New pictures of Elliot

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

A surprise text message and picture

Last December, we got a text message from the branch president where Elliot was then serving in Oklahoma City. It was great to get that message, which included a picture of Elliot. We assumed that would be the only time we would ever receive such an unexpected and wonderful surprise.

Wrong. Late Thursday evening, as I got into my car to drive home from a work event, I glanced at my phone and saw I had a message. I didn't recognize the number but I saw there was a picture attached. It turns out the message was from Adrienne from Wichita Falls. She has been investigating the gospel and meeting with Elliot and Elder Jacobson. She told us what a blessing Elliot has been in her life and thanked us (meaning Lori, obviously) for raising him so well. She included a picture of herself with Elliot and Elder Jacobson. What a treat! We really appreciated hearing from her and wanted to share the picture she sent to us.

Elliot's September 26 email and picture

Here's the latest message from Elliot, and a new picture too.

Hola familia,

I love that chapter mom. Romans 8 is really one of my favorite in all of the scriptures. In fact I just opened up to that chapter and it had a little mormon.org card as a bookmark in it. I like verses 16-18, especially 18 which says, "For I reckon that the sufferings of the present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us." That's strong words: our sufferings aren't worthy to be compared to our goal. Pretty awesome I think.

Well I hope y'all are adjusting alright to a quieter home. Is Alyssa enjoying college so far? I hope so.

I'm doing pretty good. Elder Jacobson and I both got sick for a few days this past week. It wasn't super bad, but a number of the ward members had it. We still had a good week though. On Saturday we biked 32 miles. We had to go see all of the Spanish people that the other Elders in WF had run into because I'm the only Spanish missionary. It was a lot of biking, and my legs are a bit sore, but it was fun. I don't plan on ever doing it again though haha. Too much.

President Taylor came to our ward this week. He spoke in Sacrament meeting and gave an incredible talk. He spoke about missionary work and more specifically about the Doctrine of Christ, which is what he always talks about. But it's the most important thing to understand. It's faith in Jesus Christ, repentance, baptism (sacrament) and other covenants, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. A lot of my study on the mission has been dedicated to understanding more fully these principles and ordinances. It really is the key to salvation. I'm just here to help people understand this and apply it in their own lives.

Adrinne is still doing well. We're just trying to pinpoint a day for her baptism within these next few weeks. Her faith has grown so much. It's so awesome to see how humble and willing to change she is, and how much the gospel has already helped her. She's awesome.

This week I'm gonna be heading up to OK City for a 2 day LTM [leadership training meeting]. It should be really cool as always. I hope y'all have a great General Conference weekend!

Love,

Elder Elliot Adair

Elliot's September 19 email and picture

Here's the latest message from Elliot.  It looks like he finally got his dad's haircut!  As to what he's eating, I have absolutely no idea.  Leave your guesses in the comments section.

Hola!

I got the package mom! Thank you so much. I wore the tie that you gave me to church yesterday. Also, yes the strawberry stuff you gave me all melted together, but it was definitely still very good. And the Subway gift card is perfecto! Y el CD!

Man it's nice to be in Texas. It's weird. This is officially the longest I've been in an area. It's good, because this is a great area and the people are awesome. Plus, it rained this week! We had some crazy storms roll through. A lot of lightning and thunder.

This week was kinda tough though. My companion's bike was out of commission every day besides Sunday. We finally got it back from the shop Saturday night, and then he got a flat Sunday morning. On Saturday we walked 5-6 miles to an appointment that ended up falling through anyway. But we still had quite a few good things happen.

Adrinne is doing really well. We visited with her a few times this past week and she wants to get baptized very badly. We have a few challenges to overcome, but she has had such an incredible increase in faith that I don't think anything is gonna get in her way. She's so awesome. We hope to be able to do anything we can to help her out. We have a few other things that are moving along pretty well too. So I'm happy.

I love y'all!

Elder Elliot Adair

Elliot's September 6 email and pictures

Here's the latest email from Elliot, a day late due to Labor Day.  There's also two pictures after the jump.

Hola!

It's not 110 outside! It doesn't even feel real, but it's awesome. Now we just need rain. I haven't really been affected by the fires. We can see some smoke though from the one near Lawton, but it's all pretty far away from what I can tell.

I really am enjoying being in a 3-some. In some ways it's challenging, and doing some things takes longer than if it was just 2 of us. It's so fun though. We'll be together until at least next Wednesday, when we have transfers. I really hope I don't get transferred again, but judging by my track record there's a good chance. I love Texas.

This past week was tough but good. Quite a few things fell through and quite a few tires got flat, but that happens. We have finished teaching Adrinne all of the lessons now, and she seems pretty excited about all of it. She's so awesome. It's been so cool to work with her, see her faith grow, and just have a good time about it. We're planning on going bowling for family home evening sometime this week. We have a few other investigators that are going pretty well right now too. We have 3 appointments tonight with investigators so it should be cool. I'm excited for the work and just trying to stay strong during this middle stretch of my mission.

This past week we went to an investigator's house on the far northeast side of Wichita Falls, which isn't the best area. We knew there was a path next to the Wichita River so we tried to find it instead of riding back on the streets. We ended up getting on a mountain bike trail on the wrong side of the river, but it was so sweet. We were still able to talk to a few people and had a super fun time, but it made me think about how you always go biking, dad. It was pretty cool. We can go ride in 11 months.

Love yall!

Elder Elliot Adair

Elliot's August 22 email and pictures

Here's the latest email from Elliot.

Buenos dias!

Sounds like it'll be an exciting week! That's a lot going on but I'm sure it'll be fun. Let me know how everything goes!

This past Saturday I tried something called a Hatch Chili Pepper. It was the hottest thing I've ever tried, and I've eaten some really spicy things before. I got it all on video, me eating it. Classic.

My bike is still going through some desafios [challenges]. I put my bike down in front of an investigator’s house and when I picked it back up there were a bunch of cactus spines which I discovered only after having a bunch of them stick into my hand. So I'm going to have to replace my grips. My rear brake got knocked loose the other day but I haven't gotten to fixing it yet. And I think one of the pedals might bust here soon. But it's a good bike and I'm sure will last me for the next year.

We had an awesome week. We taught 20 lessons overall. We've been keeping super busy, so much so that we didn't tract for more than a half hour to an hour all week long. I've never had a time in my mission where I've just taught so many lessons. We're seeing miracles happen and people coming back to church. Yesterday we discoverd that Adrinne, who had been coming to church for the last 6 months, is not actually a member. She loves the church though. She even has an app on her iPhone (Gospel Library?) that she studies at night when she has questions. She's reading the Book of Mormon and likes the example all of the church members set. It was definitely an answer to a prayer for me, because the night before I prayed that there would be someone at church who we could help out. We’re gonna visit with her sometime this week.

So everything's awesome. We've been having a lot of fun, and I couldn't complain!

I love yall!

Elder Elliot Adair

And remember: BEARS [See the picture after the jump to know what this means.]

New pictures of Elliot

President and Sister Taylor posted new pictures on their blog, including a few of Elliot with other missionaries and with his new companion, Elder Jacobson.  The first is from a leadership training meeting Elliot attended July 19-22 in Oklahoma City.  The rest are from transfer day on August 3.  Here they are!

Elliot at the July 2011 Leadership Training Meeting with Sister Davey and Elder Aliifua

Elliot and other missionaries at August 3, 2011 transfer day

Elliot and other missionaries at August 3, 2011 transfer day

Elliot and Elder Peper, Elder Callahan, and Elder Jacobson at August 3, 2011 transfer day

Oklahoma Tornadoes

We knew there would be days like this when we sent Elliot off to Oklahoma.  Days of worry about his safety, frantically hitting the refresh button to get the latest updates on the internet, listening to the local emergency weather radio channel, watching for news on CNN/Fox/msnbc.  It has definitely not been a happy day.  But as of late Tuesday evening, the storm systems have moved to the east and Elliot's immediate area does not appear to have been impacted by the worst of the weather, although there was one tornado near Washington that was too close for comfort.  Sadly, there were many parts of Oklahoma that were greatly impacted by tornadoes and other severe weather.  The news reports are frightening.  According to the most recent update from The Oklahoman:

At least five people were killed and dozens more injured after multiple tornadoes ripped through Oklahoma on Tuesday, including a massive twister that left a trail of damage 50 miles long.

Four of the deaths were in Canadian County, said Cherokee Ballard, a spokeswoman for the state medical examiner. A fifth person died in Chickasha when a tornado hit a mobile home park, fire Capt. Chris Calhoun said. An Edmond woman also died in a car wreck as she rushed home to seek shelter from the storms, authorities said.

Motorists seem to have borne the worst of the impacts:

At least three of the fatalities in Canadian County were on Interstate 40 near mile marker 113 where cars were blown off the highway, authorities said.

Oklahoma Highway Patrol Capt. Chris West said troopers still were working to identify the victims late Tuesday. He said some of the victims were found 300 to 400 yards from abandoned vehicles.

Four cars on I-40 were torn apart by the twister, and the highway was littered with car parts. A tractor-trailer also was severely damaged, but the driver survived.

The most destructive tornado struck in the vicinity of El Reno, Oklahoma:

Much of the damage Tuesday came from one large tornado that touched down north of Lookeba in Caddo County and moved northeast into Canadian County, where it killed people on I-40 and destroyed homes and businesses west and north of El Reno.

The twister destroyed more homes in the Piedmont area and caused serious injuries before it moved into southeastern Kingfisher County, damaging homes south of Cashion, and continued into Logan County, causing more damage. The storm continued to cause damage into Payne County near Stillwater.

The video footage is powerful:





The Oklahoman has posted a series of photos, some of which you can see after the jump.

We'll look forward to hearing from Elliot next Monday but we're confident he's fine.

More pictures of Elliot

I recently discovered that Elliot's mission president and his wife, Nolan and Rhonda Taylor (pictured at right), maintain a blog about their mission experience in Oklahoma.  It's great to see what's going on in Elliot's mission, beyond what we learn from his weekly emails.  And best of all, there are some pictures of Elliot that we hadn't seen before.  I've copied them below, after the jump.  We'll follow the mission blog and post any new pictures we find.

Elliot's May 23 email and pictures

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

Hey!

Tell Alyssa congrats on everything! That's super exciting. I couldn't hear the singing on these library computers, but it looks like it was awesome. [Alyssa is wrapping up her senior year at Hart High.  On Friday, she sang a solo at the spring concert.  She graduates Wednesday and heads to BYU in August.]

We did get a lot of rain and crazy thunder and lightning and everything! We were okay, it actually never was raining while we were out, but we were under a few tornado watches and stuff. Oklahoma is exciting!

My new companion, Elder Derrick Nield (from Smithfield, UT) is awesome. We've been having a good time and the work's going pretty well. He's definitely adjusted to the routine of missionary work quickly. We're getting referrals and working hard!  [I found some pictures of Elder Nield from his high school basketball days here.  And here is a link to his page on missionsite.net.]

We had a tougher week. We took one of the recent converts in the ward to a set of 3 appointments we had set up, all of which fell through. It was a mega bummer. But I've learned that when something seems to go wrong, 5 things go right. We headed up to Noble after, and finding we had about an hour of free time, went tracting. We prayed to know where we should go, and looking at a map of the town, felt inspired to go to a block on the complete opposite side of town from where we were. But, of course, God knows better than we do, so we went. We tracted a street and didn't find anyone wanting to hear from us, so we walked back towards the car, and saw a guy working on his car around the corner from where we were parked. We offered to lend a hand (even though I don't know how in the world to work on cars), and he politely declined. We got to talking though. He was from Guatemala, had talked to missionaries there a few times, but never got a chance to learn much. The Spirit was strong though. He was very receptive, took a Book of Mormon, and we have plans to go back and visit later. Finding those that you're supposed to is the greatest feeling in the mission, I think. Later on we had a lesson with one of our investigators who said she really didn't feel ready to accept the Gospel of Jesus Christ in her life, though she was quick to recognize us as representatives of the Lord. It was hard, seeing her unwilling to read, pray, attend church and do the things that would make her life so much better, but that's how it goes. We left feeling we did all we could, but a bit disheartened, understandably. Just then a member calls us a gives us this awesome referral. The guy had been going through a real tough time. His house burned down, and all that wasn't destroyed got stolen. He expressed to the member that he was unsatisfied with his current church, and the member promptly invited him to come to ours. He did. After church yesterday, he said that he felt right at home as soon as he entered the building, and he knew that's where the Lord wanted him. He wants to come next week with his family. We're visiting them tonight, and are going to invite them to be baptized. 

I guess that's why the mission, this inspired work, leaves me so happy in the end. It seems like no matter what, the good outweighs the bad in the end. It's tough, humid, sticky, slow, but awesome.

I love you!

Elder Elliot Adair

More new pictures of Carlton Reininger

Shannon Reininger sent some new pictures of Carlton Reininger.  These pictures come from the blog maintained by Carlton's mission president and his wife, the Lindahls.

And if you're wondering why we don't post more pictures of Elliot, he told us today that he left the charger for his camera in his last area, Clinton, but just got it back this week.  Hopefully we'll get some new pictures of Elliot soon.

Enjoy the pictures of Carlton and other missionaries from the Mendoza Argentina mission after the jump.

Elliot's April 18 email and pictures of his apartment in Purcell

Here's the latest email from Elliot.  We're glad to hear that the recent tornadoes were not a problem where he is, although a flying kiddie pool must have been quite a sight!  He describes where his current apartment is so I have included a couple of screen shots of the complex.  He's living in the north end of Purcell, just off the main road (Green Avenue) that runs through town.  Check out the pictures after the jump.

Hola!

Como estan?

Our apartments are at the corner of 9th and Hallmark Blvd in Purcell. I think they're called Wind Ridge. It is terribly windy. The other day it was so windy that we couldn't even bike, so we walked, but it was crazy. One of those kiddie pools that you fill up with a hose flew past us in the air and rolled down the street like a half mile. Only in Oklahoma. I'm pretty sure that was the day where all of the other storms happened. We were just fine though here in Purcell. We're just hoping for some rain to because it's pretty bad out here.

Things are going really well out here actually. The members are super active in missionary work, and it's great. In fact, everyone that we're teaching right now has come from a member referral. And even though our teaching pool isn't super huge, we're seeing success and I'm really excited for what these next few transfers might bring. We've taught some awesome people these past few days, and I can really see how the work of members sharing the Gospel is paying off! The members even come out teaching with us quite a bit, and it's been mega awesome.

Well, I gotta run, sorry for the short email, but know that I'm happy and healthy and grateful for everything!

Love you!

Elder Elliot Adair

Elliot's April 11 email and pictures

Here's the latest email from Elliot, with some pictures.  Sounds like he's settling in and enjoying his new area.  Enjoy the pictures after the break.

Hello!

So everything's going good out here in OK right now. Yesterday was the first time I went to church in this new area and it went really well! The ward's awesome and everyone is super nice and helpful. I'm really excited now to work here, and I think we'll see a lot of success.

Yesterday we actually got fed twice, a lunch and a dinner, and that alone is enough to make it a good day. But, way more awesomeness occurred. We had lunch with the Sextons, and before it was prepared, Brother Sexton took us to see a few of his friends. Both of the families we tried with him, he had been talking to about the church for a while. So we have plans to go back and see them and to what I can tell they're very prepared to receive the Gospel. Later on that night, after dinner with the Lambs, and all of their extended family, the former bishop asked us to go with him to give a blessing to a family that he's really good friends with, that aren't members. The dad has been having serious heart problems, but nothing that can't be overcome, but it's really been a big blow to them. We gave him a blessing as well as his wife and one of his sons. I really felt their pain that they were going through, and really just wanted to help. They have been good friends with members of the Church for a long time, and I feel like they would also be ready to get the happiness and peace that comes from living the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We had an awesome day yesterday to cap off a pretty good week, and I really feel like we could see a few families get baptized within these next few transfers and work towards that goal of being together forever.

I'm happy, healthy, and well fed out here. Me and my companion are getting along well, and I'm having fun with the work. The guest room looks awesome mom! I love you all and hope you're doing well!

Love,

Elder Elliot Adair

And I attached some pictures so enjoy!

(The other missionary in one of the pictures is Elder Steven McCord Kimber, my last companion)

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 March 28 email and pictures

Here's the latest message from Elliot, along with some pictures.  He's getting transferred to a new area (more on that later) as a senior companion.  You can see the pictures after the jump.

Hola!

So I'm getting transferred! I'm gonna head to the Noble-Purcell area as senior companion. It should be an interesting new challenge but I'm looking forward to it. My new companion will be Elder Endicott. My companion right now, Elder Stephen McCord Kimber, is going to be training out in Clinton, which would be a very exciting greenie area. I love Clinton. It's so fun and the members are way awesome, but a change of pace will be nice. Besides I hear the work is going really well in Noble! It'll be hard to head out I think, but it's fun to get into new areas.

We've been teaching a lot lately and having a lot of fun doing it. A lot of our investigators are progressing well, especially "Bob," who I told you about last week. Apparently he's about to go camping for a few weeks though, so that could make things interesting. One funny thing that happened this past week was that we went and taught a family in "The Flats," the allegedly ghetto part of town. There were like 7 kids all 10 and under while we were trying to teach, which was a little crazy. After a few minutes the kids got a hold of paper and markers and all started to draw. Next thing you know they had given us a total of 38 drawings which we then went and put on the wall of our apartment! It was so fun. And the lesson went really well too I would say. It was just so funny because they were drawing us, trying to draw crosses, and gave us at least 5 pictures that say "I love Jesus." It was awesome. I'm loving the work and those I'm working around so everything's going good!

I gotta be heading out here in a minute, but I'm gonna attach a few pictures first! I got a new roll developed.

I love you all and hope everything's great! Except that all of a sudden OK decided to get cold and stormy. Oh well.

Love,

Elder Elliot Adair

Elliot reports to the Missionary Training Center

On August 11, 2010, Elliot got up very early, said goodbye to his brother Keith, his new sister-in-law Kim, and his sister Alyssa and drove to the Burbank airport with his mom, dad, and grandparents.  His flight to Salt Lake City left at 7:00 a.m.  As usual, Elliot was excited and happy.  The rest of us were very happy for him but a little sad to see him go.  We'll look forward to the four phone calls over the next two years and weekly emails.  Here are the last images of Elliot before he left.