We were up and at 'em (cheesy pun my roommates came up with "Up and Adams" they say it to me all the time) this morning early so we could get a good run in and then stretch outside. So we got to see the sunrise! It was beautiful! I love it out here in Fayette because not only is it so quiet and peaceful but it is gorgeous! Because we live between the finger lakes (Seneca and Cayuga) people say this is "God's country" because when God created the earth He left his finger prints here in the place where the church would be restored for the last days. That makes me laugh a little but hey, it is beautiful.
Thank you for all the pictures you sent! It looks like Mace had a yummy treat for his birthday and some crazy people to share it with :) I loved the pictures of the horses. I cannot believe how much Ringo and Honey have GROWN! It is so weird to see. Dad's letter told me Tilly was taken up to Eager to get "her ticket punched". That term still makes me laugh. So we will be having a baby colt in the near future... the adventure never ends. That will be fun.
Sister Tipton and I had some great successes this week. The Lord has been so good to us. On Monday, we worked at the Hill Cumorah taking tours and then had only a few hours in our proselyting area that evening. Somehow we were able to teach 2 lessons, and contact a former investigator who wants to learn again, and find a less active member who was not even on our radar. It was so awesome! All that and then make the 20 minute drive back to our home in Fayette on time for curfew. Bishop Egan gave us this list of inactive people who's addresses are wrong on the records- so we have to go search them out. (We call it our FBI list) We first go to their last known address to see if the people that now live there know where this person went. We had an address that was really far away and we finally got a chance to drive there. We knocked on the door and the woman from behind the screen said, "Hey girls! come in!" We were both thinking... ohh how nice she doesn't even know who we are and she's letting us in. We sat down in her living room with her HUGE dog trying to climb in Sister Tipton's lap (he was easily double Duke's size) and started to ask her questions and get to know her. All the sudden she goes, "You don't know I am a member do you.." We told her we hadn't seen her at church and she said she hasn't been to church for a very long time, but that she wants help coming back. She changed her work schedule so she wasn't working on Sundays and then the Lord brings us to her door! It was a cool experience. We taught her an impromptu lesson and in the middle of it the beast of a dog comes up and licks all the way up my arm and into my hair on the side of my head. Cathy then goes, "Little Foot! GET OVER HERE!" Hahaha his name was little foot and he was bigger than the dog on the Sandlot! I almost died laughing. He was a sweet dog and the lesson turned out really good and Cathy is going to start coming back to church!
This week we also had an opportunity to do service for a less-active member. She is a single mom going through chiropractic school at NYCC in Seneca Falls, has three sons, two of them our twins and one of them is a special needs child. I honestly don't know how she does it. It was good because she hasn't been responding to us and finally she let us come to help her. I hope we can help her come back to to activity so when she moves after she graduates she doesn't get lost in the mix.
We had interviews with President Christianson this week. It was really great. He asked me if I had any questions for him and I just asked him what I could do better. He gave me advice that I know was inspired and exactly what I needed. I am thankful for my mission president who helps me in this process of becoming the missionary Heavenly Father wants me to be. He told me it was our last interview together and I got teary-eyed thinking about how he and Sister Christianson will be leaving soon. They go home right before the pageant and President Francis and his family will be here right in time for the chaos (organized chaos of course). I will have my last two transfers with the new mission president. I am excited to get to meet him and learn from him too.
For site meeting this week we had it at the Whitmer Farm. They had us give example tours for when buses home for the new missionaries that haven't seen these sites full of over 50 people. Sister Tipton and I got to show how things should be done in the chapel (which is right next door to the visitors' center). It was a good experience for us and the Spirit just filled the chapel as we taught and testified of the miracles that occurred here on the Whitmer Farm. I was grateful for the opportunity to share my testimony with all of the great missionaries I serve with. We have our own "site missionary family" with all of the sisters and senior couples and it is just a blast.
We have gotten permission from Salt Lake and officially started the pilot on the new referral system that we have been working out here. I am really excited about it and have such a testimony of the impact members have on missionary work. I have already seen miracles happen just by members not being shy and in a normal way sharing how the gospel has blessed their family with their friends that don't know about it. If this gospel is going to fill the earth we need members that are truly converted and who have a fire of missionary work burning in their hearts. I have it burning in mine. I have never experienced joy this sweet and I know it is because I am involved in the greatest, most important work right now- and that is the work of the Lord. He loves us and He wants all to partake of salvation. "... NOW is the time and the day of your salvation; and therefore, if ye will repent and harden not your hearts, immediately shall the great plan of redemption be brought about unto you. For behold, this life is the time for men to prepare to meet God; yea, behold the day of this life is the day for men to perform their labors." (Alma 34:31-32) Family, I love you. Please do those things that bring you closer to God. We need His help and He can only give it to us if we choose it. Always do those things that strengthen your conversion to the Lord. "And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren." (Luke 22:31-32)
Love, Sister Adams
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