Stuck Inside...

Dear family,

I always sit down to email, and it seems like I forget everything that happened during the week. I start thinking "hmm. this week was pretty uneventful." And then it all comes flooding back and I remember that a TON happened!

Well, you probably all heard about the crazy weather we have had! People often overreact a little about the weather here, so when we were told there was going to be a huge snow storm, I was thinking it probably wouldn't be that bad. Well this time THEY WERE RIGHT! Sheesh. Wednesday it started coming down hard and we were told to do our weekly planning instead of having our district meeting. After our weekly planning we couldn't even really go anywhere. So we stayed inside most of the day. So we were thinking life would go on the next day, but THEN IT DIDN'T!! Thursday morning it started snowing so hard and for SO long. It probably snowed for 6-7 hours straight. And we got a call Thursday morning that no one could use their cars, so we had to find other things to do. So all day Thursday we were stuck in the apartment. I always wondered what it would be like to have one of those days where we didn't go out. And it was really hard! Haha. At first I started out like "hey this isn't so bad!" and I did things like emailed the bishop, and watched some videos on missionary work. Then we made calls and tried to do stuff on facebook. Then we ate lunch and then we had no clue what to do!! Sister Farber took a nap during lunch and then when she woke up I said "I know what we're going to do! Go shovel people's driveways!" So we started with our own driveway, and the walkway of the lady who lives upstairs. Then we tried to ask people in our neighborhood if we could and they all said no!! So it was back to the apartment. Hahaha! It was the longest day of my whole mission I think. We rearranged some furniture, we called everyone we could think of, I started making a paper Plan of Salvation cut out, etc. etc. We started feeling so awful from being inside and sitting, that Sister Farber and I decided to exercise. So we took laps around the basement, did some cardio, and we did some dance/ballet too. It was definitely needed, because it was so depressing not doing anything! Hahaha we were just laughing at ourselves though thinking about if someone saw us...

I went on exchanges this week with Sister Shaw and she is so great! She just became a Sister Training Leader and it was her first exchange as one. She was a lot of fun and I learned a ton from her. It's always so good to actually watch someone teach and talk to people. I learn a lot more quickly from example.

I am feeling a lot more settled in. Not as panicky as I did last week! Things are going better as far as the work goes I think. But it's still challenging. I really relied a lot on Sister Rendon with scheduling and coordinating and such. She is SO good at it. So not only did I rely on her to remind me of things that we needed to do, but now I don't know the area so a lot of times I don't know what to coordinate or schedule. So I feel like I have made lots of mistakes this week. Saturday I felt super sad with myself that I keep forgetting things, and I was worried that I wasn't doing all that I could. We were supposed to have Jana, a little girl getting baptized soon hopefully, come to another little kid's baptism in the Tanglewood ward. We arranged a ride and everything, and then the ride went to pick her up and no one was home. We had already talked to Jana and her mom about it, but we should have called her the night before to remind her. I totally forgot to call and remind, so I was upset that I hadn't remembered that. And there have been several times since I have gotten here that I have told myself and committed to be more organize and remember things, but I keep falling short! But luckily the Holy Ghost taught me what I needed to know, and I was just reminded about the Savior and His Atonement and how He can help me overcome things that I can't by myself and can help me do things that I am not currently capable of doing. I am SO grateful for the Savior!! And I am so glad that He is the most perfect person because He doesn't give up on me! I just thought about how humbling it is that with how important missionary work is, He is still willing to let me have a try at it, even though He KNOWS I will mess up. He already knew that sometimes I wouldn't say the right thing, or I might forget things, or I would get impatient or any number of things. Sometimes I worry when we talk about Heavenly Father trusting us, because I think "Ok, I cannot always be trusted to do everything right!" But I think the trust that we form with Him is based on our attitude of wanting to be better. I feel like He trusts me because I just try to be better! 

Anyway... 

Yesterday I gave a talk in Sacrament Meeting on how the family is central to Heavenly Father's plan! I started out the talk explaining our family :) So that was fun to do! Hopefully y'all read the Christlike Attributes challenge we are doing as a mission. I would love if you all did it with me!! :) Can you believe next week will be 8 months for me?? I keep telling people I just hit 7 months. But actually it's 8! Ahh! Crazy! I don't really know what else to say about this week. It was short but also long. I feel like that's what my whole mission is like!! We don't have the car this week. Sad! But  that's ok, I think we've got quite a few members set up to take us out. 

Random other details: 

-I'll probably call the Mission Office again to get another new mattress. I just got a new one in Colfax, but of course had to leave it! I just do not do well with old mattresses. It kills my back and neck. I feel bad to keep asking them for new beds, so I keep putting it off. 

-I told Sister Farber that Preston used to tell me "The whiter the bread, the faster you're dead." And she really loves it. She is very very healthy :) Haha. I only eat wheat now anyway though ;)

-On Friday we got stuck after we had parked on a downhill parking lot in an apartment complex. It was very embarrassing. Haha!

-Then like 30 minutes later we were driving on another street. The roads were a mess, with only tracks for like one car to drive at a time. So we were driving, and this car was driving coming towards us, and so he tried to drive around us and got stuck in the snow. We parked somewhere safe and despite Sister Farber telling me to just keep driving, we got out and helped him push his car out! I told her it was a good opportunity to talk to someone. First time I have ever pushed a car out! And of course, I gave him a mormon.org pass-along card. He said that he actually had missionaries come by his house when he lived in Greensboro, so I said "Perfect! Here, you can give us a call!". Finding all the time ;) 

-I super miss Sister Rendon! She told me in an email today that Sam said the closing prayer in church and when he got up to say the prayer he said into the mic "Let us pray!" And apparently he also had planned ahead of time to share a scripture with the congregation before he prayed too, but then the stake president was there so he decided not to. He cracks me up! Also, Fred blessed the sacrament for the first time last Sunday! Yay!!! 

-I definitely had a renewed sense of determination when I got a reply to my email to President Craven and he said that he knew the challenges we have in the area and that was exactly the reason I was there. Phew! It just makes me feel better knowing other people know that things are a challenge! 

Well. I don't know what else to say about the week. I'm just trying to keep going :) I really am looking forward to the day that I can look back and just have the knowledge that I finished a mission. Just knowing that I did something really challenging, and that I finished the whole thing! It will be a great feeling, and I already do feel good about it! It really is such a blessing getting to serve :)

Love you all. And miss you tons!

Sister Adams