Waxing Poetic

Hey everyone!

It's been the best week ever here in sunny Bakersfield California. It's even been slightly less sunny than before, which is good! One day had a high of 92, that's paradise to us.

Monday night we got to have a lesson with a less-active member who we'd been helping to come back to church. He came to church the day before, so we were real excited to see how he felt about it. Before he could say anything, I already knew- what a spirit he had about him! He was so happy he practically glowed. While we were talking, he told us how he had always struggled with reading the Book of Mormon, and how difficult it was to understand, but how it seemed so much easier this time around, and he was getting more out of it. He might not need to be baptized, but it's still wonderful to see someone come (back) to Christ.

Tuesday we were going to head up to Frazier Park, but our appointment up there canceled. Since we didn't have one, we couldn't go! Instead we tried to come up with some plans and tracted for much of the day. That's alright, hard work builds the soul. We had dinner with a part-member family where the parents aren't members. They're also Chinese, and don't speak very much English. It was a very fun dinner, and we got to try some traditional Chinese food, like roast duck. Honestly, I like it a lot better than restaurant Chinese food.

Wednesday we worked! Working day. We both got sunburnt, we worked so hard. "It's only 95 instead of 105, we'll be fine" the sun is still there???

Thursday we planned, like normal. What a slow week so far, haha. That's okay. We realized we'll have almost no time to work in Bakersfield next week- we'll be in Taft one day, Frazier Park the next, planning, and then meeting with Elder Claudio Costa of the Seventy on Friday. What a busy week next week will be.

Friday we had district meeting. That was pretty normal too. It was just an exceedingly ordinary week, I guess!

On Saturday, at dinner, we were talking afterwards and one of the kids brought a big inflatable ball into the room. And threw it. I was worried it was going to hit the mom, but instead it bounced off her chair and landed on the table- knocking a glass of milk all over me! And the wall, and the floor. Somehow the ball hit this cup at just the right angle to send its contents everywhere. So I got covered in milk. The parents were very embarrassed, but it really wasn't a big deal- this kind of nonsense happens to us a lot.

Sunday is the Sabbath! And keeping the Sabbath day holy means serving God, so we worked!

Along with my spiritual bit this week, I wanted to include a bit of a poem I heard, William Wordsworth's "Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood." What a long name.

Not for these I raise
The song of thanks and praise
But for those obstinate questionings
Of sense and outward things,
Fallings from us, vanishings;
Blank misgivings of a Creature
Moving about in worlds not realised,
High instincts before which our mortal Nature
Did tremble like a guilty thing surprised:
But for those first affections,
Those shadowy recollections,
Which, be they what they may
Are yet the fountain-light of all our day,
Are yet a master-light of all our seeing;
Uphold us, cherish, and have power to make
Our noisy years seem moments in the being
Of the eternal Silence: truths that wake,
To perish never;
Which neither listlessness, nor mad endeavour,
Nor Man nor Boy,
Nor all that is at enmity with joy,
Can utterly abolish or destroy!

I also like the line about us coming into this life "trailing clouds of glory." Something about the Plan of Salvation is innate in all mankind, and it's our job to help people remember. It's not always something that new or hard to wrap our heads around. I love the little taste of heaven that the Holy Ghost brings- it is an "earnest" after all. It makes me never want to lose the Spirit.

I hope you all have a good week this week!
Elder Adams