Hey Mom!
I have plenty of time on my preparation day to email if you'd like to just email instead of physical mail me now, so its up to you! First off, yes I did get all THREE packages. Wow. I did not expect so much and look forward to opening those packages tomorrow. Thank you so much! As far as calling home is concerned, we're planning on about 1pm here, so I think that is like 10am there? We can't skype because we're not allowed to use members' computers so maybe by Mother's Day or something it'll change! Also! Whenever anyone writes me make sure they send it to the mission home or mission office (whichever was in the packet) instead of to my current address. That's just something we've been asked to do. Also, also. Make sure you address things to me with my first and last name. There are THREE Elder Adams serving in North Carolina and they just forward to mail to wherever we're at and have to just try their best to guess which is which.
I'll certainly write Elder Bishop today. I love that Elder and he'll be a wonderful missionary so thank you for letting me know how he's doing.
I love it here. I'm really not homesick, though tomorrow (Christmas) I'll probably be feeling a little bit of it. I just know this is exactly where I'm supposed to be. I'm supposed to be with Elder Johnson. I'm supposed to be in Kinston. And I'm supposed to be here with these amazing people. Its such a blessing to just love every single one of these people we meet. And we've already had some miracles in my first week! But I'll just give you everything chronologically.
Monday, we had to get up at 3:30 am to get to the buses and up to Salt Lake City for our 7:30am flight. I called you that morning and then we flew into Georgia, had a layover for about an hour, and then finally got into Raleigh that afternoon. And WOW at the humidity. After having been in the dry winter of Utah, Raleigh was almost suffocating. The humidity felt so strange. President Bernhisel, his assistants, and his wife picked us up and we were off to the mission home. Sister Bernhisel is just about the sweetest woman in the world and she's quite funny as well. We got into the mission home and helped Sister Bernhisel make "spaghagna" (spaghetti-lasagna) which was basically baked spaghetti with a wonderful layer of cheese and sauce on top and good old banana pudding like Mawmaw makes it--but not quite as good. We ate and were each interviewed by President Bernhisel. Wow. What an amazing man. He's just so in tune with the Spirit and knows exactly what to say and what you need and it was just a wonderful interview. We had a little devotional that night and then the four sisters slept in beds upstairs and all 12 of us Elders broke out some (suprisingly) soft mattress pad things to sleep on in the basement.
Next day we got ready, had a wonderful breakfast, took a big group picture and were off to learn some more orientation stuff and to the transfer meeting! Tuesday was so overwhelming. Actually, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday were SUPER overwhelming. I still hadn't gotten used to the humidity and there was so much new information and new places and it was just crazy. But Elder Johnson and I loaded up into Brother Hollowell (a ward missionary)'s car and were off to Kinston. Now, Brother Hollowell is probably the kindest old man ever. He's 75. Never been married. No kids. But apparently he's super rich. He will go with us to any appointment anytime we need. He'll drive us around anytime. And if we are ever with him around meal times and we don't have a dinner appointment he'll take us out to eat--refusing to listen to us tell him no. And he apparently eats out literally every single meal every single day. I've been told he's made a single egg in the past year and that's it. We had a lesson that night and we just got started with missionary work! I love it!
Wednesday the work just continued and its been wonderful. The members love us here and we always have dinner appointments if not lunch appointments.
We had so many experiences but last night, Sunday night, we were in an appointment with an investigator we had met before. His name was James Murphy and Leslie Jones. They had a friend over--Sister Moore. Now Sister Moore refused to hardly acknowledge us when we got there. She gave one-word answers and her body language was totally closed off to us. But as the lesson continued she started to brighten up. And she started to turn towards us. And then she started smiling at us when we looked over to her. We extended an invitation to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it to each of them individually. First Brother Murphy, who said yes, then Sister Jones, who said yes, and last Sister Moore and she gets this surprised but excited look on her face and she says yes. At the end of the lesson, I asked her to give the closing, kneeling, prayer. And she said yes. And she started to pray. And then she started to cry. And cry. and Cry and cry and cry. We were kneeling for so long she couldn't finish from crying. And she kept saying over and over "teach me, Lord, teach me." It was amazing. She felt the Spirit so strongly. It was an amazing experience. I look forward to teaching those people. As we were leaving Brother Murphy--who we asked to be baptized but he declined-- says to us, "I dont' want to lead you astray or tell you wrong about being baptized, but don't give up on me. Don't you give up on me." All three of these people are going to baptized. I know it.
I love these people so much. Its so amazing to be here. All these members love us and its just been wonderful. Its not easy. Each day there are moments of discouragement. But then I remind myself, "what an absolute honor and privilage it is to serve the Creator of Heavens and Earth." I feel like if God asked me to go dig a ditch, that'd be an honor. So to do God's work--to teach His children and to share His gospel, and to have His help and His guidance in it? Along with the power and authority He grants us to accomplish it?!?! Wow. This is the greatest honor we possibly could be given. I love my mission. This is where I'm suppose to be.
All the effort I went through to get here was so very worth it.
I love you all!
Write me! Put on my facebook my mission home/office address so people know where to write to and make sure they know that they need to address it to "Elder Cody Adams" so I can get it!
Merry Christmas! Talk to you around 1pm our time tomorrow!
Love you!
Love,
Elder Cody Adams
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