marci.: Week 5

I"M ALIVE!

Ahhhhh i'm in OMAHAAAA!! The Kuns picked us up from the air port..and I LOVE THEM! They are truly the most inspiring individuals. I'm excited to get to work with them. soo omaha? i'll admit..i'm pleasantly surprised. It is SO green and SO beautiful here!! Its like I'm in Europe..but in stead of everyone having BAD teeth..they have NO teeth. I love it. The weather here is not nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be. I actually don't mind the humidity at all! My skin is LOVING it! I need a tan though. so bad. So we pull up to where I'll be living.. and I feel like a princess. I totally lucked out. We live in the basement of the Stake Presidents beautiful home. Of course I have to go through the back yard to get in...and walk by their AMAZING pool. everyday. soo not fair. but i'm over it. FIRE FLIES! They're everywhere!! and they never get old. I love it! Oh! When we were flying over Omaha..we saw all the flooding. SO sad. It's a hot mess ova heya. I'm in the Skyline area so I don't see much flooding. I'm in the wealthiest part. So the work is mainly through member referrals. ok..so my companion/trainer.. Her name is Ashley Larsen. and I love her! Shes so great! Shes from Arizona. Shes 23. She wants to be a school teacher. She loves wearing my clothes. and this is her last transfer. I'll have to turn over the Skyline area. and I'm terrified. So I have a good 5 weeks to get to know EVERYONE in the ward before she leaves. I love the Ward Mission Leader Brother Davis. He is hilarious and such a nerd! His wife is beautiful and so poised. She has the best posture of anyone I know. She reminds of those ritzy ladies on the titanic. They have the cutest little kids too. BYU success story..THE Davis's. So we had our first baptism on saturday. It was amazing. It was young girl named Sara. shes 17. The rest of her family is Catholic. The have not been supportive AT ALL..but showed up at her baptism. I didn't know I would be speaking at the baptism until we got there. I may have had a mini panic attack. BUT we talked about the restoration of the gospel since her parents were there. and again..the first vision has moved me. As I quoted it.. the room which was FILLED with people was absolutely silent. The spirit was SO strong. I don't think i've EVER felt the spirit that strong in my entire life. I knew Sara's parents felt it too. When her dad first walked in he was so unfriendly and would not make eye contact with anyone. By the end of the baptism..he was shaking hands with everyone and stayed for another HOUR and just talked to members. It was so neat to see his complete countenance change. He showed up to her confirmation on sunday too.

Another experience I JUST had... we prayed over a list of individuals who we felt we needed to just "drop in" and see..and both felt like we needed to see this lady Mary. We planned on going and seeing her at 1:00. Through a series of events we ended spending longer at our other appointments and in result were an hour late to Mary's. As soon as we got out of our appointment..Mary had called us..and left a message crying. She has cancer and we thought she may have gotten some bad news. We told her we were on our way. When we got there..she was in tears. Apparently her and her boyfriend had gotten in a HUGE fight. He ripped her phone of the wall and stole her car. Her mom ran to the neighbors to call the police on him. Mary ran to another neighbors house and called us to come over.. but we were already planning on that..she just didn't know it. We got there, and she told us what was going on..I was TERRIFIED! I thought for sure he was going to come back with a gun or something and shoot us! BUT..then I realized. We were protected. Which is why our plans got messed up and we weren't there for the fight. We knelt down with mary and her mom and prayed with them. Then we sang i need thee every hour. The spirit was so strong and we knew she felt comfort and safety. She is so sweet and felt told us how that she knew there was a God...and she knew that he sent us to her.. SHE'S SO CUTE! I wish I had time share EVERYTHING with you. But I'm having so many spiritual experiences. I am so humbled to see the lives and living conditions of these people. We are all sooo blessed. You have no idea.

I love you all so much!

xoxo

Sister Atkin