Monday, October 28, 2013

Transfer 7 Week 5

Transfers are this weekend. Thank you for all the encouraging mail. I love you all so much. I love my area so much, I don't want to be moved but I think I will be. It doesn't help that Pres. wrote my comp in an email and said "You've learned a lot from your first companion and the time is coming for you to keep moving on and take over the area and keep running." So... I'm leaving. I love it so much here I am so sad about it. But I am thrilled to be able to have made so many lasting friendships here. I know that this ward and the people I have taught have influenced my life forever. When I come back to Oregon, Coquille will be a wonderful stop to make. This week was good. I did an exchange, taught some awesome lessons, ate yummy food, and now I am emailing you and getting super excited to hang out with the sisters in my zone. I love them so much! They make my soul so happy. I just cant stand how happy missions make you. I want to run around with a giant banner about the gospel but I've heard that is a little inappropriate. Well. I guess I will just run around in my skirt...and shirt, my awesome Dansco shoes and my black name tag proclaiming good tidings of good! I love this gospel. I love this church! I love my Savior so much!
Also the primary program took place in chruch this week and it was the cutest thing ever! I loved it so much! The primary is small in this ward but they are still super classic. I love them alot. I can name them all by name and place them with their families! Also we had our two investigators who are primary age participate and they did so good! That was awesome!

Transfer 7 Week 4

Hello My lovely family!!!!
So as I was writing my President I thought, 'Hey this is pretty good. I'll just copy it and send it out to my family too. This is how I feel.' So here is another excerpt from my letter to my President, who by the way is so fantastic. I want you all to meet him and love him too. His wife is also amazing and brilliant. 

"We have been working hard. I am still praying for a 'big miracle'. We learn everyday. We are improving how we teach. We, as a companionship, are getting better at talking with EVERYONE. We add to our miracle wall each day. And yet I have nothing huge, big or momentous to report. Sometimes I look at my week and think, 'Golly, no one got translated, no beam of lights, no angelic appearances. I'm not sure what to write president.' I do go out and expect miracles and do things that show I am acting in faith and often I feel as if there is no fruit. We talked about small and simple things to bring great things to pass. I feel like a continuation of that would be, 'sometimes the great things that occur come about by stacking many small and simple things together.' I feel like this describes my mission. At times I feel like a slacker missionary because of the lack of baptisms under my belt. But then I shake off the thoughts that Satan slips in and remember, as preach my Gospel puts it, 'Our success as a missionary is measured by our commitment...' I love this work so much! And yet, despite our commitment level some weeks we may feel like we didn't make a difference and other weeks we feel avalanched by miracles. I have been trying to focus on the small and simple things that are coming to pass as a result of our consistent effort. I was looking at our numbers for this transfer and compared them to last transfer. I was so pleased to see a consistent improvement in every area. Some other small and simple blessings have been more energy to deal with grumpy people. An optimistic attitude when appointments cancel. Being able to laugh. Feeling a deep and abiding love for missionary work. Seeing my knowledge increase about the gospel. Feeling my capacity increase to follow the spirit. Seeing the growth in my companion. One thing in specific stands out for this week in particular, I've felt a need to have more heartfelt, specific and meaningful prayers. As I have made an effort in my prayers I have received little golden nuggets of how to improve in little ways that have really helped. God is good. He listens. He is aware. He loves us all so much and I love feeling how much he loves his children here in Oregon."

Also a quote that Rylie sent me. I really want to share it cause I like it.

“No man knows how bad he is till he has tried very hard to be good. A silly idea is current that good people do not know what temptation means. This is an obvious lie. Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is. After all, you find out the strength of the German army by fighting against it, not by giving in. You find out the strength of a wind by trying to walk against it, not by lying down. A man who gives in to temptation after five minutes simply does not know what it would have been like an hour later. That is why bad people, in one sense, know very little about badness — they have lived a sheltered life by always giving in. We never find out the strength of the evil impulse inside us until we try to fight it: and Christ, because He was the only man who never yielded to temptation, is also the only man who knows to the full what temptation means — the only complete realist.”
C.S Lewis
I love you all so much!

Thursday, October 17, 2013

Transfer 7 Week 3

Dear Yall.

This week has been good. It's a little fuzzy though because my brain is fuzzy. I'm having a little of a head cold. No biggy. Just a little fuzzy. So main things of note. I got my package. Thank you family. It was awesome. I loved it! The best package ever! I saved all the notes that were on everything. Thank you! Oh and I am not so sure I want to wait until the conf. issue is out. I wont have a personal one for me to own and I don't want to send an entire magazine back and forth. Maybe I explained it wrong. Any how. The print versions of the talks are now on lds.org and ready to be printed. If you want to print one out, read it, mark it, comment on it and send it to me. It's like a letter. But a talk. I am wanting to send you one of my favorites this week. So watch for it. I love you all so much! 
Another thing of note. I love my Mission President. He is so awesome. I love that man. He truly is inspired of God and he lives so close to the spirit. I know he has to because of all of us but it is amazing to watch God work through him. He is awesome.


Sis. Opheim and I in a bathroom at a dinner appointment.

I burned a tie and those are the remains.
And Then me with a sweet hair doo. In my apartment. Where no one but me and my comp can see it.

So. Sis. Clove and I had to take part in a Zone Training meeting so we left our companions together and snuck off to go plan for it and we took pictures because we are awesome at multitastking and she looked really cute!

This is a cool flower.

We are holding hammers because we used them and this lady was all 'You need hammers cause it's tough out there.' and so we took a picture. Great story right.

I did not mearly take a picture of dirt. It was a creation done by the kids whom live above our apartment and its a village. For an elephant and some lion cubs and panda bears. They are huts and roads. 

This is Sis. Coon and I on exchanges. We were doing service and these people grew these pumpkins. They are cool pumpkins and cool people.

Monday, October 7, 2013

Transfer 7 Week 2

Hello all!!!
I hope you never ever forget the love I have for you but even more so I hope you never forget the Love that God has for you.  I have felt his love for me this week so strongly. There has been opposition but oh how sweet is the Joy. I loved conference this weekend! I loved our Zone Training meeting we also had this week! I just really loved this week. One of my companions told me that 'God blesses us because he loves us but he expects us to take that blessing and share it with others." As we were able to receive answers, additional light and knowledge, and an out pouring of the spirit from conference I know that we need to share it with others. This week I am going to share with you some of what I wrote my president this week.

"President Young,

This week we went over the baptismal questions with the two young kids that we have on date and realized that they are not ready for baptism. They need to be taught more so they have time for the lessons to sink in. We were very bummed about needing to move back their date again. We feel like it will be good and it will also give their dad time to get more on board as well. After cancelling their date I felt as if I were no longer contributing to meeting our goal of 150 baptisms for the months of Sept-Nov. We are working on getting people on date for November but I didn't want to feel like dead weight for October. I had recently been talking to Sis. Clove and she shared an experience where you had sent out an email and said if we wanted to see a big miracle then to ask for it. I'm glad she reminded me of this and it kept coming back to my mind. So, that's exactly what we did. I talked with Sis. Opheim about it and we decided to set a goal for 2 people to be baptized on the 26th of October. We don't know who exactly they will be yet. We also fasted and knew we needed to find 2 new people who were ready for baptism. The day that we fasted, we went with a member to contact a woman named Nicole. She used to visit Nicole but hadn't been in years and wanted us to meet her. Nicole had taken the discussions ten years previous and now her daughter had sat in on them in Coos Bay whenever she was at her aunts house, the missionaries were teaching her cousin. Nicole and her daughter said they would be interested in learning more and would love to have us teach them. Later that day, an hour after we had broken our fast we went to see a woman that had cancelled on us every time prior but this time she was there. She has been diagnosed with terminal cancer and wasn't feeling in the mood to talk. We offered to pray with her which she accepted gratefully. After the prayer she began to talk with us about her church and how she felt as if something was missing. We were able to teach her the Restoration. She kept commenting how this answered questions that she had had for years. She also said she would be willing to be baptized. We are so excited to go back and teach her. Whether or not this woman or the family will be the ones to accept baptism on the 26th, we feel very blessed by God."
This week I have felt so blessed. I have been able to see some dear Sisters whom I love so much. I've been able to have some very meaningful conversations that have had a deep impact on me. I've been able to learn from God how he wants me to improve. I have felt his love for his children. I feel his love for me so deeply and I am so excited to share this love with those here in Oregon. I love my mission because it's not MY mission, its HIS mission for me and he is truly leading and guiding every step of the way.
I loved conference so much! I loved so many of the talks. I have a request. I really really really want you to do this. So as soon as I make the request I'd like for you to put in your phones on an alarm or write sticky notes and place them all over so you don't forget or better yet you can pause reading my letter and do it now. So the request is.... Print out your favorite talk from Conference and read it, mark it, highlight it, make notes on it and then send it to me. So. Pause. Make a note on your phone. Start making sticky notes and placing them everywhere. Or go to LDS.org and print it out right now. Please. I really want to discuss conference with you and this is the only adequate and effective way I can think of. Or you can email me what your favorite talk was and I will print it out and read it first. So please? Thank you! I love you all! (I actaully think the talks are not available for print yet but as soon as they are...)
Sis. Adair

Sunday, October 6, 2013

Transfer 7 Week 1

Dear Everyone!
My little sister emailed me today and wrote some pretty hilarious and thought provoking things which have prompted me to write how much I love my mission. I have been feeling that a lot lately. I just cant get over how much I love, love, love, love my mission. I have felt that way before but never to such the extent that I feel it now. But! Before I get to into how much I love my mission I want you all to know that my sister whom I love is turning older!! Yep! She is having a birthday! What What! Happy Birthday Emily!
Ok. So. I really and truly do love my mission with all my heart! I love the people. I love the schedule. I love my companions (current and past). I love bearing testimony, I love the awkward moment of getting out of the car and semi chasing someone down or full on chasing someone down. I love studying in the morning. I love walking for hours in the pouring rain, I love having meetings to go to. I love having lessons cancel and being able to find a wonderful new person to teach. I love my mission President with all my heart. I love his wife too, she is pretty fantastic. I love feeling the spirit. I love learning more about the gospel, myself and others than I have at any other time in my life. I love getting letters (hint, hint). I love it so much because its the lords work. It is such a blessing to be out here. I feel so blessed so be able to meet these wonderful people here and to have this amazing experience.
To anyone who is still pondering whether to serve or not, my advice is to Go! Of course take it to the Lord and pray because ultimately it is between you and him. Missions are the greatest thing ever! You may hear that over and over and over from returned missionaries, current missionaries or people who because of a missionary came into the gospel. I want to add my testimony to all that have come before, I am so blessed to serve a mission because God is allowing me to glimpse eternity each and every single day. At times as I have pondered what eternity is like my head threatens to explode because I cant comprehend the idea of forever. But when I think about the Holy Ghost and how it makes me feel, how it makes those whom we teach feel, I know that I am glimpsing eternity and it is wonderful. However God gave us all a way to glimpse eternity whether we decided to serve missions or not.
There is a place in Preach My Gospel that when looking things up on the Holy Ghost, it refers you to the Bible Dictionary under Earnest. I hadn't a clue how 'Earnest' and 'Holy Ghost' connected but when we read in 2 Cor 1:22 or 5:5 or Eph. 1:14 we see Paul use it in the context of speaking about the Holy Ghost. in the bible dictionary it says Earnest: A pledge or security. The word thus translated is a commercial term denoting the deposit paid by a buyer on entering into an agreement for the purchase of anything. As used by Paul it means that the Lord gives us his Holy Spirit in this life as a foretaste of the joy in eternal life. The spirit is also the Lord's surety that he will fulfill his promise to give eternal life to the faithful.
I found that absolutely beautiful. The Holy Ghost is a beautiful gift and promise that we have been given. It brings us happiness and joy. It allows us to carry that joy to others. It testifies of the truthfulness of the Restored Gospel. It helps others to come unto Christ. I love my Savior. I am so grateful he has allowed me, as weak as I am, to come out and participate as a full time missionary in his glorious work.
I love you all! Have a great week!