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

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

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?

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

Dear family and friends,

well this week was a pretty tough one for me, but it was o.k. because it was christmas, i hope you all had a great christmas. this week we had a deadline to meet for the dates of baptism of everyone in the ward. it has been a week of a lot of walking and sore legs. it was really fun because we got visit all the inactives and try to get them reactivated. Most of the people here are willing to listen to the message, and want to change, but aren´t willing to. except for one. there is this one really cool guy that we visit about every other day. he has not been going to church for about two years now. he has been drinking and a whole bunch of other stuff, we have been helping him with quitting those things and helping him get back into church. this Sunday he finally went to church and it was like he was glowing, he seemed so happy there. it was way worth it to me to do those lists and go through hundreds of names and more streets just to find this one person who was a little lost. i am so glad that we found him and he is doing good. Every time we see him he looks like he is happier and he is doing better. i know this to be because he is doing the things that the lord wants him to do. i know that whatever thing that happens in our life bad or good we can have happiness. Happiness comes from obeying the commandments of God. In the Book of Mormon it says every experience bad or good is for our good. so if you feel depressed and fell like there is no end, have joy because there is an end to your pain. It doesn´t always have to be in this life, if we are faithful in this life we are blessed for ever and ever. Blessings never stop if we are faithful in this life and do all we can to follow the commandments of the lord. well i have to go right now, but i wish you all a happy week.

love,elder robert atwood

Dear family and friends,

how has everything been going? every thing here in mexico has been going really good. my companion and i have been trying really hard to teach 30 lessons every week to non members. we are getting closer every week to this goal. we have 8 investigators right now who are just the coolest people ever. they are all so awesome. we have been working really hard to get them excited to be baptized. we have been stressing the point that when we are baptized we become clean from all of our sins and after we receive the holy ghost and we can feel peace in our lives. it is so cool to see the joy of the gospel in their eyes when we teach them. the other day one of our investigators had this doubt or question. why do we need to go to church every week, why do i need one church when all the churches are really good. my companion tried to do everything to prove why we need to go to church every week and why we need one church with the scriptures. she started getting mad and said that, that doesn´t make any sense. he tried some more. then she shoved him aside and said to me, i want to hear your opinion on this. so i was like oh no i have to explain this in spanish. so i started off slow, but as it went on i was speaking perfect spanish and words i didn´t know were flowing. i swear i learned how to speak so much more spanish from this experience. i told her. that i don´t know all the reasons why we need to go to church every week, but i know that christ taught that we should go to church every week. christ also taught one chruch, one faith, one baptism, and i is u to u to find this church and b members o this church because this i also a commandment. d and of the closeness our family has become of that experience. i then told her, that at the moment everything may seem bad, but if you put you trust in the lord, the blessings that will come will be all worth it. i told her that it seems like your trial will never end, but it will end one day and if you put your trust in the lord, the blessings will come. i am telling you all today, that if you all put your trust in the lord and do your best, you will be blessed through your trials and they will seem to be easier. i promise you that, because God himself has said it and God doesn´t lie or he would not be God. i love you all and i hope you all have a great week. you guys are all so awesome. do you best, God loves you and there is nothing you can do about that. i can tell that God has been blessing us with through our hard times. as i said before my comp and i have been working harder than ever. this sunday we saw the fruits of our labor. we had all of our investigators come to church. I felt like God was pleased with my work, and i was so happy that they all came. i couldn´t even explain it. we have three baptisms for the fourth of january. it will be a great day to see them all baptized. i just know that we are so close with all of our investigators and that i can´t slow down. i need to work harder, because we all can do better, because we are all imperfect. o.k. i have to go now, but have a great week. oh one last thing. i was santa this week and it was so funny because they gave me these prescription glasses and it was dark and they wanted me to give candy to all the kids in the party, so i couldn´t see and i tripped so many times, but it was so fun to be santa. i said jo jo jo mer feliz navidad. i kept on trying to say merry christmas, but i forgot i was in mexico and i needed to speak spanish. it was so cool also because this little girl came up to me and said with the coolest face, le quiero mucho santa and gave me the biggest hug ever, i was a pretty horrible santa, but it was so fun. all the adults call me elder santa now, but not in front of the kids. o.k. i really have to go now. i love you all.

love,elder robert atwood

Hello family and friends.

well this week was a regular week, but it was a really cool week because i was in the service of the lord. oh one funny thing that happened this week is that i acquired a dog. my comp and i were out tracting one day and this stray dog was looking at me really sad. i felt bad for it and gave it the last of my food which was like a crumb. i shouldn´t have done that. the dog started to follow me every where. i swear that that dog followed me for about two hours. i didn´t know what to do. i tried every thing to get that dog to go away, but it wouldn´t go away. i threw a rock at it, i screamed at it. nothing worked. it loved me too much. so my comp and i ran across a busy street but the dog i swear is a cat because it had nine lives. it almost got hit like five times. finally we got tired of having a dog so we just took a taxi to get rid of it. it looked at me really sad when i left, but i wasn´t fooled that time. i don´t really have too much time on the computer, but i would like to tell you all that you are all in my prayers. i hope all is going well with you all. have you all been getting ready for navidad? my comp and i have. this past week we decorated our apartment with christmas decorations. it is really cool i will have to send some pictures of the decorations next week. well i don´t really have much to write about this week because we have been not really doing anything except the christmas campaign. it is where we go around giving people this dvd who call for it. it is a dvd about jesus christ and his birth. it is call joy to the world or in spanish regocijous jesus nació. but the thing i like most about my mission so far is this one family. the santos family. they are the coolest family ever. like i said before the dad has been drinking and he has asked us to help him do good. so we have been helping him. i told him how to make resisting sin easier. and i told him to start your day with christ by reading scriptures and prayer. he has listened to my council and he hasn´t drank for over a month now and he is now one of the strongest members in the ward. i love seeing the change in his face every time i get to see him. it is so awesome. i see how happy he is in his life and how the light of christ just shines about him. his family never fights any more and his house has the spirit of the lord. every time i go into that house i feel the spirit stronger. it just makes you happy when you see someones life change because of the gospel. i know the gospel seems like it has a lot of rules, but i can sincerely tell you that when we follow these rules with faith, we are truly blessed. it may sound like it binds us down, but when we follow them it does exactly the opposite. i know this to be a fact and not an opinion because i have seen it and i have felt it.

Elder Atwood