Enabling Power of the Atonement

This week has been great and I am doing great! I hope y'all are doing well. I don't get to many letters from y'all so your must be doing good.
I am loving to serve, it is truly a blessing. I am so excited for Cody. He is going to be the best missionary ever! Tell me how the temple was!
So,  this week has probably changed my mission. I feel like God sent me to a hard area so I could grow into the missionary he wants me to be. My gospel understanding has grown so much! I love teaching so much that it drives me to talk with everyone and go the extra mile. I did study this week on the Atonement. I read this talk by David A. Bednar on it.  It really opened my mind and eyes. The Atonement is not just for the sinner. The Atonement makes bad people good and good people better. The enabling power of the Atonement helps good people to be better or to become a saint through the Atonement as described in Mosiah 3:19. Elder Bednar goes on to describe a story about a prophet who truly understood the Atonement, Nephi. In 1 Nephi: Chapter 7, Nephi is being tied up by big brothers again.  They were going to take his life when he decided to pray for strength through the enabling power of the Atonement. In verse 17 he offers his prayer and he did not pray that he would be teleported away or that Laman and Lemuel would disappear, but he prayed for strength, not for his situation to change, but for strength through the enabling power of the Atonement. Like it says in Alma 7:11-13, not only did Jesus Christ take upon him the sins of the world, but everyone's pains, sicknesses, and afflictions. Nephi's situation was not changed, but he was strengthened and supported.
Over all, we need to pray for strength through the enabling power of the Atonement during our trials, not for the trials to be taken from us. God will send help from both sides of the veil as we truly understand the Atonement, like in Mosiah 24.
I put this to the test that night... As you know we have been having a rough time finding, teaching, and baptizing. I have been so worried about changing my situation and have been praying for a mighty change in the area I have been in. But, when I did that study I truly understood the enabling power of the Atonement. my prayers changed this area to strengthen me through the enabling power of the Atonement, so that I can bear my burdens and trials and be the best missionary I can be for you. the second I prayed for the spirit hit me so strong I was overwhelmed by His love, and felt an overwhelming peace that he was proud of my efforts. the spirit hit me so strong and I can testify with them that the Atonement is real! It is available to each and everyone of us. He loves us more that we can even imagine. He is always there and always hears our prayers. I know that Jesus is the Christ and that he was Gods only perfect son, and that he submitted to the will of the Father and completed the Atonement. I know that God the Father and his son appeared to a humble 14 year old bot and that Joseph Smith is a prophet of God. I know he translated the Book of Mormon by the power of God and I know that through him, God restored his church. The church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is hid kingdom on the earth and I know that through the spiritual witness I relieved at the age of 17, when I had desires to gain my own testimony. I know with out a doubt in my body that the Book of Mormon is true and that God loves all his children. I know this because I have ready the Book of Mormon and have asked God; and the Experience I had, I will never forget. It is all true. I know that Jesus Christ is my older brother and am so thankful for what he did. I know that he lives and that he leads and guides this church today! I bear witness of this in the holy name of Jesus Christ, amen.
I love y'all
-Elder Johnson

P.S. Might want to check my grammar, and I hope that when y'all read this that the spirit is as strong as when it was written.