"You Guys Still Come Around Here?"

Hey everyone!

It's been the best week ever out here in the great Muroc ward. Still the happiest person in the whole town, haha.

We were walking in a trailer park on the outskirts of town and a lady pointed her head out her window and called out to us : "you guys still come around here??" yes ma'am! "you really think you're gonna change anyone's minds out here?" Yes. I don't think I've ever said anything with such conviction as that yes. I was so entirely certain, and still am. She said "wow you guys are determined. Have a nice day, you wonderful people." she went back inside, but oh boy did we feel motivated after that.

This week was otherwise really cool but not super productive for our area. I'm sure God understands though. This week we got smartphones, Facebook, and we went on exchanges with the zone leaders down in Lancaster. It was real fun, and we're seeing a lot of great stuff for the future, but this week was mostly setup. This coming week though? Gonna be super sick. We'll baptize some people yet in this area!

Elder Simpson and I felt inspired to read the Book of Mormon together during companion study this coming week. We think it will help us be spiritually revitalized and focus more, so we're really excited. Reading on your own is awesome, so how much better is reading the book of Mormon with others?? We read with our investigators, why not with members and with each other? The seeds of my testimony began with family scripture study. My appreciation for it has grown so much since I've been missing it, but I'm so very grateful to be able to share the wonderful blessings I've seen from it with other families. Props to my wonderful parents for going through so much effort to get us to read.

Some days it feels so gloomy, like the world is about ready to be swept off. There's just so much wickedness out there! But there's an awful lot of good, too. There hasn't been any more in the history of the world. We can hope for a bright, eternal future with our families because of the atonement of Jesus Christ. So yes, we do still come around here. There are souls to be saved, and while we might not be able to convince anyone ourselves, our message has something special to it. This is the true church of Jesus Christ - that's why we're here to tell everyone about it. It is not the license to sin, but the truth that will set men free.

Thank you all for your support and prayers!
Elder Adams

The Way Life Is

Hey everyone!

It's been the best week ever. Full of life, the way it's meant to be lived.

We knocked on a lot of doors this week. Sweated some (the sun is really hot, even if the weather has been nice.) Talked to a bunch of people. Some of them were kinda interested. It feels good to testify to them and promise blessings, even if they don't accept right away.

We were expecting a really good week at church today. Like a REALLY good week. Gina was out of town this week, so we couldn't meet with her, but she was planning on being back by Sunday so she could come to church. The part-member family we're teaching on base was planning on coming. Members from our ward AND from other wards were going to bring friends to our ward. We met one less-active earlier this week whose first words to us were "Ah right, I do need to come back to church, don't I?" We were going to meet with another less-actiive girl earlier in the week, but the appointment fell through, but then we saw her while we were walking around on Saturday and she told us she'd be at church. Also, the member whose car got stolen was planning on getting a new one this week and bringing her non-member brother who likes our church a lot.

No one came. Gah!

It was frustrating! We put in a lot of work this week in helping people get to church, and none of them came! I'll admit, I was stewing a little bit. I felt about as deflated as a balloon from a birthday party that ended up behind a couch for three weeks, you know what it looks like. But our high priests group leader gave a really good talk in sacrament meeting about how trials are a part of life, and if we just look at them as part of life then we will be able to endure and even enjoy them. Now we've got a busy week ahead of us, following up with all these people! It's just the way that life is that some of them couldn't come and the rest chose not too, but there was a time granted unto men to repent. Not just one week, but a whole lifetime.

Another important thing we learned from this was about our motivations. Talking about it after church, Elder Simpson and I were frustrated the most not because we were embarrassed that people didn't come, or that our numbers wouldn't look as good, but that these people weren't going to get the spiritual boost and renewal from coming to church and partaking of the sacrament. There are such cool blessings, and if they don't come they don't get them! We're really excited to be able to work to help all our investigators and members that we're working with obtain some of the wonderful things God has in store for them.

One scripture I really liked this week is from Jacob 5.22: "And the Lord of the vineyard said unto him: Counsel me not; I knew that it was a poor spot of ground; wherefore, I said unto thee, I have nourished it this long time, and thou beholdest that it hath brought forth much fruit."

We're in a desolate little bit of the world here! And there wasn't too much going on for a long time, but there were really good missionaries here and they worked hard, so now the Muroc district vineyard is starting to bring forth some pretty sick fruit. We might not have had as good of a Sunday, but the other missionaries here had awesome weeks, so we're excited for them and excited for what's going to be happening in our area.

Also, Gina might still be getting baptized in late February or early March! She said that if it's too long to wait for her boyfriend to be able to travel here to baptize her, she just wants to be baptized by someone else. Either way, we're excited :)

Thanks for all your support!

"I desire to dwell among this people...

...for a time; yea, and perhaps until the day I die." The Spirit may call me another way later, but I'm spending another six weeks here in Cal City with my favorite Cal City Boy, Elder Simspon!

I say every week has been the best week ever, but seriously- this has been the best week. We are so excited. You know how everything bad always seems to happen at once? That's this, but with good things.

So first- Gina. She was at church! It was so cool, and she even brought her son. He hadn't been to church before, so it was really good. Her boyfriend wants to be there to baptize her, so we had to push her date back a little, but that's okay, it's just icing on the cake that he wants to be there.

We had exchanges with the Rosamond elders again this week, and right at the end of our exchange, we got a text. It was a referral for a family that moved onto the base a while ago from Alaska, and the wife is not a member and has met with the missionaries in the past. So of course we had to set something up with them. They are the nicest people, oh my goodness. She likes the church a lot, and they should be there this coming Sunday.

We had an appointment with someone at a member's house fall through earlier in the week, but then the member texted us and told us that an acquaintance of theirs wants to come to church. Then we heard about the same person from a totally different member, and about how plans had already been made for who she was going with and how she'd have a friend there who normally goes to another ward. Wow.

The second counselor in the Bishopric here came to us and told us "I think this is the most exciting time for missionaries in Muroc ward in... well, ever." It seriously is. I'm having so much dang fun here, it's incredible. Things are just kinda happening... we have no way of working on base and the members have a lot of restrictions, so I guess Heavenly Father has decided to intervene and touch some hearts that we can't.

We had a really incredible thing happen on Sunday. We had a really spiritual comp study, talking about what Christ told to the Nephites after all the destruction in 3 Nephi 9. He's so tender and kind and just really wants the people left to repent and partake of the blessings He is extending. We really felt the Spirit strong, and I got to share a little bit about it in fast and testimony meeting. It really touched a member who'd just gotten home off a deployment and hadn't been too active while he was gone, but he really felt spiritually refreshed and thanked us and bore his testimony, which was something we needed to hear too. We can see the hand of God moving here, creating ways where there were none and bringing about the salvation of His children.

Six months left doesn't feel like long enough.

Thanks for all your support everyone!
Elder Adams