Skype Was AWESOME!

Okay I just have to start off by telling all of you how fun it was to Skype and see your faces and to see Keri's Baby Audrey belly! I almost cried it was so awesome. I wish I could have talked for longer but I needed to get back and focus on the work here that the Lord has called me to do.  Thank you for all of your love and support.  I need it. After I talked with all of you on Christmas we got to watch a Disney movie for Christmas.  We watched "Brave".  It was so good! Such a cute movie. Have you been getting my emails? I looked on my blog and they are not on there.  If you need me to send them again I can.. I hope they are getting to you because I haven't had time to sit down and write a letter.  I haven't had time to do much of anything extra lately so I am sorry for that. Working two areas is starting to wear on us. There are so many people who need us to bring the gospel to them it is ridiculous. We never have opportunities to find investigators because we are working with so many people.  We have 5 investigators and about 15 less active members and recent converts to see each week.  So we are booked. Then add shifts at the sites on top of that and it gets pretty crazy.  Bishop Egan wants us to be in every members home too teaching them lessons and stuff.  Sometimes I wish there were more than 24 hours in a day so we can accomplish everything.  When we get two more sisters down here that will help because we've had double the load while Sister Earl and I are down here by ourselves. 

Yes we did get SNOW!! About 20-22 inches this week. We get a lot here between the lakes.  I had my first white Christmas! But that was just the beginning to the snow storms.  Now I know what they mean when they say, "walking in a winter wonderland." Don't worry Mom, I am getting snow boots right after I send this email.  Haha I have been walking through almost two feet of snow with my little wimpy AZ boots.  I've survived though, it really isn't that bad.  It is going to get down into the single digits here this week so I am going to get some thermals and stuff like that so I can layer up.  Sister Earl just laughs at me discovering things about living in the snow.  Elder Breinholt bought some tractor tubes for us to go play out in it today.  There are some good powdery hills out here at the girls camp. 

Oh by the way, we are living at the girls camp now.... yeah they built a new pavilion down at the Whitmer Farm and they hit our pipe line and now it's leaking and then the cold weather is freezing the water that leaks out.  So they are trying to fix it before it ruins the new pavilion.  So they shut off our water. We've been here with the Breinholts since Thursday. They are using the old well water right now at the Whitmer, but it is not safe to drink.  So the Breinholts told us to just stay here with them.  We think they just want us to stay :) hopefully the water problem will get fixed soon so we can go back home though.  Yesterday at church they had to use bottled water for the sacrament and everything.  OH and the water heater here at the girls camp broke too. So we've been taking cold cold cold showers.  Definitely wakes you up in the morning!

This week has been a hard one. One of our investigators committed suicide.  It was really hard on Sister Earl and I... but the Lord got us through.  We had 6 appointments after we found out on Friday and we couldn't just cancel them.  So we prayed and pulled it together and went to work.  It was the best thing we could have done.  We taught and shared our testimonies and felt the Spirit and it comforted us.   We got home to the girls camp at 9 pm and who was here?  President Christianson.  We just fell to pieces we felt so loved and looked after.  He had over an hour drive in the snow storms to get here and then get back home to Rochester.  He talked with us and gave us blessings and it helped so much.  We felt bad he had such a long drive and a late night, but he told us he knew he needed to be here. I am so grateful for a mission president who is willing to do anything to help his missionaries. 

Good news is that Lea has a baptismal date! She is for sure getting baptized on the 5th of January.  She text us on Friday right after we found out about the suicide and said she didn't think she could get baptized. Yeah, two big things at once I almost had a heart attack. But we met with her on Friday and Saturday with the Masinos and talked with her about it and continued teaching her.  She decided to get baptized on the 12th but we didn't want her to wait another week- she is ready.  So we asked her to pray about the 5th and she said she would.  I gave her a hug when she came to church yesterday and the first thing she said, "I've decided on the 5th, I prayed and got my answer and I know I am supposed to be baptized that day." I may have jumped up and down a few times. I am so excited for Lea. She is so prepared and is the definition of "the elect".  NOW, we have found out that Elder Masino in Chile is having his first baptism of his mission on the 5th! Isn't that so cool!  Heavenly Father just works things out.  I have seen His hand in this work more than ever. 

I know that God knows each and everyone of us personally. They way the world measures the worth of a soul is very different from the way Heavenly Father does.  The worth of EVERY soul is great in the sight of God.  I love the Lord and I love being one of His servants in the vineyard! I love you my family and hope you have a HAPPY NEW YEAR! 

Love, Sister Alexandra Adams