May 19, 2014

Wow this week was so fun we had cambios on Saturday and I got transfered! I am now in a city called Taltal it is really small, preety, and by the coast. I actually havent seen it yet because right when i got of the bus we came here to write but everyone says the same thing. I am really excited and scared about it because my new companion elder preston has told me the ward has a very low attendance and basically we are the sunday school teacher, the ward secretary, and the seminary teacher. So it is going to be interesting and alot of pressure put on me very quickly, but i know the lord will help me.

So for my week it was kind of rough because i had been really sick at the beginning of the week so I just slept, coughed, sneezed, the whole nine yards when your sick. And my comp just studyed and worked on a song we had to sing on sunday for the ward conference (that i had to sing while i was sick) it was preety bad there was three ladys who were preety much tone deaf and one of the men kept forgetting the words. So that sucked and then to make it worse when the stake president started speaking a man named juan passed out he is really old and has a problem breathing as it is so being in that stuffy room and no one had the fans on so no air was circulating anyway it was allaround bad but its ok juan is fine he went to the hospital and went home late that night but got put on bed rest.

Anyway this week was really fun and exciting but, i got to go meet all the people waiting for me in Taltal. I hope you all have a great week and remember to look for the lord in your life at all times.

con mucho amor

elder adams

May 12, 2014

this week was so great because we got to skype our parents and family and i just want to say i love you mom, i hope it was your day to shine yesterday and remind the family how much you do and try to remember that allways.

Although this week was really good we had been working with this member named gerrardo he is so awesome he is a members nephew and is living down here going to school. He has gone to church the last 4 weeks in a row and has a baptism date for the 24th so we are super excited about that and he told us yesterday he was too. Also we just started working with this girl named camilla she is really cool. She is a members daughter and before she hated the church and didnt want anything to do with us and then she got really sick and we asked if she wanted a blessing and so we did and like a day later she was super well and is blown away at the power of the priesthood and the church so she is our new investigator and we are excited for her upcoming growth.

now i just want to share what i have been studying this week and would incourage you guys to do it too i have been reading the gospel principles book (in spanish) but it as so many great scriptures and doctrine that is very simple so it is a good resource to teach with.

this week was really great though i just want to let you know i love you all so much and enjoyed talking to most of you yesterday. I hope you guys have a great week cause i know i will out here doing everything i can "a invitar a las personas a venir a cristo" (invite people to come unto christ). 

elder adams 

May 5 2014

This week was so awesome it flew by so fast because we were teaching so much and getting so much done in our sector i am really excited for the people in our area but i also feel really bad for the other elders in our sector because they havent gotten very much success cause they are opening it back up so its hard at first but i know it will get better they just need to keep on the straight and narrow. Anyway everything went great i got my first baptism this week!!! it was probably one of the greatest experiences i have had on this earth. Her name is Deborah and she one of the strongest people i know she has been going to church for a year listened and has followed everything we have put in front of her and i have never been so sure about someones faith she is such an angel oh what a great lady to have has my first baptism. It went really good i said everything right the speakers did great the only thing is that when we both were in the water i was turned the opposite direction when they opened the doors i felt really dumb but the members know it was my first time so they laughed it off and then we completed her baptism. So after that first one made me really hungry for more so i am going to keep pushing to save some more souls oh man it is such a great feeling knowing that you might have made just the smallest rippel in the lake but by the end it makes a great distance.

elder adams

 

the first one is of this HUGE pomegranit (i have no idea how to spell that fruit even in english) a lady in our ward gave me and that is only a quarter of it.

the second one is of my comp elder butler with bird poop on him he got a preety serious aerial attack on him. haha

the third is of the baptism with deborah

April 28 2014

This last week was so much fun because this upcoming saturday we are having our first baptism! she is so great her name is Deborah she has been going to church in bolivia for like a year and no one as asked her about why she was there or anything. And then when she moved to chile for work she found the church nearby and we met her this last sunday and have taught her all week and then on friday she asked us about baptism and when it was ok that she got baptized. That next morning the zone leaders had a baptism interview and on sunday we announced her baptism this next saturday. I am just really excited for her and really think she will be such a great benefit to the ward here. We also have 3 other fechas for baptism in the upcoming weeks but were struggling to get the 3 to commit to follow some of the steps. For instance Leslie this sweet girl who lives with a family who is active and her boyfriend was a member she is so hard and does not want to follow the law of chastity and were trying to explain to her that it is next murder one of the worst sins ugh! then we have gerrardo he is super good he has come to church every week and we have a fecha for him im not to worried about him he is following everything. Then we have tiffany she is really great but she works so much to support her two kids that she doesnt have time to meet with us very often only like 1-2 a week it is really hard. Then we have javiera who says she will do things and then blocks us out for like 4 days and then we ask if she is doing it and she acts like she never heard or learned any of it. UGH its really hard sometimes because i wish that people didnt have agency haha. Although i know the lord his allowing me to learn and grow from it each and every day and i truly love it.

This last couple days for you all sound preety great i cant believe everything that has happened i am so excited for gracie this moment ahead is going to change her whole life now and after. Also wish boston happy birthday I love that little boy so much. I still think its so awesome how big of a tourist attraction hayden is with his iron man suit and he needs to make boston one. Also mom that microsoft guy sounds really interested in our church you should be the one to tell him.

Now for my moms question about service during the week. We dont have a day set a side for it but we look for moments throughout the week to help the ward to grow and love us alot and the people we try to help out randomly who need it like on friday we stopped and changed this ladys tire we got her number and challenged to her to church and showed she showed for the sacrament but then left and we are going to check on her tommorrow but we try our best to help the people the best we can in any way we can.

I love you all so much and hope you have a good upcoming week cause i know i will serving the lord.

elder adams

April 21 2014

This week was so much fun let me just start off by saying this ward in maray is so awesome everybody treats us, especially me like there son. On easter every person came and gave us tons of candy to put in a basket that they gave us for easter. Its was so much fun. Also it was super funny at the beginning of the week the bishop came into the chapel while we were having district meeting and asked that me and elder butler give a talk in church i was super mad until he said that he would make us lunch on saturday if we spoke. BUT we had heard rumors about our bishop truley trying to feed missionarys to death haha no but just until they puke. So we went over there and he gave us Burgers not like little burgers they were fetching like JCW´s size burgers and he said we had to eat as many as we could, elder butler only got 3 i got 6 and now have the record for the missionarys that have eaten at his house so that made me feel sick and happy at the same time. We also have been playing this extreme game of uno called killer uno that elder sherman made it takes normal uno and blows it out of the water it is so much fetching fun. The only problem is elder gavillan gets very angry very quickly so we either cant play anymore or he just needs to relax. Now for the really good stuff this week was so awesome we placed 4 fechas and preety sure 3 of them in two weeks will be baptized and i am so excited for them the other one is very skeptical but we have been working really hard with her to get her where she is right now she used to be the type of person who would laugh and make fun of the missionarys and now is taking lessons and really listening but is just very hard hearted but we have slowly softened it her birthday was on friday and she invited us and it was super fun we actually taught a lesson in front of all her friends and got some of her friends addresses and numbers so we are going to check those out this week. But i honestly am just loving the mission, the area, and the people, the language not so much but i know with time i will love it so much more. Its funny i can preety much understand everything i just cant speak very well. Except my talk on sunday was honestly probably the best talk i have ever given but i did screw up a few words but thats one great thing about the mission you learn to not care what people think about you. I love you all so much and hope you have a good week and "feliz pascua"

elder adams

4/14/14

This week was so much fun and difficult at the same time. What i

mentioned last time is that i got a new companion but didnt know much 

about him. His name is elder butler he is from gilbert arizona the new 

temple that got dedicated is where he lives his brother and sister were in 

the cultural celebration. He is really chill and he says i am just so excited 

and happy all infact he calls me buddy the elf haha. Anyway he is super 

cool and we get along great and our conversations about videogames, 

boarding, and sports go on forever its awesome. One really big thing i like 

about him is he wants to be exactly obedient which makes me really happy 

and i can really see the blessings. Anyway the other two elders that we got 

in our penchant are interesting elder sherman is super funny and has taught 

me a few cords on the guitar but i am preety sure he as a little bit of anger 

issues but he is preety cool other than that. his companion elder gavillan is 

cool he was a wrestler in college for a year before the mission but he is 

really selfish and loves to voice his opinions. It is kind of hard though 

because we have only as enough stuff for two elders so we are still waiting 

for money from the mission home to buy stuff like closets and chairs and 

tables but dont worry we do have 4 beds so thats good. It is really fun in the 

penchant though with this many gringos together things get fun. Anyway it 

was really hard this week trying to basically teach 3 new people about two 

different areas while they are trying to teach me spanish but we are figuring 

it out. I am super sad becuase i have lost like half of the investigators we 

had to the other elders yeah we still get to see them at church but it is just 

not the same. But the investigators we do have are Javiera and Miguel we 

set a fecha for them on may 3 and they have been taking lessons for a 

while but there are some random important things that they dont know like 

we were talking about the spirit and they had never heard of that so we are 

just going to start of a new leaf with them and reteach it all. Then we have 

Gerrardo he is super good he has not missed  a sunday for the last 5 

weeks and we have taught him everything but just wont set a date cause he 

is scared he is going to go back to his old ways but we think we can get 

one this week. Then we have leslie she is so interesting she has read the 

whole book of mormon started doctrina y convenios and knows like 

everything about the church but just wont attend church but we finnaly got 

her to come this sunday and we are going to put a fecha for 3 weeks from 

now and hopefully she will do it. Then we have been meeting with tons of 

the members so elder butler can meet them all wich really helps me know 

the area more too. It is really great though our last mamita bailed on us 

when we got 4 elders because she just doesnot have time to make that 

much food so we asked like all of the members and met this inactive lady 

who has been through the temple and makes the best food and as agreed 

to be our mamita i am so excited about that because to be honest the last 

one gave us like no food. Anyway this was such a fun week and am so 

excited to really go to work this coming week now that both groups of 

elders have the areas down thank you for all the emails and pictures i love 

you all so much.

con mucho amor 

elder adams

April 7 2014

This week was really funny to read everyones emails and concerns about the

earthquake and just to expalin i am in copiapo a little over an hour from the coast and where it was the worst iquique is about 14 hour drive and arica is a 22 hour drive. Remember my mission is one of the biggest in the world haha but thank you for all the emails. Now for my week and for my info about the earthquakes here. The first earthquake happened while we were meeting with one of our investigators at her appartment at the kitchen table it started at first a small shake so we thought it would be just another small one but then we felt the table move more and more until my cup of water almost tipped over so we picked up our stuff and started walking out the door but then it stopped. It was preety intense but then we just went back to our lesson about you guessed it Castidad (chastity). The second one happened while we were asleep i am such a heavy sleeper i didnt even feel it but apparently jimenez did and he said he woke up to the bed moving back and forth for about 10 seconds and then stopped. Overall for everyone near the coast especially in the north it has been hard the lines for the super market in iquique and arica are like you would see on black friday so its preety nuts and there is alot of water in the streets for them but they have been pumping it out everyday i think its done but not sure. Then for the week in my last email i said i thought that in these new transfers i wouldnt be going anywhere and that was true but jimenez is leaving for iquique ahahah YES. I am going to meet my new comp. this afternoon his name is elder butler he has been in the mission for about a year and was comps in the mtc with elder paxman a good bud of mine and he says he is really spazy but fun so i will update about that. Also we got two other elders added to the penchant Elder sherman we just picked him up he is super cool he is from AF and a total hipster but he is super awesome and said he is going to teach me to play the guitar wahoo. and Elder Gavian he is apparently latino but we are picking him up at the same time as my comp but apparently he is latino but has the worst latino accent and he is from florida so it is going to be bad we have a gringo penchant its going to be so much fun! Also because we have two new elders we are taking our huge sector and spliting it i am mad and happy about it because it was hard to give all of our investigators the time they deserved but also i am going to miss teaching that side of the sector but, we will still see them at church. Also i have had alot of questions about general conference and just to start off it was So AWESOME! every single talk i really enjoyed and we got to watch all of the sessions in english so i actually understood everything it was really fun we had every english elder brought together into the stake meeting room and watched it with tons of snacks and cookies the hermanas made it was super fun. I dont really have a favorite one but i do have a few things to say about it. They all spoke about the same topics and used the same scriptures mainly to Discipleship (bringing others of another faith and of no faith and teaching them about the gospel), pornograph, technology, and the lords life. My favorite word they had used a tonwas ROCK i had been studying in the scriptures and finding where they used that word at different times before the conference and when alot of them spoke about that i got excited. I also took so many notes and am excited about studying different topics they brought up and incourage you all to do the same. i have some pics to send you guys but totally forgot my camera at the penchant so next week i will send them. Anyway everything has changed alot and i am really excited to see the difference between teaching with another gringo. i hope that i included everyones questions if i didnt just ask them again. i love you all so much and hope you all have a great week.
-Elder Adams

This picture is the blast radius for the earthquake and remington is in copiapo (in the bottom of the picture).