October 27, 2009

Here goes nothin’. I do not have very much time. This week, I got to go to the St Louis temple with a sister in the ward who was baptized in May. It went really well. She had 2 sets of missionaries with her (us current ones and the one who had taught her and her comp, who is Sis Sasaki). I loved it! It was neat to be there. I miss the temple so bad, especially having like 6 within an hour’s drive. Take advantage! So many people are waiting for their work to be done.

We keep running into the elders in our ward. It hasn’t really happened in the past, but for some reason lately, they keep showing up at our appointments and things. It’s so awkward! We walked into one appointment with new members and they were there, hiding. We can’t be in the same place with them, so they had to leave. And then twice recently ward members have signed up to teach both sets of missionaries (against the rules). Party time, right? Ha ha! We had to get another family to feed us.

During a lesson, we hear this scratching/biting sound. We look down and there is a giant RAT eating Sis Balois’ boots! Freak out! It was under the table. Turns out it’s their family pet…anyway, it was hilarious! She kept “gently” forcing him off her leather boots with the other foot. Eventually, she found that the best way was to lift both feet up, out straight. I was laughing SOOOOO hard! She somehow kept a straight face. It was great.

We’ve been working with this part member family for some time now. I mentioned before when we fasted that he could come to church and he did…well, we feel like they’re not really progressing, so we went in and had just a super solid lesson one (the restoration). We had a team up, who we are reluctant to take because of awkward situations in the past (for example “Your baptism doesn’t count. You are in the wrong church”---yikes. Please, Sister, be careful!) and she proved again to provide us with lots of tension in the room. Maybe that’s what they need, though…? Well, she brought up the fact that they are not married and “how will you get to the celestial kingdom if you…” etc. It was ga-reat. Welp! Heavenly Father knows what He is doing, so I trust it will turn out okay. Too bad they are no longer returning our phone calls.

We had interviews with Pres VK this week. In mine, I told him all about my wonderful parents who are now Spanish missionaries!! He was ecstatic! Then I told him how I am trying to sympathize with you by saying our companionship prayers in Spanish…he looks at my nametag and with furrowed eyebrows asks me, “You’re not Spanish-speaking, are you?” No, president. I figure I will let HIM come up with the idea, instead of suggesting it. He made a “hmmm” sound after that. We shall see!

While Sis Balois was in her interview, I had a minute or two where the elders were cleaning up their bags and the other sisters had left. I was only bending the rules for a second (I don’t actually know where I am supposed to be when my comp is in an interview), it felt so good. It made me feel like “One of the guys”. The elders are pretty comfortable around me. I thanked our Zone Leader, Elder Swayt (he’s from Sandy, UT) for his training on gossip. It was so needed! It’s been kind of an issue at the VC lately.

The other say, I got a nap during our lunch break. Best day ever.

I am struggling to make my Referral Calls (when people come into the VC, we ask them for people we can call to send a free DVD/BoM/missionaries). It’s terrifying! But I made some yesterday. Hardest thing in the world. I start crying every time from anxiety. But they’re making schedules for us, to force us to make the calls. So I am slowly getting over it.

The New Sis Trip, where we visit all the historic sites is on Halloween. That should be fun!
The best part: Exchanges with Sis Higbee! She’s my hero. I absolutely love her. She’s sis Card’s companion, the one I go to for motherly love. Their new area (they’re doing damage control from some floppy elders) is pretty far away. It takes about 25 mins to drive there. We had watching the Joseph Smith movie at the VC with an investigator, then were headed out to their area. We had doubts whether we should actually take the time to drive all the way out there. We would only have about 25 mins in the area… maybe 40 if we went straight to someone’s home. No set appointments. We get out there and are lost. The map stinks. And suddenly Sis Higbee can’t remember this one person’s house, although she had been there ten times. We kept getting stuck on Green Street. Over and over, we would turn and there is Green St again. So we say that we must NEED to be there. We agreed we would teach a lesson to whoever we saw, no matter what. We pull over for a prayer. It’s funny how sometimes we forget to involve Heavenly Father, huh? After the prayer, she goes “I know where we need to be. There’s a house on this street with a porch light on. We are going to teach whoever is there.” We slowly drive down the street. Nothing, nothing. Then we see a person get into a car. Person! Done. We look up and ba-da-bing: the porch light is on! This is our person. Then Sis Higbee goes “Wait. I know this house. This is an investigator’s house we tried to visit once…C****! Her name is C*****!” We hop out to catch the person before they drive away. A young woman gets out and greets US. “Hi , sisters! Man, I just keep running into missionaries lately.” So we got out and asked her why she prayed us here. We told her all about the experience and how aware of her God is. I got a feeling like she needed to read Alma 40 and out of the blue, Sis Higbee says “And Sis Adamson has a chapter from the Book of Mormon for you to read.” Talk about companionship unity! Seriously, it was such a miracle. I loved that God trusted us. Miracle happen! You have to just expect them, then keep your eyes open.


Love you all. Hope this made sense. It's the longest one I've done in a while to make up for last week. Thanks for your letters and emails and prayers and everything!! I have the best friends and family in the world!

Luff,

Sister Rufis Adamson

One thing for friends who email- PLEASE PLEASE send me your home address, so I can write. I got an email from Jarom...I need his address. I'm not allowed to email friends, but I want to write back.

October 20, 2009

Me and Sister Card, singin' in the rain (on exchanges last week). Man, I love her.

Here's the group who volunteered for the Halloween thing last week. We couldn't really talk religion with the other community members, we could only wear our nametag and answer any questions. It was fun! We filled pumpkins with sand and froze our fingers off.

Look, ma. I'm a mish-a-merry. This is me pondering "Hmm, If I could hie to Kolob..."

OK, so we had a sister whose camera got erased and we are trying to figure that out.

It's been a crazy week. We had our first FULL proselyting day. I wanted to never go back to the VC after that. Woohoo, missionary work!

Maybe I'll have time to write a letter. Sorry! Love you all.

Sis Adamson

October 13, 2009

We had a really great lesson with the perfect teamup this week. Both the family we were teaching and Sis H. have been through cancer treatments with their daughters. They really connected and the Spirit was there. It's one of those families who loves the lessons, but doesn't really get it. This is the restored Gospel, not just something nice. We're working on making sure they understand our purpose. Super cute family, though. They are way busy because the little daughter has all sorts of fundraisers and parties she goes to. She's sponsored by lots of companies who give her free stuff all the time. Isn't it awful that she had to have cancer in order to have all that? 3 more people in our ward out here have cancer, we found out. Man, poor God can't kill us anymore with the usual. He has to send crazy diseases that just shut down the body. Off topic...Anyway...

I was on exchanges with Sis Card (MTC comp) this week. So fun! She got transferred to an area that hasn't had sisters in it for like 12 years. And the elders (bless their little hearts) who left the area didn't keep the best records. Instead of a neatly organized area book, they left a sheet of lined school paper with the info for one investigator and some appointments they had made with ward members. Yikes! We had fun that day, finding. Good ole street contacting and knocking. OK, so story time: this one older woman came to the door. "Wow, you are beautiful." She looks at Sis Card, "You should really be a model." Sympathy laugh. Then she looks at me, "And oh...you're pretty too." Gee, thanks! ha ha!

Friday night, our dinner was fish. The kind where his fins are still attached and his little head is cut off. I seriously almost teared up. Luckily, it was a drop-off to the VC instead of at the family's house. Oh my gosh. Sis Balois also hates fish, so we had her friend order Chinese for us. I gave the fish to the new sister from Samoa. Hey any more news about the tsunami there? We have tons of Samoans in the ward, but I don't think any of their families were hurt out there.

The new sisters trip where we get to go to Adam-Ondi-Ahman, etc. should be soon. I'm kind of tired of waiting. It will be so cold! It is coat weather now. I wear my maroon pea coat every day. Also temple trip on the 24th!

And also there is this funny couple in the ward who doesn't come to church. They are maybe in their 50s or 60s. The man is not a member of the church, but he enjoys our visits. I have never met a more sarcastic old man. He is seriously a hoot! He is darling, though. He walks us to our car and makes sure we have gloves and cookies. We (Ok, my companion) kind of tricked them into taking us out to eat this weekend. That should be fun. Plus, we can get a lesson in so that they continue to have spiritual experiences though they are not attending the ward. We'll get them back. The other day after one of our visits with them, Sis Balois goes "You might be the key that gets Bro C back to church." Man, he is funny. I hope so. I think we really click. Pure testimony...that's what it will take.

The anniversary for the missionary manual Preach My Gospel is on Thursday. I love that book. One of my new favorite lines from Preach My Gospel is about how Heaven is a continuation of the ideal home. Amen! I think we do not understand fully the importance of these little units called families. I'm so grateful to have grown up in a home where I learned that I am a child of God, that I knew God answers prayers and where I was loved. Thank you to my dear parents, siblings (and friends!) who raised me. The best way (the only way, really) to find lasting happiness is through the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. This I know. It's the reason I am here- to help others see that we all have a long way to go to be like our Savior and he has provided so many wonderful ways to do so.

I feel like this was really scattered, but who cares? The Church is true. Love you all!

Love,

Sister Adamson

"If God is your co-pilot, switch seats" -Bumper Sticker

October 6, 2009

General Conference at the VC...brrr!

Elder and Sister Viking

My new comp, Sheryll Balois (her family is Filipino)

I have had an eventful week, too, with General Conference and a new companion. I feel like time flies faster and faster the longer I am out here. My new companion's name is Sheryll Balois, from New Jersey. I think we both needed each other. She is very patient with me as I am trying to learn how to be a missionary. She helps me feel important and involved. We think differently sometimes, which is turning out to be great because I'm learning how to better communicate my feelings. We have little "gratitude moments" each night where we talk about what we are thankful for, about each other. It's fun! We have rearranged the furniture and the Area Book. I'm so excited for this transfer! We are ready to work hard and find joy serving together. She is super organized and professional, which is fantastic because I have so much to learn in that area of life. There have been some sisters who have had a hard time, I guess? Anyway, it's going to be great.

Yesterday, we saw a neat miracle. The part member family we had planned to visit wasn't home, so we started toward the car. We saw a young woman attempting to carry a broken bookshelf down to the dumpster and offered to help. As we carried the wood downstairs, we found out she had recently been robbed (her car and her home). She has an incredible attitude about the whole thing and I learned a lot from her perspective on life and material things. She invited us inside for a lesson. She loved learning about The Book of Mormon and said "I've been needing something like this!" Heavenly Father is answering our prayers by sending us prepared people. I also think he is showing us that we need to drop those we area teaching who aren't progressing in the Gospel (something I thought would be harder than it is...I think only because I pray a TON about having His help with it).

My last few days with Sis Moody, we went to Clinton's Soda Fountain. It's where U.S. Pres Harry Truman worked when he was a kid. It's so fun! It's totally old fashioned. We got some cute pictures. Then we walked across the street to where they were having this Scandinavian Festival...? And we took a hilarious picture with this cutout "Viking couple" (where you poke your heads through). Oh my gosh! Such a blast! I made CDs of all my pictures, so they will be coming in the mail soon.

General Conference was, of course, inspiring. If I was on shift at the VC during the session, I was huddled with the other sisters around a laptop up front...freezing (for some reason the air conditioning is stuck ON). If I was not on shift, I was next door at the stake center, watching the broadcast. We didn't have any investigators attend, unfortunately, though some promised they would. This was the first time I really took separate notes, not from their words, but from the Spirit. I had attempted to do this in the past (at home), but had not yet experienced such great personal revelation. Several people were brought to mind that I needed to follow up with something or at least write a letter to. I saw things that I need to share with families who come through the Visitors' Center. I learned from the way the general authorities present themselves. My favorite talk was by Tad R Callister, on his testimony of Joseph Smith. He presented it so simply and powerfully. It helped to make my testimony firmer that Joseph did, in reality, have a visit from God the Father and Jesus Christ. I love studying about prophets and how my calling as a missionary is similar in that I am here to testify and teach. This is God' work. He is real. He does answer prayers. This I know, and only can know, through the power of the Holy Ghost.

With love,

Sister Roo Adamson

PS We have a sister in our ward who was recently baptized (May 2009) and who plans to attend the temple with the ward on Saturday, October 24th. Sis Balois and I asked for permission to go. I hope it works out! It would be to the St Louis temple.