Hello to all my dear family and friends!!
How are you all?! It was so fun talking to you all on Christmas! It felt so familiar and I felt like no time had passed at all! I loved hearing all of your voices and just being on the phone with you - I felt so close to all of you at that moment!
Are you all excited for 2014!!! I feel like it is going to be such a great year, and I am excited for this new beginning! Our mission president talked to us at transfers, about what will be written in our book for 2014, or something of that nature. I just love this fresh start and this time of changes! I want to make it an incredible 2014 and I feel so good about it!
Also, I am so excited to make New Years Resolutions. I feel like I have been in a missionary slump recently, and I don't like that! I want to change and I know I can change! I am going to resolve to give the Lord my whole heart and surrender everything to Him. I am not going to fight against Him anymore, but I am going to let Him make of me what He will. I don't want to just go on a mission, but I want the mission to go through me, and to be changed by it!
This week was a good/trying week, and for many different reasons. I honestly had the thought this weekend that if I were to write an e-mail then, I would tell you all that being a missionary is hard sometimes. I have felt a multitude of emotions, and all in the course of a week, or even a day. I guess that is really how life goes though, and there are always hard things going on. There are also joyous and happy times too though.
I think I get frustrated with myself a lot, because I have this vision of who I want to be and what I want to do, and then I keep falling short of that. I feel like Nephi sometimes, who lamented over the wretched man that he was. I just don't like failing, and I don't like falling short of my potential, but I feel like I do it often. This has been on my mind a lot this week, and I realized that I wasn't showing faith in Jesus Christ or in His Atonement. I wasn't trusting that He wants to forgive me and He wants me to be healed. I can come back to Him and change, even if I have messed up and keep messing up. Denying myself of that, is not letting myself use the Atonement. I am so grateful for the gift of the Atonement and for the love of our Savior and our Heavenly Father.
Here are the details for the week!
MONDAY - Best preparation day I have ever had! It was so chill, yet we got everything done and then some! We went to Trader Joes, had aloe vera water, ate at Chipotle, etc. It was just fantastic! We also had a lesson with Ilana that night and it was great, as far as I remember!
TUESDAY (Christmas Eve!) - A woman in our ward made us a banana power smoothie in her new vitamix blender! We then saw a recent convert in our ward who is from Sri Lanka! Then, we went to another members' home and they are amazing! They have 8 kids, and really take care of the missionaries! They are the same family that took us to the temple today. They acted out the Nativity this night, and all got dressed in towels and such. It was so cute!
WEDNESDAY - Christmas Day!!!! We woke up at 6:30, and opened our presents!! I woke up feeling very happy and at peace, and I didn't feel lonely or sad at all! We then showered and got ready, and it felt kind of weird doing that so early in the morning on Christmas day! We then did our studies, which were all focused on Christ. I loved it so much and I just felt so great and so at peace!
We then went to a family's home and had a Christmas morning brunch! She is the cutest woman in the world, and she went all out! The table was set perfectly, and we had cute little nametags at our places. She made egg casserole, homemade cinnamon rolls, had a fruit salad and asparagus. She called our drinks "drinkies" and was just so sweet and nice! She is a flight attendant for United Airlines and I bet she is phenomenal at it! She also gave us Christmas presents, including a head lamp, in case we have a natural disaster (that's what she said). I hope that wasn't a sign or something that a natural disaster is coming, but all will be well, regardless. That's the same place where I got to call all of you and it was great!
We then went to our recent convert's home and did a Christmas lesson with the kids staying at her home. We did the Nativity story and wrote cards of what we want to give to Christ. They were so cute, and their cards were so cute and funny!
We then went and saw a woman who is less active and she made us eat a lot of sweet things! She loves to feed us, but she knew that we were going to dinner right after. She was so sweet and nice and we had a good visit with her!
We then went to the Larsens again and had a ham dinner with them. Afterwards, we played the game "Headbandz" with them instead of watching a movie, and I felt like I was at home! It was seriously so great, and I'm not even pretending!
THURSDAY - I think this is one of the saddest days of the year, but we tried to make it as good as we could! Sister Gordon was really sick all day, so we stayed home, except for going to a dinner with a woman who is less active. I called a lot of people, studied, cleaned, etc. - it was actually pretty good!
FRIDAY - We visited Ilana and had a very interesting visit. We then saw Tanya and had a really long lesson with her. Afterwards, we went to the temple visitors center with Ilana and saw the Trifecta Jazz Trio. It was a fun night and day all in all!
SATURDAY - ROBERT FROM MY LAST AREA GOT BAPTIZED!!! This was such a glorious day!!!! He always said all along that he was not in a rush to get baptized, and he was going to wait a year, even 2, to get baptized! I wish so much that you could all meet him! He is such a cute man and he has such a strong and sincere testimony! I was so happy to see him, Sister McBride and Keren there!
Afterwards, we came home and finished our weekly planning, went to a lesson with a man who is very lonely, and who seems to just want company, and then saw our other investigator, Bettina!
SUNDAY - Rain Day!!! We did our studies, and then went to church in the pouring rain! They had a potluck during the 3rd hour, which I thought was very odd. I don't care much for big events of people standing around and it just felt off. We got to talk to a lot of people though which was good!!
We saw Ilana afterwards and she is getting baptized this Thursday! We didn't think she was ready, but we talked to her about this for a long time, went over the questions with her, and felt very at peace about her getting baptized. We had the interview last night with a member of the missionary presidency, and he said she was ready for baptism. I feel very at peace now, about it all, and we are now getting a baptism ready, really quickly for Thursday! It is somewhat exciting and really stressful, but I know it will all work out!
Afterwards, we had dinner with an older couple of our ward and they made us salmon! I struggled so much to eat it, and I prayed so hard that Heavenly Father would help me eat it. I know it could be so much worse, and people could be feeding me chicken feet and such, so I'm grateful I got my Omega 3's in for the day!
We then visited a less active family, and had a really good visit with the mom. The dad didn't seem to happy to see us, but she was a sweetheart!
Afterwards, we saw Amanda and Darian, 2 investigators that we saw the week prior. They had a lot of people over and we talked to all of them and it was really great!
I have to get off now, but I will talk to you all very soon!!! I love you all so much!! I won't have time to e-mail any of you today personally, but I love you so much and I'm sorry!!
Love,
Sister Akin
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