11/7/2010

Hey all,


Had a really interesting week. I was on a three day exchange with Elder Seitz, who got here the transfer after I did. Realized there's a lot my Sr companion does that I need to be more grateful for =) It wasn't too bad though, we were able to teach pretty well, and get the message across.
Church went really well yesterday, we had one of our investigators their named Ahmer. He's Muslim and from Turkey, but we teach him in English. So I was able to sit by him for fast and testimony meeting and translate. He kept talking about how so many of his beliefs are already really similar to the Mormons, and is way happy that we live the word of wisdom. Way cool guy. Also, had a great miracle happened last night, we were out contacting former investigators and less actives in a place called Vecmilgravis all day, and we decided to go ahead and knock this one complex that was kinda hidden behind some trees. We went all the way from apartment 48 down to number 2 with no luck, but again, we got let in to door number 1. The man's name is Dmitrij, and he has a pretty solid religous background. A lot of the things he was saying about his relationship with God were closely aligned to our beliefs. He was baptized in the Russian Orthodox church (like everyone here) so brought up concerns when we talked about baptism. But, he accepted to be baptized on Dec. 25th as long as we "continued to meet with him and explain more". Really cool to see how the Spirit was working on him. You'll see that happen a lot, where they're baptized into the Orthodox church here, but have their own set of beliefs, and have no idea what their church really preaches. We had a really good training from President Dance this week too, all about weekly planning. It has definitely proven effective. I feel like I have too much to write about, and I find that a lot of times I don't know what to pick... Any suggestions? Hope all is well with you, God Bless.


Love, Elder Atkinson

11-08-10