Week 3 - Off to an Audacious Start

 

Haitian Language Scriptures

Wow!  I can hardly believe that we are already in the middle of the third week of our mission.  What a whirlwind this has been!  We received our call letter on the evening of May 16th, a full seven days after our completed application was received at Church Headquarters.  From there, we had less than two weeks to complete a number of pre-mission preparation activities before we began our online classes at the Missionary Training Center on June 2nd.  We had four consecutive days of online learning with the MTC instructors and were in the field on June 7th.  Our missionary onboarding process was so quickly accelerated that we were serving for two full weeks before our name tags arrived.  To date, we have (not necessarily in this order) visited the North Carolina Raleigh Mission office and met Elder and Sister Jackson, participated in a trip to the Raleigh North Carolina temple with Elder and Sister Potter and seven members of the Haitian group, seen three baptisms and confirmations, a missionary zone council meeting, a missionary zone conference, and begun to learn our mission language(s).  

Wait…I suppose I should have started by having us introduce ourselves and our mission.  My name is Sister Melissa Adkins and my eternal companion for this and all missions is Elder Norman Adkins Jr.  We are fulltime Member and Leader Support missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  We labor in the North Carolina Raleigh Mission and are assigned to the Mt. Olive Ward with a special emphasis on our work with the Haitian Group in this area.  We are currently serving a 23-month (sorry folks, they won’t let us sign up for longer) mission while we live at home and continue our full-time employment.  

Before name tags

We are newlyweds, married and sealed in the Raleigh North Carolina temple on November 1st of last year.  Nothing has happened slowly for us, and it appears that full-speed ahead is the cruise control speed for our life together.  Elder Adkins and I met each other while serving as temple ordinance workers.  I began working at the temple every Friday night in October of 2023, and Elder Adkins began his work the following September.  For context, we were both widowed with his wife passing three months after my husband.  While we knew one another as temple workers, we didn’t start connecting outside the temple until July last year.  We clicked immediately and found that we had much in common, including but not limited to our love for the Savior and our commitment to serving Him.  We followed the Lord’s promptings and were married just a few months later.  

We had just passed our four-month anniversary when our Stake president asked to speak with us.  We couldn’t have been more surprised to hear him tell us that he was on a fact-finding mission from the presidency of the Area Seventy.  When President Pace asked us what we would do if the Lord asked us to serve a calling far from home, we barely glanced at one another before answering in unison that we do what the Lord asks, where He asks, and when.  Elder Adkins was asked if he still maintained the fluency in French that he acquired when he served his first full-time mission in the France Paris mission from 1979 - 1981.  That was my first real awareness of the need for French-speaking members to support the growing groups of Haitian members in units outside our Stake boundaries.  We were told that we would likely be contacted by someone from the Area Seventy after President Pace reported back.  

At our first Zone Conference with fellow missionaries

Fast forward approximately three weeks if you will.  We were sitting in a movie theater in Wilmington, at the end of a film, when Elder Adkins’ phone and watch began to vibrate.  While phones ringing in theaters is not usually news, this was “special” because Norman had powered down both his phone and his smart watch before the film began.  My husband showed his phone to me, and I suggested that he answer it as the credits were rolling and the Caller ID indicated that it was the mission president.  To make a long story short, President and Sister Stevens from the North Carolina Raleigh Mission were calling to ask us if we would apply to be full-time missionaries in order to serve the Haitian members in the Mt. Olive area as the current missionaries were scheduled to return home in June.  

Lunch with the missionaries

We did, and here we are.  I am learning French and Haitian Creole.  Elder Adkins’ French is strong, and he is learning Creole as well.  We are serving alongside several companionships of the most amazing young missionaries we have ever met, and we are humbled to be chosen to take part in the work of gathering Israel.  As temple workers and patrons, we have spent recent years helping gather on the other side of the veil.  Here, we gather on this side.  We are privileged to be able to uplift, encourage, strengthen, teach, and most importantly love the members, friends, and community.  

What a beautiful, energizing blessing it is to serve our Savior, shoulder to the wheel, hand to the plow, in these latter days.  Both Elder Adkins and I can see the Lord’s hand in preparing us individually and as a couple for just this time.  One does not prepare for a mission during the weeks between receiving a call and starting MTC training, nor does one prepare for a mission during his or her time at the MTC.  One prepares to serve a mission every day of his or her life.  All our past experiences, all our past learning, all our memories, these were all preparation for the best work we have yet to do.  

Finally have our missionary name tags

My hope is that we will be able to post updates regularly so that you may join us in a small way.  Please pray for us, for the other missionaries in our area and throughout the world.  Please pray for our brothers and sisters, those who are members and those who are not.  Our desire is to serve everyone placed in our path.  Our purpose is to invite others to come unto Christ.  Our time is now.  Our place is here.  And our guiding principle is love.  

Until next time, Peace be with you!

Sister Melissa Adkins