Way Over Due Post

Yes, I know it's been a month since I posted about Adam's mission. In my defense, I did have to do 3 children's birthday parties and Halloween during that time, plus all of the other craziness of my life! Adam has been doing very well. He is still enjoying his trainer and has also been on splits several times. He said, "No bad ones so far," so he is liking all of the missionaries he has had an opportunity to serve with and has learned from all of them. Because his area covers two wards and one is a single 30+ ward that is spread all over, they have a car. He has had an opportunity to ride bikes on a few of his splits and said he prefers the bikes. He says he just enjoys the day better when they get to ride around. I'm sure he will eventually be in an area where he gets to ride bikes all the time. He has been working out a lot with his companion. They run 3 or 4 miles a few days a week. They have been teaching the mother of the man he gave a blessing to in my last post. They have done a lot of service for her and once when they were there helping her she told them she wanted to be baptized. They started teaching her and she has now set a date for December 8th! Adam is so excited. They have done some door knocking and handed out some Books of Mormon and taught a few first lessons. A couple of weeks ago he had the opportunity to challenge a man to baptism for the first time. The man said yes and they are hoping to set a date soon. We haven't heard more about him since, so hopefully things are still going well. I did ask Adam about it so we should get an update soon. He said he is getting used to 6 hours of church. He really enjoys the training meetings and looks forward to them. They had the opportunity to go to the Newport Beach Temple a couple of weeks ago and he loved it! He thought it was so pretty. He also did some family history work and found a name on the Wardle side that he could do some work for so he was pretty excited to do that. Adam LOVED Halloween, of course he always has loved it! They spent the day doing service. They helped to build and run a haunted maze for a Jewish family. Apparently they build a maze from the road in to the garage with rooms and such. The missionaries built it out of wood and it had black tarps over it. Then they got to do some of the "scaring" when kids came through it. He had a great time. He had a special experience while they were building it. He was working with an Elder who had a stroke as a child and has a few struggles. The work went a lot faster if Adam used the drill and put the screws in and such and the other guy just held things in place. Well, that Elder asked if they could switch and Adam didn't want to because he knew it would slow things down. He said he hesitated and then a line from his Patriarchal Blessing popped in his head about understanding needs and friendshipping those in need, helping them become productive. He said he handed the drill over and let the Elder go to work. He had some struggles with the screws falling down or not going in, but the times when it would go in like butter made it all worth it. Adam said, "seeing the pure joy and happiness on his face made me feel so good inside I can't even describe it. I am sure that is what Heaven is all about." Adam also shared an experience about going to a home for dinner and feeling the contention in the home. He said the parents were fighting about how to discipline a child. The mother was encouraging and the father yelling and hitting. Adam was shocked at how disrespectful the man was to his wife. He swore in his journal he would never do that to any woman and certainly not his wife. Then he apologized to us for being disrespectful at times. He said he can see how hurtful it can be and that it made him not want to be there. (He is such a great kid and rarely disrespectful, but it is nice to see his growth through these experiences.) I will try to keep up a little better with the blog! We love Adam so much and we're so proud of him and the work he is doing.