December 26, 2017 - Murray, UT

Hello! 

This week has been an awesome, hard working week! We spent a lot of time out serving, knocking on doors, and spreading some Christmas cheer. At this time of year many people think about all of the material gifts we have and are given. I have often reflected on spiritual gifts, and would like to share some thoughts. I recently finished reading the Book of Mormon again, and in the last chapter, Moroni 10, it talks of spiritual gifts. (Moroni 10:6-20.) We are all given a variety of gifts and talents. It becomes each of our own responsibility to develop these talents. In verse 20 it speaks of charity. We show charity by helping others and reaching out in love. Using and developing our talents to bless other's lives is truly why we are given so much. I love to help others, and I know by turning outward to focus on others I will grow better inside. I love Jesus Christ and all He does for each one of us. May we remember Him and His sacrifice as we start a new year in search of the joy that comes from loving others.

Love you all!

Elder Adams

p.s. The pics are our Christmas tree, it was awesome. And some snow, and some tracting fun. 

December 18, 2017 - Murray, UT

This week has been interesting with lots of highs and lots of lows. On Tuesday I got assigned to, and now have the opportunity to train Elder Larsen. He is from Preston, Idaho, and is visa-waiting to go to the Philippines. He is learning Tagolog, and is a hard working missionary. One of the first things we do as a new companionship is to set some goals together, and then set plans on how to achieve them. So we set some high goals, and then got to work. It was awesome. 

Wednesday we had the Mission Christmas devotional. We got to first enjoy an hour of listening to Kenneth Cope. That was incredible. Then Tad R. Callister, Sunday School General President, came and spoke with us for about 45 mins. That was also incredible. It was so cool to hear from them, and hear their testimonies. I would encourage you all to look up and listen to President Callister's last conference talk on lds.org, he absolutely rocked that.

Saturday came, and Elder Larsen and I got sick somehow. Not a very productive day, but we jumped right back into work Sunday morning. We spoke in a ward, and I got to speak for over 20 mins, which was really fun. I had only prepared not even 10 minutes, but it went just fine, the Spirit filled my mouth. 

Very excited to have a fresh, full week to work and help people come unto Christ! Being a missionary is awesome, and at Christmas time even more so. As a representative of Jesus Christ people notice we are different, which brings lots of great conversations. 

Well, this has been a truly incredible 5 months, I am pumped for the next 19!

Hope you all are well!

Love,

Elder Adams

December 11, 2017 - Murray, UT

So another transfer is coming to a close, and Sunday morning we received the transfer  on who stays and who leaves. I will remain here in Murray with the Little Cottonwood and South Cottonwood Stakes for another transfer. Elder Fisher is off to other things in a new area which he will learn of tonight. It has been a blast to serve with him, he is an excellent missionary and I know he will do great wherever the Lord sends him.

Last Monday after we emailed we went down to see temple square and took some pictures. There is a wonderful Spirit there, it is so great to see the beauty and peace the gospel of Jesus Christ brings. 

A fun tracting story: we offered service to some people and this lady needed one of here gutters cleaned because it was clogged up and causing a leak in her house. So up the ladder I went to chisel away at the solid dirt packed ice. That was pretty fun. (Note: Elder Adams does not like heights, so I’m sure that was a challenge for him.)

We have just been working hard here, it has truly been amazing. I love being a missionary so much, it is an incredible experience. I was able to watch the First Presidency's Christmas Devotional, and it was awesome! Elder Duncan is a really cool guy. I've met him before, and he actually came to our mission for the mission tour in October. I loved Sister Franco's talk on the gifts we can give; I invite all to truly give of their best self to others this Christmas season. 

I have come so much closer to my Older Brother and Savior Jesus Christ. I love Him, and am thankful for all He did for me and you. Remember His humble beginnings this time of year, and humble yourself to His will. 

Stay warm, it is starting to get colder here!

Love y'all! 

Elder Adams

        

December 4, 2017 - Murray, UT

Hello again! It feels like I just emailed yesterday, but so much has happened this week, so it feels like it's been two weeks! 

We have been working hard every week, but because we knew p-day was just a few days later. I hardly remember everything we did, but we taught lots of lessons, knocked lots of doors, and tried to help as many people as we could with the gospel of Jesus Christ. 

We have Facebook, and that has been both weird and a blessing. We are really only ever on messenger. On Friday one investigator after another cancelled….four total. The 4th one called earlier in the day, and was super sick. We were bummed because we were going to invite her to be baptized with that lesson, and we felt she was progressing and ready. We were watching some more Facebook training videos, and came across one about doing lessons over messenger. So we did one, and it was amazing. We were able to discuss with each other all the things we needed to say, and answer a lot of questions. She even practically taught us the Plan of Salvation, God's plan for each of us to gain eternal life and happiness and live with Him again. We also invited her to be baptized, and she accepted for a date later this month! It was incredible to see the Lord's hand blessing us with technology. 

So we walk everywhere. It is really awesome. The weather has been nice. Yesterday was beautiful, and we stepped into a church building to call some ward mission leaders, and 20 minutes later we went outside and it was snowing and freezing cold. So of course, we went and tracted more. It was awesome. Nothing stuck, but we woke up this morning to a little snow. I love it. If you look at the light in one picture, you can see it is still snowing. Excellent. 

One more fun thing from the week, we were able to go with a recent convert to the LDS Genesis Group. They are an African American group that holds monthly firesides on the first Sunday evening. They have a gospel choir and a keynote speaker each month. It was really cool because they held their Christmas program last night, so the keynote speaker was the Unity Gospel Choir led by Debra Bonner. It was held at a stake center just like 100 meters from where our area ends, and we had no idea about it. So we had to go! It was really different, but awesome. Look them up, it is really neat. Yahosh Bonner was there singing, and he is a very well-known LDS singer, so Elder Fisher and I enjoyed that. 

Things are going great here, love you all!

Love,

Elder Adams