Written 10 April 2017
The sun is coming out! It makes me a little sad, because I like wearing sweaters and not being super overheated all the time, but I'm also happy because it's beautiful and people are more willing to open the door because it's not so cold. That's nice, for sure!
This week was super awesome! There are 3 people who I want to really focus on, since they were some answers to our prayers recently. We've been facing some obstacles lately with people we care about not wanting to keep commitments or do the things we know will make them happy and give them the answers to the questions they are so desperately seeking. One of the things you learn as a missionary, I think, is that you simply cannot (or should not) easily answer every single question people might ask you. Sometimes, it is better for them to look for it themselves. That is the way we truly learn.
As we've been praying about who we should stop teaching and for help in finding new people, 3 miracles happened in this area. Those miracles were people who were put in our path, and in whose path we were put. To share about these people, I will again draw from my letter to President Lewis.
We went by Edi, an older referral who had never been contacted. She was a referral from some of the English Elders in this area. She apparently used to be Catholic, but has since switched to being "Christian". We are interested to find out why. She apparently studied religion in college, and is not only friendly, but appears very interested. She's very busy during the second half of the week with her job, and so couldn't meet with us then, but we are going to visit her tomorrow. She read the entire Restoration pamphlet soon after we gave it to her! Her mom is a very staunch Catholic, but Edi and her family seem wonderful! We even ran into her husband, oddly enough, walking down the street. We had never met him before. He is not very religious, but said that Edi is.
We also met Dalila. We found her at her sister's house, who is an old former investigator we wanted to check up on. Dalila has a husband who doesn't speak Spanish, but she is native and perfectly bi-lingual. Her brother-in-law, through her husband, is a member of the Church who lives in Portland. Dalila had never really talked to him about religion, but when we shared the Book of Mormon, she listened with rapt attention and promptly agreed to read it. She seemed extremely open and interested, and something about what we shared seemed to grab her attention.
Finally, one of the greatest miracles that happened this week is Tomas. He lives in Goldendale, and his wife (we think she's his wife, anyway) is a less-active member there. We haven't even met them yet, since they are so far away, but the Goldendale Sisters found them on exchanges with the Sister Training Leaders. Tomas has been passing through a really rough time, apparently, and when they shared Prince of Peace and the Book of Mormon, he was really interested and considered them an answer to his prayers. We are driving up to Goldendale tonight to meet with him. Ironically, not only were the missionaries there an answer to his prayers, but he is an answer to ours.
I am incredibly grateful for the chance we have to help people find this path, and I know it brings joy and peace that cannot be described, only experienced. The Church's recent Easter initiative, Prince of Peace, is an inspired and inspiring collection of short videos and ideas that help us and strengthen our faith as we work our way along the iron rod of the Gospel in the mists of darkness that surround us in these very, very, confusing and confused times. I urge you all to look at mormon.org at the main video, but also at the 8 individual testimonies and experiences shared. They have inspired me as we continue to strive in this work. This next week is going to be awesome; what are we waiting for!
Love,
Elder Adams.
No questions from Editor Mom this week, but here's a brief email exchange with Editor Dad. By way of explanation, Ben recently discovered how to make voice recordings on his camera, and has been sending a batch of daily "voice journals" along with his letters.
I'm starting email time! Also, I will send this weeks recordings starting now, one by one.
Wow, that is pretty "meta". An email of a photo of the same email. - It's psychedelic, man! Okay, well, maybe not. Still, it was pretty hipster, I've got to agree.
Thanks for sending the recordings, they are fun. When do you record them? Throughout the week? - Yes. I was bad at writing in my journal, so I decided to try an experiment and record something every night before bed to see if it helped. It did.
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