Life is Back to Normal + Pictures

Pageant is over.  It was a sad day, but Sister Tipton and I are happy to be back in Seneca Falls teaching our friends.  The sites are still busy, but they seem slow because with Pageant they are insanely busy.  We had around 40,000 visitors this year during Pageant season. 

This week has flown by and we have been a little bit on Pageant hangover… but we are recovering.  It is weird not having as many things to do anymore.  We worked overtime for so long that now life seems way chill.  I can’t even describe how nice it has been to get all of our studies in though.  During Pageant we squeeze as much as we can in… but sitting down for a full hour to read and write down my thoughts this morning was the most refreshing thing.   The amount of study time we get as missionaries is a blessing and totally sets the tone for the day.

Sister Tipton and I will be busy contacting all of the referrals from the Pageant in our area and hopefully getting many new investigators.  SUPER EXCITING.  Welllllllll I think that is all. I will send pictures with this since I don’t have much else to say.  I do love all of you very much and appreciate all of the fun letters I have been getting.  I will work on getting everyone written back xoxoxo.

Love, Sister Adams

Sara and I at Pageant! 

Went on splits with these two in the seating area!  Meaghan and Brealynn are now some of my best friends.

Anti's who come to try and ruin the spirit at pageant (but are unsuccessful) drive this truck.  We call it the cheese truck because it looks like a block of cheese.

left to right:  Elder Hunt, me, Sister Jones, Elder Asbury, and Elder Olsson.  We all came out together almost 16 months ago!

Livin On A Prayer + Pictures

Heyyyyyy!!! The Hill Cumorah Pageant is coming to an end tonight and I am SO SAD. But it has been quite the adventure and experience.  At this point we are super tight with the cast members and when they all leave I'm pretty sure I might cry a little.  It has so fun watching them perform each night, teaching with them in the seating area, and running into people from our ward.  I saw the Urness Family and also Brother Dickerson and Jeremy Ray and the Smith boys, Chad and Ben. We saw the Tiptons today too!! Sister Tipton was so happy to see her uncle and cousins.  I ran into Bryan and Andrea Woolsey and their family too.  We spent some time together in the frame home at the Smith Farm and it was really fun to be there with family members.  They said they tried to avoid me so they wouldn't be distracting at the end of my mission, but I came into the frame house to take over the shift when they came in right at the same time.  I LOVED it.  Because being in a place I love with people I love makes me so happy!  

Tonight is the last night of the Hill Cumorah Pageant and Mary is coming to watch it with us!  She is also bringing our investigators, Newt and Sara.  I am excited to see them!  We teach them every week usually- so being away from them for so long has been weird. We ran into Jim on the Hill the other day too!  I wanted to hug him so bad!  He volunteered to serve on security on the Hill Cumorah.  He told me that he prayed that somehow while he was serving that he would get to run into "his girls" (that is us).  Well they put him at a post where we walk by every day on the Hill and we ran into him and he said his prayers were answered!  Jim was out of town before Pageant so we haven't seen him in a loooonnnnggg time.  It was good to see him again. Sister Tipton and I will move back to Seneca Falls on Sunday night.  

Well I think that is all I have to say... I know it is short but I just can't think right now.  It's great. And the Hill Cumorah Pageant has been great!  One day I will bring you all here so you can see this show that I just rant and rave about.  I love you all!!! Have a great week! 

Love, Sister Adams

At Pageant! This is our good friend Elder Stewart from Fresno, CA

The Udalls! They are from Gilbert and were in pageant last year. So good to see them!

With Lindsay!! She came and sat with us one night. (my first convert- love her!)

Jim working security. such a boss.

My friend Brealynn playing "Laman's wife".

Oh you know... I'm good friends with "Abinadi".  He is so cool! 

We made huge roasted mallows with Brealynn in the camp trailer her and her family is staying in.  We roasted them over a hot plate and stuffed them with chocolate. mmmm!

Christ ascending

Aurien and Annwyn Bennett are in Lyons Ward and they are in the cast this year.  Yes they are twins.  I had dinner at their house a lot when I served in Newark.

Hill Cumorah Pageant + Pictures

Hi Family!  I just had a few mintues to email so I thought I would take it! This week has been delightfully exhausting and amazing in every way.  We did missionary training with the cast all day Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.  We have met and become instant friends with so many in the cast.  It is the greatest!  It truly is a Hill Cumorah Pageant family and the six of us sisters get to be a part of it.   We are SO LUCKY. 

 

Sister Tipton and I have been working at the Smith Farm each day in the morning, working with the cast in the afternoon, participating in cast devotional before the show, and proselyting with the cast in the seating area each night.  Because we work with the cast we get the privilege of watching pageant every night they perform.  And let me tell you... they are rocking it this year.  On stage and especially doing missionary work.  They all have such a desire to be instruments in the hand of God and to share their knowledge of the gospel.  It is so rewarding to look around and see them all in costume greeting everyone who comes and sharing scriptures and testimony with them.  My friend Brealynn is in the cast again this year and I went on splits with her in the seating area last night.  She testified of Jesus Christ and the Book of Mormon so powerfully to this man who was from Rochester.  He was a guest of another faith and as she shared scripture and testified the man began to get tears in his eyes.  She is such a great cast missionary.  Her and I have gotten really close over these last two pageants so we really like working together. The Spirit that is here is just incredible.  I feel like there is a buzz about the air and the ground is just bubbling up the spirit of truth.  The Hill Cumorah is sacred ground.  The events that took place here are real.  And to see them portrayed on a stage with jaw-dropping music, costumes, and lighting is an experience I will never forget. 

 

And we are only half way!! Still have six shows to go and we are all pumped! I love you all very much. xoxoxoxo

Love, Sister Adams

Rehearsals that we got to watch!

Sister Garfield is one of our best friends in the cast.  She came by herself this year so Sister Tipton and I are with her a lot.  She is HILARIOUS and we love her so much.

Sister Tipton and I working at the Smith Farm!

Popsicle break and a ride in the golf cart! Always refreshing.

Game Time + Pictures

Hello family!  I am emailing a day late because Sister Tipton and I had work to do yesterday on our normal p-day.  But we have some time today to tell you about the week! 

We had dinner at the Campbells house this week, which is always fun.  Sister Campbell is the primary president in Fayette Ward and we are really close with them.   Sister Tipton plays piano for the primary and so we get to go there instead of relief society.  We love being in primary sharing and singing time each week.  Sister Tipton plays and I am always the one they demonstrate with (i.e. extreme head shoulders knees and toes, what monkeys act like, do as I’m doing follow, follow me, and all of that good stuff).  We have A LOT of fun.  Sister Campbell’s youngest son, Joseph, is two years old and she says he has a crush on me.  At the dinner table he insisted on sitting next to me and hugging me between bites of soup and salad.  Is it possible for a two year old to have a crush?

We’ve been working on cast training all week, driving to Palmyra every day.  One day we got to the Poulson’s house and they weren’t there yet for our meeting.  So Sister Tipton went into their guest bedroom and pretended to be asleep and when they got home Sister Poulson asked where we were, looked in the room, ran in at full speed, and jumped on top of the bed between us and was shaking us.  Haha I haven’t laughed that hard in a long time.  We have gotten pretty close from working so much together with her and Elder Poulson.  I call her “Matriarch”.  She loves it.

We did service for a potential investigator, Jenifer, this week.  She broke her back in a car accident so we went and cleaned her house.  We invited her to come to the Hill Cumorah Pageant and her son has never been and asked what it was.  She responded, “It is a carnival for the Lord.”  Sister Tipton and I really had to hold back from laughing out loud.  So that is our new joke:  We are going to work at the carnival for the Lord!

I got my hair cut!  Thank goodness… it was almost to my waist and it was getting HOT.  I feel like my hair has gotten a lot thicker here in NY.  Maybe it’s the humidity?  When the gal got done cutting it I asked her if it looked like there was a small dog on the floor and she said, “Nope… two!”  Haha I told her to blame it on my mom- she’s the one I got it from.

Fourth of July was great.  We worked at the Hill Cumorah VC and then we went down to the girls’ camp to watch fireworks with the Albany Stake young woman.  It was so beautiful to watch the fireworks and the reflection off of Seneca Lake.  It was good to be with the Breinholts too.  We don’t see them very much because we are on in the busy season right now.

We have officially moved to Palmyra and will be living here for 3 weeks while the cast rehearses and performs.  It feels weird to be so far away from our proselyting area in Seneca Falls but we have another area to take care of for now and that is the nearly 800 members of the cast.  They arrived just yesterday and we got to meet them at dinner and be in their devotional and watch them be cast into their roles.  It was so fun!  We had a good time going around and talking with everyone.  So many of them told us they are pumped to do missionary work each night before and after they perform! WOO! It’s game time! And we are leaving it all on the floor.

I love you all! If you don’t hear from me in the next few weeks don’t worry, I’m just busy with the Pageant.  I got your pageant package and letters in the mail!  Thank you so much! I have without a doubt the coolest, best family EVERRRRRR. 

Love, Sister Adams!

Fireworks at Seneca Lake.  The girls had slow stick necklaces on their heads.

Cast Trainers watching the casting process.  Sister Poulson creeping on us from behind! Haha

My companion and I so excited that Pageant is here!

Sister Hawkes and I.

 Elder and Sister Poulson. I LOVE them.

Casting!  They don't know their role until they get here and the directors have a look at them.