Elder Adams in Yakima: Week 87: In which we battle filth, Chicos burns, and I lose my resolutions

Miracle Lake
(written 22 Jan 2018)

Hello everyone!

This has been a miraculous week! It all starts with an apartment cleaning inspection on Tuesday...

A long time ago, in an apartment far, far, away...

DIRT

WARS

Faced with the impending doom of an apartment cleaning inspection, the desperate 4-man Missionary Alliance was compelled to undertake a deep-clean of the infamous Vintage Apartments. Overtaken by waves of Dust, Clutter, and Dirt, the Apartments had become one of the most dangerous places in the Galaxy. When their daring infiltration failed, their last hope was to attack it head-on...

Seriously, we destroyed our apartment (in a good way). We went through, and finally got the place actually pretty clean. The difference was night and day! The spirit was so much stronger with us, and we then saw some amazing miracles. They even started that night, on Tuesday! Here's an excerpt from my email to President Lewis to give you more of an update:

Last Tuesday, we found an amazing couple of new investigators, Eladio and Roxana, who are seriously incredibly prepared! Elder Shoemaker felt like we needed to knock some doors in an area where missionaries have been probably hundreds of times. The very first door that we knocked, Roxana opened up, then went and got Eladio, who invited us right in. He had apparently met with missionaries before, but only met with them a few times before getting totally overwhelmed with work during the harvest season. We went inside and began teaching them again. When we taught them about the Restoration and the Priesthood, Roxana started asking us about what baptism was like and how to prepare for it! They both want to be sure of it first, and so currently do not have a baptismal date, but both want to work with us and prepare for it. They weren't able to come to church yesterday, because Eladio is leaving town tomorrow for about a month and a half and was visiting his family yesterday before he left. However, he said he would love it for Roxana to come to church while he was gone. We are so excited!

This area is on fire! Seriously, though, the well-known local pizza shop, Chicos, burned down this week as well. We're super excited for what the next few weeks hold in store!

Love,

Elder Adams

Questions from Editor Mom

1. What is the most challenging thing that happened this week? - Honestly, there wasn't a ton that was incredibly challenging this week.

2. Have you ever cried on your mission? - I have TOTALLY cried on my mission, but always for wildly different reasons. Sometimes, when we're teaching, I want to cry (or actually do cry) while testifying because the spirit comes so strongly. I have also cried saying goodbye to people I learned to love in my areas. I have cried during the Sacrament. I have cried when listening to songs that are really emotional or inspiring. It really depends on the situation, but yes, I have cried on my mission many a time.

3. What was the happiest thing that happened this week? - We found some AMAZING new people, Eladio and Roxana! They are seriously SO PREPARED!!! I'll try to fill you in on more details in the bigger letter, but seriously, we were both so happy to find them and have the opportunity to teach them!

4. How did your interview with Pres. Lewis go? - I feel like the interview went fantastically well! We talked about how we cleaned our apartment. I'll probably mention that in the main letter, too

5. We saw pictures from your youth missionary activity in Moses Lake. What was your role in that activity? - There was a Mini-MTC for the youth here, and the full-time missionaries were the teachers. We were co-teachers, though, for the Zone Leaders (we had the largest group, "District 5", and so they needed our help).

[Editor's note: After Hurricane Maria, missionaries in Puerto Rico were reassigned to Spanish speaking missions in the US. This week, they returned to Puerto Rico.]

6. Was your district affected by the reassignment of the Puerto Rican elders back to Puerto Rico? - Nope. We had no Puerto Ricanos aqui en nuestro distrito.

Pictures from Pres. Lewis's Visit & Interviews

Sister Lewis asked each missionary to share their New Years resolutions and reported their responses in her blog.
Elder Adams: Oh dear. What happened to your resolutions??? I’ll go find them.