Email with a Latin Flare

Mi Familia! Que pasa?!

Sometimes I really do wish I was an “hermana” but I was called as a “sister” so I guess that’s okay. So it hasn’t been too long since I last emailed you so this one may be a little shorter. Mom, haha I am glad you liked the portion of my email last week dedicated to food. You would. I love you. And I am out of El Pato. I need hot sauce! No spicy food in NY.

Good news! Jina and her sweet daughter Janaia came to church on Sunday! It was so fun! She is progressing so well. Each and every time we see her or teach her she just glows more and more. Ah! Missionary work just gets me giddy. I get so happy! Today we went to Jina's to teach her about the commandments. We walked up to her door and she put a sign on it that says, "NO smoking in my house! Absolutely no exceptions!" Can I just say how awesome that was?! It was AWESOME.

Sister Butters and I gave talks in church this week too. I was nervous at first, but the Spirit helped me and everyone in my ward said I did great. (thank goodness). Jina is one of the most honest people, so when she said I did well, I knew she meant it. I ended up sharing some lyrics from one of my new favorite songs in the middle of my talk. Sister Hawkes and Sister Graham (the sister missionary Sister Graham), were smiling at me so big from the congregation when I did it because they are obsessed with this song. Anyway, I want to share these lyrics with you. (You know how music touches me more than anything) “What would happen if we took off our masks? Peeled back the labels, tore down the walls we have? What would change if we just saw each other as, children of Our Father?” So if you haven’t guessed, by talk was on charity and love and not judging other people. I got fancy and everything and titled it “Looking at Others through a Lens of Charity.” I will copy my talk and mail it to you if you want. Lemme know.

Can you send me my warm clothes? It is starting to get cold. It rained a few days ago and all the sudden it is like someone flipped a switch and it is chilly. So warm things would be appreciated.

We got to go to the Grahams for dinner on Sunday night. It was delish as always. I love Sister Graham. I think you would be good friends with her, Mom. She is hilarious. We are still trying to teach Brother Graham…not giving up on him. He is awesome though. He gave us tomatoes, and basil, and cabbage, and onions, and green bell peppers, and jalapeños, and garlic from his garden! YUM! Can you say SALSA!!? I am feelin’ it! Can you tell I miss Mexican food? I am such and Arizonan.

We went to the Demay Living Center to go visit this lady in our ward. She called needing help to pack up stuff because this assisted living place said she needed to clear out her room. Well when we got there we realized why. She is a hoarder. So much dusty crap she doesn’t even look at because she is stuck in bed. It was so sad though because she was having such a hard time getting rid of it. I just wanted to chuck everything. Sister Butters and the Fowlers ended up throwing a lot out while I distracted her. I think that was for the best. The living center was getting pretty upset, and when I went through it, I understood why. Her claustrophobia will get better now though! Less stuff, more room!

I have had some really cool tours lately at the sites too! Working at the sites is such an honor. The leaves are beginning to change! I talked to Bob yesterday and he said full color season will be mid October. SO EXCITED. Don’t worry I will take lots of pictures. Well I love you all so much! I know I say it each week; but hey, it’s like how I say the Gospel of Jesus Christ has been restored in its fullness every day at the sites- I say it so much because it is TRUE! Have a good week. Keep it real!

Love, Sister Adams

AHH I LOVE YOU

Mama, I love you so stinkin' much. It's not even funny how loud I laugh when I read your emails. I think I have a little fraction of yours and dad's sense of humor. The sisters I live with have been laughing at me all week. (I guess I can be a little dramatic or something :) I dunno.) They find it pretty funny though. Tell Val I say congratulations! It feels like yesterday that she and I were up at like midnight talking in our kitchen about her writing Jake and me writing Christiaan. Now she is marrying him! That is so cool! I love that girl like a sister... Go to her reception and give her and Jake a big hug for me! Yes I got the dress you sent, I am wearing it right now actually. Honestly, not that cute but it is perfect for people that have cats in their house so I can throw it right in the wash when I get home. It'll do!

Wow I am looking at my journal and SO MUCH has happened since I last emailed. Sister Butters and I have had more time in our area and it is so fun! The sites are getting a slower and slower. I think everyone's waiting for the leaves to change to start coming again. I have some awesome news! Jina, our investigator we've been teaching, has a baptismal date! Sister Butters and I have been praying so fervently for her and we know she will be ready to be baptized October 28th. We taught her about baptism and I found myself talking at the end of the lesson. Well we planned to invite her to be baptized and for some reason I could not do it! But the Spirit told me it was time to! Literally the Spirit halted me from asking Jina if she would be baptized. So I just stopped. Sister Butters picked right up where I stopped and asked Jina if she would be baptized on October 28th. And Jina said YES! We are so excited for her. She is the sassiest black lady I have ever met and I just love her. Her countenance is brightening each day, it is amazing. Sister Butters and I were so excited we got back in our car and just screamed! As we drove home, Sister Butters told me that she totally thought I would be the one to commit Jina to baptism, but that the Spirit told her that she needed to get ready because she would be the one to do it. Isn't that crazy!? The Holy Ghost is so cool. God knows what He is doing- in every little detail of this work.

So one day we had an area day and we decided to contact all the less-active families up in Sodus. So I wrote down all of the names we felt prompted to go see. Well one of the names I wrote down is the Rinaudo Family. I don't know why I wrote them down, because they are active members of the church. Well, Sister Butters and I just decided to go see them anyway and if they needed service. So we knock on their door and start talking with them. They had just found out their son has a heart condition that almost killed him in his last soccer game. YEAH. He is actually getting surgery today. So we shared some scriptures with them and helped them clean their house. No one in the ward knew this was happening yet. And when they needed help and comfort, the Lord just sent Sister Butters and I to be there. It was a miracle that before they even knew about their son's heart condition the Spirit prompted me to write their names down to go see that day.

We had a mission tour this week! Elder Perkins, of the Quorum of the Seventy, was sent by the Quorum of the Twelve to tour the New York Rochester Mission. We had a conference with him last Tuesday (our normal p-day-hence why it was changed this week). It was awesome. We were instructed by him and his wife and President and Sister Christianson. The conference was from nine in the morning until four in the afternoon. I learned SO MUCH. One thing I will share with you is that Elder Perkins told us to have enthusiasm about the Gospel. In Greek enthusiasm is en/theos meaning "God is in us". The the Gospel is the message God has for all of His childen- ALL OF THEM. We know the truth so we have to be enthusiastic about sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is the only way His children can get back to Him. I feel so privileged to be a part of this great work. It truly is the greatest work on the planet. So the other thing about the mission tour was that Elder Perkins asked every missionary to prepare a talk and that he would call on them in the moment. Uhhh... SCARY! So he shook all of our hands at the beginning of the meeting took his seat and started writing down names. So President Christianson gets up to announce the missionaries that will be giving their talks. And guess who's name he says last.... mine. President sits down and looks at me, and I look at him and give him "the look". He just winked at me and mouthed, "I didn't choose." I guess I could let it go then. I gave my talk to the Palmyra North and Palmyra South zones in front of a Seventy and my mission president and it was terrifying. But it turned out okay.

I will end this email with a list of yummy things Sister Butters and I have been making for our meals: Squash (from the Smith Farm garden) made just like you used to make it, Mom! Chocolate chip pancakes with Nutella on them. YEAH. Corn on the cob (that we got on the side of the road at a farmers stand- fresh!) BBQ chicken and mashed potatoes. MM! Paninis with turkey, pesto, and fresh tomatoes(also from the Smith Farm garden). Chicken Caesar salad with homemade croutons. Mmmhmmm. And Margaretta pizza with fresh tomatoes and basil from the Smith Farm! That is just a few! We have been getting really fancy. It's cool eating vegetables from the Smith Farm. That's like special dirt they grew out of! Anyway, I thought you would be proud.

Well that is all for this week! I love you so much!
Love, Sister Alexandra Adams

We are Butters and Cream and the Dancing Machine!!

Hello! This last week was great! We had to say goodbye to our dear friend Sister Correia....that was hard! But don't worry the day she left for the mission home we made her SPAM and eggs for breakfast. Yeah, we just wanted to send her home to Hawaii right. We have a new sister living with us! Sister Graham and Sister Hawkes are now companions, and I am the only one not from Utah in the gingerbread house.

So recently in our ward, we have been going through the ward list with Elder and Sister Fowler to find out all the less-active members we can go see. It has been super helpful! When the Elders call and tell us when we will be working on it each time (it takes more than one sitting to get through this list- it's huge) we always joke with them and tell them to bring treats. Well last time we went Sister Butters and I decided to pop some popcorn for a snack while we work. So we bring a big bowl of popcorn and it was a hit. Everyone loved it. Then all the sudden at the end of our meeting the Elders in our district, Elders Southwick and Erekson, just whip out this cake! AND- it was a funfetti cake with funfetti frosting! Are you kidding me!? They completely blew us out of the water. That's okay though because we had cake. I guess we all win in that situation.

We got to go to the Rossells for dinner this week and of course, it was delish! Bro Rossell took us out to his back yard and let us pet his falcons. I told you he is a falconer right? So COOL! You know the State Farm commercial where the guy is like, "I should have got a falcon.."? Well that falcon in the commercial is one of Brother Rossells! He sold it to the company that shot that commercial. He also sells them to wildlife zoos and things for demonstrations. He said he has sent them to zoos all over the world. Way legit.

This week we also had the opportunity to serve at the "Golden Olympics: Young at Heart". It is an event put on by the nursing homes and assisted living facilities here in Wayne County, NY. It was fun! We got to push some people around in their wheel chairs and cheer them on playing the games. They got ribbons and everything! They also had a face painting station and Sister Butters and I were asked to work at that. Painting faces is really difficult on old people-wrinkles mess up anything you try to paint on. I was surprised how many of these "elderly Olympians" were game for getting something painted on their cheek or on their hand! It was quite the experience! The care takers and nurses there had to warn us about this guy named Patrick. He likes ladies and they said, "If he tries to touch your butt, just tell him that is not okay and come get one of us." Haha uhhhhh scary! Well Sister Graham, the new sister living with us, ended up pushing him around to his events. Patrick got first place in the sponge throw and he said, "That deserves a prize!" Sister Graham said, "Yeah it does! You did a good job!" And Patrick responds,"Come over here and give me a kiss!" hahaha Sister Graham just went, "NOPE!" I thought I was going to fall over laughing it was so funny! So the Golden Olympics were a success! Very interesting but very fun!

This week my good friend, Bob the grove-keeper, gave me this quote and it ties in perfectly with what I have been studying and teaching everyday. Think about the Teachings of Jesus Christ and the Church He set up on the earth and then thinking about how Joseph Smith was called to restore that very same Church in these the last days: "When God wants a great work done in the world, or a great wrong righted, he goes about it in a very unusual way. He doesn't stir up his earthquakes of send forth his thunderbolts. Instead, He has a helpless baby born, perhaps in a simple home out of some obscure mother. And then God puts the idea into the mother's heart, and she puts it into the baby's mind. And then God waits. The greatest forces in the world are not the earthquakes and the thunderbolts. The greatest forces in the world are babies." -President Gordon B. Hinckley. Isn't that a neat thought! Just thought I would share it with you. I love you and I hope you all have a wonderful week.

Love, Sister Adams

Is it really September?! Time is flying!

Hi Family!!! Guess what I just got?! Spicy beans and my favorite protien shakes! I am so excited! I can’t get these things in NY so I flipped when I opened the package.  Wow what a miracle with the Ray family. I will keep that sweet little boy in my prayers for sure.  I really feel like our family members on the other side are around us more than we think: helping us, comforting us, protecting us… guardian angels for sure.  SO MANY TIMES I will look at the clock in the morning or at night and it is 7:11. Lance’s day and I just smile. It makes me remember him and that we are doing the same work. I am glad to hear everything back home is going well.

This week was a great one for me! The sites were busy busy busy with Labor Day weekend. It was so exhausting but so fun! I feel so grateful I get so many opportunities to teach and share my testimony.   Elder Fuller, one of our senior elders, gave Sister Butters and I a new name this week.  He now calls us, “Butters &Cream and the Dancing Queen.” Haha it is awesome.  I guess we always have to be companions so he can continue to call us that.

We had an awesome full area working day this week too.  Sister Butters and I drove up to Sodus to contact some referrals, visit ward members, and do some tracting!  We even have a friend Beth who went from hating the Mormons, to hating just the Mormon missionaries, to actually talking to us, and now we are friends! She has beehives and sells honey at the farmers market in Sodus.  Well something else she does is she takes the beeswax and makes it into lip balm with essential oils!!! It is LEGIT. So we went to go find the farmers market on main street Sodus and guess where it was…. The Methodist Church parking lot. Hahah YEAH. But we really felt prompted to go see Beth. So we just walked up and got tons of funny looks in the process.  Life with a black tag is so interesting.  We talked with her and tried her chapstick.  We started to pull out a few bucks to buy some and she gave it to us for free!!! She is so sweet.   We love Beth and maybe one day she will let us teach her.  Such a great woman.

We finally got back and taught our investigator Jina.  She has been cancelling on us a lot lately.  We got to her house and Jinaia her daughter was watching “Ice Age”- love that movie.  But we sat down and taught her anyways.  The Spirit was SO STRONG even with the background noise.  We taught her the Restoration and it was so cool to see things clicking in her head.  It was amazing to witness how that lesson answers so many questions of the soul.   She opened up at the end and said she feels she is searching for something and wants to learn more from us.  I just bore my testimony and told her that this is what she is searching for… the message of the Restored Gospel.  She agreed to read the Book of Mormon and to pray to know the truth of it and of the prophet Joseph Smith.  I think that is the beauty of the message of the Restored Gospel. “Just read and pray to know for yourself.” Just go straight to God. He loves us so much that there is no way He is going to send us here in the dark.  He wants us to know the truth and have light, and we can find it if we just ask Him.

I am so privileged to be serving a mission right now. I know I probably say that a lot… but it is so true! I feel that the Lord literally has me in His hands and is shaping me into who I am supposed to be.  He is shaping me into someone that I didn’t see in myself before.  I am trying so hard to serve Him, and yet He continues to give me more blessings than I can count.  I love Him. He is my Savior and Redeemer and my best friend.  Always rely on Him. That is where true joy comes from in this life.  By loving Him, and relying on Him. And if we build our foundation on Christ, if we center our lives on Him, everything will work out.  “…remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall.”  Isn’t the Book of Mormon AWESOME?!?  Oh my gosh I love this book with all my heart and soul.  It is so true.

I love you all,
Sister Adams

Heyyooooooo ( I never know what to put for the Subject line)

This week has been LEGIT! So many people are taking boat tours up the Erie Canal right now. It is fun because we drive right by the Erie Canal everyday and get to see them! Then they come to the sites and we get to teach our guests of other faiths about the restored Gospel! It is so fun! I've had some great experiences at the historic sites even though they are slowing down a bit.
We got to see Bethany this week! She got all set up for college and came back for one last weekend in Sodus.  We met her at the temple after our shift at the Smith Farm. It was so nice to walk the grounds with her and feel the Spirit that is there.  She is just wonderful. I hope she gets baptized soon as the other missionaries teach her.
We had a zone meeting this week and watched this AWESOME talk by Elder Bednar. He gave it at Christmas time at the MTC. I'm pretty sure this talk has changed my life. He talked about character and the character of Christ. He said, "Character is strongly developed, strikingly displayed, and consistently lived moral qualities."  I LOVED that. I realized that we all just need to get over ourselves. Seriously! Why do we feel bad for ourselves? Why do we let what other people do get us down? Why do we focus on ourselves? Why are we all giving into the natural man? The natural man is an ENEMY to God. To develop Christlike attributes the first step is putting off the natural man and putting others first, no matter what happens. Think about Jesus Christ, who He is, the Atonement, and all the events that happened around Him suffering on Gethsemane and dying on Calvary. His chief apostles fell asleep when all He asked was if they would stay awake for Him. Did He get upset or let that stop Him from doing what He knew He had to do? No. After suffering for the pains and sins of the world He was betrayed by one of His own... Peter, trying to defend Jesus draws his sword and cuts the high priest servant's ear off. Jesus tells him to put the sword away and then He heals the guy's ear! The guy who is taking Him and binding Him! He is already suffering pain no mere mortal could live through and yet, He still turns outward. Just details like that- we forget to pay attention to them when we learn of the Savior in the scriptures. There are tons more and they show who He is, His true character. He NEVER thought of Himself. He was the complete opposite of the natural man.  How can we turn outward as the Savior did? The thing is, we can't put off the natural man on our own. We need His help, because in His strength we can do all things. In Mosiah 3:19 it says "...putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord." THROUGH the Atonement, we can recieve the strength to become more like Him. To turn outward, think of others and their needs, and realize what is really important. We will never find ourselves on our own by focusing on ourselves.  We will find ourselves as we forget ourselves and rely on the Lord.
Something else really amazing this week was our Grove Tour with Bob. He took Sister Butters and I on her first Grove Tour! Each and everytime he takes us around I learn so much.  I already appreciate the Sacred Grove, but when he shows it to us, I feel like a grow closer to God, not just because He was there, but because He teaches me through the Spirit with His creations. The very next day, Bob invited us on a Temple walk with him.  There is a trail that goes all around the Palmyra Temple and you can see the original rock wall that the Smith Family built to line their farmlands. What an experience that was. I felt so connected to the Smith Family as I learned of the work they did and saw right before my eyes the quality and care they put into it. Bob also showed us the two wells that still exist that the Smith Family dug themselves. That was cool. I feel so fortunate to be here, but especailly to be invited by Bob to learn more and really connect with the people who were here in Book of Mormon times and in the early 1800s. I just can't even believe it sometimes. I feel like I need someone to pinch me so I can wake up. But it is me! And I am here! It is so crazy! I love it!
Well I love you all and thank you for the update on everyone. YAY Dance Barn is open! Exciting! Tell Dad he does not need another little colt! He still is breaking the two we already have! I am excited to ride them one day :) I miss you, but as you can probably tell I am loving my mission. I have never been so happy in my life! XOXO

Love,
Sister Adams