Last Week of Transfer 15...
(written 12 Feb 2018)
Hola, familia y amigos! Wow, the time is passing waaaaaay too fast. I'm beginning my 16th out of 17 6-week transfer periods! Wow, that's seriously crazy. Sadly, Elder Shoemaker will be abandoning me here in Moses Lake, the legendary Prophet's Puddle. I'm so excited I still get to stay here another 6 weeks (at least)!
To start off with, I'm going to try that same format as earlier, where I take a portion of my letter to President Lewis, edit it, and expand on it. It worked really well when I tried it earlier.
We've continued to work to help our investigators to continue to progress. Roxana is doing really well, and there are others of our investigators who have really begun showing a lot more promise lately, it's very exciting! Roxana has been doing as well as ever, and came to our weekly Book of Mormon study class on Friday. She even brought a teenage girl with her (we still have no idea who that was) Unfortunately, since it was Stake Conference this last weekend, she seemed to be asleep early in the morning when we went to drive in front of her to show her to the building. She didn't answer, and we had to go without her.
Jessica is another of our promising investigators. She was taught a while ago by Elders Shoemaker and Klossner, and was doing incredibly well, but went on vacation to Mexico. While there, she stopped reading the scriptures and praying. When she came back, I was here, and Elder Shoemaker and I have been periodically stopping in to help resolve her concerns and keep her from falling completely away. For a time, we were worried she would be lost. It was a precarious time and even though we would often consider simply dropping her completely and stopping the visits, whenever we would go by "one last time", the Spirit kept urging us to continue coming by to keep her on a lifeline. We would stop by about every 1-2 weeks.
Well, our visits have finally paid off! Her life has settled down some, and she is beginning to feel a little bit better and more able to function now that things are warming up outside. She finally committed 1 1/2 weeks ago to set an appointment with us so we could come by, teach her, and she vowed to not cancel on us. Miraculously, for the first time since I've been her, this amazing lady, who has even been on-date for baptism before, let us into her house. We had a fantastic lesson with Hno. Paine, a local member, she has begun serious study of the Book of Mormon again, and she came to the Book of Mormon class on Friday with her 9-year old son, Athan. It's truly a miracle. We are so excited to really begin working with her in earnest. Her resolve has never been stronger! It's especially a miracle because we have never before gotten anyone to come to the Book of Mormon class from our area. It's been a struggle for all of us. However, this week, we had 2 of the people we are working with show up! It was truly amazing.
I also went on exchanges this last week with Elder Memmott in his area, Moses Lake 9th Branch Central Spanish (we're normally in the North, and cover most of everything north of Highway 17). Not a lot happened on exchanges, honestly; it was simply due to the fact that there were no lessons scheduled that day in their area and no one we knocked into was incredibly interested. It was all right, though; Elder Memmott and I did some good work together, and I learned a lot from him. He's a really, really, good missionary. As I recall, we did actually find some people that could be interested, and had a lot of really good talks with a lot of people.
Jessica is another of our promising investigators. She was taught a while ago by Elders Shoemaker and Klossner, and was doing incredibly well, but went on vacation to Mexico. While there, she stopped reading the scriptures and praying. When she came back, I was here, and Elder Shoemaker and I have been periodically stopping in to help resolve her concerns and keep her from falling completely away. For a time, we were worried she would be lost. It was a precarious time and even though we would often consider simply dropping her completely and stopping the visits, whenever we would go by "one last time", the Spirit kept urging us to continue coming by to keep her on a lifeline. We would stop by about every 1-2 weeks.
Well, our visits have finally paid off! Her life has settled down some, and she is beginning to feel a little bit better and more able to function now that things are warming up outside. She finally committed 1 1/2 weeks ago to set an appointment with us so we could come by, teach her, and she vowed to not cancel on us. Miraculously, for the first time since I've been her, this amazing lady, who has even been on-date for baptism before, let us into her house. We had a fantastic lesson with Hno. Paine, a local member, she has begun serious study of the Book of Mormon again, and she came to the Book of Mormon class on Friday with her 9-year old son, Athan. It's truly a miracle. We are so excited to really begin working with her in earnest. Her resolve has never been stronger! It's especially a miracle because we have never before gotten anyone to come to the Book of Mormon class from our area. It's been a struggle for all of us. However, this week, we had 2 of the people we are working with show up! It was truly amazing.
I also went on exchanges this last week with Elder Memmott in his area, Moses Lake 9th Branch Central Spanish (we're normally in the North, and cover most of everything north of Highway 17). Not a lot happened on exchanges, honestly; it was simply due to the fact that there were no lessons scheduled that day in their area and no one we knocked into was incredibly interested. It was all right, though; Elder Memmott and I did some good work together, and I learned a lot from him. He's a really, really, good missionary. As I recall, we did actually find some people that could be interested, and had a lot of really good talks with a lot of people.
We have also been working with Luis and his mom, Magali. They are so awesome! The two parents have had issues with their previous churches, mainly due to people going for the wrong reasons. They have had some very negative experiences, but with us, they're always super welcoming and open. We ran into Magali in Wal-Mart while shopping today, and we set up a visit for this Tuesday so Elder Shoemaker can say goodbye.
It's been a great week, folks! Tune in next week to see what changes in the wind will come with the new transfer.
Much Love,
Elder Adams
Questions from Editor Mom
Are you really embarking on Transfer 15 of your mission this week!? How do you feel about that? - It's weird. Actually, there are 17 transfers in a mission, and for Spanish Elders, the MTC counts as one of those. That means that technically, counting all of my full transfers, I am embarking on Transfer #16. There are only 2 left. Yes, that's extremely weird for me. It's pretty unreal.
How is the family you found progressing? - I'm trying to think of who you could be referring to. There are 3 potential people to whom you could be referring. Maybe 4, but one of them we haven't seen since that time. 1 - Roxana/Eladio/their son? 2 - Aurora, Vanessa, and family? 3 - Luis, Magali, and family? 4 - Random Catholic family we found once while tracting? (We haven't found them again yet; they're really busy with the Catholic church).
Did you get your Valentine's Day packages? Please feel free to share things. - I got the packages, but I didn't open the wrapped things. I did open the non-wrapped things, though, and they were divinely delicious. Yes, I shared quite a bit. Everyone agreed (except Elder Shoemaker, because he is very picky and specific about his food) that they were pretty much some of the most divine chocolates they had ever tasted. It was great! Also, the edible art is a cool idea. I haven't eating any of that yet.
What's the transfer news? (You don't have to share it again in your main letter--I can just post your answer here.) - Elder Shoemaker is sadly leaving to Quincy West to be companions with Elder Alonzo. I will be sticking around as District Leader and will be receiving Elder Kopp (I think - it was hard to tell on the voicemail) as my new companion!
How are you handling your allergies? - With a lot of tissues... Seriously, though, I'm doing really well. I've learned more or less how to handle them now.
Pictures from Ben
All of us at dinner last night (Sunday Feb 11) with Hinocencio and Juana Aguilar, some members here. Hinocencio was baptized several months ago by Elders Shoemaker and Klossner, but then moved out of our area. We had delicious Mexican Soup (Caldo) and Tamales. It was delicious. Left to Right: Elder Memmott, Elder Ruesch, Elder Shoemaker
We found a Mexican flag in our closet, so I hung it up in our study room. Aww yeah.
President asked us to make a copy of our apartment key. We found this design and went for it. Now, our apartment door cannot oppose us!
Elder Larking eating cookie dough with a spoon and hiding behind some unopened rolls of toilet paper. We were all just talking around the table one night, and I wanted to capture the moment.
On exchanges with Elder Memmott, I found a sweet blue woven pillow thing. I then proceeded to mess around with it. It is all recorded with pictures.
Elder Miwa (left) and Elder Larkin (right) giving us a ride to a Zone Sports/Workout morning (6:30 AM)
Our beloved District:
Elder Palacios and I having Carl's Jr. on exchanges:
Elder Miwa got himself stuck in one of those pull-up bar thingies and then decided to still try to eat his lunch.
More Pictures
This week was stake conference in Moses Lake, and Sis. Lewis (the mission mom) was there and took lots of pictures and shared them on her blog. Here are a few that featured Ben.
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