Monday, December 16, 2013

Elder Adamson's Letter 12/16/2013

CHRISTMAS IS ALMOST HERE.  Hope you´re enjoying the snowy weather there.  I miss the snow a lot.  It just feels like it´s Fall here right now.  Anyway, here´s how the week went.

Last Monday was good.  After a Pday full of playing futbol with the missionaries, we had pretty much all plans fail on us in El Progreso, but we got 2 surprise lessons in.  We passed by P...´s house who we haven´t seen in over a month and she happened to be there, so we dropped in a reviewed the restoration with her.  She seemed like she wanted to have us start coming again, but I´m not really sure.  They failed us on the return cita we set.  It´s hard to tell sometimes if people aren´t interested or just super forgetful.  Then we were able to find a Nigerian man.  His name is M... and we got in his piso and he just talked to us about how much he liked rap and stuff.  He had a pretty dirty mouth and it´s been a while since I´ve heard the English swear words... ha ha.  But, we shared a good lesson with him about the Restoration as well and we told him that we´ll come back to find him.  His girlfriend gave Elder Johnson some besitos (kisses) on the cheeks like they do to greet people here, but I successfully avoided them with a stiff handshake.  Sometimes they sneak up on you, and               it´s pretty rare to be a "never been beso´d missionary", but I still am. Yesssssssssssssss.

Tuesday, we visited R... and also L... M... and they are doing awesome.  We taught them the law of Chastity and M... came with us.  He´s a total stud and I wish you could meet him.  Anyway, They´re doing awesome.  Later we went to go visit J... because we passed J... and he told us he was home, so we went there and reviewed the Plan of Salvation with these little drawings that I made like they do in primary.  

Wednesday, we went to visit N... and her friend L... again to help them with their English homework and it was a good little cita.  Afterward we shared a little message about the Book of Mormon and had to RUN to catch the bus and then SPRINT to the capilla to make it there in time to teach the English class.  L... and L... M... came and after the class we got a lesson in with them about Alma 7, the atonement and how it applies to baptism.  They liked it a lot, but told us they´re still a little hesitant to be baptized, but I´m sure they will be.  It might not be on the 21st or while I´m even here, but        they´ll get baptized.  Love those dudes.

Thursday, we had our weekly planning complete with Kebab and then visited L... and L... M... later that night.  We taught them about the 10 commandments and they were 100% in agreement.  When we teach them something and ask them to commit to it, they always express their desires to do what God wants for them.  They are for sure the most prepared people I´ve taught so far.

Friday the 13th turned out to be not too bad.  We talked to P... about our goal as a mission to find 800 new investigators tomorrow and we´re hoping they´ll be able to help us complete it.  Later we visited G... and a friend that was there with her and just shared a short message with them.  Also, that morning we went to visit with J... C....  We´re trying to help him back to activity and he´s improving little by little.

Saturday, we had a Cosecha (harvest) here in Murcia.  All the missionaries from the Cartagena zone came with  few members to contact in the street for a few hours.  We got quite a few futures, but about 90% of them were in the Hermana´s area, so it didn´t help us out too much, but it was a good time.  I went with Elder Lucero and actually saw M... begging on the street.  That was a little weird, because in his house, he definitely doesn´t look that poor, pero bueno... who knows.  We also taught L... and L... M... tithing and they were totally de acuerdo again. Great guys, and they´re always eager to listen to us and have us come over.

Sunday was the primary program, and it was super funny as always.  The classic 2 or 3 kids singing their guts out and the rest looking around and mouthing the words.  Super funny, but it was really good too.  L... M... came again for Church, but his dad couldn´t because they lost the keys to the house so he had to stay there or something, which means they can´t be baptized on the 21st, but that´s alright.  After Church, L... M... pulled us aside and told us that he didn´t think he´d be ready by the 21st, but that he wanted to see a baptism first.  The other Elders have a baptism coming soon so we invited him to that.  We´ve been pushing pretty hard to get them ready for the 21st, but they don´t feel ready, so we´re going to have to wait a bit.  I just hope I get to see it.  They´ll be such strong members.  Later we went and ate with the M... and then went and watched the Christmas Devotional at the capilla.  It was super good and L... M... showed up to that as well.  He´s such a maquina.

In the Christmas Devotional, I really loved Elder Anderson´s talk about the Savior.  I love Christmas so much and even though it´s not quite the same without snow and a tree in the house, I still have the most important part with me.  The Savior is everything.  We celebrate His birth every year to remind us of him.  He sacrificed everything for us and died for us, but more importantly, He lives for us.  
Jesus´s life did not end on the cross, but He will live on forever in His glory, and thanks to His atonement, we can do the same.  If we follow his steps,   they´ll take us straight to Exaltation. "I Stand All Amazed" comes to mind when I think of Him and His love for us.  He is someone to be celebrated all year round!

  • Are you staying warm outside and inside?
  • Yeah, I´m fine now.  The change was just so fast that it caught us surprised.
  • How festive is Christmas in Spain?  Is it as big a deal in Spain as it is here?
  • Honestly, it´s not THAT big here.  It´s for sure still celebrated, but not so much as in the States.  They have like 2034980293458 other holidays for the Virgins that kind of take precedent.  They still celebrate it a lot though.
That´s all for this week.  Hope everything is going well and enjoy the Christmas spirit and the gingerbread cookies and stuff.  Jess and Mom better make and eat some on my behalf.

LOVE YOU!!!

Elder Adamson

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