Monday, May 26, 2014

Another Week in Mexico

May 26, 2014
Dear friends and family! How are you all doing?? I have been missing you all a lot recently, but this week here in San Mateo Atenco has been pretty good. The mission is never really a mission without difficulties so I will get those out of the way first. First thing first, once again I was sick.... I had what they call here the "Two Headed Dragon" which is when you have diarrhea and are throwing up at the same time, it really was not a fun day... Secondly, it is really hard thinking about all my friends from the MTC the first time I entered who are home now, and if I had stayed out I would be home too. That is really hard to think about, but something I can get over. Lastly, this wasn’t really a difficulty but I almost lost my eyebrows this week trying to turn on the boiler for hot water the other morning... haha.

This week was fairly plain and not a whole lot to talk about. My Spanish is really coming along because once again I am in an all-Hispanic district... there are 6 of us (1 from Panama, 1 from El Salvador, 3 from Mexico, and me). My companion and I stay up to almost all ends of the night talking, which is lots of fun and also makes me think that my Spanish has to be pretty decent. Either that or he is really good at understanding awful Spanish... haha.

The big story from this week was that we had 2 baptisms!! Earnesto and Naomi were both baptized yesterday and it was so awesome! I will post pictures. Baptisms are always the best. We had a few difficulties getting the baptism planned because our bishop didn’t want them to be baptized but in the end we got everything worked out and because of the 13 baptisms we had in the zone this past week we are going to be Bauti-Lerma!!!! The zone that has the most baptisms per companionship in a month is named bautizona and our zone name is Lerma, so we are going to be BAUTI-LERMA!!! 

Well sorry this letter was fairly short, not a whole lot to talk about but I just want you all to know that I love you and miss you all tons! :) 

Love,

Elder Adams

Another Week in Mexico-photos

Super rich area in our area, some members live over here and we went to eat with them and the little gated community is BEAUTIFUL!!


Elder Aranda, Noami, Earnesto, and I


All the people who attended the baptizim


Hna Colin, Earnesto and Noami

Monday, May 19, 2014

Week 27 (New Area)

May 19, 2014
Wow this week absolutely flew by! I miss you all as usual but things are so much easier with a companion that I love!! My area is beautiful and we are having lots of success but in some aspects it is really hard. My area, like I said before, is tons of country land! We have our main town or city called San Mateo Atenco, which is where we live, and 3 little, little teeny tiny towns out in the middle of nowhere. (I will post pictures of our walk to one of those towns). The area is beautiful and I love it. Our main street (Independencia- if you’d like to Google map it) is FILLED with tiny shoe and clothing shops. The girls in the family would be in heaven here. There is one shop on the strip that sells all types of flats and Toms, all colors, patterns and sizes, and right now are having a sale so that each pair of shoes in the shop cost 100 pesos!! For those who don’t know, that is like 8 dollars. Because we’re out in the "Ranches" our area is huge and even though we don’t have tons of stairs or hills, like my last area, there have been times when we have walked 50 minutes to an appointment and it is the worst when they aren’t even there so we then walk 20 to 30 minutes to our next appointment. Also out here in the pueblos the sun is a lot hotter, and when we are walking all day the sun really starts to beat down on you. Even though that is hard and I have lots and lots of blisters, the area is amazing and so far I love it!

My new zone is called Lerma. We are the newest zone in the whole mission and President just barely opened this zone 2 changes ago, in February. We are the smallest zone in the whole mission with 14 missionaries but I love the zone! Our zone leaders are so awesome and make everyone feel so welcomed and loved! Elder Vargas is one of the zone leaders and he is so funny! He is so kind, enthusiastic, and always has so much animation. Secondly, my companion is amazing! Even though the mission is still hard and there are still hard things, having a good companion makes everything a million times better!! We have so much fun together, share lots and lots of stories and have had so many fun nights just hanging out. He is from Panama but actually spoke a dialect before his mission and learned Spanish here. A lot of people there speak Spanish so he understood it almost perfectly when he came but couldn’t speak it very well. He is pretty much a Ninja and loves martial arts and has some really cool, crazy stories!!

The work here is going really, really well. We have 6 people on date to be baptized the 1st or 2nd week of June and have a lot of new people that we are teaching. My companion told me that President called him and talked about me before changes (which isn’t normal) My companion has dropped a million hints that President wants to call me to be district leader next change while my companion goes to another area for his last change and trains someone. My companion keeps teaching me things about how to be district leader so what I imagine is that President called him and told him that he wanted him to train me so I can be the next district leader in the area, which would be cool but a little intimidating.

Well so far this week has been awesome! And I surely hope that rest of the change continues on at this pace. I love and miss everyone so much and hope you are all doing really well! Love you all!!

Love,
Elder Adams


PS I attached some pictures of the area, it is beautiful here.

Week 27 photos

San Mateo Atenco (Taylor's new area)




Week 26 (Transfer!!)

May 12, 2014
Well as my family knows I got moved out of Constituyentes out to the country in a little town called Technologico. I am so excited to be here and I will talk a little more about that later. First I would like to wish all the mothers a happy Mother´s Day, especially mine, and hope you all had a wonderful day! I know I did. I got to talk with my family through Skype and it was amazing, and really hard cause I’m a crybaby! haha. Hanging up was so hard and after I finally pressed the end button I started crying. I loved talking with everyone but it was really hard to say goodbye because I know I can’t chat with you all for another 7 months!! Secondly after I chatted with my family I went and said goodbye to the Mondragon Family, who I love so dearly, of course I cried there also after Celestina started crying telling me she was going to miss me because although all the Elders are doing good here Elder Herd and I were the ones who changed their lives and they will never forget us. I am going to miss the family so so so so much but at the same time I am so excited to be here in my new area with my new companion. 

I don’t have a whole lot to say this week because I was planning on saying it all while talking with you in Skype, so mom if you would like to insert the things I said and how it was talking to me in here please do so!
*Of course talking to Taylor was the best. He looked so good and so happy. (He’s down 3 belt notches!) He was so cute telling us about his area and the transfer and when I tried to ask a question he said, “Mom, I’ve got a list. Would you mind holding your questions until I’m done?” The call was wonderful and crazy. I was in NY, for my Aunt’s funeral, so we Skyped 3-ways, with Mark and the kids on one screen and me (plus my mom, sisters, brother, nieces and nephews on another screen). That was a treat for him to see so much family! Taylor was on the third screen and was translating some of what we said to the family who’s home he was in and his companion. Mark was so impressed with both Taylor’s Spanish and his accent. He kept starting to respond to our questions (once I was allowed to ask them) in Spanish, and then he would start talking in Spanish with Mark. The hour went WAY too fast. He also had a crazy story about his day because he had to keep pushing back our talk time because he had a baptism and then didn’t and then did! There is a photo of Virginia, who Taylor just loved and was so impressed by. She works all the time, which is why the baptism was on, off, then on.*

Well to end this short letter I want you all to know how much I love you, how much I miss you and how well everything is going here. I am here in my new area and it is awesome! It is a small little town that is beautiful. They call our little town "Mundo de los zapatos" which means world of the shoes. On the main street of the town there are tons of little clothing shops and small mom and pop shops, and every other little store is a shoe store with tons of really nice (knockoff) shoes for really cheap. It is so beautiful here and I can’t wait to take pictures and show you all how pretty it is out here in Toluca. Secondly, my companion is awesome and I can already tell we are going to get a long really, really well. He is so nice and humble and has a crazy background!!!!! He is from Panama and loves Martial Arts. He has 6 black belts and 5 brown belts in different forms of Martial Arts. His family owns a really, really nice island off the cost of Panama which is basically like a huge family name (saga) that owns the island. His job was to protect the island from Pirates who would come and try and steal things and drug trafficking. Normally what the guards of the island (like him) do is break the backs of the pirates and then kill them. He protects the island but won’t kill anyone because he found the church when he was 15, after searching for a religion on his own, and has decided not to ever kill anyone. This change is going to be lots of fun and I am so excited! Love you all and miss you tons! 

Love,
Elder Adams




Week 26 photos

1. Mini Mamut is a really cheap candy here and my companion and I were really excited becuase we found somewhere that sold them by the box for 30 pesos and not idividually for 1 peso each.
2. My Bishop in Constituyentes saying goodbye to me when he found out I was leaving.

3. The baptism we had yesterday with Virginia.

4. Saying goodbye to the Mondragon Family.





Wednesday, May 7, 2014

Week 25

May 6, 2014

Hey everyone!
I am almost 6 months into my mission!! (4 more days). Just some quick business. I gave Elder Herd some American money to bring home to you because there was really nothing I could do with it here. Secondly I also found out that packages from US Postal rarely ever get taken so I would try that (That is how grandma sent me her package).

Secondly, just a little bit of information from this week. This week started out really, really hard. I have no idea why but I was really, really homesick to start out the week and had a really hard start to the week. As the week progressed on "bad week syndrome" swung to my companion and he started having a really hard time with our district and zone and has been really mad or sad this entire week. The week for me has turned around quite a bit, because I have been able to help him a lot through these challenges due to my relaxed personality. This has helped me grow closer to my companion, although things are still difficult. Changes are coming up this week and President told me, yesterday, that he thinks he is going to change me because I have been in this area for 3 months.

Wow, home seems to be crazy! Sounds like quite a week you all had with prom, Josh´s permit, all the visits, and everything like that. I hope you all had a good week and had fun with everything that is going on. It is really crazy how many things are going on and seem to pass by when you aren’t there to witness them... haha. I heard that Elder Herd visited! I love him so much and miss him a ton. I am glad you all like him just as much as I do. He was a great Elder and a great man. I was meaning to tell you the difference between the old and new President, but it sounds like he did a pretty good job at that. President Whitehead really is so loving and has been so amazing with everything!

Lastly these past few weeks I have had some few crazy changes. First I’ve twice spent the whole day with Sister Whitehead as my companion, while I helped her with her computer issues, which was really weird having a girl as my companion for the day, but it really was a lot of fun. I got to know her really well, and she is awesome and, secondly, it was lots of fun working on computers. President told me that he isn’t going to send me to an area far away from his house because he wants me to be here to help with his computers. ;) I joked around and told him he should just put me in the offices (There are 2 Elders that deal with all the affairs of the mission and only work at night from 5 to 9, but do missionary work in the area of President). Everyone tells me I will be an office Elder because if you know a lot about computers, he loves having you there in the offices on the computers all day. He responded to my sarcastic remark by saying, "Oh Elder Adams, trust me, that day WILL come." This made me really happy because I would like to serve in the office, to serve in that area, work on the computers, and work so closely with President.  Secondly, this past week we did interchanges so that my companion could be helped by our zone leaders. So Elder Sailee, who I love, came to my area. He was here for 24 hours and it was so much fun, but the thing that was so much fun is that he knows even less Spanish then I do.... haha. This gave me a lot of confidence in my Spanish and made me realize that really I am progressing! :)

Oh I almost forgot, this week we will be baptizing Virginia. She has been our strong investigator this whole change and has been so awesome. She works, literally, 7 days a week, 10 hour days. She talked with her boss and changed her work schedule so that she could attend church and goes every week. It was really amazing how we found her. At the start of the change I was in charge of everything-where to go and what to do. I had everything planned out and a backup plan to call this lady if everything fell through. Everything ended up falling through and so we called Virginia, someone we contacted last change but only had her phone number, not her address or anything. She ended up being really, really interested and has loved everything we have taught her and really has changed everything to follow the example of Jesus Christ, what a miracle!

Well I miss you all and hope that you are all doing well. I have posted my pictures to dropbox and I hope you like them all. Happy Mothers day to all you moms and I hope that you all have the great day you deserve!! I can´t wait to talk to you on Sunday!!

Love,

Elder Adams

Week 25 Pictures

 Taylor and Elder Sailee doing interchanges (splits).




Zone Conference with President and Sister Whitehead