July 15, 2009

...Temple Square was a really neat experience. It was so strange to drive past the 1600 N exit. My temporary Salt Lake companio was Sister Nok from Hong Kong. We were going to do a tour in Mandarin, but they cancelled. She told me to just point to the box on the referral card that says "I want missionaries over", smile, and nod my head. Ha ha! I was so happy to see real people that I was like, "Can we go talk to them?" Anyway, I'm glad the MTC had us do it.

That night -July 4th- they had a special show, where they acted out what some of the reformers did and then had an actor play Joseph Smith. They let us stay up late and watch the Stadium of Fire finale. That was the best part! 2000 missionaries=a lot of energy on a Holiday.

Our first night here, we slept at the Van Komen's aka mission home: all bajillion of us! They had a little orientation meeting (when I say little, I mean 3 hours long). It was so neat. They talked about the usual health, cars, finances and then told us how special this mission is. They read quotes from general authorities about these sacred places. It really hit me that I am in a very holy land. Miracles happen here frequently because this is where the Savior will come to organize what needs to happen during the Millenium. I feel so blessed to be entrusted with helping these people prepare.

The ward we're assigned to is very supportive! Our ward mission leader is on fire! He's new to the calling and wants to reactive and baptize like crazy! Ward members feed us all the time -dinner every night and sometimes lunch. They feed us in their homes or drop it off if we're on shift at the VC.

There was a huge rainstorm the other day. It's funny because Sister Moody and I were walking to church and she looked up and said "The weather here is so crazy. One min, blue skies. One minute, downpour." Clouds came quick and raindrops were slowly hitting the sidewalk. We weren't stressed, but we accepted a ride from a ward member anyway. By the time we parked and got out, it was pouring. We went outside an hour later and one of the large trees out front had been destroyed! I don't know whether it was the wind or lightning or pressure from the rain...but it's crazy here! Something about the absence of mountains makes the thunder much louder!!

Sister Moody has lots of resources for kids. She has so many fun ideas! The best one so far we call the Paper Trick. It's a magic trick where you fold the paper while talking about the Book of Mormon and the Atonement. There's a surprise at the end and children love it! It gets us on a good note with the parents and allows us to teach truths about scriptures and Jesus Christ. It's wonderful! Then we tell people about how along with Christ, our church believes families are central. We tell them about Family Home Evening and ask if we can come back for another appointment. The paper trick is gold.

Funny quotes from this week:
We were having a frustrating day with no lessons. Sister Moody pled in her prayer, "Heavenly Father, please help us to find the Elite." We went down another street and I burst out laughing. There on this person's fence was a big orange sign that said, "Elite." God is funny.

We knocked a door and the man who answered saw our nametags and said, "Hello, what can I NOT do for you?"

After we had already talked to him and laughed with him, knocked a few neighboring doors...a little boy about 9 runs up and shouts, "Don't you DARE try to find out where we live!"

One lady answered in a bath robe and awkwardly replied, "sorry, I'm in the middle of...something..."

My new motto is "expect miracles." It's the only thing that keeps me doing this 99% rejection can really get you down if you let it. But you have to tell yourself that you just can't "waste" time with those who aren't ready for the truth. You have to be cheerful, friendly and open every single time because one person will be ready. We met a few people this week who have potential. One is a man who has studied/researched religion a lot. He's not sure about God and may or may not believe in time travel. He thinks religion is great for his kids, just not important for him (we find this a lot). We'll be back.

Expect miracles because they happen. Ok, so as I mentioned, we've been focusing a little more on the less-actives in the ward since our new investigators are out of town. One name stood out to Sister Moody, so we drove over. We were pretty discouraged when we saw that we only had the address for the apartment complex. It's illegal to go tracting in apartment complexes. We didn't know what to do besides check the mailboxes and utilities box. With no luck, we kind of stood there. All Sister Moody had told about this family was that they were less active, yet both ahd served missions. Behind the complex there's a parking lot of all the cars in there (ten or so at the time). One jumped out to me. It was as if I had always known this couple and it was obvious this was theirs. In my mind, I had kind of narrowed it down to 2 doors that could be theirs. Sister Moody somehow had the same thought and walked toward the same two. She kinda cocked her head, looked at me with a half smile and knocked. A woman cracked open the door and said in a thick German accent through the lock chain (like a hotel room) "Hold on." She shut the door and we heard her shuffling things around. Sister Moody looked paralyzed. "That's her." God knows exactly what he's doing. He knew they would be home ona Saturday after 2pm. He knew we couldn't go around asking where this couple lived. He knew she would gladly let us into her home. Expect miracles.

~Sister Adamson

PS-I get to go with some of the recent converts in the ward to the temple (for baptisms)! We're going to the Winter Quarters, Nebraska temple on Saturday. I'm so lucky. Who knew it was close?