Dear Family,
I'm at a bowling alley/laser tag place right now! Haha Sister Evangelista and I are terrible at laser tag. I always have been. It's kind of like Rock climbing. I think "oh yes, this will be great! Maybe I'll be good at it!" And then I never. am. It's ok though. :)
So this week! It was good! :) We had Zone Meeting, and it was great. I was asked to put together a musical number and we sang "Joseph Smith's First Prayer" to the tune of "Israel, Israel, God is Calling" with the Morganton Elders and one Elder from Boone and another sister (can't remember where she was from). It was fun seeing everyone's faces when we started singing different words from what they were expecting.
I've been doing more interpreting! The deaf families told me if I keep interpreting, I'll progress really fast! After church was over, we were about to leave and then they said "we need you to interpret!" I
didn't know what, I just followed them into a classroom, and I interpreted a priesthood blessing! Totally not expecting that!
Ok now I am back at the family history center. So we have had a hard time having progressing investigators, and we've really been praying every day that we could find people that are ready for the gospel. So on Saturday we had car fast day, and got a ride to the next town over from Morganton, but couldn't find a ride ahead of time to get back to Morganton in the evening. So we had our bikes brought with us and we were going to bike home. We had no idea how long it would take, but Elder Jackman said it wasn't a long ride. So we get to Valdese, and tried contacting a less-active member and COULD NOT FIND her address. Big surprise! We are known for not finding addresses here! :) But we started talking to this lady outside picking green beans (Linda) and we shared with her the Book of Mormon, which I had just written a testimony in the front of a Book of Mormon that morning, which I have never done before in a Book of Mormon to give away. So I really felt like it was for her. Then later a member that lived in the area said that her plans changed and she could take us home, but we had our bikes! She had us over for dinner and didn't want us riding home on the street we were planning on, so she said she could just drive us home and we could come get the bikes the next day when we could use the car again. We felt like that was a good decision :)
So then Sunday we come back to get the bikes, and I really felt like we should go back to see Linda and to try and set up a time to see her again, because last time she was in a hurry. We talked to her for a bit and she didn't want to meet with us again any time soon. Maybe in a few weeks she said. Then I had another feeling to ask her if she had any ideas or suggestions of where we could find people that needed a good message. She said she had actually been thinking about that earlier and directed us to some apartments around the corner. We started talking to some people and then we knocked on a door and the lady let us right in! She is older (maybe 60s-70s) and her name is Helen. She also had her next door neighbor over, Janet, who is from Trinidad and is maybe in her 40s. Well Helen said that she let us right in because 10 years ago she was a children's librarian and some sister missionaries used to come in every week to volunteer. She loved them so much. They both had lots of questions for us about what we were doing as missionaries and who we were. We asked Helen if she knew very much about the church from the sisters and she said she didn't. So we shared the Restoration with them, and it was so great! They were very engaged and asking lots of questions. I really felt like Janet was meant to be there too. She is very sweet and they are both so humble and willing to learn. Helen mentioned at one point that she keeps reading Hebrews 7 and felt like she was missing something and she had kept reading that chapter lately because she thought God was trying to tell her something. She mentioned it again and so I turned to that chapter and it was about the Melchezidek and Aaronic priesthood! Whaat? Haha I was surprised! But we talked about Joseph Smith and the priesthood more and invited them to read the Book of Mormon, and we are seeing both of them again soon! Yay! We were so happy. We knew it came because we had fasted and because we listened to all the promptings of the Spirit. Sometimes the Spirit leads us to things or people or places, like Linda, and maybe she wasn't the one we were supposed to find, but she helped us get to where we needed to be! That's really been our focus as a companionship. To listen to all the promptings of the Spirit. We have seen a lot of great things happen because of it! There's a lot to improve on too :) It's so great being with Sister Evangelista! I can't remember if I mentioned it before, but we are very similar in that we got promptings for all sorts of things!
This week we have Zone Conference! Yay! So President and Sister Craven will be coming. They're always great. I really do enjoy going to meetings, even if sometimes I get stressed ;)
Oh yes, Happy 4th of July!! I made steak. I kept thinking how proud Dad would be ;) A less-active sister we visit gave us some steak earlier last week and so we made it for a 4th of July dinner. And I made cornbread and macaroni and cheese. All-American Southern meal. Haha. We didn't really have appointments on Friday, so we did a lot of street contacting, that actually was pretty good! We went to a big park where they were having 4th of July things going on, so we talked to quite a few people there. Actually the first people we talked to said "We were just talking about Mormons! Our son lives in Salt Lake and we just toured there in the Fall!". We had a training in our zone meeting on our "finding time" (which usually means we have no appointments, so we are trying to contact people, knock on doors, etc.) and they joked about how when you see a day that is all green, you usually feel like you don't want to get out of bed (green is the color code on our planner app for finding). Which is true a lot of times for me, admittedly. But they said we should feel excited we get to meet Heavenly Father's children and teach them the gospel! So it's all how you look at it :) :) I've gotten a lot better at it! Buuut at the same time I'd love to have progressing investigators :) all in due time though! :)
Things are going well here! I hope you all are reading in the Book of Mormon still. I really really hope so, because the schedule that I made is super slow for me. I only read like 2 pages a day to make sure I am staying on track and it feels so slow! Luckily, I think we will be starting the Book of Mormon as a mission again, so I will be reading it with you all and with the mission from the beginning. But reading in Alma 37 was really inspiring to me this week. The way really is prepared for us! It talks about how the way is easy, and I started thinking about how many would agree that life is not easy. But what I thought of was that the path is easily discerned, because Christ has already prepared the path for us (the Doctrine of Christ). So the path is easy because it has been made clear what it is, but that doesn't mean we won't face hardships. It was easy for the Israelites to look to the serpent and believe it could heal them, and all that Lehi and his family needed to do was to be diligent and keep the commandments for the Liahona to work. I find a lot of comfort in knowing that we don't need to be confused about our path! It makes it a whole lot easier to get back on it when we stray :)
I hope you all know how much I love you. I pray for you individually often, and think about how you are doing! I know this is Heavenly Father's work! Thank you for all of your support. I hope that you are getting blessings. From what it sounds like, you are :)
Love you,
Sister Adams
I'm at a bowling alley/laser tag place right now! Haha Sister Evangelista and I are terrible at laser tag. I always have been. It's kind of like Rock climbing. I think "oh yes, this will be great! Maybe I'll be good at it!" And then I never. am. It's ok though. :)
So this week! It was good! :) We had Zone Meeting, and it was great. I was asked to put together a musical number and we sang "Joseph Smith's First Prayer" to the tune of "Israel, Israel, God is Calling" with the Morganton Elders and one Elder from Boone and another sister (can't remember where she was from). It was fun seeing everyone's faces when we started singing different words from what they were expecting.
I've been doing more interpreting! The deaf families told me if I keep interpreting, I'll progress really fast! After church was over, we were about to leave and then they said "we need you to interpret!" I
didn't know what, I just followed them into a classroom, and I interpreted a priesthood blessing! Totally not expecting that!
Ok now I am back at the family history center. So we have had a hard time having progressing investigators, and we've really been praying every day that we could find people that are ready for the gospel. So on Saturday we had car fast day, and got a ride to the next town over from Morganton, but couldn't find a ride ahead of time to get back to Morganton in the evening. So we had our bikes brought with us and we were going to bike home. We had no idea how long it would take, but Elder Jackman said it wasn't a long ride. So we get to Valdese, and tried contacting a less-active member and COULD NOT FIND her address. Big surprise! We are known for not finding addresses here! :) But we started talking to this lady outside picking green beans (Linda) and we shared with her the Book of Mormon, which I had just written a testimony in the front of a Book of Mormon that morning, which I have never done before in a Book of Mormon to give away. So I really felt like it was for her. Then later a member that lived in the area said that her plans changed and she could take us home, but we had our bikes! She had us over for dinner and didn't want us riding home on the street we were planning on, so she said she could just drive us home and we could come get the bikes the next day when we could use the car again. We felt like that was a good decision :)
So then Sunday we come back to get the bikes, and I really felt like we should go back to see Linda and to try and set up a time to see her again, because last time she was in a hurry. We talked to her for a bit and she didn't want to meet with us again any time soon. Maybe in a few weeks she said. Then I had another feeling to ask her if she had any ideas or suggestions of where we could find people that needed a good message. She said she had actually been thinking about that earlier and directed us to some apartments around the corner. We started talking to some people and then we knocked on a door and the lady let us right in! She is older (maybe 60s-70s) and her name is Helen. She also had her next door neighbor over, Janet, who is from Trinidad and is maybe in her 40s. Well Helen said that she let us right in because 10 years ago she was a children's librarian and some sister missionaries used to come in every week to volunteer. She loved them so much. They both had lots of questions for us about what we were doing as missionaries and who we were. We asked Helen if she knew very much about the church from the sisters and she said she didn't. So we shared the Restoration with them, and it was so great! They were very engaged and asking lots of questions. I really felt like Janet was meant to be there too. She is very sweet and they are both so humble and willing to learn. Helen mentioned at one point that she keeps reading Hebrews 7 and felt like she was missing something and she had kept reading that chapter lately because she thought God was trying to tell her something. She mentioned it again and so I turned to that chapter and it was about the Melchezidek and Aaronic priesthood! Whaat? Haha I was surprised! But we talked about Joseph Smith and the priesthood more and invited them to read the Book of Mormon, and we are seeing both of them again soon! Yay! We were so happy. We knew it came because we had fasted and because we listened to all the promptings of the Spirit. Sometimes the Spirit leads us to things or people or places, like Linda, and maybe she wasn't the one we were supposed to find, but she helped us get to where we needed to be! That's really been our focus as a companionship. To listen to all the promptings of the Spirit. We have seen a lot of great things happen because of it! There's a lot to improve on too :) It's so great being with Sister Evangelista! I can't remember if I mentioned it before, but we are very similar in that we got promptings for all sorts of things!
This week we have Zone Conference! Yay! So President and Sister Craven will be coming. They're always great. I really do enjoy going to meetings, even if sometimes I get stressed ;)
Oh yes, Happy 4th of July!! I made steak. I kept thinking how proud Dad would be ;) A less-active sister we visit gave us some steak earlier last week and so we made it for a 4th of July dinner. And I made cornbread and macaroni and cheese. All-American Southern meal. Haha. We didn't really have appointments on Friday, so we did a lot of street contacting, that actually was pretty good! We went to a big park where they were having 4th of July things going on, so we talked to quite a few people there. Actually the first people we talked to said "We were just talking about Mormons! Our son lives in Salt Lake and we just toured there in the Fall!". We had a training in our zone meeting on our "finding time" (which usually means we have no appointments, so we are trying to contact people, knock on doors, etc.) and they joked about how when you see a day that is all green, you usually feel like you don't want to get out of bed (green is the color code on our planner app for finding). Which is true a lot of times for me, admittedly. But they said we should feel excited we get to meet Heavenly Father's children and teach them the gospel! So it's all how you look at it :) :) I've gotten a lot better at it! Buuut at the same time I'd love to have progressing investigators :) all in due time though! :)
Things are going well here! I hope you all are reading in the Book of Mormon still. I really really hope so, because the schedule that I made is super slow for me. I only read like 2 pages a day to make sure I am staying on track and it feels so slow! Luckily, I think we will be starting the Book of Mormon as a mission again, so I will be reading it with you all and with the mission from the beginning. But reading in Alma 37 was really inspiring to me this week. The way really is prepared for us! It talks about how the way is easy, and I started thinking about how many would agree that life is not easy. But what I thought of was that the path is easily discerned, because Christ has already prepared the path for us (the Doctrine of Christ). So the path is easy because it has been made clear what it is, but that doesn't mean we won't face hardships. It was easy for the Israelites to look to the serpent and believe it could heal them, and all that Lehi and his family needed to do was to be diligent and keep the commandments for the Liahona to work. I find a lot of comfort in knowing that we don't need to be confused about our path! It makes it a whole lot easier to get back on it when we stray :)
I hope you all know how much I love you. I pray for you individually often, and think about how you are doing! I know this is Heavenly Father's work! Thank you for all of your support. I hope that you are getting blessings. From what it sounds like, you are :)
Love you,
Sister Adams
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