I'm trying to think
of what happened this week but it's really hard to think of things. It feels
like I was writing my last letter yesterday, time really flies by here. I'll
just go over a few small events for the week.
So this Thursday is
going to be Thanksgiving. Last Thanksgiving in the Mission the Missionaries had
it off, but our president decided that this year it will be treated like a
normal day, with the exception that we can have dinner appointments that are 90
minutes long instead of only 60.
But this Sunday, news
got around the branch that we didn't have anywhere to eat this Thanksgiving (we
don't know how they got this news), so by the end of church we had about five
people set up to feed us. We still haven't quite worked out what we're going to
do, although we are allowed to have several dinner appointments that day. So we
think that we are going to eat with the Richey family at 12:00. The Martinez
family at 4:00. And the Herrera family at 6:30. I have no idea how I'm going to
be able to eat that much food! And also we can't fast the day before, because
that day is the Birthday of Elder Martinez so we have a dinner appointment with
the Frayday family. They are the ones that live on the military base. Last time
we went there, we had Korean food, because Hermana Frayday's mom is from Korea,
so she knows how to make super good Korean food. We had sushi, lettuce wraps,
and a bunch of other side dishes last time, and we are going to have the same
thing this Wednesday. But I am really excited for all of the food this week.
The Richey family only speak English, and Elder Martinez is super excited to
have thanksgiving with them because he has never had a white thanksgiving. So
that's what's going to happen this next week.
This past week has
been a little rough with teaching people. We haven't had too many lessons, and
the lessons we did have were a little difficult. The first lesson we had this
week was with a man named Pablo and his family. They are super nice, but they
don't quite understand our lessons. That's how it is with a lot of people here.
Lots of them have minimal education, and it's rare to be able to find someone
who can read. So, a lot of times inviting them to read the Book of Mormon just
isn't an option. We ran into that problem a lot this week, and also the problem
that Jesus is white. And another one of our fairly solid investigators
basically dropped us. That's always hard.
This week though, we
did have the chance to work with a lot of new members and less actives. Mainly
we met a lot with the Herrera family, because they had the chance this week to
go to the temple for the first time. When we went they shared with us really
cool stories too. About how they were converted. This was the family that had
been investigating the church for fifteen years. They had been invited to be
baptized many times, but they still refused to. But they both had dreams after
they were invited to be baptized again. Ramon had a dream that he was sitting
on a beach. He said it was super calm and he was relaxed, and then all of a
sudden a huge wave just came crashing down on him. He was still calm though and
remained in a relaxed state the whole time. Belkiz on the other hand, had a
dream that her and Ramon were sitting on a dock. Then they both decided to lean
back and they fell off the dock and into the water. And that's the reason that
they got baptized. They're super strong in the church, and they finally got
their van working so now they said they will give a ride to all of the
investigators that we have.
Other than that, not
much happened this week. Although I did have the chance this week to read the
book by Elder Ballard, Our Search for Happiness. It's pretty short, but I
enjoyed it a lot. I'd recommend anyone to read it if they have a little bit of
time. It brings up really good points and expounds on some key points of
doctrine. One part that really stuck out to me was the comparison Elder Ballard
made with a house right by a fire station. And this is all taking place in
a little town. Now everyone in this town has access to the fire station. Like
how everyone has access to the Holy Spirit. But the house right next to the
fire station is a lot more protected, because it has the immediate help and
protection of the fire station. He then goes on to say how the Holy Spirit
operates in the same way. Only those with the Gift of the Holy Spirit have the
immediate protection from danger. That's just one thing that really stuck out
to me from that book.
Well, it's going to
be a little different not having Thanksgiving with my family. Although I was
happy to receive a package from Jolie, Clark, and Avery with a few little Thanksgiving
treats inside. The picture that Avery colored is currently hanging up in the
wall of our apartment.
I hope y’all have a
great week this week, and that y'all enjoy Thanksgiving!
-Elder Adams
We also got bored during one of our dinners, so we set up the
Christmas tree we had.
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