Hello, Winston-Salem!

My new companion Sister Farber!  She said I looked like a "fun missionary"!

Dearest Family,



Me and Sister Farber!



Whew. Longest week of my life. One of the hardest too.I feel like a new missionary all over again! Well, first things first. I live in a house!! It's actually really nice and TONS of space. Hahaha which might not be so good cause then I will accumulate more things and then will have an even harder time packing! It's the basement of a less-active lady, who is the mom of an active member of our ward. She apparently doesn't talk to the missionaries very much. She is really old and I think she is not all the way there. 

But funny story, we got to meet her because in our closet/dressing area I noticed that our ceiling was leaking! So we went and knocked on her front door and her door was open with the screen door shut. I could see her sink running and overflowing!! No one was coming to the door and I was like "Oh no.. I am about to have to handle an emergency. She's probably passed out or had a heart attack or something!!!" So we just opened the door and yelled in and she was right in the living room and forgot she left the sink on. Hahaha! It was really stressful for just a second. 

Anyway. Winston-Salem is very poor in some areas. I have never seen so many apartments in my life. And there is SO much more diversity, which is fun. I don't want to scare you or anything, but there are some really rough parts of town. Lots of crime. Luckily I grew up trained to lock doors and be super cautious and safe ;) 

I have been pretty stressed this week. In my last area we bought our groceries together, but here they do it separate. Which is totally fine! There was like 4 pieces of bread for the whole week! Hahaha. It was an adventure for me. I bought a lot of food today. Then, the Sister Training Leaders asked us to go on exchanges tomorrow and they want me to stay here!! So I have to lead out all the plans to teach all the people I don't know. I kind of laughed when they said they wanted me to stay here, because I already don't know anything about the area. But I know Heavenly Father will help me :) He has this whole week. 

(Having to do with working with members) Bro. Rottweiler taught us really well. He was so persistent in telling us that we needed to gain the trust of the members and we needed to be reliable and mature. We sometimes think that by virtue of us being missionaries, we should get their help. But missionaries need to earn member trust! We need to have a "how can I help?" attitude, as it says in PMG (Preach My Gospel). I have really been counseling a lot with Heavenly Father, and there are a lot of things I think He wants done here. And I know that it is coming from Him because I have evidence of it in the scriptures and PMG and I have been praying a LOT about it. Friday morning I was feeling stressed and was kind of feeling discouraged.  In my personal study that morning the Spirit was so strong as I was reading about how to work with members in PMG, and afterwards I prayed that I would be able to know how to help change things, while at the same time not overstepping my boundaries or exercising unrighteous control over anyone. Then in our Zone Meeting right after I had that study, it was ALL about how "The Better Way" to do missionary work is through the members and how we need to be using networking more to accomplish the goals that the mission has set. I felt so silly, but I had tears and almost started crying when they started doing the training on that! It was such an immediate answer to prayer!! 

Ahh. I am so sorry that this email has just been so much stress, it has just been a huge change. Always gotta look on the bright side ;) I think this week will be a lot better though, because I have kind of got a hold of things, and I am trying to implement more planning and focusing on what will be the most beneficial to the area. It's weird living here! It's such a quite neighborhood, and we never see anyone when leaving or coming home. So different from being at the apartments in Colfax! We also live super far from the church, which is different. But it's all good. There are tons of less actives.

We have a couple of younger girls that we are teaching, where their moms are members but they aren't yet. So we have a 9 year old girl getting baptized March 1st and then 2 more (one 9 and one 11 years old) hopefully setting a date soon. 

Good news: On our car share, we have the car two weeks and one week on bikes. So that's great! My last 2 transfers I had the car every other week.

Miracle story: Yesterday we were trying to see an elderly less active lady, who wasn't home. But we saw a man and his wife walk into an apartment a couple doors down, and Sister Farber said we should knock on his door! So we did and he was like "Yeah.. I have been to your church before. I was baptized" Whaaaat? Haha he wasn't even on our records. But his girlfriend isn't a member! We have an appointment with them tomorrow!!! :) That happens ALL the time it seems like! Tracting into unknown members. Heavenly Father really knows his children! Also, we were trying to find a ton of less actives yesterday, and on the iPad you can look up who lives in the area you are in, and so we did that and I pulled up a less active couple that was on our list and it took us forever to find the apartment. Both Sister Farber and I are terrible with finding addresses, (both of our past companions were really good at it) and it took us forever. But good thing it did because we knocked on the door and this young guy answered the door and he said that both he and his girlfriend were members and he was actually on his way to join her at her parents’ house, but he came back for just a few seconds to get his laptop. So if we came earlier or later we would not have caught him! But anyway, he was really excited for us to come back! 

Heavenly Father is taking good care of me. Really good care of me. I have had my ups and downs this week, for sure. But I know that I am definitely here for a reason. I am learning so much and it is helping me to be the person I need to be. I have never been challenged and tested as much as I have on a mission! But I know it will be worth it. Missions are like an endurance test. Hope you are all loving the Book of Mormon reading! I know I am!! I always learn so much. 

Love you all. Thank you for your prayers and support.

Love,

Sister Adams

Sister Farber found this scripture the other day and we were dying laughing. I promised I would end my email with it ;) D&C 130:12. We're next door to the bloodshed and difficulties. I have the possibility of serving there! ;) 

Our Basement Apartment