From One Paradise To Another!

I’m not in Kansas anymore … because I'm in Colorado!

They kicked me out of the State of Kansas!  I am so happy because I love small towns. I am in a small town called Lamar, CO. I love it and the people here are so awesome. We come in contact with the best and craziest people. There aren't too many Spanish speakers in our area but there are more in the neighboring towns that we cover.

Well, I had my first real missionary experience at the airport. I was in line waiting to get my airplane ticket and so I decided to test my Spanish with the lady behind me. So I started talking to her and asking how her day was, but not soon after I found out that she knew English. Thank goodness! So we started talking in English and I found out that she was going to Dallas for work and we talked about that for a while. She asked about me and I told her that I had just come from the Mexico CCM but didn't say much more. When it came time for us in line, I felt like a dummy because I had just missed my perfect opportunity to tell her about our church. We were going on the same flight, so I got out one of my Spanish Book of Mormons and wrote a little note and my testimony to her in the front and I told myself that I would give it to her while we were waiting for the plane. All of us Kansas missionaries went to the waiting area and when I saw her walk in, I said a little prayer and it took me about 5 minutes to build up the courage to go talk to her. I apologized to her first thing and I apologized for not explaining to her who I was and who I represented. Then I continued to talk to her about gospel stuff for about 30 minutes until the plane arrived. It was amazing!!!! I made so many stupid mistakes, and said stuff that I probably didn't need to, but no words could explain how I felt. At the end she told me that I was the first person to talk to her about the church and she thanked me immensely. I gave her the Book of Mormon and asked if she would read it on the plane, starting with the introduction. When I got to my seat, I talked with the other missionaries for a little bit and then turned around and she was reading!! I was so happy. I got her email and her phone number so missionaries in her area can visit her. Her name is Dafne – please put her in your prayers.

I also sat by a lady on the plane but she only spoke Spanish. Man, it was super difficult! She talked for like an hour straight and I probably only understand 1/5th of what she was saying. My brain was fried! But I wrote my testimony down in English and gave it to her with a Book of Mormon and got her information as well. It was a great missionary day!

Then I got to Kansas!!! The humidity and heat about killed me when we got off the plane and we were all sweating like crazy. But we were all so happy to be here. We were able to meet the mission president, President Bell. He is an amazing man, but also hilarious and fun as well. We had a little talent thing and the President did a mission rap – it was awesome!

That night we stayed at a member’s home because we had orientation the next day. We stayed with Sister Smith – she was so sweet and she made us all smoothies in the morning. I love members!

My companion is Hermana Moser!! She is awesome and she is the sweetest girl you will ever meet. I had to travel all the way across the state of Kansas before I could meet her. We actually both went to Northridge High School but she graduated in 2012. We knew who each other were but have never spoken before. What are the odds? We have the biggest house in our mission. It is in a duplex and has 3 rooms. So we have our room, study room, and even a workout room (which nobody really uses). Our district only consists of 4 missionaries (both of us and two English Elders).

We have met some pretty interesting people. I met my first real cat lady! She lives in a purple trailer with cats everywhere! One of their names is Stubby because he only has 3 1/2 legs. We had an appointment with a member and when we showed up there, there were cops everywhere. Next door to the Ortiz's (member) house, some guy was getting beat up and all that jazz. Sister Ortiz saw it and called the cops – what a hero! Anyways, they found the bad guys and the neighbor is doing better even though he is pretty beat up. This is why you should not drink, because it brings problems and anger!

There is a Lamar Pirate – he walks up and down the street carrying a treasure chest and picks up all the coins he finds on the ground. Gotta love small towns!

I had my first Spanish investigator this week! It was quite humorous because Hermana Moser's Spanish and mine are about on the same level, which is not that good. But, we were able to have enough of a conversation to set another appointment with him. So yay for us! We will see how this next appointment goes.

We have another investigator named Kiki and her family just moved to Lamar about 3 weeks ago. We taught her the first lesson on Saturday and it went really well. Afterward, she asked us where the food bank was and we had no idea. So, after the visit we went back to our house and got all the food we could find for her and her family because she doesn't get paid until the 8th and they didn't have money to buy groceries. It was an amazing experience as well. She was so grateful that some random 19-20 year old girls would do this for her and her family.

Our bishop is 7 feet tall – I am not kidding! He was a basketball player for BYU. His name is Bishop Anderson and I don't know his first name.

Sorry that this email is all over. Lots of stuff has happened and I wish I could tell you all of it. Just know that everything is going awesome and I love being a missionary! The experiences that I have had so far have been amazing and I look forward to the days to come. Gotta love all the bugs, bunnies, snakes, and skunks here in Colorado. The thunderstorms at night are also way sweet because there is lighting all around you. Lamar is beautiful and I love it already!

My address is...
3212 Memorial Dr.
Lamar, CO 81052

Misionera Amor
Siempre Una Aventura
Hermana Adams

Last Week In Paradise (I'm Off To See The Wizard!)

I LOVE MY DISTRICT!
Sorry for the ugly hair – this was my hair dilemma day with no water and shampoo in my hair...

Hola!

The day has finally come! I am so excited to be off to Kansas. I have loved the CCM so much but I am so ready to go. I feel weird being here today because the majority of the missionaries left this morning, including Hermana Ballard. Man, I am really going to miss that girl!

This week is the 24th of July, yeah! I hope everyone is able to enjoy it.

Elder Reynolds found out that he has bronchitis, but he is feeling a lot better now. Thanks so much for everyone’s prayers. He is in LA right now, so good luck to him and his mission adventures.

I don't know what I do, but my luck is not the best. Last week, I was showering in the morning and the water got shut off and I still had shampoo in my hair! The rumor was that a bomb went off or something by our water tanks, but who knows if it is true. So, I had to try and rinse out the shampoo with the little water that was dripping. So, I put my hair up the rest of the day because it was “no bueno” (not good). Then, a little while later the power went out, so it was just a great day to be getting ready. But all is great now, we have power and water!

I am truly going to miss all of the people here. On Saturday while we were packing up our stuff, other Hermanas from our district came and heart-attacked our door. It was so sweet! They wrote little notes of how much they are going to miss us and stuff – love them! Other Hermanas wrote us little notes and stuff, so we felt really special and loved. Gotta love being a missionary!

We got our first real baptism! Well...kinda. We were teaching real investigators two weeks ago, but they actually already had a baptismal date. But anyways, they got baptized on Saturday and our teacher – Hermano Palma – was able to baptize them. He said it was an amazing experience and that they were all so happy. Even though we did not really have too much of an impact on their baptism, we could feel their Spirit as we were teaching them.

We have amazing teachers here! For our going away party on Saturday, they brought us REAL Mexico tacos from the outside world. Man – they were so good! Now, I crave real tacos all the time and the stuff in the CCM does not even compare. But the food here is still really good.

When we say bye to people now, we just say "hasta eternidad" (until eternity). It is so sad but so true. All of these missionaries are going to be awesome. I can’t wait to see them in Heaven and ask them how their experience was.

My scripture of the week is D&C 4:3-4 – "Therefore, if ye have desires to serve God ye are called to the work; For behold the field is white already to harvest..."

Kansas here I come!  I can’t wait to see the beautiful wheat fields...

Misionera Amor
Siempre Una Aventura
Hermana Adams

Week Five In Paradise (Home Stretch To Kansas)

Hola!

You have no idea how ready I am for Kansas. I love the CCM, but I am ready to move on into the real world. I love the food, my native people, this place, and my companions – but not going to lie – I am excited to only have to study 3 hours a day. I love Mexico, but I do not like being in an 8 foot fence. I want to be in the city and eat tacos from a taco stand. I can´t wait to be in Kansas!

This week was the same as the previous weeks, lots of studying and lots of food!

The Hermanas and Elders that got here a week before us all left yesterday and today and it was so sad because we were so close with them. They are going to be awesome missionaries! It is crazy to think that that is going to be me in one week – I am so excited! Speaking of that, they are letting us email on Monday and we get our travel plans later today.

One of the Elders in our district has been super sick and they think that he has pneumonia. He is on his way to the hospital right now to get an x-ray of his lungs or something like that, so please keep him in your prayers. His name is Elder Reynolds.

During one lunch, there was a Hermana who was telling us her conversion story; this is a little bit of it:

She is from Colorado and she was dating a guy pretty seriously until she went off to college. Well, after she went to college, she would still come home every weekend to go to church with him. Her parents were strong Catholics and didn’t really approve of her going to church, but she did anyway because she really liked this boy. Well, after a year of going to church with her boy, he asked if she wanted to take the missionary discussions and she said, “Yes.” After the first discussion, the missionaries invited her to be baptized (as they should have), and she agreed. Her parents hated this thought and they kicked her out of their house, so she went and lived with a member in her ward for a couple of months. During these months she just worked and saved up money to buy a car so that she could move to Utah. When she got the money, she bought a car and moved to Utah, where she didn’t know anyone. Once she got to Utah, she just worked so that she could save up enough money so she could serve a mission. “She met some wonderful people and was blessed so much”, she said. Well, it has been a year and one month since her baptism, and she is here at the CCM! We asked her how she was able to handle it and she said, "Yeah, a lot of bad things happened to me, but to every bad thing that happened about 20 good things happened."

What an example! Sorry – that wasn’t the best explanation – but she is amazing and the Spirit was so strong when she was telling us her story. I wish you all could have been there to listen. The gospel changes and blesses lives!

My scripture and theme of the week is John 13:17 – "If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them."

I love this quote by Harold B. Lee – "Happiness does not depend on what happens outside of you, but on what happens inside of you."

I love being a missionary!
Misionera Amor

Week Four In Paradise

Hermana Fitzgerald, Hermana Sanford, Hermana Adams

Hola!

I love to see the Temple!

Well, Hermana Ballard has not been having the best of luck down here in Mexico. We were playing basketball during gym and one of the Elders nailed her in the head with the ball and she got a concussion. So sad, but hilarious! Later that day, she had a big headache and when you looked into her eyes, they would go all crazy. We took her to the doctor and he just said not to play sports for a couple days, but now she is fine!

I thought I would be sad not being home for the 4th of July, but they treated us so well down here. It honestly looked like there were walking flags everywhere because everyone was wearing red, white, and blue! They are so sweet - they set up red, white, and blue tablecloths in the comedor (dining room) for us to eat on during our meals. They also served us barbecue sandwiches, watermelon, and apple pie for dessert. How much more American can you get? It did have a Mexican taste to it, but we were all grateful for their kindness and love. They also invited us all to stand up and sing our National Anthem during lunch, what an experience! It was so awesome, never have I felt so much power in that song. I love America!! And Mexico!

Not only am I in a choir, but I had to be the chorister on Sunday. What is happening to me? It was hilarious though, I thought I knew how to lead, but I was struggling. Good thing everyone is just looking down at their hymn books because they don't know the song in Spanish. My companion, Hermana Ballard, was doing the hand motions in her seat so that I would know what to do. For the last song our Branch President got up and said that we would just have the prayer because of time. He said this in Spanish - and so I didn't get the memo - so I stood up to lead and it was super embarrassing! But sacrament was awesome! Hearing all of these missionaries bear their testimony in a language that they had just learned in a couple of weeks and bearing testimony of their Lord and Savior is truly inspiring, the Spirit was so strong.

My companion Hermana Shumway told me the way I feel the Spirit is in Job 4:15 - "Then a Spirit passed before my face; the hair of my flesh stood up."  She told me this because you can always tell when I am feeling the Spirit because I always get chills, I love feeling the Spirit here.

Our water heater wasn't working for part of this week, so our showers were freezing! But don't worry, I still showered! I have never taken such quick showers in my life.

This morning we went to the temple, what an amazing experience! We were not able to go inside because it is under construction, but the visitor center was so sweet. We got a little tour and then watched a video about families. Boy, how I love my family, I am so glad that I can be with them forever. We didn't have much time there, so we hurried and took a couple pictures and then went to their little store that they had. The temple is beautiful!

The drive to and from the temple was so sweet. It was nice to get out of the CCM for a little bit. It is amazing how different it is here. What a humbling experience and such a different culture! We would wave to all the people and it was such a good feeling when they would wave back with such a big smile.

Misionera Amor!