Elder Adams in Yakima: Week 69: In which lots of kids come to church, I meet a RM from Boston, and we get tamales

Hello!

Hi! How's it going? Elder Adams here. I only have about 8 minutes to do this, so here goes:

This week has been great! Here are some quick highlights:

Monday - Awesome lesson with two teenage girls named Yahaida and Betsaida. Bro. Nye and his two teenage daughters came with us. Yahaida and Betsaida finally are beginning to understand the Restoration! Yay!

Tue: Lesson with Jobana, a less-active member in Buena. She wants her daughter, Juana, to be baptized.

Wed: Zone Conference! Also, we went on exchanges with Elder Sanchez, our district leader. He's training a brand-new missionary, Elder Alonzo, who arrived only a few weeks ago. I went with Elder Alonzo in Sunnyside. Elder Bird, my old zone leader in The Dalles, was there! It was great.

Thu: Cool lesson that morning with a lady in Sunnyside. She gave us tamales de elote. They were delicious.

Fri: Lesson with Juan and Maria! From my letter to President Lewis: We're teaching two people named Juan and Maria. They're an older couple, and have very Christian (as opposed to Catholic) beliefs. They were telling us about how the Primitive Church had fallen, and were very excited to hear about the restoration and the Book of Mormon. We're really excited to be working with them.

Sat: Lesson with Perla about the Book of Mormon. She liked it a lot, and is doing really well!

Sun: Something like 6 kids came to church... and their parents either never came or left. Also, Jobana came with Juana and her son, Oswaldo! We spent sacrament meeting trying to help the kids be reverent. (Perla came, but only for second hour. Her kids were some of them who were there). We then gave those kids chocolate cake for their good work.

Hey, I thought you might appreciate that I just found out one of the members here, Courtney Stancliff, got home a little while ago from her mission in... you guessed it... the Boston Mission!

You will also definitely appreciate that she told me who she trained. She trained Sister Gill (who served in our ward in Massachusetts).

Love you all! Bye!

Elder Adams

Questions from Editor Mom

How was your week? - Our week was fantastic! Fantasmal! Phantasmal!

Is your area still on fire? Are you able to stay on top of it? - Yes, but barely. We're having to do some serious prioritization, and even people we would normally try to work with more have to be simply recorded and shunted to the side. They just don't have as much potential as other people, and we unfortunately can't spend time with everyone!

What is the thing you most want to remember about this last week? - I went on exchanges in Sunnyside with Elder Alonso, a brand-new missionary. He lives with... Elder Bird, my old Zone Leader from the Dalles! It was epic! I didn't think I'd be able to see Elder Bird again.

Are your eyes better? - Yeah, pretty much.

What are you doing for exercise? - Basically, I run around trying to find exercise-things to do. We have a stairmaster. I also sometimes swing Elder Rigby's hammer. Also, I sometimes just run around, occasionally swinging stuff around like swords. Hey, it gets me moving.

Why did the members of your zone all wear black and white to zone conference? Who planned that? - The Zone Leaders planned it.

Real-time Questions from Editor Dad

So are you in Yakima now? Doing anything interesting for P-Day? - Not in Yakima, no. Still Toppenish. We'll be doing bowling, I think.

In previous weeks, you have mentioned lots of investigators, and you only mentioned a few this week. How many would you say you have, and which ones are most receptive? Can you name them all? - We have tons, I just didn't have time to write everything.

Normal Receptive: Pretty much average, but receptive enough they are investigators

Pretty Receptive: Receptive enough it's actually pretty exciting

Super Receptive: Will probably end up baptized at some point in their lives

Perla - Super receptive

Ivan & Osiris - Super receptive, but hard to set up lessons

Yennifer (19), Juan (14), & Brenda (17). Pretty receptive, new investigators. Brenda has a 3-yr old kid, Yennifer is about to have a kid, and Juan does not have a kid. We gave them cookies because their friend died.

Seferina & Jesus - Pretty receptive

Maria - Friend of Seferina. Normal receptive

Juan & Maria - Super receptive

Mario - Pretty-Super receptive, but still a teenager. His dad, also named Mario, is nice, but may or may not be receptive.

Yahaida & Betsaida - Pretty receptive, but already super active in their random Christian church. That's pretty much all that could hold them back (that includes, by the way, the problem of their parents being super active in said church)

Juana (daughter of Jobana) - So Super Receptive she desperately wants to be baptized, but easily distractable and without a super firm support from her mom (who wants to be active and help her kids, but works on Sundays).

That's everyone I can think of, but it's pretty crazy how many incredible people are in this area! What I sent before was just 1 highlight from each day. Just too much has been happening to write it all!

Can you see Mt. Adams from where you live and work, or is the smoke too bad? Do you ever get out onto the reservation, away from town? - Other area, sadly. We're Toppenish East, covering Zillah/Granger. We do see it, though. We just don't get deep into the reservation.

Pictures

Elder Alonzo and me:

Elder Bird!

Map of Mexico and our 3 stalker maps (we printed them out from the LDS meetinghouse locator and taped them together so we can see all the individual houses in each town):