This week has been a rollercoaster. All over the place. Up and down. Left to right. Maybe even a complete turnaround at times. And as always, exhausting. Thanks for the package! Cheerwine, Kind bars, and pomegranates! You know me too well. Did you know people have pomegranate bushes in their yards here? Pretty sweet deal.
Thanksgiving was different than any other, as expected. We baked about 100 cookies in the morning, so that when we stopped by and bothered people during the day we had a good excuse. Bribery still applies to missionary work. We had asked the bishops and relief society presidents for people they thought could use a visit on Thanksgiving. So we stopped by all of them, and most of them weren't home. We were invited to share a message and eat with the Elmers, that should have been the first picture you got. They are awesome and so sweet. It was good to visit with them and just chill. Unlike Dallan, we aren't allowed to play games except for on P-day. Or else that would have been nice to do, as lots of the families we stopped at invited us to. Our main meal that day was with the Greers. He's on the ward mission leaders, and a bunch of there family was there. Although, not as many as are at our family gatherings. :) I saw my companion shed a tear of two as we were driving off to again comense in missionary work. It was a little sad. Holidays as a missionary are just weird. But I'm grateful to be in a place where we at least get to celebrate them somewhat!
The day before Thanksgiving we got to help a non-member, Bonnie, cook. She taught us how to make rolls and such. It was actually a lot of fun. We are teaching someone living there. It's a crazy household situation that I'm not sure if I can explain. But let me tell you about Sunday. Sunday was INSANE. First we had a lesson with a new investigator, during church. We skipped Sunday school in one of the wards to go and teach him. He is 11 and has autism, and is such a sweet kid. His dad is a member and they go to church every week, it's just the mom that is against it. So if he takes the lessons "he'll know what he's gettting into" kinda thing. Then in our second session of church we had like 6 non-members there. Thanks to Brianna, a 13 year old recent convert, and Ruth. Ruth, Brianna, Bonnie, Chris, ..they all live together. We also skipped one relief society to go and help Bonnie again. There house was a mad house. There was all sorts of stuff going on. Tons of kids running around, hungry. We were supposed to eat at 4, and we left at 7:30 and they still hadn't eaten. The adults were like drinking and yelling at kids and not letting them eat. And it was just crazy. We did manage to teach Chris, and his girlfriend-Jamie- amungst the craziness. She was really interested, so we'll be teaching her again soon! It's amazing to just help people. I just want to help everyone in whatever way that I can. It's hard because there are so many things that we can't do. But we know that the gospel will help in every aspect of their lifes and is the best thing that we can offer anyone. So that's what we do.
The rest of our week consisted of cleaning a horders kitchen. So gross. Teaching some lessons. Talking to people. Knocking on lots of empty doors. Being put in lots of awkward situations. Showing the temple presentation like 50 times, seriously. I have those videos memorized. It's a good thing I love them so much. Here's another one that we show: http://mormon.org/searchresults#?query=blessings%20of%20the%20temple&filter=video
We had a good lesson with Brianna. We took her out of her crazy house to a park and talked with her. She's such a sweet girl. And she's in a really tough place, and it's so sad. We're gonna do like a 25 days of Christmas thing for her. Just drop of something each day. Yesterday it was a pomegranate since we found out those were her favorite and she misses fruit alot. So if there's anything you come across that a 13 year old girl would like send it on.
It's crazy that it is already December. It doesn't feel like it. Some days are beautiful and 70 during the day and others are a freezing 55. Dallan said that it snowed on Wednesday. Crazy. Arizona is an interesting place. I also forgot my notes of things to write about this week. Sorry I'm always so scatter brained. Days just blur together and weeks. This week we have zone conference and another exchange and something else that I can't think of at the moment. But all is good here in AZ. Missionary work is hard, especially when the mail doesn't get here until 6:00 at night. What is that?!?! We see miracles each day. Little tender mercies are what keeps me going. Sometimes those tender mercies come in the form of letters, the more the merrier. But really, I love what I'm doing and it's a great time to be serving. Just about a month and a half until the Gilbert Temple Open House! So stoked about that! But I miss y'all and love y'all. Have an awesome week!
Sister Adams
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