Tuesday, June 17, 2014

Week 30

June 16, 2014
Wow, 30 weeks in the mission,! This is my last week in this change and even though it has flown by I feel like I have been in the mission so much longer than I actually have been, it is a weird phenomenon. This Saturday we will have changes, I don’t know what will be happen to be honest. I have a feeling that if my companion leaves that I will stay here as District Leader but I also have a feeling that my companion is going to stay here for his last change.... We will see what happens.

Happy Fathers Day!! I sent Dad a small email but just wanted to say Happy Fathers Day to him and all the other Fathers in the world. Thank you for everything you have done for the family, and me for your example and helping me in all things, I love you Dad!

Just a few things that are happening here in Mexico:
First, the world cup has started, which means that the streets here are dead... especially when Mexico is playing. It is kind of funny to see how many people are in their shops with the TV on watching the world cup.
Second, I thought getting sent out to the country would mean I would be getting away from English music... oh to the contrary! My neighbors apparently love English music and blast all the songs that I love every morning during our studies... oh it is so hard to pay attention to my studies sometimes.... haha
Lastly just a few funny stories:
1st: we have an amazing investigator named Marleen who will be getting baptized in July. She is single with 4 kids but lives with her parents and a couple siblings and we teach them all, but she is the only one who has gone to church and absolutely loves it, but here is the funny story: We were teaching the family and the brother asked us "Hey don’t you guys have a lot of wives??" We responded "No there are lots of things that people say about us Mormons that aren’t true such as (and gave some examples)" then he had the funniest response ever he said, "Oh man, well I just lost a little bit of respect for you guys, I always had a TON of respect for you guys, to be able to have tons of wives and I can’t even seem to get one...." hahaha it was pretty funny.
2nd: My companion started to contact a couple and contacted the guy. He started to explain that we share a special message about how our families can live together forever. The man was kind of rude and said in a sense, "No I’m not interested keep on walking.." What happened next is hilarious and even more funny in Spanish so I am going to put in the dialogue in Spanish and translate. The girlfriend turned to the man and slapped him and said "Como que no quieres una familia eterna conmigo!?!? Sabes que? Olvídate de mi!" and started to walk off and boyfriend tried stopping her but she said "No! Sabes que, es mejor si no me buscas!" and she left. In small words she basically said, "How is it that you don’t want an eternal family with me!?!? You know what forget about me!! Don’t come chasing after me!" hahaha it was really funny, a little sad, but funny.

Just a quick spiritual thought before I have to get off: This week I got an email from Steve Kent who was explaining his thoughts on the principle of fasting. The apostles have said that a fast without a prayer is nothing more than a diet. Steve came to the conclusion that he can give up anything that he loves for a certain amount of time as a sacrifice to God. As I was thinking about that this week I fully agree and I believe that is why missionaries have so many spiritual experiences, with tons of revelation, because in that sense a mission is basically a 2 year fast. We give up all the things and people we love for 2 years to serve the Lord. But the mission isn’t the only example of this, almost all the youth in the world today have their most spiritual experiences at camps such as Young Women’s camp, EFY, Hill Cumorah Pageant, Helaman’s camp etc. Yes a part of that spirituality comes from the fact that they are studying a lot about God but I also think a lot of it comes from the fact that in essence, these camps are a week long fast. These kids give up 1 or more weeks of their precious summers to God, and in that I believe that they are able to feel the sprit stronger and have more personal revelation through this "week fast".

Well, it is time for me to get off now. I hope you are all doing well. I love and miss you all tons! I will post a few pictures from last week that I wanted to send but I love you all!!

Love,
Elder Adams 


Week 30 photos


My companion's birthday

Our Baptism last week

The little kitty and I... and my awful tan line... haha

Monday, June 9, 2014

7 Months in the Mission

June 9, 2014
Well today I finished 7 months in the mission, I will be going home in 17 months, which seems like a really long time, but the time here in Mexico is flying by.

Well just some quick updates from here in Mexico. I love my ward so much, they really are so amazing and I am happy for the chance that I have to serve here. We had an amazing lunch yesterday with the Miller family who are awesome! The only daughter just finished her English degree at BYU and is super cool. The area where I am serving right now is full of rich people. There are still people in this area who are not very well off but the majority of our ward is loaded. They take vacations to Spain, Brazil and the United States all the time, drive BMWs, etc... It is crazy to see but I really love the area where I am serving.

Just a few quick stories from this week: Number one, we had a baptism which was really, really great. Her name is Adela and she was so excited to be baptized. The baptism went really well and we had an investigator who attended the service and loved it. Secondly this week has been really, really hot and I got my first sunburn here in Mexico. I got the sun burn on my scalp where the line in my part is. hahaha It was pretty funny to see the red line where you can usually see my scalp but doing my hair this week has killed... haha.

Lastly, this week seemed to be going really, really well but was really disappointing come Sunday. We found some amazing new investigators, we found 3 families that are awesome that we have been teaching, and committed 17 to go to church with us for the first time, but one 1 actually went. It was really sad to see that and kind of brought down our spirits but we will bring them next week! 

Sorry I don’t have a lot to share this week but I hope you all know that I love and miss you. Hope you are all doing well and are working hard! 

Love,
Elder Adams

Week 29 (June 2nd) Such a great update from this cute boy!


June 2, 2014
Hey everyone! I hope you all had a great week and are doing well! I can’t believe that I have been here for 29 week already and almost have 7 months in my mission!! Just a few things from out here to catch you all up on:

First just some news from San Mateo Atenco... This week my package arrived from my mom and it was awesome getting some American Food and a late Birthday present! Second, a part of our little town flooded this past week, it was raining really, really hard and the river overflowed into the streets and there was about a foot of water in the streets for about 4 hours. Also, my zone leader Elder Vargas got the chicken pox, he has to stay in for another 2 weeks so we temporarily have a new zone leader from Utah named Elder Noel. Lastly, yesterday we had our dinner really, really far away and there was a huge Catholic festival in the little town we needed to go trough and so no buses were running. We walked about 2 hours to our dinner and had to walk back through the huge parade. I am not really sure why but the parade had a ton of people who were cross dressing... and of course being the only white person in the whole crowd everyone thought it would be really funny to try and hit on me... “Guero, vente guero”... which means White boy, come here white boy... just a little funny story that I thought I’d add.

Secondly, just an update from the ward and area here. I love the ward that we are in. The ward out here is a lot more like a ward in the United States. Some things they have that the other ward here lack are things such as: Church attendance, active young men and young women, mutual, etc. The majority of the people in this area are a lot better off than in my last area and the majority of them have visas for the United States and visit there, like and follow football (American football) and basketball. They give me updates all the time... haha. We have some amazing ward member such as Sister Colin. Wow I have never met anyone like Sister Colin. Imagine Sister Campbell on steroids.... she loves missionary work and takes her calling so seriously. She is a ward missionary and literally goes up and down the street contacting people and looking for people for us to teach as if she were a full time missionary. She gives us about 4-5 references to us each week and the 2 people who were baptized last week were her friends that she met contacting in the street. Lastly we have a lot of young men in this ward who are all super funny and they all love me. It is really nice to feel like the missionary that I always loved and wanted to be when we had missionaries in Seattle and New York.

Sorry I have been kind of lacking on the spiritually experiences and I will try and do better with that, so here are a few spiritual experiences from this week: 
First: We met a family this week that let us in and wanted us to teach them, they were really enveloped in the lesson and loved everything we taught. They have a 16-year old daughter who loved everything we taught and was really focused. After the lesson the mom, Rosa, pulled us aside and thanked us for everything and started to explain and that her daughter is really, really rebellious and they always fight and that during our lesson that was the most calm she has ever seen here daughter and that she wants us to continue to teach her. It was so cool to see how even such a small little lesson from the gospel of Jesus Christ can really have such a huge impact on the lives of others.
Second: This week we got a call from the Young Women’s president to come over to her house immediately because she had someone for us to teach. Sister Ingry and her husband both work a lot and have a little kid, although Sister Ingry works from home she always has a lot to do and hired a Nanny named Pati. The day sister Ingry called us she had us come over to teach her nanny. That day Pati had an emotional breakdown. Pati is 16 years old, her mom passed away when she was little, and her dad is abusive. About 2 years ago she moved out to live with her older sister. The day we went to teach Pati she was crying because she really missed her mom. Sister Ingry was so sweet, so kind and loving and really acted like the mom that Pati doesn’t have. When we arrived at the house we had an amazing lesson about the Plan of Salvation and the things that Pati needs to do to be able to live with her mom again forever. She was so grateful for the lesson but the best part was the love and testimony that Sister Ingry shared. You could tell how much she truly loved and cared for Pati and it was amazing to see that Christ-like love. This made me think of the Hymn "Love one another". In the hymn it says "Ye are my disciples IF ye have love one to another". A lot of the times as missionaries and members of the church we over look the importance of true Christ-like love. Really all of us can be a little more like Sister Ingry.

Well I hope you all have a great week and I hope you all know that I love you and miss you tons! Thank you for all your love and support!

Love,

Elder Adams