Elder Ryder Atkinson

I was told that the weather would be warming up by now but it's still near freezing up here in the mountains. We also had no hot water all this week and last week which was just lovely, but they got it fixed yesterday so we're all good now! Last Monday was probably the most fun I've had on a P-day thus far; We were finally able to drive up to Mt. Ruapeha! When we got there, we took a gandala up to the top where there was a huge area for us to just play in the snow like little kids. There was also this massive cafe where we had lunch and the view from the ledge was gorgeous so we took a bunch of pictures. Then we drove back into town in time to open up our exchanges with the zone leaders. The next day was super fun, my companion for the day, Elder Williams, and I drove up to Tūrangi and spent the day making visits and teaching lessons up there. By the end of the day I was exhausted, but I learned a lot from him and Elder Lavaka so that was awesome. These gang members stopped...

Make sure to wish my dad a happy 50th birthday! I'm sure he's beyond overjoyed that I'm going around telling everyone he's 50! Love you dad!! I was finally able to watch general conference, which was amazing, as always! It was especially cool to watch it from the perspective of a missionary because I was able to find a bunch of concepts that will help with some of the people we're teaching. We call this new perspective "Mission Goggles", and it's the same thing that makes the bland cereal here taste like Frosted Flakes after a few months. One of my favorite talks from general conference was from Elder Alan T. Phillips, who talked about the love of our Heavenly Father. My favorite part of this talk was when he was talking about his son and said, holding back tears, "He is my son, and I love him more than he will ever know. If an imperfect, earthly father feels this way about his child, can you imagine how a perfect, glorified, loving Heavenly Fathe...

One of the other Elders in my flat showed me this quote by someone I'm not even sure who, if you know who it is please let me know, and it hit me so hard so I thought I would share it with y'all. "You, the youth of the world, were Generals in the war in heaven and one day, when you are in the spirit world, you will be enthralled by those with whom you are associated. You will ask someone in which time period they lived and you might hear, "I was with Moses when he parted the Red Sea," or "I helped build the pyramids" or "I fought with Captain Moroni". And as you are standing there in amazement, someone will turn to you and ask in which time period you lived, and when you say the 21st centruy a hush will fall over every hall and corridor in Heaven and all in attendance will bow at your presence. You were held back until this time because you were the most talented, most courageous, and the most righteous of all the souls in heaven! Are you stil...