Last Saturday we got to go on a Sacred Grove tour with Bob. Sisters Jones, Hawkes, and I took our trainees all at the same time (Sisters Davis, Steel, and Tipton) All six of us are the cast trainers for 2013! It was a blast as always and Bob taught us so many cool things. Bob and I are pretty tight. It's awesome. He is always giving me a hard time because he says I can "take it" haha. After our Grove tour we had another cast training meeting at the Poulson's apartment. Things are really coming around and Pageant is right around the corner! Six more weeks and the pageant cast will arrive. The sites are busy now so that time will fly by. After all of our meetings Sister Tipton and I went and did service and I don't want to give names for that because it was DISGUSTING. Let's just say it involved puke, rotten food, maggots, and Sister Tipton doing dishes for 2 hours straight because there were that many to do. This is probably weird but I prayed that my gag reflex would be still and as I was cleaning up the puke (that had been sitting there for more than 24 hours) this nasty smell wafted into my nose and I almost gagged but then I didn't! Answer to prayer! In the end, Sister Tipton and I were really glad we went because we made the environment this family is living in so much better and they needed the help so badly. I am grateful that as missionaries we can serve in any capacity to help people live better lives.
We finally got to see Sara this week! She is an investigator who has been out of town with her family for a while to just "get away". She has been through a lot lately and she is pregnant now but she is bound and determined to be a good mom to this baby. She is committed to quit smoking and live a better life. We taught her about sincere repentance and she told us she is ready to repent- that the events that have happened to her recently have really "woken her up" and she realizes now this is what she needs. Sisters have been teaching for for over a year now and she hasn't progressed this much until now. I am grateful that she is using her agency to make correct choices now and that I get to be the missionary to help her at this time in her life.
For site meeting this week we got to hear a fireside by the great, great granddaughter of Joseph Smith, Kimberly Smith. It was so amazing to hear her knowledge of her great, great grandparents Joseph and Emma at the Hill Cumorah. She also shared with us her conversion story that was just incredible. She grew up hiding the fact she was a Smith descendant because the "temple lot church" she was a part of believed he was a fallen prophet. She was also taught that Mormons or "Brighamites" were evil people conspiring to kill off all the Smith descendants. How crazy is that!? She said she went to do family history and the thing that touched her the most was the Spirit that she felt... especially when the missionaries working there spoke about Joseph Smith with such reverence and respect. She was not used to that and said "it just felt good". She told us that in all of our lives the Holy Ghost should trump all. I loved that. We can always trust the Holy Ghost. So when we get promptings from the Spirit- FOLLOW it. No matter what. I feel like I have let that sink deep in my heart as a missionary. I have received some pretty crazy promptings at times and I think "What? Really? ooookayyyy..." and I do what ever the Spirit prompts me to and it always works out and I see the hand of God in my life! It is the best thing! I know God is there and He lives. And He leads and guides us through the Holy Spirit each and every day... if we let Him. I love Him and I love serving Him here in upstate NY!
Congratulations Erika on graduating high school! I love you!
Love, Sister Alexandra Adams
tons of hawks in the trees at the girls camp! I counted 15! I could only fit 13 in the picture.
the oldest tree in the Sacred Grove
with my besties! Jones and Hawkes!
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