Elliot's February 7 email

Here's the latest email from Elliot.  It's been cold and snowy in Clinton and he was sick this week, but he was able to celebrate his birthday and even had cake, so all things considered it sounds like he had a great week.

Hey Family!

So it was really a pretty slow week in reality. Because of the snow our cars got grounded starting Tuesday and we couldn't go anywhere until Saturday. Snow on the mission=opposite of fun. And then I got sick to my stomach starting Tuesday lasting really until yesterday. Yesterday I weighed in at 149, the lightest I've been since I was a Junior. Kind of a rough week, but I did have a very fun birthday! We were able to get out and work and were able to talk to a lot of people. That's what makes the mission good; just doing the work. Meeting people and teaching. It doesn't get better than that. And then at night we celebrated my birthday with Josh and Lauren, our ward mission leader and his wife. We had a cake and everything so it was cool.

Glad to hear it's going good at home. A Prius would be sweet. My auto mechanic for a companion gives a thumbs up! And give Alyssa a high five for the second place for Sound Vibes!

So despite being under the weather and the weather being under, I learned a lot this week. I read like 300 or so pages (which is a whole lot for me) from Jesus the Christ which is awesome. President Taylor extended the challenge for all of us missionaries to read it before the end of the year along with the Book of Mormon. In Preach My Gospel there's a quote that goes something like "The more you learn about the Atonement the more your desire to share it with others will increase." It's true. I wanted nothing more after having read so much to go out and talk to people and see how those we are teaching are doing. We had a few awesome lessons too. We met with Mariabel, and investigator that I hadn't met before because she had been in Mexico for a month, and it was so cool. We read the introduction to the Book of Mormon and afterward she related a story about how she had helped a white lady pay for her medication because she was about a dollar short. The lady was very grateful and even in terrible Spanish said "Gracias" a few times. It reminded me of what I had read in the past week about gratitude in the story of the 10 lepers, and I told her that. In D&C 50 it talks about preaching the Gospel by the Spirit and verse 22 says "Wherefore, he that preacheth and he that receiveth, understand one another, and both are edified and rejoice together." These are the best experiences where you feel that growth of understanding and knowledge along with the investigator. This was one of those experiences. Her charity and the example of gratitude from the other lady increased my faith and I'm sure hers (testimonies grow by the bearing of them), and because of her experience we were able to refer back to the Savior and His perfect example for us. Lessons like that are always incredible and I have a lot of hope for her and her family because of it.

Well I love you all and am grateful for everything!

Love,

Elder Elliot Adair