March 24, 2014

Thanks to everyone who has been emailing me it really helps me to feel that so many people care especially when you get in here and you have like 14 emails to read especially with everyone having stuff going on in their own lives to be worrying about little old me down in Chile. Anyway my week this week has gone so much better and i know its because of all the prayers from all of you. Especially cause that next morning after writing you guys the mission president called and talked to my comp for like a half an hour and then me and he just said that he was really happy that i gave him this info about the two of us and suggested that we truly watch out for eachother in the way that you should be acting like jesus were in the room with you at all times. After that we both said a quick prayer and then wrote down all things the both of us had a problem with eachother put it on the wall and then decided as a companionship we would read the white handbook together him with english and i with spanish and it has been great in fact now during comp study we allways do that no matter if its las escrituras or predicad mi evangelio or a talk from one of the prophets. Also we spent a minute to budget the rest of our money for the week and how we were going to make it and then we have a plan that right when we get our money this week were going to do the same thing except for the month and it is really going well. Of course the two of us really get on eachothers nerves here and there but i just remember this mission is not about me or him its about Invitar a las personas a venir a cristo as if the lord was there instead, we truly are to act as him the best we can and love everyone especially the guy your walking next to. Because of that we have been really helping tons of the people in our area and all of our investigators are really active and excited when come over and its amazing to see how the lord fulfills his promises in the blessing President Butler gave me before i left he said people would jump out to hear the words from us and i have really seen that so much people will be running down the street come straight up to my face and say i was praying to the lord asking him to send someone to me so i can understand why my family has been struggling and now she is one of our biggest investigators. Then another time we have been trying to contact this girl for weeks and finnaly we got into her house and is really active in the lessons and we started teaching boyfriend too and from what it looks like he really likes learning about the gospel and allways as a giant list of questions he had about his studying it his just so great I am so happy and excited for all of our investigators though and the members they are so great they help us so much in fact there was one of our investigators who is going to get married in like 4 weeks or so who ran completly out of water and lives at the top of this giant hill and construction was blocking the road so the water truck couldnt come for like 3 days it wasnt a huge deal but she just called us and asked if we would bring like one jug and we were like totally out of money so we called the elders courum president and the members of the priesthood corum and us bottled some of their water and brought it up to her for the next couple of days. It was super cool and i am just so happy about my area and am excited about how much work their is to do even though i cant speak for crap its still so awesome. Alright now for your questions (mainly my mom and dad). My companion is 9 months into the mission. We go on splits about 1 every couple weeks mainly so i can learn other types of spanish. My mission president is so great he has a very calm way about it him about everything he is super chill. So about my money i gave you guys false info we get 120 mil every month the first 40 for my month was sent to another accout because they had down in record i was somewhere else. So i will be reciving the extra 40 back this week when we get more also to pay for our new mamita that we got last week. We are allways on foot but when we go to other areas like the centro or the zone leaders sector we take collectivo (taxis) they are super cheap so it is a good way to get around. Every day for excercise i do push ups, chin ups, sit ups with a medicine ball, and then we go running. Also on p-days they are all preety much the same we get up throw sport clothes on and then we go drop of laudry at mamitas house and then go play soccer (wich of course mom is the biggest sport down here) preety much until almuerso (lunch) wich we sometimes have these big barbeques at the zone leaders bishops house he loves to feed us it is great. The ward is big enough that they dont really need us to rely on except for the classes we allways teach during the second hour a gospel class. I would say that about 25% of the people work in the mines and the rest work in town or from home. Also we are going to be having conference with the members at the stake center i am super excited for it. They have running water in a giant water table below the ground but the city provides different districts to clean the water and bottle it and then you buy the jugs at the store or from the drving vendors. I hope i answered all of this weeks questions and thanks for all the love and prayers the same is coming from me down here lots of love from the elder down under.

elder adams

week 3

This week was quite interesting. I dont even know where to start but, me and my papito are not really doing very well together it is the weirdest relationship beetween us. The mornings are the

worst part of the day i have no alarm clock and he has the phone and refuses to set one and then we just get up at like 9 and it has really been making me mad and i cant just go buy one because 

money is really tight down here every month we are given 160 USdollars which is 80 mill down here which is literally feels like the equivalent of 80 dollars and now i have to make it to March 27th with 8 mill it is going to be really hard. Anyway and the only time we have companionship prayer is before we do the first 12 week program where he just tells me how bad i am and how i need to work on this and memorize this by tommorow which i know i do need to know the stuff but it is just really hard to first understand people let alone teach them something. Also its the tone he uses with me he acts as if i dont have an IQ anyway it has just been really tough trying to deal with all of that and i try to act and tell him something like Comp prayer wich we do it but then i expect him to be the leader and teach me something but i have not learned a thing from 

him the whole time i have been with him everything i have done i have done because i read the white handbook and the first two weeks he told me that i didnt need to write in my daily planner 

and then i had splits beetween the zone leaders on thursday and it was the first day i truly felt like a missionary we did everything exactly obedient and it felt great and i explained my problem to 

the zone leader about everything and i brought up the planner and he was shocked that he told me that and he said he was going to take care of it. So we will see where that goes. Anyway that is what has happened with my comp and that is not just the half of it all of our investigators have been falling through like for example we were supposed to have a baptism on friday but the lady 

never showed up and when we went to pick her up we found her on the couch smoking and 4 empty bottles of alchol. It was one of the most frustrating moments of my mission so far because she was clean for like 4 months and then right before she is going to be totally clean of her sins she goes and does that. And then we have this couple who were going to have baptised but they 

had to get married first so on saturday we were going to travel an hour away and i suggested we call first and see if we can actually do this before we get out there but jiminez just said dont worry about it so we get down there and you have to set up an appointment to get the legal marriage paperwork and then we just lost a good 10 mill for the bus ride and the lords time UGH! Anyway 

other than all that we did have one really great thing happen this week on tuesday we had a 4 zones all together with President dalton teaching us it was so awesome i learned a ton about our mission and where were headed in the near future. That is the week now for your questions. For conference in a couple weeks not really sure they have not announced yet but my zone leader 

that most of the time the 4 zones in copiapo meet at the stake center and watch them there. OH yeah and fleas are super bad down here if you touch a dog at all you should definitly go wash your hands it is not horrible but it is definitly better be safe than sorry that is one of the things they stressed on on tuesday at the conference. The weather is so strange it is like freezing cold in the morning with tons of fog and then it hits like 12 and just the heat drains you in like seconds 

ugh and we live in a house in a little bedroom community it is really nice it is a really nice penchant i like it alot. Also we have a mamita cleaning our clothes for us because she is endowed she is the greatest. Also the city used to have i giant river running through it but like a couple years back they dammed up the river to preserve something im not totally sure when i heard about it i heard from what i like to call a super chilean where nobody knows what he is saying. Oh and the difference beetween north americans and latino elders is like 50/50 it is preety even. I hope i answered all your questions (mom) if you have any more that i missed please just ask them again i am most deffinitly not perfect so just keep asking until i actually answer Anyway i love you all so much i am really going to push hard this week to have a good week haha anyway lots of love.

elder adams

week 2 pictures

the first one is of the street that carmen lives on it is just horrible i cant believe the places these people live in

the second one is of me drinking this thing called pata it is some kind of really normal drink in argentina it is like hot water with grass or something but it tastes like warmed terd

week 2 in chile

This week as been so crazy and fun i cant believe it. Time just flys by in the

mission you are so focused on helping people you dont have to or want to think 

about yourself for even a minute because for me when i start thinking about myself i get down on myself, but its amazing how this work can pick you up.This seriously brought me to tears 

when you guys told me how ken is doing, i am so happy for you man.

 Anyway i will tell what i have done this week and then i will answer the questions. 

throughout the week we have really been pushing this family they are really 

ready for baptism it is amazing to see the lord in their lives. We had the lesson 

about diezmo (tithing) with her it was amazing to hear the husbands concers about it. And then he payed it and he called us that next morning crying telling us that he got a promotion in his job that he has been working for quite some time. And the 

whole family is going to be baptized this saturday i am so excited for that. Then we have been teaching another family they are so great they treat me like a little baby and show me these children books to understand spanish they help so much and then we teach them about the gospel it is great. We are really having a hard time getting to the father he knows the doctirine and sometimes studies the 

scriptures but just has not had that true shazam moment that he just knows the 

rest of the family knows and have been going to church but dont want to set a date yet cause they want us to teach the doctirine again because they dont really remember what to follow so we kind of are in a weird spot we treat the family like a new investigator but the father like one that is almost ready for baptism. And then most of the week we visit with so many less actives we just like to come in share a quick message and then cheese it out of there its preety fun explaining to someone what you read and how it has helped you and how it will help them. So far though 

we have reactivated 6 members and 2 familys(with 4 members in each) it is 

honestly really fun. This is such a great area i have not had to knock doors once yet i am honestly really suprised. Alright now to answer the questions. Alright my companion is elder jimenez, he is from guatamala i have truly started to understand 

most of what he says to me but the people still make no sense haha. The 

apartment when i first walked in i honestly felt as though i just walked into the 

example of a pigsty it was so gross then we cleaned up a little and now it just feels like home. I have not used my purifier once and dont think i will have to but it is nice to have. We allways just drink out of the purified jugs of water or soda. Holy Cow so much soda i think i have had more soda in the past 2 weeks than my entire life i 

think by the end im either going to be addicted or just hate the stuff haha. The 

weather here is very weird we are preety far inland so its just a little nippy in the morings and then blazing hot in the day it is so dry it sucks you dry so fast and the people all know this so if you stop at anybodys house they allways give you a drink of something ( mostly soda). Then we have been having the strangest schedule but it is what the mission has set we get back at 10:30 and asleep by 11:30 and wake up at 7:30 read,study, and prep till like 1:30 go have lunch at the mamitas house then come back study spanish while jimenez either sleeps or studys english (he hates english it is so funny) its just so weird because i feel like we are just wasting the day away when were sitting inside but jiminez has told me people literaly will just not answer everybody just takes a nap or hangs out it is so weird than the city 

shoots back up again at like 4. It is preety funny this part of the world i thought 

would be really third world but no its not almost everyone has a cell phone and a computer even the really poor who live in like four pieces of plywood have a stereo, 

tv, fridge, and some nice furniture. It blows my mind. Also my dad said that you 

guys just had daylights savings yeah they dont have that here i am so grateful i 

hate that stupid time of the year, it screws up everybodys sleep schedule. I am just so excited for the coming week and the people we are teaching and all of you guys back home. There is just so much that the lord is blessing me with i cant believe it. 

I love you all so much

elder adams

CHILE!!! primer semana (First week in chile) in (Copia po)

Wow its the first p-day in the campo misional its been such a great

experience everything is great but we will start at the beginning i had two 

flights this last thursday one was from mexico to chile it was 8 hours but it 

was probably the best 8 hours on a flight i will ever have because they gave 

me a first class ticket because there were no other seats on the plane it 

was awesome i had lobster, scallops, steak, i could lay my seat out flat, i 

could watch movies, play games, or listen to music( i could it doesnt mean 

i did). it was great i just didnt watch, play, or listen to anything i just ate 

then slept it was great but i got a full 8 hours of sleep and the rest of my 

group got little or nothing haha. Then when we arrived in chile santiago we 

were quickly rushed across the airport and on to the plane i wish i could 

have called but it was better i just get on my flight haha. Then i made it to 

antofogasta met up with presidente dalton y el esposa hermana dalton they 

are such great people and also shout out to kirsten the assistent to the 

president is elder newman the elder in the mountavile 4th ward i believe, he 

totally remembered you though. Anyways then we took those pics at the 

coast i know i look really funny but remember i did not change those 

clothes until we got to the hotel that night (like 2 days straight). Afterwards 

we went to the mission home got some food info and a hotel to stay the 

night and sleep that was so great. The next morning they gave us a packet 

and some info of where we were going and who our comp was but we had to open like a mission call it was really fun anyway i am now in Copia po its 

so great it is the same city that a few years back had the 33 miners trapped in the mine for a month it is amazing to listen to peoples stories about it 

because almost everyone remembers it and brings it up all the time. And its really great my sectors have alot of preety well off people that are inactive 

so there has been alot of reactivating (we have 2 of them now it is massive 2 companionships used to cover it and now we have it all) and my companion 

is elder jimenez he is a native he is so tuned in with the spirit is just great i 

was really worried about having a native comp but honestly it is awesome i 

have alot of advantages and disadvantages and thats life. He is awesome 

though he set it up real nice for me we are teaching 4 familys right now they love to make fun of me because i cant understand what they say i have 

never been so frustrated and happy at the same time in my whole life they 

speak so fast and drop almost every S and in the spanish language that is 

preety important! Anyway its all good though they are still great people and 

i know the language will come and it is really nice there are alot of people 

that know some english and love to walk down the street and say "hello" its 

really funny the town is preety weird our sectors are kind of like the suburbs 

and when you get into town you find all the weirdos so thank goodness im 

not there. What else???? OH YEAH there are SO MANY DOGS!!! the thing 

is people love to buy them as pups raise them until there not cute anymore 

and just throw them in the street. It is so disgusting and sad how bad there 

treated. I can not walk down a street without finding like 3 or 4 dogs on it its 

super sad. Anyway off that sad note the food is preety great they have 

these things called empenadas there basically a calzone that is fried not 

baked they are preety great and then they have these things called 

completos (completes) they are just a hot dog with a ton of crap on them, it is a fat kids dream they are awesome oh and chile is really known for there 

bread so they have some for you all the time also there is no clean water 

out of the tap so you buy all of it so every meal i have had soda it really 

gets old quick but its all good this place is so great i love everything about it (but the language haha jk) im so excited to be serving in a place i know the 

lord has specificaly picked for me at this time. I hope that answers 

everyones questions if i missed any just email me back and ask again i love you all so much your all ways in my prayers. Stay frosty utah

con mucho amor

elder adams