Adventure's with Sister Adams

Girl Elders?                  March 10, 2014

 This week  I learned...

 -that tracting can be pretty exciting and even productive!

 -old men always try to hug sister missionaries.

 -the Book of Mormon is the most powerful tool that we have!

 -God speaks!

 -lots of people don't know sister missionaries are a thing.

 -blessing come after a trial of our faith.

 -and being pregnant is miserable.

 

This past week was probably one of the hardest that I've had on my mission. And I'm not really sure why. It was just hard, personally. It isn't my companion or the area or such. It was just not my most happy of weeks, until the end of the week. I prayed and prayed to be able to help someone and just forget about myself and that seems to be exactly what happened.

 Lets see, last Monday we got in with a part member family. Grace is a member, that left the church like 15 years ago and her husband Anthony isn't a member. She spilled out her guts to us and her whole life story and just went on and on. She literally talked to us for like 2 1/2 hours. And we barely got anything in during that time. She has had a hard life! And she loves the church, but says she doesn't believe the Joseph Smith story. Well, the Joseph Smith story kinda had to happen in order to have the Church of Jesus Christ on the earth again. It sounds to me like she believes it but has had her feelings hurt in the past by some members. So we're trying to get her some good fellowship. She's pregnant and has something where you are way way sick. Her past two pregnancies she had to have a pick line and be hospitalized almost every week. It's way crazy. So we're getting the relief society sisters to help with meals and things for her family. We also went by later in the week to clean her house, since she can't do that either. I love Grace, and want to see her happy! One of her kids, Bella, is like three. And she can't really talk...it sounds like Japanese. Seriously. It's probably one of the funniest things ever...or maybe a more appropriate comparison would be the minions on Despicable Me.

We also have started tracting more...and were able to find two new investigators. Lala and Joe-on(we clearly don't know how to spell his name). We talked to them about the Book of Mormon and gave them one and committed them to read and pray. So hopefully we will be able to begin actively teaching them this week. We also have lessons set up to teach 6 other people that could become new investigators this week! Miracles I tell one. And all but one of those is from talking to people on the street! Our focus has mailny been on the Book of Mormon. People don't seem interested but when you tell them about the BOM, their interest goes up by like 50000%.

We were also able to go to the Mesa Temple for the last time, (aside from bringing investigators to the visitor center and easter pageant and such). We talked to some sisters there and they said, "We heard their were sisters in your mission that had to train at 3 weeks!" hahaha. Yep, true story. They had iPads and were showing us all the cool stuff they can do....a few more months for us!

We also had exchanges this week and I went with Sister Raubenheimer for the day in Florence. It was a lot of fun. We were talking to this old man on the street,who was holding a dog. Towards the end of the conversation he finds out that I'm from GA(he's originally from Mississippi) and puts down his dog and quite literally throws his arms around me.haha. It's so fun to meet people from the south, even though most of the time they're a little crazzzy.

One of the ladies in our ward told us how one of her friends came up to her at work and wanted to know more about the church. She asked what sparked her interest. Apparently, she was driving by the temple with her 4 year old son and he said, "Hey Moroni" while waving at the Angel Moroni on top of the temple. She didn't know how he could have known that, so upon asking the people that he stays with if they had talked about it, she asked her son, "How do you know his name is Moroni?" And he told her, "God told me." How amazing! So now their family is investigating the church! AMAZING!

Another thing we did this week...pull weeds. It's strange. People have yards of pretty much gravel and they have so many weeds! How is that even possible! Just grow some grass, if the weeds are gonna grow so much surely you can grow some grass! And every single plant in AZ has some sort of thorn on it, so our hands were quite cut up.

On Sunday, our investigator that we haven't been able to meet with since coming to this area came to church! She has had such a hard life! When I hear peoples story and the trials they have to face it just makes me all the more thankful for the life that I have and my wonderful family! Her daughter literally beats her. It just broke my heart to hear all that is going on. She's gonna kick her daughter out this week, and then she said she'll be able to actually meet with us. She has been reading the Book of Mormon and said that has helped her a lot. She even asked for two extra to give to her friends that she has been telling about it! So amazing! SHe is such a tough lady and as sweet as can be! Please keep her in her prayers this week! Her name is Renatta.

All in all, life is pretty good. Can't really complain about much! Thanks for all that you do for me! I love hearing from y'all! Read the Book of Mormon! It truly brings peace, strength, and protection. I read from it any spare minute that I can! Also, you should ask the missionaries for the names of their investigators to pray for them by name, as well as the missioanries serving in our ward. How is the work going back there? Dallan seems to be finding so many people in Atlanta, so hopefully the same thing is happening in Commerce. But then again, who could really resist Dallan? :) I'd let him teach me :) Hope y'all have an awesome week!

 

 love,

Sister Adams

Abby actually cooked!!!

"I made these!!"

At the Mesa Temple