt my brain like it used to. i think that this was one of the blessing by staying faithful through my trails. i know that when things are tough we will be blessed if we do one thing, if we follow and keep the commandments of God. it may not always be easy, but the blessing is always worth it. well mom, i dont have time to write another long e mail so if you could, could you send this to other people and take out whatever you would like to. well mom i love you so much, you are the best, sorry that i wrote a little earlier. i woke up at 5 this morning and i travelled for two hours to a different part of durango for p day. it only cost 5 dollars and i got to watch the mummy on the bus and the bus was so comfortable and the movie was in english with spanish subtitles and my comp was like lucky. well i have to go. i love you mom.love,elder robert shane atwood (your son remember)jk, you remember
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