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September 9th Letter

Dearest Family and Friends,

As you can tell from the subject, this is going to be a very exciting letter!! I hope that this letter finds all of you well and happy!! I pray for you daily and I love you all so much!! 

Fun things:

*We go to the Nats game this Friday!!! Our mission and another mission are going to the game, so it is going to be so exciting! We are all wearing our proselyting clothes so that will also be great! If they show the game on TV look for me in the stands!

*As of this week, I will have been in Arlington for 2 months!! Time has flown by so much! A mission time is so different. The days are very long, but the weeks fly by! I love this area so much. The people are my favorite part about the mission! We meet people from everywhere here, and hand out copies of the Book of Mormon in so many different languages! We also get to practice our Spanish a lot here which is so much fun! This is the greatest thing I have ever done in my life. It is also the hardest thing, but I just continue to be happy. 

*The 40 Day fast is also concluding this week. I am so grateful for this opportunity I had, and I want to continue this pattern of living. I love my Heavenly Father so much and my Savior Jesus Christ. I am so excited for the glorious homecoming that I will have with them one day and that we will have as a family. The mission has shown me how blessed I have been my life, and you all are truly one of my greatest blessings!

Now here are the last seven days of my life:

Monday - That evening we did a lot of street contacting! We went over to a park where a lot of Hispanic people play soccer, so we got to use a lot of Spanish. It was so much fun! We even had a lesson with a man named Lewis!

Tuesday - Another quote from my journal: "Today was an over the top fantastic day."  I loved this day! It was one of those days where I didn't want to stop working for anything.  We went street contacting by the Pentagon City Mall and met a really nice girl named Crystal. We also met a nice man who only spoke Spanish, and we taught him (well he read the passages) the Book of Mormon lesson. He was amazing! We then met a boy from China and we gave him a Chinese Book of Mormon and had a short lesson with him.  After dinner, we went street contacting again and immediately met a man from Ethiopia named Charlie. We had a lesson with him outside of our church and gave him an Amharic Book of Mormon! That evening, we saw an investigator in the parking lot, Jacob, and talked to him for a bit. This was truly an answer to prayers!! It was just a phenomenal day!

Wednesday - A very odd day! We went street contacting down one of the main streets around12:00pm and met a lot of very interesting people. We met one man named Frank and he seemed very nice at first. We told him that we testified of Jesus Christ and then he got very intense and said, "Jesus Christ is coming back with a vengeance." We continued on and then he kept going on about how Jesus Christ is very very angry and how we need to all pray very hard so that we can be saved. He then said, "Let's pray now," and then he started saying the Lord's Prayer. After he finished that, he stood up really quickly and suddenly hugged Sister O! He then came to hug me and I kind of resisted nicely and said that I couldn't hug him, or something like that. The experience reminded me of Ashley's experience with meeting the lady in the park who warned her about the volcano erupting in Yellowstone. Later that day we went street contacting and parked in a parking garage, that cost $6 for one hour of parking! We definitely learned our lesson to not park there again, but I guess it was fun to have a metropolitan experience like that, because only in D.C. would you find $6 parking!

Thursday- I thought that one of our investigators was dropping us that day, and I got really really sad. It honestly felt the way that it feels when a boy breaks up with you, and I ached for her so much. You just grow to love them far more than you realize, and I yearn for her to have all the blessing that Heavenly Father has in store for her. The investigator was Keren, our Jewish Investigator, and she had been progressing so much! On Friday night we found out that Rosh Hashanah lasted for 3 days, and we thought it was only on Wednesday. We thought she wasn't responding to us because she was upset or didn't want to meet with us, so we were so glad to find out that she was celebrating the Jewish Holy Days. She has Yom Kippur this Friday andSaturday, and she said that she would then start studying with us after that again!  

When I was feeling sad for her, and feeling like I had failed her, I thought about Jacob 5, where the Lord says, "What more could I have done for my vineyard?" I know that the Lord weeps with us when we weep, and aches when we ache. I know without a doubt that He lives, for I have felt Him take away my burdens. I am so grateful that I am getting this opportunity to come to know Him so much more.

Despite being sad, we actually had great day today, full of a lot of member visits. We also met a lot of great people street contacting including Leo, Leonard and Vania (a woman from Italy)! We made return appointments with two of them!!

Friday - Weekly Planning--very long.  I struggled with the length of weekly planning a lot on Friday, and started to get very antsy. My companion then said, "Didn't you plan all the time when you were home?" This reminded me of what you said before I came on my mission Dad, when I was getting really antsy during one of our Sunday night planning sessions. You asked what I was going to do when I had to plan with a companion. I need to be better at being patient during these long planning sessions, and I should've been better trained with all the Sunday planning we did as a family!  

After weekly planning we went street contacting, and we met a man named Adam, whom had a lesson with and a man from Nepal named Bipin, who we also had a lesson with. He was so nice and just such a cute little man!

Saturday - Lots more street contacting!! We met a man from Morocco named Abe and gave him a French Book of Mormon. We then saw sweet Alma Jones, did more street contacting and then saw Jacob again in the parking lot!!

Sunday - A top notch day! Church was so great, and I feel like I am really getting to know the members here. They are really great to us, and really willing to help and go out and work with us.  We also got a new ward mission leader, which was exciting. He seems like he will be really great and involved in the work! 

After church we had a lesson with Sandra and Ignacio and their children. We taught the Plan of Salvation using visual aides, to make it more fun for their two kids. Sandra read the Book of Mormon and said it was amazing!! That's one of the sweetest things to hear as a missionary!! We then had dinner with the stake patriarch, and they were a really nice family. They were difficult to read, and couldn't really understand why my companion was vegetarian and the conversation seemed to focus on that a lot. They were very kind though and sweet to feed us! We then went street contacting and guess who we ran into...Keren and Bobby!!! (Our Jewish investigator and her husband!) It was such a tender mercy!! We were talking to someone, when we turned around and they were standing there, waiting to talk to us! We walked with them back to their apartment, and visited with them for a little there! It was amazing how the Lord just put them in our path, and it was such a blessing! Keren talked a lot more about the Jewish Holy Days and about her faith, and it was so fascinating to hear! They are both amazing people, who I want so much for you to all meet one day!!!

I hope that you all have a great day and week! I truly do love you, and I will continue to work to give the Lord my all, for Him and for you!! I love my Heavenly Father and I know that He is there. I will continue to pray for you and pray for your strength in all that you're going through! I am going to leave you with what Mom left me with: "Trust in the Lord."

Love you all!!

Sister Chelsea Marie Akin

P.S. - I am always up for vegetarian and gluten free recipes (my companion is both), i.e. bean enchiladas, black bean burgers, taco soup, anything! I am also always up for new workouts (they can include dumbbells!) Thank you!

September 2 Letter

Dearest Family and Friends!

I hope this e-mail finds you well and I hope you are all having a great labor day! Thank you for your e-mails, prayers and love. I love you all!

Here is a quote from my journal that captures the week pretty well:

"Missionary work requires A LOT of patience. Things don't happen on your time table or the way you want them to. God is there and I know that. I know this doesn't mean that He has left or abandoned me. Far from it. I don't need a huge miracle everyday to know that, for I know He is blessing me with tender mercies and small miracles daily. It just doesn't go how you expect."  

I am genuinely so happy, but that was how I felt almost everyday this week. It really does not go how you to expect it to go.  You never picture that you'll start the week with 4, almost 5, progressing investigators, and end the week with 1 progressing investigator. I never expected either that I would feel this happy, even when it is hard and when it doesn't appear that we are having success. I truly love being here and I love the people I am meeting. I love the relationships that I am building with all of them, and I just want you all to meet them so much. I tell them about you, and I just picture you getting along with them so well. We talked to our sweet member and friend, Alma Jones, in the nursing home yesterday. She has dentures and she says that she needs a dentist to work on them because they have been bothering her. The dentist hasn't shown up to help there and its been months. I told her about you Dad, and I told her that if you ever came to Virginia, I would send you to her. I picture you two getting along so well! I picture all of you getting along so well with these people, and I hope I get to introduce some of them to you one day.  

Also, I got to go to the temple today! It was incredible! I love the new film so much, and I just loved the whole experience. I would not mind at all if this was the temple that I got married in one day. :)

Here is a quick rundown of the week!

Monday: We visited Alma Jones, in celebration of her one year anniversary of being a member of the church! We gave her a ring that one of our investigators had that was Alma's size. I mentioned this investigator, Jan, before and she is just an incredible lady. She collected a lot of fine, authentic jewelry but now that she has gotten older, she doesn't see a need for it anymore. She prayed and asked God to send her some women to give the jewelry to, when just a little bit after, an LDS family moved in across the street. She became good friends with the woman, and the woman referred her to the missionaries. She ended up giving all of her jewelry to the woman and to the missionaries, and she said that I am the last person to get the jewelry. Giving her jewelry away is a very spiritual experience for her, for she receives promptings of who to give what. She repeatedly tells us to that the jewelry is not from her - it's from God. 

Anyway, she showed us this ring that hadn't fit anyone else, and when she told us the size of it, we instantly thought of Alma. Alma absolutely loved it and she said she would never take it off. Alma is a sweet African American lady, and the ring was a brilliant amethyst color so it looked amazing on her - it truly was just for her.

Later that night we had a lesson with Maryann, a woman that we met street contacting the previous Saturday. We thought she was a golden investigator. She told us about how she had read The Book of Mormon and she instantly knew Joseph Smith was a prophet. She also said that she truly wanted to become Mormon, and she was sincerely searching. It was really fun teaching her that night, and we were so excited after our lesson with her.

Tuesday: One of those days where you aren't as productive as you think you should be able to be. It was a slightly frustrating day, and we just didn't feel like we got a lot of work done. I just feel like I as a missionary and our companionship has so much more potential than what we are living up to right now. I was still happy, but it was honestly a more difficult day. 

That night, we visited a couple who is less active and we had a really fun visit with them.  He is originally from Tonga, and they met when she went to work there. They met and decided the next week to get married! They have now been married for three years, and they are just the funnest people. He actually stopped us in the grocery store parking lot the day I found out that Marilyn had passed away, and he gave us each $20. It really meant a lot, especially on that day. He loves missionaries and he goes out of his way to do anything for them. They have the strong polynesian culture, and they make you feel so comfortable in their home. I hope to be more like them.

Wednesday: We had two impromptu companionship inventories on this day. It is harder than I thought it would be to be with one person all the time, but I really think it is good preparation for marriage! I just need to love my companion and not try to change her! 

Besides from that, we had lunch and a lesson with Maryann, our golden investigator, on this day. She instantly brought up concerns about paying tithing and giving up coffee, and she said that she had made her mind up that she couldn't become Mormon anymore. She also brought up some other issues about her life, and we think she needs counseling that we can't give her. We prayed about what to do with her after making the decision not to teach her anymore, and we felt very at peace about that. We love her and want to help her, but we just think she needs professional help that we can't give.

That night we also saw a family in our ward, the Babitz, whom we love! They are so funny and they also make you feel so comfortable. You would all love them if you were to meet them! It was the perfect way to end the evening!

Thursday: We had an addiction recovery training meeting this morning, which was really good. Our mission president felt inspired to have one of the senior couples teach this program to all the missionaries, and this was the third class we have had. They are really well done classes, and I receive revelation for myself and my investigators during these classes.

We then went to the Potomac Care Center, and helped with the activity for that day, which was manicures and music. I got to give a sweet lady named Joan a manicure and it was so much fun. She had such a sweet heart and the best attitude.

We had a lesson with our Jewish investigator, Keren, that evening. We love Keren so much!! We invited her to be baptized on a certain date, but she said that she didn't want to decide on a date until she knew for sure that she was going to get baptized then. It is so amazing to see her progress, and to see her faith in Jesus Christ grow. She is progressing so much, and she keeps her commitments! The only thing is that she won't pray in the name of Jesus Christ yet, and she won't attend church right now. It is against the Jewish religion to do both, and the Jewish judgment day is coming up very soon. She said that she would attend after the Jewish judgment day passed, but she doesn't want to do anything that might get her in trouble right now. :)

We visited Jan that evening and had a great visit with her. She is one of those people who I feel builds us up so much more than we build them up.

Friday: Weekly Planning Day! Weekly planning is very long, and always a little longer than I think it should be. It was great though!!

We saw a man who was less active in our ward. He is really concerned about the situation in Syria, and that was actually the first I had heard about it. I actually got a little nervous in talking about it, and I felt unsettled and worried the rest of the evening. I can now understand why they don't let us watch the news on our missions.

Saturday: We had another lesson with Keren! We watched the talk "The Grandeur of God" by Jeffrey R Holland. It is an incredible talk! I highly recommend that any of you watch it when you have time!

She also talked about the situation in Syria, and how she is really concerned for her family in Israel right now. She told us a little about her life in Israel, and it opened up my eyes a lot and made me feel very naive about the world. She said that when she was 4 years old, she had to hide in a bomb shelter for about 3 weeks and wear a gas mask. She talked about how every building had a bomb shelter, and how they had drills regularly where they practice running to them. She told us about wars that happened in her very own country and city. She also said how after living in Israel, she doesn't see how peace is possible until the Messiah comes. It has really been so interesting to teach her and to study about Israel. I feel so passionate about this subject and I want to learn all that I can about it.

After teaching Keren, we visited a lady in our ward who is confined to a wheelchair, but who also has the best attitude! There are just so many fantastic people here.

That evening, Keren made some authentic Jewish food for us and it was incredible! I genuinely want you all to meet her sometime, so much. I just love her more than I can describe!

Sunday: A day of tender mercies! We had two investigators come to church, which was such a blessing! One of them was a Chinese investigator, who brought his roommate. Then after sacrament meeting, I was standing in the foyer waiting for my companion, when a family walked in that we are teaching. He is less active and she isn't a member. They have two little kids as well. They are amazing people, and they are such a strong family. We met with her last Sunday, and she told us how she doesn't care about money or material things. She only cares about her family and their happiness, and this truly shows. We had a lesson with them after church, and it was great. I really feel like I was supposed to meet them out here and I just love them. It is amazing how quickly you grow to love people here. 

We then went to visit our Chinese investigator, and he wasn't home, but we met two Chinese people on the street, on the way to and from his apartment. Chinese people are actually very receptive and open to learning more I have found. 

That evening, we went on a walk with a less active member and his dog, and it was great. His name is Rick and we love him so much!

I am sorry that this e-mail wasn't crazy exciting this week, and I hope it wasn't depressing at all! I seriously am so happy and so happy to be here! I know that God lives and Jesus is the Christ. I am so grateful for the restored gospel, and for my Savior's Atonement. I know this is His work, and I continually strive to be an instrument in His hands.

Congratulations if you made it this far in the e-mail! I hope you all have a great week, and you feel Heavenly Father's love for you!

Love,

Sister Chelsea Marie Akin