José Juan y Ofelia (10/25)

October 25, 2014

Wow where to start this week... I guess I’ll start from last Sunday. Last Sunday we had an AMAZING sacrament meeting. Our Bishop got released and called into the Stake Presidency and so he spoke, the new bishop spoke, and the Stake President spoke. To top it all off a young man who has been helping us a ton recently gave his farewell and it was so amazing!! The thing that I loved about this Sacrament meeting was the talk that our Stake President gave at the end. To understand the story you need to know that Jacob Salinas (The boy who just left on his mission) is the son of Elder Salinas (Member of one of the quorums of the 70). The Stake President gave a talk about the eternal impact of Missionary work. He told a story about his mission in Tijuana and a man that had let them in the door eager to listen to the message. The taught the first discussion and it went so well that as they were leaving the man insisted that they stay and teach him more. They taught him all of the lessons in one sitting, he accepted a baptismal date, got baptized, then our Stake President left the area. He was telling this story to Elder Salinas and Elder Salinas asked what the name of this man was, he gave him the name and Elder Salinas responded "That is my wife's father..." because of the conversion of this one man millions of lives have been changed. Sister Salinas has 6 brothers who all served missions. Now Jacob the son of Sister Salinas is about to go on his mission also. The coolest part for me was listening to that talk while sitting next to José Juan and his wife Ofelia. They were the family who got baptized later that same night who are honestly the best converts I have in the whole mission. They have such strong testimonies and love the gospel so much. They were sitting there with their two sons, Alan and Angel. With the strength of their testimony and the amazing ward that Alan will grow up in could just imagine Alan heading out on his mission. They are such a wonderful family that I love so much, They already have plans to enter in the temple 1 year from their confirmation date (tomorrow). This would be such a cool experience because one year from tomorrow I will be in the last weeks of my mission and it would be the coolest thing to go seem them get sealed for time and all eternity. What a wonderful family and I will be sure to attach of photo of their baptism. 

Until today the rest of the week was fairly boring, just a normal week in the offices, working and doing the usual. This morning for Pday my companion and I went to Zócolo again with Elder Ramirez because it is his last Pday in the offices (we are getting a new AP tomorrow). We went and bought some ties, ate some Tacos al Pastor and bought the classic soccer Nike shoes they sell here in Mexico. My companion, Elder Ramirez and I all got the classic shoe but in different colors, all neon colors of course. I will be sure to add pictures of the massive meat we ate, as well as the shoes I bought.

Lastly I almost forgot, but yesterday a recent convert from my companion’s home ward came to Mexico on a mountain climbing adventure and got permission from President to meet with us. He is a really cool guy, huge into mounting climbing, and right now is training to climb Mount Everest. My companion was a big mountain climber before the mission and we promised each other we would take a trip up to Seattle together and climb Mt. Rainier after the mission. Things are going really well with my companion and I. We are working so well together and he really reminds me of Barnes, to the T. Well I love you all, I hope you all have a great week!!!

Love,

Elder Adams

José Juan y Ofelia photos (10/25)

More Baptisms (10/18/14)

October 18, 2014

Good Morning United States!! Sorry we are on kind of early but we have a busy day playing soccer, taking naps, and eating lots of food ahead of us... haha. Well this week has rushed by, I swear I was writing you all yesterday. We had a good week and we are seeing the fruits of our hard work. Last week we baptized Sara, the wife who flaked out about 4 weeks ago. She is really awesome and just needed a little more time. The baptism was awesome and I attached a picture, but just a quick funny story about the baptism.... She was getting in the water (which was freezing because the boiler wasn't working...) but when she got in she dropped a swear word, covered up her mouth really quick and then said, "well good thing I’m about to be clean of all my sins"... hahaha it was super, super funny. Tomorrow we have the baptism of Juan and Ofelia, they really are the best investigators I have ever had in my whole mission. I love the Mondragon Family more, and spent more time with them, but this couple have already have a stronger testimony that 75 percent of the members I have seen in Mexico. They love the Book of Mormon, read it all the time and help us teach other people about the gospel. They are getting baptized tomorrow and my companion and I are so excited! Lastly, we found a big family last week that we have started teaching who are pretty awesome, but the grandma is the best out of all of them, she loves everything we teach her. The best was last night we put baptismal dates with all of them and we went in the circle one by one and asked "When you come to know that the things we are teaching are true will you follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized by someone who holds this authority of God?" She was the third one we asked and she cut us off in the middle of the question and said "Yes it’s true, it’s all true, I know it" Then we started to ask if she would follow the example of Jesus Christ and again she cut us of saying "Yes, yes I will" It was really cool. I love being a missionary so much. To see the change in people’s lives and to really see the happiness the gospel brings to these people that I come to love them as if they were my own family. I love you all so much but I love the mission just as much. I don’t want my year mark to come, much less my time to go home. I love you all and hope you have a great week!!

Love,

Elder Adams

More Baptisms (10/18/14) photos

Sara's Baptism

 Grandma and Grandpa Adams got to visit Taylor while in Mexico City!

Taylor, Elder Bastian, and Grandpa

11 Months

October 11, 2014

Wow the time here in Mexico seems to speed up... we just had our mid change training for all of the new missionaries and I feel like we just finished the last training yesterday when it was 6 weeks ago.... I can’t believe how fast time is flying before I know it I’m going to hit the halfway point which seems surreal... Well enough of that, this week was really, really good. A few highlights that I wanted to touch on include our upcoming baptisms, a few investigators, seeing grandma and grandpa Adams, and the highlights from conference.

1. Tomorrow we are going to baptize Sara. Sara was the wife of Francisco that backed out at the last minute, I am hoping that Francisco is getting the Priesthood this Sunday and will be able to baptize her. That would be so awesome! I am so excited for Sara for finally coming to realize that this is the right decision and tomorrow will be an awesome day. 

2. We have a family who was progressing really well but didn't want to get baptized, they felt comfortable in their other church and even though they were reading the Book of Mormon and thought it was true they still didn't want to leave their Christian church. They came with us to the conference Sunday morning and the mom (Ofelia) LOVED the conference, she took about 4 pages of notes and it was so amazing to see that all of the talks in the only session they went to were focused exactly on their needs. She told us the next day the she knows it’s true and that means she has to get baptized. They are going to get baptized next week and they are such an awesome family and a family I love so much! It was such a miracle to see the impact the conference can have on people.

3. Last night I was given permission to go visit grandma and grandpa Adams who are here in Mexico City and had asked President if they could take us out to Dinner. It was an awesome night and I loved seeing them so much and they seem to be doing really well. They have all the pictures of us from last night so you will have to ask them for the pictures but it was a cool experience. Yesterday in the morning President told my companion and I that we couldn't tell ANYONE in the mission that he gave me permission to do that because he has said no to people before and will probably continue saying no, and the only reason he said yes was because I am in his offices and that he loves me... haha, just another perk of the offices. 

4. Lastly this conference was amazing, if you didn't get the chance to watch it I would encourage you all to watch it, it is amazing. Also on YouTube they have something new (new or maybe I was just ignorant before and had no idea that it existed). The new thing is called "General Conference Highlights" They have a channel that goes through the whole conference but with just 1-2 minute clips of every talk. I thought this was so cool because it is such an amazing way to share the conference on twitter, or Facebook. We can post our favorite talks from the conference and have lots of people watch it because it is only about 1 - 2 minutes rather than 20. I would encourage everyone to watch the conference and to try posting your favorite conference highlight to help spread the gospel in an easy way.

Well this week was overall a great week, really busy with lots of things to do but we are still having lots of success, I will send you the pictures of our baptisms and cant wait to hear from you all next week!!

Love,

Elder Adams

Not a Whole Lot (10/4/14)

October 4, 2014

Well this week has been really kind of boring. Not much has happened. We have been preparing all of our investigators for general conference and have had a ton of stuff to do here in the offices. The week has gone by faster than any week here in the mission I'm sure of it. I swear I was writing you all an email yesterday. The best thing that happened to us was last Saturday that night we found a guy in the street who is amazing!! We had an amazing first lesson with him. He accepted a baptism date and is coming to conference tomorrow. His name is Isaac and he pretty much told us he believes in God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost. He was Catholic but then read in the bible that we shouldn't worship anyone but God and so left the church and is just looking to find more about the word of God. The other great thing that has happened is actually in process, general conference. General Conference has been SO good, we are right now in between sessions and I have loved all of the talks. We have had to listen to all of them in Spanish, and even though I understand it all and still get things out of it, I feel like I get so much more out of the English talks still and I miss seeing and hearing the emotion that he speakers put into their talks. I want to hear Elder Holland chastise the whole audience, or President Uchdorf’s wonderful accent, or President Erying start choking up. That is what I miss most about the English talks. The good news is that we will be able to listen to them in the offices, as we work this, week in English. Well that pretty much sums up my week, pretty boring right?? Well I love you all and hope you are all having a great time at home. Pay close attention to all of the talks this weekend, recognize the importance of general conference and find ways to apply the teachings in your lives!

Love,

Elder Adams