He lets us struggle

familia,

I loved the pictures of tess's puppies. I was thinking that you could name them pedro juan maria y marta---great name. The funny thing here is that they use alot of the the english names but spell them as though they were spanish name, like Jeisson (jason), Yaneth (Janet), Yesica (Jessica). or they use odder names, one of my companions had the first name of Edison, and another Ronald. It's great!

As for new years---fiesta!!! Everyone drinking, three days straight, no one to be found at home nor in the street. For new years we were not allowed to be outside past 9. It started getting sketchy at like 7 so i was pretty pumped to go back home, it was then followed by going to bed at 1030. I was never that big of a fan of new years. amateur night. The funny thing here in colombia is that it's one of the countries with the most recognized holidays in the world, and they move all the holidays to monday, and the majority they have absolutely no idea what they mean. This last monday was The day of the three kings?!?! random!

Things has changed a little in the misson. We've tightened up a little bit. The president has put some new rules to help us focus more on our purpose. Such as not being able to listen to music anymore (taken advantage of), and the p'day has been changed to wednesdays. Were seeing great results in our zone. diciembre - 0 , enero (probable) 22. So i'd say its worth the sacricfice to put first things first to get that much needed help from the Lord.

Things are going great with my companion. Our area has it's difficulties at the momment but we're are working at it. We're finding new investigators, little by little. It's just a little disapointing when our appointments in the night fall through and there isn't anyone to visit and it's a bit dangerous to contact people. But like in all things we just need to be patient and work hard to reach our goals. I was reading Elder Scott's talk from this last general conference. He said the following...

''With even your strongest faith, God will not always reward you immediately according to your desires. Rather, God will respond with what in His eternal plan is best for you, when it will yield the greatest advantage. Be thankful that sometimes God lets you struggle for a long time before that answer comes. That causes your faith to increase and your character to grow.''

Sometimes we want to concentrate so much in the now, that we become unwilling to let God's hand work to shape us into what we need to be, and what we need to accomplish in the eternal scheme of things. Sometimes we want to progress faster than we seem to be able, and we see that the same old things keep pushing our buttons. But what has been hard for me, (and i believe it has to be similiar for others), is to see my own progress. But as Elder Scott encourges, ''You are making better progress than you realize.''

Thanks for everything you all do for me. I love you.

e. adams