Baptism!!!!

Hey everyone how's it going?  This week was awesome because it was Christmas or NAVIDAD here, and I got to skype my family. That was really cool. I had a good talk with them and my comp said that I actually started speaking a little Spanish during the skype so thats weird. Anyway, during my comps skype I see his family and they start talking to me and he has this sister right. Well turns out shes freaking hot and she speaks English and she is actually in school to be a translator.  Anyway, Brother Huapya starts joking and saying,hey Atwood your girlfriend and soon pointing to Elder Moreyra your brother in law. That just ruined it for me so I  was like no no no no no that cannot happen . haha  
We had Sabastians baptism on Saturday and it was great. I said the opening prayer and was a witness while his uncle got to baptize him. I got some really good pictures. By the way this is just for the sake of a point to say mom you were right everyone learn piano!!!  We haven't had a pianist in the ward since Hermana Karrate got transferred and you know its just plain awkward.  We had everyone singing on a different verse,it is horrible man I need to go back in time. It was a great baptism and one of our new investigators Franesa came to the baptism. We got a reference to teach Fancesa from the zls anyway he is golden .We played the Joseph Smith video,  and the spirit was strong. Franesa was almost crying. His daughter is actually on a mission in Argentina right now so its hard on him but Sabastains entire family was just in tears and it really felt good. That made the week for me.  Franesa's  daughter on a mission in Argentina gave him a Book of Mormon with her testimony in it . He loves us he took us out to lunch and got pictures with us and is now like best friends with our ward mission leader which is great. We commited him to baptism on the 17th of January. Ok so we had been teaching this kid Miguel and well he wants to get baptized but his mom doesn't want him to so that sucks.  Yesterday we went to visit our investigator Herep and he speaks fluent English, like the only one here that knows any English . Anyway well he has been busy lately so we haven't been able to visit him. Well we go to his house and he said hey come in. We gave his mom an English Bible to give to him for Christmas because that's what he said that he wanted, so he was thankful for that. Anyway we started teaching about the Book of Mormon and  I got to talk to him in English so that was good. He said does it replace the Bible and I told him read the cover The Book of Mormon another testament of Jesus Christ.  I said nothing can replace the Bible  but this is simply another witness to the glory of our Savior. Last time we visited him he said he had a question why would Christ only visit Jerusalem and what about everyone else. I brought up that question again and read him a heading in 3rd Nephi ch 11 and he was happy. It was great! I was able to resolve all of his concerns and questions and i gave him a promise to read the Book of Mormon and then get on your knees and ask got if it is true and your heart will burn with joy and you will know that it is true. It was really good to teach in English again. After that lesson my comp said you need to learn spanish faster if you can teach like that haha!! Anyway we will be visiting him again tomorrow so I have a lot prepared for him. Since it is new years I am going to share with you some of my goals

1. Pray every time I enter the house . This will help me continually keep Christ in mind. 2.Complete the Book of Mormon every 3 months. 3 write in my journal everyday 5.smile even when its hard 6. speak fluent Spanish 7. baptize 20 people anyway 

Love you all 
Elder Atwood

Well for my usual letter  things this week have been kinda slow. I had to go to freaking immigration twice all day getting up at  5 am. Oh well. Our investigator Fernando is making tons of progress, my comp doesn't think so but I see it. He is about 60 years old and last week we gave him a chapter in the Book of Mormon to read and yesterday when we went to check up on him he told us he read the chapter and told us how its so cool and how the Book of Mormon and the Bible like complete each other. I was psyched and told him thats exactly right. I wanted to give him some scriptures to read about the birth of Christ in the BOOK of MORMON since it is Christmas but my comp wanted him to start with 1 Nephi. I was kinda mad because he is in charge since he is the senior comp but he really doesn't know how to connect with people or how to decipher the needs of the investigators. For example we were teaching this lady who had her husband pass away a few years ago and I was so ready to teach the plan of salvation but instead he decided to teach the Restoration.  The Restoration is wicked important and but the main message that our church has in my opinion is FAMILIES CAN BE TOGETHER FOREVER. 

In my opionion that is why we make the covenants that we make. I love him but oh well at least he is being obedient now which is good so I have no complaints about that. Anyway, right now I would like to share something about President Zant.

You know I got my mission call then I got it delayed i was so depressed I felt like nobody loved me not even my friends or my family.  I felt so alone in the world as if the Lord had completely abandoned me. I remember hearing about President Zant a few weeks earlier. I never really knew him that well but I was still a little sad. I remember getting home from work late one Friday night I just got in bed and went to sleep and I woke up to my cell phone ringing. I answered and I said who is this.  He said President Zant.  I was like ok whats up. Cuz it was like 2 am haha. Well he said that he wanted to talk to me at 8 am the next morning i had work off so i agreed. I got up that morning and got in my car thinking oh this is going to be some worthiness lecture or something. I went inside his house and he shook my hand he started to talk to me but my mind drifted and started looking at the pictures above him on the wall. It was pictures of his family. He noticed this and says oh your looking at my family. I said oh sorry . Well he said oh its ok and started talking about his sons and sons in law. Then he started to talk about his daughter who had died a few years ealier he said that he knows that families can be together then I just broke in tears he started to talk to me.  I said I just feel so alone in the world right now. God doesn't love me,my family doesn't, no one even cares, no one loves me. He read to me D&C sect 122 and said Canyon your going through a really hard time right know and I just thought the man who has cancer, the man who has had his daughter taken from him is feeling sympathy for me. I remember that as he told me things would be ok he walked me out the door  and gave me this hug and said I LOVE YOU CANYON and I felt like the savior was hugging me. I have shaken hands with apostles as if they are a ordinary person but with him I trembled. He is the reason that I am here today. I know without a doubt in my mind that he is with God right now. The last words that he remember him saying were I LOVE YOU CANYON . Those words echo in my mind everyday as if he just said them.

Love Elder Atwood

Week 6

Hey guys, so this is what happened this week. Things are better with my comp so thats great. I have the President to thank for that, he really helped. Anyway,we taught about 31 lessons this week . Most of them are less actives. We also had 2 investigators to come to church. We were supposed to have a baptism this week, a kid named Sebastian. Well, Friday night the day before his baptism he was running and fell on something sharp and had to get 4 freaking stitches!! WOW! But the kid is ok so thats all that matters, although we were a little upset that we had to cancel the baptism but that was all out of our control so we just rescheduled the baptism for I think this Saturday or the next but hopefully things will workout. Last night we actually were trying to find people to teach so we went to this less actives home. Her name was Hermana Juarez she was great. We only wanted to share a quick message about how the gospel blesses families with the scripture Alma 10:11 but she ended up making us hot chocolate and sandwhiches so that was cool. We started talking to her asking her how her prayer and scripture study was.She said that she says prayers daily and reads the scriptures but that she has a difficult time understanding the scriptures.Well I told her the scriptures are actually really hard to understand and that I sometimes don't understand the scriptures. I told her that that is why we have other resources like scriptures with pictures in them and videos made by the church and that by listening to modern day prophets and apostles we can better understand the scriptures. I don't know what happened but I was actually able to understand her, probably because she spake at a normal speed and not lightning fast like a lot of the people here. Anyways,thinhs are going good  and haven't really eaten any strange foods or anything yet. We do have a lot of dogs running around which drives me nuts but oh well.

See ya next week

Love Elder Atwood

What is your apartment like?
My apartment here is actually nice. Unlike most apartments we do have a fridge but no stove or microwave or anything else. We don't really keep anything in there, its actually cheaper to eat out and than it is to go shopping for here at least.  I  don't know about other places but one week we went shopping and spent $80 and felt like we were starving the whole week, and the next week we ate out spent $50 and were full.

Did you get your hot water back?
Yes we did, and I am so happy.

Tell me about teaching this week.
We are mainly teaching lessons 1 2 3 and reviewing them and resolving the concerns of our investigators . It's a little hard since I can't speak Spanish. Things are good with my comp but our teaching methods are so different for example he loves to share a lot of scriptures and there is nothing wrong with that but I like to share pèrsonal experiences and interact more with the investigator.  I'm just waiting for the gift of tongues to kick in so I can teach how I want as well

How are you doing this week?
I'm doing ok.  Me and my comp are all cool now ya we are eating ok. The food is basically three things RICE,chicken, and potatoes, and variations of that.The plate is 90 percent rice so I may never eat rice again after my mission.

John Richard Erickson, 54, and Annette Koski Erickson, five children, Silver Springs Ward, Henderson Nevada Green Valley Stake.Brother Erickson is a seminary teacher and temple ordinance worker and a former high councilor, bishop, bishopric counselor, ward Young Men president, elders quorum president, and missionary in the Chile Concepción Mission. Managing partner, Woods, Erickson, Whitaker, & Maurice LLP. Born in Othello, Washington, to James Gilbert and Ann Barbara Kowal Erickson.  Sister Erickson is a ward Primary pianist and temple ordinance worker and a former counselor in a ward Relief Society presidency, counselor in a ward Primary presidency, ward Young Women president, and missionary in the Perú Lima North Mission. Born in Provo, Utah, to Dale Iver and Charlotte Madsen Koski.

Week 5

Hey guys so this week was alot better. President Erickson came and talked with me and my companion separately and resolved our issues, he was awesome.  Also, that day he came with me and my comp to all of our appointments so that was awesome. He has a really strong testimony of the Book of Mormon. It was actually published in the Liahona. I read it and he was apparently a convert and on his mission he Read the Book of Mormon 8 times, wow! The guy is truly amazing. Me and my comp our cool now. This week was good we had two investigators that are preparing for baptism this month come to church on Sunday so that was awesome. We actually found a new investigator. He is actually a drunk and he came up to us saying how he wanted to change. So we will be teaching him this Wednesday so that will be interesting. You actually have to be kind of carefull with drunk people. We actually contacted this other drunk guy and  saw him about a week later passed out in the middle of the road.  Anyway, I am making a little progress with the language so that feels good.  It's gonna be a long 6 months to understand the language. Nothing really interesting has happened this week so I thought that for this email that I would share a testimony. Well all lot of people gain their testimony of the church or the book of mormon after they read moronis promise and pray about it and that's great but sadly I wasn't one of those people.  I have felt the atonement of Jesus Christ in my life I have felt his love for me and because of that I believe. I am still working on my testimony of Joseph Smith and of the Book of Mormon. Because I have felt that Atonement of the  Lord I believe! I remember one day for some reason for some purpose I  felt like talking to the Bishop and I remembered not long after my father reading to me Alma 36. I remember getting on my knees that night and crying like Alma did," Jesus thou Son of God have mercy on me". I didnt feel instantly better or instantly forgiven but right then at that moment I knew that I could be forgiven and I knew that this was the true church. I guess what I am trying to say that this is how I know that this is the true church and  that is how I know that everything else is true. For ME the Atonement is my rock, its the foundation of my testimony. I just wanted to share that with everyone for this email.

Love Elder Atwood

Week 4

Well on Monday after I emailed you guys we all went to this place got pizza and then went to the stake center where we had ping pong, air hockey, fooseball and even got to watch The lego movie (IM Batman).   Well a hermana in my district, Hermana Osinaga was having a head ache so she sat down all of the sudden she couldn't see.  Some elders carried her to a room to kind of be alone and relax, well she kind of fainted while they were carrying her. The President had to meet her and her comp at the hospital.   Poor Hermana Karrate had to stay with her companion for 2 full days sleeping in a chair, apparently this has happened to two of Hermana Karrates companions now so that sucks. Well my comp was the district leader so he was kind of stressed out for her. We actually listened to a talk by Jeffry R Holland that really  motivated me he said, "tell me how your obedience is and I will tell you how your mission will be."  I  loved that so I want to be exactly obedient. 
Love, Elder Atwood