It will be official on Thursday! I'll be a month old in the field, but I'm already six-weeks old altogether! Can you believe it? Its still so ridiculous to me that its already been so long!
CONNOR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!! I looked at my watch for the date the other morning, saw it was the eleventh and went, "WOAH! Connor is 16! That's ridiculous! He's getting so big!" Well, buddy, I'm glad to hear you're doing well! Sorry I can't/couldn't be at your ordination to a Priest. You're so lucky to get the opportunity to become a priest, be able to bless the sacrament, and even baptize someone! That's a big deal! You're a good man, Connor Mckay Adams! And I love you! You're going to be an awesome priest and an awesome missionary one day! I love you!
We started doing Insanity, with me leading it of course, on Saturday morning. We get up at 6, start at 6:10 over at Elder W and Elder S's apartment down the street, and we all destroy ourselves physically to start the day off. Its going great and we're all loving it! I've got to do something to keep from gaining 50-lbs. Elder G, one of the President's assistants started here in Kinston and said he gained 32-lbs in his 6-months. I'm not gonna let that happen, though if Brother H keeps taking us to King's I'm going to be in trouble regardless.
The weather here is ridiculous. Just as soon as I got my package with the thermal Gs in it, it decides to warm up. Like seriously warm up. To about . . . 70-80 degrees during the day. Its so weird. Its apparently supposed to get miserably cold here soon but still! Its still pretty warm. What's strange is how when it rains it gets super cool but then as soon as the rain stops it warms up so much. Its so strange. We've also had TONS of fog this week. Calley, how in the world is fog formed and stuff like that? I need to know. My useless trivia supply was lacking in that area and I was disappointed in myself--and my companion was surprised that I didn't know as well.
Well, my fourth-week in the field yielded just about as much as the previous week--not much, but we still had some awesome experiences. Monday night we continued to teach Sister M, Sister J, and Brother M, once again at a member's home--this time the A's. We get there about 7:30, sit down at their dining room table to have the lesson and then BAM! The power went out. Apparently someone had ran into a power pole with their car somewhere in Kinston and the entire city was out for about 2-hours. So we just broke out a bunch of candles--scented and unscented-- and had our lesson by candlelight! It was actually a pretty great experience and teaching those three (its time-consuming to write out all three of their names in our planners and stuff so we usually just write and refer to them as "MJM" or as I prefer "JM^2" (Jay-Emm-Squared)), they totally make up for our lack of success with anyone else during the week. Just two days previous we had given them all blessings to help with the Word of Wisdom, but we usually meet with them three times a week or so. Anyway, we were teaching them how to receive revelation through the Book of Mormon and how they could find strength by studying the scriptures. The lesson was going great. But Sister J stopped us for a minute because she had something she wanted to share. And she looks at me and says that she did what we asked, she went home and wrote about her experience when we gave her a blessing. And she started to tear up as she explained how everything I said in that blessing pertained exactly to her situation and exactly to the things on her mind and exactly to what she needed. It was such an amazing experience. I can't believe how blessed I am to be able to be a part of things like that.
The next few days yielded very little, but Thursday we had a "Training Meeting" where President and Sister B, their assistants, and all the training missionaries and their trainers in the east half of the North Carolina Mission came. It was wonderful to see three of the awesome friends I made in the MTC, but the Meeting itself was extraordinary. We learned SO very much. And we taught each other so very much. President and Sister are just so wonderful. I know without doubt I'm in the right place at the right time--confirmed once again!
We taught just Sister M that night, the other two were unavailable because Brother M had a death in the family and had to go help with funeral preparations. Once again an amazing lesson and this time in the H's home. Sister M is just on fire. It doesn't matter what commandment we give, what we teach, or what we invite her to do, she does it and does it willingly. In fact she had cut down so much on cigarettes, going from about 20-22 a day to 5 that day, in preparation to be cigarette free starting on that Saturday. She has to be cigarette-free for two-weeks prior to her baptism and she's doing it! One day at a time! And she told us how the Book of Mormon almost follows her around the house as she works so she'll pick it up and read a little, set it down, doing something, and see it and start reading again. But then she told us something just awesome. She said that a year ago she had been feeling very lost and she said that she prayed for the Lord to guide her to a church so she could know what she needed to do. And then she said, once again, she knows that her prayer was answered when we found her at Brother M's that night a few weeks ago. Sister M is just golden. I love her. I can't wait until her baptism on the 26th! If you could, pray for her to have the strength and continued desire to not smoke so she can be ready on the 26th. Because other than that she is SO ready!
When I was in the MTC I had the opportunity to watch the recorded video of Elder Jeffrey R. Holland's family and his program/talk they gave at the MTC over Thanksgiving. I think I mentioned it before. Anyway, he said something in it that was so thought-provoking. He said, "Why are we the ones who have been chosen to receive this Gospel and to receive the honor of sharing and preaching it to every kindred, tongue, and people?" Then he said he didn't know the answer to that question but to ponder it, and think about how massive a calling and honor it is to be able to serve the Lord. That's something that has been on my mind all week--why have I been so blessed as to receive so many huge revelations (seriously big ones too), amazing experiences, and sacred spiritual gifts? Why do I get the opportunity to serve and love these people? Why did the Lord wait so long on me to turn around and find a better path? And why did the Lord fight so hard for me to be where I am right now when I see other people go through similar circumstances and end up in far worse places? I still don't think I have an answer, and I highly doubt I'll get one for a while--though I know if its the Lord's will that I will in fact receive an answer. But I decided it gives me hope. It gives me comfort to know that even as imperfect as I am, that the Lord still trusts me with so much. Nephi in the book of Helaman isn't a prophet, or at least he doesn't receive all the keys and authority of a prophet for a while. In fact, he is just a missionary, who goes about preaching repentance, doing good, and performing phenomenal miracles--and then eventually the Lord tells him that he will give unto Nephi the power to command the trees, the mountains, and oceans, that he will have the power to smite the earth at his word--because the Lord knows that he will not do or ask for anything contrary to the Lord's will. And then he also received what we refer to as the Sealing power that allows us to have eternal families, thus making him a prophet. But what hit me most about all of that is faith. We have to have faith (and then act on it) in the Lord, and then he will in turn have faith and trust in us. If we trust the Lord, he'll trust us with greater and greater responsibilities, authority, people, blessings, and happiness. . . that's pretty amazing. All of our relationships are two-way streets. So if we can just learn to trust the Lord, we'll be trusted by him. So we know we're on the right path, that we're doing good, and we'll receive more and more and more until we become like him. That's the beauty and power of the gospel. You receive more if you want more. If you don't want more, you lose what you have. Its that simple.
I've learned so much. And its crazy to me how much the Lord has changed me in such a short time. Things aren't easy. In fact there are times when I start to think its getting hard, but I really do love it here. And the end of the day I realize I don't want to be anywhere else.
I love you all so much! I got letters from Kim and Dalley and oh, by the way, Mom, that letter you sent through DearElder that also emailed to me? I didn't get that until Friday so . . . I don't know when you sent it but it sounds like it took forever. Also, those kashi granola bars and stuff you sent? Those were awesome. I loved them. A lot.
Just so you all know, you haven't had fried chicken until you've gone to King's BBQ. Brother H eats there literally every day for lunch. And its so good. But you can feel your arteries clogging as you take each bite. Additionally, I don't want to ever go home until they get a Bojangles out west. Chicken and biscuits. So good. . . we get fed so well here. You'd think the trial would be missionaries not ever having enough food, but in reality our trial here is having WAY too much food. Everyone makes sure we're taken care of and we eat at a members' home like four or five times a week if not more. Its always good stuff--though we did eat Tilapia the other day and it was . . . really not my favorite.
Go read your Book of Mormons. In fact, go read 3 Nephi from like chapter . . . 9 to the end. I just finished 3rd Nephi and wow. There is so much good stuff in there. Its amazing. And go into your reading with a question, having the faith and belief that you'll get an answer--you might now, but you WILL eventually get an answer and you WILL learn more than you would have, I promise you that.
I love you all! Write me! Tell me what you learned in the Book of Mormon or something if you have no idea what to say!
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