Elliot's March 5 email and pictures

Here's the latest email from Elliot. And there's five new pictures after the jump.

Hola!

Elder Matthew Karl is from Alberta, Canada. My new companion is Elder Brett Grover from Spanish Fork, Utah. He's so cool. I think this is going to be a sweet transfer. He's Spanish speaking as well and has been out one transfer longer than me. We've definitely clicked so far and I think we'll have a lot of fun and success.

I actually am not sure what the address of my apartment is, but its at 53rd and Gore in Moore [must have meant Lawton] and its called the Invitationals. This is my second apartment in a row that sits on a golf course. [The Lawton Country Club and Golf Course.] Its super nice. We have a back balcony that sits right on the course. It has two bedrooms and two baths as well as a good sized living room and kitchen. I might be a bit spoiled.

This has been a pretty awesome 5 days in Lawton. Karma was baptized here on Thursday and Helen on Saturday. Karma has 2 sons that joined the church a few years ago and she's awesome. Helen's Grandma is a member and she's been coming to church for the last little while as well. It was cool to walk in and enjoy seeing them get baptized. I had the opportunity to confirm Helen a member of the church on Sunday which is the first time I've done that. It was a bit stressful organizing the baptisms and dealing with transfers and everything that comes along with it in one week but it was great. I think I'm going to love it out here.

We had a really cool finding miracle this week. We drove past a street and Elder Grover remembered that someone they had been teaching lived on it. So we flipped around and tried them. They had 3 cars outside and were definitely home, but there was no answer.  So we looked around and saw that across the street there was a home with a garage open so we knocked on the door. Theresa came to it and before we even said anything she told us to come in. She said she had always seen missionaries on the street and had always wanted us to come by the house but missionaries never had for whatever reason. We taught her all about The Restoration [great video link], God's love for us and about the Book of Mormon. We committed her to baptism on the 31st of March. She then told us that earlier in the day she watched a show on the History Channel about the apocalypse and was praying to make sure she was on the right path. That's usually when we show up. It was a super cool experience.

So Lawton's cool! Its interesting being far away from other missionaries now besides the Sisters in Lawton 1st Ward, but we don't see them too often. That's a good thing though I think. Being a little more isolated with a much smaller zone means that we don't have as much to worry about, we just get to focus on the work more fully. This area is all military. It seems there are more people who work out of Ft. Sill than anything else, and a lot of people are living here from out of state. The area and ward have a lot more young families than anywhere else I've served I think. I'd been to Ft. Sill to teach soldiers before and when other missionaries (the AP's and two others) come down they stay Saturday night with us, which is exactly why we got a nice apartment.

I hope everything's going well for y'all! I'm still waiting on Elder Phillips to find out if he's going to the U of U or UVU to see if we can get an apartment together or something. I'll let you know when I find out. Do you know if Aaron is still going to transfer to BYU?

Love ya!

Elder Elliot

Elliot's November 21 email and picture

Here's the latest from Elliot in Moore, Oklahoma.

Hola!

Is the LA auto show going on? It was always way fun going to that. Next year? [Elliot always loved to go to the LA Auto Show. Here's proof.] And I've always wanted to attend the temple in Spanish. That'd be cool for sure. We were told not to during the MTC so I haven't had the opportunity to yet.

This week was awesome! Tuesday and Wednesday were filled with meetings most of the day, but they were good meetings. Then Thursday I wet to Wichita Falls to baptize Adrienne! It was a super spiritual experience. The service was great and it was cool seeing everyone again. Friday I went on exchanges to the Spanish Central area with Elder Christenson (one of my roommates in the MTC). We taught some good lessons and had dinner with the Ramirez family who had me over for Thanksgiving a year ago. Also on Friday I interviewed Amparo, one of their investigators, for baptism. It was the 6th interview I've done and the first in Spanish. I was nervous going into it but soon Spanish just started coming back to me. I love doing interviews. She was baptized on Sunday by Elder Phillips and Elder Soto confirmed her. On Saturday morning, Elders Christenson, Whipple, Garner, and I went to a flea market in Midwest City. They've recently started setting up a booth there and its pretty cool. We got a lot of referrals for our zone and it was fun. On Sunday we met up with Shawn and we're still one for his baptism this coming Sunday, so assuming his interview goes well that'll be awesome. Our other progressing investigator, Jan, is still on for the week after so hopefully everything works out!

Good luck with the temple class! That's exciting. I hope y'all have an awesome Thanksgiving! Say hi to everyone for me.

Love ya!

Elder Elliot

P.S. In the picture is Elder Lang, me, Adrienne, Elder Jacobson, and Elder Talbot

Elliot's July 5 email and some pictures

Here's the latest email from Elliot, along with a screen shot of his current apartment in Wichita Falls.  Also, after the jump, you can see a couple of pictures of Elliot with several other missionaries.

Hey Family!

Wichita Falls is awesome. The ward is great and very supportive of missionary work, it's younger, and a ton of fun. Yesterday we had the annual 4th of July flag raising ceremony and pancake breakfast, although no fireworks last night, due to the drought. It's super hot out all the time, but we take required breaks throughout the day.

Being District Leader is not super different than being any other missionary in most ways. It does mean more responsibility for sure though. I have to make sure everyone is doing okay, conduct exchanges, teach district meetings, report numbers, and try to help out the missionaries in any way they may need help, as well as take care of this area. It's nothing impossible, it just means that I really have to do my best to always follow the Spirit to know how to best perform in this assignment.

This past week was pretty awesome. We taught a lot of lessons and got 5 new investigators. We have a lot of appointments set up for this week, and I think we'll see a lot of work starting to click. We even have one investigator committed to baptism, but not with a specific date yet. Elder Andersen is a really good missionary and we're getting along well. We've made a goal to just simply teach more lessons, and we're trying to stretch ourselves so that we can jump start this area. It's working so far!

So I'm doing good. Hope y'all have a great time at Yellowstone! Say hey to everyone for me!

Con amor,

Elder Elliot Adair

New pictures of Elliot and other OKC missionaries

I ran across the blog of another missionary in the Oklahoma City mission, Elder Philip Woolley.  Elder Woolley is currently in Elk City.  That's in the same district as Clinton, where Elliot was assigned until today's tranfer to Noble-Purcell.  Elder Woolley was companions with Elder Phillips, who was Elliot's MTC companion.  I found a couple of pictures of Elliot from Elder Woolley's blog.  It's great to see some new pictures of Elliot and other OKC missionaries.  You can see them after the jump.

Elliot's August 19 email

We got our first email from Elliot today.  He's feeling much better, thankfully.  Here is his email address: elliot.adair@myldsmail.net.  And here is his email of today:

Hey family! I love you all and miss you all but am happy and doing well!

I'm not sure if you got my letter yet, but i did get pretty badly sick the second night of the MTC. I had a viral infection of the intestines that was supposed to last for up to a week, but was better after a few days thanks to a blessing from my companion and a lot of prayer. I wasn't supposed to get back to eating solids for like 7 days, but was able to after like 2.

I've already been thrown into the fire with teaching, but feel like I am doing very well and really think that the missionary training program back home really helped. I've learned a lot of Spanish already and feel overwhelmed a bit but think it's nothing that I can't handle. I've have an awesome companion Elder Phillips, from Draper, UT, who seems very willing to do the hard work necessary to learn a new language. I'm grateful for that and have some really awesome teachers.

The MTC food is admittedly horrible. It's like the Canon Center a BYU, but a bit worse. I'm just trying to eat pretty healthy so that i can stay feeling good. This morning we went to the temple and went to it's cafeteria after, and I enjoyed a $8 breakfast. Definitely the best food I've had out here. But I have been able to sleep well. All the work is tiring, but super rewarding. I am doing well and am just doing my best to be happy.

I have a really cool district and feel way close to them already, like I've known some of them my whole life. I'm grateful for that and for the support they've been and for the fun we've been able to have. We all go out and play soccer for gym, and it's great. I even scored a goal yesterday! So I'm having a good time for sure.

The work is also enjoyable too. I definitely feel the Spirit a lot, and have already practiced teaching a lot. I've also learned how to meet people in Spanish and tell them what I believe. It's slightly daunting, but when I just slow down and let the Spirit in, I have no problem communicating what I need to. It's really incredible out here like that.

I've seen a lot of friends out here from college and stuff, including Elder Peacock today (you can tell his mom he's still alive). That's a lot of fun, but I can't wait to see all the guys from back home come in here. Also please give a thousand thanks to the Sarmiento's for me. It meant a lot to me to be able to spend that last bit with them and I'm super grateful for that. And I'm grateful for all of your support and love! Please pray for me, I know that I could definitely use it. I love you guys and send my love to the ward as well!

Much love!

Elder Elliot Adair