Elliot's Home!

It's hard to believe that, after two seemingly very long years, Elliot has finally returned home! Here are a few of the first shots of him as he arrived at the airport to meet his parents, his sister Alyssa, and his grandparents Cliff and Darla Munson. His brother Keith, sister-in-law Kim and her family, and new niece Addie will arrive over the weekend. The Adair house will be a very full and happy place.

Elliot's August 13 email

Here's the latest - and FINAL! - email from Elliot. We'll see him this Thursday when he returns home from Oklahoma. Again, he and Carlton Reininger will speak this coming Sunday, August 19, at church in Newhall. Everyone is welcome and invited. Here are the details. And here's Elliot's final message home.

Wow, I can't believe that this really is the last week. I have loved my mission so much. I have learned so much and grown a lot, and I love the people here. I can't believe it's been a couple days longer than 2 years now that I entered the MTC. You never think at the beginning that it'll end. You get to the middle and you practically can't remember life outside of the mission, like that's what you've always done and that's what you'll always do. Then you get to the end and it doesn't feel real. In the moment it goes by so fast, but looking back I can see all of my areas, all of the people I've met and taught, all of my companions, all of the great times and all of the challenges. I have no idea how it all got crammed into two years. It was like a lifetime of experiences on fast forward. I'm so grateful for all of it. It's definitely changed who I am for the better and I hope that I've been able to help some of God's children along the way.

It's definitely true that I have mixed emotions and feelings at this point, but I feel at this point I've done what was my duty and now's the time to go back and apply everything I've learned out here to normal life. I can't say that I'm sad, but I for sure will miss this. Oklahoma will always have a part of me. But I'm super happy and excited that I'll get to see y'all! I'm excited for what's to come and hope to make the most out of whatever life puts in front of me.

See y'all soon!

Love,

Elder Elliot

Elliot's August 6 email and pictures

Here's the latest email from Elliot, along with four new pictures, including two that show the temperature in Oklahoma City. 120 at 1:38 p.m.! And 109 at 8:44 p.m.! It's a little toasty there. And this may be the last real email we get from Elliot. Next Monday, he'll only have two full days left in Oklahoma, so we may get a brief message, or maybe none at all.

Hola!

No I can't believe it's August mom! Isn't that wild? These weeks are starting to feel like days. This past week was very literally a blur to me. But very hot. I think God's turning up the refiner's fire for me here at the end of my mission haha.

Oklahoma's good! I hadn't heard anything about fires here [we posted about them on the blog, here and here], but I did definitely smell smoke outside when we played tennis this morning for our work out. But I'm fine. We really had a good and eventful week. Probably the highlight of all of it was when the Hermanas [sister missionaries] had a baptism on Saturday. His name's Santiago and I'll be sure to attach a picture. He actually asked me to confirm him which was a way cool experience. Sometime's its intense to see how much opposition is thrown at people right before they get baptized. He definitely saw a lot of it these past few weeks but he stayed strong and he was so happy. It was great.

Sounds good about the homecoming talk. It's true that I've had to wing quite a few talks and lessons over these past two years, but I'm definitely going to make sure I'm ready for this one. And I saw that you asked about my favorite hymn - I like Come, Follow Me [link to music player app].

Well have a great week! The first picture is Santiago with the district. The next picture is of me and my district after my last district meeting, mourning my passing from the mission life to the next life. Classic. Then we got a few examples of how incredibly hot it was this past week.

I love y'all!

Elder Elliot

Elliot's July 30 email and pictures

Here's the latest email from Elliot, along with several new pictures.

Bueno!

Glad to know everything's going well back at home. That's exciting that Addie is going to be blessed in the same Sacrament meeting that Carlton and I are speaking. And we're singing haha. That is going to be a packed meeting but that's awesome. I'm excited.

Things are good here on this end! We had a really fun week. The Branch asked us to teach Kimberly, an 8 year old daughter of recent converts here, the lessons before she got baptized. Her baptism was this past Saturday and it was a really cool experience. Definitely a very sweet Spirit. We also have had some very good lessons. 2 of our investigators tried to come to church yesterday but ended up by accident in the church across the street. Whoops! We saw them last night and they're really excited about everything we've taught them. So I'm happy and doing well.

And I got some pictures today to send! The first is lil' busta, my rubber duckie that's been my flying companion on my bike for about the last year. The next is me. Then we got Hno. Mauro and his daughter, Kimberly, at her baptism. And last is me and Grimaldo. He helps us out all the time. He's great and I like his glasses.

Love ya!

Elder Elliot

Elliot's July 23 email

Here's the latest email from Elliot. 24 days to go!

Hola!

Okay, I'm going to get at your questions first while I'm thinking about them:

[The family stuff has been redacted.]

I can't really think of a whole lot else I'm going to have to do when I get back. Have you set up an appointment with the President Carlson for the Thursday I get back? The only other thing that's coming to mind is that I'm seriously gonna need some In-N-Out as soon as I get in haha. Like probably before I even get back to the house. No joke.

Things are still awesome here in OK City. Still working hard, we found 10 new investigators this week and set a couple of baptismal dates. It was really a fun week, despite the heat. My companions are super rad and I'm loving it. I also got my flight plans this week. It's crazy to think how little time I have left, so I usually just don't think about it. I feel I've got only a few weeks left to show my love and appreciation towards God full time, so I'm just making the most out of it. I love these people out here and I'm just trying to do what I can to help as many of them out the best I know how.

But I'm doing great! I'm glad to hear everyone's doing good.

Love,

Elder Elliot

Elliot's July 16 email and pictures

Here's the latest news from Elliot in Oklahoma City. And for anyone who's curious, we are now at 30 days until he returns home!

Well, I had a good week! We had some cool finding experiences again and had some really good lessons with a couple of our investigators. This weekend I went to Ft. Sill with the Assistants Elder Phillips (my MTC comp) and Elder Cook. It was a lot of fun. We had some extra time on Saturday night when we drove down to Lawton so we went to Mount Scott and read scriptures. It was really nice to have some meditation time to contemplate everything I've learned out here and how it'll apply to my everyday life. I love it. And I got some pictures. At Ft. Sill I got to teach a soldier all of the commandments. It was a really cool experience. He was so willing and ready to receive the gospel and is looking forward to being baptized in a few weeks.

I'm doing well.  I hope you guys are having a great week!

Love,

Elder Elliot

Elliot's July 9 email and pictures

Here's the latest email from Elliot, with a couple of new pictures.

Hi!

Things are going well here in OKC. My new companions are Elder Christian Anderson from Danville, CA and Elder Matt Fales from Cody, Wyoming. They're both awesome missionaries and I'm super excited to be serving with them. I think this will be an awesome transfer. We're still in the same area- OKC 4th Central, and its going well. We've had a couple of our investigators go out of town this past week but we have a lot of people we're trying to teach and follow up with.

This past Wednesday was transfers and it was wild. Elder Grover and Elder Kimber (both former companions) went home and so did a handful of other missionaries I've served around. Its crazy how fast it goes, and that's why I'm so glad to be serving with Elder Fales and Elder Anderson who are both young missionaries. Not that I would have become unmotivated to work hard for my last 6 weeks if I wasn't with them, but their energy and enthusiasm are contagious. I just love this work. Every single day I get to see the Lord's hand producing miracles, and it brings so much happiness that I think is comparable to only very few experiences in life. So why slow down? I'm just living the dream.

I also got a couple pictures from transfers-the first is my 4 hijos (trainees) in the mission and me (left to right-Elder Anderson, Elder Jacobson, me, Elder Nield, and Elder Orellana), and the second is me with the hermanas in my district from last transfer (Hermana Garcia, me, Hermana Goodfellow, and Hermana Turner).

I'm glad to hear things are going well and that you're able to go meet Addie mom! That's exciting! I hope y'all have a great week!

Love you!

Elder Elliot

Elliot's July 2 email

Here is the latest email from Elliot.

Hola mi familia!

Aprendi lo que va a pasar ["I learned what will happen"] for transfers. I am going to be with two other missionaries, but Elder Orellana is leaving. In addition to training a new missionary, I am going to get Elder Fales. I don't know a whole lot about him, but I've heard good things and I'm excited. I know that this will be his third transfer, and President Taylor expects me to have him ready to be senior companion and lead the area by the time I leave. I think this should be a lot of fun. I am a little bummed to see Elder Orellana head out though. He's a great missionary.

I got the package [shirts and socks!] - thanks a ton. I am surviving the heat. This summer doesn't fully compare to last summer so far. I've been drinking a lot of water and getting in somewhere cool periodically though. The Hispanic culture is so kind and giving: every person we visit gives us a water bottle when we get there and another for the road. So I'm doing well.

I love being out here and I love this people. Serving a mission is so fun and so rewarding. I've learned so much out here, but one lesson that has been sticking out to me lately is how much God loves all of us. When I talk to someone, I try to think, "God loves this person just as much as He loves me, and He wants this person to be happy." Seeing His hand in missionary work and in the lives of others has really opened my eyes to see all that He has done for me as well. Definitely has helped me have more gratitude.

I love y'all! Gracias por todo!

Elder Elliot

Newhall First Ward missionary newsletter

Here is the most recent Newhall First Ward missionary newsletter from Sister Connie Hollingworth (pictured), with reports from Elliot, Kyle Hill Javan Hatch, CJ Norris, Adam Martin, Carlton Reininger, Travis Rylander, and JK McKeon. We really appreciate Sister Hollingworth putting this together every month!

Enjoy the newsletter after the jump.

Elliot's June 25 email

Here's the latest email from Elliot.

Hello!

Good news-I'm going to train again! Elder Phillips (my MTC companion who is one of the Assistants now) called me last night to tell me the news. So I'll for sure be spending the last 6 weeks of my mission here in OK City and I'll have another new missionary. No news on whether or not Elder Orellana is going to stay. It seems very possible that he and my new missionary will both be here this next transfer and that they'll stay together after I leave. Whatever happens, I'm pretty excited. A lot of missionaries never have the opportunity to train, but I'm blessed enough to train 4 new missionaries. It's so fun. I also found out that I will no longer be a District Leader, so I'll be able to just focus on my companion(s) and the area. That'll be a nice change since the last 9 transfers I've either been a DL or Zone Leader.

Oklahoma City seems a little deflated after getting knocked out quickly by the Heat. We just stopped in at Academy and everything Thunder related is half off. We went to Brick Town/downtown to see the set up for the Finals last Monday. It was pretty cool. I have it all on film so eventually I'll get that developed.

But life's good! We set a baptismal goal with the guy I told you about last week that we found. We also found a lot more new people to teach and have been having fun even though it has been getting so hot lately. I just want to finish out strong and give it all I got. The Lord has blessed me with so much more than I deserve and I want to show him my gratitude. I'm grateful for the enabling power of the Atonement to make more out of me than I could ever make out of myself, and I want to make the most out of the opportunity I have in front of me right now.

I haven't gotten the shirts yet, but the office sometimes takes a week or so to get packages through. I did get the Target gift card though and that is very much appreciated! I already put that to good use. So thanks for that! Hope you guys have a great week!

Love,

Elder Elliot

53 Days Left

Of the 735 total days that Elliot will be gone on his mission to Oklahoma, only 53 remain. We try not to get too excited about his return, since that will just make us crazy. And we certainly try to avoid reminding him how little time he has left, since he needs to stay focused on what he is doing and not worry about what he will do when he returns home. But we're obviously excited.

We recently received his travel itinerary from the Church. He returns August 16. For those who like to plan ahead, he is scheduled to speak about his mission experience at 1:00 p.m. on Sunday, August 19, at the LDS chapel located at 24915 Peachland Avenue, Newhall, California (map). Everyone is welcome. His friend Carlton Reininger returns just a day earlier from his mission to Argentina and will speak at the same meeting, so it should be a great day.

Elliot's June 18 email and pictures

Here's the latest email from Elliot. There are several new pictures after the jump.

Happy Father's Day dad! I'm glad to hear you had a good one. You deserve it.

This past week was pretty good for us. We had Temple Conference which was nice. The north half of the mission went up to Surrey Hills and got to go to the temple and have other meetings. President Southward, the OKC Temple President, and his wife also spoke to us which was way cool. We also had Stake Conference Saturday-Sunday. President and Sister Taylor spoke at that as well as President and Sister Southward. So I got to hear a ton of great talks and trainings this past week.

We had quite a few good lessons this past week. We feel like a few of the people we're teaching are really sincere and have a lot of potential. So there's a lot for us to do right now. Yesterday we also had a really cool finding miracle. Yesterday was hot and humid, not atypical for Oklahoma. We were working hard and trying to follow the Spirit but we just weren't really having much success. We were hot and pretty tired and decided to start biking over to try to visit one of our investigators a couple of miles away instead of continuing to work the street we were on. As we were going I felt like we should take a different street than usual. When we turned on the street I thought we needed to get off of our bikes and knock just a couple of doors, contrary to what we wanted to do. When we go tracting we don't knock every door on the street, unless we feel that's what we're supposed to do. We try to discern by the Spirit which houses to try. Elder Orellana felt we should go to one house. We introduced ourselves to the young man at the door who at first seemed like he's not taking this too seriously. It turned around really quickly. We introduced ourselves as representatives of Jesus Christ and how we were there to pray for him and ask the Lord's blessings to be with him. He accepted the offer for us to pray with him. We asked if there was anything in particular he would like us to pray for, and in response he told us about the tough times he was going through. He got into some rough things down in Dallas when he was a bit younger but changed his life around, became a Christian, and left his street gang, and cleaned up his act. He had just barely made it to OK City and had to come because Dallas was just not a good place for him any more. We prayed very specifically for him and his family. Afterwards he had tears in his eyes and the Spirit was so strong. We testified of the power of the Atonement to change lives and cover our mistakes. He was very moved and gladly accepted to have us come back by and teach him. It was such a great experience and it shows me that God is mindful of all of us and is definitely guiding us in this work. That brings me a lot of happiness.

I have pictures to send y'all! I'll attatch them to this email. Also I have a bit of a favor to ask. If I remember correctly we had like 3-4 extra short sleeved shirts that we bought before I came out. If that's the case, do you think you might be able to send them out? That would be super nice to have now that it's so hot. Thanks!

Have fun at girl's camp mom!

Love,

Elder Elliot

Elliot's June 11 email

Here's the latest email from Elliot.

Hi familia!

That's so cool that you ran into Patrick Spiker. I got an email from him so I'm gonna get back to him after y'all. I'm definitely pumped to be living near all of them from the SCV as well as some missionaries here that are going to live in Liberty Square. That's crazy to think that he's back now. Its also crazy to think that today is my 22 month mark. Can you believe that? It goes by too fast. Everyone out here sees me as the old guy in the mission now haha.

This past week was pretty good. We're just trying to keep working hard and get things moving. Our investigator who came to church last week actually left town for the next 3 weeks, but we've been keeping in touch with him. We also have 2-3 appointments set up for every single day so we should have a good week here. I also went on exchanges with Elder Grover which was fun. He and Elder Andersen (both former companions of mine) are my ZLs and it's been cool. So it was a good week until yesterday when I came down with some kind of a 24 hour stomach virus. I pretty much just laid down all day after church and took it easy. I'm feeling a ton better today though, so no worries.

Today I think we are going to go to the science museum here in OKC which should be fun. I'll be sure to tell you about it next week!

I love y'all!

Elder Elliot

Elliot's June 4 email and pictures

Here's the latest email from Elliot, with several new pictures after the jump.

I'm an uncle! That's so awesome. Tell Kim and Keith I say congrats! I'm so excited to meet her when I get back! [Keith (Elliot's older brother) and Kim were blessed with a beautiful baby girl, Adelyn Ruth Adair, on June 1.]

This past week was extremely eventful. On Tuesday we had definitely the craziest storm out of all the ones I've been through here. We were teaching a family we found the week before and right at the end of a great lesson it started pouring. We were on our bikes about 4 or 5 miles from our apartment and they told us to hold off and see if the rain didn't die down. A few minutes later we start getting hail somewhere between the size of golf balls and tennis balls with a ton of wind. The man of the house we were teaching ran out in it to move his truck underneath a shed and in the process got hit in the hand by hail which bruised it up. They turned on the weather channel and being the only one who spoke English in the situation I translated for them. Apparently a tornado touched down west of OKC somewhere. A couple minutes later the tornado alarms went off which was tied with the tornado LTM last spring in intense-ness. About 5 or so minutes later everything calmed down and the other Elders in the branch, Charlesworth and Hernandez, came and picked us up and we went to the church. We pretty much rode out the storm there until 11 at night or so when we got a call that it was safe to return home. It was wild.

This past week was pretty awesome. We set 3 baptismal goals and had an investigator at church. He had an awesome time too. He had been visiting with the missionaries in Indiana for about 3 months but then moved to our area like 2 weeks ago. We met him like 8 days ago when we were walking down the street. He was like a block down from us on a side street and when he saw us yelled, "Hey amigos! Venganse! (Hey friends! Come over here)" He had never gone to church before in Indiana but Saturday he texted us and said he wanted to come. He had such a great time. The Spanish Branch here is awesome because like 95% of them are converts and many of them have had similar experiences. He bore his testimony in Sacrament Meeting of God's love and how important families are and how we need to love our children. Everyone was so nice and welcoming to him and he loved it. We went by later on and he was still smiling.

I'm with you guys on eating healthier and stuff. Today I bought a lot of fruit and healthy foods to eat. It's definitely easy to get out of shape out here but I've been doing better here lately. Also I've been cutting back on soda and how much I eat in general.

Anyway I love yall! I took some pictures of my district [above] and some of the damage from the storms [below].

Love,

Elder Elliot

Elliot's May 29 email

Here's the latest email from Elliot, a day late due to yesterday's holiday. It sounds like he's happy in his new area, back in Oklahoma City, where he likely will stay until the end of his mission in August.

Hola!

So this past week was pretty awesome, not gonna lie. I never realized how out of place I felt being in the country until I came back to the heart of Oklahoma City. And my area is all city. We live at NW 39th St and Amelia in an apartment (can't remember what they're called) and our area is about 2 miles east to west, from Meridian on the west to May on the east. Our southern border is Reno and to the north we don't really have a boundary line, but we rarely head that direction. It's a super small area relative to the others I've been in, and I'm on a bike which is sweet. And there are tons of people everywhere.

My new companion is Elder Roberto Orellana. He's originally from El Salvador, was baptized in Taylorsville, UT, but came to the mission from Dallas, TX. He's solid. He was baptized 5 years ago by Noah Hartsock, who was either a forward or a center for BYU's basketball team when I was there if I remember correctly. [Noah is from Bartlesville, Oklahoma, and served his mission in Salt Lake City. His senior season on the BYU basketball team was 2011-12.] He's spent the last 4 months or so going out with the APs from Dallas and definitely came here prepared from day 1. We really wanted to jumpstart the area so we just got to work. We had a ton of miracles and ended up with 16 new investigators, many of whom seem solid. So we're excited for the area and I'm super glad to be back in a Spanish Branch.

Well I'm sitting here watching my time on the computer wind down. I love you all and glad to know everything's going well. I'm excited to be an uncle soon!

Les amo!

Elder Elliot

New pictures of Elliot

President and Sister Taylor posted a bunch of new pictures on their blog. Here are several that include Elliot. 

Elliot's May 21 email

Here's the latest email from Elliot. He's moving from Lawton to Oklahoma City, likely his last transfer of the mission. He's due home August 16!

Hola!

Well I'm having a bit of a rushed p-day with having to head out this week so sorry if my email isn't too long today. Transfers are this Wednesday and I'm heading up to the OKC 4th Central area. I'm a little nervous and a lot excited to go back to a Spanish area. President also told me that I'm going to be the district leader so that makes it a shotgun-train-district leader assignment. Should be fun! I'll miss Lawton though. This has been a good area and Elder Teisina's been an awesome companion. But that's part of the mission. The Lord puts us where he needs us and only for how long he needs us there.

All of my district I'm going to is Spanish and we're all in the same branch. There will be me and my companion, 3 Hermanas, and another companionship of Elders. It should be a really fun time. With the exception of me and Hermana Turner, the whole district is young in the mission. There will be 2 brand new missionaries and the rest have been out for 7 months or less. I imagine there will be a really good excitement there. I hear the work in the Spanish areas is taking off right now.

Well I gotta run! I love y'all and I'll talk to you next week!

Love,

Elder Elliot

Elliot's May 14 email and pictures

Here's the latest email from Elliot, with several pictures after the jump. Check out the pictures and play the "guess where Elder Elliot is" game. With a little bit of educated guesswork, it may actually be possible to figure out where each picture was taken.

Hey family!

It was great talking to y'all yesterday! I hope you enjoyed the dinner dad and Alyssa made for you mom and that you had a great dia de las madres. I'm glad to know everything's going well back home and that I'm almost an uncle now. I hope Kim's doing alright!

So there's not really much news besides what I shared with ya yesterday, but I promised we'd play the "guess where Elder Elliot is" game. So I'm going to send a handful of pictures and you have to figure out where it was. All of them will be in southwestern Oklahoma but will be in different towns and stuff. We did quite a bit of traveling our zone this past week. Hope you have fun!

I love y'all! Have a great week!

Con amor.

Elder Elliot

Elliot's May 7 email and pictures

Here's the latest email from Elliot, with a couple of new pictures after the jump.

Hello!

For Mother's Day is it alright if I call at 7:30 my time (5:30 your time)? [Time for the last of our twice-yearly calls!] That'll work well for me and hopefully will give you enough time for all of your church meetings. I'll plan on calling then.

So big news: President Taylor called me yesterday and told me some transfer doctrine. I'll be training a new missionary in the South Spanish Branch! I don't think I am going to be in the same area as at the beginning of my mission, but I'll be in the same branch. I'm so excited. Transfers aren't until the 23rd of this month, but there is a meeting for the trainers this Wednesday that'll I'll be heading up to Moore for. I'm definitely going to miss Lawton but I'm excited to go back to the South and speak Spanish. I wonder how well I can speak though after not being in a Spanish area for like 15 months. It'll be fun.

In other news: Elder Franco got moved out just as suddenly as he got moved in. There was an opening in El Reno so he got moved to fill in. Definitely miss him, but that's part of the mission I guess.

Things are fine here. We have a baptism this next week on the19th which is exciting. This area has been consistently going well the entire time since I got here. The ward is great and really supportive. I finally feel like I'm at the point in my mission where I have a general hang of things. Maybe that's why God wants me back in a Spanish area, mix things up a bit. But I just want to hold nothing back for this last little stretch of the mission. It goes by so fast.

Well I love y'all and look forward to talking on Sunday!

Love,

Elder Elliot

Newhall First Ward missionary newsletter

Here is the most recent Newhall First Ward missionary newsletter from Sister Connie Hollingworth (pictured), with reports from Elliot, Javan Hatch, Kyle Hill, Adam Martin (his first appearance in the newsletter since he recently reported to the MTC in Brazil), JK McKeon, CJ Norris, and Carlton Reininger.  We really appreciate Sister Hollingworth putting this together every month!

Enjoy the newsletter after the jump.