Adair State Park in Oklahoma

Located within the city limits of Stilwell in northeastern Oklahoma is Adair State Park.  No, it was not named for Elliot.  He'll never even get to visit, since it falls outside his mission boundaries.  But we like having a state park with the family name in Oklahoma, even if we haven't been able to make a direct family link to the naming of the park (yet).  There are a bunch of pictures of the park and a couple of links after the jump. 

Elliot's second February 14 email with pictures!

Here's Elliot's second (brief) email of today, along with three pictures that you can see after the jump.

Here are three pictures too!

One is that -7 sign, another a text from President and his wife, and then me in Bessie. Bessie is so small it's awesome. We tracted about half of the whole town in around an hour and 45 minutes.

Elliot's February 14 email

Here's today's email from Elliot.  The weather has turned for the better, with temperatures no longer in the negative digits!  He'll get a new companion on Wednesday, Elder Kimber, but we don't know anything about him yet.  Hopefully we'll learn more next week.  I've posted some pictures of a couple of the Oklahoma towns Elliot mentions, Cordell and Bessie.  And I just got another short email from Elliot with some pictures.  I'll post those separately.  Enjoy Elliot's email after the jump.

29th annual Norman Chocolate Festival

They celebrated Elliot's birthday in a big way in Norman, Oklahoma (by Oklahoma City) on Saturday with the 29th annual Norman Chocolate Festival. Don't watch the video if you're hungry. But if you do watch it, don't miss the little girl with her hair in curlers (at :30) and the huge plate of chocolate chip cookies (at 1:40).

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

Happy Birthday, Elliot!

Twenty years ago today, Elliot Clifford Adair arrived in North Hollywood, California.  We can't share his 20th birthday with him but we wish him a very happy birthday and hope he got some cake.  Speaking of cake, after the jump you can see a couple of pictures of Elliot from 16 years ago, including one of him with his birthday cake and his Grandpa Munson.  Happy birthday, Elliot!

Newhall First Ward missionary newsletter

Here is the most recent Newhall First Ward missionary newsletter from Sister Connie Hollingworth.  We really appreciate her putting this together every month!  Enjoy the newsletter after the jump.