February 25, 2019 - Rose Park Zone, SLC, UT

The weather has been crazy here, it can't make up its mind, some days warm and sunny, other days, cold and snowing. This last week was a quick blur. Lots of good things happened. We had a lot of really good lessons, spread out at random times, and lots of 1 hour blocks where we would just go and try to find more people to teach. It felt really good to just be focused so much on finding. Not too much success with that yet, but surely it will come. 

Saturday was crazy. We started off quick with helping at a stake activity with some non members, then setting up for the baptism. We had to get clothing for the baptism, have a lesson, and then fill the baptismal font. Then, Ice got baptized! It was an incredible experience, he was so prepared and so happy. Afterwards, we had to reset everything for another baptism, which included getting towels from a different location. Dinner eventually happened, but by then the evening was over, so we just quickly invited as many people to church as we could. It was a fun day. 

Sunday we had a powerful sacrament meeting. All of the speakers cancelled that morning, so the Bishop pulled new speakers together quickly. Here is how it went: First, Ice was confirmed a member and given the Gift of the Holy Ghost. Then we had the sacrament. Then, a girl who had served in Elder Saltzman's home ward and had taught his mom and sister shared that experience with the ward. A returned missionary spoke, then a semi recent convert who had his parents in town to get sealed to them Tuesday, and his parents, who are 1 year members, spoke. And then my companion Elder Saltzman shared his testimony of missionary work, and how grateful he is for the gospel. It was all very powerful. 

We are excited for all the good this week will bring!

I love you all so much!

Elder Adams 

February 18, 2019 - Rose Park Zone, SLC, UT

Good Morning!

The missionary contact changes are quite something. I 100% sustain them, and agree that it will bless loads of lives and families. I will for sure keep the emails coming, and think it would be cool to call every once and a while, I'll let you know before I do. But for Heidi's birthday, I will absolutely call that day! Another thought for it, when is spring break or other days the kids have Mondays off? That way everyone can be home. Also, I'm sure I'll call sometime to talk about college things as we need to discuss more whenever that may be….it will be really good. 

I too am very glad to have a Living Prophet on earth today. It alleviates so much confusion that others in this world deal with because they have no authority from God in their lives. I was so happy to see that picture of T and her new baby! My heart is so full of joy knowing that she is still so faithful in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and will be forever! I am grateful for the knowledge we share that our families can be together forever. 

This last week was a blast. Some weeks you are really tired all week, and this was one of those. Therefore, I had to rely more so on the Savior to sustain me, which allowed the Spirit to be at the helm. It was great. I had the opportunity to fast twice this week for specific missionaries and people they are teaching. I know that the Lord recognizes our sacrifices to come unto Him, and rewards us openly and bountifully. It was amazing to see miracles come to pass for the people we prayed and fasted for. My relationship with the Savior grew so much this week, and culminated with taking the Sacrament on Sunday. It was a powerful experience to renew the promises I have made at baptism and in the temple, and receive forgiveness and a clean slate. To be able to have this powerful, personal experiences, and then immediately go out and testify of Christ has been such an amazing experience. I know without a doubt that God wants us all to have these witnesses from the Holy Ghost that teach us of His love for us. That's why he has provided a Prophet. That's why we have the Book of Mormon. We are promised that if we act on these things we have received, and pray unto Our Father in Heaven, He will tell us the truth.

Some of those miracles we saw this week included:

We had a lesson on Saturday, and because of the unique knowledge of the guy we were teaching, we weren't sure what to teach. We went into the lesson hesitantly, but after we opened with prayer, our mouths were filled and it was an extremely powerful lessons. Sunday night we were trying to find someone new to teach. We were receiving a lot of rude answers and slammed doors. Finally, we visited some member guys to ask one about a classmate, and another guy had a friend over who we started talking to. She was not a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but had met with missionaries previously. We talked about her experience, and should meet up with her again this week!

Another miracle was with our Tongan YSA ward. We have really felt that it has some potential, and just hasn't been worked enough in the past, so we are reaching out to them. Just in this week, we have heard discussion of almost a dozen names of people we could potentially began teaching in their community. The work is exploding!

On an exchange, the elder and I hopped on the Trax, and rode for 2 hours, talking to everyone that looked YSA. It was really fun, and cool to meet all kinds of people. We placed a few BOMs, and got some contact info for some people. 

The Tongan YSA ward is fun, and extremely spiritual. We ate with them this last week, and I am still full from the first dinner, plus all the other ones on top. It is a blast. 

I am grateful to be serving here, it was truly an inspired call and assignment.  

I love you loads Mom! Thanks for the random advice, it is always applicable!

I love you Dad! Ofa atu teti!

Elder Adams

February 11, 2019 - Rose Park Zone, SLC, UT

My birthday was great! I was able to preach the gospel all day! That's fun you fed the missionaries that day, always such a blessing!

Alright, so I am in Rose Park area now. I am still a zone leader, now of the Rose Park Zone. My area is a YSA area, I cover 5 wards in the Pioneer YSA Stake, the Capital Hill YSA, Rose Park YSA, Cannon YSA, City Creek 2nd, and Salt Lake 2nd wards. It is quite a change. We live at about 400 North and 300 W, so down the street from the Jazz, the Capital building, and a quick walk away from Temple Square (though we always drive).

This area has been struggling to get missionary work going for a while, so it has been very cool to get to work. My new companion is Elder Saltzman. He is from Montana, and goes home at the end of April. He knows the area, and how to work well with YSAs, and we are seeing miracles every day. So I'm going to share at least one from each day this week: 

Monday- I got assigned to be with Elder Saltzman. This is the third time I have followed him to a new zone in a row, finally we are together.

Tuesday- Things just took off. We went out with a returned missionary and tried to contact some people. We ran into half a dozen people interested in the gospel, it was amazing to testify to them.

Wednesday- We left an hour early for MLC because of the snow, but then the meeting got delayed an hour, so we stopped for breakfast at Einstein bagels. The owner ended up giving us 4 dozen bagels for the meeting. Then, that evening we had a lesson. The guy we were teaching had been invited to pray about baptism, and as we talked he shared his experience. At one point Elder Saltzman prompted him to share if he got an answer, and the young man said, "Yes, I got my answer. I know I need to be baptized." We are excited for him!

Thursday- Even more miracles! At our meeting on Wednesday, President Hillier instructed Elder Saltzman and I to put the pedal to the floor. So that's what we did. We have taught all of our lessons at the LDSBC and temple square, and Thursday night we spent all evening at temple square. We had a first lesson with a young man who has been pretty anti in the past, and finally felt like he needed to talk. It was a miracle too that as we talked, two members of his YSA ward happened to walk by and join the lesson. 

Friday- We ran around all morning and accomplished so much good contacting. At one door, the guy opened it as we walked up, and we set up a lesson and took out his trash in less than 2 mins. That night, we again met with the gentleman from the night before, and he got so excited learning about church history as we toured the church history museum.

Saturday- We had an amazing lesson with a girl. She wants to be baptized super bad. It was the best birthday present ever, to invite someone to be baptized, have them say yes, and help them select a date for it to happen.

Sunday- We had lots of great people at church. Then, we got to go to the institute building at the University of Utah and listen to President Ballard. That was really awesome.

In short, this week has been insane! I love it so much! I am so happy to be out here serving the Lord!

February 4, 2019 - Midvale, UT

February already! I can't believe it. Ha, ha I'm more excited to get the box from you all than I am to turn 20 on Saturday! We are stopping by the office later, I will confirm that I got it. I am grateful to be your kid. We see lots of examples as missionaries, not only for magnifying callings, but also parenting. Comparing the good and bad leads to random discussions of how we may parent. And to be completely honest, I'll say that I want to parent a certain way, and then realize that that is exactly how you and Dad raised us. Kind of funny to see, but makes me appreciate how much work and love you guys put into us kids. So thank you. I'm glad Fed-ex dropped me off. 😉

So, this week was a great last week here in the Holladay North and South Stakes! I have absolutely loved this are so much! But sadly, I am getting transferred. We went on two back-to-back 24 hour exchanges this week, with the assistants to the president, and one of our district leaders. It was amazing to have the opportunity to learn from both missionaries, to be able to teach and both be edified, and become better missionaries. I have known one of the elders for my whole mission, he came out just before me and I’ve always looked up to him, but we had never done an exchange together yet. It was amazing to see him in action, and to learn so much about how Christlike attributes effective missionary service. 

Elder Rhodes and I had a great weekend together. We had a baptism! Attilio is the coolest 9 yr old in the world, and he was so excited to be baptized he almost just dived into the font before the service started! It was a great way to finish off an amazing time in what might be my favorite area so far. I am excited to see what else the Lord has in store for me over these last 4 transfers. 

Love,

Elder Adams 

Tio's baptism pics: