November 7, 2022

2nd to last week:(

Hey you guys!

Wow! First off, I just want to say sorry for being so bad at doing emails lately. I have been trying to work my tail off here in Kernersville. So far, Kernersville has been a really good area.  I have learned a lot about who I am and how God can work through us to help others. While I have been serving here, I have noticed that this area hasn't necessarily been the most successful area based off of finding new people, getting baptisms, and also getting people to sacrament meeting. Although I absolutely love those things, I have learned that there are other things that are more important. For instance, we have built a lot of relationships that I know will last into the eternities. We have been blessed to meet so many nice and wonderful members that are doing their best to follow Christ's teachings. I have grown to love that aspect of missionary work. Although it is very important to me to baptize, find, and teach, It also is just as important to me to build a loving relationships. I think that is where the joy of missionary work comes into play.

This week was a good one. We were able to have some great lessons and find some new friends. We were able yo do service for a lady named Carol. She is really cool. The service consisted of raking leaves and mowing her yard to pick up the leaves. It was a beautiful sight to see how grateful she was. 

After that, we had a conversation about missionary work and what we exactly do as missionaries. She became very intrigued about the things we talked about, so much that she invited us back to do some more service and talk more about the gospel. I know she is a God fearing lady who wants to do good and that alone brings me so much joy. 

Well it's almost getting to be the time where I will be coming home. I just want you to know that this mission experience has changed my life forever. It has allowed me to grow exponentially. It has helped me become a better version of myself. But most of all, it has put a deeper love in my heart for the Savior and Heavenly Father's children. If there is one thing I want you to know about me, it is that I desire to do good. Now we all know that I am not perfect nor even close to it. But, I can tell you that I am consistently trying to better myself to become more like Christ and I invite you all (y"all) to do the same. I promise you with every fiber in my body that as you consistently put in the effort to do good, Christ will do the rest and it will bring you so much joy.

I love you all and I want you to know that I am here for you and so is the Savior ❤️

Elder Adams out✌️ till next week

P.S.  My flight comes in at 4:44 on Friday, November 18!  Speaking in church on November 28 at 10:30.  Please come if you can!

September 26, 2022

Hello everybody:) sorry I have not been able to send out an email these past few weeks. I've either been to busy or to lazy to do so ahaha. I'll let you decide which one😂 

Anyway in this email, I would like to exhort the concept of time. While I have been here in the Carolinas I have come to the realization that time works differently based off of your mental experience, capacity, and the mental state that you are in.. For instance, when I had first started In the mission field I was witnessing time in a different way then I am today. At the beginning of my mission, time was going tremendously slower then what I was expecting previously before my mission. I quickly learned then when you are having a hard time realizing that you are going to be out here for 2 years, it seems that it is going to take 10 years instead. For an 18 year old boy that was something that was frustrating and difficult for myself to overcome. Know you all know my story of how I was released as a missionary because of physical alignments on my knee that where not allowing myself to perform at the proper rate. So moving on from that I was able to come home and spend 8 months at home. During these 8 months, I learned a lot about myself but more importantly, I learned what the Savior could make out of an 18 year old boy. Finally I was able to come back out into the mission field and witness again how time can move so slowly with a negative and timid attitude. Eventually, I was able to gain some experience and get comfortable with missionary work which made myself think a lot less about how much time I had left or how much I missed my Mom. When I was going through this time period of my mission, I was witnessing that the idea of time for myself was changing a lot. In fact, I was seeing time going a lot faster and this made it a lot easier for myself to stay out here and go to work and for that I am forever grateful. 

Moral of the story; when we get comfortable in situations, whatever we may be going through will be lightened and easier to get through. When we grow to enjoy the things we used to hate, all aspects of that thing are becoming increasingly more comfortable. 

Now you may have had this thought before. "What is the purpose of myself being here on earth?" We'll let me tell ya. The reason is not to become comfortable with where we are at. We are here to constantly grow and learn. Before I I started this journey of a mission, this question was something that was in the back of my mind always. So, my dad would later share an analogy that would correlate with this question. The analogy is, "when we are in a school class we are always taking tests and quizzes. Many people see this life as one of this tests or quizzes. When in fact this life is the whole year long class. Because, we have many opportunities to be tested and quizzed on our knowledge while we are here on earth." - Steve Adams 

When we fall on one of these little stumbling blocks, we will not be judged solely for this one mistake but, on our final grade of the class or in other words our final grade of our life. There is so many opportunities that we are given to do good. So, when we do mess up, we just need to repent and change and then move on with that knowledge. If we can do that, then we will have all the reason to rejoice:)