COVID Missionary Chronicles: Who Said Missionary Work Wasn't A Party?

¡Hola a todos!

How was everyone's week? Is anything cool happening for y'all? This week was a party lol so I'm excited to fill you in, but first we have a birthday!! Today is Sister Bartletts birthday!!! Happiest of birthdays to Sister Bartlett! I love and miss you so much!

Alright, so as you can tell from the email title, this week was a party haha. It was so much fun and I found a lot of joy in the work. 

On Tuesday, I experienced my first "GANM lock-down" which is what it's loving referred to. Basically the weather throughout the mission was so bad that President told us all to stay home unless absolutely necessary. It was definitely an experience haha but we got a lot of area Book contacting done as well as some planning, because balancing the work for the Branch and the Coal Mountain ward has been a challenge but the good news is that we've found a rythm. 

We also had Zone Conference this week! It was so amazing!! Because of the weather on Tuesday the Winder and Athens Zone Conference got pushed back, so the Winder Zone came to our Zone Conference. It was awesome to have more missionaries around! The main topic of the conference was listening to and recognizing the Spirit. I could honestly listen to President Harris speak all day, he's just got this way of teaching by the spirit that I hope I can develop during my mission. Something that I really enjoyed from the Conference actually came from one of our AP's, Elder Bates. He shared this phrase, "Drop your Nets". He shared this in regards to the story of Peter and how he willing dropped his nets to follow Christ. Elder Bates talked about how we as missionaries need to be willing to "drop our nets" (anything that is holding us back from being fully committed) and give our full effort to following the Savior. I just thought that was a super cool way of teaching that and I loved that analogy. 

We also had exchanges this week. I was paired with Hermana Flanery and we stayed here in the Azalea Area. This was my first time running the area and it was actually a really good experience for me. Hermana Flanery is so amazing and she knew exactly what I needed. Every phone call, door contact, or store contact she basically had me do it majority on my own. As much as I didn't want to do that stuff by myself, it really did help me to see that I am capable of talking to people. It definitely felt good at the end of the day when I looked back at all of the contacts and everything in our Area Book and saw just how many people we had talked to that day. Every interaction is a good interaction and I know that each of those people we're affected in some way from their conversations with us. 

Now Friday and Saturday are when the parties came in lol. So Saturday was Sister Sister Mavae's birthday, so naturally the 6 sisters in our Zone all had a sleepover so we could all be together the next morning for her birthday! It was so fun!! The next morning we went to the Hilton's and they made huge breakfast for us to celebrate!! Super fun!! Then, we had a baby shower for Sister Rivas in the Branch! This was my first legit latino fiesta, and let me tell ya, I don't think I ever want to attend a party without a Latino again!! They just make everything so fun!! They were all laughing and dancing and just having the best time it the energy was so real! Then, last night I got the chance to catch up with some old friends from back home. The Homans used to live in our ward in Florida and then they moved up here to Georgia. Just so happens that we are in the same Stake up here and that Sister Abott and Hermana Flanery cover their ward!!! It was so awesome to see them again! I love their sweet family so much!

The final point of the week was actually a miracle that we saw. So we were given a list from the Relief Society President in the Coal Mountain ward of people who could use a visit. On Saturday night, we picked from our list and it happened to be exactly where we needed to be. We chose to go and visit Sister Roundy. She is 79 years old and she lives alone. Most of her kids don't talk to her anymore and her husband isn't allowed to live with her so she's just super lonely. We went over having never met her before. When she opened the door she invited us in immediately and we ended up saying for like 2 hours while she just told us about her life. As we were leaving, we gave her a rose that we had and she started crying and said "this will probably be the only thing I get for mothers day". We were so happy that we felt prompted to go and visit Sister Roundy, and now we have a new friend because we are planning on visiting her a couple times every week. 

Alright y'all, that's all I've got for this week! I hope this next week is awesome for y'all and you see that Lord's hand in you life. Keep the faith!!! Love y'all!!

Hermana Adams 

Pictures:

1. Sleepover with the Sisters

2. Hermana Flanery and I at the Tienda on exchanges

3. Look how pretty my companion is!!

4. The Homans and I

5. We made churros for Cinco de Mayo