Surprise!!

District Meeting- Sisters Rendon, Dahle, Adams, Evangelista, and Elders Morrow and Nelson.

Dear Family,

Whew. A lot has changed since I last emailed you all. I've been praying and praying that Benjamin would accept a baptism date.  So we have been worried it would take a while for him to accept a date. I was praying that something would happen that would change his mind, because i didn't know what would help. Well we had a miracle! There is a family here, the Earls, who have 11 kids, and their oldest is leaving on his mission October 7th. With General Conference, they had his farewell talk not this Sunday, but the Sunday before, and then this past Wednesday they had a send-off gathering for him that the whole ward came to. Wednesday nights we usually have Book of Mormon study class with the Investigators and recent converts, but Bro. Pennington said we would just all go to the farewell gathering instead. Well, Benjamin was there and had a great time socializing with the members. I was really happy that he had that chance to talk to members. He is very friendly :)

Then the next night we had an appointment with him, and we felt like we should read 2 Nephi 31, talking all about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and baptism. It was a very powerful lesson, and the Spirit was so strong. The Elders came too, because Benjamin wanted to get to know the Elders better, too. As we finished the chapter, I asked Benjamin if he had thought about setting a date. I was worried he would be bugged because last time he asked why everyone was asking him to set a date, and he just wanted to take his time. I asked him why he wanted to be baptized (he has mentioned several times he wants to) and he said that even though he had been baptized before, he has not been baptized in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and he knows it's the right place to be. But then he said "Actually, I've been thinking about it. I think I want Jon Earl to baptize me (the boy leaving on his mission) ... When he gets home" WHAT! That's 2 years!!! I didn't actually say that. On the outside I didn't say anything.  Just stunned.  But Elder Lambert, being so level-headed, just said "How about he baptizes you before he leaves on his mission?" Benjamin thought about it a second and said "Yes, I would really like that" and once he said that, his whole countenance changed. He started talking about the spirit he felt when he visited temple square years ago. And how before meeting with missionaries and learning about the gospel, he didn't even want to come out of his room most days, but now he is HAPPY!  Which is so true. He is much more cheery. Then he talked about how he has felt being around the members and Ben's talk in sacrament. He said he felt like the Ward is a family. I said "and you're part of the family!" He got tears in his eyes and was quiet. He is set to go! I said "alright, we can make this happen!" And on the inside I'm trying to think how many days there are until October 7th. Not too many, I came to the conclusion. He gave a very solemn and sweet prayer telling Heavenly Father he had decided to be baptized.

Then the cops showed up afterwards, because our new phone has this awful button that calls 911 on its own and calls it from Sister Evangelista's bag. Hahahaha. Things like this always happen :) we've called 911 5 times in the past few weeks and cannot figure out how to get it to stop. It's awful!

The whole bike ride home I was stunned and must have had a very focused and serious look on my face because I was thinking so hard about all the things we need to do. With general conference we have decided he'll get baptized THIS SUNDAY. Which means there is less than a week. I'm pedaling thinking "baptism interview, finishing the lessons, making the program, assigning speakers, is he really ready?

Of course he is ready, I hope Ben has time, how is he going to get baptized when he is in a wheelchair?" I've been a mess the past few days. Just kidding. Most of the time I am fine, but sometimes you'll find me pacing around the apartment. Sister Evangelista is completely fine with it. She's not worried at all :) haha. Then Benjamin didn't come to church yesterday because he wasn't feeling well and couldn't meet with us like we talked about so I asked him if he would please please get on facebook and taught him 3 lessons in one on facebook. He was completely fine with all of them. Phew.

But I think everything will be totally fine. And I am SO EXCITED FOR HIM! And for Jon and for the ward! Something else that will be neat is that in Ward council they discussed that since Benjamin is in a wheelchair (he can still stand up, and he drives, but just can't walk around much) they will have someone in the font with him and Jon to help him out of the water. They were thinking we could see if a Jon's twin, Matt, could stand in and help. Which would be SO WONDERFUL because Matt is not able to go on a mission right now because of an Auto immune disease he has, which causes him to not function very well sometimes, and it's only been for the past 2 years. He was a very social and outgoing and happy kid before, but in the past two years will hardly talk or look at you in the eye, and sometimes just loses different abilities at different times, like eating or talking. He's going through lots of treatment, but it's just been an emotional time for the whole family. Especially for Jon, because he feels sad that he is leaving on a mission and his twin still isn't well enough to. Anyway. It will be very special if he could help with the baptism.

Funny thing from this week: I decided to be healthier, and then EVERYONE we visited gave us food. Some of it pretty healthy, like one older lady who loves taking care of the missionaries gave us tons of fruits, but then most of it was NOT HEALTHY! Like chocolate muffins, pizza, cookies, cake, etc. etc. Not nice. I feel like Satan is trying to persuade me to stop trying to be healthy. Just kidding, I love the ward members, and I'm so grateful they take care of us :) but it's been hard... Haha :) but really it was like every night someone giving us food to take home.

We met with P. this week. This boy from Nepal. He is so smart, especially about the gospel. He said he wants to serve a mission! So happy we found him :) his dad is also very smart and very kind. Also gave us food. Haha.

Things are going well here! Beautiful weather. Hope it stays cool. I'm excited for the fall! Already bought pumpkin things. Haha. It's a dangerous time of year for me. I'm always wanting to eat pumpkin.

Luckily I've found some healthy ideas. Like I bought a can of regular pumpkin and I'm going to eat it in my oatmeal. I know it probably sounds gross, but I think it will be good :)

Another funny thing from this week: we had district meeting in Lenoir.

Right on our border of our boundaries there is a lake that Sister Evangelista just park in the parking lot and we ate lunch we packed.  It was so peaceful and beautiful. Listened to nice music and we had a great time together. Then we really needed to use the bathroom before we went proselyting in Rutherford College area and we found a park with a bathroom. Bathroom was locked, so we drove out of the parking lot and there was a scraping noise that we often hear when the bike rack scrapes the road. It's a terrible sound and makes me cringe. We always look to see if anything happened, and when we looked out the back window, there was NO BIKE RACK. These Yakima bike racks are really nice and expensive. And they attach to the hitch and we never take them off because they are so sturdy. Well, it was gone. So we pulled over to the other side of the road, and Sister Evangelista goes across the street to look in the parking lot we just came out of, behind a small bush, because we thought it had fallen off. It was not there!!! Ahh!! I started thinking "how am I going to explain that we lost the bike rack to the mission office??" It really was no where to be seen. Well then we looked in the trunk, and the Elders had taken it off and put it in there when they had the car. Oh my gosh. Hahaha. It was so funny but not at the same time.

That's mostly what happened this week! This week we have zone conference, the General Women's Meeting, and Kenneth's baptism!! Then the next week is General Conference!! And I found out from past journals it will be a year since I got Sister Rendon as a companion!

And I'll be with her on the year date because of a meeting! Yay! :) haha.

Some insights from my study: in 3 Nephi 8, the signs of Christ death happen. In verses 21-23 it mentions that there was no light 3 times.

No light from the sun, the moon, the stars, they couldn't even light a fire! It made me think that Christ literally is the light of the world!! I thought about the sunlight and how it comes from Him, even if people don't recognize it. Same thing with the Light of Christ that everyone is born with. They have It, even if they don't realize it.

Also, we are reading the Book of Mormon as a mission, highlighting when it talks about the Doctrine of Christ (first principles of the

gospel) and Christlike attributes. Something I realized about the Doctrine of Christ is that it is SO SIMPLE. 1 Nephi 13 refers 10 times to the "plain and precious truths" taken out of the Bible. 2 Nephi

32:7 talks about the plainness of the Doctrine of Christ "as plain as word can be", yet they do not "search knowledge, nor understand great knowledge" it is simple, but you must put effort into understanding it. The Doctrine of Christ really is the good news. That we can change, and that it’s all possible through Christ. But we need to know what it is, by seeking for it!! I would invite you to read 2 Nephi 31 and 32 and to think about the Doctrine of Christ (see Article of Faith number 4) and why it is so important. It really was great for me reading it again :)

I hope you all have a good week. Glad you liked the pictures! Mom has been asking me to send some, because it's "been so long since I've seen you!" And I thought it hadn't been that long, but then I realized the pictures you hadn't seen yet were from July. So I thought it was about time :)

Love you!!

Sister Adams