Spiritual experiences, both good and bad...and ladies of Memphis, slow your roll.

Howdy!

A dog that loves missionaries?

This week was pretty slow.  I've found it's easy to be lazy when your planning every night sucks.  So I'm currently repenting for the lack of motivation and work I've done this week.  Waking up on time is definitely something I need improvement on.  We got a new missionary schedule.  Just a few changes on when we are going to study and how long lunch is and a longer P-day (2 extra hours in the morning).  But like I said, slow week, but I have some awesome (and disturbing) stories this week!  

So first off, I got to meet and talk to Elder Neil L. Anderson.  I know, I know, bow down to Elder Adair.  He's so cool!  Him, Bishop Waddell, Elder Clevengot (that's not how it's spelled, I just don't know how to spell this Germans name) from the 70 and our area 70, Elder Behesti was there too.  

Bishop Waddell is probably the nicest, funniest and most down to earth guy I've met haha.  He said my name when I talked to him and I felt like a 12 year old girl meeting Justin Bieber.  But they spoke and kind of rebuked the mission for disobedience and Elder Clevengot left nothing to the imagination.  He told us how it is and told us to "let go of our favorite little sins."  Hahaha he threw down.  Bishop Waddell threw down on the difference between serving a mission and BEING on a mission.  By he way...BIG DIFFERENCE.  

I have stopped trying to understand...

Elder Behesti just talked about never being ashamed of having a testimony.  Elder Anderson, in his chuckley, kind manner, threw down on repentance haha.  I'm just gonna say...we all left feeling spiritually uplifted...but also felt like swines hahaha.

The second story actually happened before the first.  We were just chilling in our apartment at the end of the day and elder Sammons yelled at me says he heard chanting.  Now, remember back in October when the Mexicans across the hall were chanting?  Well...they're back at it again!  Except this time was WAY worse.  They were banging on stuff and yelling and screaming and it was off the hizzook.  I'm not kidding when I say it got dark very fast.  We're going to bless the apartment tonight haha.  It was wild!  I'll send you the video!  And a few pictures of how we prepare to take on the evil spirits...

I think he is scared of the chanting next door?

The third story...the worst one of ALL OF THEM!  We stopped after the devotional at a gas station in west Memphis for a break.  Elder Ogaard and I went into the store looking for a drink cause we were dying haha.  As soon as we walk in the workers all say "[dang]!!  Look at these fine boys!" At that point I knew...it was going to be an interesting 10 minutes.  We didn't get drinks because there ended up being water on the bus, but we talked to he workers for a little bit and they kept flirting so we switched to chapter 14 of preach my gospel, "flirt to convert."  Haha.  

Well elder Ogaard says "aside from being handsome, we share a message of Christ" and they get interested and I explain the Book of Mormon and we give them each one.  Well then they ask if we have girlfriends and we of course say no we don't exactly date for 2 years and explain the mission.  They didn't get he hint.  They explained how they were available and how "cute" we are.  

***DO NOT READ THIS PART OUT LOUD TO CHILDREN***CAUTION: EXPLICIT 

Hey Ladies...Stay away from the Elders.

It was fine until they asked us if we would like to have "relations" with them.  So I held my hand for them to stop talking and turned to some sisters and kindly handed these women off to them haha.  Elder Ogaard and I ran out of the store and onto the bus with swiftness.  That's the 4th time this week I was hit on.  Another was earlier when the family dollar lady told me she "needs a church man" so I told her she just needs a church and walked out haha.

Well that was my week.  Great experiences!  Haha.  Definitely things that you can only see and experience on a mission!  

Kings Do King Things

Goin' Buck Wild 

Uh...well, that's one way to play... 

Nothing like a pie in the face of the Zone Leaders!

And the chanting has returned in earnest...

M N O Spiders! O S A R, C D E D B D ii?

Hey, we just me you....

This week was insane!  We destroyed all weekly goals and have the best numbers (I'm not a number hunter, but when you kill it, numbers come) in the district!  We also had a challenge to set more baptismal dates than the Zone leaders and we tied with them and beat everyone else in the Zone!  We're the youngest companionship in he Zone and second youngest in the mission!  So we get to pie the Zone leaders next meeting!  It was cool though cause we talked to a lot of cool people!

I love the mission cause I get to literally just run to random people and get to know them and talk about Christ.  We got a baptismal date with some lady we met 10 minutes before and had a little sermon with some old people.  We talked to a baptist "deacon" and bashed a bit but ended up giving him a Book of Mormon haha.  We handed out like 10 on Saturday.  We had 5 straight hours of talking to people without a break.  As soon as we got a text from missionaries who set a date, we dropped what we were doing and went out to work.  Needless to say, we didn't eat lunch cause we were so set on winning and we had a wonderful time doing it! We now have 10 dates!  Of course it means nothing until they're baptized but they're looking great!

Kai, modeling...he claims it is to show us the area, but we all know how much he loves the camera.

A whole lot of "NOPE"

Then we got a call from the sisters in our district wanting help on killing a spider...yeah...it was an 8 minute call, made up of 2 minutes of how to catch it (I guess it was too big to kill?) and 6 minutes of them screaming trying to get it...I got like a minute and a half of it on video if you want that.  She was like freaking out haha.  It was a good time though. I wrote a note to an investigator I'll send you the pic.  They brought the spider to church and it was kinda big...I understand their freak out haha.  Again I'll send the pics and a video of it.  That dude was HUGE.

Kill it...just kill it!

This week I also found my new life Motto..."Go Buck Wild!"  Haha.  Basically "going buck Wild" includes absolutely killing it in whatever you're trying to accomplish.  Always giving it your all and go crazy and have fun while doing it!  As the youngest companionship in he Zone and 2nd youngest in the mission, I'm pretty sure we're leading in a few of the key indicators!!  We've been going balls to the wall!  Absolutely Buck Wild!!  We're going Bucking crazy!

I had a photo shoot in a more decent area and I'll send a video of myself setting my hand on fire cause I'm still Kai.


Kings Do King Things
Goin' Buck Wild

I swear some of my kids are smarter than others...

Why? Why did you spare this spawn of Satan???

She's 35...but she has a sweet spirit.

Howdy Y'all!

A face peel?  Really?

This week I got the chance to hear Ann tell me that as she has read and as she has studied, that the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon "is almost undeniable."  I don't think I've ever literally almost jumped off of a couch with so much joy!  We taught her on Saturday again and she agreed right then and there to talk to her boyfriend about moving out (she doesn't want to marry him😳) haha.  She's so great!  She just gets it!!  And I've been there from the get go!  She remembers the exact date that we first started talking to her!  She knows it's true.  I know she does. It's just a matter of getting her to church!  I think honestly her boyfriend is what's crippling her progress.  But we won't have to worry about that for much longer!😊 Her date is for the 11th of February but I'm pretty sure that she's gonna get dunked before that!

We went on a 2 hour exchange with the Zone leaders and blitzed the area, and in an hour and a half, we taught 2 lessons and got 3 baptismal dates!  We also set a date with that gator who's mom and husband died!  And also with another investigator to agree to a date!  It's been a great week!  We had a miracle and got 2 guys, 1 RM and one reactivated member to come out with us!  It's just been a great week for miracles!  We had Zone conference and Elder Sammons recited all 42 doctrinal points (from all 5 lessons) in front of everyone!  Even president!  We also are working on rebaptizing our excommunicated member, Doug Millar!  Oh and we went to a house to try some gators, and there was a car outside.  The gators weren't home so we walked back and I went to the car and knocked on the window!  Haha.  The RM with us was terrified cause it's a ballsy move to knock on windows in Memphis.  Elder Sammons got really uneasy too and walked away haha.  But I knocked and they were super chill!  They were picking up one of the gators, Quadarius, for work and we talked a bit!  Their names were Jaquan and Damerius!  I gave them a card with our number and church info but I'm an idiot and forgot to invite them to play basketball on Wednesday!  Hopefully I'll catch them again haha.  It's so fun doing things that would normally get me shot!  Quite the rush!

We also got cussed out cause Elder York, the Zone Leader, asked a guy if he wanted $100 and when he came over to us, he said "nah I don't have $100 but I have something way more valuable!!  Ever heard of the Book of Mormon?" And he went off calling us liars and that we're going to hell hahahaha.  We also went and saw an investigator and she was smoking and we told her to stop and that it's bad and she told us that she will stop and then she literally looks me in the eye and says "oh my gosh Adair you are just so handsome!  I'm sorry and I'm too old for you but you're just so handsome!  Hey maybe if I come to church might be able to hook ya!"  Hahahahaha.  I fetching laughed soooo hard afterward!  My comp and I just died cause it's been a while since a gator has hit on me but she literally told me that she wants to "hook me" and she just kept flirting with me!  Keep in mind, she is like 35 and has a kid and HER HUSBAND JUST DIED IN OCTOBER!!  It was so uncomfortably funny!!  Hahahaha I just had to tell you that haha. I guess being on a mission makes you like instantly more attractive?  More women hit on me out here than they ever did while I was home and available haha.  It's some crazy stuff happening here.  The people of Memphis never cease to entertain me!  Never a dull moment!

I got the chance to give a talk yesterday at church!! It was on optimism and joy! I'll send it to you guys to read!  I feel like it went great!  The congregation laughed a lot, I laughed a lot and I even got the chance to quote the "street poet Kanye west" Haha.  It's important to let people know that missionaries are humans with emotions haha.  Not just spiritual robots that focus only on perfection.  If there's one thing I've learned, it's there can't be a gap between Elder Adair and Kai.  It's gotten to the point to where I'm saying screw it, I'm just gonna be myself and hope people like me haha.  People hate when you're just focused on spiritual perfection and being "fake," so just being me is important.  And people either love me or hate me so I guess I'll see how this goes haha.
Elder Sammons is learning so quickly!  He teaches normally, well as normal as a greenie can, and he knows the doctrine so it's sooo much easier to train when all that falls in line.  I feel bad for elder Edwards haha he had to train me from the bottom.  It's great though!  We're really doing good together!!

I'm so glad Cort killed it at his meet!!  Congrats bud!  They told you about me yelling at the kids behind me to slow down? Hahahaha.  I hated the 400 so every time I did it I made it memorable haha.  My junior year I lifted the baton and pointed at my friends as I was getting passed up by like everyone haha.  I'll never forget the moment I found out I ran it in under a minute!  58.7 I think was my fastest time haha,  I was soooo bad!  But I'm happy you did it and got 2nd!!  Congrats!!  Now when are you gonna do jumping?


Kings Do King Things
They Call Me Fuego

A new member of the family arrives...I feel like a grandpa...I'm so proud!

There's a new dynamic duo in town!

Hey y'all!

So yeah I got my first born in the wilderness on Tuesday!  His name is Elder Sammons!  He's from Mishawaka, Indiana!  I have no idea where that is either so don't feel dumb.  I guess it's by Notre dame!  So that's dope!  He's cool!  He even talked his first couple lessons!  I didn't even do that!
We got snowed in on Friday so we didn't do much work.  I made some calls and taught a lesson over the phone haha.

Remember that family who keeps having people die after they reject us?  Well we set a date with tonya!  The daughter of the less active!  She's so excited!  January 28th!  We're gonna talk to Chikeda today and sadly Patricia has gone shady and sketchy cause she won't answer calls or answer the door...so that's really upsetting but we're still talking with our excommunicated member who even bore his testimony yesterday!  It was sick!  Good ole Doug Millar!
 

OMG, where are his legs?!?!?!

I have a few videos for y'all!  Well...mainly for THE BIRTHDAY BOY!! Happy birthday you little devil you!  Cort land is 16?!  What he deuce!  I'll send the videos!  You'll probably think I'm an idiot for doing one thing, but it was fun!

Nothing else really happened...we're going bowling today and elder Edwards is gonna be there so that's spectacular!

 Jenna is going on a mission?!  No freaking way???  Yeah mom send me her email to me!  We went to the taylors for dinner last night and of course it was dope.  That's literally all that happened haha.  Well, I got to be good friends with some other elders!  So I'm getting a lot more friends!  I was the second youngest trainer there!  And 2 others were only 6 months out so it was a fairly young trainers meeting.

It's snowing everywhere - end of days...

Stay active my friends!  Keep being who y'all are being!  I know Heavenly Father is proud of y'all!!  Somehow, he has trusted me with setting up a kids mission, so i know he will make it so I can do it!  Heavenly Father qualifies whom he calls so I will accept this call and perform as best I can!  Kaeden, remember how we talked about me training?  Hahaha I didn't think it'd come this soon!  Anyways!  Have a great week y'all!  I love y'all so much!  And just a fun fact...on February 10...I'll be 1/4 of the way done with my mission...where has the time gone?!

Kings Do King Things
They Call Me Fuego

Random, unexplained photo.

The 'Dynamic Duo' is splitting up - Edwair is no more...bring on the greenie!

Time to make the donuts...

Hey y'all!!  Sorry I don't have really any time to reply today!  I'm heading over across the river to Little Rock to pick up my greenie!  Yeah, I'm training!  Crazy?!  Haha but I'm going to be over there for a couple days for meetings and training stuff.  But this week was great!

Elder Edwards and I really did a lot of work!  We got Chikeda to stop smoking and even got to take the cigs again and elder Bogges (Zone leader I was with on exchanges) and I destroyed them. I hate those little Satan sticks!  Nothing but trouble and the #1 cause of failed baptisms.  It's so dumb.  We met a new less active who even fed us the second time we saw him.  He gave elder Edwards and I a coupon to go buy 8 inch survival knives hahaha.  Tempt me tempt me.  But he's cool but he over thinks everything and that's why he's less active (inactive?).

ALR's version of Brangelina is done...

We did more service for the same family that we raked leaves for.  We had to re-rake and take out a big vine tree.  It was awesome haha.  We're (new elder and I) going back on Thursday to finish up their yard.  It's fun!  I also did the magnesium citrate challenge.  Magnesium citrate is like a super lax, so what you do is down the whole bottle and see how long you can hold it in.  Well I did it after nightly planning and went to sleep...bad decision.  I woke up the next morning in PAIN LOL.  We said prayers, elder Edwards took a year and a day to say that thing, then I said a quick personal and booked it into the bathroom.  I was in there for quite some time.  Enough to dehydrate me for the rest of the day hahahaha.  But in all it was fun!  The things missionaries do for fun, am I right?

I really am never surprised anymore.

Yesterday we went around and said bye to all the members we got close to.  It was hard to elder Edwards to say bye to the Taylor's (he's going Zone leader!).  We had a great lesson over there on the atonement.  It was the one with the push-ups and as we gave everyone a cookie I did 10 push-ups.  I think I did 90 in total so I was dying.  I got no break between.  Being on that side of the atonement

Apparently once you complete the challenge...

(figuratively) was really heart wrenching for me.  Mason, on of the boys, didn't even want to eat his cookie haha.  But doing those push-ups so everyone could enjoy a cookie was really awesome.  It doesn't compare at all to what Jesus did for us but for the moment, i almost understood.  To willfully put yourself in pain so that others could enjoy life.  Afterward (and today) my arms hurt so bad.  I even had the audacity to tell elder Edwards "my arms hurt" but something he said made me rethink life...all he said was "imagine how Jesus' arms feel."  Boom.  Like think about it.  He took lashings, whippings, scorn, hate, persecution, bleeding from every pore in the garden of gethsemane and then crucifixion.  All because he loves us.

Thank you for taking care of these two hooligans!

1 Nephi 19:9 tells us he did it all because of his "loving kindness and long-suffering towards men."  It's my testimony that Jesus Christ is my savior and redeemer.  He suffered and loved a lonely life so that we don't have to.  He took upon him the literal sins of the world and the pain and trials, and felt the burden and pain so that we don't have to.  Isn't at something?  Knowing we have someone who loves us that much?  It makes me choke up just thinking about it.  By none other way can we find peace in this life nor the life to come.  Always remember that.  Whatever pain and trial you're going through, Jesus has been there and suffered for it.  Whatever addiction, sin or mishap in your life that you can't shake, and believe you're too far gone to come back, let it go.  Christ suffered for it.  Turn to him for strength and it'll be yours.  Jesus is the Christ and the true Messiah.  I love you guys!  I'll talk to y'all next week!

Strength in numbers.

Mom finally gets her name tag picture.

Kings Do King Things
They Call Me Fuego