Monday, July 6, 2015

Welcome Home

Elder Adamson is returning from Spain on Thursday.  Everyone is welcome to stop by to visit with him that evening from 7-9 p.m.


Last Letter From Spain 7/6/2015





Hello everyone!
This last week of my mission has been great.  We've been pretty
busy but I'm happy.  I'm excited to be back home with all the family and
to see how everyone is doing.

This week we got to meet the new mission president, President Andersen.  We had a great conference with him and he looks like he is going to do an amazing job as the new president.  He and Sister Andersen have had a super busy week and they are already working hard to get in the rhythm with the mission. I’m going to spend my last night in the mission home with them and I'm excited to get to know them a little bit more before I go home.

This week I've been saying a lot of goodbyes to missionaries and members here in Cáceres.  It's going to be really hard to leave the mission but I'm ready to come home now.  As I've ended the mission I've been able to feel that the Lord has accepted my efforts here in Spain even though I have been a far from perfect missionary.  What they say is true.  The mission really is the best two years, up until now.

Well I don't really have a lot to say and I'll be able to tell you a whole lot more on Thursday.  See you soon.  I can't wait to tell you about all my mission stories.

Love you tons and I'll see you this Thursday.

Love,
Élder Adamson













Tuesday, June 30, 2015

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


Monday, June 22, 2015

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

Monday, June 15, 2015

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



 


Monday, June 8, 2015

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