Getting Shushed In The Library

Mom I am getting shushed in the library because your emails made me laugh so hard. I got in trouble... oops! Not my fault my family is hilarious and I have a loud laugh. Oh well they will get over it.

Well hey! I bet you are wondering why I am emailing early this week. The reason is because of the weather. We have hurricane Sandy coming from the east, high winds coming from the west, and an arctic blast coming from the north. And guess where they are all going to overlap...Yep, here in Western New York. Rochester area is on high alert right now. So President and Sister Christianson told us to stay home and inside, and the Searles (the site directors) told us we are grounded from the sites. So crazy! So we thought we would hurry and come email this morning so that you all don't worry about us. So really, don't worry about us. We will be just fine and are more than prepared for this storm.

This past week has been great! As always... I feel like I never say anything else. But it really is always great! Heavenly Father has been answering my prayers. So things with Jina were really rough for a while... but Sister Butters and I prayed everyday
that somehow she would feel the Spirit and continue to read and pray and do what's right. Well we FINALLY got back in to see her. We were so nervous, but then she proceeds to tell Sister Butters and I that she has been remembering her dreams and that never happens to her. She has been dreaming of her baptism day and how happy she will feel when she is baptized. Is that a miracle or what! So we recommitted her to be baptized and she is really excited. :)

And Jimmy is doing great too! He came to church yesterday! We also had a lesson with him at the Hill Cumorah Visitors' Center this week and President and Sister Christianson came with us for a team-up lesson. Could you get a better team-up? NO. It was such a spiritual experience. Seriously, Jimmy knows he is on the right path. Right now, he is trying to not focus on the thoughts rolling around his head but to focus on the seed that he has planted in his heart. I know that it is going to swell, and sprout, and begin to grow; because the seed is good. (Alma 32:28) He is doing awesome and has found the truth. He has such a genuine desire to know these things. I know God will answer Jimmy's prayers for this great knowledge that will change, benefit, and improve his life, and the life of his two kids.

This week we also had a specialized training with President Christianson. Okay so for the past few weeks, when I get the chance, I have been studying the House of Israel. I felt like I was just barely skimming the surface of it and that I really wanted President to teach it to us. So I kept studying and prayed for help that I might understand more fully. Well, President gets up to do the training and announces that we will be learning about the House of Israel! I about jumped out of my seat and shouted for joy! That was an answer to my prayers! President took two and a half hours to teach us about the House of Israel and the significance of it and how Israel is being gathered NOW- through the Book of Mormon. I have never had so much knowledge crammed into my head so powerfully, clearly, and quickly. If anything that lesson just helped me realize who I am. Through all generations of time, people have turned from God because they have forgotten who they are. They are children of God and the covenant people of the Lord. They throw that out the window for things of the world that don't matter! That is why the tribes of Israel were scattered. Now if we go to the title page of the Book of Mormon, this is what Moroni wrote and attached to the very back of the gold plates under the sealed portion. It says,
"Wherefore, it is an abridgement of the record of the people of Nephi, and also of the Lamanites-- Written to the Lamanites, who are a remnant of the house of Israel; and also to the Jew and Gentile."So who is it for? EVERYONE.
"Written by way of commandment, and also by the spirit of prophesy and revelation--Written and sealed up...and hid up unto the Lord, to come forth in due time by way of the Gentile." Here we are in a Gentile nation, America, and they came forth by way of Joseph Smith.
"Which is to show unto the House of Israel what great things the Lord hath done for their fathers; and that they may know the covenants of the Lord, they they are not cast off forever-- And also to the convincing of the Jew and Gentile that JESUS IS THE CHRIST, the ETERNAL GOD, manifesting himself unto all nations."
Isn't that powerful!? I think about how many times I have skipped over the title page and look at the power in it! The Book of Mormon is here to be spread throughout the earth to help people remember who they are. That they are of the House of Israel and to gather them in! I know that I am of the House of Israel, the tribe of Ephraim. No wonder I felt a sudden random prompting to leave everything behind and come share the Book of Mormon with the world! Before I came to earth, I had the gift of spirituality, to recognize truth and to believe. That is why Heavenly Father sent me to this Gentile nation, as a member of the tribe of Ephraim, in this dispensation. I have believing blood coursing through my veins. It is a literal blood line... it is in my DNA. And because of this, I have this desire in me to share it and to get my brothers and sister back to where they need to be, where they belong. And the Book of Mormon is the instrument God has given us to do this. It drives me crazy when people accuse us of adding to the Bible or replacing it. No, we are proving that the Bible is true and gathering Israel. Just like it has been prophesied since the beginning. This work is real. It is God's work. He loves us, and I testify of His divine reality.

I love you all so much.
Love, Sister Adams

(here are some great scriptures in the BOM about it's significance in the gathering of Israel: 1 Nephi 15:12-18, 2 Nephi 29:13-14, 3 Nephi 29:chapter heading and verses 1-3, 3 Nephi 30:chapter heading and verses 1-2. There are tons more but I think you will like these.)

PS- Erika, I was talking to Kathy last night and she was asking me about you and I told her how at first you had a hard time with me leaving you to serve a mission. Kathy wanted me to tell you, "Thank you for letting your sister go so that she could come here to help me." Love you sissy :)