Elder Adamson's Letter 11/25/2013

Hello family!! Happy Thanksgiving week!!  I feel dumb cause I thought it was last week... ha ha  Whoops.  Here´s the week.  

Monday, we had a pretty average P day, mostly just kind of hung out with everyone.  Then after, Elder Clark came with us to el Progreso, but unfortunately all our plans called us and bailed.  So we had pretty much nothing to do there.  El Progreso is kind of dying now.  We´dont really have much work there anymore.  Anyway, we came home that day without a single lesson.

Tuesday, Elder Clark was still with us because his comp was in Málaga, and we went to visit one of his investigators and had an eating cita with them. It was lots of fun and he had some pretty good food.  I had no idea what it was though.  Then after  a while we dropped Elder Clark off and hurried over to the bus station for El Palmar.  We had a quick visit with R... and J...and it went as usual.  They don´t have anyone visiting them yet.  After that we went and visited A...and shared a short message about the Atonement with him and he loved it.  We´ve got to work with him poco a poco, but he´s very accepting of u our message, even though he's pretty Muslim.

Wednesday was a SUPER off day.  We went to go eat with A..., and we´re just about there and the member that was going to come with us called and told us he was going to be 40 minutes late.  So, we had to wait outside her piso for about an hour because we can´t go in a house with a single woman.  But, eventually we got in, even though it kind of messed up all our plans for the rest of the day.  After eating with her, we went straight to the Capilla for English class.  This week I was trying to do some one on one teaching with an African man from Mali, and it was SO hard.  He speaks nothing of English and his Spanish is pretty bad. His native language is French.  Later I just called Elder Galarza in to help him, because he knows a good chunk of French.

Thursday, we had our weekly planning session and Elder Galarza had me do the entire thing by myself so I could prove to myself that I

know how to do it.  And I did it.  It was super long, but at least I know, I know how to do it.  Afterward, we met up with Elder Clark and Peters to do an intercambio. I went with Elder Clark to their area this time.  I went to all his citas with him and we found a new investigator for them.  Later that night in the piso, we ate some pumpkin squares that he made, and they we delicious.

Friday, Elder Clark and I went out in the morning to teach a member in the ward a little English.  She´s trying to learn so she can be a teacher for little kids.  It was pretty awkward though because we just kind of showed up and had no idea what we were going to teach her.  

I didn´t know what to start with because I didn´t know how much she knows, so we just started conjugating a bunch of verbs.  Then her husband brought out a pile of notes he took, and they were super good.   Later that day, we took a bus to Cartagena for the Thanksgiving dinner activity.  The stake president was there and it was also an activity for the YSA members too, so he was talking to them for a lot of it. He challenged them all to bring a friend to an activity this month.  And then, we all ate some turkey.  It was super good, and the members were super excited about it.  After the activity, we went to the Cartagena ZL´s piso to sleep.

Saturday morning, we woke up and played a little soccer with Cartagena and then got back on the bus for Murcia.  Everyone was a little stressed out because President was calling everyone to tell them what´s going to happen this transfer and where they´re going.  When we got back to Murcia, we went to visit R... again and then to L....  We taught L... about the Restoration and he asked a ton of really good questions.  He´s awesome and he´s got a fecha now for the 21 of Decemeber.  I´m excited to keep working with him.  L... M... is still in Madrid, but he gets back this week.  Later, we went to visit A...and shared another little message.  After, he showed us how he writes in arabic and french and everything.  I´ve never seen anyone write it before, but its super cool. That night, President Deere called us and told us what was going to happen with us. :)

Sunday was a really weird day.  We had our correlation meeting in the morning because church got moved to 5:00 in the afternoon. After that, we went to go eat with J... and he had her super good Lasagna again.  We shared a quick message with her, came back to the piso to study language a little bit and then went to church. It was weird to be having Sacrament meeting when it´s already pretty dark outside. Since the day was so weird, we didn´t get a chance to go out and work in our pueblos.

Anyway, this week has been pretty good and something that I liked that I read in the Book of Mormon this morning is Alma 37:44,45.  It´s so easy for us to find the word of Christ and easy to understand.  All that he wants for us is the best.  His way is set and it´s clear for all of us.  All we need to do is seek the word of Christ and follow it to eternal life.  His plan is simple, and perfect.  The Book of Mormon is our Liahona.  It contains the word of Christ and leads us straight to Him if we study it.

So on Saturday, we found out what´s going to happen with us this week, since it´s transfer week. Elder Galarza is heading out to Nerja, which is a pueblo of Málaga.  He´s going to do some good work there. 

It´s a branch of only 26 members, but he´ll do a lot of good there.  I´m staying here in Murcia!  My new companion´s name is Elder Johnson and he´s from Ogden I think.  Not sure.  He´s been in the mission for just under a year I think. I don´t know much more about him, but I´m excited to meet him this week.  

Have a great Thanksgiving family!  I´m thankful for all of you and I love and miss you all tons.

Elder Adamson

Finally Pictures of Elder Adamson!!

Elder Adamson's Letter 11/18/2013

This has been an AMAZING week and I can´t wait to tell you about it.

Monday was a good P day and we went to one of the only patches of grass we could find in all of Murcia, and we tossed the frisbee around for a while.  It was a good time because I was finally good at something that the Spanish speakers aren´t.  They still kick my trash in soccer though.  Later we met with P... and her grand daughter was there.  We shared a short message with them and planned a noche de hogar (home evening) for the next Monday.  N... is her granddaughter's name and she´s not a member, but her mom is menos activo.  They´re both coming, I hope.  Then after that, we visited J... C... and did a noche de hogar with his  family.  It went well and we shared a message of the Book of Mormon.  He´s starting to come back to church and things are looking good for him and his family.

Tuesday, we went to eat lunch with J... and J... J....  They made seviche which is another Ecuadorian dish. There was shrimp, squid, and fish in it, but I managed it pretty well.  Hope you´re proud of me.  Then we shared a short message with them and talked about his church attendance.  J... said he wasn´t bored in the capilla this time and it´s getting more interesting and that is kind of an answer to his prayers for him.  Later that day, we visited R... and he happened to be moving a washing machine down 4 floors of stairs with his niece, so we helped him with that and then shared a little message.  We´re going to keep working with him until the members get involved.  No one else is visiting him.  Later, we went to visit a referral from J... and got right in to the house.  The guy´s name is L... and has a son named L... M.... They are actually really interested and are so nice to us.  We did a lesson 0 with them and they said we could come back, and L... M... came to our English class the next day.

Wednesday, We ate with E... and R....  She made some super good paella which we´ve eaten about 2083 times since being here, after leaving there, we went to try and visit some VERY menos activo Russians, but they didn´t want to let us in.  After that we just went straight to the capilla to teach English.  We had a really good class and L... M... showed up.  After the class, we asked L... M... if he could meet for like 10 minutes, and went in a separate room and talked a little about the Book of Mormon.  After that, we gave him a little tour of the capilla and he said that he thinks he´s been there before when he was little.  Really good day with him.  He´s a maquina  (machine) and remembers EVERYTHING we teach him and knows how to apply it.

Thursday was another day of miracles.  We visited A..., who we visited like the first week we got here. She has a son on a mission but she isn´t a member.  She´s gonna take a little more TLC to accept the Gospel, but she´ll figure it out one day.  We´re going to eat with her and M... next week.  Later we visited L... and his family again and his Daughter B... was there too.  She´s about 21 and L... M... is 20 I believe. We taught them the plan of salvation and everyone was very involved in asking questions and the lesson was really good.  Then we went to visit J... and A... and just shared a short message with them.

Friday, wasn´t the best day of the week, but it never is.  Friday´s are tough because not a lot of people are home.  During medio dia  (noon) we ate at the O...´s house.  We had this soup that had garbanzo beans and little noodles and it was pretty good.  After visiting them, we went to the familia A... and Elder Galarza helped M... and D... with their French homework.  I helped a little with a few things in English, but they didn´t have too many questions for me.  Later, we talked about the 2000 stripling warriors with them.  Those boys are like perfect children, and they know the scriptures super well.  One of my favorite families here.  The rest of the night, we tried to find some other members or menos activos in Patiño, but didn´t have any luck.  I´m telling you, Fridays are rough.

Saturday, we ate with the Familia A... and they made some really good chicken and rice.  After that, we stopped by L... M...´s house, because it was his birthday.  He just wanted us to stop by and say hello, but they invited us in and gave us some cake.  This time the mom was there, and her name is something really hard to say, so she told us we could call her M.... :)  We taught the whole family about the BOM and it was pretty good, but M... is super Catholic.  But all in all, it went well.  After that, we visited A.. and shared a short message with him about Christ.  We had a good discussion about our beliefs and what Muslims believe about Christ. There are a lot more similarities than you might think. Right now we´re just sharing little simple messages with him about what we believe. Not trying to baptize him at the current time.  Plus he gives referrals which is an added bonus.  That night, I was a little sick with a fever, so Elder Galarza gave me a blessing, and I was able to sleep well and wake up the next morning feeling a lot better.

Sunday was a decent day as well.  We had a good time at church, and Elder Galarza and I taught the investigator class.  We taught a lesson on temple work and family history.   After Church we went to visit J... J... and just shared a little baby message about faith and repentance.  We´re taking things a little slower with him so he understands everything well this time around.  The lesson went well and we set everything up to talk about Baptism next week. We didn´t have any luck after visiting him though.  At church, Elder Clark brought me a couple super warm blankets because in our Piso we only have like 3 tiny, super thin ones and it´s reaaaaally cold here now.  It just changed all  the sudden.

This week has been by far our best week in Murcia.  We had 20 lessons which has been really hard for us to do in the past and as well for all the companionships in Murcia.  We´ve seen lots of miracles. This week we've really tried to step up our obedience, and we've been blessed for it. We weren´t disobedient missionaries, but we've been doing our best to keep ALL the rules this week and we´ve seen the blessings for it.  This principle is important for missionaries, and that´s why it´s stressed so much.       It´s easy to slip into habits of disobedience, but when we´re obedient, we see miracles.  This              isn´t just for missionaries though.  Heavenly Father blesses all his children when they keep his commandments.  It´s a natural result.  We have commandments so we can be blessed.  Commandments keep us safe and happy. "Consider the blessed and happy state of those who keep the commandments" That is the truth.

So how are you doing with the seafood? 

         The truth is I haven´t eaten very much, but I´m doing fine. :)

 Are you having any opportunities to sing? 

        Not really.  Sometimes with R....... and other times in the shower.

Is the weather changing?  

        OH YES.  It´s pretty cold here now.  the humidity makes things feel so much colder.  I have no idea what the temperatures are though.

Are you getting more member referrals and are you teaching them in the homes of the members?

            Every once in a while, but not too frequently.  We don´t get too many from the members.

Any new favorite foods?

           Little pastries filled with chocolate and I don´t know what they´re called, but that will come later.

Have you lost your keys to your PISO and been locked out?

          No, thank goodness.  That´s impossible for us.  Our door doesn´t close unless you lock it from the outside, so you have to have to key to close it.

Well that´s all for the week.  Have a good Thanksgiving!!  I believe I´ll be going to Cartagena to have a Thanksgiving dinner.  I´ll report next week,

Love, Elder Adamson

Elder Adamson's Letter 11/11/2013

Hello everyone!

We didn´t have the best week, but we´ve learned lots from what we´ve done.

Monday, we went to el progreso and had no luck with investigators, but we were able to visit P... and also the Familia A..., both of the citas went pretty well.  We didn´t do anything eventful for P day.  Just walked around the Gran Vía for a while with some other Murcia Elders.

Tuesday, we went to visit R... and J...  We shared pretty good messages with them, but they still have their silly excuses.  We´re leading them to the water as best as we can, but we just can´t make them drink.  We´re not making very much progress with them.  We´re learning a lot from this though.

Wednesday, we went to visit a different menos activo who is an RM and is making a lot more progress. He´s already come to church 2 times.  He´s told us that he knows what he needs to do, he just needs to get up and do it.  Right now, he´s following through with that very well.  We didn´t have any luck that day, but we went to Clases de Ingles and helped a little there.  Elder Ordoñez was helping teach the class and was writing all the English words how they sound with the Spanish alphabet, and it was one of the funniest things I´ve ever seen.  I know that doesn´t sound funny at all to you, but you really just had to be there.  He speaks almost no English, but when he does, it´s so unexpected and funny.

Thursday, I did an intercambio with Elder Peters and we went to El Palmar.  J.. bailed on us again, which wasn´t too awesome, because he was our main plan in el Palmar, but we did our best to salvage the day, and went to visit J... and A..., and tried to help him to come to church, but he didn´t show up this week. :(  Later we went to to the Familia G... and then P... talked to us about the Abrahamic covenant and patriarchal blessings.  We were able to share a short message with them after and it was a good time. They´re an awesome family.

Friday, we had a really good zone meeting in the morning and we met back up with our companions there,  We talked a lot about how to help our investigators come to church, which was awesome, because we struggle with that a lot here.The things that come from President Deere are always so inspired for the whole mission.  After that we went to Domino's as a zone and ate some buffet pizza.  I thought I would never eat Domino's again after the MTC but I´ve eaten it like 5 times since then. ha ha After lunch, we went home and studied and then went to help Elder Ordoñez and Bleazard move, because they are changing pisos.  It was quite a site to see.  6 missionaries wheeling a bunch of suitcases through Murcia, some carrying mattresses on their heads, and others carrying boxes full of stuff.  That took up pretty much our whole night, but they needed some help.  It´s not easy to change pisos without a car.

Saturday was really good.  We went to visit R... with E... and for the FIRST time, R... wasn´t there when we got there.  E... told us that he had talked to some ward members about him and J... and that they have always been this way.  Members and Elders have worked with them and always things happen the same.  E... told us this just so we wouldn't be wasting our time with them. That´s something we didn´t know anything about before. It´s a really tough call to make, but it has to be made.  Our time here is precious and we can´t waste it.  That´s something I´ve learned a LOT this week.  It´s hard to drop R... and J... because we´ve worked with them a lot and have grown to love them, but we can´t control their agency. We´re not positive what we´ll do yet, but we´re probably going to have to drop them. After we tried visiting R..., we went to J... J... house and did a Noche de Hogar  (FHE) with them.  E... and his wife came as well.  The lesson turned out a little weird and went super long, but I could feel the spirit so strong while we testified.  G... (J...s wife) wants so badly to be sealed in the Temple, but J... isn´t a member yet.  He´s talked with missionaries before, but he just hasn´t done his part and asked if it´s true yet.  Things are looking a lot better this time around and we´ve got another cita set with them for next week.

Sunday was pretty good too.  J... J... came to church with G... which was awesome to see.  He´s progressing little by little.  I´m praying hard for him.  After church we ate with the Familia M... and ate another really good equadorian dish.  After that we went and visited the Familia A...  They´re one of my favorites in all the ward.  SO nice.  We´re running out of investigators fast, we´ve got to start finding again.  This week we´re gonna work hard to find people.

That´s it for the week!

I´m reading the Book of Mormon in Spanish right now for our 85 day challenge in the mission.  I love it and I´m understanding more and more as I go.  The Book of Mormon has so much power, and truly contains the word of God.  We should  study it and apply it and always strengthen our testimony of it, because it truly testifies of Christ and helps us to understand him and what he wants for us.  I´m learning a lot about how to put my trust in the will of God by reading it.

Love you all un montón!
Elder Adamson

Elder Adamson's Letter 11/4/2013

Buenos días from Spain!!

Here´s the week!

Last P day we went to a Cathedral in the middle of Murcia. Someone said it´s one of the biggest on this side of Spain.  Pretty cool though.  I attached some pictures of it.  Then we walked around Murcia for a while, checked out the bull fighting stadium, which is cool. I´ve heard some crazy things about them. After P day was over, we went to el Progreso, and our citas fell through, so we walked back to Murcia, and visited a family in the ward we haven´t met yet.  They´re Bolivians and super awesome people.  They´ve been members for about 5 years I think.  I can´t remember the apellido, though.  We shared a short message with them, and got a referral of one of her friends, so it was a good visit. 

Tuesday, we had our first district meeting with Elder Peters as the District Leader.  He´s a MACHINE.  He´s been out for over a year and a half and really knows how to do the work.  Our district was very very young before he came, but I know we´re going to be learning a lot from him.  Later that day, we went and ate lunch with Elder Ordoñez and Elder Bleazard, and afterwards went out to work.  We went to El Palmar to visit R.... and he offered us some coffee.  He said something like "Yeah, I was thinking about it and I don't think you Mormons drink coffee, but can you?.  That was a little bit worrysome because I´m not sure if he still really considers himself a member, but we´re working on that.. ha ha.  Later we went to ...´s house and taught him a solid lesson about praying and reading the scriptures to help him to progress to baptism.  After that, we visited J... and A....  After sharing a tiny message with them they gave us SEVEN referrals.  A menos activo and a Muslim.  WOW.         That´s more than we´ve received from anyone else combined since we got here. ha ha

Wednesday,  we got to visit ... again.  ... told us that he got kicked out of school that day for doing something, bad and he was pretty bummed out, so we shared a little message from Alma 37 with him.  After stopping there, we went to visit ... and taught her the restoration. and it was a pretty solid lesson as well.  She´s progressing pretty well and we hope to be able to work with her family more, they just never are at home.  That´s all the eventful things for Wednesday.

Thursday, Halloween, was good.  Spain celebrates Halloween just a little.  I´m pretty sure I saw like 3 middle aged women go out to go trick or treating.  Definitely not the same as the States, but they try. :)  We met with ... again this day and took ...(young men's president) with us to the lesson.  We talked about the Día de Reposo (Sabbath) and how ... can come to church. ... (YM pres.) is going to give him a ride to the capilla next week, so hopefully that works out.  Then ...(YM pres.) took us to his house and showed us just about every neat thing he owns.  We were there for a while. He´s a bit of a talker.  Then we shared a short message with him, and then went home.

Friday, we had a cita set with ... (wife of former investigator  that dropped us a long time ago) .  We showed up at their house, and only her husband  was home.  BUT he let us in and we taught another lesson 0 with him and mostly just built up lots of trust with him.  He is so much more comfortable with us now.  That was the big news of that day.

Saturday, we took E... with us to visit R... He seemed a little apprehensive when we told him that he might have to sing a little, like everyone does when we visit R....  We started off with a little karaoke as always, and R... was singing some Spanish song and all the sudden E... joins and and ROCKS THE HOUSE.  He is incredible.  He is a pure Spanish man and he sings like it too. He and R... sang a few more songs and were singing harmony and everything.  That was a good time.  I was laughing my head off because I couldn´t believe what was happening.  After that, we shared a message with him and extended the commitment for him to come to church with us. He started listing off  excuses and what now, and I was thinking "ppffffffft.. not again". Then E... was very bold with him and said " You don´t think that can be fixed".  E... did WORK in that lesson. He was bold but at the same time he had lots of concern for R...    E... was menos activo for 17 years so he had a lot to relate to R....     E... lives pretty far from R..., but next week, he´s going to go pick him up for church.  That was an amazing testimony of how much the members are a part of the work.  It was perfect.

Sunday, we had a good day at church,  we received like a million pastries from the ward secretary, and some more health food from J....  Later during proselyting time, we went to visit a future, and were able to get in and teach a lesson 0.  It was kind of weird because they asked questions like "What does Jesus look like?" but it went pretty well in the end.  Then, we went to visit ... ... and had a SUPER good lesson 1 with him.  It was the best I´ve taught since being on the mission and it was so comfortable.  Things are looking up for ... ....  He just needs to do his part.  That´s the way the gospel is.  We have to do our part.  People try to convince us of anything with words, but it doesn´t mean anything unless you know it´s true.  You can´t know           it´s true unless you try living it.  That´s the way to build a testimony.  Live like you believe.  I´ve learned a lot about that this week in studying why we extend commitments to people. The more I study the more my testimony grows.  That´s how it is.  I learn something new every day, and the more you know about the gospel, the more it just makes sense.  And here, it´s easy to see the difference in people who live the gospel and who don't.  Consider the blessed and happy state of those who keep the commandments!!

That´s all for this week.  Thanks for the letters and the updates, I LOVE them.

Love, Elder Adamson  

Elder Adamson's Letter 10/28/2013

Hello FAM! We had a pretty good week.  A very different one, but good.  Here it is!

Monday, after P day, we went to Barrio del progreso and didn´t have a lot of luck.  We met with a Familia  and shared a short and sweet message.  It was a really good visit.  At first when I came here, I felt super uncomfortable with them, and we had kind of a weird relationship with them, but now they LOVE us and invite us over to eat pretty much every week.  We´re great friends now, and we feel perfectly comf when we go there.

Tuesday, I went on splits with Elder L (one of our Zone Leaders) which was a bit stressful since I´ve only been out for 1 transfer and he´s been out for over a year, but it went really well.  We visited ... and had a really good cita with him about trusting in the Lord.  I would encourage you all to read Proverbs 3:5-6 as well as Alma 37:35-37.  It teaches us how we can really learn to put our will in the lords hands.  He always knows what´s best, and if we realize that, we´ll live much happier lives and know exactly what it is we need to do to improve.  After that, we went to ...´s house because our other citas failed us, and shared a similar message with him.  He´s an awesome guy and has a great testimony.  He´s basically a ward missionary.  You should see how many of the investigator progress records his name is on as a reference.  Just about all of them in his pueblo.  After that we headed home and talked about what we learned.  I learned from Elder L to really speak with humility and love.  He also taught me to not be afraid to contact people while we´re on our way somewhere, even if we don´t have time.  He is a MACHINE.

Wednesday, the highlight was visiting ...... and her dad.  This time her dad was there in the lesson for us and we did another lesson zero with them.  At first her dad was almost talking against us and telling us how it's hard for him to believe in God, but after we got to start with a prayer, the lesson really took off.  We taught almost perfectly and taught by the Spirit.  We were able to answer all the concerns that he had.  One of my favorites so far.  We left with an invitation back and a solid trust with the dadl.  Awesome guy.  Unfortunately, our other citas failed us that day.

Thursday, we got to eat at the O....´s house again, and they made lentil soup for us.  They make a lot of that here, but             it´s really good.  Also, we invited one of the Hermana´s investigators to come eat with us and we had a really good message about the Atonement with her.  The atonement always brings the spirit, and I think she received it well.  The Hermana´s are working with her now.  She´s going through a divorce right now, so maybe this is her time to accept the gospel.

Friday, we had an awesome special training meeting for our Zone with President Deere and the APs.  We talked a lot about talking with EVERYONE and the Lesson 0 and how important those both are.  We talked about how in General Conference it was said  that "If missionaries want more people to teach, they should talk to more people".  THAT'S TRUE.  That hit me hard and        it´s something that I really really need to work on.  Our conferences with them are always awesome and so inspired.  Afterward, We went on splits with Elder Flores and Elder Datwyler.  I went with Elder Datwyler, who has been out the same time as me, and we went out to try and get some lessons in because we didn´t plan for 2 companionships.  We didn´t end up getting into any houses, but we got a few futures investigators from street contacts. Thanks so much for the package this week! I got it on Friday when President came. That jerky is probably the most flavorful thing I´ve eaten since I got to Spain and it tasted so good.   And I haven´t used the ranch yet because I have to buy some stuff to make it, but thanks a ton!

Saturday, all the missionaries from our Zone went to Cartagena for a Cosecha or "Harvest".  We all split up with about 24 companionships and contacted for a few ours and I think we got about 115 futures from it.  it´s a good activity.  I went with Elder Berry (From Draper UT) and we got about 3 I think.  There were hardly any people in the streets, so we knocked a lot of doors as well.  After coming home from that, we visited  ....  again, and shared a message about Grace with him from 2 Nephi 25 and it went really well.  Still trying to work hard with him, but he´s not progressing much.  No luck the rest of that night.

Sunday, was a good day in church, but at the capilla I always have a head ache because I feel like 230498025 people are talking at once and I can´t understand anything anyone says.  After lunch, I went on splits AGAIN with a member who went on his mission to Madrid.  We did it so Elder Galarza could attend a meeting and we could still get our citas in.  His name is .....   and he´s such a cool guy.  He does work contacting too! He was a teacher in the MTC when I was there, so that was pretty weird to go proselyting with him, but lots of fun.  All our citas failed us again that night, but we knocked some doors in a couple buildings and got some futures out of it, so that was good.  We also taught a lesson at a door, which I had never done before.  Pretty interesting... ha ha.

Here´s the answers to your questions dad!

• How is the ice cream coming? 
•            Fortunately, we didn´t get any this  week.
• Have you found any good milk yet?
•            No.  They don´t know what good milk is here. It doesn´t exist.
• Do they have anything like instant breakfast?
•             Yeah, I´m sure they do.  I haven´t bought any though.
• Have you visited with the Bishop and Ward Mission Leader (one on one) to get the engaged in the work?  Have you studied Chapter 13 of PMG and shared the highlights with them? Do they have copies of PMG--if not can you get copies for them?
•            yes, we have and I think they do have copies.  Elder Galarza just met with them yesterday and talked about that.
• What attribute have you come to appreciate in your companion?
•           He doesn´t accept anything but the right way.  At first that really bugged me, but there are some things that you just can´t mess up and he knows it.  He´ll always correct me when I do something wrong like that, but it a nice way.
• Do you need any more recipes?
•           I´m good for now.  We do most of our cooking out of the freezer.... ;)
• Any news on when you'll get ipads in your mission?
•            No Idea about that.  Probably not for a while.
• Are you missing Halloween?
•            Not especially.  just good candy. 

That´s all for this week.  ¡'Que tengan una buena semana!  Les quiero mucho y espero que todo esté bien con vosotros!

Elder Adamson

Elder Adamson's Letter 10/21/2013

Hello, hello!

This week has been pretty weird and we got stood up a lot, so this letter might not be my most exciting.

On Tuesday, we went to El Palmar and met with ... and when we got there he surprised Elder Galarza and I with a DVD of all the songs we sang together.  Kind of cool, hopefully that will make for some good memories.  I´ll hold onto it for now, but maybe later when I´ve got a few more things to send home I can send a package.  We shared a message with him as well, and still has some excusing for not going to church.  We haven´t been able to help him progress really very much yet, but we´re going to keep working with him, because he doesn´t really have any friends in the church besides ..., and he´s menos activo too.  Later we went to the ...´s house and shared a short message and had a good chat with them,  They´re an awesome family.

Wednesday, we had Elder Anguaya with us because he had to wait for his new companion, so he came with us to our visits.  We went to a lunch cita with the Familia A... again (I´m pretty sure they´re going to invite us like every week...) and it went really well this time, and we didn´t go over time or anything.  Later, we worked some more in Barrio del Progreso and went to visit a future named .... He is a REALLY good man.  So polite and respectful to us and so sincere as well.  We taught him a lesson 0, but since I was the only one who wasn´t ecuatoriano there, I didn´t do much of the talking in that lesson, but I was still involved.  I really hope we can keep working with him, because he looks pretty golden.  After that, we didn´t have more time to visit people so we headed back to the bus station to drop Elder Anguaya off.   While we were waiting there, I got to see Elder Farrell, and I was SO pumped about that.  He got off the bus and I gave him a huge hug.  He´s doing awesome, I´m sure, and he just got transferred to Alicante, and he´s going to DO WORK there.  Later that night, I taught English classes.  It was tons of fun and I´d love to do it again.  Usually the hermanas do it, but they had citas that night.  The bishops wife is awesome and brings like 3 non member friends every time, but unfortunately, none of them are in our area. :(.  We ended with a short thought about the Plan of Salvation and that was that!  Good day.

Thursday, was another ice cream day.  We were on the bus on the way to visit J... but half way there, we called us and told us he couldn´t meet anymore, so we got off the bus and tried to visit pretty much everyone we could, but had no luck.  We lost all 3 of our fechas this week because J... couldn´t go to church this week.  We tried to visit our other two investigators with fechas, but when we called on the intercom, they straight up lied to us and said they weren´t there, but it was ... and he´s the only man that lives in that piso.  Pretty irritating, but we can´t do anything about it.  I got fresa flavor that day... haha.

Friday, ALMOST another ice cream day. All our plans fell through in Barrio Del Progreso, but we went to visit one of our back up plans, and she was home, and we taught her a lesson 0 and we got a pretty solid new investigator.  Her name is ... (Also from Ecuador) and she´s 17 or 18 I think.  She has really good questions and seems to be sincere about them.  Normally, we wouldn´t be able to visit her, because we would be alone with her, but she has a little patio outside with a couch and everything which is super guay, because we don´t have to have another male with us to teach her.  That was about all we got that day though,

Saturday, we played fútbol again with the new Elders and members and it was lots of fun.  I managed to sneak a couple goals in, somehow.  After lunch, we went to El Palmar and visited ... again, and tried to visit some antiguos, but didn´t have any luck with that.  El Palmar has lots of potential, because there are tons of members there, but we only have like 2 investigators there, 1 is progressing.  We´re trying to find more there, but no luck yet.  Just have to keep working with the members there.

Sunday was great and we got to hear some awesome testimonies from the members,  LOTS of them were about missionary work.  I´m hoping that our ward can really catch the wave here, because we could use lots of help.  We need them TONS here.  Once again, all our citas failed us in Progreso again.  We´ve got lots of people to visit there, but they keep canceling appointments.  Later that night we went to the Despedida of Estefanía.  She is going to be an amazing missionary, and her and her mom already are awesome missionaries here.  Great examples.  She´s going to be serving in one of the SLC missions.  Not sure which one. but she´s going to be at the Provo MTC, mom and dad.  So if you happen to see a Sister T... tell her hello for me.  I think she´s going next week.

This week has been a little tough because we weren´t able to get a lot done.  There are so many things that I want to do to be a better missionary, but I just don´t know how to do them yet. It´s really frustrating, but yesterday, I was reminded by the Spirit, that I shouldn´t try to run faster than I have strength.  I´m doing my best right now and I´ll keep doing it until I´m the missionary I plan on being.  I´ll tell you right now, I´ve got a long way to go, but I´m going to keep working hard.  I would encourage everyone else to do the same.  Don´t get discouraged when you´re not accomplishing something you want to.  You can only do your best and work hard to get better.  Heavenly Father understands.

Thanks for the letters, hope you´re all doing really good and I love you un montón!

Elder Adamson's Letter 10/14/2013

¿QUE PASA?

Here´s my week for you!

So on Monday, we just kind of walked around the Gran Vía and got Kebabs.  Nothing too exciting, but it was fun.  Later that day we went and visited La Familia A... and had a good little message with them about keeping our baptismal covenants.  It went really well, but we weren´t really able to get much done that day.  On our way home, ... (homeless man)  came and asked us for money...which we can´t even do in the first place.  We pass him like every day on our way to our pueblo so it´s a little awkward now.  At times we take an alternate route.

Tuesday was a bit of a rough day for me.  It was another one of those days where I just feel totally lost and I can´t say the things I want to in Spanish.  We had a lunch cita with a super awesome family se llama la familia M....  Awesome and super nice people.  They made us this really good ecuatoriano dish and it was really good,    After we shared a short message with them, we went to another cita and I was lost again.  I think my brain just shuts down after hearing so much Spanish.  It´s happening a lot less often than in the MTC, but it still happens every once in a while.

Wednesday was a really odd but really good day.  We went to a cita in the morning with a member named C... and she is a referral MACHINE.  We first visited a man from .... in her house named M... or something like that, but he was super muslim so I don´t think we´ll be able to teach him more.  After we went there she took us with M... to her other African friend´s house.  No one knows why, but C... is BFFs with pretty much every single African.  We visited with a couple named ... and ... from Nigeria and it went super well.  We taught them a lesson 0 and they were really receptive of it.  The best part was that I got to teach in ENGLISH for the first time.  I was like " Holy Cow, put me on the  "District" videos, I´m ROLLLIN".  It really wasn´t THAT good, but definitely made me feel better about myself after a day like Tuesday.  It helped me remember that I really do know how to teach, I just need to keep working on the language, and I know that will come.  We set a fecha baptismal with them for the 2 of Nov that day too.  Hopefully we´ll get to keep working with them.

Thursday, we had another lunch cita with la Famila A... and it was awesome, but we were there for a super long time.  Our 10 minute message turned into like 45 because they had a lot to say.  We were super late for our exchange with Elder Webb and Elder Clark, but everything worked out.  Elder Clark came with me to my area and Elder Galarza went with Elder Webb to their area.  The lessons I had planned for that day fell through, except for one.  We met with J... and taught him lesson 3 and it was awesome.  I was like the senior companion for a day and I felt a lot better about myself knowing that I could do all of that by myself.  Elder Clark is an awesome teacher and we worked really well together.  J... is still working for his fecha on the 2 of Nov as well.

Friday morning we had a Zone Conference and we ended our intercambio there.  We talked a lot about obedience and receiving revelation and it was a good meeting.  Afterward, we went to Dominos with a bunch of us from the Zone for lunch.  Here, Domino´s is like a buffet.  I ate a ton of pizza, but as a missionary, I eat what I can get (excluding the MTC shark bites).  Later we went to Barrio del Progreso to meet with ..., but he wasn´t there, so we tried a few antiguos with no luck.  Elder Galarza wanted to ring the doorbell of a house where he has seen ecuatorians go in, so we did.  We got to meet a joven named S....  He was super nice and welcoming when we came and seems to be a really genuine guy.  I´m telling you, South Americans are super open people.  They let us talk to them about religion way more than Spanish people.  Spanish people are awesome and super friendly, but when you bring up religion they put on the afterburners and get outta there.  We taught a lesson 0 with S... and it was good, but kind of fast because he had a friend waiting for him.  Next time we meet with him hopefully we´ll get to meet his family as well.  Later on our way home, we tried to visit a future that we´ve had for a while, and it turned out that he wasn´t home, but his brother who lives with him was.  He came down from his piso to talk with us and then decided to let us in after we talked about our message a little bit.  His name is G...  But he seems to really be looking for something to believe in and we´ve got it. 2 nuevos en one day!!  Later we tried to visit a menos activo, but they weren´t there.  Meanwhile a very drunk man hobbled over to us and told us he was a member of our church (Don´t see that every day).  He was sooo hard to understand, but he just started listing off things like "El Libro do Mormón, Jose Smith, Moroni".  He told us he wants a LDM and that he was baptized in Cartagena.  We took down his address and told him we´d visit him later, because we had to get back to the piso.

Saturday, we went to the capilla to play fútbol with some investigators and members again but our investigars didn´t show up :(  I watched a little bit of Conference while Elder G was playing because I am awful at soccer compared to these guys.  Put me in a 6th grade Rec league and maybe I could do some damage, but Spaniards... No way José.  After that we went and visited ... and he took the music to a new level this time.  After singing a song he pulled up this Karaoke app he has on his computer and we sang a few songs.   After, we talked about him going to church again and he still has a few excuses up his sleeves, but we´ll get him there somehow.

Sunday, we had Stake Conference in Cartagena in this big conference center there.   The Theme was " Un paso de fe" or "a step of faith" and it was really good.  There were some really good faith inspiring talks from the stake presidency.  We took a bus there and back with some others from the ward and it was about an hour ride home.  Then we went back to the piso and studied, ate, and then went to a despedida for ......  He´s going to serve in Mexico and he´ll be an awesome missionary.  The meeting was pretty long, but it was cool.  Lots of missionary spirit there.  .... is actually part of Elder Galarza´s conversion so it was really cool for him to be able to go. That´s my week!

I´m loving the mission and my testimony keeps growing the more I study.  There is always something more we can learn.  Testimonies come when we look for them.  We have to work for them and search in faith in order to really gain our own.  Try to strengthen your testimony every day and I promise that you´ll receive a stronger witness when you work for it!

We just finished a transfer!  I can´t believe it.  I still feel like I know nothing, but I´ve learned TONS just from one transfer.  Also, Elder Galarza and I are both staying here for now, but our DL Elder Webb is leaving. :(  He´s awesome and we´ll miss him.

That´s all folks!

Love,

Elder Adamson