Adventure's with Sister Adams

No Empty Seats                                       January 6, 2013

Another week bites the dust. This week felt super weird. Normally the weeks just fly by but this one was actually quite long. It was just draining. So I'll just tell you the main reason why.

Sheryl, who is so prepared and just loves the gospel accepted to be baptized on January 18th last Tuesday. She was so excited! She talked about how she knows that the BOM is true, and how amazing she feels at chruch. She is so sensitive to the spirit.  And then on Friday she says she texted us to cancel our appointment and says she doesn't feel comfortable being baptized then that she has some concerns. Other than that we haven't really been able to get a hold of her to discuss the situation which sucks. We know the issue is her boyfriend, Brick. He is against organized religion. We just want her to be happy. And we know that the gospel can bring, and already has brought, that happiness into her life. It's so frustrating sometimes when you know that the investigator knows the church is true, and has had so many spiritual experiences to confirm that and then don't act on it. Satan is real, and he works so hard on anyone tring to make those good changes in their life. AHHH! We are praying and hoping that we're able to resolve her concerns and build her faith. I just love her!

We had an interesting lesson with this guy Travis, whos like 23ish. He just walked over as we were teaching Ruth. Oh Ruth. And he asked me if I was married, and Ruth freaked out. She was like, "Do you see that black tag. That means off limits."haha. It was hilarious. He responded with, "Can't a man just ask a woman a question?" It was pretty awkward but I couldn't help but laugh. We were able to teach him about the Book of Mormon and the restoration a little bit. It's crazy how many misconceptions people have about it. And when they realize it's the record of the prophets in America and Christs ministry there most of the time they're a little more intrigued.

Juan is still just doing amazing. He told us some cool things about all the tattoos he has and the meaning behind some of them. Well he really just talked about the ones that our own his head. He is just so happy and it's amazing! He will be baptized in April, once he is off of parol. But he is so funny! I love Hermano Hernandez. We taught him the plan of salvation and the Word of Wisdom. So now we're helping him quit smoking! That'll be fun! We're taking him to the Visitor Center this week to see the restoration video. I haven't seen the full one either so I'm pretty excited about that.

Our investigator Phyllis called us and left a message about her grandaughter that was being blessed in the Mormon church and what a good present is for a Mormon baby. Believe it or not, they're just like every other baby. The best part about the message was her intro, "Hi, this is Phyllis. Sister Adams and Bouck have been teaching me. I'm the blind one." Oh Phyllis. She's so funny.

There were some fun run in with some kids this week. We bought some baked goods from some cute girls that were having a bake sale as we rode by on our bikes. And we also raced this 4 year old boy on his bike. It was hard not to beat him. Growing up we never won unless we actually deserved it. I figured it might not look so good if a sister missionary makes a little kid cry.haha.

We also kinda-ish got into a bit of a battle with this guy, Darrow, who lives next to Ruth. We invited him to the temple open house and he was excited about that. And we asked if he had any questions, and he had lots. He tried to argue first about the "Mormon Bible," but we explained the BOM and Bible and how they support eachother and one isn't ahead of the other. Then he started arguing about the trinity vs. the Godhead. It's crazy to me how anyone could believe in the trinity. There is literally no biblical evidence. And he just kept saying, "We just can't understand it." Well, why would an all knowing, all loving, God, not want us to understand his true character? He does. And he has. It's all throughout the scriptures. The best part of that conversation was when I spouted out the first vision, and explained how thats one of the reasons we know that Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father are two separate beings. He couldn't say anything back to that. It was awesome. He was just hit with the spirit. It was amazing. I just keep thinking if you can't fully understand who God is, then how can you worship him? I'm grateful for the resotred gospel and the knowledge and understanding I have of Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.  Heres a quote I love by Elder  Holland on the subject,"Our first and foremost article of faith in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is “We believe in God, the Eternal Father, and in His Son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost.”² We believe these three divine persons constituting a single Godhead are united in purpose, in manner, in testimony, in mission. We believe Them to be filled with the same godly sense of mercy and love, justice and grace, patience, forgiveness, and redemption. I think it is accurate to say we believe They are one in every significant and eternal aspect imaginable exceptbelieving Them to be three persons combined in one substance, a Trinitarian notion never set forth in the scriptures because it is not true.
Indeed no less a source than the stalwart Harper’s Bible Dictionary records that “the formal doctrine of the Trinity as it was defined by the great church councils of the fourth and fifth centuries is not to be found in the [New Testament].”

In other news, we did some service, assembled a sidewalk out of wood. I forgot to tell you how last week the Graham's surprised me by showing up at one of my meetings to bring a Christmas gift. It was so good to see there smiling faces! I miss them! And the original estimasted 350,000 people to attend the open house of the Gilbert Temple has jumped to 700,000. No big deal. Elder Holland is coming to speak to our mission on Saturday, so that's also super exciting!  uhh. We are doing really good here in AZ. It got up to like almost 80 degrees this week during the day!  But the mornings and evenings can get down to a frigid 42. At least that's the lowest I've seen in on our car. We are biking more which is fun. We went to a New Years Day breakfast, which was a lot of fun. They had some delish danish pancake thing with a fancy name. They would best be described as a Pancake Fluff. Anyway, all is good in The Gil. I'll keep my eye out for the package! Thanks so much for all y'all do for me!

 

Love,

Sister Adams

 

Scripture of the week: Doctrince and Covenants 50:24