> 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
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
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
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