Full Week May 26, 2015

Friends and family!

There is soo much to write about this week! I don't think i can fit it all! But I will try! So real quick.. This week we had Zone Conference with about 60 missionaries. We had a fitness contest. I did 59 push-ups! Heck ya! I didn't know i could do that much! Then we did a jumping jack contest. Guess who won and beat ALL the Elders!! Me!! I got 953 jumping jacks and the last 53 were like I'm a star ones :) So ya still got it :) That was fun! We also rode our bikes for the first time this week! It was interesting with the skirts, but we rocked it :) 

Next, we are making progress with our less actives! Sister Moore came two weeks in a row! And she stayed all of sacrament meeting! And on Sunday morning we went to the Bakers to make sure they were coming! We helped them get ready and he was super nervous. He was sweating! But it was amazing! It was so great! All the messages and talks were perfect for him! The prodigal son, latter day saints keep on trying! It was great! Him and his two kids stayed the whole time and he met with the bishop too! :) it was one of my favorite Sundays! 

Also someone thought i was one of the kids on the 19 Kids and Counting show.. I get mistaken for that and everyone says i look like their granddaughters and nieces.. so apparently I'm not unique :) haha and another funny thing that happened this week, we got a text that a new family was moving into the ward and wanted to meet us for dinner. When we got to the restaurant.. it was Sister Mills brother, sister in law and her nieces and nephews!! Haha she was horrified! They tricked us! They bought us dinner then we went home to eat it. Sister Mills felt so bad and thought she might get sent home. She called the mission president and he said, well did you at least hug them!!? It was funny. So shes good :) just don't get any ideas family!! :) 

So as most of you know my brother got married this week! Which is weird! But congrats! That day EVERYTHING we had lined up canceled.. we recovered though. You just never know whats going to happen each day. I'm learning its all about the attitude! Also transfers are next week.. I hope i stay one more transfer here.. I love it and I feel like I could more! We are going to meet with Ben again this week and we have a new YSA investigator named Amy! So things are great up here in Sandpoint! :) I love this gospel sooo much and i get excited to live it everyday :) Have a great week! Love you all!! Thank you for all you do! 

-- 

Love,

Sister Adamson

Faith, Hope, Charity May 18, 2015

Dear Friends and Family, 

Well this has been one of the longest weeks on the mission, but at the same time it went by soo fast! So just a heads up the pictures that I'm sending home were taken on our p-day! So don't you think I'm bending any rules :) also to get this out of the way.. At church this tall fat guy that smelled AWFUL and was homeless came to church with some members. We went to talk to him and he was like ya what do i need to do to be a member of the Mormon church. We thought ok cool? BUT, the member that came with him took us out in the hall and said.. wait for it.. drum roll please... "He is a Her." Yep hes/shes in transition and lives under a RV and invited her/himself to church. So how much further we will pursue that.. I don't know. 

Anyways.. We taught Ben and his family this week! We tracted into them and he is Catholic. Hes super sincere and wants to know the truth. However he has an issue with the apostasy and taking Joseph Smith's word for it. So we will use the BOM with him and see what happens! We also taught Kammy and her son Gage. They are going through a rough time so hopefully we can bless their lives with the gospel! The Lord is definitely blessing us with people to teach! And we are loving it! 

So with Sister Moore (the Less active we have been working with). She came to church!! She always leaves in the middle of sacrament meeting though.. She looked really scared to be there. She always says how the building didn't fall down when she came in. I think she has a lot of guilt and unworthiness issues. But its awesome seeing her try and act in faith. Also the other Less Active.. Brother Baker. So this week when we invited him to church, he said that he had no excuse to not go. So Sunday came around.. didn't come.. Satan just gets people when they are weak and doesn't let them get up! I want to punch Satan in eye ball. But other than that he is doing a lot better. He is wanting to change, he just needs the courage to do so!

So I had the opportunity to do exchanges in Bonners Ferry, ID. It is so pretty but the area is super booney. (trailers and nature and such). I ended up eating dinner in a trailer with five dogs living in it.. so that was a great experience :) we were also trying to find a less active and her address took us to a lumber yard.. so theres that. But i learned a lot. Sister Kruitbasch (try and pronounce that) is awesome. So I learned a lot from her and my perspective on my mission changes a lot when i see her attitude toward everything. I just have a lot to work on. My teaching, scripture knowledge, faith. the works! 

I was able to speak in the YSA Branch this week. I was asked to speak on how i got on my mission and what it was meant to me. Can i say easy topic? I could go off so many things about that! But while i was writing it, what really stood out to me was faith, hope and charity. I've learned a ton about those and why they are important. I'm learning how to act in faith and how having the desire to believe is what builds our faith. I've said so many prayers about helping me have desire and I can see myself really changing. Also hope. I know i talked about it last week. But hope is about being patient, optimistic, enthusiastic, and confident. I need to improve so much in these areas. Learning what hope is has really giving me a wake up call. Charity. Its hard to share the gospel with someone when you judge them. We must love everyone! If we don't, we aren't giving everyone the chance they deserve to be apart of this amazing church. So that was my spiel for the week. I love you all! Hope you have a great week! 

-- 

Love,

Sister Adamson

Pictures!!! May 11, 2015

Hope May 11, 2015

Dear family and friends,

Well it was fun talking with you on mothers day! Good to see everyone being their lovely selves :) Well I had a great and interesting week :) another one of those that went by super fast, but really slow too! 

Well something super cool happened this week. We were walking and talking with peeps and we decided to go see one of our past investigators Adrian. On the way to her apartment, we started talking to this guy named Ben. And let me tell you.. he's like a modern day Joseph Smith! He's just searching for the truth. He was just baptized in the Catholic church and is STILL looking for truth. He literally said that if God told him to sell all his things and serve him he would. CRAZY! Well we are planning on dropping by this week and teach him! That would just pump me up to actually get a sincere investigator!

So this week I realized I've been struggling with hope. I have little faith in myself and people. Hard to do missionary work when that happens. I was talking to sister Mills about that on Thursday night. And the next day we had Zone Training. Guess what it was about? Hope. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? After sister Mill said that she was thinking, The Lord sure does love sister Adamson :) And he does. I learned so much about what hope actually is. There is this little hope test that is in Preach My Gospel in the attributes section. It said that if you have hope, you are confident, patient, optimistic, 

and enthusiasm. Man that was a wake up call. Now that i know how to measure hope.. i could see i had none. That was an amazing lesson to learn. Now i just have to work on gaining that hope. And it won't come through my abilities, or the people we teach getting baptized or coming back to church, it comes from the Lord. I need to hope that He is everyone's lives--working and preparing them. I need to fully rely on Him, and just be an instrument. This may seem like common missionary knowledge to do.. but i had to learn it for myself to really understand it. So that was a huge blessing this week! The Lord really has his hands in everything. 

Also.. So we have had this potential investigator names Sue for awhile. Every time we go over, its not a good time, but she always tells us to come back. I was super fed up with that and didn't really want to ever go back.. haha thats how much patience and hope i have.. (See how i need to work on it?) So we had about 20 minutes before an appointment and we didn't know where to go. Sister Mills said hey lets go see your favorites person.. urg.. so we did. She LET US IN! I gave a look to sister Mills like are you kidding me?? So we had a nice little talk and brought up some gospel principals and she thanked us for coming over, because she needed it today. Maybe we will teach her? She's a solid Lutheran but hasn't been to church in awhile so we will see... Man don't we all love being wrong? haha Sister Mills laughed at me for that one.. 

So after we talked, I thought it would be hard getting back into the work again, but it wasn't! I was the most pumped I have ever been! We saw this guy in his 20s who seemed like a dead beat and drugged up pretty good at one point in his life if not currently and honestly, those people i think, they don't want the gospel. But i thought again.. what if he was my brother? My sister? My uncle? I thought that i would want missionaries talking to them in that situation. So we did! We got his number so we will see if anything comes out of it! But i have a different perspective now! So thats good :) well i love you all! Keep living the gospel and blessings do come when we put the Lord first!

-- 

Love,

Sister Adamson

Stake Conference May 4, 2015

Dear Family and Friends, 

Cant believe it's May! What is going on in this world! Ok last week i forgot to update you about Christine. She said she wants to be baptized by her ex boyfriend.. He is the one who introduced her to the church, but then he made a lot of bad choices. He won't be worthy for another year.. So hopefully we will be able to change her mind and not let him stop her progression. So she leaves for school in a month.. so with us luck! 

So Adrians lesson was ok. Its hard to have the spirit there when the baby is crying.. but she says she wants to be baptized! But we still got a long way to go.. and shes hard to get in contact with so we will see what happens this week! The gospel is exactly what she need though. That much is clear! Its just getting her to realize that! So an elder in our district gave us this survey thing that will help start talking to people. It has simple questions like do they believe in God? What happens to us after we die? and that really helps me be motivated to talk to everyone! so thats been good and we have a few potentials in the mix! 

Also i cannot believe how many times people think we hare Jehovah Witnesses.. they proselyte like crazy up here. So everyone thinks we are them... so that gives us a bad reputation from the start.. There are so many different churches up here so its difficult getting people to want to know more about ours. So thats a challenge. But there are people here that the Lord is preparing and they need the gospel!! 

Two cool miracles happened this week! So weeks ago we ran into this kid named Paul and he said he would want to know more and change his life and all that then when we called and texted him.. nothing.. so we thought we lost him. But guess who we ran into this week!? PAUL!!! yay!! We were so pumped! So well get working on him! Also we work in a soup kitchen up here and this nice older guy works there with us. We don't really get to proselyte there because its a methodist church and its not quite appropriate. But we also ran into him and started talking to him about Joseph Smith and had a great talk with him. So hopefully we will teach him too! He seems interesting in learning more! 

So we are working with so many less actives its crazy.. i can't even begin to update you on them. But just know its moving right along! nothing eventful happened this week! Also i had my first encounter with a drunk man.. NOT COOL. He was telling how Mormons are a cult and that the prophet is just in it for the money and how rich all the Mormons are. Man did i want to slap him.. urrgg.. But i didn't and we just walked away. Can't wait to see him in heaven though! 

We had the best stake conference this weekend!! Wilfred W. Andersen came. He spoke this last conference about dancing to the music of the gospel! He was amazing! I learned soo much from that! I'm learning a lot about how to raise a family in the gospel, and why its so important! And how forcing our kids to choose the right is not the Lords way. Thats what Satan's plan was. All we can do is love them!! Anyways thats just a bit.. well i love you all and have a great week :) 

Bold :) April 27, 2015

Dear Family and friends! 

How goes it? Hope its all good! Well this week was another hard one, but full of soo many blessings! First of all yes there was an earthquake here, but i didn't feel it at all. It was right after we went to bed and i just clonked out. And sister Mills said it sounded like the earth's stomach growling.. but ya i had no idea!

So I dont give you much updates about the less actives we work with because for the most part its not that exciting. Thats what most of the work it here. We have been working with Sister Moore. She is in her late 50s and smokes and is divorced and lives alone. She always she will come to church, but she rarely ever has. But lately she has been growing and changing. Its soo cool watching how the Lord can change people and their hearts! Hopefully she keeps progressing.

Next Brother Ryan Baker. He is the most sincere man. He just turned 29 and has a five year old and 10 month old. He lives with his girlfriend. Hes done everything--from drinking, smoking, the works. They struggle a lot financially and they asked us if they could get hand me downs from the ward. That day a lady in our ward went out and bought clothes for them. When we gave them to him he almost started crying. He just really was touched by it. Also.. he was asking us these questions about polygamy and same-sex marriage. But then he asked us (His girlfriend wasn't there) about what to do if a "friends" girlfriends (AKA his) was cheating repeated on him. And if he should just continue forgiving her. So we gave him our best advice and he really seemed to like it. Its hard to see people go through these things, but that is why we have the gospel and we LIVE it!  He started reading his scriptures again and is making progress! I love his family and want them to COME BACK soo bad! So i'll keep you updated!

We have a new family to teach!! Adrian-20 Will (the dad) and their baby Aleah. They aren't married and are a young struggling couple. We teach them tonight so be praying for us and them! They need to gospel soo much! 

Also i learned a lot this week on why being bold is important. And honestly, missionary work is miserable if you aren't. There are so many blessings that come if you are but bold! Sister Mills and I will continue to work on that! We are getting so much better and the work is progressing because of it!! :) 

Funny story: We go see this old lady named sister Hudson and my siblings and family should know a little about her.. haha well this week she said want some of my Brandi? And we said well, is it legal to drink? It was this purple liquid and turned out it was grape jello in warm liquid form. They drink it all the time. Man these Idahoans.. haha. Also i got 103 on my last scrabble endeavor! :) 

Have a great week and love you all! 

Rough One...April 20, 2015

Dear Friends and Family!

So its weird to say that this week was hard, because there has been soo many blessings and its a beautiful day today! But it was the hardest week of my mission thus far. What made it hard was that there was a LOT of rejection, people not caring, a lot of self-doubts and all that fun stuff. I often think, "Am I really able to help all these people?" "What could I possibly do for them?" There is a lot of pressure as a missionary and a lot of expectations. But all that really matters is what the Lord thinks of you and how you are doing in His eyes. So thats been a hard lesson to learn (still am). 

I was feeling soo bad this last thursday/friday that while we were out tracting, I thought that I should get a priesthood blessing. Which I have never asked for one before, because i'm like the other women in my family and we are super independent as you well know. So we lined it up with an amazing member in our war named Brother Morgan. It was the best and greatest blessing! It really was just what i needed to hear! Of course it didn't solve all my problems, but it gave to the strength and calm i needed to be able to do the work. 

So with that out of the way, the blessings overrule the hard things! So we were able to get into Ryan Bakers house! he is a less active and lives with his girlfriend and two kids. He is so sincere and wants to change his life! He just needs the strength and courage to do so! So we ( the Lord mostly) Will work with him and help him as much as we can! but we taught him a cool improve lesson about Chirst (Which are always the best lessons) (I'm using a lot of () aren't I?) 

Also drum roll please.... I MET ELDER NELSON AND SHOOK HIS HAND! It was so cool! He spoke to us about the Abrahamic covenant and why its important to know where we came from and what blessings come from that! So that was cool. I felt pretty dumb.. i don't know much about that. So more studies for me! I was on the second row and woof.. he looked into my eyes so many times! I thought please don't slap me for the little pathetic missionary i currently am.. I'm trying.. haha but he was funny and cute! Just like any apostle of the Lord! :) 

So John.. hes a little confused about his life and told us he wanted to get baptized the some River of Life church.. I won't even bore you with the details, but well see if we can talk some sense into him. Also Christine has been tricky lately. She has all these problems and she just needs to be baptized and have the holy ghost and it will help her soo much! So we will keep working with her! 

PS We played scrabble with a 95 year old Berkley professor and he got 178 points and i got.. hold your breath... 97.. haha but hey he only beat me a little :) Well i love you all and keep living the gospel it is the way of light and happiness :) I know that for sure!