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)

Alabamawood Derby

I know it doesn't get a different name in every state. But our ward had the pinewood derby on Saturday, and we spur-of-the-moment entered!! I included a picture of our cars; Hermana F's 'Scatter Sunshine' truck and my 'Butterflymobile'. They both raced...and lost. They were built for looks, not speed. But it's better than some sisters a few years ago who apparently brought a potato and put wheels on it. It didn't win either. 

This last week we had the awesome chance to have Elder Jörg Klebingat come to our mission!! It was an awesome conference, and some people from the Talladega branch helped with lunch so I got to see some people I love again <3 It was a joyous day. Elder K gave us some awesome words for our mission. Basically the whole conference was for each of us to be put on a trajectory that led to lasting conversion in Christ. I truly believe it was :) I certainly felt the desire to continue on the path that I am on. It takes a lot of hard work, but it is truly worth it. He also reminded us our our divine nature as children of God. When we have that knowledge and testimony, it makes the road a little bit easier to go down :)

I love this gospel so much!! I am so grateful for this opportunity I have to be in Alabama right now!! I love these people SO MUCH. 

Silly Hna Adams

Have an amazing week!!

Hermana Adams

Conference!

Hey! Conference was amazing. I had the spirit whisper so many things to my heart I thought I would explode. I nearly cried a few times. But I loved it! I'm so excited to be able to read the talks over again and find more that I probably missed. 

This week we went on exchange in Leeds, AL. When we were walking into a Wal-Mart, we discovered someone giving away puppies!!! We didn't bring any home. 

On Thursday when we got home from exchanges, I decided to boil some eggs for dyeing this weekend. I put them on to boil, and we started weekly planning.... 40 minutes later, I remembered the eggs. They were still in water, but very much overdone. But hey! An overdone egg still dyes! So we bought another dozen and dyed 24 eggs on Saturday. 

Well that's all the crazy stories for this week. I promise I'll live life a little more on the edge so that you can get more interesting stories next week. ;) 

I LOVE YOU ALL

THIS IS GOD'S CHURCH

Hermana Adams

The Rise of the Bees

Hey everyone! This has been a good week. We're trying to save miles and so we have made the effort to walk more places, and on Saturday we decided to walk to a park that was 3.2 miles away from our apartment so that we could contact people there, because it was a BEAUTIFUL day and we knew everyone and their dog would be there(joking aside, it's actually a dog park). So we got there and there wasn't actually too many people. But that's okay. Sister F had this awesome idea to take pictures with the animals all over the park and post them on Facebook. So go find those. Anyway, we walked back and our legs fell off. I'm grateful we don't have to walk everywhere! 

Wisteria

Scenery

Yesterday after church, we drove to Morris to help a woman we met at target. She is a rockstar mom who just needed a little help de-junking her kids rooms ;) we had a good time with her. After we left, we decided to visit some other potentials in the area. This is why there's bees in the title. We tried to find a specific house, but none of the houses had numbers! And all of their mailboxes were grouped together! So we had to knock on every door. But, no one was home (or chose not to answer) and at EVERY house, while we were waiting, we were swarmed with bees!!! They probably didn't mean us any harm, but you can't help but panick when 2 carpenter bees hit you right in the face. They weren't as bad as the red wasps. Hey all you Utahns, I don't want to hear you complain about bugs there- I found a centipede-creature the size of a Snickers bar. Yuck. Let's stop talking about bugs. 

I am so excited for General Conference. I can't wait for a full 8 hours of listening to the servants of the Lord! We are excited to be able to celebrate Easter on the same day too. What an amazing weekend :) 

I love you all!!! Have an amazing week!! 

Hermana Adams 

Sunburned Face

Keep On Rollin'

Our new phone is a Samsung j3. It’s not bad, and it’s a lot better than our previous phone, haha.

Pollen.  Yuck.

There is SO MUCH pollen in the air. I have sneezed more than I breathe! Hahaha. I included a picture of what collected on our windshield. 

Beautiful Sunset

I LOVED the Keep on Rollin’ conference. I love all three of them and I was so excited to hear them all speak together!! Here are some highlights of each of the speakers.

MEG JOHNSON:

GRATITUDE
• Pray for love
• Prayer turns circumstances that we are living into one's that we are living
• There's always something!
• One of the hardest challenges of this life is when you are alone 
SERVICE
• Create a new reality through service 
• The best way to find yourself is to stop looking and serve others 
• Sometimes the heart sees what is invisible to the eyes. 
• I'd rather be wrong and try to do something good than be right and feel the regret later. 
• The only therapy I needed was to be on the Lord's errand!!
• You will find that you are your strongest when you reach down to pick up someone else. 

IT RAINS ON EVERYBODY 

JOHN BYTHEWAY:

Life is a test, and sometimes tests are confusing!
Imagination: when we're young we use it to play, but when we're old we use it to worry.
FEAR = False Expectations Appearing Real

Nothing is particularly difficult if you divide it into small jobs.

Bible verses on paper aren't as useful as scriptures burned into your mind. 

HANK SMITH

To raise happy kids- be a happy parent.
HAPPY PEOPLE:
1. Surround themselves with happy people
2. Try to be happy
3. Spend money on other people
4. Have deep in person conversation
5. Laugh
6. Use the power of music
7. Exercise and have a healthy diet
8. Take time to unplug and go outside
9. Get enough sleep
10. Are spiritual!
For 90 days- write down 3 specific things that are good about the day. You will train your brain to find happy things. 

A bike day!

Love those Root Beer Floats!

Today, we were learning a little bit of how to defend ourselves. Our Bishop is a member of the FBI, and he showed us some self-defense stuff. I'm not very strong, but my elbows are pointy, so that's what I've got going. :)

There's been a whisper that it's possible for me to stay in Gardendale my last transfer. I really hope that it's true :) 

I LOVE YOU!

The Most Anticipated Week in the ABM

So here's the reason I made that the title: WE'RE GETTING SMARTPHONES. THAT'S RIGHT. Tomorrow we will receive the phones, and we will use them just like our normal phone until Friday, when missionary work as we know it will change. That's when we'll have zone conference and be trained on how to use this amazing tool for missionary work!

I hope that next week I will be able to tell of some awesome miracles. The beginning of a transfer always means new beginnings, and that is a truth I have always loved about the Gospel. No matter how far we stray from the path, we will always be able to return to our Father. We don't have to worry too much about the future as long as we are learning from the past and working hard in the present. 

Have a wonderful week :) I LOVE  ALL Y'ALL

Hermana Adams 

Today's picture: Sister F. took the picture before I was ready

The attack of the hearts

We heart attacked again!! This time there was only 2 of us, so we had to plan super carefully. It was lots of fun; we wore dark clothes, parked a block away from the target house, and ran like the wind after we were done. We also made cookies to leave, so it was probably a pleasant surprise for them who received it. 

We had the wonderful experience to go to Leeds this last week to exchange companions! It was lots of fun. It's interesting to see how so many people teach differently, but the spirit will deliver the same true message to the hearts of those who we're teaching. 

We saw a coyote cross the road in front of us. We have yet to see an armadillo in Gardendale, dead or alive. 

Sorry we didn't take many pictures this week, enjoy this picture of a pretty sky :)

Also sorry for the super lame short email. We have transfers this week, and Sister F and I are both staying. 6 more weeks in Gardendale!!!

I love you all. 

Hermana Adams

Birmingham Alabama

Okay, so you all know I'm really bad at coming up with subject lines. This week we had a district activity! We went to the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute (for free)(we know a guy) and it was awesome. There was quite a few things I didn't know about Birmingham! They call it 'The Magic City' because of how fast it grew. Its really awesome to be in a place that is so rich with history :) 

This week we got so many bible referrals!! I've gotten more media referrals in Gardendale than I have my entire mission. It's awesome!! I love to knock on people's doors who are actually wanting us to be there! They don't always follow through with commitments, but it feels nice to be doing some work in that area!! 

Our mission is still getting prepped for smartphones, and I can definitely see the hand of the Lord in it. For example, our current phone hasn't been holding it's charge very well and I'm afraid it will soon die for good. Just in time, am I right?? 

We just had our 'summer in February' this last week, it was 80 almost every day. But soon the state will remember that it's technically still winter and it will go back to cold :) not that I'm complaining, I'm in noooo hurry to get summer back where it's melt-your-face-off hot everyday. 

I LOVE YOU ALL

HAVE A GOOD WEEK

Hermana Adams

And this week a bird

Hello all! To start, I have a funny story. Sister F and I start our weekly planning by walking to the local donut shop and getting a few donuts. As we were walking back, an old couple passed us in the Foodland parking lot with a cart full of groceries. This is how the conversation went, because we wanted to help them:

Sister F: "Do you guys need help with your groceries?"

Them: keeps walking

Sister F, a little louder: " Do you guys need help with your groceries?" 

Them: still no response

Me in my learned southern-ness: "Hey, do y'all need help with your groceries?"

Them: "No thank you! Bless your hearts."

I've been teasing Sister F that because she spent the last 6 months in the Spanish branch, she hasn't really been in the south. She's got lots to learn, bless her heart!!

We had Stake Conference this week and it was awesome!!! The Stake President spoke a lot about faith, and it struck me so deeply. So many people here think they don't have any faith, but everyone has at least a little! It is also something you have to choose to grow. It wont just grow by it's self, (I guess, if you're lucky) But I made a promise with myself that everyday I would look for ways to grow my faith!! 

Our bird friend

So we caught a bird. It was really easy, because it was on the ground. We thought it was dead at first, but after poking it with my shoe, we realized it was alive!! Long story short, we decided to save it. We put it in a box with a little bit of water and put a towel over it box. It wasn't moving at all, so we went to bed. In the morning, we got up to go exercising, and it was healed! We released it outside and it flew away. 

No, I'm not making a habit of bringing animals into the apartment. It is just coincidence that it happened 2 weeks in a row. 

​​​​WELL I hope everyone has an amazing week full of sunshine. 

This is the temperature in Birmingham this week

I LOVE YOU ALL (Y'ALL) (ALL Y'ALL)

Hermana Adams

Valentine Cookies!

Not sure about the sad face...