We Didn't Start the Fire
Hola, mi family! Hoy quiero hablar hardcore spanglish en este primer parte de mi email. Esta past week fue awesome! Ensenemos a tons of people, y encontremos muchas personas muy listas, con los dos significancias de la word. Este domingo pasado, fuimos a la church en spanish. Fue asombroso! A mi me encanta asistir y tomar de la sacrament.
Hello, my family! Today I want to speak hardcore Spanglish in this first part of my email. This past week was awesome! We taught tons of people, and we found many very "listas" (smart/ready) people, with the two meanings of the word. This past Sunday, we went to the Spanish-speaking church. It was amazing! I love to attend and to take the sacrament.
Okay, well, enough of that for now. I love this area so much! It's crazy how awesome things are getting. Othello 2nd Ward is catching fire! Of course, it's not literally catching fire, like the girl in Hunger Games, but it's sure figuratively catching fire. For sure, as missionaries, it's something we love to see. One thing that is super clear, though, is that we didn't start the fire. The seeds were planted long, long ago by other missionaries and by members.
We've been working a ton with Brenda and Crystal recently. They are doing so great! Even though it is still sometimes really hard for her, she's totally given up everything we're asked not to use in the Word of Wisdom. We still have some things to work through, but she's definitely still on track to be baptized in 2 weeks! It's crazy how time is flying. Crystal is doing great! She even made a "Church Journal" and a "Daily Planner", and writes down when our visits are going to be, when church is, and she even wrote in her baptismal date! It's so cool to watch the two of them progress so far.
Yolie and Nikita have been really hard to teach, however. They're still reading together every day, but Yolie's headaches are still really bad. To make matters even worse, Nikita isn't feeling too well either.
The funniest moment, probably, was when we were knocking doors. We knocked one door and were talking with the lady inside, but she told us we could come back "some other day" and gave us one of the most interesting excuses I think I have ever heard for why we couldn't talk. After some fumbling around for a response, she simply said: "Sorry I can't talk right now: I'm trying to get my house warm." and closed the door. Heh heh. A few weeks ago, we also talked to someone through a Vivint doorbell. We just knocked on the door, and they answered through the doorbell. The doorbell had a camera, so he could see us. It also had a speaker, so he could hear us and talk to us. It felt a little weird having a gospel conversation through a doorbell, though.
Finally, a quick story which I will copy from another letter for purposes of brevity:
we tracted into an amazing lady named Jennifer last night. She has clearly been prepared, both by seemingly disconnected personal experiences and by contact with members. Her entire life, she had attended another, rather anti-Mormon, church. However, she recently was really turned off by the way the members of the other church were acting in general, and decided that it was time to go exploring for another faith. That's a pretty dramatic change! Anyway, she knows a lot of members here in Othello, whom she grew up with, and she told us she has always wanted to sit down with some Mormon missionaries and hear us out. So, this next Friday, she told us to come back and said we could bring a member who she knew, an acquaintance since school. We're super excited to see where it will go!
This fire in Othello is not of our own making. We didn't start it. All we can do is try to be as worthy and dedicated as we can to keep fanning the flames. There is a mountain of potential in this area; now, all we have to do is mine it out.
Love,
Elder Adams
[Questions from Editor Mom]
Besides your snowboots, are your black and brown shoes still serviceable? I'm assuming your snowboots are still OK, right? - Yep, everything is working great. Even if they still stopped working great, I have shoe goop, so it's fine.
Are your suits and other clothes still holding out? - Pretty much, yeah. I am sad, however, that my black slacks got a rip on the seam near the bottom. It's from the bike, even though I try to tuck in my pants, they fall out and become untucked. It's sad, a bit, but not serious.
How come you weren't wearing a coat, gloves, or a hat on interview day? Please tell me that's not why President and Sister Lewis gave you a ride home. Please. - It may have contributed, but the main reason was because they could and we were walking. The church is a really, really short walk away, so depending on the weather conditions and other things, I don't always wear a coat. Sometimes I wear a hat/gloves, but again, it depends on weather conditions. Usually, I'm pretty spot-on, but I did underestimate the cold that particular day a bit. Still, it wasn't terrible.
[Photos from the Mission President's Wife]
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