Happy New Year!! December 28, 2015

Dear Family and Friends!

I hope you all had a great Christmas! It was one of my favorites! Talking to you all was great and I loved it! It was great to see all your lovely faces!! Such a blessing! :) 

So just to summarized this last week a bit. We recieved a lovely gift from one of our recent converts in our ward! They are from the Chuk Islands. (don't know how to spell it). She sewed us pillow cases and dresses that we wore at church! I felt like a sister in Hawaii for a day wearing it :) it was awesome! The Sams are older and have very little, but almost every time we go over there they give us something! And she was slaving away trying to make gifts for people in the ward. They are great and I will send a picture! 

We were able to find a part member family in the boonie part of our area! She is wanting to come back to church and cried during our simple lesson with her. It was just another testament to me that when people become inactive, they miss it. They may be happy and doing ok, but they know something is missing. The gospel really does fill holes we don't even know were there. It fills us with such peace and knowledge. So after our visit, we drove away on the ice roads in our dumb little car (which the kind of car we drive still escapes me). Sister Adamson may have been driving a bit too fast and drove into a snow bank.. we were so deep in it that I couldn't get out the driver's side... Whoops.. So there was only one house within a mile from where we were. So we got out and ran there! It was a nice young man that owns a farm, but her husband wasn't home. So she warmed up her huge Ford truck and tied some kind of scout knot and pulled our car out. It was amazing. The Lord takes care of his missionaries that's for sure! I also learned I need to learn how to tie knots like a scout does.. but that will be for a later time I suppose.. haha :) 

So we did lots of caroling and dropping of gifts to potential investigators, recent converts, and less actives! It was fun to see how happy people got after we gave them something so simple! It was really a happy time :) I love the feeling of giving! I felt that a lot this Christmas! So it was great!! 

So after we went to normal life, we contacted a media referral we got named Judy. It went something like this. She had a Target name tag on with the name Judy on it. We asked if she was Judy and she said no. I said, "Do you work at Target?" And she, "Yes" I said, "Oh well your name tag says Judy," And she said, "Oh well I had to borrow a tag," LIKELY STORY!!!! It was so funny. Sister M and I have a thing now where we go oh Judy from target. It makes us happy :) Haha But this week was great!! We are both staying here until February and both are STLs here. So that will be fun!! :) Well love you all!! Happy New Year!!

Love,

Sister Adamson

Christmas Pictures!!

Spokane Falls!

Christmas tree with pictures and the handprints of Harper and Ryder

New Convert Kara

Merry Christmas! December 22, 2015

Dear Family and Friends,

Well it has been an interesting week. Lots of blessings and hard things. I will always agree with the statement that a mission is the worst best thing you could do to yourself. With the passing of my Grandpa yesterday I have learned a lot about the healing of service. We missed a call from our Mission President and I knew what that meant.. So we pulled over in the blizzard we were having and called him back. He was so sweet about it and we took a little bit to cry before our next appointment. At that appointment and all the others we had that night, I didn't think about it once. I was just focusing on the people and making them happy. It didn't hit me until later that night after our day was over. I will miss him so so much, and it will be weird without him there when I get back, but I know I'm closer to him now then when he was alive. Its not easy being away from you all at this time, but I know this is where gramps wants me to be. Like my mom said to me, now he is just serving alongside me now! So that will help give me strength. I feel so much better when I focus on others and their struggles rather than my own. I'm not perfect at it, but I have felt the difference of it.

I also had a lesson this week about how when you are in a rut, the only way to get out of it is to work. Sister M and I had an awesome start to the week. Then it all went capoie. We went on exchanges and when we came back, we lost our grove. We had a few hard days. Tracted a TON. Met some nice and not so nice people. We were getting frustrated about how slow the work was moving along. We were talking about things we could do to change it and make it better and work smarter. We had a few ideas, but then just went out and worked. We had a few little miracles with some less actives on our ward list that we had no idea who they were and had awesome conversations with people. At the end of the day we felt so much better about what we were able to do. As long as we are trying and working (doing our part) Heavenly Father will bless us. Whether its with baptisms or our personal growth. 

I love this time of year and am so happy to be a missionary now! Its sad when we see all the many people who celebrate Christmas and don't even believe in Christ. Its been mind-blowing! So always keep the real meaning behind it. I know Christ, our Savior, was born for us. I know He loves us and has experienced all our pain and struggles. I know that He personally knows each and everyone of us. My testimony of this grows each day. So Merry Christmas everyone! Enjoy your families and the true spirit behind it all! 

I just got back from the temple! While I was praying for comfort in the celestial room, I was trying to focus and think about grandpa and grandma. I was trying to picture them there with me! I was comforted to feel and picture how they were reunited in heaven. I know that they are so happy to be together again. I'm so grateful for the knowledge we have of eternal families and what it means to all of us. I love the temple so so much! 

Manito is good! We are getting ourselves around here a lot better and the ward here is amazing. I've never felt so much love so fast! I can't wait to talk to you soon!! Be safe!! 

Love,

Sister Adamson

Manito :) December 14, 2015

Dear Family and Friends,

This week has been one of the hardest of my mission, but I have grown and learned a lot. The teaching pool we have here is super small, but Spokane is one of the highest baptizing areas in the mission. They just baptized a few people before I got here so that's what they were focusing on. So we are starting at ground zero. So its been a lot of tracting street contacting and having fun getting lost over and over again! I often think to myself, what is a girl from Utah and Ukraine doing driving around with our heads cut off! But its fun!! We were able to find a few people this week, but they aren't too solid yet so we will see!!

We had a training from our mission president this week about planning and goal setting--story of a missionary's life! But it really pumped us up to fix everything is this area. So we went back home, rearranged our apartment and began to fix the area book. We have lots of work to do, but we learn something new every day! 

We have an awesome ward here! I already feel apart of their family! Its cool how no matter where you go, there are awesome members of the church. I can't imagine how hard it was to pick just a few stories to fit into the Meet the Mormons movie. So i'm so grateful for that. I have also grown a big appreciation for fasting and prayer. I of course was having a hard time this week, and was brought to my knees. I was getting too comfortable in Moscow and as a result I got booted out of there! So missions keep you on your toes!! 

We saw a few little miracles this week with some less actives and inactives. We found a single mom with five kids. She is divorced and has been inactive for years because of questions that she has had that she could never find answers too. While we were they you could tell she wanted to come back and raise her daughters in the church. None of them have been baptized and it would be amazing to bring them into the church!! The spirit was so strong during the lesson and we testified of God's love for her and her family. It brought tears to her eyes. It's amazing what the gospel and God's love can do for everyone of us! Sometimes thats all we need to know. That we are loved by God. So this Christmas season, find opportunities to show God's love to others. We all need it. So i'm excited to see where she will go. 

Our areas covers downtown Spokane, to the boonies of farm land. So this week we went out to Spangle, WA and got lost there. Haha missions are fun. We didn't find anyone out there to teach from us tracting the whole town. haha It was a tiny place. So the mission keeps us on our toes! Hopefully this email made sense. Missionaries are surrounding this Family History Center and making it hard to focus.. haha so have a good week! Love you all!!!  

Love,

Sister Adamson

Holy Cow! December 7, 2015

So uh.. Sister Adamson is no longer in Moscow..

We got the call late Friday night that I was leaving and Sister Bryson was going to be a trio in the family ward. We were bawling... So that was insane. We had to pack and be out Saturday at 2. Two other sisters in our zone left as well. Its because we are all university and the work is really slow during the holidays. And I took a sister's spot here that was going home. So now I'm in Spokane in the ghetto/super rich area and my new companion is an outbound temple square--Sister Makovei! She's from Ukraine and absolutely adorable and super excited to be here! She will be here until February! So make sure and go see her while she is there! We found out that we were in the MTC at the same time, but had no idea! So that's cool!

So a little more about where I am now. I was able to got the ward yesterday and the ward is awesome! I got to bare my testimony and I think the ward really liked that being my first time there and all! But can I tell you.. We have the weirdest combination of people here. Part of our area is super nice and rich and we have a few ghetto areas that we can't go at night.. and lots of our ward is rich and super put-together people, then we have some hipsters that have the pink-gray hair look, and then some really poor people. Its been interesting. And it smells like marijuana quite often. I don't quite know how to process the information. 

Leaving Moscow was rough. I had to say goodbye to Kara.. She said when we told her she cried for an hour.. But when we said by to her, she bought us yummy drinks and pound cake at Starbucks! It was the cutest thing. I'm going to miss her a lot.. Its also really sad to leave Sister Bryson.. urgg.. She's my baby.. She is the sweetest, most genuine person I have ever met. So its sad, but I know everything happens for a reason! 

Before I left I was able to go on an exchange with a sister in our zone thats had a hard time adjusting to the mission. It was AMAZING! We were able to talk about her struggles and she opened up during one of our lessons and she told us about some hard things she has gone through. I feel like such a weakling sometimes because my life has been so easy I feel like. Even Sister Makovei. Her dad died when she was 2, then she joined the church when she was 16 and sacrificed so much for her mission. I can learn a lot from people like this! :) So I'm grateful for that!! Well that's about all the time I have left today.. I love you all! And keep me in your prayers PLEASE! This has been a crazy few days and I haven't quite recovered yet. Hopefully this email kind of made sense.. hahah. Oh and If you want to send me anything for Christmas, just send it to the mission home for now! I don't have my new address yet!

Happy Happy Frozen Fog!! November 30, 2015

Dear Family and Friends!

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving! I just want to say how much I have learned about gratitude on my mission! Months ago when I was having a hard time I started writing my gratitude journal every morning, and it always amazed me how many things I had to be grateful for. That has changed my thinking and no matter what is happening, I always have something to be thankful for. I'm so grateful for that lesson, and I know that way of thinking will bless me later on and help me be happy NOW rather than waiting for a future point in order to be happy. Wow that was a tangent.. anyways on Thanksgiving we got to go to some members for dinner and it was great! They have a little boy that reminds me soo much of Ryder! So that was a little mercy :) a bit of home away from home!! Oh and then after we had our early dinner... Sister Adamson went on a 4 mile run while Sister Bryson biked alongside :) (Because that was apart of our approved holiday activity list) It was awesome :) I LOVE RUNNING!! :) whoot! 

So we University peeps made it through the first set of holidays! The campus was more empty than it was in the summer! Almost no cars and no movement.. So we had to be pretty creative in order to be productive and not discourage us! For example we went out to the community and Moscow and raked random people's yards. We prayed before we left to be led to someone who needed that service and boy were we! We ended up (miraculously I might add) at a disabled ladies house and raked 10 bags of leaves from her small front yard, we then shared with her the Christmas video that the church has out now! :) It was awesome! We are truly led by the spirit to help those in need!

Other than that, we had a few lessons. We were at the institute at a meeting and someone comes in and tells Sister Bryson and I that some girls are waiting for us outside. So we went to see who it was and it was our friends from Nepal! We weren't able to get a hold of them, but they just showed up! So we taught them the Restoration and they both loved it! They couldn't believe that we could pray to God AND get answers! It was a great lesson, but then they dropped of the face of the earth again. But I know we will find them again soon! 

We had a lesson with our ward mission leader and his family and we shared the Restoration. Its my favorite message to share with members! While I was reciting the first vision, Brother and Sister Johnson started crying. Man I love it when that happens! They bore such strong testimonies about the restoration and we all were just pumped for missionary work again!! I love it when people just really feel that the gospel is true! We are not converted by what we know, we are converted by how we feel! :) 

So I went on my first exchange as an STL! It was fun! I went to Pullman to be with Sister Rogers! It was on Saturday and man was it DEAD! To bring in the title of the email there was so much fog and frost EVERYWHERE! It looked like it snowed, but it was just frost from the freezing fog! So that was something I have never experienced! The good old northwest though! All and all things are good here :) thank you for everything and all the support. Oh and by the way you better put me on the list of holiday greeting cards! :) I want to see all your faces!! Happy December tomorrow!! :)