The mission is the best thing ever. I love being a missionary. And this week has been the best yet. Not just because the weather cooled down a bunch (but a lot because of that.)
Tuesday of this past week we headed out to Taft again. Wow, what a town. We helped an older couple move in, and it was pretty fun. The wife was German, and was pretty interesting to listen to. After that we worked like normal. My companion for the day was listening to the Spirit though! We were trying to find a house and he stopped and said "Nah, we're going to Valley Acres now." Which is a little ways away. We did, and visited a family that the missionaries in Taft had helped move in, and we got to teach a mother and her daughter the restoration! Just as we were leaving, another son walked in. He's doing recruiting for the marines, and recently finished training, and told us how he'd met a lot of Mormons in basic and how he'd been studying and praying with them. People are prepared in the darnedest ways.
Thursday we got to drive up to Frazier Park, and finally met with Kathy, the lady who'd listened to all the standard works and been to church. She's still going to church and doing good, she's just not getting baptized yet because her husband doesn't like it. So we've got to act on faith and hope he softens his heart. She's a really great lady though- she goes to Tehachapi some weeks to see her mother (who is also taking the discussions from the sisters there) and her sister (who's been a member a long time.)
Friday we got to meet with Elder Costa and Elder Pingree of the Seventy- one of the longest-serving members and the newest. It was really great.
Elder Pingree talked a lot about receiving personal revelation, and what needs to happen so that we (and our investigators) can receive it. He also spoke about how that revelation should guide our planning and goals, not us just making them and trying to force whatever God wants to happen into the box of what we think is going to happen. Finding was another thing Elder Pingree spoke about- thank goodness, since we spend so darn much time doing it! He talked about Phillip teaching the Ethiopian in Acts 8 (Acts has lots of stories, but this is one of my favorites) and principles from that story that we can apply in our finding.
Elder Costa spoke to us about repentance, and how everything we do is to help people through the process. We also learned that just writing down "church" for the three hours we meet on Sunday is the "worst plan." We should always plan to find, even just at church, by prayerfully asking for referrals. Later he talked to us a lot about soccer. Really it was about goals and how hard we work, but he used a lot of soccer analogies. We also learned "Elder Costa's Rule": never mix spiritual and social. If you go somewhere to do something spiritual, always tie it back to the spiritual, and if the Spirit says "go" at an awkward time, then go anyway.
Saturday I got sick. Obnoxious 24 hour fever. So fun to have a thermometer in your mouth and slowly see it tick up into the triple digits. Like it's not even that hot out anymore, come on. Ugh. I mean, I was fine Sunday, but it sucks being sick even for a day. So we had an inside day since I didn't want to stand very much. It was like having the flu but only for a day.
This week I learned that if we really, truly believe that there are people here who are being prepared to accept the Gospel, then we will know that we MUST find them. Not a "we can find them" or a "we might find them" sort of thing, but a deep, driving force- a desire for the salvation of our fellow men. Imagine if your parents spent a long time preparing a great opportunity for you, one that would not only benefit you, but change someone else's life for the better, forever- and likely the lives of many others. Would you not work hard to make the most of that? That's what God does for us in preparing people to receive the Gospel. We've got a great opportunity to give glory to God by doing our tiny part of His work- what a blessing!
Thank you for all your support!
Elder Adams
1.I went to jail.
2.Service in Taft.
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