June 16, 2010 "Burfdays and Baptisms"

My burfday! I woke up to this sign: Rock Sensation!

R****'s baptism. He is such a punk.

Sister Villa going to Worlds of Fun (the amusement park out here)

Sister Wathen in our room, singing like a lil diva. Love her!

Transfer Day, getting to see all my friends. Elder Hayter and Elder Cox. E Cox is deaf and we all served together out in Olathe. His testimony in ASL is far more powerful than any testimony I have heard in English. He is one of those people who has changed my life forever.

Hi Everyone!

Thank you thank you for all the birthday messages, gifts and letters and love. I have the most wonderful friends and family in the universe. My birthday was super fun! It was stake conference, where I was able to see all my old friends from 4th ward and Riverview. Then we visited some of our favorite people, and had dinner with a Mexican family who had TRES LECHES cake for me. Soo good! Then we stopped by a cute family's house whose son shares a birthday with me (he turned 5). He is a total stud. We didn't have much time so they actually came into the VC and brought me a cake. He and I got sung to by all the VC sisters. I was having so much fun that I FORGOT to open my birthday presents you all had mailed. so funny! I opened them on Monday and had a ball with all the fun things! 2nd best birthday ever. (The best being in Mexico when I got to go para sailing and snorkeling in the ocean). I felt very, very loved. :)

Other updates: I am a "grandma"! Sister Howe that I trained is now training. I am so old! She is out in the middle of nowhere Kansas (Great Bend).

We had a baptism of a man whose family lives in the 3rd ward, but he moved recently. Sis Wathen, Sis Villalobos and I got to ride up with his mom. Our friend Mic gave us all a ride. It was wonderful! Joining the church for him has been a big lifestyle change and he is doing so great! I love watching people turn into faithful disciples of Jesus Christ. It's such a sacred opportunity to be a missionary. Thanks for your support.

It has been storming a lot. I was up all night the other night watching lightning. It's so beautiful- I can't help it.

Besides that, I can't really think of any updates. Oh! We had transfers and I am staying with Sis Wathen in Indep. 3rd ward. "Adam-then to the rethcue!" We are the only companionship in the entire Zone that didn't change. Pretty much in the whole mission. Each companionship at the VC has a sister who has never served in the Vc before. So we have bajillions of people coming in, but nobody to give tours since all the new ones aren't comfortable giving their own yet. I had to give my own tour on my second day. Just sayin'. :) Oh, Heritage tours came through yesterday. I was sad to miss it. That's the one from Cedar Hills/Highland/Alpine area. Oh, I had a group the other day where the family knew Gma and Gpa Porcaro and also Anneica. Kind of fun.

We have a few people we are teaching who are attending the Addiction Recovery Class that the church does through Family Services [tangent: I want to say that I appreciate LDS Fam. Services so much. There is much that goes on there, behind the scenes, and the things that are available are incredible and life changing]. I decided to get a workbook, too and start filling it out since we can't attend the class (no time). It is blowing me away. The teachings in it are for everyone. I don't care if you are addicted to alcohol or codependency or food or negative thoughts or just know someone who is. This workbook is beautiful and well-made. I am really, really excited to figure out the un-Christlike attributes I have developed in my life and get them out of me. Sometimes we think of addictions as just bad habits that people just need to break on their own. NO! The Atonement is there because we cannot do things on our own. We give our best, yes, and then he steps in and finishes what we can't. Fears, anxieties, depression can be swallowed up in the Atonement. There is no substitute for medication when it is needed, don't get me wrong. But we do not understand the Atonement and we often times do not use it when we should. At least I haven't been. I know through the Holy Ghost and His power that is is real. Jesus Christ is there with His arms out. "Come unto Me. Give my all your pain, tears, insecurities, worries...and I will give you peace. I have already paid for it. Just follow me."

He loves you and I love you. I apologize again for being the worst letter writer ever.

June 7, 2010 "O Siona, O Siona"

This is a lady in our ward. It had been SOAKING wet, just pouring down rain and we showed up to eat dinner at her house. She had little slippers all ready for us to snuggle up in. So cute.

"Putting on the Armor of God"

Hello people,

It was a fun week! Full of bratwurst, new investigators, "heart-attacking" and friends. Peace, love, unity. Zion. We're all about Zion, here in the New Jerusalem. :D

Yesterday, our ward held a big party called "Come Home Sunday", where each member is to invite a friend or a member who doesn't come very often. It was a great turn out! AND good food, which is a plus. Except I don't like chop suey. Gotta love those Polynesians. Our friend brought his daughter to church. She usually attends Church of Christ (temple lot). She is a hoot! I pretty much hung out with her the entire time. It was just so good. And this ward is wonderful about introducing us to their friends. We've had a few more of those this week. Lots of people to teach, no time. We plan to invite one member's boyfriend to be baptized tonight.

"Are we ready for the 2nd Coming of our Lord and Savior, Jesu..." - First Counselor, Bro Kent

(interrupting Sacrament Mtg) "YES!" - 3-year old Becca

I think she is. Until we become like children, we can't enter into the kingdom of God, right? they are teachable and trusting and so loving. There is much to be learned from toddlers.

My Spanish is improving. I still prefer speaking English to people who I know speak Spanish. I'm just nervous still. But I'm much more brave these days. Making much more mistakes, which is good because it means I'm talking. It's just hard when we have no Spanish investigators and the ward members are bilingual and nobody comes into the VC who needs my "skills". I just keep practicing!

I decided I wanted to work on having more sincere prayers, so I have been going down to the basement, so I can pray out loud (we call it "Trogdor Dungeon"). I was down there the other night, when I was attacked by "It's probably a murderer!", two innocent sisters and tennis rackets! They could see the light on and hear someone talking, so they came running down the stairs to investigate! They finally calmed down and joined me to talk about the stresses of the mission. Hilarious!

Here's a neat scripture-- Mosiah 2:24. It talks about how we are immediately blessed for following the Lord. I want to add my two bits to that. Yes, we are immediately blessed. Do we recognize it? Is it always the "sign" or answer we are looking for? No. But I know that it's worth it when we follow the commandments. I have seen SOOOO many poor examples of disobedience out here that I will forever be changed. It's just not worth it.

I took a young lady on tour yesterday while her recent convert friend had a bishop's interview. She is "atheist"...at 15 years old. We sat by the Christus statue and discussed how to know there is a God, how to know you are one of his daughters. It hurt my heart so much that she feels so alone. Her question of the soul is "If there is a God, why does he allow bad things to happen to good people?" I did my best to help her understand that it's part of life, sometimes it's a consequence of someone's poor use of agency, and it's to make us grow. She's a poor little caterpillar who wants to crawl out because "it's not worth it" to be a butterfly. I guess I'm guilty of feeling that way too. But I know that when we look back on our life and those dark, lonely times, we will see how it helped us to get where we are today. Perspective is so important. We learn from the past, live in the now and look to the future with hope. Sigh. I just want to help everyone [just like you said, Todd]. But all I can do is share my lil testimony that YES, God is there. He watches us go through those rough spots and cries. He wants to break us out of the cocoon, but He can see what we will be when we are beautiful and colorful and we can FLY! He is our Father. Literally the Father of our spirits. I'm just happy that I can say I know that, and don't just hope for it or think it or believe it.

Love you all and appreciate your luff and letters! I have the best friends and family imaginable. Keep reading the Book or Mormon! There are so many gold nuggets in there.

con mucho amor,

la hermana adamson

June 1, 2010

Hi Everybody,

Sorry I couldn't email yesterday. Holidays are always on Mondays. Annoying. I don't have too much time (as always), but here goes.

I was on exchanges with a darling new sister, my new friend. We visited this family who we have been working with. All we did was shared some of our favorite scriptures. She started crying in the middle and said she needed us so bad that day. We invited her to the addiction recovery class and she actually went! It was so so great. That class changes lives. I don't care what the addiction is.

I am making a BOM index of my own personal notes. It's really fun and I am excited to see what it ends up to be. I will just add notes to it as I go throughout my life.

I think I already wrote about the tour I took with the woman with cancer? Just in case I didn't...She was given a month to live. The elders are teaching her. It was my second Spanish tour at the VC. I now believe with all my heart in the gift of tongues. Heavenly Father took over and told me what to say. It was amazing. I think she is getting baptized now.

Sis Wathen and I held a War Council (inspired by our District Leader, Elder Eckern). Alma 52. We wrote down the lies from Satan that he puts into our heads, then the truths from God that help to combat that. It was really powerful.

We felt like we needed to visit this one investigator. We passed by a fee other people's houses and said "should we visit them? we might as well. It's on our way." and decided not to. Then as we drove to his house, we saw him walking down the road! he doesn't have a phone, so he is super hard to get a hold of. It was wonderful to catch him at just the right time. I am glad we followed the spirit and went to see him when we did. I know God cares about the little things. He needed us that day and we hadn't seen him forever! God so carefully orchestrates things.

Bishop Cato lined up a lesson for us. It was super awkward because this person didn't know WE were going to be there. Whoops! Anyway, it ended up great and we will be teaching them. Yay for members who refer their friends!

I am so grateful for all the things I am learning about love and families. We keep visiting these crazy, Dysfunctional families with no structure in their lives. I KNOW scripture study and prayer would change them forever if they would just do it.

I got a visit from cute sis huntington! She brought home a box full of my stuff. So great! Love her! Fun to get a taste of home.

Pres VK is done with his radiation treatments. "The glow show is over, folks!!"

Quick testimony of patriarchal blessings. They are from God. Go read yours. Right now.

We gave the lesson in YW. IT was about how to write missionaries. I now have all the does and don'ts. Rule number one: JUST WRITE US!!! And don't worry about the rules.

Love you all so so much. Super hurry! Ah!! One minute. God lives. He loves you. This is His work. The Book of Mormon will give you answers and help you get to know Jesus Christ better than anything else in the world.

Lots of AMOR,

Hna Adamson