04/27/2015

From: Ronald Adair <ronald.adair@myldsmail.net>
Sent: Monday, April 27, 2015 10:20 AM
Subject: weekly letter to family and friends

Dear Family and Other People That I Associated With Before My Mission,

Things are happening in Williston! This past Saturday Elder Wright and I were groomsmen at our investigators' wedding in the chapel! Although their marriage has no validity in the eternities it was still very special and I felt it was a precursor to their hopeful future sealing in the temple. We were talking to the man at church yesterday and he told us something awesome! He said that he asked his new wife believed that Thomas S. Monson was a prophet; she answered yes. He asked her if she believed Joseph Smith was a true prophet; she answered yes. He asked her if she was willing to obey the Word of Wisdom; she answered yes!! Things are looking pretty sweet for them! We still have a whole lot of work to do with that family because they said that some of their family members are asking questions about the church!

One of our less-actives came to church yesterday and brought two of her friends from Africa with her. We sat down and taught the Restoration with the three last night and now the two friends of hers are on date for baptism on the 16th of May! We found out they are in the other Elders' area so we are giving the two investigators to them, but it's still great nonetheless!

We were teaching a recent convert a few days ago from Africa that speaks French and he told us that he wants to start taking us to go visit other French-speakers that live in Williston! He just loves the gospel and wants to share what he and his family has been given! So we called our mission president that night and told him about it and now we are French-speaking missionaries (mainly English still)! Woohoo!

The work is going swimmingly:)

Love,

Elder Adair

04/13/2015

From: Ronald Adair <ronald.adair@myldsmail.net>
Sent: Monday, April 13, 2015 9:59 AM
Subject: Weekly letter to family and friends

Dear Family and Friends,

Things are booming up here in Williston! For this email I will first I will write about some secular things and then some spiritual things.

Elder Wright, my companion, is from Idaho Falls and has been on his mission for nine months. This is his second transfer in Williston and he served for 7 months in Valley City, ND. 

It's pretty weird here because the sun doesn't go down until about 8:30 this time of year and I hear by July it will be setting around 11! 

Our mission president doesn't normally ever let missionaries use public gyms, but their is a giant one a few mins from our house and he let's us go there for morning exercises! I also get my membership free because we have the hookups with some members of the Church that work there! Elder Wright and I wake up at 5:45, jog to the gym, workout until 7ish and then jog home and get ready for the day. We are definitely privileged! 

We see license plates from ALL AROUND the United States here. 

We serve in the Williston 1st and 3rd wards so we are at church every Sunday from 11:30 to 6!

We drove to Minot this past Friday for Zone Training Meeting and had a good time there. Does anyone know what's in between Minot and Williston? Basically...nothing! Haha there are a few smalls towns though.

Williston is super great!

Now for some more spiritual things:

People up here are way open to the gospel. Most of our investigator are from Africa. Some from Ghana, Tanzania, and Liberia. The 2 men from Liberia watched part of General Conference and they had some really good questions about family and the temple afterwards. We taught them the Plan of Salvation last week and they came to church yesterday. 

We met the man (John) from Tanzania yesterday at church. He came to the baptism and confirmation of a man and his wife (Kossi and Valerie) from Togo, Africa. They were the 2nd ward Sister Missionaries' investigators but they moved to a different area in Williston and we teach them the new member lessons. We planned to meet with Kossi and Valerie after church and we decided to invite John who was sitting with them at church. We ended up teaching John the Restoration and he accepted the invitation to be baptized this month!

We have an investigator family that live about 45 minutes away from us in the middle of nowhere. The man is 54 and is crazy interested in the church! His "wife" has a lung problem and doesn't talk much but we think that she is on board and believes what we teach them. Dan studies from the scriptures and lds.org immensely and wants to learn everything he can about the Church. He feels so strongly in his heart that this is the direction God wants him to take in his life and he feels the Spirit so strongly. He's flying through the Book of Mormon and knows pretty much everything about Joseph Smith's life and about Nephi's life and the spirit has been teaching him incredible things. He's like a perfect investigator and I can tell that he will be a very strong and devoted member after he gets baptized. His desire is just so strong. He and his "wife" aren't technically married and are trying to get civilly married ASAP so they can get baptized. They have a young granddaughter that comes to church with them now too and we think she will get baptized with them!

04/06/2015

From: Ronald Adair <ronald.adair@myldsmail.net>
Sent: Monday, April 6, 2015 11:55 AM
Subject: Weekly email to family and friends

Dear Family and Friends,

This week I have gone through some big changes! Tuesday I said some sad goodbyes to some people in my ward in Bemidji and Cass Lake. Later that day we drove to Bagley and then the Bagley Elder drove us to Fargo, ND to get picked by the transfer van. From Fargo the van drove to Bismarck to stay the night. I had so much fun being around all the Elders and Sisters on the van! The next morning the van drove us to Dickinson, and then I drove myself and Elder Abarca to Williston. Elder Abarca speaks very good English for having learned it in the MTC (he's from Costa Rica)! Elder Wright (my companion), Elder Walker, Elder Abarca, and I all live in a little, old house in Williston and I love it! All the Elders I live with are super cool and hardworking. This city is booming like crazy and there are people and license plates from all over the country and also people from many different countries! There are a whole bunch of people from Africa and they are super open to the missionaries! There are also two sets of Sisters in Williston and three wards and the work is on fire! Elder Wright and I had 7 investigators come to the church and watch a session of General Conference! 3 of them told us that what they heard in Conference was exactly what they needed. I am very excited to continue serving Williston!

Love,

Elder Adair

we wore some of my sweaters to match for pday today