Sick Day, and Halfway!

Out in Some Rainy Weather

Dear Family,



Another week gone by! The past 3 weeks have gone by super super fast. I don't really know why! My official 9 month mark is next week! (Halfway!) Whaat? And March is halfway over! I seriously am still stuck in February I think. Anyway. It's been a crazy week, as usual. I think life after my mission will seem not as eventful compared to all that happens here. On Wednesday it was super nice outside, and then it just started pouring rain! I was pretty sure it was going to rain, because the iPad told me so, so we decided that biking would not be a good option. So we were walking that day. But walking wasn't much better!! Haha. It takes a super long time to get anywhere walking. But we were walking to our dinner appointment when it started pouring. We eventually ran under someone's porch while we called the member we were having dinner with. We had dinner with Sister Wilson, who is this AMAZING lady who is a returned missionary and now has two kids. She is just the most dynamic person. Love her. But she had Bro. and Sis. Greene from the ward over at her house and Sis. Greene picked us up in the rain and took us to Sis. Wilson's. We threw some of our stuff in the dryer and had dinner. Then we went home, changed, and went back out and it was SO WINDY! I have never seen it so windy in NC before. But the windy-ness here sounds so eerie because of the trees! Sis. Farber and I were convinced that it was the end of the world soon. Or that an aircraft was landing. Or that a tornado was about to start. I think the wind kicked up a lot of stuff into the air because on Friday I was super sick!!

I was coughing and sneezing all day!! We stayed inside until like 4:00 when we were going to walk to the bus stop so we could get to the bus by 5:15 to take a bus downtown to take another bus to an appointment we had at 7:00, but as soon as we walked out the door, we realized I could not make the walk! (It's super hard not having the car here, because our area is HUGE.) So we went back inside and I laid down. I was so stubborn the whole day. Throughout the whole day I would say "Ahh. I feel awful not going out!! We need to do something!" and I would start doing the dishes or trying to make calls, and Sister Farber would say "Just lay down!!" Haha. I was convinced we could make it to our appointment, but I was wrong! ;) 

One interesting thing this week was while we were inside I got on facebook and saw this random guy added me. Usually I delete all the random people that request me, but I decided to add him and he started talking to me right away. Sister Farber and I ended up teaching him the whole Restoration AND invited him to be baptized! Yep, over facebook. He is from India!! I was questioning how sincere he was in wanting to know, but he seemed so interested. I sent him an article from President Monson and he said "give me a few minutes to read" and then a few minutes later he told me all about what he thought about it! When I was sharing the story about Joseph Smith I would say something like "So Joseph Smith decided to pray to know which  church was true" and he would respond back "den what happnd Sister Adams?" and he kept asking every time I shared another part of the Restoration. Haha when I invited him to be baptized he was super confused, thinking I would come to India to teach him. He accepted the invitation though! But I explained there are missionaries there and I helped him find the church building closest to him. So that was definitely an interesting experience! Preaching the Gospel all over the world!! I'm interested to hear what happens next! 

Random thoughts:

-Oh yes, almost forgot about transfers. Sister Farber and I are both staying. Not really a surprise ;) 

We had stake conference this weekend! It was really great. We went to the Saturday night and the Sunday session. It was all about Hastening the Work. I had never heard of that concept before...but it was interesting. (Just kidding!! But it was really good!!) The Sunday session was a broadcast from Salt Lake for most of the Southeast region of the U.S. Elder Perry spoke! 

We're still having a hard time finding solid investigators. I was feeling a little discouraged, especially since we were a little behind because I had been sick. But yesterday we spent a lot of time finding. We were tracting an apartment complex and we were about to leave to go to another complex, and there was this car in the parking lot with it's lights on. I said out loud "we should go tell that person that their lights are still on!" but we kept walking and were about to leave. I had the thought that I really should go find the person whose car lights were on, and didn't know if it came from the Spirit or if it was just me. I remembered a talk from Elder Bednar that they showed us in the MTC where he said that many of us wonder if thoughts come from the Spirit or from just ourselves, and he essentially said "IT DOESN'T MATTER. If it tells you to do good and to be good, it doesn't really matter if it is your own thoughts." And I also thought of a great talk from (Sam’s) baptism from Bro. Best where he talked about how when we act on feelings to do something good that we think comes from the Holy Ghost, even if it didn't, we are at least showing Heavenly Father that we are trying really hard to act on promptings. I had Elder Bednar's voice and Bro. Best's voice in my head, so I turned around right then and said "Sister Farber, we have to find that person!!" Haha. So dramatic, I know. It wasn't really. It just sounds more dramatic now that I am typing it. But we went over to the building where the car was and the first door we knocked on was the owner of the car! We talked to him and his wife for a little bit, and they were really nice. We shared the Book of Mormon with them and the wife referred us to her sister in the next building. We'll be seeing all of them later this week Yay! We'll see what comes of it, but I have come to know it's just always better to try and follow promptings. Even if nothing ever happens to the people we met, I know that the success comes from following the Spirit and giving people the opportunity to act. That's something they talked about in Stake Conference and that I have heard a lot about in general concerning missionary work. We succeed when we invite. Success does not depend on if they accept it, but that you gave them the chance! 

So I would challenge you all that if you feel a prompting to do something for someone, to invite them, to help them, just do it!! The success comes from you acting! And Heavenly Father loves when we righteously try to act on the knowledge we have. So next week, I would love to hear your experiences on trying to act on the promptings to share the gospel or serve people! And I will try my best to do the same!! :) 

I know that the Book of Mormon is so true!! It's amazing how it really was written for our day. Sometimes I just ponder on how the world views the Book of Mormon and how I feel about it. I can definitely see why some people are afraid of it, in that it is unfamiliar, and it is a bold claim to say we have another book of scripture in addition to the Bible. But when I compare that to how much goodness there is in that book, I just want to do all I can to help people move past the fear and to feel the Spirit in it!

Also, a little plug for the Christ-like attribute this week, Knowledge. It's one of my favorite attributes. There is so much for us to know about life and the gospel. And I can definitely say that Heavenly Father will give us knowledge! We won't necessarily understand why everything is the way it is. There are plenty of things that I know happen to people that they wonder what the purpose was of it happening. Some of those things we may not ever know why they happened in this life. But there is so much we CAN know about Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and their love for us. And when we come to know Them, we can trust Them! John 15:15 - We are His friends, not just servants! A servant follows but does not know who he is serving, a friend follows and knows who they are following! 

Love y'all!

(Did I ever tell you that everyone here says "Have a blessed day"? Well, they do. Every answering machine message ends with "have a blessed day")

Sister Adams :)