Week 3- First week in the field!

Hello everyone!

So I finished up last week at the MTC and I am now in Washington! My first area is actually in Yakima, Washington and it is super awesome here. I arrived last Tuesday late in the afternoon. Upon arrival I went to the mission office, ate some tacos, and then got straight to work. On Wednesday I got assigned my trainer. His name is Elder Dell and he is the GOAT. He is from Lehi, Utah and has been on his mission for about a year. 

My area that I am over is Tieton Drive East and the Yakima YSA. The wards I cover are Tieton Drive and the YSA. Me and Elder Dell actually split our wards with the STLs(sister training leaders). They cover Tieton Drive West for their teaching area. We are getting dinner every night this month except for like one, so they are feeding us pretty good. Lots of memorable experiences, ask Heidi about one of the guys we are teaching named Jose.** He's so cool. The most memorable thing so far would probably be just walking the streets and seeing all the crazy people in Yakima. A lot of the people in our area are Mexican and Catholic, so everyone's favorite phrase is Yo soy Catholica. They also like to make fun of us in Spanish, but Elder Dell knows Spanish and they get nervous when he starts talking back. I will definitely pick up Spanish while I am out here, because pretty much everywhere is a Spanish area. In fact almost every district in the entire district has Spanish Elders or Sisters. My district is so awesome. Because my companion is our DL (district leader) I get to go on exchanges with the elders in our district which include, our ZLs (zone leaders), the APs, and Elder Wardell, one of my favorite Elders that came out with me. I am stoked because my district has a bunch of hard working missionaries that I will learn lots from. Other then me and Elder Wardell all of the Elders have been out for over a year. I think President Welch set our district up like this on purpose so that me and Elder Wardell would be surrounded by good examples and so we could learn lots. 

There has been lots of super cool experiences that have already happened, but I just wanted to share two of them. The first cool experience came when me and Elder Dell were knocking doors deep in our area the other evening. It was very hot outside, and we had been outside for several hours. We walked past a house where some Hispanic people were having a little get together and making some food. They called us over and gave us some food and cold water bottles. Me and Elder Dell were super grateful, and the food was SO good.

The second cool experience came when me and Elder Dell were out finding. We had parked the car to go finding, but before we got out we both felt that we should go finding somewhere else. We hopped in the car and prayed to know where to go. We both felt we should drive farther downtown. Elder Dell asked me to listen to any impressions that I had while we were driving. As we drove deeper downtown, I asked Elder Dell to take a right and then pull over in some shade. When we pulled over we both felt that we were in that area for a reason. Before getting out of the car Elder Dell checked our phone and saw a referral that we had gotten the day before. On a whim he checked the address of the referral and it turns out that the person who we had gotten a referral for lived literally right where we parked the car. Like 20-30 feet to our right. It was pretty crazy. I know that Heavenly Father was using the Holy Ghost to guide us to that spot. We had forgotten about that referral and we may not have been able to get in contact with them had the Holy Ghost not brought us there on that day. It was a super cool experience that strengthened my faith in the gift of the Holy Ghost. 

I miss you all lots! I love hearing from you guys and I will continue to respond when I can! I attached kind of a lot of photos because I forgot to send some last week haha. 

Love you all,

Elder Adams

***Jose's story: So I am actually in Yakima straight up, I'll email dad more specifics on where exactly I am. I am phenomenal, being in the field is so much better then the MTC. Lot of amazing things have happened, but one of the most amazing things was meeting Jose, a guy who has been meeting with the missionaries for a while. Jose is preparing to be baptized on August 27th. Or I should say he is going to be baptized on August 27th, because he is so ready. Me and my companion, Elder Dell, got to go over the baptismal interview questions with Jose on Sunday after church. Elder Dell felt like we should have one the ward members named Alex join our lesson. Turns out Alex was a convert to the church who then served a mission, and he had lots of similar life experiences to Jose. He basically taught our entire lesson, and his testimony was so strong. So it was super amazing to see someone who is ready to be baptized, and super cool to see how the Holy Ghost can help us out, because Elder Dell had never even met Alex before our lesson. He just felt that Alex should join us and it ended up being exactly what Jose needed.