Adventure's with Sister Adams

TOMMY BOY March 3, 2014

Oh happy day. I seriously feel like going to email on P-Day is kinda like Christmas. But instead of waiting to see whats under the tree, it's waiting to see what emails are on the computer. Needless to say, some days are more exciting than others.

When we were at the store earlier, this lady came up and gave us like 3 huge boxes of food..pretty much all of it looks old and stale. But it's the thought that counts, right? People are so sweet to us. And earlier this week this lady gave us like 50 million boxes of Special K cereal. Maybe we look hungry?ha-ha.

Um mm. This week most of our time was again spent doing service. We did so much service this week...and mainly cleaning. And the houses were so gross. I seriously don't know how people live in the places that we served in. But really. We scrubbed and scrubbed and scrubbed and scrubbed. One house, our entire zone came to help clean and paint and such. It was a non-member and they bought us like 25 pizzas and their hearts were truly touched by our service. We were there for hours! So hopefully they start investigating the church soon, if not then they know that we are nice people!

One day this week we were going to visit someone and there were these four kids playing outside. A 10 year old boy, Austin, came and we were talking to him. He told us how the friend he was playing with wasn't a member and so I asked him if he ever invited him to come to church. He just paused and said, "Hold on." Then he walked over to his friend and invited him to church, told him what church we go to, and where it's at. Then he walked back over to us and said, "He's gonna ask his mom." It was great! Kids are such great missionaries. They aren't afraid to do anything, and they don't put anything off for weeks. The youth here are just awesome.

The cultural celebration for the Gilbert Temple was this past Saturday. And of course the first time it rained in months, was on the day and into the night of the outdoor celebration. Despite the pouring rain the youth did amazing! They seriously put on quite the show. It was really impressive. And the biggest cultural celebration that the church has ever done. It was cool how the temple was in the background. It was actually on TV. You might can find it online as well. I'm not entirely sure. We watched it from our stake center. President Monson and Eyring were there. Along with a few members of the 70, including Elder Callister and Elder Walker!

The dedication on Sunday was amazing! We watched two of the three sessions. During the cornerstone ceremony President Monson had a few little kids come out of the crowd to help fill it in. So sweet. And it showed him hugging some children. Here are some things that I got out of the sessions that I watched. Elder Callister talked about how all that we do in the church, and the temple, is focused on the atonement of Jesus Christ. And how every baptism, marriage, etc. that we do in the church would be invalid without it. He compared it to writing a bad check that comes back non-sufficient funds. That there would be insufficient funds for the price that needed to be paid in order to perform those ordinances without the atonement. A lot of people talked about the family history part of the temple,and told stories from their ancestors. I want to learn more stories about my ancestors. More than just see their name. Elder Walker spoke some to the youth and quoted President Hinckley, "Please, please,please don't do anything that will disqualify you from entering the temple." The blessings are worth more than any sacrifice that we have to make!

Let's see. One miracle we saw this week was with Dan and Diana. Dan is a member,and Diana isn't. He's like 26, reminds me a lot fo Seth. And Diana is 24. They have 2 little kids. They let us in, and ended up feeding us-our second supper. We showed them the temple presentation and then taught some of the restoration. It was funny, Dan was like, "If I didn't already know that was true, I would have believed you based on what you just said." And it was literally like a 3 minute version of the restoration. At least I know it made sense to someone! But it seemed like it touched her and we'll be going back to share more this week! They are so much fun! Dan is from Alabama, and even though he's a Bama fan we get along. We decided since neither Sister Hibbard or Diana has had fried okra that we need to make some for them.

We also met this recent convert, named Aaron. His brother, Chris, wants to take the missionary lessons. We're meeting with him this week. This weekend they went to Vegas for Aaron's 21st birthday...so that's awesome.haha. They were a little hesitant to tell us where they were going. Oh, how funny.

Last night we visited this member, Caley. She's 25 and is a single mom. She has had such a hard life! She was baptized at 18 and kicked out by her parents. She was married a couple years later in the temple, and then her husband had an affair. Jerk. And her family goes through spells where they don't talk to her,still, because she's a member. But she is as strong as ever. She loves the gospel and knows that it's true. Nothing that anyone does or says can change that. She is awesome! She fed us last night. It was all gluten free...and DELICIOUS! I just might go gluten free...jokes.

At one of our meetings this week, an elder walked in and had cut his slacks into pretty much booty shorts. No joke. He just acted like everything was completely normal. It was super funny. Probably slightly inappropriate, but funny none the less. I really wanted to take a picture, but thought that might look kinda bad if someone were to pick up my camera and see it. If it happens again, which I'm sure it will, I'm gonna snap a picture.

Lets see. We visited lots of people and are really starting to see some of the fruits of our labors. Sister Hibbard had a bit of a cold this week, but we were still able to be out! So that is good news! This week is going to be full of lots of miracles, just as every week! But things are starting to come together in the area. It's still weird only having one ward, but it's fun. Even though, our ward mission leader forgot to pass around our meal sign up for March, so we may be hungry this week. So I bought all this taco stuff to try and simulate some tacos we had a couple weeks ago. It could be interesting. Ha ha

All in all, all is well! I'm loving being a missionary. I love training new missionaries. They are just so excited about everything and Sister Hibbard is awesome! We are just loving life and trying to serve the Lord the very best that we can. There's only a couple more weeks of the transfer which is weird. And I got the Day's "Hump Day" package! It was so much fun. They are the sweetest! I hope y'all are having a good week! It's starting to reach the 90's...so I think it's gonna be a bit of a hot summer here. I'm actually excited for the summer. I've gotten rather pale. I miss y'all! And eat some Zaxby's for me this week.

LOVE.

Sister Adams

1 Nephi 15:24...I LOVE THE BOOK OF MORMON! And the peace and protection that it brings me!