Elder Adams in Yakima: Week 75: In which we strive for perfection, we start teaching a rapper, and I am pushed off the porch

Editor's note: Want to send Ben a card or letter, or even a care package? His address is:

Elder Benjamin Adams
1006 S. 16th Avenue
Yakima, WA 98902
United States

Another week full of crazy...
(written 30 Oct 2017)

Dear Family,

As crazy as it is, I think I'm starting to get used to the insane amount of miracles we are seeing almost daily in Toppenish. Of course, we have our fair share of bad experiences, too, but they are dwarfed in comparison to the mountain of blessings being poured out on us. Yesterday, I even started to get incredibly overwhelmed by the sheer number of appointments and people we have to visit. There's just not time for all of them!

We also had an amazing trip to the Temple Thursday. It was inspiring. We've also started a district "40-day purification". Basically, for 40 days, we're being incredibly strict on ourselves, and we're making a giant list of things to do to be the most obedient, consecrated, missionaries we can be. We're basically trying even EXTRA hard to be perfect. It's going very well! We're still not quite perfect yet, but we've already made a lot of improvement. We even started it out with a fast... while we were at the Temple. It was epic-ly, wicked awesome.

Here are some updates, person-by-person:

Narida - She didn't really want to set specific times for us to go by because she is so busy. As amazing as she is, with as much potential as she has, we just don't have the time to continue working with her.

Yahaida - Sister Ibarra went by today and invited Yahaida's family to a Family Home Evening at the Ibarra home tonight! We're super excited!

Jose Larious/Family - They're doing really well. They couldn't come to church this week, because he had promised to do his friend a favor. Still, he's slowly reading through the Book of Mormon! We're excited to keep working with them.

Perla - She's moving today. It's okay, it's definitely going to help her out. She came to Sacrament Meeting yesterday with some of her kids.

Germaine - We've lost contact for the last week. We're trying to find her. She's still awesome, but it's getting really hard.

Jobana - She's doing well. She accepted the invitation to let us help her find a new job where she doesn't have to work on Sundays.

Jesus Estrada/Family (mainly daughter Vanessa) - They are so amazing! Vanessa and her family came to church yesterday, and they loved it! Vanessa is in 1 Nephi 3, and we're really excited to keep helping them. Jesus, Vanessa's dad, is recovering from some addictions, and they're all super willing to change and follow Jesus Christ even more.

Melody/Jose Campos - He's working a TON. He's gone from 3 AM to 10 PM. Melody keeps missing appointments, so we're not going to go back until Jose is done working such crazy shifts (mid-late November). He's picking apples, by the way.

Eleah - We found Eleah, and she was initially not very open to us talking with her. However, she then opened up and told us she needs peace in her heart because she recently lost her mother figure.

Jesus - He's a referral from Quincy. He is dating a lady who is looking into the Gospel up there. We had a great lesson with him, but when we went back, his mean brother angrily shoved me off the porch after we told him we had an appointment with Jesus. I've never wanted to hit someone as badly as I did then, but you'd be proud of me: I didn't! I read the scriptures and calmed down!

Chris - Chris is amazing. He lost his friend super recently, and was incredulous when we showed up and shared a scripture from the Book of Mormon that helped answer a question he had. He later told his wife, and now they are both super excited to talk to them tomorrow.

We also have many more people with whom we are working, but it's crazy.

I've got to go. Love you all!

Elder Adams

Questions from Editor Mom

Hi Elder Benny Boy (just have to remind you that you will always be our Ben. :-) - Hi Mom! You'll always be my mom :-)

What are you doing for Halloween? Do you have to be in earlier than usual, for example? - We can't tract after 5 pm (but we have a member dinner then, anyway) and we have to be in the house by 6 pm. We'll be studying and staying busy until 9.

What made you laugh this week? - Hmm, good question. We met a great guy named Joshua Brownowl. As it turns out, he is a musician with a particular kind of music which he calls "poetry". He played/sang some for us, and it was really... soothing. It's really unique. It's not exactly rap, but it's a strange mix of rap and singing. His "musician name" is Marvalous (no, that's not a typo). Feel free to look him up on YouTube. He played/sang along to us his song called "Beautiful City". It's so appropriate it's even missionary appropriate. I'm not sure sometimes if he's trying to hit micro-tones, but they worked out either way (he may or may not have been intentionally right in between notes at some points). You should definitely look it up so you can have a little bit of the experience we did. He was constantly He's now a potential investigator. We'll be giving him a church tour this next week.

Are you still crazy busy with investigators that have a lot of potential? - Yes. I hit a point Sunday where I was so overwhelmed I wasn't sure what to do, since we didn't have time in our schedule to go by everyone. We are just having to raise the bar even more for who we can visit. Now, we're pretty much limited to people who come to church, we believe will come to church that next Sunday, have a date for baptism, or we plan to invite to have a specific date.

Has Perla been able to move away from her horrible situation? Please tell her she is in my prayers if you see her again. - She hasn't moved away quite yet, because she doesn't have anywhere to go, but she has to be out of her place today (technically yesterday, but whatever). She's moving out right now.

Any car stories? How do you feel about driving these days? Confident? Have you ever scared your companion? - Nope, no car stories. I feel quite confident driving. Elder Rigby says not so much any more, but last transfer yes (because I hadn't been driving for very long again). More than being scared, he wishes I didn't always get super lost and not know where I was.

What is your favorite suit? - Definitely the blue one. I like the black one because it's really loose, but the blue one is definitely my favorite (and fits well, btw, it's just not as loose as the black one).

What are you looking forward to this transfer? - Baptizing people and finding people who will be baptized next transfer.

BTW, I've known about the bat since Dad posted it on Facebook the next day. (No, I didn't go on Facebook, but Sister Lewis told me she read the story and loved it.) I really appreciate the two packages you've sent so far. It's been great! I also got a great package and card from Grandma and Grandpa Adams.

Love you!

Elder Adams