One Last Time

Okay, folks. Here it is. I've been putting this off all day, but here is my very last email from the mission field. Oh boy, I never thought this day would come! I thank my God for each and every day I have been blessed with out here in Alabama. I have come to love the south so much! 

I know that this is God's work, and without Him, we are nothing. I cannot wait to bring home all the experiences I have had. 

This isn't going to be too long because I'll see all of y'all in a couple of days. Come give me a big hug and let me hold all of your babies. 

ROLL TIDE

Hermana Marie Adams​​

 

Lightning and Lightnin' Bugs

P Day Activity: Vulcan ROUND 2!!!
(It was a lot hotter than last time)

Hey there!! This week was full of humidity and thunder storms. Every day we thought we would melt in a puddle (southern women don't sweat, they glisten) and when the evening came we were drenched to our bones. And the thunder here could knock your socks off. But! It was such a blessing! On Wednesday we went over to Walmart with a couple umbrellas and helped people take their groceries to their cars, because the storm came so fast no one was prepared. Even though we got wet ourselves, we felt good about it :)

Typical tracting street in our area (the bugs are INSANE)

We did lots of tracting this week. We're trying to minimize the use of our car and so we walk EVERYWHERE. But it's good! Because we have met some people that we wouldn't have if we had been in our car. The Lord will bless us if we make sacrifices and work hard :)

Guys, I don't know if you know this, but HARD WORK PAYS OFF!! We have been going the extra mile with all the work we do, and we can definitely see the fruits of our labors :) Not everything is perfect, but it is coming along. We spoke to a whole street of people and didn't get told off rudely once! One couple even gave us a little jar so we could catch fireflies (I caught one, but he must have told all his friends to run away because I didn't find a SINGLE one after that. They're creepy little buggers). But it is so nice to see that the Lord loves us and appreciates our work. 

We ventured into the Gardendale First Baptist Church
 and took a picture next to the giant landmark cross
(their parking lot is HUGE)

I love Alabama so much :) What would I do without it?? (probably be less sweaty, but I love it anyway)

Hermana Adams 

The Gardendale Police had their funding cut (😂)

Happy Mother's Day!

The Magnolias are in bloom!

I don't have too much time today, but I hope everyone has had a great week and I still love you all!!  It's been a good week, but I don't have much to email about, since we talked yesterday.

(These are the flowers I'm growing in our windowsill)

Hermana Adams 

We volunteered at the Relay For Life, and found this big purple chair.

Here is a link to an article I sent Marie this week.  https://www.lds.org/blog/the-idea-of-mothers-in-zion-made-me-maduntil-i-learned-what-it-meant?cid=HP_FR-11-5-2018_dOCS_fBLOG_xLIDyL2-2_

The Book of Mormon

¡Hola a todos! This week we had Zone Conference. It was amazing. 

In preparation, we read the talk from the October 2017 conference by President Nelson called 'The Book of Mormon: What Would Your Life Be Like Without It?' ( https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2017/10/the-book-of-mormon-what-would-your-life-be-like-without-it?lang=eng ) Read it!

We had lots of trainings on how we should share it with people and it was awesome! We learned a new way to introduce it to people by using the pictures in the front. So we were challenged to do some roleplays and practice giving them away. So we did... and we found some people to teach!! It was so great!! It happened in the store twice and once when we were tracting. You could definitely feel the spirit as we taught them about the importance of it. 

Okay, we all know you guys really just want pictures, so here ya go. Have an amazing week!!

Hermana Adams

Baptist Country

Thursday 4/26/18 Temple group

Transfers were last week, and I'm staying in Gardendale!  My new companion is Sister H from St. George!

So on April 21st we got to participate in the Magnolia Festival!! We had a booth set up for genealogy. It was lots of fun and we talked to lots of people, and we got peoples numbers and it was overall a really good experience for people to get exposed to some goodness in the church :) It was a little scary going in, because it's 'baptist country', but everyone was mostly polite and no one tried to fight with us, thank goodness. 

Last week was very weird because we had our pday on Thursday instead of Monday. I honestly don't remember most of it. But because of the temple trips, we had a couple of sisters come and spend the day with us so we got twice as much work done!! It was great. 

The temple was so great and I'm glad that I got to spend time there. There is a feeling of peace that you can't feel anywhere else!

We had dinner with a member this week and they told us that we haven't experience the south until we go to a little country baptist church. Maybe when I come back to Alabama I will just attend those ;) this really is baptist country. 

Have a wonderful week!! 

Hermana Adams

Temple!

Hey! This week we don't have much time, so please enjoy these pictures, and I'll email again in 4 days!

I love you all!!

Hermana Adams

The moment I realized I was in Birmingham (not England)

Hello all! So one awesome thing about this area is that we get about 2 bible referrals a week (as opposed to my other areas where we got like, 1 a transfer). The not-so-awesome thing is that they're mostly in North Birmingham, an area that we save for the middle of the week/middle of the day type of thing. This story is one of those:

We arrived in the projects and found the right house number. It was a nice warm day and the sun was still high in the sky (okay, it was like 4) and there was lots of people outside, an ice cream truck could be heard in the distance. (this might seem cute to y'all but honestly gives me the willies). We knocked and knocked and finally the woman came out onto the porch. We introduced ourselves and started talking about the Bible that she ordered and introduced the Book of Mormon as well. We gave her a short restoration rundown, testified of the power of the Book of Mormon and the Bible, and invited her to read and pray. Right as we were wrapping up we heard 9 loud popping noises....too close for comfort! I looked at our acquaintance and she just sighed, shook her head, and said: "I hate that." I said "Was that a gun?" and she said that yes it was, but we were probably fine because it was a couple of blocks away. We quickly set a return appointment and said goodbye and got outta there.  As we were leaving we didn't see any signs of any type of crime, no police or anything, so it was probably someone just shooting into the air. Welcome to North Birmingham!! :D

There you go, I lived on the edge. 

That's pretty much all the exciting things that happened. Transfers are this week! I'll be staying in Gardendale and I do not know who my new companion will be :) But I'm so excited to keep working in this part of the Lords' vineyard!!

I love all of you. Have an amazing week! 

Hermana Adams 

-Here's what happens when your companion is sick
and you decide to watch Mountain of our Lord in a fort

Me holding a real small animal in the church (it's real, I promise)