Elder Adamson's Letter 2/23/2015

Hello everyone!  This week has been one of the greatest of my mission so far.  We´ve had a lot of awesome stuff going on.  Here it is.

Last week for P-day we went up to the Sierra Nevada to go sledding and had a blast there.  In the city of Granada it was super cloudy and kind of an ugly day, but we got up above all the clouds and I even got a little sun burnt.  We had a ton of fun up there and it was beaaaautiful.  I´ve missed the mountains.

This week in the mission we had a week of setting baptismal dates and the goal was to have 250 in the mission.  We ended up with 252 and we made the goal!  In our last concilio President said he didn´t think that the mission had ever broke 200 so we killed that record.  We have a lot of really hard working missionaries in the mission right now and things are going great.   Here in Granada we had 14 fechas in the zone, which    wasn´t as much as we wanted, but still  14 children of God that are being prepared for baptism.

I got to go to Jaén this week with Elder Buttars on an intercambio--yet another intercambio with one of my former companions.  When I was with Elder Buttars in San Fernando, we were always running around--literally running-- all over the place.  Just as I predicted we did some running to a few places. ha ha ha   Good old Elder Buttars.  He´s a great missionary and I learned a LOT from the time I had with him in San Fernando.  He is training right now in Jaén.

We had a very white weekend here in Granada.  Here in the ward there were 4 baptisms on Saturday night, one of which was Juani. :) 

 The other 3 were investigators of Hermana Giler and Anderson.  I had the opportunity to baptize Mak who is a 20 year old from Bolivia.  The baptism was a very very special one. 

 We got to hear some very special testimonies from Juani, Mak, Mayra, and Atiana, and they were all feeling the Spirit so strongly.  All the hard moments of the mission are worth it when you see your repentant brothers and sisters coming to Christ.  It is such an honor to be a representative of the Savior in helping them to find their way back.  All four of the people who were baptized all have a great start to a strong testimony and a life of activity in the church.  Such a great day. 

We've been eating a lot with members lately, so we hardly have to cook, but when we do we just make something quick like pasta usually.

Still haven´t seen Meet the Mormons, and no news on iPads.  I've lost hope of seeing them before I go home. ha ha ha  That´s ok though.

There´s the highlights of the week.  Things are going really well here in Granada and we´ll find out about transfers this weekend.  Elder Metcalf is most likely going to leave. :/  I´ll let you know next week.

Love you and have great week!

Elder Adamson

Elder Adamson's Letter 2/16/2015

Hello family and friends!

We´ve had a good week with quite a few surprises and ups and downs.  Things are going well here in Granada and the weather has been a lot nicer this week.

So we´ve been visiting Juani about every other day this week.  He´s doing really well and if all goes well he should be getting baptized either this weekend or next weekend.  We had a little complication with him this week with a commandment but we talked about it last night and he´s still as golden as ever.  Conchi is also doing really well.

This week we´ve been looking for menos activos all over the province of Granada because we haven´t really been focused on finding through them so far.  We found a less active named Charo who lives in a pueblo close to the mountains.  She teaching horse-riding lessons and has a big ranch and has like her own little zoo complete with iguanas and a monkey,  We had a nice little chat with her. It has been a long long time since she has come to church and now her main work day is Sunday so it´s gonna be a big sacrifice for her to come back but she knows the church is true and she wants to have an eternal family so we´re hoping she´ll realize how much she needs the gospel soon.  

We started to teach one of the Hermana's investigators named Yasmín.  She is 12 years old and from Brazil and things are looking good with her.  We had a good lesson with her this week and she came to church with a member.  I was going to try and show off a little of my Portuguese skills from Dos Hermanas but then I realized I have a vocabulary of like 20 words...ha ha

This week I got my papers that tell me that I´m going home soon...  Wieeeeeerd.  It basically just said to get everything ready for when I go home and to let the mission know if there are any change of plans.  

Dad, this is how a P-day usually goes

We wake up, do all the normal routine and study and then we leave the piso at 10:30 then I usually come here to the cyber cafe to write home, and then we go do something fun.  Today for example I think we are going to go to the Sierra to play in the snow.  After we finish what ever we do that day, we go and buy groceries and then wash the car and then go out to work at 6:30 until 9:45.

 

Hilda hasn´t been able to come to church since that first time just because she doesn´t have a way to get here.  She lives really far from Granada capital but she´s still praying and reading at home and everything.

That's how the weeks gone.  I got the package this week mom and dad!  I´ve had a bit of a cold this week so I've been saving the food for when I can actually taste it but it looks super good.  Thanks so much.  The balloon heart things were pretty cool, by the way. :)

I love you so so so so much and hope you have a great week!

Elder Adamson

Elder Adamson's Letter 2/9/2015

Hello Family! 

This has been a great week.  I´m having so much fun here in Granada and loving the mission more than ever.    

I´m sending you a ton of pictures today because it´s been a while since I´ve sent any.  My birthday was great yesterday!  Thank you to everyone for all the birthday wishes.  I got a lot of really nice birthday calls from the missionaries in the zone and Hermana Giler and Anderson made me a cake and brought it to church.

  Élder Pomazón gave a talk yesterday and contrary to my will he gave me a birthday shout-out over the pulpit...  Wasn´t sure what to think about that... ha ha  Elder Metcalf made sure that everyone sang happy birthday to me just about everywhere we went.

This week we had a great Concilio in Málaga. We talked a lot of setting fechas and we decided that we are going to have a week of setting baptismal dates like we did here in the zone.  Our goal is to have 250 fechas by the 21 of February which is a lot more than we have ever had before. 

 In our zone meeting this week we tried to get everyone excited about the goal and to finish off zone meeting we read the story of Captain Moroni and the title of liberty. I ripped a piece of fabric off of Elder Metcalf that was taped to his back where we had our own title of liberty.  We made little ones for all the companionships in the zone.  Our zone goal is to have 10 baptisms in Febrero and 30 fechas by the 21 of Febrero.  Things are going really well here.

This week we have seen quite a few miracles.  We found a less active named Conchi and her non member husband (Juani) who are very humble and ready to come back to the church.  We have a fecha with Juani for the 21st and he´s doing really well and he´s already come to church 2 times.  He´s very prepared and I think we´re the first missionaries to ever meet him.  Loveth is also doing great despite the fact that she is out of a job.  She´s so happy.

Great things are happening in the mission and I´m loving every minute of it.  This morning I read a talk by President Benson and in part of it he said something like "Christ tries to lift us up to where he is.  Do we desire the same thing for our brothers and sisters."  Christ can help us to build up that desire to help our family and friends to return to live with Him.  He is love personified   I know he lives and that he has been by my side all of my mission.

Love you and have a wonderful week!

Elder Adamson

                                                               

Friends Together Again

and again!!!

and again!

                                                Granada

la Alhambra

What a great district!

Elder Adamson's Letter 2/1/2015

Hello everyone!  This week we've gotten a lot of rain here in Granada and we´re been traveling all over the place.  Here's how the week went:

Last P day we went to el Mirardor de San Nicolas again with the new missionaries in the district so they could see the Alhambra and just kind of took a stroll through downtown Granada.  I forgot my camera cable today but I'll send you the pictures soon.

This week we've been staying pretty close to Loveth because she's been having a pretty difficult week.  She's lost her job among other things and has been pretty down so we've been with her just about every day to see how she´s doing.  But, this Sunday she came to church with a big smile on her face and I had the opportunity to confirm her a member of the church.  When she left church she was smiling from ear to ear and she left a lot happier than she came.  I´m positive that she's been having a lot of trials lately because of her baptism, but she's doing a lot better now.

On Wednesday we had our DÍA DE DIAMANTE and we spent the entire day just talking with people.  Elder Metcalf and I went on two opposite sides of a small street and we just went at it.  Later in the afternoon we had two members come with us and do splits.  At the end of the day we had gotten the information of 51 people, and we beat the goal of 2015 futures in the mission.  It was a good day and it has helped me to remember the importance of opening my mouth and letting the truth come out.  In lots of the contacts that I did I could feel the Spirit testifying through me of the truths I was telling the people in the streets.  Now         it´s time for the harvest and we´re going to see how many of these people we can bring to Christ!

This week we have traveled to Jaén for a baptismal interview, and I drove to Málaga and back the other day for an intercambio that we had with the Assistants.  Elder Phipps came with me to Granada and we had a good time.  That night we were able to set a new fecha with Fran who just really needs to take the step to be baptized.  He´s come to church a lot already and has a testimony of the restoration.  We set the fecha with him for the 14th of February so we´re going to see how things go with him.  We´re also teaching a friend of Loveth whose name is Sunny and he has come to church with us two times already, but it´s kind of hard to meet with him.

Things are going really well here in the zone and I'm still loving Granada. I'm more and more thankful every day for the calling that I have to be a missionary.  My time is going a lot faster than I ever thought it would, This time really is so precious to me.  I'm trying hard to use it well.

 Thanks for all the early birthday wishes!  I'll let you know how it goes next week,  Today we have concilio and we've got to head out soon to pay for parking.  I'll send you those pictures soon and I hope you have a great week!

Love you!

Elder Adamson