Elder Adamson's Letter 11/25/2013

Hello family!! Happy Thanksgiving week!!  I feel dumb cause I thought it was last week... ha ha  Whoops.  Here´s the week.  

Monday, we had a pretty average P day, mostly just kind of hung out with everyone.  Then after, Elder Clark came with us to el Progreso, but unfortunately all our plans called us and bailed.  So we had pretty much nothing to do there.  El Progreso is kind of dying now.  We´dont really have much work there anymore.  Anyway, we came home that day without a single lesson.

Tuesday, Elder Clark was still with us because his comp was in Málaga, and we went to visit one of his investigators and had an eating cita with them. It was lots of fun and he had some pretty good food.  I had no idea what it was though.  Then after  a while we dropped Elder Clark off and hurried over to the bus station for El Palmar.  We had a quick visit with R... and J...and it went as usual.  They don´t have anyone visiting them yet.  After that we went and visited A...and shared a short message about the Atonement with him and he loved it.  We´ve got to work with him poco a poco, but he´s very accepting of u our message, even though he's pretty Muslim.

Wednesday was a SUPER off day.  We went to go eat with A..., and we´re just about there and the member that was going to come with us called and told us he was going to be 40 minutes late.  So, we had to wait outside her piso for about an hour because we can´t go in a house with a single woman.  But, eventually we got in, even though it kind of messed up all our plans for the rest of the day.  After eating with her, we went straight to the Capilla for English class.  This week I was trying to do some one on one teaching with an African man from Mali, and it was SO hard.  He speaks nothing of English and his Spanish is pretty bad. His native language is French.  Later I just called Elder Galarza in to help him, because he knows a good chunk of French.

Thursday, we had our weekly planning session and Elder Galarza had me do the entire thing by myself so I could prove to myself that I

know how to do it.  And I did it.  It was super long, but at least I know, I know how to do it.  Afterward, we met up with Elder Clark and Peters to do an intercambio. I went with Elder Clark to their area this time.  I went to all his citas with him and we found a new investigator for them.  Later that night in the piso, we ate some pumpkin squares that he made, and they we delicious.

Friday, Elder Clark and I went out in the morning to teach a member in the ward a little English.  She´s trying to learn so she can be a teacher for little kids.  It was pretty awkward though because we just kind of showed up and had no idea what we were going to teach her.  

I didn´t know what to start with because I didn´t know how much she knows, so we just started conjugating a bunch of verbs.  Then her husband brought out a pile of notes he took, and they were super good.   Later that day, we took a bus to Cartagena for the Thanksgiving dinner activity.  The stake president was there and it was also an activity for the YSA members too, so he was talking to them for a lot of it. He challenged them all to bring a friend to an activity this month.  And then, we all ate some turkey.  It was super good, and the members were super excited about it.  After the activity, we went to the Cartagena ZL´s piso to sleep.

Saturday morning, we woke up and played a little soccer with Cartagena and then got back on the bus for Murcia.  Everyone was a little stressed out because President was calling everyone to tell them what´s going to happen this transfer and where they´re going.  When we got back to Murcia, we went to visit R... again and then to L....  We taught L... about the Restoration and he asked a ton of really good questions.  He´s awesome and he´s got a fecha now for the 21 of Decemeber.  I´m excited to keep working with him.  L... M... is still in Madrid, but he gets back this week.  Later, we went to visit A...and shared another little message.  After, he showed us how he writes in arabic and french and everything.  I´ve never seen anyone write it before, but its super cool. That night, President Deere called us and told us what was going to happen with us. :)

Sunday was a really weird day.  We had our correlation meeting in the morning because church got moved to 5:00 in the afternoon. After that, we went to go eat with J... and he had her super good Lasagna again.  We shared a quick message with her, came back to the piso to study language a little bit and then went to church. It was weird to be having Sacrament meeting when it´s already pretty dark outside. Since the day was so weird, we didn´t get a chance to go out and work in our pueblos.

Anyway, this week has been pretty good and something that I liked that I read in the Book of Mormon this morning is Alma 37:44,45.  It´s so easy for us to find the word of Christ and easy to understand.  All that he wants for us is the best.  His way is set and it´s clear for all of us.  All we need to do is seek the word of Christ and follow it to eternal life.  His plan is simple, and perfect.  The Book of Mormon is our Liahona.  It contains the word of Christ and leads us straight to Him if we study it.

So on Saturday, we found out what´s going to happen with us this week, since it´s transfer week. Elder Galarza is heading out to Nerja, which is a pueblo of Málaga.  He´s going to do some good work there. 

It´s a branch of only 26 members, but he´ll do a lot of good there.  I´m staying here in Murcia!  My new companion´s name is Elder Johnson and he´s from Ogden I think.  Not sure.  He´s been in the mission for just under a year I think. I don´t know much more about him, but I´m excited to meet him this week.  

Have a great Thanksgiving family!  I´m thankful for all of you and I love and miss you all tons.

Elder Adamson

Finally Pictures of Elder Adamson!!

Elder Adamson's Letter 11/18/2013

This has been an AMAZING week and I can´t wait to tell you about it.

Monday was a good P day and we went to one of the only patches of grass we could find in all of Murcia, and we tossed the frisbee around for a while.  It was a good time because I was finally good at something that the Spanish speakers aren´t.  They still kick my trash in soccer though.  Later we met with P... and her grand daughter was there.  We shared a short message with them and planned a noche de hogar (home evening) for the next Monday.  N... is her granddaughter's name and she´s not a member, but her mom is menos activo.  They´re both coming, I hope.  Then after that, we visited J... C... and did a noche de hogar with his  family.  It went well and we shared a message of the Book of Mormon.  He´s starting to come back to church and things are looking good for him and his family.

Tuesday, we went to eat lunch with J... and J... J....  They made seviche which is another Ecuadorian dish. There was shrimp, squid, and fish in it, but I managed it pretty well.  Hope you´re proud of me.  Then we shared a short message with them and talked about his church attendance.  J... said he wasn´t bored in the capilla this time and it´s getting more interesting and that is kind of an answer to his prayers for him.  Later that day, we visited R... and he happened to be moving a washing machine down 4 floors of stairs with his niece, so we helped him with that and then shared a little message.  We´re going to keep working with him until the members get involved.  No one else is visiting him.  Later, we went to visit a referral from J... and got right in to the house.  The guy´s name is L... and has a son named L... M.... They are actually really interested and are so nice to us.  We did a lesson 0 with them and they said we could come back, and L... M... came to our English class the next day.

Wednesday, We ate with E... and R....  She made some super good paella which we´ve eaten about 2083 times since being here, after leaving there, we went to try and visit some VERY menos activo Russians, but they didn´t want to let us in.  After that we just went straight to the capilla to teach English.  We had a really good class and L... M... showed up.  After the class, we asked L... M... if he could meet for like 10 minutes, and went in a separate room and talked a little about the Book of Mormon.  After that, we gave him a little tour of the capilla and he said that he thinks he´s been there before when he was little.  Really good day with him.  He´s a maquina  (machine) and remembers EVERYTHING we teach him and knows how to apply it.

Thursday was another day of miracles.  We visited A..., who we visited like the first week we got here. She has a son on a mission but she isn´t a member.  She´s gonna take a little more TLC to accept the Gospel, but she´ll figure it out one day.  We´re going to eat with her and M... next week.  Later we visited L... and his family again and his Daughter B... was there too.  She´s about 21 and L... M... is 20 I believe. We taught them the plan of salvation and everyone was very involved in asking questions and the lesson was really good.  Then we went to visit J... and A... and just shared a short message with them.

Friday, wasn´t the best day of the week, but it never is.  Friday´s are tough because not a lot of people are home.  During medio dia  (noon) we ate at the O...´s house.  We had this soup that had garbanzo beans and little noodles and it was pretty good.  After visiting them, we went to the familia A... and Elder Galarza helped M... and D... with their French homework.  I helped a little with a few things in English, but they didn´t have too many questions for me.  Later, we talked about the 2000 stripling warriors with them.  Those boys are like perfect children, and they know the scriptures super well.  One of my favorite families here.  The rest of the night, we tried to find some other members or menos activos in Patiño, but didn´t have any luck.  I´m telling you, Fridays are rough.

Saturday, we ate with the Familia A... and they made some really good chicken and rice.  After that, we stopped by L... M...´s house, because it was his birthday.  He just wanted us to stop by and say hello, but they invited us in and gave us some cake.  This time the mom was there, and her name is something really hard to say, so she told us we could call her M.... :)  We taught the whole family about the BOM and it was pretty good, but M... is super Catholic.  But all in all, it went well.  After that, we visited A.. and shared a short message with him about Christ.  We had a good discussion about our beliefs and what Muslims believe about Christ. There are a lot more similarities than you might think. Right now we´re just sharing little simple messages with him about what we believe. Not trying to baptize him at the current time.  Plus he gives referrals which is an added bonus.  That night, I was a little sick with a fever, so Elder Galarza gave me a blessing, and I was able to sleep well and wake up the next morning feeling a lot better.

Sunday was a decent day as well.  We had a good time at church, and Elder Galarza and I taught the investigator class.  We taught a lesson on temple work and family history.   After Church we went to visit J... J... and just shared a little baby message about faith and repentance.  We´re taking things a little slower with him so he understands everything well this time around.  The lesson went well and we set everything up to talk about Baptism next week. We didn´t have any luck after visiting him though.  At church, Elder Clark brought me a couple super warm blankets because in our Piso we only have like 3 tiny, super thin ones and it´s reaaaaally cold here now.  It just changed all  the sudden.

This week has been by far our best week in Murcia.  We had 20 lessons which has been really hard for us to do in the past and as well for all the companionships in Murcia.  We´ve seen lots of miracles. This week we've really tried to step up our obedience, and we've been blessed for it. We weren´t disobedient missionaries, but we've been doing our best to keep ALL the rules this week and we´ve seen the blessings for it.  This principle is important for missionaries, and that´s why it´s stressed so much.       It´s easy to slip into habits of disobedience, but when we´re obedient, we see miracles.  This              isn´t just for missionaries though.  Heavenly Father blesses all his children when they keep his commandments.  It´s a natural result.  We have commandments so we can be blessed.  Commandments keep us safe and happy. "Consider the blessed and happy state of those who keep the commandments" That is the truth.

So how are you doing with the seafood? 

         The truth is I haven´t eaten very much, but I´m doing fine. :)

 Are you having any opportunities to sing? 

        Not really.  Sometimes with R....... and other times in the shower.

Is the weather changing?  

        OH YES.  It´s pretty cold here now.  the humidity makes things feel so much colder.  I have no idea what the temperatures are though.

Are you getting more member referrals and are you teaching them in the homes of the members?

            Every once in a while, but not too frequently.  We don´t get too many from the members.

Any new favorite foods?

           Little pastries filled with chocolate and I don´t know what they´re called, but that will come later.

Have you lost your keys to your PISO and been locked out?

          No, thank goodness.  That´s impossible for us.  Our door doesn´t close unless you lock it from the outside, so you have to have to key to close it.

Well that´s all for the week.  Have a good Thanksgiving!!  I believe I´ll be going to Cartagena to have a Thanksgiving dinner.  I´ll report next week,

Love, Elder Adamson

Elder Adamson's Letter 11/11/2013

Hello everyone!

We didn´t have the best week, but we´ve learned lots from what we´ve done.

Monday, we went to el progreso and had no luck with investigators, but we were able to visit P... and also the Familia A..., both of the citas went pretty well.  We didn´t do anything eventful for P day.  Just walked around the Gran Vía for a while with some other Murcia Elders.

Tuesday, we went to visit R... and J...  We shared pretty good messages with them, but they still have their silly excuses.  We´re leading them to the water as best as we can, but we just can´t make them drink.  We´re not making very much progress with them.  We´re learning a lot from this though.

Wednesday, we went to visit a different menos activo who is an RM and is making a lot more progress. He´s already come to church 2 times.  He´s told us that he knows what he needs to do, he just needs to get up and do it.  Right now, he´s following through with that very well.  We didn´t have any luck that day, but we went to Clases de Ingles and helped a little there.  Elder Ordoñez was helping teach the class and was writing all the English words how they sound with the Spanish alphabet, and it was one of the funniest things I´ve ever seen.  I know that doesn´t sound funny at all to you, but you really just had to be there.  He speaks almost no English, but when he does, it´s so unexpected and funny.

Thursday, I did an intercambio with Elder Peters and we went to El Palmar.  J.. bailed on us again, which wasn´t too awesome, because he was our main plan in el Palmar, but we did our best to salvage the day, and went to visit J... and A..., and tried to help him to come to church, but he didn´t show up this week. :(  Later we went to to the Familia G... and then P... talked to us about the Abrahamic covenant and patriarchal blessings.  We were able to share a short message with them after and it was a good time. They´re an awesome family.

Friday, we had a really good zone meeting in the morning and we met back up with our companions there,  We talked a lot about how to help our investigators come to church, which was awesome, because we struggle with that a lot here.The things that come from President Deere are always so inspired for the whole mission.  After that we went to Domino's as a zone and ate some buffet pizza.  I thought I would never eat Domino's again after the MTC but I´ve eaten it like 5 times since then. ha ha After lunch, we went home and studied and then went to help Elder Ordoñez and Bleazard move, because they are changing pisos.  It was quite a site to see.  6 missionaries wheeling a bunch of suitcases through Murcia, some carrying mattresses on their heads, and others carrying boxes full of stuff.  That took up pretty much our whole night, but they needed some help.  It´s not easy to change pisos without a car.

Saturday was really good.  We went to visit R... with E... and for the FIRST time, R... wasn´t there when we got there.  E... told us that he had talked to some ward members about him and J... and that they have always been this way.  Members and Elders have worked with them and always things happen the same.  E... told us this just so we wouldn't be wasting our time with them. That´s something we didn´t know anything about before. It´s a really tough call to make, but it has to be made.  Our time here is precious and we can´t waste it.  That´s something I´ve learned a LOT this week.  It´s hard to drop R... and J... because we´ve worked with them a lot and have grown to love them, but we can´t control their agency. We´re not positive what we´ll do yet, but we´re probably going to have to drop them. After we tried visiting R..., we went to J... J... house and did a Noche de Hogar  (FHE) with them.  E... and his wife came as well.  The lesson turned out a little weird and went super long, but I could feel the spirit so strong while we testified.  G... (J...s wife) wants so badly to be sealed in the Temple, but J... isn´t a member yet.  He´s talked with missionaries before, but he just hasn´t done his part and asked if it´s true yet.  Things are looking a lot better this time around and we´ve got another cita set with them for next week.

Sunday was pretty good too.  J... J... came to church with G... which was awesome to see.  He´s progressing little by little.  I´m praying hard for him.  After church we ate with the Familia M... and ate another really good equadorian dish.  After that we went and visited the Familia A...  They´re one of my favorites in all the ward.  SO nice.  We´re running out of investigators fast, we´ve got to start finding again.  This week we´re gonna work hard to find people.

That´s it for the week!

I´m reading the Book of Mormon in Spanish right now for our 85 day challenge in the mission.  I love it and I´m understanding more and more as I go.  The Book of Mormon has so much power, and truly contains the word of God.  We should  study it and apply it and always strengthen our testimony of it, because it truly testifies of Christ and helps us to understand him and what he wants for us.  I´m learning a lot about how to put my trust in the will of God by reading it.

Love you all un montón!
Elder Adamson

Elder Adamson's Letter 11/4/2013

Buenos días from Spain!!

Here´s the week!

Last P day we went to a Cathedral in the middle of Murcia. Someone said it´s one of the biggest on this side of Spain.  Pretty cool though.  I attached some pictures of it.  Then we walked around Murcia for a while, checked out the bull fighting stadium, which is cool. I´ve heard some crazy things about them. After P day was over, we went to el Progreso, and our citas fell through, so we walked back to Murcia, and visited a family in the ward we haven´t met yet.  They´re Bolivians and super awesome people.  They´ve been members for about 5 years I think.  I can´t remember the apellido, though.  We shared a short message with them, and got a referral of one of her friends, so it was a good visit. 

Tuesday, we had our first district meeting with Elder Peters as the District Leader.  He´s a MACHINE.  He´s been out for over a year and a half and really knows how to do the work.  Our district was very very young before he came, but I know we´re going to be learning a lot from him.  Later that day, we went and ate lunch with Elder Ordoñez and Elder Bleazard, and afterwards went out to work.  We went to El Palmar to visit R.... and he offered us some coffee.  He said something like "Yeah, I was thinking about it and I don't think you Mormons drink coffee, but can you?.  That was a little bit worrysome because I´m not sure if he still really considers himself a member, but we´re working on that.. ha ha.  Later we went to ...´s house and taught him a solid lesson about praying and reading the scriptures to help him to progress to baptism.  After that, we visited J... and A....  After sharing a tiny message with them they gave us SEVEN referrals.  A menos activo and a Muslim.  WOW.         That´s more than we´ve received from anyone else combined since we got here. ha ha

Wednesday,  we got to visit ... again.  ... told us that he got kicked out of school that day for doing something, bad and he was pretty bummed out, so we shared a little message from Alma 37 with him.  After stopping there, we went to visit ... and taught her the restoration. and it was a pretty solid lesson as well.  She´s progressing pretty well and we hope to be able to work with her family more, they just never are at home.  That´s all the eventful things for Wednesday.

Thursday, Halloween, was good.  Spain celebrates Halloween just a little.  I´m pretty sure I saw like 3 middle aged women go out to go trick or treating.  Definitely not the same as the States, but they try. :)  We met with ... again this day and took ...(young men's president) with us to the lesson.  We talked about the Día de Reposo (Sabbath) and how ... can come to church. ... (YM pres.) is going to give him a ride to the capilla next week, so hopefully that works out.  Then ...(YM pres.) took us to his house and showed us just about every neat thing he owns.  We were there for a while. He´s a bit of a talker.  Then we shared a short message with him, and then went home.

Friday, we had a cita set with ... (wife of former investigator  that dropped us a long time ago) .  We showed up at their house, and only her husband  was home.  BUT he let us in and we taught another lesson 0 with him and mostly just built up lots of trust with him.  He is so much more comfortable with us now.  That was the big news of that day.

Saturday, we took E... with us to visit R... He seemed a little apprehensive when we told him that he might have to sing a little, like everyone does when we visit R....  We started off with a little karaoke as always, and R... was singing some Spanish song and all the sudden E... joins and and ROCKS THE HOUSE.  He is incredible.  He is a pure Spanish man and he sings like it too. He and R... sang a few more songs and were singing harmony and everything.  That was a good time.  I was laughing my head off because I couldn´t believe what was happening.  After that, we shared a message with him and extended the commitment for him to come to church with us. He started listing off  excuses and what now, and I was thinking "ppffffffft.. not again". Then E... was very bold with him and said " You don´t think that can be fixed".  E... did WORK in that lesson. He was bold but at the same time he had lots of concern for R...    E... was menos activo for 17 years so he had a lot to relate to R....     E... lives pretty far from R..., but next week, he´s going to go pick him up for church.  That was an amazing testimony of how much the members are a part of the work.  It was perfect.

Sunday, we had a good day at church,  we received like a million pastries from the ward secretary, and some more health food from J....  Later during proselyting time, we went to visit a future, and were able to get in and teach a lesson 0.  It was kind of weird because they asked questions like "What does Jesus look like?" but it went pretty well in the end.  Then, we went to visit ... ... and had a SUPER good lesson 1 with him.  It was the best I´ve taught since being on the mission and it was so comfortable.  Things are looking up for ... ....  He just needs to do his part.  That´s the way the gospel is.  We have to do our part.  People try to convince us of anything with words, but it doesn´t mean anything unless you know it´s true.  You can´t know           it´s true unless you try living it.  That´s the way to build a testimony.  Live like you believe.  I´ve learned a lot about that this week in studying why we extend commitments to people. The more I study the more my testimony grows.  That´s how it is.  I learn something new every day, and the more you know about the gospel, the more it just makes sense.  And here, it´s easy to see the difference in people who live the gospel and who don't.  Consider the blessed and happy state of those who keep the commandments!!

That´s all for this week.  Thanks for the letters and the updates, I LOVE them.

Love, Elder Adamson