11/30/2015

From: Ronald Adair <ronald.adair@myldsmail.net>
Sent: Monday, November 30, 2015 12:15 PM
Subject: Thanksgiving! (Nov. 23rd- Nov. 29th)

Dear Family and Friends,

Well this was another fun week! 

A few days ago I gave myself a haircut for the first time, using scissors and the works, and it actually looks good! Cutting hair is easy haha;)

The weather has been in the teens and 20's this past week so it's not very cold yet. It has been a very mild Fall. There is some crazy fog in the mornings sometimes! 

I had a splendid Thanksgiving! We ate a bunch of wonderful food and played board games and even tag! It was awesome!! We were invited out to Makoti to eat with the Hathaway family. They are the bomb! Thanksgiving morning we tracted for about an hour trying to share a short Thanksgiving video with people, but it was to no apparent avail. One guy was pretty rude and was like, "Nope, nope, don't wanna hear it! No thanks! Save you speech!" To which I replied, "I don't have a speech, Sir. We were wanting to share a Thanksgiving video." He still didn't let us in. It made me angry then but now I just laugh thinking about it. Before dinner with the Hathaway's we also went to another family's place and had a decent-sized meal there too. After the Hathaway's we drove to Stanley and went "black Friday shopping" with the Elders there. All we had for options were a Shopko and a Cash Wise which are two little grocery stores basically. 

Last night we had a wonderful time with the Cook family. They are newlyweds so they are very young and don't have any kids yet. Brother Cook actually served his mission in Gilbert, A.Z. and got home last November. I definitely wouldn't complain if I was married, to the right girl of course, as soon as he was after my mission! They also let us hold their baby hedgehog and made delicious, huge candy apples with us:)

Saturday we were having a lesson with an old member lady in a wheelchair. She was babysitting her little granddaughter and the during the whole lesson the little girl was climbing all over us and throwing food at us! Haha it was rather humorous.

It finally snowed some and Tuesday morning we got to go running in the snow:)

We have a baptism coming up this Saturday for this 14-year-old named Glenn and we are way excited! He is very ready to make this big step in his life and he is very mature for his age:) Woohoo!

Today for P-Day we are in Minot to play basketball with some more Elders. We went to Denny's and I beat the restaurant record for most pancakes eaten in one sitting! Score!

Anyways, it was a great week and I hope everyone else's was also great! I love y'all! 

Happy Holidays and thank you so much for your prayers!

Elder Adair

11/16/2015

From: Ronald Adair <ronald.adair@myldsmail.net>
Sent: Monday, November 16, 2015 2:05 PM
Subject: Week of Nov. 9th- Nov. 15th

Dear Family and Friend-People,

Another week has gone by and we're having fun still! Elder Ashe and I are getting good at teaching together so that's good! We are working hard to get all of the people we have on date for baptism sufficiently ready. Last Tuesday we went on exchanges with the Stanley Elders, Elder Trejo and Elder Brinkerhoff. I was in Stanley with Elder Brinkerhoff and we had some fun together. We also spent last P-Day with them and played basketball for many hours. It was one of the my favorite P-Days ever! I have been drinking a lot of different flavors of Martinelli's and Welch's Sparkling Cider and also a lot of flavors of egg nog. My favorite so far of the Martinelli's is Apple-Grape and my favorite of the egg nog is Pumpkin Spice. Running in the morning has also been a lot of fun. We are careful walking around at night because of the many dogs in New Town. There hasn't been a mean dog come try and do anything to us yet, but I keep my knife with me just in case.

I hope everyone's week was splendid! I love y'all!

Elder Adair

11/09/2015

From: Ronald Adair <ronald.adair@myldsmail.net>
Sent: Monday, November 9, 2015 1:28 PM
Subject: And he's dunked! Week of Nov. 2- Nov. 8

Dear Family and Friends,

This week was wonderful!! 

We were teaching a friend of the Olson family at the Olson house last Tuesday night and it was awesome! He's 18 and we taught him the Restoration and he accepted to be baptized December 5th!! Woohoo! He is a really cool person and a super nice guy. We also contacted these two boys who had been on date before I got here but had their dates pushed back. Now they are both on date for December 5th too! AND these two girls that belong to a member in the ward are scheduled for baptism on the December 5th! 5 baptism scheduled for the same day! I am confident they will all be ready by then as well:) There was a lady that came to us during church that told us she would like us to start teaching her little girl so she can get baptized. We have an appointment scheduled with them for Wednesday and we're excited! The members here are wonderful and way fun! We get fed almost every night too!

Elder Ashe and I get to go running every morning on the school track across the street from our trailer. It has only been in the low 30's in the morning so it's not too cold yet. 

We had a baptism this past Saturday!! It was awesome. Austin is one of the coolest kids I've ever met. We had the our district leader from Stanley give him his baptismal interview and then right after we found out that Austin's dad is a member so Austin wasn't a convert baptism technically. So the morning of his baptism he was interviewed by a member of the branch presidency instead. It was somewhat a bummer that his baptism didn't count toward our numbers, but what's important is that he got baptized and entered into a covenant with his Heavenly Father! We are way happy for him:)

This week was the bomb and I hope everyone else's weeks are going great too! Thanks to you all for your prayers!

Love,

Elder Adair

11/02/2015

From: Ronald Adair <ronald.adair@myldsmail.net>
Sent: Monday, November 2, 2015 11:57 AM
Subject: New Town, new adventures! (Oct. 26th- Nov.1st)

Dear Family and Friends,

Boy is it weird to be back in oil fields again! I have been here in New Town since Thursday night and it's awesome:) 

Monday, Elder Gines and I drove to Pierre for one last P-day with our beloved Zone Leaders. We ate delicious food at a nice restaurant and played board games.The next day we ate lunch at Pizza Ranch one last time and I finished with a new record for number of plates! We traveled to each of our 3 areas, packed up all of our stuff, and said goodbye accordingly to people and places:( We got back to Pierre and finished packing and spent the night with the Zone Leaders. 

The next morning we traveled to Bismarck for transfers. I then rode with the Minot Zone Leaders up to Minot where I was picked up by my new companion Elder Ashe who is way cool:) He is from Rock Springs, Wyoming and has 3 younger bros like I do. He is 1/4 black which is pretty cool because he has blonde hair and blue eyes but his hair is way curly! He has been on his mission for three months. Our district consists of only us and the Stanley Elders. If you add up how long the 3 other Elders in my district have been on their missions collectively, it only reaches 9 months which is 5 less than me! 

New Town is a little town on a reservation in the middle of nowhere in the oil fields of North Dakota. We have 5 people on date for baptism and they are all under the age of 15! One kid is getting baptized this coming weekend! The branch members are way cool too!! On Halloween I was given some candy while tracting so that was pretty cool:) Church yesterday was a lot of fun and we also have a half hour extra sacrament session each Sunday at 7:30 pm for oil workers in the branch that can't make it to church earlier. We live in a trailer right behind the church and it's pretty nice for a trailer. I get my own bathroom! So yeah, I very much miss Gettysburg, Miller, and Chamberlain, but New Town is great too luckily:) 

I love y'all and hope your holiday season is splendid!

Elder Adair

P.S. My new mailing address is P.O. Box 1336 New Town, N.D. 58763

10/26/2015

From: Ronald Adair <ronald.adair@myldsmail.net> 
Sent: Monday, October 26, 2015 2:29 PM
Subject: WHAT THE?! (Oct. 19th-25th)

Dear Family and Friends,

This past week was sweet! We spent most of our time in Chamberlain. And guess what! We have had unlimited miles this WHOLE TIME and didn't know about it!! Haha that is so frustrating! There must have been some miscommunication in the miles department. Our toilet overflowed somehow in Chamberlain a few days ago and it leaked into the apartment below us. Luckily things turned out all right. On Friday we traveled to Valentine, Nebraska and had a fun District Meeting. At church yesterday we contacted a referral at church and then taught her at a member's house. She is from the Philippines and is one of the most golden investigators I've ever met! At one point she said to us, "I can tell that you guys represent Jesus Christ and that you have the authority to teach me about His church." It was so cool!! She accepted a baptismal date for November 14th! Yippee!!

 

We got transfer calls today and I have been praying that I don't get transferred but that I will be able to accept the Lord's will whatever it may be. It turns out that they are closing down Gettysburg and Miller for the time being and Chamberlain is getting white-washed (two different Elders). I am going to New Town, N.D. It is on a reservation and I will be with a missionary that just finished being trained named Elder Ashe. Elder Gines is going to one of the wards that I used to cover in Williston and I am way excited for him. I am really sad because of all the people we have to leave behind in our areas, but I know the Lord will take care of them in His own way. Crazy stuff.

Love,

Elder Adair

10/19/2015

From: Ronald Adair <ronald.adair@myldsmail.net>
Sent: Monday, October 19, 2015 1:15 PM
Subject: The Gospel Makes More Sense Now! Oct. 12th-18th

Dear Family and Friends,

So this past Monday we were in Gettysburg and had a very boring P-Day as expected:) We did get to throw around a football some which was fun. On Tuesday I rode up to Bismarck with the Zone Leaders and Elder Jackson who is the other District Leader in the Zone.

 

That night we went through the temple and I got to do baptisms, initiatories, and confirmations!! It was so much fun:) We spent the night in the mission home with about 30 other Elders and had a blast! I was reunited with so many missionaries I have known from past areas. 

The next morning on Wednesday we missionaries had a large council meeting with President Hess, his two counselors, former mission President Donaldson who created the Preach My Gospel DVD's, and Brother Glazier who is the head of all the trainings given at the Provo MTC! There were about 80 missionaries. Boy was

it an amazing meeting! We were trained on how people CANNOT access the Atonement of Jesus Christ without baptism and receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost. And they CANNOT receive those things without being taught by missionaries. So the duties we perform somewhat of a big deal! We were then trained on how we need to have more effective planning as missionaries if we are to help others access the Atonement. Awesomeness!

On Thursday Elder Gines and I got two new investigators and taught three lessons in 

Gettysburg! Woohoo!

Friday we drove to Pierre for a Zone Training Meeting. The purpose of it was so that the missionaries that were not able to go to Bismarck on Tuesday/Wednesday could be given a similar, more condensed version of the training in Bismarck. It was a very spiritual and valuable experience. My and Elder Gines' planning sessions have been so much more effective and we LOVE IT!

We then drove over to Miller and that is where we have been since then. On Sunday we had Branch Conference so there were a lot more people in church in Miller than usual. We had a potluck afterward and it was delicious!

Last night we were tracting in an apartment building and we taught two lessons to some old ladies. The Spirit was so strong!

So that's pretty much our week. 'Twas very great! I hope y'all had a great week as well!

Love,

Elder Adair

09/08/2015

From: Ronald Adair <ronald.adair@myldsmail.net>
Sent: Tuesday, September 8, 2015 10:39 AM
Subject: Well this is a pretty great 3 days if you ask me. (week of Aug 31st-Sept 7)

Dear Friends and Family,

Hey, everybody! This week was the bomb-diggity! 

Last week on Monday we played basketball in Miller with this kid named Junior and had a blast! We also checked-out the new Dollar General store and it has some sweet deals! I bought a body spray that smells just like Acqua Di Gio and it was only 4 dollars! And the smell lasts too!

On Friday we had a district meeting about getting people to come to church and keep the Sabbath Day holy. We had a good Indian taco meal with Whitehorse and his family on Friday as well and had a great time! 

The most significant part of our week started on Sunday though! There were 14 other people in church in Miller so both Elder Griffeth and I ended up bearing our testimonies. And I sure am glad that we did because I could definitely feel my testimony be strengthened because of it! I know that our testimonies are strengthened every time we bear them to others, so I thought of a cool FHE idea where families take turns bearing their testimonies to each other! I suggest that everyone should try it!

Right after church we headed to Pierre so we could ride with the Zone Leaders (Elders Thatcher and Bell) over to Rapid City. The Zone Leaders had a meeting while Elder Griffeth and I went with a missionary in Rapid City (Elder Fillmore) to work in his area. We also climbed a big hill and took pictures with some giant dinosaur sculptures. We ended up spending the night with 7 other missionaries in a little tiny house (it reminded me of the Williston house) that some members let people use and we had a blast! The next morning we woke up at 6 and got ready for our Zone Conference with Elder Dale G. Renlund of the First Quorum of the Seventy! He gave a superb talk in General Conference this past April about what it means to be a Saint. It was awesome because I got to stand right behind him in a picture, be the first to shake his hand, and sit right in the front middle of the chapel as he spoke to us! He, his wife, President Hess, and his wife all gave us amazing individual trainings. Oh goodness was the Spirit so strong in there! And it made it all the better to be there with so many of my fellow beloved missionaries that I have been so privileged to know! We all had a lovely meal afterward in the cultural hall.

Elder Griffeth, the Zone Leaders, and I all left and started driving through the black hills. They sure are beautiful! After a while the Zone Leaders let the cat out of the bag and told us we were driving to Mount Rushmore! Woohoo! It was my first time being there and it was so cool! After that we went to Scheel's (it's like Cabela's) and a random guy gave us some money to play this mini bowling game! It was a blast! After that we went to Golden Corral and there were a bunch of people there from Utah that were on a tour of the U.S. So about 15 old tourists all periodically came up and said hello and asked us where we are from and things like that. One guy actually paid for all of our meals!

We headed back to Pierre and slept in the Zone Leaders' apartment. This morning we woke up, had studies and now we are starting an anticipated awesome Pday! Woohoo!!

I love you all and I can't wait to see in you again!

Elder Adair