DING, DONG, Ditch!!!     October 21, 2013


Another week down! This week went by so crazy fast...and I'm not even sure why. And it's crazy to think that this transfer is already halfway over.

BIG NEWS OF THE WEEK! The Gilbert Temple Open House/Dedication was announced! The open house will be from January 18th to February 15th! The Cultural Celebration is on March 1st and the Dedication on March 2nd! Last Monday, I finally got to see the temple! It's gorgeous! And huge! I'll send the not so great picture that I snagged in passing.

I forgot to bring what I had written down to say...so this might be a little on the slim side. I have such a terrible memory, I should do way better at writing in my journal...whoops. 

Nothing all too exciting happened this week. A couple of our investigators were out of town unfortunately, so we didn't get to teach them. Last Monday, there was a little zone birthday celebration for two elders and I that have birthdays within the week. We went to the senior couple that is serving in our zone's apartment and had lunch and cake and played a few games. It was pretty fun. They are the cutest little old couple. They asked me one day if I had read "The Help" or seen the movie..I was just thinking oh goodness, where is this gonna go. Then they asked if Georgia was like that too. And asked all sorts of questions about the south and they could never tell whenever I was joking. So like when I said that the south would rise again. They were generally concerned, and thought that it was legit gonna happen. So I gotta be careful what I say around them.haha. And it's a good thing that they don't know we have slaves! 

Yesterday we were a part of singing time in primary for one of our wards. Sister Nawahenie, the music person, had us bring in stuff that described us like our favorite food, where we were from, favorite movie, etc. It was a lot of fun. And I didn't think that any of the kids were paying that much attention until we were at supper that night. And this little boy walks up to me as I'm sitting down and gets like a foot from my face and says, "Hey Sister Adams. I know what your favorite movie is." After that conversation, he asks, "Do you even remember seeing me? Did you hear anyone saying Maddox, Maddox? I'm Maddox."And then he tells me all this stuff about me and all sorts of stuff about him. He brings me his favorite toys and Legos and sits by me when we eat. He was the cutest! During supper he would pull my shoulder down so I he could tell me stuff. I just wanted to keep him. 

We also talked at a fireside last night, just to the priests and laurels, about missionary work. I always get so nervous about stuff like that because I want it to be perfect. And I think it went really well. We had asked a couple of them to bare their testimony of the BOM which turned out really good. The spirit was really strong. We didn't just preach about how they can do missionary work, but as missionaries we're supposed to build members faith. SO if that was done, then it was a success. 

Probably the funnest part of the week was ding-dong ditching a bunch of the members. Don't worry mom, there was a purpose. So people out here do this thing calling "BOOing" around Halloween. They just leave treats on someones door steps and the rule is if you get "BOOed" then you have to "BOO" two people. Our mission is really stressing creativity...so I thought, why don't we "BOO" members and leave a note that says they have to "BOO" two non-members, and attach a flier to the ward Halloween party! So that is exactly what we did! But we made it really cute! ANd we still have several people to do. The line from the flier was something like, "We hope you enjoy this sugary treat. The gospel is something just as sweet, and you can share both!"haha. I know, cheese fest. But all the members loved it, and were talking about it on Sunday so hopefully it works and gets plenty of non-members to the party that we can talk to. We're also working on a few other finding ideas currently. 

One of the assistants talked to us how the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. So why as missionaries would we continue doing the same thing-knocking on doors-and expecting it to be any more productive that the day before. They have given us free reign to do whatever we think will help, and everything is worth a shot. So if you have any finding ideas, just let me know! 

This week we have zone conference and we're going to the temple and all three of our wards parties our on Saturday! PARTAY! Other than that we're just teaching and trying to find people to teach! And working with the members on how they can invite their friends! Help the missionaries out, Mom. They need people to teach! But I'll send this so I can have some time to send some pictures! I love y'all! And always look forward to hearing from y'all! I love you!

Sister Adams

I think I will just take a little nap on this beautiful day!!

A van all about eagles! Go EJCHS Eagles!!

Picture taken by a member sent to my mom!

Look at us!! We are Missionaries!! Can you believe it!!

OM...

Creepy!1

Oddly enough...this seems appropriate!

Gilbert, Arizona Temple opens in January 2014!!

I'M LEGAL!!!

Sooo...for starters I would like to thank everyone for the amazing birthday that I had! Thanks mom, for all the packages. As well as Taylor and Olivia for sending one! I loved the letters from Trevor, Lindsay,Reeve, and Hannah! THE BEST! Also, thanks for the surprise cake, Mom! You never cease to amaze me. Seriously. The Graham's are the best! They were so sweet to basically throw  a party for me! And Sister Webster's mom for getting the cake made. It was the coolest cake I've ever seen! Thanks mom! And a few other people in the ward got me  some stuff, Raelene and Sister Canter. Everyone in all the wards are amazing. I will be sad when they split our area, probably within the next 2 transfers. But my birthday was the best! I also got a perfectly timed Halloween package from the Day's. Tell them thank you for me! I will write them a letter as well! 

We picked up a new investigator this week! A 19 year old girl, Christina. Before we even started the lesson she said, "I've been thinking about being baptized a Mormon for a while." YES! So hopefully that works out pretty soon. Technichally, we're supposed to give them to our Zone Leader's to teach since they cover the YSA ward. But I don't mind poaching. Plus, our bishop told us not to :)

As we were walking around a neighborhood this week this group of like 10 year old boys was talking to us, they're members. As we start walking away I hear them say something so I turn around and look...One of them is holding out is arm towards me and says, "We'll find eachother again someday."haha. We ended up bumping into them again like 10 minutes later. They were so giggly. It was cute. My companion said, even the little boys like you.haha.

I don't know what the correlation between tacos and baptisms are...but there seems to be one. The Allen's invited us over to eat after their daughter, Cameron, baptism. They also had hired people to man a taco bar. They were delicious! They were also baby size. While we were there the UGA game was on the TV...Caleb, their like 13 year old son, walks up to me and tells me that GA is losing! And then he kept me up to date. Or Bishop Allen would practically yell, "Don't tell Sister Adams that UGA is losing 41-26 with this many seconds to go."haha. We had a meeting with the stake president on Sunday and before it started all the missionaries in the stake were standing outside of his office and he calls my name...I'm like, Oh no...what did I do. And then he proceeds to tell me about the happenings of the UGA game. It's funny how many people tell me about the scores to the football games. 

We taught Carolyn again this week and she's the sweetest lady. And I love her. Hopefully she will be baptized soon! We really need to invite her to be! 

But overall it was a great week! We did some more family history, and I'm sending some names for Delaney to take to the temple, okay. And I got Poops-a-Lot's letter...and loved it! I love and miss y'all so much! Thanks for all that you do for me. I love you.

Sister Adams

Happy Birthday Austin & Abby!!

Hard at work making contacts- or maybe just dinner plans!!

Our flyers are making an impact-

Thank you Beky!1

Goodie!!!

Presents from Taylor & Olivia!! Thanks guys!1

It's my birthday!!

Thank you Sister Webster for helping my mom make this happen!! It is soo cool!!

Hola Familia!                                     October 7, 2013

Abby & Sister Ayers working the streets- spreading the word of Christ!!

Hey everybody!! I miss you!

Stadium workout at sunrise!!

Love y'all and miss y'all 

Baby pumpkin award? 

Too funny for words!

Peace out!!

Let's make double chins!!

Sister Missionaries in their down time!!

What caption can you put on this????

Zone Picture

This week was super duper busy. We had meetings every single day! One of them being transfer meeting, but I was not transferred! So here in Gilbert I shall stay for at least another 6 weeks! I do love it here. Transfer meeting was nice to get to see everyone, we also got flu shots accompanied with princess bandaids! The elders all fought over Rapunzel.

This week we were also trained on how to use Familysearch.org so that we can help investigators and converts! It was really cool. We're doing it again this week as well. The Spirit of Elijah is real! 

We also now have a new investigator. Her name is Carolyn and she's probably in her early 50's...maybe, I'm really bad with guessing ages. But she's divorced and lives alone, all of her kids are grown. She worked with an LDS lady and said she just didn't understand how she had such strong faith and how powerful that her prayers are! She is so interested in learning, and is the sweetest lady ever. Seriously. Love her already. We'll be teaching her for the second time this week. 

We were also asked to speak at a Relief Society activity that was centered around missionary work. I balled when I bore my testimony. I don't really know why. I get to do that on a daily basis to different people. But I had the whole room in tears as well. It strengthed my testimony to stand up in front of a room full of amazing women and tell them the dear things of my heart relating to the gospel. 

We also have a family that we will hopefully start teaching soon! My dream is to teach a family and get to see them all get baptized and a year later go be sealed in the temple. That is the whole purpose of missionary work. Or really for any of us here. 

General Conference was pretty fun. We had to watch it at the stake center unless we watched it with an investigator, so we were there all but one of the sessions. Some quotes that were my favorite were, "Doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith"-Uchtdorf 

and "Decisions determine destiny."-Nelson. I love listening to the prophets speak as well as the 12 apostles. Its amazing, and I hope y'all were able to watch some of it. 

The conference tickets I gave to Austin and Brother Graham. Noah wasn't able to go because of football. Austin has the same birthday as me, and so we'll be eating over at their house on my birthday! It'll be lots of fun! I love the Graham's. They're awesome. I bet they'll send you some pictures.ha. Sister Graham has also been trying to figure out a way for me to meet Sister Webster's mom. So I'lll let you know if that ever happens! That's so awesome that Delaney got her patriarchal blessing!!! Ahh. Yay for Poops! Sorry, I don't have much time to respond to everything. It's crazy that I surpassed my 4 month mark this past week. Time really does fly. I love y'all! 

 Love- Sister Adams

Oh No the Mormons are Coming, The Mormons are Coming!!!                                 September 30, 2013

Flyers Abby and Sister Ayers made..cute!!

This week...I found out that there are little kids that are genuinely afraid of us. As we were walking around these town homes, some kids get off the bus and they turn and see us. Right when they do, they start running and screaming, "OH NO THE MORMONS ARE COMING, THE MORMONS ARE COMING."hahaha. It was pretty hysterical. I was just thinking is this real life? Are two 19/20 year old girls really that scary. That same day Sister Ayers bike chain got messed up, and I had to fix it. So my hands were covered in bike grease...until we found a member that was home where I could wash my hands off. Also, that night at dinner we ate with the Crane's. LOVE THEM. They are the ones with the snakes(3) and bird! I held the snake, obviously. And the bird was like on the other side of the room and started franatically flying.  towards everyone and I stuck out my finger, and walla...It landed nicely on my finger. Then proceeded to walk up my arm and sit on my shoulder. Brother Crane also heard me sneeze and said it was so cute he wished he could put it in a bottle.haha. They are seriously great. 

We got the privilege of watching 2 primary programs yesterday. In one ward, all the little boys had matching bow ties. I almost died. It was the cutest thing that I've ever seen. I just love bow ties. 

Oh, last week on P-Day we had a surprise zone activity. And it was a blow up obstacle course! It was inside the stake center which I thought was pretty humorous but it was a lot of fun. And it's a miracle that nobody was seriously injured! 

All the elders also make fun of me for not liking steak or roast beef. And now they account it to the fact that I grew up on the bayou and only ate gator steaks. They clearly don't know anything about Georgia. It's a good thing they don't know about our slaves, as do my friends at school.ha. 

I heard that UGA beat LSU!!!! That's so awesome. It's funny because on Saturday's we visit all the bishops and ward mission leaders and they all keep me up to date on the score. And the RS General Broadcast was Saturday night and one of the RS presidents made sure to tell me that UGA won.ha. 

We hung up some fliers...and so we'll see if that gets anyone interested. If not, then I'm sure it'll help someone maybe just a little. This week as we were biking we stopped to talk at this lady at the bus stop. I asked her how her day was and she said not good. So I asked if there was anything we could do for her. And she just broke down in tears. And told us about how her son had been killed earlier in the week, and she was lost, and just having a really rough time. So we got off our bikes and were talking to her. She asked if her son knew that she loved him and if he could hear her. It was so so so so sad. We didn't get to talk to her for too long before the bus came. But hopefully we provided some peace. And maybe we'll get a call from her sometime this week. 

Food this week had a super high, being P.F. Changs!!! And then some lows....two days of sloppy joes. I wanted to die. But Raelene also made us some delicious fudge which was a plus. 

We went to set up an appointment with an investigator and her two little siblings came to the door. I told the little girl that I liked her Hello Kitty shirt. The little boy proceed to ask me if I liked his shirt(which was plain red). After telling him that I did, he asked if I liked his pants. After telling  him I liked his pants, he asked if I liked his underwear...uhhh. I was like you don't need to show me.haha. 

I've decided that at the end of this whole mission thing I'm gonna need a nice long vacation. Because it seriously is the hardest I've ever worked in  my life. There is never a day off, really. P-Day is packed full and each day is long. You're putting everything into what you know and believe. This week hasn't yielded much success but I hope that we will see some soon! Mission life is interesting. And I love doing the Lord's work. Even though I'm exhausted all day, everyday. They need to have a scheduled nap time in missionaries schedules! A girl can dream, right? I hope that you got my letter this past week, and Delaney! They should be there soon, if not. Dallan didn't get mine from this week either. So the USPS service is moving slow this past week.  I hope all is well on Adams Hill. Hopefully I'll hear from y'all soon. I didn't get a email from you, if you sent one. I know sometimes I just don't receive them. But I love you! And can't wait to hear from y'all! 

Sister Adams

Allan, Allan, Allan, ...No It's Steve           Sept. 23, 2013

I spy two sister missionaries in an Arizona sunset!!

Puppy with an attitude- with bling!!

Felling rock N Roll in the beautiful setting

Scripture study- looks like a perfect place to do it!!

Scorpion!!! 

Steve gets baptized!!

Steve with his family-- AWESOMENESS!!

  So Steve's baptism was this weekend! All I can ever think of when I say his name is that YouTube video of the animals that say have the voiceovers with the groundhog thing that says the whole Allan, Steve bit. Makes me laugh out loud every time! But his baptism was truly amazing. He had had one of the worst weeks, and knew it was because Satan was doing anything and everything he could to get him away from his baptism. He was teary eyed the whole time. And balled like a baby as his new step-daughters and a couple friends sang a musical number. The funniest part, was when he changed into the jumpsuit he put his black church shoes back on...most people just are barefoot.haha. So he looked kinda silly. But Steve is awesome! And I'm so excited for his family! They're counting down the days until they can be sealed in the temple. SO AMAZING.

  Generally, after the baptism our zone leaders drain the font and do everything but they left and asked us to drain the font, but if we couldn't figure it out they would come back an do it. Well, I was gonna make sure it was drained. So what did I do when all else failed...waded into the water with my dress hiked way up... made sure to remove the band from my arm that would be reaching into the water so it wouldn't get up and unplugged the drain. I didn't however factor in that when I bent to unplug it that my hair would dip into the water...So when I stood up my newly soaked hair got all over my dress. It kinda felt like I was the one being baptized. Later that night the Zone Leader's told us there was apparently some medal pole thing to drain the font...whoops.haha. 

   After the baptism, we road with Steve and Courtney(his wife of now like 3 weeks) to the open house sort of thing. It was cute and they had good food. But we had to leave earlier than most of the people there...and didn't wanna bug anyone so we just walked. We were only a couple miles from our apartment. We passed some elders as we were walking and they thought our bikes had been stolen. And countless people pulled over and asked if we needed a ride. It was quite an adventure! 

We also found out this week that we will be getting Facebook ASAP, but iPads won't be for like a month or two apparently. We also discovered that once we get iPads we will be able to Skype our non-member family and friends to teach them!!! How crazy is that?!?! Pretty exciting times! Elder Anderson also gave us permission to "Be Creative" in finding people to teach..so our mission president is having us come up with these different ways. It's gonna make day to day missionary work a lot more fun. I'm working on connecting skydiving to missionary work...I'll let you know how that one turns out!haha. 

Ummm. I saw my first scorpion since being in AZ. It was kinda small, and I was a little disappointed.ha. We are getting Zone T-Shirts made which should be pretty cool!! Transfers are on October 1st, so I'll find out next Sunday what the verdict is! 

Jennifer, one of our investigators that has been taught since before I even got here came to church for the first time on Sunday!! And she wants to come again next week! Ahh..the last lesson she finally understood that in order to get an answer she has to act on her faith and show a real desire. She's the one that said that after we read a scripture with her. Revelation is real! It was amazing, and hopefully she continues to progress! 

That's pretty much all I can remember, I have been working on doing better at journaling each night. So, that's good I guess. But all is well here in Gilbert. I haven't talked to the Graham's about her yet but I will! They are so awesome! I love them! Austin Graham...actually texted you a picture from their house a few weeks back...ha. But I hope all is going good on Adams Hill! Sounds like Stake Conference was good and such! I love you! 

Food for thought:"What you get in the hereafter depends on what you're after here."

Sister Adams

SMALL MIRACLES                   September 16, 2013

This week hasn't been the most eventful, but it was good in in of itself. I really do love being a missionary, as hard as it is 99% of the time. I've been thinking a lot recently of the Lord's timing. And how patient that we have to be. It's no fun knocking on doors all day and seeing nothing from it, but it's all in the Lord's time. And I know that we will find more people to teach and see success as long as we are working hard and being obedient.

Yesterday, there was a new member fireside and Noah and Bailey both spoke. They shared their story and bore their testimony which was really amazing to see. Kinda puts some purpose behind me being here. Steve was also intereviewed for his baptism this coming weekend. And the elder that interviewed him said he was way prepared and that we did a great job in teaching him. His baptism should be amazing!

I also ate the best taco's I've ever eaten Saturday. We went to this member's daughters baptism and they had like an open house thing after. They told us there was a taco bar in the back...that was an understatement. They had these two little mexican guys at this grill thing just going to town, outside, in over 100 degree whether. But they were AMAZING. 

We also no longer have a car. WHOOT WHOOT. So back to full time on the bike. Which, I actually really enjoy. We are able to talk to a lot more people that way. 

We had a "Sister Training Meeting" which was pretty much a waste of time. But a couple sisters did this really funny skit about riding biking in skirts and such. President Nattress also talked to us, and he literally asked 5 times, after he spent like 20 minutes talking about it, if we wanted to talk about eternal marriage again .Haha. He likes talking about that more than missionary work. He's so sweet. But we're really just focusing on the members and trying to get them involved, because thats the only way this mission will be successful-according to Elder Anderson. 

And yes! I love the Grahams! That's crazy that sister knows Noah! I will have to ask Noah about her. 

But i'm doing good and it sounds like Adams HIll is doing alright! I love y'all! 

Love, 

Sister Adams

Curly hair- what do i do with it??

Baily & Noah speaking as new members of the church-- Woot woot!!

There is something in the air---