July 29, 2009

Sis Moody getting her hair cut by another missionary. She's sitting on a suitcase.

Ethiopian wedding eating paper

Knee highs are hot! You know you love it

Here's where we spend our preparation days, Sister Brown's house. We sun bathe and write letter and swim....just kidding!

From the Winter Quarters Pioneer Cemetery. So beautiful and peaceful

Community of Christ Temple nearby

A place we went tracting once. Heaven! Multi-million dollar homes.

Hi everyone!

We had some super interesting events happen this week: my favorite being the Ethiopian wedding we accidentally crashed. We were running late to our dinner appt. with a couple in our ward. We couldn't find them outside, so we walked over to their reception place, where a wedding was taking place. We were greeted by a really nice man who started telling us all about Queen Abasha or something. We're like "Ahh! We are so late and need to get to our next appt!" but had to be polite as he explained 500 years worth of history to us. He invited us inside and said our hosts (from the ward) were inside serving. Holy smokes! It was so beautiful! We were the only white people in there. So great! They had sweet music playing. They welcomed us like we were family. When we got our boxed sandwiches from the woman in our ward and headed out, they were so sad we were leaving!! Almost offended. Anyway, it was interesting. So Sis Moody and I hung out in the parking lot to eat our boxed meals. The cheese on our sandwiches still had paper in them! So gross! We were laughing our heads off. "We are eating paper sandwiches at an Ethiopian wedding, in the parking lot. Missouri is so weird!"

Then we delivered some burnt cookies we had made for a part member family. While driving home, we saw a woman out walking her pet iguana. I'm not kidding. And then we saw a car with a sticker on the back window that said "In loving memory: Jesus Christ". What in the world? Where AM I? It's been kind of a rougher week. Our baptisms are all falling through and now we have one on Saturday instead of four. And even she is sketchy. At her house the other day, there was a burnt Book of Mormon outside in a pan. It made me so sick to see. The words on those pages are from God. they are sacred and beautiful and perfect. To see the disrepect for something so wonderful was...just awful. People get anti-ed out here so easily.

I was on exchanges with Sis Card (my cute MTC companion) ! It was nuts! We are both brand new. She came to my area. BUT miracles happen on exchanges. We found a new family to teach! We sat on their front porch and taught the entire first lesson (the Great Apostasy and All!) And they just soaked it up. The grandma was like "Oh yeah. I know it's true." Then the little girl (11) said "We're moving soon. Can you come visit us when we move to Liberty? Can we come to church with you?" Oh my gosh. Seriously? Who are these people? So we'll see.

One of our investigator families came to church! Missionaries have been working with them for months and months. finally! Remember those miracle shoes that were sent to me from above at DI? The Danskos that were three bucks? Well, they gave me blisters and I almost left them at the MTC. But something said to take them. Guess who they were for? Ahh! Sis B needed them. It was pretty much the last thing that was keeping her from coming to church. I told her that God told me to bring those shoes to her. Pretty neat, yeah?

I totally believe in miracles. So on Sunday, we were discussing one of our investigators at ward correlation mtg. We were trying to think of someone who would be a good friend to this family. One of the sisters in our ward popped into my head. "Yeah right. She is kind of strict and is opposite personality of this poorer, laid-back family." Then our ward mission leader suggested her name. Anyway, the Lord is so funny!

We visited the family last night and this sister from the ward came (she happened to be available!) We hadn't met the dad before and he was the only one home. Turns out--Sis P. was for him! They just clicked and were talking like they were old pals. She was able to testify about the Restoration to him and he just loved it. She bore a bold testimony that the authority was lost when Christ and the Apostles died and that the same authority is on the earth again. I had my Gospel Art book (This thing is amazing! It speaks to people the way words can't), so we showed him who is our prophet today. He loved it! Here's the hard part: he WORKS for his church. He doesn't believe it's the true church neccessarily, but when your family income depends on it....ahh! I don't know how this is going to work, but I know it is.

Oh! Sis Card and her companion had a young man who is commited for baptism. He moved and they were so sad that they lost contact! Then he called them and said where his new house was. BAM! It's in mine and Sis Moody's ward boundaries! We get to meet him today. Satan is working very hard on him, throwing all sorts of lies his way, but we'll get this done! He is still planning on getting baptized and we'll be his new missionaries. Yay for the Holy Ghost!

I am totally running out of time. I will probs write a letter. By the way, I got so many letters this week! Everyone was making fun of me at the VC (they just deliver them there once a day). Thank you everyone who wrote me! I loved all the pictures! I will write back as soon as I can. I love you all and pray for your success in all you do.

Expect miracles.

Sister Adamson