December 16, 2014

Things are all good here!  We have one confirmed baptism this weekend and I am super excited for it because it is my first baptism and I get to baptize her!  Why?  I have no idea!  I mean, I haven't taught her for very long, so it feels like I shouldn't baptize her, but it's cool, none the less.
We have other investigators, but they're not getting baptized yet.  One investigator doesn't feel included in her ward, so she's going to wait until she feels included.  And the others haven't come to church yet.  Sooo, my companion and I need to find some new investigators.  We have a potential investigator, but we haven't had the best contact with them, so its kind of hard to put them on a date when we haven't had much contact with them!
So me and my social awkwardness makes contacting people on the street or at a door... difficult and awkward!
Last night, we gave the sisters in our district that Wendy's referral.  I did not want to give up that Wendy's girl, but the sisters really needed that one.


Lately we've been hitting up all of the ward Christmas parties!  To put it in perspective for you all who haven't attended 8 Christmas parties, let me just tell you... it's like going to two buffets almost every night!


Other than that, not a whole lot has happened here.  I know that the gospel of Jesus Christ is true.  I see examples of His love every day.  I believe that through Christ we can do anything we want to, we just need to exercise a little faith in Him.


And THANK YOU to everyone who has sent me something!  It is greatly appreciated!!


Later Haters - Elder Adona
Utah Ogden Mission
4380 Orchard Ave.
South Ogden, UT  84403


Note from Mom:
If you've known Briar for more than 2 days, you know that he can fall asleep at the drop of a hat, and can fall asleep virtually anywhere. Everyone he knows has at least one picture of him sleeping! Now it is his companion's turn to snap those pictures.  Here are a few... I'm sure there were many, MANY other photo opportunities!

December 9, 2014

So this week went by super fast.  Sunday was a humbling experience.  Of the seven people we have set a date for baptism, only one came to church with us.  But yesterday was a great day.  We this potential investigator, but we have trouble setting up a time to meet with him.  So we went to his house on Sunday night, but when we got there, his fried told us that he was already asleep because he had to work the next morning.  So Monday afternoon, we went to Wendy's  (where he works). He wasn't working at that time, but the cashier lady said she wanted to talk to us.  It turns out that she has grown up in Ogden for her whole life, but she isn't a member.  She told us that she wanted to be a member, so we set up an appointment with her for later this week.
This experience has helped me grow a testimony of the mysteries of God... when it turns out that one person isn't ready to hear the gospel, another person is and God will lead you to find the people who are ready.

Elder Adona - over and out

4380 S Orchard Ave
South Ogden, UT 84403

My First Week as a Missionary

Ya... my first week as a missionary has been... exhausting!  My companion is pretty cool.  He actually goes home in 12 weeks, so I get the honor of "killing" him or he'll just leave when he's done training me. 
During the last transfer, my companion baptized everybody he was teaching.  So we get to go tracting, which isn't so bad.  We do get a lot of referrals from members, which is nice.  So far, we have like 6 or 7 investigators committed to baptism this month, so it is pretty exciting. 
It hasn't been that cold yet.  We've only had snow once so far.  However, let me start from the beginning.


On Tuesday, the 25th, I left the MTC at 5am (which was ridiculous because our train didn't leave until 6:30am).  When we left the MTC, I was surprised to be made the travel leader, which pretty much means that I took the lead role on the bus and that was it.  So it really wasn't that cool.
When we got to Ogden, all we did was receive some training from the mission workers about cars, the apartment, bikes, etc.  In the evening, we went to the mission presidents house for a quick testimony meeting, then we went to bed.
On Wednesday, we received training from our mission president.  He asked us to memorize the Utah Ogden Mission beliefs and the Bible dictionary definition of Christ.  It's pretty long, if you haven't read it yet!
Later that morning, the mission had this big thing for new missionaries meeting their trainers.  At first when you walk in, everybody goes berserk, so I thought it was pretty dumb, but I got into it, so it was pretty cool, actually.  So they had all the new missionaries go up one by one to say who you are, where you're from, and who you want to baptize.  So when I went up, I said I wanted to baptize Jennifer Aniston and then take her to the temple.  After I said that, of course everybody kinda freaked out!  But when one of the AP's walked by to introduce me to my trainer, he said to me that they picked the perfect trainer for me, which is weird, because we haven't talked about Jennifer Aniston since we've been together!
My companion took me to meet most of the ward leaders in our stake, well, because my area covers a whole stake which has 8 wards.  Overall, the mission is probably the most exhausting thing I've ever done.  It's crazy!  I didn't think it was going to be this difficult!


On Thursday, it was Thanksgiving and my birthday, so it was weird not being around my family for the first time.  We ate at 2:00pm, but then didn't do a whole lot after that because it was a holiday and people get mad at people coming over.  Since we didn't have anything planned, we decided to go to a sauna at a members house.  They sang Happy Birthday to me and that actually got to me a bit!  It was just weird that is wasn't my family.


On Sunday, we went to almost all the wards and I had to give a talk.  I had a couple hours to prepare, and 3 confirmations at the same time.  So for about an hour, it was pretty hectic!  My talks only lasted about 5 minutes, but it was pretty good.
Other than that, not a whole lot has happened.  But my testimony has grown in Priesthood blessings.  I had the honor of giving out two.  I can't explain it, but the Lord helped those people so fast and so much!


Anyways... over and out!


Elder Briar Adona
Utah Ogden Mission
4380 S. Orchard Ave
South Ogden, UT  84403