Hello everyone!
The heat got turned up a lot this past week....high 90s and
even into the 100s. I could even feel the humidity a little bit. There's the
weather update.
Despite the heat, the missionary work here in Baker City was
blessed and E. Sorensen and I prayed for and saw miracles from the Lord.
Personally, I have been experiencing great changes of heart. As of recent
weeks, I had been struggling with remaining positive and hopeful. I realized
that I needed to change and rely upon the Lord to create that change within me.
I thought I had learned humility, but I realized that all the humbling
experiences I was having weren't benefiting me in the long-term. I would forget
and lapse back into a similar frame of mind, which was negative and
frustrating. We all struggle with this because we are human and we fall short
all of the time. However, I have learned that when God lifts us up and we still
fall, we need not fall back to where we were before. In fact, as we trust in
the Lord, it is not in God's plan of infinite love and mercy for us to allow
regression to happen if we don't want it to happen. Even if we struggle, we are
still better than we were yesterday, as we trust in the Lord.
I have been putting forth effort in being more positive and
prayerful. It is through prayers that we can access power from God that He
wants to give to us. We just need to ask for it. This past week, I had a
breakthrough. I was assigned to speak on the Christ-like attribute of humility
for a district meeting in a district where the missionaries are very humble,
hard working, and successful because of their trust in God. I have had desires
to become more like these missionaries for this whole transfer. As I stood and
delivered what I had prepared on humility and then listened and pondered on
what the other missionaries were speaking about, I felt the Spirit of God work
really hard on my spirit. Tension, worries, frustrations, failures, negative
self-talk, and so much more was eaten away and replaced with love,
understanding, and patience. After that meeting, I felt an increase of power to
follow through on the commitments I have made to be prayerful and positive and
more trusting in God.
I was able to go back to Payette and . . . . have some
A&W root beer....twice! haha! It was really great to see many of the people
that I knew and was teaching at that time, only a month ago. I saw the man from
the Netherlands, Gerard, that we were teaching. He recently decided to stop
having the missionaries come over, so we talked a little about that and
promised him that the answers to his questions would come as he continues to
put forth the effort he had in the past. It was super good to see him! It was
great to see the crew at A&W!
E. Sorensen and I have been doing something called inspired
tracting. Instead of just going out and knocking on random doors and praying in
general to find someone, we have found great guidance through prayerfully
locating a specific street/section in Baker City to visit. We pray and then
look at a map. On our own, we determine where we feel prompted to go and then
share that with each other. We then make a decision where to go, have that
confirmed by the Spirit and then head over there. Every time we do it, we find
someone, whether a less-active member who wants to come back to church or
someone new. This past week, we were out in the heat doing this activity. We
stopped at a member's house and asked them to pray for us. We knocked a few
doors that stuck out, but no one answered. E. Sorensen suggested we pray. There
on the sidewalk we asked Heavenly Father to help us. While we were praying, I
heard a truck drive up and I knew by the Spirit that God had answered our
prayer. I looked up and the truck had pulled into the driveway a mere 5 yards
away. E. Sorensen said "Is it really that easy?" The lady that got
out had us help her carry some stuff for her and we talked to her and prayed
with her. Linda had lost her husband last December. She has a strong faith in
Christ and it was a joy to talk to her. She is going to allow us to come back
and share more with her about God's plan for us!
On exchanges with E. Leo, we prayed and felt that we should
head to a certain area. We walked for a little bit and then passed a house with
a car that had a bumper sticker that said "Jesus said, "I'll be
back." We laughed at the joke, but felt we should see who was home. Terri
came out and turns out she has read the Book of Mormon and was willing to have
us come by again! We had to leave right after to go to an appointment. It ended
up being the only door we knocked during that 30-40 minutes we had. Definitely
a miracle.
We are getting super excited for a couple who is getting
married this week! Charlie is a less-active member and Janet isn't a member of
the Church, but they are both progressing so much in their faith and trust in
God as we have been teaching them. Janet will be getting baptized by Charlie in
only a couple weeks! It's super inspiring.
We had another wonderful experience with a girl, Christina
who is just starting to look into the restored Gospel. She was our last
appointment after a crazy busy week. We met with her at the home of the family
that owns Burger Bob's here in Baker City (super good burgers and malts) It was
awesome even though we were sweating a ton. After sharing Joseph Smith's vision
of Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, it was very quiet. Christina started
saying that it was intriguing and powerful and that she believed that it had
happened. The Spirit was very strong in that lesson.
So many experiences this past week. Too many to tell. I
realize that I haven't been really forthcoming with too many details of my
experiences in the past, but I'm trying to be better about that. Through these
experiences I, Elder Adamek, " will show unto you that the tender
mercies of the Lord are over all those whom he hath chosen, because of their
faith, to make them mighty even unto the power of deliverance." - 1 Nephi
1:20
I know that the Lord loves us and helps us change. We could
not change without Him.
Love,
Elder Adamek
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