12/22/2014

From: Ronald Adair <ronald.adair@myldsmail.net>
Sent: Monday, December 22, 2014 3:21 PM
Subject: Weekly letter to Family and Friends

Dear Family, Friends, and the like,

I will try to write for the past two weeks since i didnt get to write one last week! Two weeks ago we had the Christmas musical devotional that we set up with the Sister Missionaries! It went so well! We had more people there in the chapel than we usually do in Sacrament meeting! Everyone seriously sang and performed so well and the Spirit was so strong! So lucky to be a part of that. Two weeks ago was super warm too! 30's and 40's almost everday! There was one day when there was no more snow on the ground! It was also SUPER foggy for a couple of days and it was almost impossible to drive on the roads! Kind of scary! This week has been fun too. We keep showing a lot of people the He is the Gift video and everyone seems to love it. I personally love the video so much. On Thursday we had some appointments that fell through and we needed to get to someone's house on the other side of Lake Bemidji...so we decided to walk the whole mile and a half across it and then back! Haha super fun! On Saturday we were able to give 5 people Priesthood blessings. Such a cool opportunity. I think it's incredible how whenever we give someone a blessing, whether they a member, less-active, or nonmember, they are always so appreciative and you can tell they felt the Spirit. we were also able to help out a part-member family move out of their house which was cool. All the peope in ward are so nice and fun! I love saying hello to everyone on Sundays at church because I love them all so much! Most of them are pretty darn goofy too! One old guy was wearing a bright red sport coat to church yesterday! Haha well anyways I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas! Don't forget the real meaning of Christmas!...it's Christ, in case anyone forgot ;)

12/08/2014

From: Ronald Adair <ronald.adair@myldsmail.net>
Sent: Monday, December 8, 2014 2:07 PM
Subject: Weekly letter for Family and Friends

Dear Family and Peeps,

This past week has gone great! Monday i bought this sweet green suit coat for Christmas for $5 at a thrift store! Hopefully there will be a Christmas party or something where it would be appropriate to wear it! On Tuesday we taught this guy for the first time about the Restoration of the gospel and he seemed to take it pretty well. We should see him again sometime this week! Yay!! It turns out that he is a graphic designer and he actually made the sign that was put next to the giant Christmas tree that was brought from Minnesota to Washington D.C! Haha who knew!? We, the members in our ward, and the Sister Missionaries in our ward have been working super hard on the Christmas musical fireside that will happen on Saturday! It should be so Spiritual and i cant wait!! On Thursday we taught a friend of the Stacy family and her daughter for the first time and the daughter asked us a bunch of questions and seems pretty interested in the gospel! They both seem pretty promising as well! We went to Grand Forks, ND, again on Friday for Zone Training Meeting and it was so Spiritual. We all bore a short, personal testimony about why the Savior is important to us and it was just so awesome. On Saturday my companion and I went trapping with an investigator named Tim. His family are all members and he's is so close to getting baptized but he just fears the full commitment of becoming a member. Anyways, Tim has expressed that it brings him closer to baptism when missionaries and members just spend time with him and help him out with stuff so thats just what we did! But he anticipated incorrectly how long it would take to check all of his traps and we were out in the woods with him from 7:30 am to 5 pm without any meals! Haha but it was fun and he caught a raccoon and a little weasel right in front of our eyes! super Cool!

12/01/2014

On frozen Bemidji and Cass Lake!

From: Ronald Adair
Sent: Monday, December 1, 2014 3:07 PM
Subject: Weekly family and friends email

Dear Family and Friend-people,
Hey everybody! Sorry i couldnt send an email last week, i was pretty busy! Lemme just depict some of the cool things that have happened recently.

It's getting colder!

Thanksgiving morning it was -19 degrees! My companion and i have been walking around on the frozen lakes and it's super cool and fun! i wish i could send videos i have taken! The work is still going forward out here in Cass Lake and neither i nor my companion got transferred

so we get to stay here for the holidays...WOOHOO!

On Thanksgiving we ate a hefty and delicious meal with the wonderful Gunkel and Stacy families. Super fun!! Last week the Chessmore's (the family  we live with) went to Nebraska to celebrate Thanksgiving with family so we had the entire house to ourselves for about a week! Hahah a few nights ago Tawzan the cat was playing around with a mouse in our apartment/basement. Usually the cats just play around with mice until they die, so to make the mouse's death a little more hasty and to put it out of it's misery i shot it twice with a blow dart gun and killed it. I thought it was pretty cool!

This weekend at church was the primary program and it was just so awesome! I feel so close to all the members in our ward including the children so it was so much fun to watch all those little goofy kids singing and talking on the microphone. Sister Meneely in our ward got out of knee surgery recently and shes pretty old so we have been taking meals to her that other members in the ward have made. On Saturday we visited her and she asked for a blessing because she felt so nauseated and fatigued from the pain medication she was taking. She asked me to give the blessing and it was such a faith-builder for me about the Priesthood. She couldnt hear the blessing because shes pretty deaf, but she was crying by the end of it and it just touched me how much faith she has. What a privilege it is to interact with her and her husband often. Anyways i hope everyone had a splendid Thanksgiving! I strongly encourage all who read this email to watch the "He is the Gift" video on Youtube and invite others to watch it and to remember the Savior this Christmas season.

Love,

Elder Adair

11/17/2014

From: Ronald Adair <ronald.adair@myldsmail.net>
Sent: Monday, November 17, 2014 10:43 AM
Subject: Weekly Letter to Family and Friends (Nov 12-16)

Boozhoo everyone! (Boozhoo is hello in Ojibwe) This past week was a lot of fun! Wednesday we got to drive to Grand Forks ND for Zone Conference to watch Meet the Mormons. It was a very good movie and i think more people should watch it! It portrays the lives of 6 different Mormon families that live all around the world and it's very insightful. Thursday my companion got really sick and so we decided to stay home most of the day so he could rest and heal faster. I learned how to make corn chowder at the Stacys' house! My mom makes it at home and it's SO good! On Friday we drove to Grand Forks again for Zone Training Meeting which was great! After ZTM we went on exchanges with the Bagley Elders so i got spend the second part of Friday and the first part of Saturday in Bagley with Elder Briggs! I can see how hardworking the Elders in Bagley are because they have to walk around Bagley most of the time instead of drive so they can save miles for when they need to travel to different cities in their area (we get a limited number of miles to drive every month). Let me tell you, it's not fun walking around for hours at night in 8 degree weather! Haha i wish i would have brought a bigger coat when i went to Bagley because i underestimated how cold it would be! I could feel my nose hairs getting stiff! haha! Sunday was very busy for us. After sacrament meeting we were running around the church doing churchy duties almost until church was over! We had the opportunity to give a blessing to Bro. Hagen and also stand in the circle when the Aaronic Priesthood was conferred upon Bro. Stacy! I cant believe he has the Aaronic Priesthood now! Its just so awesome!! We had our weekly meeting with our ward mission leader at his house and felt a little bad because he always feeds us and i ate so much of his food! My companion is teaching me how to drift in the snow and it's so fun! Anywho, I love you all!

Love,

Elder Adair

11/09/2014

From: Ronald Adair <ronald.adair@myldsmail.net>
Sent: Monday, November 10, 2014 1:00 PM
Subject: Weekly family and friends email

Dear Family and Friends,

This week was pretty fun! Last Monday we were able to spend some time cleaning the Stacys' home which was surprisingly fun! We sprayed an overwhelming amount of cologne in their bedroom (but we didn't clean their bedroom )while we were cleaning as a fun prank:) John came into the house and saw his door open and said, (while we were in a different room) "Did those guys go into my bedroom? I may have to stab a couple of missionaries!" Haha he was a little annoyed but he wasn't really going to stab us. Its gettin' pretty cold here! Right now it's in the 10's and 20's and theres about 4 inches of snow everywhere! Everyone around is BIG into hunting, so I have to pretend to know what they are talking about when they try to talk about it! We ate dinner at the Stacys' house on Tuesday with a few friends they invited over. We didn't have time to teach them a lesson but we plan to show up at their house soon! We are having some good teaching opportunities with some families and they seem promising! Saturday we did service for Bro Chessmore and helped him build an awesome new chicken coop and a goat feeder thingy! We watched Stake Conference with the Chessmore's yesterday. We are in the Fargo Stake...Fargo is in North Dakota! Im so used to having multiple stakes in just one city! This coming week for my "greeny traning" I get to plan out every day and everything we teach so it should be interesting! This week we also get to drive to Grand Forks on Wednesday for Zone Conference and again on Friday for Zone Training Meeting! I gotta make sure im careful driving in the snow!

Love,

Elder Adair

11/03/2014

On Mon, 11/3/14, Ronald Adair <ronald.adair@myldsmail.net> wrote:

Subject: Weekly email to family and friends
Date: Monday, November 3, 2014, 12:05 PM

Dear Family and
Friends,This past week we were able to drive to
Fargo ND for a quad-Zone Conference! Ive never driven that
far before and definitely not while it was snowing! Very
fun! Elder Nash from the First Quorum of the Seventy spoke
to us missionaries while we were there and it was SO
spiritual! Dang he's a great teacher. On Monday we
attended a funeral for basically one of the founders of the
Bemidji, Minnesota Ward (im stationed in Cass Lake but I go
to church in Bemidji btw). He died at age 85 and was a
patriarch to a multitude of posterity, many of who are in
our ward. He was great man. On Halloween we basically did
service the whole day. We helped out at a book store for a
cool language-learning private school and then later we
helped out at a carnival for a different church. Saturday
night we went to the chili party at our church building and
then we participated in the trunk-or-treat that followed.
Our trunk was pretty awesome! On Sunday our recent convert
John Stacy bore his testimony (which was awesome) in
Sacrament meeting and it inspired me to bear my testimony
for the first time in church since I was a young child! I
honestly cant remember the last time I did that! It was a
very spiritual Sacrament meeting. After church we gave
blessings to some people and that was awesome. I gave a
blessing of healing to two old guys (one's a less-active
and one's an investigator) and it is just the COOLEST
thing to have the Spirit speak through you like that!
We also visited the headwaters of the Mississippi River
yesterday which was so cool! After the zone conference in
Fargo my companion and I were inspired to step-up our
obedience game and things have been going a lot better!
We've had about 5 referrals in the past week! Missionary
work is just so great. I'm learning so many things about
the gospel and im definitely the happiest when doing
missionary work. Obedience is SO important. Im also learning
things about myself that may have taken me years to figure
out had I not served a mission! Dang did I have some faults
before I came out here! Haha I still have many faults but
the Lord is helping me out so much! Prayer is SO essential.
On multiple occasions I have prayed fervently and often
about certain things for the Lord to help me out with, and
then throughout the day the Spirit just gives me great ideas
on how to fix the problems! The Lord is so great and so is
the Spirit. Coming out on a mission is the best decision ive
ever made and I don't know where my life would have
taken me if I hadn't chosen to come out here. I still
have SO much to learn and im excited to keep learning.
Love, Elder Adair

On Monday, November 3, 2014 12:48 PM, tori adair <adair5kids@yahoo.com> wrote:

Ronnie it sounds like things are going great, very proud of you glad you are progressing and learning a lot. be careful of the dogs and be very careful when driving in the snow don't get distracted and pay attention only to your driving don't let your guard down. İ love you Dad talk to you next week.

09/08/2014

Date: Mon, 8 Sep 2014 14:43:48 -0500

Dear Family people, 

I don't know if you've heard but I am in Cass Lake, Minnesota! We live in a member's basement in the middle of the Ojibwe Indian Reservation in the Chippewa National Forest. My companion Elder Wendell is awesome! He's from Roseville Cailfornia and he's super nice! He's a good teacher, has a good attitude, and works hard all the time. He's about 6'2" and pretty muscular from playing rugby and his hair is basically my exact color minus the red tint. We live with the Chessmores'. The dad's name is David and he's SO funny. He likes to tease sometimes which is funny. He's 6'4" and weighs 430 pounds so he's a BIG guy. He served a mission in Puerto Rico and is 26. His wife Norabell is a really nice Hispanic lady that acts and sounds like a white lady. She's a great cook!! They have three adorable children! Dara (girl)is 3, Liam(boy) is 2, and Teyani (boy) is 1. The Chessmores' have two goats, a mini horse, 5 white turkeys, 6 ducks, and 9 chickens and a black lab. Elder Wendell and I get to eat a big meal at one of the member's houses almost every day and all the food is great! The people here are different than in Mesa. Cass Lake is run-down and there are a lot of poorer and kind of weird people and a lot of natives. Everything is just not as clean as it is in Mesa. Everyone is super nice though! On Saturday the 6th I mowed a lawn for the first time, ate bear heart for the first time, and ate some dear meat for the first time! We went bear baiting with an investigator and helped him gut and skin a bear! I had to ride in a car for 14 hours to get from Rapid City to here! I like living here with Elder Wendell and I don't get very homesick surprisingly. It was so funny...the first night I got to our house at like 10:00pm and Elder Wendell told me we were just stopping by at an investigator's house before we were to head home. Bro and Sis Chessmore were in their front yard in by the fire and acted like they weren't Mormons. They told us they needed us to come down to basement and give it a blessing because some strange demonic things had been happening down there. They led us down to the pitch dark basement and I walked in the door behind bro Chessmore. I thought to myself, "maybe I shouldn't be following this huge guy that I don't know into a pitch dark basement." Then I heard Bro Chessmore yell "AWW CRAP!" as I heard stuff falling and banging around which scared me! Then all the sudden the lights turned on and Elder Wendell says "here's your new home!" and im standing in the middle of the basement! It had been a ruse the whole time! They got me really well! I keep fervently praying to have charity for all the people I meet that are quite different from me. I believe it will work over time. This mission is really going to prepare me for life and make me a way more loving and humble person too. We are workin hard! im enjoying all of my dress clothes! I workout for about 30 min first thing after my prayers every morning and then I stretch for about 5 min. Then I eat breakfast, shower, get dressed, study personally for an hour, study with my companion for 1 sometimes 2 hours, and then go from there! We get home around 8 most of the time and chill with the Chessmore's. Then we get to bed by about 10:30. It's two hrs later here than it is in AZ. Everyone tells me that it gets to -60 degrees some winters here and im a little scared for that... The Chessmore's said that in the winter you can take a pot of boiling water outside and throw the water in the air and it will freeze before it hits the ground! But we missionaries aren't supposed to go outside when it's -30 or lower....which still seems horrible. There aren't very many people here. Today we went to a gift shop and I bought a cool shirt with an eagle on it, a cool native pocket watch, and abelt with native bead designs on it. Later tonight we are going to Applebees with some members and then going shopping for food and stuff. I hope everyone is doing well and I love you all so much!!!

Love,
Elder Adair