Gina Update: Jan 29

Hey Everyone!

This week has been out of sight! Far enough out that I can conclude that it's been the best ever.

I have CRAZY news! Quote from the to-everyone email from President Layton:
" Big News –
In the summer, our mission boundaries will grow as we take on two more stakes! We currently have 7 stakes and we will expand to include two more stakes in the LA County area to bring our total stakes to 9. This will happen in July. More details will follow as they unfold.
The kingdom is on the move and it is exciting to have a front row seat to how the Lord is directing His work here."
WOW. And I'll see it for maybe two months ;P

I got sick again. Darnit. It's not too bad, just obnoxious. I should be better tomorrow. Also, transfers are coming up next week, so ya'll will get to hear what's happening to me next Monday. Scary! I hope we don't leave- I'm having a great time out here. I'm the happiest person to live in California City, that's a good incentive to not transfer me, right?

The fun thing about when someone is getting close to baptism is that they seem to become the center of your world. Like every day it's "she's on date! What do we need to do today to help her get there??" It's so fun. That also means that I don't have many things in the way of exciting news besides about Gina and her baptism date.

We're having a baptism on the 24th of February! Really I don't think anything can get in the way. We had an incredible lesson with Gina this past week, and we were able to set a day for her to be baptized on. She said something about getting baptized on her birthday at first, so we asked "when's your birthday?" "August." The member with us saved us from having to say the obvious: That's too far away! They started talking about doing it around Easter, but since we went over the questions and she knows pretty much everything, she decided that February would be good. We're really excited!

We also had a really great lesson this week with an investigator named Emily. She made us cookies! But that's not why the lesson was great. She opened up to us about why she hadn't really been active in any church for a long time- the idea of a physical resurrection is hard for her to wrap her head around. She's not the first person to feel that way, the original Apostles didn't get it at first, either. So we're going to help her gain a witness that Christ is the Lord through the Holy Ghost, just like it says in Corinthians. It's so satisfying to have people to meet with and to help resolve their concerns.

During interviews this week, President Layton encouraged us to really plan specifically by the Spirit so that we can find more people to teach. While we haven't found anyone yet, we've gotten to experience one of my favorite missionary feelings- when you're knocking on doors and things aren't even going well but you're really enjoying it anyway. When we do what God asks us to do, it's hard to be in a bad mood about it! I'm confident that we'll be able to be guided to new people to teach this coming week, and that we'll be able to see more cool miracles happen.

Thanks for all your support!
Elder Adams