Miracles!!

Dear Family,
Umm.. Wow. I don't even know where to start with this week...
On Monday I looked at some classes, but ran out of time because we had
to take the car to Charlotte. So Tuesday I figured everything out and
let me just say, at first I was not happy to go back to school.
Probably just because I forgot how to do everything, and forgot how
long it takes to figure out classes. So I had to be there quite a
while, and I felt bad about it, but Sister Tucker told me I shouldn't
feel bad, I should just get it done. So I did. I really felt peaceful
though as I started to figure things out, and even felt the Spirit!
Kinda sounds silly, but I just felt good about the things I figured
out, and also had a feeling that life after my mission really will be
good. There is so much to look forward to and to be happy about. I am
glad registration is over now! I don't have to worry about it anymore
:) Oh get this- I was looking at institute classes, and I said to
myself "I wish there was a class for returned missionaries." And there
is!! I'm going to take a "Returned Missionary Success" class on
Fridays :) yay.

Anyway, now to the miracles.
We met with the Drew family, and Aliana (the 16 year old) is doing
GREAT! She pulled out note cards with notes she had taken as she read
the Book of Mormon, and she is in chapter 16 now. We taught the Word
of Wisdom and there were no problems. So excited for them. We just
need to get the brother on board. He's 13 and is never there for the
lessons. They came to the Trunk or Treat and had a good time. They
also came to church on Sunday and it was wonderful! Not sure what
Christy thought of it, but Aliana came to church looking really
shy and when we saw her after young women's, she was so happy! She was
telling us she's going to come on Wednesday for the activity. Patience
loved it, too. We did sharing time in primary and she answered
questions about how to pray. So they're going to get baptized on the
16th :)

Then we met with the Ellis family. They live right next door to us!
I think I told you about them. But we taught the Restoration and they
loved it! And they agreed to be baptized on the 23rd! Yay!! They
weren't able to come to church. Because Sis. Ellis was sick (she's
pregnant), but they are excited to come. It's kind of weird living
next door to your Investigstors. But it's also great :)

Then this week we were trying to contact a less-active and she wasn't
home. There were some people outside, and I wasn't sure about talking
to them, because it was a bunch of guys. But most of them left except
for one. His name is William. We started talking to him and asked him
about his beliefs and he said he wasn't really sure. We asked him if
he's thought about the purpose of life and he said he's wondered that
all the time. He said he wasn't sure if he believed in God, and we
talked about prayer. He said kind of sheepishly, "I don't know how to
pray". We can help you!! We taught him how and it was great! We met
wit him again, and he had read the Restoration pamphlet and asked the
BEST questions. Wow. He's like "so can only prophets have the
priesthood or can other people have it?" "How do I know if someone is
a true prophet?" We talked about Joseph Smith and he said he feels
like him, wondering what to do. A friend randomly showed up (we were
teaching William outside. And it was freezing) and I wasn't sure how
he'd react, but he was pretty on board too! We started explaining what
the Book of Mormon is and the story, and William was like "why have I
never heard of this before??" And we had him read Moroni 10 and he
said "so if I pray and am really sincere, God will tell me what I need
to know?" Without us even needing to explain it! We invited him to be
baptized and he said "Well, if I came to know this was true, I'd be
pretty lame if I didn't get baptized." So he is going to get baptized
on the 30th!!

And then tonight we are meeting with Melinda, and we're going to work
things out for her baptism this Sunday, on the 9th. :)

This week seriously stunned me. I've never had this many people agree
to be baptized... We're kind of wondering how it will all work out,
but we know Heavenly Father will help us!

Hmm.. What else from this week...
Halloween is probably my least favorite missionary holiday. We had to
be in by 5:00. Which was so weird. We tried to get some things done,
but ran out of things to do. So I cleaned out the apartment of a lot
of old, stale food that has been left from missionaries past. And we
watched the Testaments. I don't like staying in that long though. We
were going to give pass along cards and candy to anyone that came to
our door, but no one came :(... They were probably all on the Main
Street. We were talking to someone that lives on the Main Street in
downtown Concord, and they said they have 1,000 trick or treaters
every year. No joke. They spend like $250 on candy every year. As we
were heading back home to be in on time on Halloween, we didn't
realize a huge festival had started downtown! Haha. We had to make our
way through hundreds and hundreds of people. Apparently Halloween is a
big deal here! There were two favorite costumes I saw though: a little
baby that was in one of those baby holders that was strapped to the
front of his mom and his holder was decorated like a popcorn container
and he had a bad on with popcorn attached to it. And a little tiny kid
that was being pulled in a wagon by his dad and they had made the
wagon into a big mouse trap and cut a little hole for him to sit in
it, and he was dressed as a mouse and was chewing on fake cheese. So
cute.

This week was great :) I had a thought this week about how my mission
has been the most perfect experience for me. Not that everything has
worked out perfectly, or that I've done anything perfectly, but I know
that everything that had happened has been exactly what I needed. It's
great how everything is so inspired. It's amazing thing to think that
every companion and area I've served in has happened through
revelation. It's just a great experience! Wow.
I love reading the Book of Mormon! I'm in Alma 32 on the one that we
are doing as a mission. This is probably the fastest I've read the
Book of Mormon ever! It's been kind of fun reading it fast. I just
love reading the stories of Alma and the sons of Mosiah as a
missionary. It just makes so much more sense and just comes to life
even more! It's amazing that the things they talk about and the way
they teach is SO similar to how we do things with Preach My Gospel.
One verse that stood out to me this week was Alma 27:27 - where it
says they were distinguished by their Christlike attributes. I want to
be the kind of person that others know as someone honest and firm in
the faith of Christ. Another thing I learned this week was that if we
want to receive revelation, we need to make sure we are also
repenting, because Heavenly Father isn't going to give us something we
aren't ready for (Alma 26:22).

Another thing I was thinking about while registering for my school
classes, was about priorities. As I stated planning things out I
though "whoah, my life is going to change a lot, and there are so many
things that I could focus on" and it was so comforting knowing that I
know my number one priority is the gospel! It's the only thing that
deals with eternity :)

I just love you all so much :) thanks for all that you do for me. For
the prayers, for helping me with school, and for the support.
I know this is all true! This work is true, because it's Heavenly
Father's work. The Book of Mormon is true, and I know because I'm
reading it and I feel in my heart and reason in my mind that it must
be true. There are many things we do not have all the answers for, but
there is much that we do know and that we can know! Hope you all have
a great week.

Love you,
Sister Adams