12/28/2015

From: Ronald Adair <ronald.adair@myldsmail.net> 
Sent: Monday, December 28, 2015 11:14 AM
Subject: Last Christmas on the Mission (Week of Dec. 21st- Dec. 27th)

Dear Family and Friends,

This week was wonderful! We went on exchanges this past week and it was amazing! So we had a fun time playing basketball most of the day in Stanley and then Elder Maxfield, whom I came out on my mission with, came with me to New Town Monday night. We spent Tuesday proselyting in White Shield and we decide to visit a

member's house. The member's less-active daughter was there and we got to talk a lot with her about her struggles and she agreed to come to church! And guess what! She did and it was the second time she had been to church in 5 years! Woohoo! That evening in White Shield we ate pizza and wings at a member's house whose son is getting ready to be baptized. We had a fun time there and with Elder Maxfield's expressiveness we were able to create a better relationship with the boy looking to get baptized. We went to Family Dollar that night to pick up a few things and this African guy came up to us and started asking us questions about the Church. He told us he might come visit sometime on a Sunday and as we were talking to him, another Family Dollar employee came up to us and told us he was a member from Utah. We got his number and invited him back to church and he said he might come sometime and bring his mom too! The roads between Stanley and New Town were super icy that night so we decided that Elder Maxfield would spend another whole day there! On Wednesday we were at the library and a lady came up to us and said she wanted to come back to church and bring her fiance and her step-kids! 

On Christmas Eve we had a good dinner at the Wilkinsons' house and had a fun time with them. We went back over on Christmas morning to open presents, eat a delicious breakfast, and Skype our families! I had a splendid time talking with my family and I can't believe it was already the third time on my mission! We then ate a big, delicious Christmas at the Johnsons' house:)

On Saturday this crazy guy came up to us on the street and talked with us about the good work we were doing and how awesome God is. He was super nice and seemed really spiritual. Haha then he mentioned that he was King James from the Bible and we knew he was crazy.

On Sunday only a few of the people we contacted that week showed up at church, but we have their phone numbers so we are hopeful for the coming weeks! 

I hope y'all had a splendiferous Christmas and drew closer to our beloved Savior Jesus Christ. Have a happy new year!

Love,

Elder Adair

12/14/2015

From: Ronald Adair <ronald.adair@myldsmail.net>
Sent: Monday, December 14, 2015 2:17 PM
Subject: SNOW! (Dec. 7th- Dec. 13th)

Dear Family and Friends,

This week it finally snowed again! It was about 2-3 inches. And it got a little colder again. It was in the 50's for like a week! That is unreal for this area during this time of year. Now it's still pretty warm in the 20's.  

We taught some pretty good lessons this week and we have one, possibly two, people lined-up for baptism this Saturday! Woohoo!! We are pumped! 

We gave a baby blessing the other day! Haha the Wilkinsons' baby boy was sick so we him a blessing. And it healed him! :D

So since a lot of people have been absent from church lately, not including our investigators luckily, Elder Ashe and I were asked to talk in Sacrament meeting along with teaching the young adult Sunday School class. We were visiting the Wilkinson family Saturday night and while we were there they had to rush to Minot because Sister Wilkinson got super sick. They asked us if we could teach the adult Sunday School class for them on Sunday and we said we could if we could combine the adults with the young adults. So we were planning on having a lot of responsibilities in church yesterday, but when we woke up Elder Ashe was sick and we couldn't go! Haha I don't know whom the Branch Presidency was able to assign to talk in Sacrament for us or teach two Sunday School classes!

We had to say goodbye to the beloved Sabin couple this week because they are going back to Provo to go to school for a season. We will sure miss them and their food! But mostly them. :(

A member family in our ward that fed us on Thanksgiving fed us twice this week at a delicious restaurant AND gave us each a bunch of Christmas presents! 

Well that's my week! Merry Christmas, everyone! I love y'all! Thanks so much for your prayers!

Love,

Elder Adair

12/07/2015

From: Ronald Adair <ronald.adair@myldsmail.net>
Sent: Monday, December 7, 2015 2:25 PM
Subject: Progressing investigators! (Nov. 31st- Dec. 6th)

Dear Family and Friends,

This week was the bomb! Unfortunately, Glenn's baptism had to be pushed back at least a week due to complications with receiving a guardian signature on the baptismal form. We taught Seth about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and it was way cool! The lesson went very well and he was so interested! We definitely were a person instead of a lesson. We also taught Jada the Gospel of Jesus Christ and she was way interested too! Woohoo! We had four investigators and three less-actives at church this week! Sister Canyon might need to get re-baptized since the Branch Presidency can't find her records. We were able to bring her to church this week and hopefully she can get baptized this transfer. I am staying another 6 weeks in New Town btw! We knocked on this less-active ladies door and she let us in for the first time and we talked a lot about getting her and her grandchildren back to church. We got two new investigators using the "A Savior is Born" Christmas video too! We had a Zone Training Meeting in Minot and had a great time. 

You all should watch the new video called "A Savior is Born" and share it with as many people as you can! It invites people to discover why a Savior was born. Then invite your friends to meet with the missionaries to learn more! 

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