Dear
Family,
Wow!
What a great week. Very busy. I'll try to go in order of when things happened
so I don't miss anything.
Tuesday
right after studies we drove to Albemarle to go on exchanges. Albemarle is the
biggest (geographically) ward in the mission, and Sister Evangelista and Sister
Tucker had both served there before :) So it was fun, because I've heard SOO much
about it. I went to Albemarle with Sister Ekstrom, and Sister Nielsen stayed in
Concord with Sister Lambert. Sister Ekstrom is so great! She is a convert of 2
years or so, and is the only member in her family, and she is from Utah. She is
so sweet. She just finished training and we had a great day. Going on exchanges
isn't so bad! :) Haha.. on our way there though (it takes 45 minutes to get
there) I realized.. I didn't pack any clothes to sleep in!! So I had to
borrow some from Sister Ekstrom. I felt so silly... :) Anyway, I love
being with new missionaries. One of my goals for my mission was that I always
wanted to have a mind open to learning, I didn't ever want to think "well,
I have been on my mission for a long time, so I know what I'm doing" and
then just do everything the same. President Craven says it like this: we
shouldn't have an 18 month mission that is just the same 6 months repeated 3
times, or the same 3 months repeated 6 times, but a whole 18 month mission! Not
just getting into a routine, but always learning. That's what I loved about
exchanges though :)
Then
the next day (Wednesday) we drove to Kannapolis to switch back and to go to our
district meetings. So I went to my district meeting and was back with Sis.
Nielsen. Then we went straight home and I threw some other clothes in my bag
(and clothes to sleep in this time) and we drove to the stake center to go on
exchanges with the Matthews sisters. I went to Matthews with Sister Goodrich
and Sister Nielsen was in Concord with Sister Perea. This was a great exchange,
too! Sister Goodrich loves tracting. So that was good for me, because I don't
usually love it ;) We tried to see someone and they weren't there, so she said
"let's tract!" and she turned around to the apartment on the opposite
side of the door we were at and the man that answered asked us who we were and
let us right in! (We had a recently returned sister missionary with us, so we
could go in) He is from the Congo, and runs his own business. He is super
funny, but we had a great lesson with him. So that was a little miracle. So something different about their area- they
live in a house! Actually, they live in the house of the member's whose son
served his mission in Trent's mission and died. It was sad to think about, but
I think Sister Page really loves having the sisters live there. While we were
checking each other's facebook while I was on exchanges there, I synced my
areabook and could see the plans Sister Nielsen put in the previous night, and
saw "Exchanges with Lakefield" for Friday night! Whaaat? Haha I
thought "Lakefield is in High Point!!" Which is super far away. Well
it turns out they were going to stay at our apartment for the night because
there was a new missionary meeting in Charlotte and Saturday morning was our
mission conference, so they just stayed with us instead of going all the way
back home. Whew!
Then
earlier in the week we got a text from the zone leaders letting us know we get
to go to the stake high council meeting! So Thursday we exchanged back
from Matthews and tried to catch up on what was going on and then had to
go to dinner and then drive to the stake center for the high council meeting!
It was interesting! They had two returned missionaries from Korea report to the
high council. I had never seen that before. One of them was the sister we
went out with while I was in Matthews. It was weird to think she didn't leave
for her mission too long before I did... We reported to the high council on our
month. This stake is SUPER involved in missionary work. Charlotte Central is
kind of known for that. I think a lot of it is the great leadership, but also I
think the closer you are to the mission headquarters, the more
missionary-focused they seem to be ;) Then we found out there was a conference
call with all the mission leadership and President Craven at 9:35 that night,
so we got out of the stake meeting at 9:00 and hurried home to get on the call!
We made it just in time! Phew!
Then
the Assistants had asked us to pick up the Lakefield sisters on Friday after
their meeting to take them back to our area. So we had to plan two schedules so
that Sister Nielsen and I could split up with each of them, and find a member
to come out with us. Heavenly Father was so good to us and helped us get a member
to come out with us during the evening! Also great- there is a part-member
family we have been wanting to get to know better, so we asked our ward
missionaries in charge of our calendar if they could ask them to have us over.
So we went with the Lakefield sisters to dinner with this family, the (L)'s.
The husband wasn't there, but Sister L was and we got to talk to her about
teaching her husband. She said he has several times before, but always did
better with sisters, and we are going to set something up. So that was a
miracle!
Then
Saturday morning we woke up super early to go see Elder D. Todd Christofferson!
Yay!! While I was on exchanges earlier in the week, Sister Nielsen accepted an
invitation in my behalf to sing in a musical number for when he came! Umm,
nervous? Yes! So we sang in a rather large group (12 missionaries) and we sang
"What Child is This?" While we were practicing before the meeting,
they decided to have me sing solo at the beginning! While we were practicing,
it was like practicing for any other musical number, but it wasn't until I was
standing in front of the whole mission with Elder Christofferson right
behind me that I got kind of nervous! Luckily I have had so many opportunities
to sing in my life that my outward appearance of being nervous isn't so bad.
But yes, it was wonderful and great opportunity. Before the musical number,
though, we all got to shake Elder Christofferson's hand. I wish I could
describe to you what it's like to have an Apostle come and speak! It just feels
so great in the room. He speaks very peacfully and the feeling there was just
like "everything is going to be ok!" He spoke for 10 minutes, but the
rest of it was just open to answering our questions. I'll try to include some
of my favorite parts:
- We
talked about what the biggest thing is that he has learned from working with
the First Presidency and the Quorum of the 12. He said that it would be the
fact that there is unity when they are all SO different in their personalities
and personal opinons. He said that if we are having a hard time with unity in
any kind of relationship, we need to love God more.
-
Someone asked about priesthood keys, and he talked about how we are basically
the companions of the Apostles and Prophets, and how as missionaries we are
given some of the Apostlic power through the setting apart. He also said
"it's a miracle God lets us touch anything! He lets us handle the fine
china of the Kingdom. It's a privilege He let's us help."
-When
speaking of testimony, he said that the most pure and most important witness we
can receive is from the Holy Ghost, Who can communicate things that words
cannot describe. We cannot force spiritual things, and can't force feeling the
Holy Ghost, but we can 'put ourselves in a condtion to receive the Holy Ghost'
and when God wants to give it to us, He will. He also talked about the
importance of the time we have on our missions to study. That was sad for me,
because he talked about how you probably won't ever get 2 hours to study the
gospel each day any other time in your life.
-He
talked about covenants, and how it starts with faith. I loved especially when
he said that "faith is a spiritual gift, it comes from the Holy Ghost, but
what you can influence is how much faith you receive." I loved that he
talked about faith being a gift! We cannot force faith either, but can do
things to invite it.
-When
speaking of repentance, he said that the Atonement does not only remove the
sin, but also the stain, or the effects of the sin. He talked about how when
the sin is gone, it's so gone that it's like it didn't even happen. God doesn't
remember it anymore. But he did say "Satan doesn't forget. That
jerk". Haha!
He
left us an Apostolic blessing which was wonderful. He specifically talked about
praying and asking Heavenly Father for a confirmation that what we've given is
acceptable. That really touched me, especially at this point of my mission,
where I sometimes wonder if it's been enough. I can't believe it's almost over.
He blessed us that we could remember this day forever, because all of us would
never all be together again in this life. What a wonderful meeting :) I know
that we really do have living prophets.
Saturday
was like one of the only days Sister Nielsen and I had together! It was great!
We had a great time. I really love being companions with her. We decided to
have Thai food that night at a new restaurant and mine was SO spicy. I like
spicy, but I didn't realize how spicy it would be. It was seriously burning my
throat, and my nose was running and I got some good coughs out of it, too!
Haha. The best part of the night though was when we tried to see an
investigator who wasn't there, and so we decided to carol to the next door
neighbor. I was kind of nervous for some reason, but we just went up to the
door and knocked. When we started singing, this black man with super long
dreadlocks came to the door and was so excited and told us to wait while he got
his wife. They had never had carollers before and were so excited! Then they
asked if we would come and sing to her brother, who was in a wheelchair. He was
upstairs and they pushed him to the edge of the stairs and we sang at the
bottom of the stairs to him. He has MS very badly and can't see very well.
After we sang we went upstairs with his sister and showed him the "He is
the Gift" video and he was so so grateful and so happy. The sister was
really happy, too. She cried and was recording us the whole time. It was such a
sweet Christmas moment :) I left the house and then I started crying! Haha. It
was wonderful, though. They weren't interested in learning more, but it still
was a wonderful experience.
I
just love being a missionary! Right now we really don't have anyone
progressing, even though we have been finding a lot of people. Sister Nielsen
was kind of sad that we couldn't find someone to get baptized before I leave,
but I feel totally fine. I will do whatever Heavenly Father wants me to do the
last few weeks of my mission, whether that's serving the other sisters in the
zone, and finding new people, and doing things to strengthen Concord so it will
be a great area in the future. I am happy with that :) Because I'm here to
serve Him!
Thank
you for all of your love and support. I will let you know next week what time
we can do our call :) I love you so so much. I know that everything we live and
teach is so true! I'm excited to see you all again :)
Love,
Sister
Adams
P.S.
Sister Carter, my MTC and Winston-Salem companion is in Colfax now, and she
said that on Saturday the Bush family was getting sealed in the temple! Yay!!!!
:) :)
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