Elder Adamson's Letter 6/29/2015

Hello everyone!

This has been a pretty normal week.  Here are the highlights of

the week.

This week we had another great lesson with E about the gospel of

Jesus Christ at J M's house.  E is the type of investigator that every missionary wants.  He's super open, he asks questions when he doesn't understand something and he does his homework. So far he's doing really well.  He was going to come to church this weekend but I think there was a little miscommunication so he didn't end up coming and we couldn't get a hold of him so we're going to see if we can get him there next week.

This week we brought R to church with us.  He's a twelve year old

Mexican boy and he's really interested in the gospel.  There aren't really

any other active young men in our branch and that didn't seem to bother him. He stayed for all three hours with no problem.

Unfortunately Y, S and P didn't come to church this week.  Y is going to Bolivia for a month to visit her family so the missionaries will have to pick things back up with her when she gets back.  We're not sure what's going on with S and P... We haven't heard anything from them in almost two weeks. :/

On Friday I had my exit interview with President Deere and it was

super good.  We basically just talked a lot about my mission and what

I had learned and how I have changed.  I'll give you a more a detailed

version of all this stuff when I get home!

This is my last full week of the mission.  The next time I send a letter home, you will see me in 3 days.  Isn't that crazy?  I'm excited and nervous and sad all at the same time but I'm feeling ready for the change.  I'm excited to start applying all the things I've learned on my mission.  When I get home, my purpose does not change. I am a disciple of Christ now and I will

be for the rest of my life.

Love you! See you soon!

Élder Adamson

Elder Adamson's Letter 6/22/2015

Hello everyone! Things are going really well here in Cáceres, and it's Getting very hot.  Here's the week in review.

This week we got to go to Sevilla to have our final zone conference

with President Deere.  We got to hear from both him and Hermana Deere.

I gave my final testimony in the conference and Elder Farrell gave his as well.  The Deeres talked to us a lot about after mission life and how we can stay in the path of the gospel which was a very appropriate theme for me since I'm ending this transfer.  We even talked a for a while about choosing our future spouses which was interesting... ;). I'm still going to be able to see them one more time before I go home because I have my exit interview this Friday and then they go home next week.  They have been such great leaders for us here in the mission.  I have been very blessed to be able to serve under President Deere's leadership.  He is a very Christlike and inspired man.

That afternoon we had a lesson with our friend E from Honduras at T's house.  We taught him the plan of salvation and after a very spiritual discussion about the atonement, we set a date for him for the 11 of July.  He is very excited and is doing really well.  He is reading the Book of Mormon and understanding everything and praying about it so he's right on track. 

Today for p day we went to Mérida and had a great time there.  There are tons of Roman ruins there.  I'll send you the pictures soon.  We got to see a theater, the stadium where they had gladiator fights, a temple where they worshiped the goddess Diana, and a bunch of other stuff. One of the coolest things I've seen on my mission.

Getting close to the end of my mission is definitely a very humbling experience.  I'm going to miss this a lot.  My eyes have really been opened on my mission and I would not trade the experiences I have had here for anything in the world.  It doesn't feel real that it's about to end.  Anyway, we'll talk more about that stuff later...

Do we have anything planned for the summer? Just curious.  Also, Elder Lelegren wrote me and said that his family wants to come to my homecoming, but I don't know what time church is back at home this year.  Do you know?

Love you and have a great week!  I'm going to try and send a ton more pictures now.

Love, Elder Adamson

TEMPLE

Chariot race circuit

Long Roman Bridge

Elder Adamson's Letter 6/15/2015

Hello everyone!  This has been a very busy week and we've done a lot

of traveling.  Things are going well here in Cáceres and I'm still

loving it.  The temperatures have cooled down a little this weekend

and we got some rain. We're pretty happy about that. Here's the week.

This week we had our district meeting in Badajoz and afterward we went

to a place called " American burger." My companion and I ordered the

biggest burgers they had.  It was pretty good and a good attempt at an

American burger, but not quite as good as JCW's is.

I also had the chance to go to a district leader training meeting in Malaga this week from Wednesday to Thursday.  It was a lot of traveling but it was a great time.

 When we got to Malaga the Deeres took us out to eat at a Spanish buffet restaurant, which we all enjoyed, and then we went back to the mission home for the meetings.  We talked a lot about intercambios, district meetings, and baptismal interviews. It was a very good and informative meeting and I was reminded a lot of little things that I need to improve on. 

While I was in Málaga I got to see my hijo, elder Lelegren, also.  It was good to see him again.  He's turning into a great missionary (not that he wasn't before, but he's doing really well). 

The next time I go back to Málaga will be the last time :'(

This week P sent a message saying that she wasn't going to be able

to meet with us for the next two weeks, because she has exams coming

up and she needs the time to study.  That was really hard for us to because she needs to be in a lot of contact with the church over the next few weeks to prepare for her baptism.  She was supposed to come to church with S this week but they never showed up, and we haven't been able to get in touch with them.  We're a little worried for them right now and we're praying for them a lot.

The next few weeks are going to be pretty busy.  Between zone conference, interviews, and e conferences when President Anderson gets here I'll be traveling to Sevilla every week until I go home.  That's just part of being a missionary in Cáceres. Lots of traveling.

Love you and have a great week!

Élder Adamson

P day in Malpartida de Cáceres 

Sister Deere

 

Elder Adamson's Letter 6/8/2015

Hello everyone.  We have had another hot, but really good week here in Cáceres.  This week has been a little weird because all of our investigators have been out of town until his weekend but nights are going really well.

This week we met with P for the first time in about a week and had a very good lesson with her.  We talked about the baptism and everything and had a very good talk about it.  She is already certain that she wants to get baptized and she had told us before that she would like to get baptized on the 17th of July because that is her son’s birthday and it's a very special day for her.  At first we were really trying to set a sooner date with her than that because we were kind of worried about how far away it was.  She kept telling us how she wanted it be a special day for her and she would love for it to be on the 17 of July. In situations like this we usually don't like to take no for an answer but we just tried to listen to the Spirit about what we should do and I felt at peace with setting the date for the 17 of July so that's what we did.  That taught me a lesson.  After being a missionary for almost 2 years sometimes I think I feel like I know enough, but really there is nothing that can replace the Spirit in missionary work.  Surely God knows what will happen.  We talked to her a lot about how she could keep moving forward in the gospel and how she can keep her testimony growing and she accepted.  Her date is pretty set in stone now. I won't be here to see the baptism but that doesn't even matter to me. As long as she takes the step I am more than happy.

We've had quite a bit of contact with S this weekend and he's doing really well as well.  He's just not quite ready to accept a date.  We always invite him, but he's just convinced he's not ready yet, not matter what we tell him.  We're really hoping that he follows the example of his mother and chooses to be baptized on the same day as her.

This week I had the chance to do an exchange with one of my favorite missionaries, Elder Thia.  We had a lot of fun and we got to reminisce a lot of our times back in the San Fernando zone.  We ended the intercambio by eating a liter of ice cream between the two of us, as is tradition.  That was the last exchange that I will do on my mission.  Kind of a sad thought, but we had a lot of fun.

Yesterday we had an awesome lesson with a family from Honduras that we found on the street the other day. We found three new investigators there so we were pretty excited about that. We have another appointment with them for this Wednesday.

Loving the Mission Life

Elder Adamson's Letter 6/1/2015

Hello everyone!

We have done a lot of traveling this week and it's getting a lot hotter.  It's been a great week and pretty historical week as well.  We also sent Elder Gonzalez home. Sorry if my letter is kind of short today because we were running around a lot today and kind of ran out of time.

This week I made four trips between Sevilla and Caceres in three days because of transfers and a zone meeting we had in Sevilla. On Wednesday we dropped off Elder Gonzalez and I said goodbye to him.  He was a great missionary and he did a lot of good in his time here in Caceres.

I was in Sevilla pretty much all day and I got to spend a most of it with  Elder Farrell so that was fun. At around 6:30 p.m. my new companion Elder Francia arrived to Sevilla and we got on a bus for Caceres at about 8:30.  He is Peruvian and he lives in Madrid.  He is a convert and was baptized about a year and a half ago.  When he got here he told me that he could have been one of my converts.  That's a pretty cool thought.  When I came on the mission he wasn't even a member yet and now he's serving a mission.  Anyway, he is in his second transfer and I'm finishing his training.  He is a great missionary and things are going very well with him.

On Friday, we went to Sevilla to have another meeting about the iPads

and then they handed them out to us.  I honestly wasn't expecting to get

one since I go home this transfer but they gave me one anyway so I'll be

able to enjoy it at least for a little while.  We have already used it in a few

lessons and it is a really amazing tool.  It's going to change the work a lot

to have these iPads.  But, even though we have this awesome technology now, it can never replace the power of the Spirit and the beauty of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

This week we haven't really been able to see P and S because they have been out of town but hopefully we will be able to see them tonight.  Y is doing really well and she is feeling the spirit when she reads the Book of Mormon.  She keeps telling us how she has noticed that her life has been a lot happier since we started teaching her and have been talking about the gospel with her.  We have seen a lot of progress in her in these past

two weeks.

I'm going to cut my letter off here because I'm out of time and we've got to head out to an appointment, but I love you and hope you are all having a great week.

Con

cariño,

Élder Adamson

 

Old town in Caceres