Elder Adamson's Letter 12/29/2014

Hello everyone!  I hope you've had a great Christmas.  I had a great one and I´m still enjoying the spirit of it. Here are the highlights and miracles of the week.

On P-day we went to a place called el Mirador de San Nicolas where you can see the Alhambra very well, and we got some good pictures and saw a few guys playing some Flamenco music.  They have the best spot to make money in all of Granada.  You´ll see why when you see the picture.

On Noche Buena (Christmas Eve), We had lunch with the familia Morcote and sang some villancicos afterward. After, we went to Hermana Nubia´s house and had a big dinner with all the missionaries and the Oldroyd family and had a lot of fun there.  The house was packed.  There were like 20 of us in a room with tables and everything set up.  After we ate we have a white elephant gift exchange and I scored a sweet nerf gun. :)

On Christmas morning we went to go sing some Christmas carols to a couple investigators and for lunch we went over to Hermano Darío´s house and had a barbacoa argentina that was VERY good, and then we went back to Hermana Nubia´s house to skype.  After that we headed for the bishop´s house for a Christmas dinner with the Oldroyd family again.

On the 26 we saw a huge miracle.  Hermana Nielson called us from the office and told us we had a reference from mormon.org which are usually really good, so we went to got the contact that morning and it turns out that it was in a pueblo about 30 minutes from Granada called Huétor Tájar.  Turns out that the woman who sent the request was a member from Bolivia who has been looking for the church but hasn´t been able to find it for 10 years and she wants to come back.  She was smiling so big when she and her husband invited us in.  Turns out that her husband, Marcileno was an antiguo that I was looking for him in DOS HERMANAS like 8 months ago  and here we are hundreds of kilometers away from Dos Hermanas and we found him.  Holy cow.  Christmas Miracle.  We´re very excited to work with them. We also got to see Maricarmen who has made some huge progress.  She´s praying every night and a few weeks ago she didn´t even know if she believed in God.  Now we´re trying to help her quit smoking.

I have loved this Christmas and I´m a little sad that it´s my last one in the mission, but I´ve got these next 6 months to keep working and enjoying the work that I've been called to do.

Love you all and have a great New Year!

Elder Adamson

Christmas Call

Elder Adamson is doing great and loving every minute of his mission.  His new area looks so much like Utah.  We were privileged to meet his new companion as we began our call.  Elder Metcalf is from Houston, Texas and these two elders seem like a very good combination.  It was a wonderful blessing for us to hear his voice and see how excited he is to be doing the Lord's work.  He loves Spain.

                         

Merry Christmas to all and to all a BUENAS NOCHES

Merry Christmas! 

 Elder Metcalf and I have had a really great week.  I am very excited for Christmas and to be able to skype with you!

This week we were able to meet with Maricarmen again and we had a very good lesson with her.  She FINALLY prayed on her own and she said she felt "strange but good" afterwards.  We explained to her that that feeling comes from the Holy Ghost and we ended up setting a fecha with her for the 11th of January and we've set goals so that she can be living all the commandments necessary for that date.

I have been meeting a lot of people in the past little while and I´ll tell you more in detail when we talk on skype.

Yesterday we traveled to Málaga for a tri-zone conference.  I got to conduct the meeting.  We heard some really good lessons from President, Hermana Deere and the assistants.  The Hermanas that came in my group gave their final testimonies which was very weird to see.  We entered the MTC at the same time and now         they´re going home.  The time is so short!  Elder Metcalf and I are both ready to give it our all these last few months we have left.  President Deere also announced who the new mission president will be which is also pretty crazy.  Their names are DarVel and Marilyn Andersen and they´re from Idaho.  I´ll probably only be here for about 2 weeks with them.

Zone Conference

I´m loving Granada so far and I´m starting to get my feet on the ground I've never come to love people so fast as I have here in Granada including my companion, investigators, and the members.  I´ve been transferred to a great place and I hope to stay here for a long while.

Well, I´ll talk to you soon!  Love you and MEEEEEEEERRY CHRISTMAS!

Love,

Elder Adamson

 

                            

Christmas Ham

Elder Adamson's Letter 12/15/2014

Hello everyone!  I've arrived safely to Granada and I´m loving it.  It´s a beautiful city and it seriously feels like    I´m in Utah here when we drive down the highways because we have the Sierra Nevada here close by. it´s even cold and there´s snow in the mountains. Our plan today for Pday was to go up to play in the snow but the weather was bad so we weren't able to.  Here´s the week.

Last P day in San Fernando we got together with our district and the Chiclana district and played some basketball and had tons of fun.

In the afternoon we had a cita with Lucas and María and their family and it was really good. My last couple days in San Fernando I just tried to get in as many goodbyes as I could there with all of the amazing members.  It was pretty sad to leave San Fernando behind after being there for about 1/4 of my mission, but I am very happy here in Granada.  The area here is totally different and it´s going to take some getting used to, but it looks great so far.

I got to Granada on Wednesday at about 3:00 and Elder Metcalf came to pick me up in the car.  Elder Metcalf is a big guy and he´s from Texas.  We were in the MTC together but in different zones so we didn't really get to know each other very well, but I can already tell that he is a great missionary and I´m super excited to be here with him. I´ll attach a picture of us.  He´s a very hard worker and he´s been here in Granada for 3 months.

This week has been a little bit of a blur so I´ll just give you a few of the highlights since I got here.  So, here in our area we have a car because most of our area is little towns that are on the outskirts of Granada, and we also have a portion of the city as well.  The area here is a lot different from what I´m used to, but I like it.  Right now we´ve got a lot to work with and we´re setting high goals so we can do a lot of good here.

This week I got to meet the Bishop and his family and they´re awesome people.  I also got to meet a few of our investigators named Maricarmen, Kevin, Aliou, and a few others.  So far, I´ve LOVED teaching with Elder Metcalf because our lessons are so focused and guided by the Spirit.  I´m learning so much already from him.

Maricarmen is a Spanish woman who lived in Germany for 20 years who also speaks English very well.  We´re having a hard time with her because she looks like she has the desires to know if God exists but she´s just not really willing to try anything.  She has problems with the word of wisdom and we tried to do a fast with her, but she backed out.  We´re doing what we can with her.  

Kevin is a 20 year old Ecuadorian.  Things are going really well with him and we´re hoping that he´ll be able to get baptized here soon.  We´re going to shoot for this week.

Aliou is from Senegal and he´s Muslim. The most recent news about him is that at the end of our lesson with him, he prayed in the name of Jesus Christ which is a huge step forward.

The ward here is about 90 active members so it´s just a little bigger than San Fernando 2, but here in Granada we meet in a big stake center which is pretty awesome.

This week we had a Christmas Concert in the capilla and the Granada city band came to perform and it was really awesome.  There were about 600 nonmembers in the capilla that night and It´s a yearly tradition.  We had a stand out with proselyting material but the city didn't let us pass stuff out so we had to just put it all on a table.  It was a really great concert though and it left us all feeling the Christmas spirit.

Sorry this wasn't the most detailed letter I´ve ever sent, but this week I´ll have more details for you.  I´m doing well and loving the mission more than ever.

1. Package?

I´ll probably be getting it next Monday.

2. What are some Christmas traditions that you have observed in Spain?

They have lots of traditional Christmas treats like Polvorones and things like that.  Here Santa isn´t really a big tradition, but it´s getting a lot bigger.  The biggest day of the holiday for them is the 6th of Jan, which is when the Three Magician kings come and bring the kids gifts instead of Santa.

3. How have you shared The Gift?

We used it at the Christmas concert and we´re using  it with pretty much everyone we talk to.

4. Any info on your Christmas call?

Not quite yet.  We´re not sure how it´s going to work yet, but next week we´ll have everything planned out.

So next week we´ll have a zone conference on Monday so I probably won´t be able to write you on that day just so you know that I´m not dead if you don´t get an email from me that day.  

love you!

Saying Goodbyes

Elder Adamson's Letter 12/8/2014

Holy cow, this has been an awesome week.  Not quite as crazy but it´s been a lot of fun.  Here goes:

Last Monday, we played some more basketball and had a blast and this week we´re planning on it again this afternoon.  We got to see Lucas and Maria in the afternoon and taught them a lesson about the gospel of Jesus Christ and we showed them the bible video of Jesus´ baptism.  The kids loved it.  Celia had even written a summary of 3 Nephi 11 that we left her to read last week.  Pretty impressive.  They understand everything perfectly so far.  They need to be baptized!

On Thursday, we were able to see David and Angela and talk about her confirmation which was done yesterday.  She´s doing really well and she´s happy after her baptism  Later that night we got to see Guillermo and had a good lesson with him about the sacrament and he promised us he´d come to church this week with us.  Later in the night we found two new investigators named Edgar and Cristina.  Edgar is from Peru and is in the military and Cristina is from Barcelona.  We got to chat with them for a little while and they´re really nice, friendly people.  They have a 2 year old son named Justin as well.  We´ve got a cita with them this afternoon.

On Friday, we had an awesome zone meeting in Puerto de Santa María.  The main thing that we talked about was that the missions standards of excellence have changed.  Now it includes 5 news, 15 lessons with INV, 20 lessons total, 4 baptismal dates, 4 investigators in church and a baptism EVERY WEEK.  The bar has been raised, but the Lord is hastening His work, and we´ve got to keep up!  After zone meeting the sweet members from Rota made us Thanksgiving dinner which we thoroughly enjoyed.  Afterward we stayed for a little testimony meeting and we sang a bunch of Christmas songs to get in the holiday spirit.  I LOVE CHRISTMAAAAS. 

On Saturday morning Elder Rasmussen called to tell me what our transfers were.  This Wednesday, I´ll be going to GRANADA and my companion 's name is ELDER METCALF. 

 I don´t really know too much about how it´s going to be, but Elder Metcalf is from the same MTC group as me so that will be fun.  AND we will have a car (one of the few areas that has a car).  I never expected to be driving on my mission, so I guess I´m pretty lucky ha ha.  Even though it´s really hard to leave San Fernando,      I´m ready to start working in a new place.  I'm super excited. 

Elder Lelegren and I have come to be really great friends here in San Fernando and I have learned more in the past 3 months of training than any other period of my mission.

 I´ve learned many great things from Elder Lelegren and even though it's been a little tough here,         I wouldn´t trade the time I had here for anything else because I know it´s made me a better servant of the Lord.                           

I am very excited to get to work with Elder Metcalf there in Granada. The mission just always gets better and better and better, so I´m sure things will go great there in Granada.

This week I´ve been saying a lot of goodbyes because I knew that I was probably going to get transferred this week.  That´s the worst part of changing areas is having to say goodbye to all the great people you´ve met.    I´ll attach some pictures of some members.

1. Have you received your package?

No, not yet

2.  Do you know what time you will be calling on Christmas?

No idea.  That will have to be established once we get things organized in Granada.

3. Any word on your next transfer?

yes sir.  I´m going to be a zone leader in Granada with Elder Metcalf

4. How was your thanksgiving dinner?

Delicious.  I ate a little turkey just for the sake of tradition but I like the ham a lot better.

That´s all for this week.  Love you all and hope you have a great week!

Love,

Elder Adamson

Christ is the Gift

If you haven't already, please visit the website christmas.mormon.org AND SHARE IT LIKE CRAZY through social media and however else you can.  This is a great missionary effort that the church is doing and we want as many people as possible to be a part of it.

Christmas time is the best time of the year, and lots of people don't know what it's really about. Let's Share the Gift with as many people as possible this Christmas season.  Christ is the Gift that everyone needs this Christmas.

Élder Adamson

Elder Adamson's Letter 12/1/2014

Hello everyone!  I hope you've all had a great Thanksgiving.  We still haven't celebrated it yet but we will this week after Zone Meeting.  The members from an American branch are going to feed us in Puerto de Santa María and we're all looking forward to it. 

Here's what happened this week.  It's been CRAZY.

On Monday, we went to Cádiz for P-day and hung out with the missionaries there and played a little foosball and ping pong, which is one of my newly acquired talents since being on the mission.  In the afternoon we had a cita with Lucas, María and the kids and a member named Yolanda came with us who works in the primary.  We had a really good lesson about the restoration and Celia was literally taking notes the whole time.  These kids have better studying habits as 11 year old kids than I had as a Senior in high school.  They're really bright.  The lesson went great and we've got a great friendship going with the family now, so that's good.

On Tuesday, we had our interviews with President which was amazing as always.  We had a great cita with David and Ángela and talked about temples and family history work.  The lesson went well and Ángela has stopped drinking coffee so from that day, the baptism was on for Sunday so we started the preparations that same day.  This week we taught her the rest of lesson 5 and got the interview done and she was ready to get baptized.  She was baptized last night and the service turned out great. We were running back and forth all afternoon from filling the font and getting everything ready.  When she got up after she was baptized she shared the story of the prodigal son and how when he came home, his family threw a party for him.  She said that she felt like her baptism was the party we were throwing for her and that she feels like she's at home in the church.  Great night.

Wednesday, Elder Lelegren and I got to go to Málaga to do an intercambio with the Assistants to the President.  WOW.  We had a great time there.  I went with Elder Rojas who is one of the most amazing missionaries out there. I learned so much from him.  He truly works with the Spirit.  Elder Rojas is an amazing example of charity and a consecrated missionary. I wish you could meet him.

Friday, we had an intercambio with Cádiz.  I went to Cádiz with Elder Jack and it was fun to see all the progress he has made in just one transfer as a new missionary.  I have come to love intercambios.

On Saturday night, we found a new investigator from Honduras named Osman.   I'm so used to hearing Andaluz accents here in San Fernando (since that's all there is) that anything else just sounds weird.  We had a good lesson with him and scheduled a return appointment for next week.

Between all the things we've had to do this week I have been pretty stressed out, but now most of the stressful stuff is over so things are a little more calm now.
On Friday we had an amazing district meeting (one of the most spiritual we have ever had) and we started off talking about the miracles that we have seen on our missions.  Everyone shared a short story and I was amazed at all of the miracles people have seen on their missions.  That got the meeting off to a great start and the Spirit was very strong.  After that we talked about how Christ can multiply our efforts just like he multiplied the bread and fishes to feed the multitude of the 5000.  We read about Enoch in the book of Moses 6 when he was called to preach to the people. When called this was Enoch's response:

"And when Enoch had heard these words, he bowed himself to the earth, before the Lord, and spake before the Lord, saying: Why is it that I have found favor in thy sight, and am but a lad, and all the people hate me; for I am slow of speech; wherefore am I thy servant?"

I think we have all felt like that.  Sometimes we feel like we are too weak, too small, and too unimportant and we don recognize the potential we have with God.  This was the response that the Lord gave him.

"Go forth and do as I have commanded thee, and no man shall pierce thee. Open thy mouth, and it shall be filled, and I will give thee utterance, for all flesh is in my hands, and I will do as seemeth me good.  Say unto this people: Choose ye this day, to serve the Lord God who made you. Behold my Spirit is upon you, wherefore all thy words will I justify; and the mountains shall flee before you, and the rivers shall turn from their course; and thou shalt abide in me, and I in you; therefore walk with me."

Enoch listened to the Lord, and exercised faith in His promises.  This is what happened through that same Enoch that was worried about preaching to the people because he was slow of speech.

"And so great was the faith of Enoch that he led the people of God, and their enemies came to battle against them; and he spake the word of the Lord, and the earth trembled, and the mountains fled, even according to his command; and the rivers of water were turned out of their course; and the roar of the lions was heard out of the wilderness; and all nations feared greatly, so powerful was the word of Enoch, and so great was the power of the language which God had given him."

Let that be a lesson to us of how the Lord works through us, and also of how he can multiply our efforts and works miracles through us.

That's all for this week!  Love you all and I hope you've been putting the Christmas music on today.  It's time.

Love,

Elder Adamson

Elder Adamson's Letter 11/24/2014

Hello Everyone!  This has been an amazing week and we got to hear from Elder Patrick Kearon of the Seventy.  Here´s what we did this week.

On Monday, we had a great visit with María and Lucas and their kids.  We taught the Plan of Salvation and we used some little pictures that I made in Murcia to do it and the kids just soaked it up.  By the end of the lesson, Celia had taken mental notes and she gave a summary of everything that we had talked about.  Those kids are really bright and they need to start going to church more often.  We´re not really sure why their parents stopped going, but we´re going to see what we can do to help that family out.

We´ve been about to teach David and Angela about 3 times this week and they´re doing well and progressing, but at a slower pace.  Angela has come a long way but she´s been Catholic for all 77 years of her life so it´s a little hard for her to assimilate all the things we´re teaching her, but she´s doing well.  I wish you could be in a lesson with her because she makes some of the funniest comments I have ever heard.  Her baptism is programmed for this Sunday, but we´re not sure if she´s going to make it, so we might have to move the date again, but she came to church again this week and she´s doing well with not drinking coffee.

On Wednesday, we met with Lolo and had a really good lesson 1 with him.  He read the Book of Mormon and prayed, but we lost contact with him this week and he didn´t show up to church, so we´re going to see if we can catch up with him this week.  Later in the afternoon we met with Guillermo and 

he´s doing super well.  He´s reading the scriptures and he told us he´d come to church with us this next week so we´re pretty excited about that.  He´s made a huge change according to the members.  After that lesson we grabbed our bags and headed for Dos Hermanas to stay the night there.  It was super weird to stay in my old apartment again.  I got to see Joni and Alex and chatted with them for a few minutes before heading to the piso, and it was great to see them again.  

The next morning, we got up early and left for Málaga to hear from Elder Kearon.  We all got to shake his hand and we soaked up every minute of listening to him, his wife, and the Deeres.  He talked a lot about how as missionaries we are asked to stretch a lot, among tons of other things.  The thing that I think stuck with me most was when he mention how we have to be like Peter and jump out of the boat and DECIDE to act, and we move forward with our faith in Christ, and if we happen to waiver, the Savior of the world is there to take us by the hand and lift us up.  Sometimes the hardest thing to do is just jumping out of the boat, but it´s a step of faith that we have to take.  There was a lot more that we talked about, but those were the things that came to me strongest.  Elder Kearon bore a very powerful testimony of the 12 apostles and of the Restoration and the Spirit was very strong in the conference we had.

This week we have the goal as a mission to take 250 investigators to church this week and Elder Lelegren and I have set the goal to bring 4 investigators to church with us.  It´s gonna be a stretch, but we´re gonna go for it!

There´s no snow or anything here in San Fernando, but it´s been pretty rainy lately.  For me it´s still short sleeve weather when it´s not super windy, but people here are bundling up like Eskimos.

I´m not sure if we´re going to be eating a typical thanksgiving dinner here, but if we don´t Elder Lelegren and I will do something special. :)

That´s all for this week.  Thanks for sending another package!  

HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO EVERYONE!

Love,

Elder Adamson

I attached some pics of the piso just in case you want to see what it looks like.

Elder Adamson's Letter 11/17/2014

Hello Everyone!

Things are going really well here in San Fernando.  Things have picked up a lot and we found another 6 new investigators this week.  We´re happy and working hard and REALLY excited for this next week.  Elder Kearon of the first Quorum of the Seventy is coming to the mission this week so we´re all pretty pumped about that.  Here´s what we did this week:

On Monday, we were able to visit Lucas and María who are less active members and their three kids who are all nonmembers.   We had a good little lesson with them and the kids were super happy to see us there. 

They´ve been going to church with their grandma in Cádiz and they love it, so we´re going to see what we can do to help this family out.  We don´t know too much about them but the parents have been inactive for about 14 years.  There is a lot of good potential there, though.

We´ve had some more good visits with David and Angela this week too.  They both came to church this week and they´re both progressing really well.  We changed Angela´s date to the 30th of November because          we´ve still got a few things left to teach that we can´t fit in this week.  Angela has stopped drinking coffee and she´s keeping all of her commitments so things are looking good.  We reviewed the restoration with her this week a couple times so she would really understand it and I think she´s got it now.  She just needs to keep praying about it.

We also found a new investigator this week named Lolo who was friends with the Missionaries in England.  He speaks English really well, but I think it will be good for him to hear the gospel in his own language.  So far he seems to be really receptive.  He´s about 20 years old.  We also found 2 other investigators this week that were referrals from Chari named Josefina and Manuel.  They´re from Barcelona and they´re both pretty agnostic in their own ways but really nice people, and we´re hoping they´ll give it a shot.

I got to do another Baptismal interview in Cádiz this week.  That ward is on fire right now.  The man´s name is Luis and I got to hear his new and growing testimony.  Those interviews will always be some of the most special experiences of my mission.  He got baptized this weekend and it was a great service.

This morning I studied Alma 36 and 2 parts of the chapter really stuck out to me.  First, when Alma says that "the very thought of coming into the presence of my God did rack my soul with inexpressible horror" before his repentance but immediately after he repents he says "Yea, methought I saw, even as our father Lehi saw, God sitting upon his throne, surrounded with numberless concourses of angels, in the attitude of singing and praising their God; yea, and my soul did long to be there."  That is how we should feel.  We must always long to be with God and NEVER EVER hide from Him.

We´ve got a big week ahead of us and we´re very excited to hear from Elder Kearon.  

Love you all and I hope you´re doing great!

Elder Adamson

Elder Adamson's Letter 11/10/2014

Hello everyone!  Here´s the week!

San Fernando is cooling off quite a bit this week.  The temperature´s haven´t dropped too much, but there is a pretty cold humid wind here.  We´re happy though. Sweater weather is definitely coming though.

This week we´ve been dropped by a few investigators but things are going really well with David and Ángela, this week we taught them about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and also about the Word of Wisdom.   Both of them are coffee drinkers and it´s going to be pretty hard for David to stop according to him, but he´s lowered the amount he´s drinking every day.  This week when we were in a lesson, Elder Richardson and Thia were with me because our companions had to go to Fuengirola.  While Ángela was talking with Elder Richardson, he asked her about her baptismal date and she said something like "Of course I´m going to get baptized!  I´m not going to make these guys come all the way over here for nothing!" ha ha  She´s progressing really well, and keeping commitments.  She told us last time that she wouldn´t drink another coffee until the next time we came which is this Wednesday, so we´re excited to see how things have gone.

We had a really great Zone Meeting this week in Cádiz on Friday.  Elder Rasmussen and Elder Smith asked me to sing "Savior Redeemer of my Soul".  It´s been quite a while since I´ve done something like that and I got a little shakey while I was singing, but I loved it.  That will always be one of my favorite songs.  The zone leaders talked to us about obedience and the Sister training leaders talked to us about helping our investigators come to church.  Afterwards, Elder Rasmussen came with me to San Fernando for an intercambio and we had tons of fun.  I haven´t been able to see him too much since the CCM and we were really good friends there.  It was fun to catch up with him and see how he´s doing.

On Sunday, we brought David to church with us and he really liked it.  He stayed for all 3 hours and he said it didn´t even feel long for him which is a good sign if he´s saying that from the start.  The ward did a really good job of welcoming him and I think he felt pretty good in the capilla.

Something I forgot to mention before is that the missionaries in Dos Hermanas let me know a little while back that Helton just baptized his son Vitor in the new capilla there, so I was super happy to hear that! :)

One of my favorite scriptures lately has been Phillipians 3:12-14

"12 Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.

 13 Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,

 14 I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus."

Here Paul talks about how Christ has already won the battle for us and that he has done what is necessary for us to receive the "prize" that is laid up for us in heaven.  He admits that he hasn´t yet reached that point yet, but he leaves behind everything that impedes his progression so he can press forward toward exaltation with the help of Christ.  We must leave behind our sins, our pride, and anything else, and once we´ve left it we must not look back, but keep looking forward.

That´s all for this week.  Love you guys a bushel and a peck and a hug around the neck.

Love,

Elder Adamson

p.s. the pictures attached are of the Triple Threat (Elder Thia, me, and Elder Richardson)

Elder Adamson's Letter 11/3/2014

What´s up??  We´ve had another great week here in San Fernando.  Here´s the highlights what we´ve been up to:

on Monday, we were invited to attend a Noche de Hogar at the Aragón family´s house and there daughter Nahiara, who is about 9 or 10, gave the lesson and it was one of the cutest things ever.  First, we watched a REALLY old video about temples and families but it had a really great message and then she started to tell us that it is through our temples we can have forever families.  After that, we read just about every scripture in the standard works that had the word "family" in it. hahaha  It was so great to see that even she remembers the day that her family was sealed in the temple a few years ago and she knows why it´s so important to be sealed in the temple.  Eternas pueden ser las familias.

On Tuesday we had our last district meeting with Hermana Brown.  She went home this week.  She´s been a great missionary here and we´re going to miss her.  Later in the afternoon we had a cita with Walter and we taught him about the Restoration and the lesson went pretty well.  He´s not keeping his commitments very well, but we´re going to see if we can involve some members to help him out.

On Wednesday, we caught David and Angela at home and we taught about the plan of Salvation and they received it very well.  At the end of the lesson, the Spirit was strong, so we set a baptismal date for both of them on the 22nd of November and they both agreed. We haven´t had a baptismal date here for quite a while so we´re pretty excited for that.  Since that day, we have seen them a few more times and they´re still doing great.  They weren´t able to come to church this week because David had to go to the doctor, but this next week they´ve both committed to come.

Friday was Halloween, and people here are really starting to celebrate it.  They´re not very creative on their costumes yet (they were all the typical witch, vampire, ghost), but we actually did see quite a few kids out trick or treating.  We got to see Alicia that day and she read the chapter we left her 2 times but she forgot to pray so we recommitted her to do that.  She´s doing really well and seems to be super sincere.  She´s a little skeptical about the restoration still, but she knows what she needs to do to find out if it´s true.  Now, thanks to the week of finding and the week before it, we have a really good teaching pool and lots of people with good potential.  Things are picking up here in San Fernando and we´ve been making some plans to get all of our new investigators involved with the ward, so we´re looking forward to another great week this week.

In other news, on Saturday night, i walked into the bathroom to brush my teeth and saw a big orange cockroach crawling in the shower and I literally screamed out loud.  We took care of it, though.

I´m still loving the Book of Mormon, and right now I´m reading about Alma and Amulek.

In the part i read this morning in chapter 12 of Alma, Amulek says:

14 For our words will condemn us, yea, all our works will condemn us; we shall not be found spotless; and our thoughts will also condemn us; and in this awful state we shall not dare to look up to our God; and we would fain be glad if we could command the rocks and the mountains to fall upon us to hide us from his presence.

 15 But this cannot be; we must come forth and stand before him in his glory, and in his power, and in his might, majesty, and dominion, and acknowledge to our everlasting shame that all his judgments are just; that he is just in all his works, and that he is merciful unto the children of men, and that he has all power to save every man that believeth on his name and bringeth forth fruit meet for repentance.

We will all one day be accountable for our actions and for what we have become in our probationary time.  We can be assured that if we repent of our sins and improve in our time here, that we can stand before the judgement bar with confidence.  Our Heavenly Father will be more merciful in that day than we might expect, but that does not take away our responsibility to repent and be washed clean by the atonement while we are here on earth.  We´re here for a purpose, and we have to remember that one day we will be judged and Heavenly Father will see if we have worked toward that purpose.  I testify of His mercy and love for us that is shown through the plan of salvation.  It´s real.

That´s the week! Hope everyone is doing well!That´s all and I love you so so so much!  Have a great week!

Elder Adamson's Letter 10/27/2014

Hello everyone! We had a great finding week this week and we got the goal!!  Our goal was to find 888 new investigators and we found a total of 897.  Elder Lelegren and I were able to find 6 of those.  Here´s the week.

Last Monday, we went to Cádiz for P day and we visited the cathedral there.  It was pretty cool.  Not quite as cool as the one in Sevilla.  I think once you´ve seen one cathedral you´ve kind of seen them all, but it was still cool. We also got to go out to a the Castle of San Sabastian which was also pretty cool.  Cádiz is super awesome.

On Tuesday we found our first new investigator of the week.  His name is César and it´s been a while since missionaries have taught him.  We had a good lesson 0 with him and we´ll be going back to see him tonight.  He told us he believes the Book of Mormon is the word of God so there´s a good start.

On Wednesday, we passed by a few people we wanted to start teaching this week including a family that lives below one of our members.  The parents are named Geli and Jesús.  We have knocked on their door for a LOONG time without being about to get in, but this time they let us in and we had a super good lesson with them.  They are really receptive (mostly Jesús) and it was a huge miracle for us.  We´re hoping to be able to teach the whole family this week.  They have two daughters as well.

Thursday was a really good day as well.  We were able to catch David and Angela (new investigators. from last week) at home in the afternoon and had a short little lesson talking about the chapter we left them to read and it was really short and sweet.  They´re doing well and doing a good job at keeping commitments.  After them we had a cita with a Lady that Elder Lelegren contacted on the street a few days before named Alicia.  Turns out she´s a coworker of one of the members in our ward and is pretty familiar with the church.  She was receiving visits from a sister missionary back in 1995 and made really good friends with her but was never baptized.  We´re going to start trying to involve her with the ward and see how things go.  She´s really nice and accepted the commitments we left with no problems at all.  We´re excited to keep working with her.

Saturday was AWESOME.  By that day, we were really scraping the bottom of the bowl to find new investigators and we weren´t really sure what to do, but we had made some good plans for the day.  After we had correlation with Joaquin, we stopped to talk to a guy on the street and he asked us what our message was, so we took ten minutes to go sit down with him and tell him what our message was and we got a new appointment with him for next week.  After that, there was a former investigator that I was pretty sure I had passed by before, but we decided to go try it anyway.  We ended up going and finding a really nice lady named Fátima.  It´s been a LONG time since the missionaries have talked to her but she let us right in and she knows lots of members in the ward.  She told us that every night, she does a catholic prayer, and then a "mormon prayer".  I´m excited about all these new people.  The Lord has really blessed us this week.  

On Sunday, we brought Angela to church with us and it was great.  There were a few members that recognized her because they remember seeing each other a long time ago in Cádiz.  I think she really enjoyed the meetings and it´s always a good sign when an investigator comes to church. :)

The Lord has really provided the way for us this week.  Only about 2 of the people we found this week were on the list of people we were expecting to find and the others just came.

A few times this week, I couldn't help but think about how blessed I really am.  I know the true gospel, I have a great loving family, I´m able to feel of God´s love often as I read the scriptures and pray,  I know that we will continue on after death.  It´s all thanks to Christ.  I cannot deny that I know that He lives.  I have felt it so many times and I know that He lived and died for me.  All of the blessings that I could ever receive wouldn't mean anything if it weren´t for the miracle of the Atonement.  Our Redeemer broke the chains of death and hell for us, so that we might be eternally happy.  I know that He lives and loves each and every one of us more than we can understand.

Love you and miss you!

Have a great week.

Con Cariño, (With Love)

Elder Adamson