October 26, 2015

October 26, 2015

Well this week was really frustrating.... We had 6 baptismal dates and 4 of them fell, one moved to this Sunday, and the other 3 just straight up fell. We were going to baptize a family of 5, a family that I love a lot, but the kids backed out at the last minute and no matter what we did or taught they didn’t want to be baptized.... So this week we baptized the parents, Nicolas and Norma who are incredible and I will share a little bit more about them later in the letter.

My companion and I this week had a really rough week as far as success goes. We had 11 people committed to come to church and not a single person came... We had our baptismal dates fall and honestly if we wouldn’t have baptized a great couple it would have been one of the worst weeks of my mission.

I’m still working hard and giving it all I can while I have the chance, but honestly my mind has been really distracted. I find myself thinking about home, thinking about how I only have 2 weeks left, about things after the mission, especially at night and in the morning, and in buses. One thing that I am pretty stoked about is that the Young Adults are going to have a dance here in the stake and when they found out I was coming back they planned the dance for the weekend that I will be here, so that will be pretty cool to be able to go to that dance while Im here.

Lastly to end on a good note, Id like to tell you all about Nicolas and Norma. They have been investigators for a while now and there was a point when we almost left them because they weren’t progressing, but while praying about an answer if we should leave them or not, the member that has come with us to all the lessons and loves this family had a dream that they got baptized. We took that as a sign that we should keep teaching them. About a month and a half ago Norma and Nicolas started having serious problems, Norma almost left Nicolas and that’s when he really started to change, and took the initiative in his family to follow us when before only Norma was completing with her commitments. We helped them and worked with them a lot to overcome difficulties and they were really excited for their baptism yesterday (Ill load photos if I can, but if I cant find a way to load my photos Ill send them next week). Oh also talking about that baptism after 24 months, and about 30 baptismal services where I have baptized I pulled the idiot move and forgot to take my camera out of my pocket before baptizing..... I baptized my camera with Norma and my camera is dead, but luckily the memory is okay. A member lent me his camera for my last 2 weeks so I could take photos but what idiot move..... Soy bien campeón... y bien burro.... jajaja

Well love you all and hope you a have a great week! Cant wait to see you in two weeks!!

Love,

Elder Adams 

October 26, 2015 photos

1. I learned how to make Tortillas hechas a mano

2. A sweet wolf hat Israel is gonna get me.

3. Nicolas and Norma in their baptism

4. Lean like a cholo

October 19, 2015

October 19, 2015

Well this week was a pretty crazy week.... Lets start off with the bad and work our way to the good. First off this week my companion was CRAZY sick. He had a surgery when he was 14 and they took out all but 5 cm of his Large Intestine. As you may have read from the other Elder Adams (Harrison) the food here in Mexico is REALLY spicy, full of fat, and in other words the worst thing that my companion could be eating. He has gotten sick before but never like this. He was throwing up all over the place and we had to call the doctor.... again (he has gone to the doctor multiple times) and this time the doctor told us he would call us right back but never did.... We later found out that that was because he called President and Sister Whitehead directly and told them that he shouldn’t be serving here in Mexico because ALL the food was going to make him sick. President Whitehead sent some letters to Salt Lake and they responded back saying that he needs to go serve in his own country (Costa Rica). I now have a new companion and I love him. His name is Elder Medina and he is from Puebla. He was companions with Elder Adams (the other one) and they were APs together. President wants our area to keep growing so he put him here for my last 3 weeks so I could teach him the area and so he could keep baptizing. Before getting to my area in the last 6 months the sisters had only baptized 1 person. My companions and I, even though it is a hard area, have been able to find success. My companions and I have baptized 4 people here in this area, and we have 8 baptismal dates for the next 2 weeks, and President wants that growth to keep coming because it is an area that has almost never heard of the gospel.

This week I also got pretty sick (specifically last night), but what do you expect to happen when your converts sign up for the food and give you Pig foot..... hahaha I spent the whole night last night with the two headed dragon.... For those who don’t know what that is, look it up cause I’m not gonna tell you ;) With my companion being sick I got to work with Elder Mason (a good buddy of mine and the AP) wow it’s so nice to teach with someone who also has technique and knows how to teach well. That has been my biggest difficulty training, having to do everything myself, correcting my companions. I always give my companions time to speak in lessons and I always want them to be growing, but with that they took the lessons EVERYWHERE and we didn’t progress with a lot of investigators that could have been progressing. So with Elder Mason in just a few days we got TONS of work done. We put lots of fechas, found miracles, and really helped me a ton get the area rolling. We helped two wonderful sisters get baptized this week (I’ll tell you about them later) and we put 6 baptismal dates for this week and my companion and I already had 2 for the next week. The area is growing a ton and we are finally finding success.

Lastly, to tell you a little about this family that we baptized this week: They are wonderful, their names are Pilar and Felix. It is a Mom and her daughter. Both have kids, and both of their husbands have left them. They are the most humble people I have ever taught. They really have NOTHING but their faith, and they have more than enough faith to go around. Felix is the oldest person I have ever baptized in my mission (she is almost 70) and I love this family so much.

I love you all and hope you all have a great week, please write me this week if there is anything you need, or need to know, because I only have 2 p days left.

With lots of love,

Elder Adams

October 19 photos

1. My companion in a shopping cart we found at the bodega.

2. Pilar y Felix at their baptism.

3. My companion and I after we found out he was going.

4. My companion and I saying bye to the gomez family.

October 12, 2015

October 12, 2015

Well I have four weeks left.... and honestly I don’t know what to say.... I feel so weird knowing Im going home in 4 weeks, but at the same time trying to get rid of those thoughts. I feel like it comes to my mind all the time, and I get really excited, but at the same time I know that it distracts me and that I need to endure to the end of my mission, working as hard as I can while I have the chance. I know I will miss being a missionary and my heart is so torn.... I am so excited to go home, and start the new life that waits for me and all that that involves (moving on to the next stage in my life, seeing friends again, seeing family, listening to music, the whole 9 yards). But I am so distraught with the fact that in 4 weeks I will not be a representative of Jesus Christ (as a mission, we always take his name upon us but its different), I hate the idea of not wearing this name tag over my heart ever day, and leaving this people that I have come to love so dearly (missionaries, President Whitehead, converts EVERYONE).... 

Well, enough ranting, this week we had interviews with President, it went really well. Honestly not a lot happened this week but we have a lot of people progressing, I will fill you in on them when they are baptized. I have no time now so just to explain the 2 photos:

1. My companion and I in his first interview, and my last interview...

2. Israel Gomez (one of my best friends from here). I taught him what a 5 star was.... haha

 Love you all and hope you have a great week!!

Love,

Elder Adams

October 12 photos

October 5, 2015

October 5, 2015

Well this week was a very disappointing week, and an amazing week filled with TONS of inspiration!! My companion and I worked really hard this week, saw tons of miracles and had a lot of people committed to come to church, 18 to be exact. But 12 people ended up not coming and we only had 6 people at church this weekend... But the weekend was amazing!!! What an incredible opportunity to hear that the Lord has called 3 new apostles! I am so excited to have Elder Rasband, Elder Stevens, and Elder Runlend to guide us. Their testimonies were incredible as well as the rest of the conference. I found talks that I think each one of us can apply in our lives:

First, starting with me, I went with the question of how I can stay on the straight and narrow path after the mission, although there were many talks that in part answered that question, such as Elder Robert D Hales, Elder Holland, Elder Andersen and Elder Durant. I feel like Elder Quinton L Cook took my question and made a talk out of it. It hit me so hard with exactly what I need to do after the mission and that is one talk I want to apply arriving at home.

DAD - Well this talk I feel like can be applied by the whole family, but I feel like its something you would like to do, and something you could be greatly benefited by. It was the talk by Elder Devin Durant in the Sunday Afternoon session I believe. He talked about something called ponderization. It is a really cool idea and its something I will be applying also, give it a shot and if you haven’t listened to the talk listen to it.

MOM - There were two talks that made me think about you, the first was the talk by Elder Russel M Nelson Sunday morning, I imagine you saw it but I thought of you immediately, you are already this type of person but I imagine that there are still things you can take out of the talk. Secondly the talk by Elder Holland in the 2nd session of Saturday Afternoon. This talk describes exactly how I feel about you, I love you mom, and I hope you can listen to the talk and think about me, especially when he talks about the Mexico City Temple rededication because I was there and I actually know Sister Pyper and her daughter (the attend the English ward I served in while in the offices, they are such sweet people).

LEXIE - Lexie, one of the talks that I loved was by Elder Robert D Hales. Its a talk that was meant for all young adults, so I will be applying it also. Listen to the talk, and Im not trying to tell you to get married immediately.... but all the advice that he gave is inspired by god, especially the line that says "You can start preparing today, by being worth of the type of person you want to marry", I suggest that you start thinking about the type of person you want to have in your life and be worthy of that person.

EMILY - Well I already gave you tons of talks to read in your personal email but I would re-watch the talk from Elder Russell M Nelson. I know you saw it because you said it was one of your favorites but watch it over, and over and over again, to really dissect it, and dissect the things you can take out of it. 

JOSH - WATCH THE WHOLE PRIESTHOOD SESSION, but in particular Elder Iryings talk in that session. He talks about the importance of every priesthood ordinance, and every priesthood function. I remember about 6 years ago when I was a priest also, and I didn’t understand or comprehend the magnitude of that calling, or of holding the priesthood of god, watch it, and then watch it again. Make sure it sinks in, and really imagine what it means to be a priest of God.

I love you all, and I hope you all have a great week. I will be working as hard as I can for the next 5 weeks so I expect you all to do the same, help a neighbor, help a family member, do a good act this week and remember that Ill be doing it too. I love you all and hope you are all doing well.

Love,

Elder Adams

September 28, 2015

September 28, 2015

Well I had changes today and guess what.... Elder Adams and I just switched kids..... hahahaha Elder Adams opened an area last change with a kid, and I did the exact same. My kid (Elder Solis) was companions with Elder Guzman (Elder Adams kid) well Elder Solis went with Elder Adams and Elder Guzman came with me. He is from Costa Rica and I will be finishing my mission with him. Its so crazy to me that I only have 6 weeks left.... its going to fly by so fast. I feel like I just barley got to this area and barely got put with Elder Solis, but that happened 6 weeks ago.... the exact amount of time I have left in the mission........ Today sitting across from my companion with my new agenda planning the night with him it really hit me... This is it, I wont have any other chances, this is my last change to give everything I’ve got, and after that its over. Just like that the best 2 years of my life have come to an end... I have loved every second of these last 23 months and I wouldn’t change them for the world. I’ve learned so much, grown so much, changed so much, and met so many people who have, and will keep on changing my life. I never understood what people meant when they said it would be the best hardest 2 years of your life. I also didn’t understand when people said they loved their mission.... and to be honest no one does until you live it.

This week flew by really fast, just a story from last Monday. After writing everyone with the zone leaders we went to the "Nevado de Toluca" its the big Volcano that you can climb here in Toluca. It was such an incredible experience and being that high up in nature was SO cool. There is no air up there so it was hard to climb but we had all the intentions of making it to the very highest peak. We started climbing up into the clouds and we hit a peak and we thought for sure it was the highest peak, so the 4 of us knelt down and offered a pray together, we felt so close to our Heavenly Father and it was so cool, but as we opened our eyes the clouds went away and we saw one more pack that was higher... we didn’t have time to climb it but it was such a cool fun experience and I will attach photos for sure.

I love you all and hope you have a great week!! Keep working hard, keep with your shoulder to the wheel and Ill do the same, love you!!!

Love,

Elder Adams

1. The lake at the top of the volcano

2. Elder Robision and I at the top

3. Elder Eveyln and Elder Solis at what we thought was the top

4. The real top behind us.... haha