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)

Transfer 14, Week III: Revenge of the Sick

Hey everybody!

Don't let the title fool you, it has definitely been the best week. I'm just sick again, for the third time in two months, and it'd be really comical if not that I felt so bad ;P

Seriously great week though. We went on exchanges with the North Edwards elders and had a lot of fun having them around and getting a bunch of work done. The next morning we helped them do some service- cleaning out a garage and moving some trees. Normal stuff.

We also had to drive all the way down to Lancaster to get our car serviced. We got there and the guy told us "Yeah sorry we're behind because our compressors weren't working this morning." Oh. Okay. Yeah I mean I guess we have to wait. It was alright though- smartphones mean we can even use that time productively.

The rest of the week was super bomb for finding, seriously. It was so so cool. We've got a million and one potential investigators and referrals that are in the computer that we didn't know about until now, so we've been stopping by them and trying to meet them. Some of them have moved, and others aren't interested. Some of them are though, and that's really neat. We met a really awesome gal named Jasmine. She's really interested because there are a lot of members on her mom's side of the family, but she wasn't raised around them so she's not as familiar with what we believe, but she wants to know more. There were also a couple people we talked to when the person we were looking for wasn't there who I really thought were just going to shoo us away, but they invited us in! How kind! It's so good to be able to share the wonderful truths we have with people, especially about the Book of Mormon.

We've been trying to figure out a good way to have our coordination meeting with the ward, and a member of the bishopric asked us if we could just take a little time in ward council instead of having a separate meeting. Since only so much of the information we talk about in the meetings we have actually gets to the ward council, yes we'd absolutely love to go. Hopefully we'll get to- it'd really help us work more closely with the ward.

The work here is so great. Really California City is desolate, miserable place. Not happy at all. But! The people are worth so so much to God, and so they're worth a lot to me. I really like the ward here, and want it to grow. I've been in this area for the longest out of any one of my mission, and couldn't be anywhere longer with the time I've got left. I've seen so many great things here, I really love it. I can't believe I didn't want to go to this area at first, it's been my favorite. God's got big things in mind for every single person on earth, and He certainly sees a lot further than we do. I'm truly grateful that I have the chance to serve Him and the people here. It's the most fulfilling thing I've ever done.

Thank you for all your support!
Elder Adams