It's Called Caliente Because it's Still Hot

Hey all!

It has been the absolute best week ever in the Monica ward. Such an incredible week. So much happened. It was wild.

So on the fourth we got to head up to Tehachapi to do some baptism interviews, which is where the week really started getting good. We also got to head out to a little town in the mountains called Caliente (if you can call a post office and twenty destroyed houses by the railroad tracks a town.) We had six less active members living up there in the mountains, and the members from our ward rarely make it up there, so we figured we'd head out there to see how everyone was doing. That was cool. Still hot up there. Looks kinda like Utah. More than Bakersfield does at least. 

But yeah the interviews. These two girls were so ready. Seriously. They'd been waiting for two years to be able to be baptized because of some custody trouble, and getting to see their joy in finally being able to make that covenant with God was so so cool. We got to go to their baptism on Saturday too! It was a really special one. There were so many people three they couldn't even all fit in the primary room to watch the baptism when it happened. I saw real fellowship this week- honest love for your fellow men that stirs souls and makes miracles happen. If we all loved each other like the members there loved these girls, we'd build Zion so fast.

We also got some counsel this week about our finding. President Ballard encouraged the mission presidents to have their missionaries each contact at least ten new people each day- twenty total per companionship. On paper that doesn't sound so bad, but apparently not all our finding time is used that effectively. I'm so grateful for that counsel, because it's been a little hard for me to visualize what success should be for me right now- I won't be around to see the results of a lot the invitations I extend right now. But talking to twenty new people in between the lessons we have? Sure. Sounds bomb. I can do that. We're really enthusiastic about it :) 

After church this past Sunday we had a really special lesson. Some members in our ward invited us to come over and teach their niece who has been to church a few times. We sat down and taught her the restoration and it was absolutely incredible. I think it was one of the most spiritual lessons that I've ever taught. I was about to cry when talking about the Book of Mormon. It was so cool. At the end she asked us about patriarchal blessings (they'd talked about them at church) and then we got talking about the gift of the holy ghost and baptism. She sounded like she wanted the blessings, so we invited her to be baptized and she picked out a date herself! I think her poor Aunt was surprised. We don't normally invite to a date on the first lesson anymore! It was the Spirit! The Spirit was really strong! 

And those were the best parts of the week. Gospel is true. It's great. 

Thanks for all your support! 

Shortest Week Ever

Hey all!

It's been the best week ever! We got to go to the temple! I mean technically the last email I sent was on that day, but hey. So y'all've heard most of what happened to me already. Sorry if this one's a little boring because of that. I promise stuff happened this week. I just can't remember a lot of the stuff I didn't already say.

It's been a little hectic this week. We did a bunch of service for a nonmember in our area. She's a real nice lady who was super overwhelmed with the state of her backyard, so we cleared it out for her. We actually had to come back another time with another set of missionaries to finish the job, it was pretty overgrown. It was a nice change of pace though. I even managed to even out my collar tan a little bit by getting the worst sunburn I've had on the mission. Oops.

We met a couple new people out in Arvin and Lomnt, which is cool. It's always a long drive, and something always falls through, so it's good to have more people to visit when we go there and stuff falls through. There was a really cool couple the Spanish elders had met and we're pretty excited to go visit them. 

This weekend the YSA sisters had a baptism! I did the interview, so we got to go see it. I love seeing baptisms. It's always really spiritual and I learn so much every time I see someone make that covenant. The Spirit was so strong there that I thought to myself that I wouldn't mind having to deal with all the hard bits of being a missionary, forever if I could only see that more often. It's so special because I know how much joy and peace these people who join the church are going to receive.

Thanks for all your support everyone! 

Elder Adams

Temple Trip

Hey everyone!

It's been the best week and a half ever here in Monica ward! Sorry for no email on Monday, because today is our pday- we're headed to the temple! I get to go again in two weeks, but that time it won't count as Pday. Just this time. Anyway, it's still great out here. 

We had exchanges with the zone leaders again this week! It's always cool to see how things go I. Their area, even if I can only kinda tell what's happening- I only know so much Spanish. Exchanges were cut kinda short though, because we had zone conference the next day. Another cool thing. I had to bear my testimony because I'm leaving... It's still not real! Not ready to go! 

It was another really hardworking week here too. We really had to pound some pavement to make up for the time that we missed out on at the beginning of the week. It doesn't help that it's been triple digits most of the week. Although it's not so bad, we're getting used to it. One day we were really just not feeling good--it was hot and we were tired and things just were not clicking that day. The Spirit told us to tract, so we went to a street and knocked on every door. It was actually awesome! We found two new people that seemed really cool! 

We got to teach our investigator Roberto as well. That was a good lesson, and we dug up some of his concerns that are still floating around. Hopefully he'll be baptized before I leave. He's been taught for long enough, and he wants to be. All that's left is making sure he remembers and lives everything.

I'd talk about the last two days, but just in case the rest of the week isn't as interesting, I'll save it for next week. Instead, I'll tell you about some incredible news I got! Gina, the investigator who got baptized after I left Cal City, got engaged! Which hopefully means they'll be getting sealed next year. That's the most exciting, satisfying thing. I can't stop smiling about it! 

I had a cool reminder this week of why I try to work diligently and of what the Savior's Atonement means to me. I was pondering and remembered the feelings I've had when I've really felt the forgiveness that comes from repentance. I can't really express how much it means to me to know that I can be worthy to have the Holy Ghost and come to live with God again after this life with my family. I hope all of you feel those same feelings!

Thanks for all your support! 

The Oldest Missionary in the Oldest Car

Hey all!

It's been the best week ever! Even if we didn't have a car for most of it. We walked plenty. That was tiring and warm. Still had some good results though!

On Tuesday we had to take the car back into the shop after making some visits in the morning. We were still having electrical problems. They seemed to think it would be pretty fast though, so they just sent us on our way. It has not been fast, so we've been walking around. Luckily our mission president has introduced a flexible schedule for us to use so we can meet new people and beat the heat. We can leave the apartment at around 7 in the morning and start to street contact, then do our studies and exercise later in the day. We've been able to beat the heat a little by doing that. It just makes for some really long mornings.

And so most of the week passed that way, with a lot of walking around. It was rough not being able to go to most of our area- Monica ward is spread out and covers a couple other towns. Luckily, we weren't stuck forever. We talked to the assistants, and on Friday they told us to come by the mission office to grab another car to use. They ended up giving us a corolla that was supposed to be sold soon--it was actually the one Elder McEntire had been using in his last area. Because of the lack of new cars, he had to use one that normally would have been sold already (at 50000 miles) and now he gets to ride in it again, but at 60000. It's definitely the oldest car in the mission. Driven by me, the first one in our group to get to the MTC, so now I'm also the one who's been away from home the longest. Old missionary in an old car.

Not to say that all that happened this week was car related nonsense, we still managed to get some stuff done. A guy in our ward who just got his mission call took us out to Lamont so that we could visit Lorena. She's really starting to progress and understand more, and her husband is opening up to the gospel a lot more as well. He wasn't there because he works a lot, but he's normally there when we visit on Sundays. Lorena came to church, too!

We also got to meet with Roberto on Saturday night. We just kinda showed up at his house, and he's normally opt around when we try that, but he was then. He was really glad for the visit because he's been having a rough time. We got to sit down and chat for a while, and have an incredible lesson about prayer. Then he came to church on Sunday! Yes! We were really excited to see him there, and he had a great time.

We met with a super cool part member family this week too. The dad isn't a member, and has said he doesn't intend to join, but he wants his kids raised in the gospel. The eight year old son turns nine on July 7th, and the bishop told us to just teach him all the lessons. It'll be a good chance to teach the family, too. We're super excited about helping them get more active and closer to God together.

The results of this week have been so fantastic. Every companionship in the district had such a great week and their investigators are progressing so so well. It's so satisfying to see, especially having seen and heard how much time and effort has been put into these areas and helping the people come unto Christ. The next five weeks are going to be incredibly busy. The Lord is blessing these areas and we get to be a part of it. That's so cool.

Thanks for all your support everyone! 

Elder Adams

FINAL ROUND: Monica!

Hey everyone!

This week has been the best week ever! Why? Transfer calls have come, and the result is that Elder McEntire and I will be staying for my last transfer! Wow. That's a weird thing to say. I've been in his position twice and it's certainly strange strange to be the elder who is almost done. Can't say I'm unhappy about it though, it's a great area with a great companion. It's like the missionary celestial kingdom here. 

At church this week someone told the story from Elder Rasband about when he helped President Eyring assign mission calls when he was a member of the 70. One thing that stick out to me was how President Eyring said he liked to imagine where the missionaries serving would end their missions. Was that something someone thought of for me? That I'd be here, in such a great place? I mean, looking back, it's obviously part of the plan. I don't think I expected it though. I'm pleasantly surprised :)

We started off this week really well! Tuesday was awesome. We worked really hard to find new npeople to teach, and it seemed like everyone was willing to listen, which was neat. We met a ton of new people. It was good we met so many people then though, because we started having some car trouble on Wednesday night, and our car would spend most of Thursday and Friday in the shop. Our area is huge and we don't even live inside it, so that made work a little challenging. We still did our best though. We kept working through the end of the week, but it wasn't too exciting. Just satisfying. 

This past week for fast Sunday I was pondering on what I'd learned on my mission so far, and what would stick with me when I go home. I realized that although I feel a need to pray now, I don't know if I would feel the same deep need to read the book of Mormon every day when I don't have time set aside for it. So I decided to fast and pray for that desire--to spiritually need the book of Mormon as much as I need to eat. And it worked! In just the past week I've really felt a great need to read it. I already was, but now I'm excited about it, like a hungry man sitting down to a meal. It's a really cool thing that God blessed me with this week, and I hope I'll be able to help others develop the same feelings over the next six weeks! 

Thanks for all your support! 

Elder Adams

Pic: Sometimes, on the really smoggy days, I like to pretend that there might be ocean beyond these hills. I mean, we can't see the mountains on the other side :P

Feeling the Heat

Hey everyone!

It's been a lit week here! Really, the best week ever, I think. 

All sorts of stuff happened this week that doesn't normally happen in a week. We had interviews with President, which was cool. Hard to believe that it was my second to last one. Agh. We also went on a short exchange with the Bakersfield first elders- Elder Jones was sick, and they had some appointments they still needed to cover, so I stayed with him while Elders Taylor and McEntire went out and did some good work. We also had district meeting, which is normal, except that the assistants came to do the training! That was cool. I actually know both of them really well, so it was fun. 

This week was our first week of the year with triple digits! Pic attached. It got up to 106 on Sunday though. Good thing we have plenty of people to teach, so we can spend plenty of time in the AC, haha. Speaking of which, we got to set Roberto with a new date for baptism! We'd hardly seen him because he was dealing with some absolutely bonkers life stuff, but now he's got time again and we can meet with him. He's super great. Hopefully he'll be getting baptized in July!

We got to meet with a lot of people who had been missing for a little while this week. We got to sit down and teach Lorena and Gerardo this week- twice! They are really cool. She wants to get baptized and join the church, but she's still unsure about a lot of things and has some misconceptions. She comes to church a lot because she feels the Spirit. When she first started meeting with missionaries, she didn't feel so comfortable asking questions, but now she is really willing to. She doesn't know very much about the Bible, so she has lots of questions about it as well. Because she talks more, Gerardo feels more comfortable talking about his concerns and questions too. We're making really good progress with them! 

Here's our cool finding miracle for the week: Sunday night we had a lesson fall through in Arvin. It was 8:20 or so, and we couldn't just head back yet. We were one person away from our finding goal for the week, so we prayed and asked where we should go to find that one last person who was willing to hear us out that week. We went to a certain potential investigator's house- she wasn't home. But her neighbor was, and he was working on his car. Said neighbor's son was there, and he was willing to hear us out! The Lord gives us what we ask for when we exercise our faith! 

Not that I'm done yet, I'm definitely not, but I've been doing a lot of introspection about my mission so far. I've learned a lot. It's been really hard at times, too! But God always helped me through, whether by helping me directly, or through others. One constant source of support has been my wonderful parents. They've unfailingly supported and encouraged me, sharing their spiritual and missionary experiences, as well as advice and motivational words whenever I needed them. They've been angels to me. I'm also really grateful for the Savior and His atonement. What a wonderful thing. To know that not only did the Savior suffer through everything that I have and will, and paid the price for my sins, but did so while suffering for everyone else. It's awe inspiring. And He pushed on, through and through, never taking a break or asking for a second to catch his breath. It motivates me more to work hard and be diligent. 

Thank you for all your support everyone! 

Elder Adams

1. There it is, the triple digits. 

2. The excitement behind our apartment complex. There was a fire like 500 yards away. Also lit. 

3 - 6. A bunch of zone and district pictures. Sorry the picture quality got murdered in a back alley somewhere. Not my fault. Pic 5 features the assistants. 

The Miracles are Non-Stop

Hey all!

This week has been incredible! I say every week has been the best week ever, but legitimately this week has actually been the nest week of my mission so far by a long shot. So much has happened this week, so get ready for a really long, spiritual email. 

So, Tuesday! We had exchanges with the zone leaders, but they didn't start until noon. We went to stop by a potential we'd heard might be around because that's just when we felt like we should stop by and we picked her up as an investigator (that was the Spirit.) Then we started exchanges. Elder McCauley and I went to contact a referral, she wasn't super interested, but we still tried. Then we decided to walk to the next appointment (it was hot. Must have been the Spirit though.) We talked to a couple of guys from Honduras in their garage and taught them the restoration. When my companion asked if they would believe a fourteen year old if he said he had a vision like that, they said absolutely. Which was pretty neat! They loved the message and asked about where and when church was! Then we kept going to where we were headed (that appointment fell through.)

But wait! There's more! We walk back to the car and right before we get in, I see a little old Latino dude. This man only speaks Spanish and I can tell, but I thought to say hi anyway. That was also the Spirit. Elder McCauley goes to talk to him, and while he isn't interested, he says his neighbor might be (who happens to pull up just as we finish talking to him.) So we talk to the neighbor, and she's actually a less active member who was baptized in Guatemala like ten years ago! Wow! She was really happy to see missionaries and get back in touch with the church. Even after being away for so long, she still remembered the elder that baptized her.

It's not the end of the Lord's work for us that day though! We hurry to the next area to try to contact someone before an appointment, but right after we parked, we see a gal carrying a bunch of ramen into her house. So we talk to her too. She spoke English, so I could help with this one! We taught her about the restoration and the wonderful blessings of purpose and peace that we have in our lives because of the Savior. My companion asked her if she'd ever wondered what her purpose was. She told us she'd just been thinking about it that very morning. She was a little down on her luck- she'd had to drop out of college and was three months pregnant, and the guy didn't want anything to do with the baby. She really needed a message to give her hope. And there we were! The Spirit. All day, we'd been in just the right places at just the right times, because we were just trying to do the right thing and be where the Lord wanted us to be.

And that's just one day of the week! 

So on Wednesday morning, Elder McCauley says a prayer. A unique one. Because of a story I told him about a past companion (shout out to Elder Simpson and his incredible faith), Elder McCauley prays that someone will contact them out of the blue that day. I don't have that kind of faith, but he does. So fifteen minutes later, a lady from San Antonio senda him a message on Facebook, saying she wants to be a missionary. Whaaaaat. So they talked some and had a video call lesson with her, before sending her info off to the elders there. It actually happened! 

Lest y'all think that only the Spanish elders get miracles, let me tell you about our Wednesday night. We have had a rough time in this own called Arvin- most of the time when we go there, everything falls through. Everything. And we don't have the miles to go out there all the time, either. So we sat down and prayed last Thursday about what day we should go. Wednesday night. So Wednesday night rolls around, and we head out there. In a period of two hours, we found four people. Holy cow. We taught a referral from the Hermanas in town and met a young man named Jose who really liked the restoration and wanted to read the Book of Mormon. Now our finding goal was two, but I said hey, let's keep trying to contact more of these people.

THAT was the Spirit. Because we go to talk to this referral that asked for a Bible, just to stop by and see if we could come next week, and Martha (that's her name) invites us into her home! We chat for a bit, then she says "before you teach anything, let me go grab my boyfriend- he needs this too." So she did. She told us how her mom has been meeting with missionaries and how much joy the Gospel has brought to her, and told us how she wanted to come back to church, but had lots of questions about stuff. Like where do we go after we die. Funny enough, we can answer that! I think that was one of the best lessons I've ever taught. They loved it and said it made a lot of sense. They committed to come to church, too!

In only the first two days of the week, I've relearned an important truth about the Spirit. The Holy Ghost speaks quietly, but if we're in tune with it, trying to do the right thing and work diligently, we might not even notice that it's the Spirit at all. God will guide us and use us without having to coerce or push. We become tools in His hands as we not only surrender our will to His, but try to let our will become His. Then the Lord can do His work through us like actual tools- we do what the Master asks.

Cool stuff happened the rest of the week, too! I've already said a lot so maybe I'll just include one or two things. On Thursday night the Tehachapi sisters called us up to tell us a cool thing that happened to them at like 8:15,and Elder McEntire told them a story about when he and another elder found two people at like 8:30 at night after a terrible day, and the sisters were like "let's go do that right now!" We get a text fifteen minutes later confirming that they did indeed find someone that late. Super cool! 

And the last bomb thing of the week: we set Martha and Jose (who we found on Wednesday) with a date for the 21st of July! I'm super excited to be able to work towards that goal with them, and they're really happy to know how to draw closer to the Savior. 

Thanks for all your support. And the birthday wishes!!! 

Elder Adams

As for pics this week, I haven't taken any. Have some old ones I just saw for the first time:

Onward, Ever Onward!

Hey all!

We're back at it again for another bomb week in the Monica ward! In fact, it's been the best week of my time here. No- the best week ever!

Our buddy Roy got baptized today! I don't remember if I mentioned this before, but he's actually friends with and goes to school with our last recent convert, Adrian! I hope they'll be able to help each other stay active and grow their love for the gospel :) 

Otherwise, we did a lot of finding this week. And we found a lot of cool people! From the beginning of the week when we met our new friend Penny out in Lamont, to Sunday night when we handed out a bunch of copies of the Book of Mormon right by the church, we got to meet so many new people. It's a cool thing, getting to talk about the gospel with all the wonderful people in this area. They're so great.

On one street we went down, it seemed like everybody had heard about the church... From the wrong people. They were all so grumpy with us. That's okay though, we just pressed on and met some really neat people just afterwards! One of them, John, was too tired and busy from working a long time at work and fixing his truck to talk very much with us, but he still gave us some Gatorade and told us if we were in the neighborhood we could stop by and talk with him. 

We also met a really awesome couple! They were just hanging out in their front yard in the evening and we spent some time talking to them about the Restoration. They really want to know about what God wants to tell them, and they're willing to do whatever they need to so that they can find out the truth. The husband mostly only spoke Spanish, but he told us how happy and proud he was to see young men like us out preaching the word instead of getting in trouble. That's one of my absolute favorite things to be told. I'm grateful to bring a little bit more hope into people's lives. 

We've been talking to everyone this week. Seriously everyone. It's hard, but it's really cool- God has prepared so many people to receive even just a little bit of the gospel. Even if we just get to give out a lot of copies of the Book of Mormon, I'm happy to be able to plant that very important seed. It's our job to invite, and everyone out there in our area are the people we're supposed to invite. This work changes lives! I saw that in the smile of Roy's father as he baptized and confirmed him. It's a miracle, really.

Thanks for all your support! 

Elder Adams

God Put Us On This Earth To Be Cool With People

Hey all!

It's been the best week ever of an ever-increasing streak of best weeks ever! This week was super bomb. Elder McEntire and I are having an incredible time in this area. 

One cool thing that happened this week was Roy's baptism interview! He passed, so he'll be getting baptized this coming Saturday! What a great thing. We're really excited for him. We can't slow down though, so we've been pounding the pavement like crazy trying to find new people to teach. 

We had a super bomb lesson with Michael this week, too. We haven't been able to meet with him for a while, but now that we have we're working on passing him off to the YSA sisters. He'll fit in a lot better there anyway. We set him with a baptism date in June as well, which we're pretty pumped for. The title of this email is a quote from him! He's a good guy. Definitely getting baptized. 

There's a couple out in Lamont that we've been teaching, and we got some really good Intel about them this week from the Spanish elders out there. They're teaching the wife's parents, so they see them a lot, and the investigators confided in them about some of their concerns. We've been kinda stuck with them and have been having a hard time meeting, but this gave us exactly what we needed to know to help them progress.

We also had some really cool chances to see the Spirit direct us to be in the right place to find new investigators. We were in a neighborhood in a far out part of our area to visit a couple people, and we felt pretty cruddy because everything had fallen through. We were walking and could have just gone somewhere else, but felt like we should visit a couple potentials in the area. None of them were there, but at one of the houses there was a super cool lady who we got to teach the restoration to. It put a really genuine smile on her face, which puts the same thing on mine! 

Sunday night we had a little time, so we went out to Lamont to try to contact a referral (which was a change of plans from what we'd originally thought of. I just kinda felt like we should go to Lamont.) We were walking down the street and saw a pretty typical sight- a bunch of Latino guys just chilling around a barbeque, blaring music in Spanish. Lamont is mostly Spanish speakers, but Elder McEntire felt like we needed to try to talk to them, and they not only spoke English but were willing to listen and learn more! Tag-team listening to the Spirit. They were the last new investigators we needed to reach our weekly goal, too!

We had zone conference this week, and one of the many things our Mission President asked us to do was to sit down each night and talk about how we'd been guided by the Spirit that day. We're still working in making it a habit, but it's made me recognize a lot more if the gentle nudges we get every day. When we're at peace with ourselves, our companions, the ward, and the Lord, we are guided along the Lord's path without even recognizing it sometimes. It seems so natural to follow the Spirit when you're already trying to go where God wants you to go and say what He wants you to say. It's really a nice thing.

Thanks for all your support everyone! 

Elder Adams

A Three Month Mission

Hey All! 

It's been the best week ever! I know I say that every week, but this week has seriously been above and beyond incredible. It might be heating up here in Bakersfield, but so is the missionary work! 

We had some seriously great lessons this week. We taught the restoration to a lady we've been talking to for a while. She's really great. She grew up RLDS, but left a while after getting married. The restoration was something she really already knew some about, but now we get to teach her about the importance of priesthood authority, and how it can bless her and her late husband.

We also got to teach a super bomb lesson about the gospel of Jesus Christ to a man whose parents are less active members. He's met with missionaries in the past, but it's never really clicked with him until now. We went in intending to teach something different, but the Spirit encouraged us to invite him to be baptized. We did, and while he didn't commit to a date, he still is willing to be baptized at some future time. It sure feels good to follow the Spirit.

We're super excited about next week, because our investigator Roy is getting baptized! It's a big step in his life, and will be a great thing for his family. He's ten, so he's not very hard to teach, but it's still something to be excited about and look forward to!

There were also a couple really cool people out on the street this week who took a little time out of their days to listen to us tell them how the restoration of Christ's gospel can bless their lives. The people we find and talk to now are the ones who will get baptized in June and July, so I've gotta work hard now! My favorite was the woman who asked us if we had Spanish services! I mean, obviously something sounded appealing to her if she would ask that. Her family seemed pretty large too, so hopefully we'll get to teach them some soon! I mean, maybe it'll be Spanish elders, but that's super bomb.

It's been a good week. I feel good. Got the spirit and it's a good thing. We're working really hard to improve on our weaknesses and be obedient, and we're seeing cool stuff. I'm having a lot of fun, which wouldn't happen if not for the Spirit. It's a funny thing- the Holy Ghost changes us and makes the Lord's fun be our fun. It helps that I'm looking at this as a three month mission. My whole mission is only three months, so I have to fit in as much as possible! No time to be trunky! 

Thanks for all your support!

Elder Adams

Fastest Transfer Ever

Hey all!

Sorry for no email last week! It was a crazy day for us and it just kinda didn't end up getting written. That's okay though, because now I get to write some of the highlights of the best two weeks ever. 

First off, transfers are tomorrow! I will be staying this time (thank goodness) and Elder Wright will be leaving to Quartz Hill in my old stomping ground of Lancaster. My new companion will be Elder McEntire, who I've actually served with before! I like the guy, he's cool. This will be his first normal ward in the city though, so it'll be a change of pace for him! 

So a cool thing happened this week, and it's that we had a baptism! Our buddy Adrian made a covenant with God and became a member of the church. It was a really neat experience for everyone there. The baptism itself was very simple, and it was nice. His uncle baptized him, and I got to do the confirmation the next day. He's a good kid, and I'm excited to see his family keep getting more and more active.

We spent lots of time these past couple weeks contacting referrals and potential investigators. Our results have been a pretty mixed bag, haha. No one's gotten angry at us, but we've met a lot of people who have moved and some that became members since they sent the referral! But we did meet a couple really cool new people. Well, we always meet cool new people, but the ones this week were great. One guy had just finished college, and was pretty disillusioned with modern religion. Boy do we have a message for him! 

This transfer flew by so fast. The mission feels like it's been forever, but so short at the same time. Not to say that I'm done! I've got a whole three month mission ahead of me, and we've got a lot of good things going for us in this area! It's gonna be great.

Thanks for all your support!

Elder Adams

Eleventh Hour

Hey everyone!

It's been the best week ever once again! I only have so many more, so I've gotta make them all count.

Honestly it was actually a pretty slow week until Sunday, but that's okay because a whole week's worth of stuff happened this weekend and it makes up for any slowness in the rest of the week.

We've got a baptism coming up this week! It's a neat thing. We're super excited for Adrian to get baptized and for his family to keep becoming more active. In a couple weeks they're moving to another house in the ward, so doing some service to help them with that will give the ward a good chance to get to know the family better. Things are going really well.

On Sunday we got up super early so we could go to ward council and then make sure Adrian was awake afterwards. While we were at church, a member came to us and said "hey I want to introduce you to my friend" which is the best sentence to hear ever. His friend was actually a member though, but his friend's son is ten and not baptized yet, so we need to teach him the lessons since they're just getting back to church. That was a super cool blessing.

All week we'd been struggling to find new people to teach. People just were not talking to us! And it was discouraging! Until Sunday afternoon, when everyone was super awesome and we picked up a couple new people to teach. We had to wait and work all week so we could get the blessings at the end, and sometimes the mission just is that way. It's great though, it's so satisfying to look back and see God's hand in my life and mission.

Not a super long email this week, but really things are going great here. It's been really cool. I love Monica ward and love serving here in Bakersfield.

Thanks for all your support!
Elder Adams


As for pictures this week: words continue to be unable to describe just how beautiful the world can be at times. It's almost a little symbolic- just like we had go wait all day to see the pretty sunset, we had to wait all week to get some good work done.
1. Shout out to Elder Wright for taking this fresh pic of me taking a fresh pic.
2. Panorama if the sunset. Really the lighting was way crazy because there was a lot of dust in the air.
3. That's not even the sun there, just the sun reflecting off the clouds.
4. Barbed wire and palm tree sunset aesthetic.
5. There were these flowering vines that grew from a wall over onto this palm tree and it was seriously so nice looking.

Spring Weather

Hey everyone!

It's been the best week here in Bakersfield! Nice and warm, with some rain at the end. Not that the weather is the most important part, it's just a nice bonus.

So the best news is that Gina got baptized! I wasn't able to be there for it, but that's okay. Just knowing it happened and that she's getting those blessings is so worth it.

Otherwise, we worked a lot. Pretty normal week that way. It's not bad to work, it's still great to be able to testify to people of the wonderful truths that we have. It just leads to less fun stories for my email when we don't have a lot of crazy experiences. Not every week can be incredibly entertaining, but every week can still indeed be the best. To make it up to y'all though, I made sure to get some pictures this week.

I'm really glad to be able to come to church every Sunday and partake of the sacrament. I feel like I talk about that a lot, but it's because it's really important to me. To have that time every week to renew our covenants with God and come closer to the Savior is a really precious thing. We can feel so much peace at church, with the Spirit teaching and encouraging us. I know it's easy to get wrapped up in our responsibilities there at times, but it's important to make the most of the wonderful gift we've been given and strive to remember Jesus Christ and become more like him.

Thank you for all your support!
Elder Adams


1: some graffiti in our area that I love.
2: a panorama of (mostly) our area. It's actually huge. We cover part of Bakersfield, a couple smaller towns, and a bunch of empty space going way out to the mountains.
3: excellent prop for our photo shoot.

The Most Important Week Ever

Hey everyone!

It's been the best week ever! The week of General Conference is always really cool, especially on the mission. I love getting to hear instructions from the prophets and apostles.

This week was pretty cool for us, we got to teach some really great lessons to our investigators, and set several of them with baptism dates. We retaught the restoration to one guy, and he thought it was so cool. He had heard it before, but understood it a lot better this time. He told us that he was really pumped about the gospel and learning whether the Book of Mormon is true or not.

We got a referral from some Spanish missionaries for a kid in our area who has been taught almost everything, but had been going to the Spanish ward with his grandma. She moved though, and he really only speaks English, so they felt like it would be better for him to come to our ward. We got to sit down and teach him too, and he's so ready! He loves the church, even though he couldn't understand much, and he knows what he's been taught really well. We're super excited to help him make a covenant with God, and hope it'll help get his family more active in the church.

Oh boy, what a conference that was! It was so exciting! I love seeing these kinds of things happen, we might have solidly established doctrine, but changes and advancements in the organization that is the church to help us fulfill our purpose are so cool to see. It's evidence to me that the kingdom of God is really governed by "revelation adapted to the circumstances in which the children of the kingdom are placed." We've got a prophet who cares a lot about us and the church, and loves the Savior and follows His example. Isn't that the neatest thing?

I loved when Elder Uchtdorf talked about what the most important day is,and how for each of us it is the day we commit to follow the Savior and try to repent. Wouldn't it follow that the most important day is also the best day? Even more evidence that every week is the best week ever, because every week I'm trying harder to follow my Redeemer. What a wonderful opportunity! I also really appreciated Bishop Causse's story about his objectives as a stake president. I'd love to have great numerical success. But it's really about individuals. I've come to really learn that on my mission. Related shout-out to Elder Simpson and Elder Coburn, commenting on stuff on Facebook and trying to make me cry because they're so nice. I'm so grateful to have met so many awesome people here, and I hope I've touched their lives a fraction of how they've touched mine.

Thank you for all your support!
Elder Adams

California, Finally

Hey everyone!

It's been the best week ever out here in beautiful Bakersfield. It is actually really pretty right now, the weather has been really nice and everything is (kinda) green. I guess it'll be back to brown when I leave, but I'm enjoying it for now. This is what I thought California would be like! It finally feels like it, twenty months in, haha. I'm enjoying it a lot.

Monica is a cool area. I'm finally back in the city, and there are so many people here! It's a really busy part of town. We cover the English work out in Arvin and Lamont, too, so part of the area has more of a small town vibe. It's cool.

We've got a lot of awesome investigators and recent converts here, it's awesome. It's been a crazy week, lots of us running around meeting everyone and trying to squeeze lessons in where we could. One of the really awesome investigators we have has been meeting with missionaries for a while now and is really ready to get baptized, her boyfriend just needs to marry her already! Another one was introduced to the church by his girlfriend, but she goes to the Spanish branch and he doesn't speak Spanish, so we're teaching him. The work here is going so well, it's incredible.

We got to spend a little time meeting all the missionaries in the district and zone, too. I hardly know anyone anymore, haha. I was out in the middle of nowhere for so long, I never met anyone new! It's cool though. Our district has the missionaries in the YSA ward here in Bakersfield and the sisters in Tehachapi, so we're all doing missionary work in different ways because our areas are so incredibly different. That's okay though, it's all the same work at the end of the day, and we all get to see such incredible blessings from it.

At some point in the last year I stopped worrying about being a bad missionary. Not sure when that was. It's not like I'm not trying, I really am. But I just don't worry and think that I'm not cut out for this anymore or that I can't do it. I think I just do my best to follow the Spirit and trust that God will put me where I need to be to help Him in His work. It's really nice, having that trust in Him. It takes a huge load off of me. It didn't happen fast either! It happened so slowly that the change had already happened before I noticed. I'm really glad it did though. When we're really trying, God does His work and we get to be a part of it and it's so so cool.

Thanks for all your support, everyone!
Elder Adams.

Pic 3: Adios, Cal City!
Pic 2: The south side of the mission does not have a monopoly on crazy sunsets.
Pic 1: The awesome ramen from last week. 10/10 would eat again.
Pic 4: Excuse my squinty eyes. The sun was very bright. The background was too good to pass up though. That's what it looks like (on days where you can see the mountains.)

Little Bit Of Monica In My Life

Hey everyone!

It's been the best week ever, even if it's the last one with Elder Simpson. I'll miss him, because transfers have rolled around again, and I'll be leaving California City to head back to Bakersfield!  I'm going to Monica ward, and my companion will be Elder Wright, who came into the mission at the same time as elder Simpson. The ward is in east Bakersfield, making Ridgecrest the only zone I haven't been to yet. I'm pretty excited to be back in town, even though I've loved it here. Our district is only sisters besides us, so it'll be quite the change of pace!

We had a really busy week, getting ready for transfers and going on exchanges. It was really wild.We first went on exchanges down in Lancaster with the Zone Leaders. We went down the night before so that we could start then, President wanted us to try something new. We didn't have dinner that day though, so we stopped by a sushi place in Lancaster and got to do a little bit of missionary work while we were there. There was some live music, and one of the band members was pretty surprised to see us, so he asked us some questions and then played us a song. It was pretty cool.

The elder I was on exchanges with was recovering from an illness and surgery, but we still manages to get out and work for a little while, which was cool. We spent a while talking to a couple of guys in front of someone's house about Christ and His Atonement and what it does for us. In the end they weren't that willing to listen, but it was a good conversation. While we were talking though, a B2 flew right over head! It was flying so low, it was incredible. I wanted to take a picture but I didn't want to be rude, so that's why there's not a picture of it for y'all this week :/

We had exchanges with the elders on Rosamond, too. They're great missionaries, so it's always really fun to worn with them. I was here in town with Elder Busdicker, and we had a great time finding new people and getting in contact with a couple former investigators. Even having been here for six months, there are still a ton of people I've never met. We were trying to co tact a potential investigator at one point, but she'd moved, so we just talked to the woman there. Turns out, not only had she met with missionaries before, the elder I was with haf actually taught her on an exchange in Lancaster! It was cool to see how God really watches over each and every one of his children.

I've had some ups and downs in this area, but it's been a great time overall. Really, if I've learned anything here, it's been about happiness. So much in life is out of our control. God's given us the capacity to chose our responses, though. We can train ourselves to respond positively to circumstances through practice and the influence of the Spirit. Lasting joy and satisfaction really do come from the gospel of Jesus Christ and by playing our parts in His kingdom. Having that consistent purpose and drive has made me such a cheerful person. I can't even tell you. I'm so grateful to have spent this part of mission here, and I'm excited to see what the future holds for me in my new area.

Thank you for all your support!
Elder Adams

The Crazy Thing Is, It's All True

Hey everyone!

It might be one of my last weeks here in Cal City, (that autocompleted to Calgary, oops) so we've been working hard and have made the best of it. It's been the best week yet!

This week we had exchanges again with the North Edwards elders. We didn't end up having very much time, but one of the people we got to visit was a potential investigator who we got to teach about the restoration. It was awesome! It helped her feel like God really cared about her, because she'd been struggling recently. It's always nice to be able to do that for someone.

The next day we did some service out there in North Edwards. That's what the picture was- Elder Bird and I digging up a flower bed to put down some deer fence to keep gophers out. What the picture didn't show was the other half that we also had to dig up after we filled the first part in! That's alright though, we don't get to do too much service in our area, so it was a nice change of pace.

I also got to do the baptism interviews for a couple the Rosamond elders have been teaching. Wow was that cool.  It was so spiritual and so neat to hear them talk about the changes in their lives made possible by Christ's Atonement. The baptism on Saturday was really a special experience. Ordinances bring the power of God into our lives, and help us become more like Christ. It's so cool to be able to see that happen.

Because of what we've learned about teaching from the Book of Mormon and having more spiritual lessons, we made sure to plan really well for a lesson we had with an investigator on base on Saturday. She's read a lot of the book of Mormon, but always found it kinda dry, and while she's softened to it a lot, she still has a lot of doubts. We felt inspired to teach her about how we come closer to Christ through faith and repentance, and what the Book of Mormon teaches about that. It was so so cool. I wasn't sure how we were going to get to the invitation, but the Spirit was so strong and it gave us the words to say. She definitely felt the Spirit too, so when we invited her to read the Book of Mormon to come closer to God, she realized that might help her really find her answer- if it draws you closer to God, it has to be inspired of Him. I was so grateful we'd prepared and were able to help her understand why we are here.

As for the title of this email, the general over the air force test center talked in our ward, and used Star Wars as an analogy for several gospel subjects! It was a really great talk, bug it's hard not to laugh a little about it. I liked how he compared skeptical Han Solo to people now- they too can be brought around to realizing that "the crazy thing is, it's all true. All of it." I've really come to understand the gospel better on my mission, and I'm proud to say that I know it is true as well. The Atonement of Christ, the Book of Mormon, eternal families- they're all real. I'm so grateful to know all this, and hope that I'll be able to use what time I have left to share it with more people!

Thank you for all your support!
Elder Adams

Not Even We Get Nice Weather

Hey everyone!

Despite the weather (though I'm sure everyone else's was much worse), we've had a good week out here in California City, California! Actually, it's been the best week yet!

We got to go on exchanges with the Rosamond elders earlier this week (love those guys) and we had an incredible time. It's the first time I've hit our finding goal on exchanges in a good long while, so that was really fun. It's so satisfying to testify to people of the great things we have and to see them react positively. I can't wait to see some of them progress :)

The next morning we helped someone move. It was a stressful morning though, because a plumber was supposed to be coming around 9, and by the time we had to leave (11 or so) he still hadn't come! And we really needed to get our sink fixed. It was a Problem. So we went and helped a lady move into Mojave, ended our exchange, and came back unto town. We got back just in time to see the plumber about to drive away after finding us not at home! So we were still able to get our sink fixed. God's looking out for us by helping us get home at just the right time, even if the plumber is late.

We also got to have interviews with our mission president this week. Since one of our zone leaders is in the hospital (a story for some other time), he had some extra time and called our whole district in. He shared some really powerful thoughts about teaching repentance and expressed how proud he and the Lord are of the work we do. Sometimes it feels like the stuff we do out here in the Muroc district goes unnoticed, which is fine-tune kingdom is run by thousands of people quietly serving with no thought of recognition. It was nice to have that reassurance, though. It was a very sacred experience for me.

The Atonement of Christ really is the secret to happiness. If I've learned anything, it's that. I'm happy now! I think it shows through in my letters. I hope so. Not that I wasn't before, but there's just something so satisfying about knowing my Savior and growing closer to Him. It's nourishment for the soul. More than transient excitement, more than brief pleasure, knowing what I know and trying to live as He lived gives me such joy and fulfillment. We can have a bad day, but every week us the best week because I get to take the sacrament and encourage others to make and keep covenants with the Lord. I don't worry about being imperfect anymore, because I know we all can be someday. Maybe not right this minute, but just like a parent is proud of a baby's first steps, Heavenly Father is proud of our most simple, inadequate efforts, and helps us- even when we're not perfect. Truly, we can hope for a better world through Christ.

Thank you for all your support!
Elder Adams

Pic 1: A brief break from cloudy skies.
Pic 2: Not my glasses (but aren't I handsome??)
Pic 3: Bros before snows (he's so far from Canada, the poor boy)