Week 72: In which I count my weeks, we set jumping goals, and we are not transferred.

Standard Week #72
(written 9 Oct 2017)

Hi everyone! This is, in fact, my 72nd letter home. I wanted to have a cool title, and that's all I could think of, so I went back and counted. It's actually number 72. That was probably dumb, in hindsight, but the deed is already done. Now, I will do my best to forget that number. Honestly, knowing myself, it's really easy to forget anything. I just have to try not to.

This has been a great, great, week. Our dinners were with the English-speaking Toppenish 1st Ward, and a lot of the people we ate with are a little on the older side, so it was pretty much different kinds of roasts with an inordinate amount of vegetables. Honestly, it was pretty great. You won't be hearing me complain any time soon about eating too many pork and steak roasts with mashed potatoes.

The area here is doing great! I'll share one short miracle from my letter to President Lewis:

There was this 18-year old girl, Jasmine, that Elders Rigby and Ramirez met in Granger. After teaching her a couple of times, Elder Rigby and I decided to refer her to the English-speaking Elders in Zillah. However, a few weeks later, we have a lesson here in Toppenish which falls through. We decide to knock a few doors while we're in the area, and the first door we knocked was answered by... Jasmine! Our mouths were both agape. We were shocked, confounded, and amazed. Apparently, after we referred her to the English Elders, she broke up with her boyfriend and moved to Toppenish. Not any less amazing, she moved to Toppenish... in our area. We took that as a sign we're supposed to be teaching her.

[I'm writing this so what I write next doesn't have the weird gray background that my letters to President Lewis have. I'll probably forget to erase, this, too. I might even decide not to erase it intentionally, just so you know I have to do something like this every time. I usually just type a single letter or word or something, though.]

So, it's been pretty great. We also met 3 times with Perla. She's doing great, too! No one sold her, and she even got her car back! Woohoo! She's reading and praying, and is getting really ready to be baptized. The main two hurdles she has to get around is she needs to learn about/start living the Word of Wisdom (a toughie), and she needs to get really consistent about coming to church. She didn't yesterday, because she honestly thought she wasn't supposed to go if she didn't have a nice dress. We explained that actually, she could come into the building wearing cutoffs if she really wanted. The most important thing is that she comes so she can experience all the blessings that come with that!

We also taught Noe and Norma last night, and it went great! It's been a while, but the English Elders asked us to stop by again because they've been having some spiritual experiences lately. (In some cases, not always the good kind of spiritual, if you get my drift.) We went by, and we decided to start completely fresh with them. We talked about the Restoration of the Gospel, and invited them to be baptized. They were okay with that, but Noe is still a little hesitant. 

However, we did an object lesson where we had their son, Juan, jump across the room as far as he could, but with no visible goal. Then, we told him to try again and try to touch Elder Rigby (which was a LOT further than he had jumped before). We marked where he had landed the previous time. The second time, with a clear goal in mind, he jumped a lot further! He wasn't able to touch Elder Rigby, but he did a lot better with the tangible goal than simply the instruction to "do the best you can". We compared that to goal setting in general, and invited them to work towards the goal of being baptized on November 18th. They said yes! That is honestly a miracle, because they (especially Noe) have been a little hesitant about making commitments of that sort in the past.

It's been a great week/transfer, and it will be an even better one that comes!

Love you all!

Elder Ben Adams

 

Question from Editor Dad

you didn't say for sure whether you or Elder Rigby is affected by the transfer. I'm assuming not...

Neither of us is affected, no. Our entire district is staying intact, and even growing! We're getting 2 new Spanish sister missionaries in Sunnyside 

Photos

Note: Toppenish, WA is known for its Western-themed murals.

 

Week 71: In which we are led by the spirit, I bleach my shirts, and I don't catch flies

Oh that I had the voice of an angel, and had perfect pitch...
[Written Oct 2, 2017]

Buenos dias, todos! Hoy quisiera hablar acerca de muchas cosas, pero para lo mas grande de los milagros que hemos visto, simplemente copiare parte de mi carta al presidente Lewis. El es el mero hombre. Yo pondre los nombres de las personas alla para que sepan quienes son, aunque no estan en la mera carta.
Good morning everyone! Today I would like to talk about many things, but for the greatest of the miracles we have seen, I will simply copy some of my letter to President Lewis. He is the man.

Also, last night we had a crazy miracle! One of our investigators is having some trouble consistently coming to church, and she didn't come to conference. We are both getting a little tired of her inconsistency, because she's doing great with everything else. She basically just lacks a lot of discipline. Yesterday after conference, I kept thinking we should stop by and see why she didn't go, confirm our next lesson, and check up on her in person. However, I kept dismissing those thoughts as just me wanting to visit her because she's our coolest investigator right now. So, we started out to tract.

However, nowhere we went felt right. We drove to one place, but it didn't really feel right. We drove to another, which felt better, and we tracted some, but then we both kept feeling what was basically a giant, stifling stupor of thought. Nothing felt right! We were both perplexed. We thought that maybe we were supposed to go to a different town, but none of those towns felt right either.

I then got the impression to get in the car and let my companion direct us. Neither of us had any idea where we were supposed to go, but we began driving, trusting that when we arrived we would know where we were supposed to be. We drove for a bit, and then ended up parked right in the church, and we felt that someone needed us in the apartments across the street. One of our investigator's apartments. At this point, the spirit brought to my memory that nagging thought I had had earlier in the day. Pausing, I asked my companion what he was thinking. He hesitated, simply saying he thought someone in those apartments needed our help. I then felt strongly impressed to tell him my thought, so I did. At that point he threw up his hands and said "Alright! Fine. You got me. I was thinking about her too, but didn't really want to admit it."

We then went over and knocked on her door, and... her sister opened it. After talking for a little bit, we explained that God had directed us there and we weren't entirely sure why. Eventually, she opened up, telling us about an amazing experience she had had a few years ago, and described that she felt a different feeling of peace and comfort. She had talked to missionaries before, but got offended because she didn't want to leave some aspects of her culture behind. Now, she's going through a really rough time. She felt like door after door was being shut in her face (we can sometimes relate). We felt strongly prompted to say we were there to open a door for her: (and this is what surprised me; I thought it was going to be something like "Jesus Christ is the door!") the door was baptism.

Long story short(er), we briefly shared about the restoration of the Gospel and the First Vision, bringing the spirit very strongly. We invited her to pray, which she didn't want to do at first, but with some coaxing (like Elder Uceda taught us), she did. She also agreed to be baptized on November 11, and told us she felt the same peace she did during her earlier experience where she decided to believe in God in the first place. She also said she just felt incredibly happy, peaceful, and relieved after talking with us.

Anyway, that was definitely the coolest miracle this week. There were still some other cool miracles, though. However, there were so many I don't know what to write about. So much is happening! Anyway, I should probably finish now so I have time to send some other things your way. I only have about 10 minutes left. Tchuss!

Love,

Elder Adarns

P.S. To explain the title, basically, whenever I want to sing hymns, I don't have perfect pitch and don't know where to start. Therefore, I wish to buy a tuning fork today. It will totally solve that problem for the rest of my life.

P.P.S. I thought that thing with how I signed off really interesting. That's why I left it there.

Questions from Editor Mom

How has your week been? - Awesome and fantastic and great!

Have you been able to try washing your shirts with some bleach? How did that go? - I did try that, and it went well. At the very least, nothing got burned.

Any favorite conference talks? - I really liked Elder Holland's talk about how the light can defeat the darkness, and I loved the talk given by one of the seventy (I don't remember who) about the Book of Mormon and how it can fortify our testimony (something like that). I've got some notes written down.

How often do members feed you in Toppenish? - Pretty much every day, actually.

Did you get to watch anything on TV after conference? President David Holland, our stake president, was featured making commentary on some of the church history that was broadcast. He, as you know, is a very eloquent speaker and scholar. - No. Dang! That would have been cool. We just had a bunch of appointments and so we just went straight to work. Also, we had a ton of really annoying technical difficulties, so we ended up having to crowd around a little computer in an office upstairs to see it. (We couldn't get it to work in the chapel. We got sound, but no visual.)

Love you!

E. Adams

Pictures

 These are the notes to a talk I gave last Sunday (thankfully not yesterday, since that would have REALLY stressed me out):

This is a fly trap I created. It is a funnel above a jar filled with bad maple syrup and a little orange juice. The idea is that the flies will be able to go in, but not be able to come back out. So far, there are no flies.

 I was just messing around with some magnets, and one of them said "Allsop", another said "Elder's Quorum" and another said "Ward Mission Leader", so I played around and came up with this gem (Elder Allsop is one of the 2 assistants to the President right now, and used to serve in this area):

 

Week 70: In which we teach back-to-back-to-back, we drink cocoa, and I ponder the Critical Taco

Stuff

Sorry, out of time. It was a crazy week. I love you all, but I managed my time badly and now have none left.

Good week. I'll copy some of Pres. Lewis' letter/also my letter to my parents (edited slightly so as not to be redundant):

It has been a very humbling few weeks for us, since is has been very clear that the miracles and blessings we have been seeing are NOT our doing. We talked to a lady this week, Vanessa, who is good friends with several local members. She has been going through a really rough time lately with anxiety and depression. She wants to know how to tap into God's support more, but didn't really know how to pray. She was in the middle of searching for peace when we knocked on her door. We shared that God has a Plan for us to help us be happy, ended up talking a bit, and then taught her to pray. She was super grateful that we stopped by.

Tons of stuff happened this week. It's just been so much. We started teaching a couple of atheists and their super religious mom, met a super young mom who just wants to finish school and become a better mom, testified our hearts out, taught 3 lessons back to back Friday night (seriously, that was the craziest 3 hours I've ever had on my mission) and we've done a ton of other things. 

I just want to leave you all with one of my new favorite scriptures:

Philippians 4:13 - Todo lo puedo en Cristo, quien me fortalece.

Love you all!

E. Adams

Questions from Editor Mom

Wie gehts? - Gut, danke! Y tu?

What should I be asking you this week--the thing you weren't planning to tell us in your letter, but that was interesting or funny or insightful? - I honestly have no idea. Tons of stuff happened this week. It's just been so much. We started teaching a couple of atheists and their super religious mom, met a lady named Vanessa who had been desperate to know how to pray as well as find peace (we taught her to pray), met a super young mom who just wants to finish school and become a better mom, testified our hearts out, taught 3 lessons back to back Friday night (seriously, that was the craziest 3 hours I've ever had on my mission) and done a ton of other things. (Sorry, just remembering a funny George W. Bush joke about the word "Brazilian":

Pres. Bush's aide: "Three Brazilian soldiers died this week in Afghanistan, sir." 

Pres. Bush: "That's awful! We'll have to send our condolences to the families, of course. Just, one thing: how many is a Brazilian again?")

What are you going to wish you remember about the last week that you might not remember if you don't write about it? - Well, I don't know. I honestly don't know. Oh, got it! Elder Rigby's family sent us a Hot Cocoa maker and some Stephen's Hot Chocolate. It's pretty great.

Who are you most looking forward to hearing in conference? - I'm really looking forward to hearing from Pres. Uchtdorf, Elder Bednar, Elder Holland, and Elder Andersen. If he can speak, of course, President Monson.

[Note: We learned that when the Church shut down their mission in Puerto Rico after the recent storms, 4 of them were sent to the Yakima mission.]

How much is your mission going to get shook up because of missionaries being transferred from Puerto Rico? Will it affect you or your district or zone? - I had no idea anything was even happening, so I don't think we'll be affected at all.

Any news from Noe y Maria? - No, not really. Last I heard, they were getting hard to contact again because of more picking seasons.

 

Are you set for sweaters and winter clothing, like gloves, socks, etc., or do you need me to send you anything? - I'm toying with the idea of sending home all of my short-sleeved shirts. I'm a little concerned that my short-sleeved shirts are a tad bit small (they kind of always have been, but I just ignored it).  Chances are, I won't need to use short-sleeved shirts again on my mission. 

 

You could try some sit ups to improve the fit of the short-sleeves shirts. Might work... - Psh. I am already exercising. I don't think I've gained any, but these darn delicious tacos! Seriously! I'm just glad I haven't yet hit the critical taco.

 

(The critical taco is something we refer to as Spanish missionaries: A lot of Hispanics are suuuuper skinny, and then they all of a sudden gain a ton of wait once they reach a certain age. It's not always, but it's kind of an interesting trend. The Critical taco is the one taco they eat which catapults them over the edge, like the straw that broke the camel's back.)

Pictures

mj