Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Teaching in english Rough!!!

We played soccer today. We are blessed here in Campiña to have the only soccer field (soccer sounds weird to say. Sould be fùtbol) that’s grass. Fun fact : the majority of soccer played here is on mini fields cement with mini goals. It’s pretty much the only sport we play. But I love it.

So Family Beroy are having there baby boy today. I`m pumped. They named it Christopher Daniel, which are the first names of Elder Fernandez and Sorensen, that taught them the change before me. Super sweet! Love this family. Such great people, they’ll have 5 kids under the age of 12. It’s always a party over there. Loveit.

We had zone conference, major dicho, half of the mission conference. Due to changes, it was the first one i´ve had in 4 months, ha. It was here in Campiña. Everyone from my district in the MTC was there except E. Furmanski. It was sweet to see them all again. Its great to listen to the president and his great advice he receives through revelation. I was walking to the conference in the morning and was thinking in what I would like to hear taught, and what I would like to receive help from the president with. Welp, that was the topic, how to better work with member to receive referrals. The church is true, si o que?! I have been struggling with that for a while and feel like his words will help me very much so.

I find my self thinking in Spanish now. There is a new family in the ward that had been living in Utah for the past years and the little boy knows English better than Spanish, so the mom asked if I would give it in English. Oh what a disaster. I was translating the whole time what I would say in Spanish into English. It was rough.

This Friday is the baptism of Camilia, the teenager that came up to us and told us that she wanted to get baptized. I’ve never seen someone sooo pumped to get baptized. Ha it rocks.

Ha and we also had a baptism this Saturday. We didn’t find out until Friday that we had it, but turns out some Elders from another area had taught him, knowing he lived in our area, then when he was ready to get baptized he decided he wants to be baptized in our ward. Ha so that was an easy one. He`s a great future missionary of 19 years, and were pumped to help him progress in the ward.

Were half way done with the change. Its nuts. Things are actually going pretty sweet with elder huaman. He’s a really funny kid. We talk a lot more and and he keep on opening up. My only wish is that he was more concerned about the work. But things are going great. We're going to probably set 4 new baptismal dates this week. Its crazy to think that I might just have 3 more weeks here in campiña.

sorry for this ADD letter.

Welp love you all and thanks for being such a great blessing in my life.

Les quiero,

e. adams

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

mi hogar es un rio en mi alma

¡q’hubo familia!
Soo i rocked a footlong from subway today. Only 7.000---translation 3.500.. What´s up! Felt real good, felt like I was in the cougar eat again. But I’m back eatin platano and rice and still lovin’ it. No worries.
We were working all day so I’m writing a little late. Forgive me.
This week we were finding people left and right, it was an adventure. When found this girl that’s 13, she greated us by saying ‘I’ve been coming to this church for a while, and I really like it. I want to be baptized.’ Rough one huh? Ha we visited her this week and her mom totally supports her, we’re going to work on her and the little brother, and Camilia, the girl, is getting baptized this 20th. We have three new family’s were working with right now. We have a goal to baptize 3 this month. I think we can do it! Ha we have a zone goal of 30 and if we reach it, we’re going to salitre magico (haha again). Ha we swore to the president we would never tell anyone we went, ha so I’m trying to act pump to go to that lame amusement park again! But the goal has Elder Huaman pumped to work to reach the goal haha. He’s a really good kid don’t get me wrong, he’s got a lot of potential, really smart, im just trying to get him to want to be a missionary all the time. For example, we went to help a family move today in the morning, but he was pissed the whole time because we were working on ‘his’ p-day. Ha tried to let him know that it’s not important that the family didn’t give us juice in the morning, or that he had to help people on a day that really isn’t his (a lot of missionaries think that pday is their day to take a break from the mission, and that we can’t do service this day. Pish, im not sure where it says that you’re expected to serve with all your heart everyday except Monday from 10 to 6 in the afternoon. But we are getting along great, he’s a really funny kid and he’s opened up a ton. He’s started to actually tell me about his complication. He told me today he had visited the mission pyscatrist and he was going to tell me more about it.
I had the chance to go see the Bogota temple this week, we went to get some triple combinations this Saturday at the distribution center but it was closed, bummer. But I at least got to see the House of the Lord. I’m a little bummed that the president felt like missionaries we’re spending to much time in the temple trips every month, so he changed it so that every zone goes two times every year ( I bet missionaries were taking advantage of the trips, but still a bummer.) I miss that House, I miss that Spirit that only abides there, But at least I got to see it!
There is a little town outside of bogota that consides with our area, its called Cota. I want to live there some day. It’s beautiful, it reminds me of Heber a little bit, but in Colombia. There is a huge mountain there that I want to conquer (btw there is a beautiful beautiful golf course close, that one day mike and dad we will golf at.) Anyways, there is a kid in our ward that is the only member, he went on a mission in Bolivia. His family gives us lunch every week, they're the best. The mom knows everyone in the church but for her husband she hasn’t got baptized. But what I feel like was a message from the Lord, he had his appendix rupture, he almost almost died. We gave him two blessings during this time and he told us that he felt the power from it, and knows that it helped him. Theyre both really Catholic but, I think this could be the push from the Lord they need. We taught them this week and I know the spirit was there.
Love you all sooo much. You give me strength.
Btw I’m so proud to have the first woman Ward Mission Leader as my sister! We could us some Jess’s around here!
Nuts Rich is leaving! Find out his email so I can write him!

e. adams

Monday, February 1, 2010

querido familia,

Welp, ( i need to find a new transition Word) so so glad grandpa is ok! Send him my love, and I’m sure grandma is taking great great care of him, I bet he has unlimited of those peanut butter cornflake wonders!
All is well here in Campiña. The week was a little rough teaching wise, probably a good 7 teaching appointments fell through, and we had a lot of lame business to do with elder Fernandez leaving. We had a baptism this Saturday for Daniela Rios, she’s 9 years old, her dad is a completely inactive return missionary, and her mom is less active, leaving with another guy. But she’s great! Ha this Saturday was super stressful dealing with the baptism. The mom first called me Friday night telling me that she wanted to cancel the baptism, and postpone it tell the next week, but then I went with my zone leader to talk with her and we promised her we’d bring a cake and then she was fine. HA loca. Daniela cried when she told her that she wasn’t getting baptized that day, but it all turned out great. We were in the chapel from 11-830 that day. This ward a little jacked in the fact that they think that the missionaries need to do everything for member baptisms (8 year old kids). Ha I called the mom to make sure everything was going fine an hour before the baptism, turned out she hadn’t that to find someone to baptize her daughter, left that up to me, sweet. But that one turned out good too.

Things are going pretty good with elder Huaman Don’t get me wrong he’s a funny kid, just a little difficult to work with. But I understand he doesn’t really have complete control of it.
That’s sweet that you guys found a house with a sweet ward. I’m sure josh and everyone will love it.
I love you all sooooo much.

les quiero,
e. adams

Thursday, January 28, 2010

1 of 2 emails

Still here in Campiña. I received my new companion sooner than expected, last Tuesday. Turns out he´s got kidney stones and he was in a little town called Yopal that you have to take a air plane to get to, so needless to say the hospital wasn´t the greatest so they moved him here in Bogota where the hospital is grade A. His name is Elder Huaman, he´s from peru, he´s got about 8 months in the mission, so from what I can see he still wants to work. He´s a little goofy, very very different than all the other companions I´ve had, much harder to relate to, but he´s a good kid, i´m sure we´ll have a good time. then called the president to talk, so yeah its going to be a very different transfer. HEY due to the fact that i´m still with elder Fernandez, were in a trio. and we´ve been doing tons of stuff I only had 15 mintues to write today, i´ll get back on finish writing tomorrow in the morning, But all is well here in campiña. GOOD LUCK WITH THE MOVE!!!

Love you all so much,
e. adams


p.s. send grandpa and grandma my love as well. He´ll be in my prayers!

Welp im back!

So we´ve been super busy the past week. With elder huaman coming and everything, we´ve been running around between the hospital and the mission office almost everyday. Then this Saturday was the wedding of Giovani and Liliana, then in Sunday morning early at 730 they were baptized. And also with Elder Fernandez heading home we´ve had to do tons of stuff for that. And on top of that we had this sweet zone activity in my area where the whole zone came and knocked doors for 4 hours. So were now reaping the fruits of that. We got tons of appointments today that we need to rock. Thanks to that I believe we´ll have about 4 new baptisms in the next two months. SWEET! Our goal of 10 baptisms for the change wasn´t reached, but we got 6 so that’s sweet! But I was able to keep elder Fernandez staying busy for the last couple weeks. Yesterday he had his interview and the president told him he could be trunkie now haha, he leaves tomorrow night. He´ll be with other missionaries that are going home after lunch. This past month and half went felt like two weeks with elder Fernandez. He´s a funny kid. And I learned a lot from him. Especially that if you want to baptize, you can baptize, in any area with any companion. That´s really why were here. To bring the blessings of baptism by someone with the priesthood of God, which allows them to have the greatest gift we can have in this life—the gift of the Holy Ghost, and really every blessing I have in my life is because I was able to enter the kingdom of God through baptism. Attitude determines altidude! What´s up!

Welp love you all again, suerte with the move. I wasn´t able to see the picture but i´m sure the neighborhood is legit. BTW are you guys planning on buying or renting?

Love you all so much.

Btw, Colombia has the best music ever. It´s called Vallenato. You should look it up. It´s basically guitar, acordian, and with what looks like a round cheese greater that they scratch with a metal brush. And sweet Spanish lyrics. I bet you can type ‘el amor mas grande del planeta’ in youtube and your ears will be delighted.

¡Colombia es pasión!

E. Adams

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Alejandro baptism "A tital wave"

Welp that sucks the Cardinals lost. Oh well.

So this week went great. We set another baptismal date for January and had the Baptism of Alejandro. This guys the best. Seriously.
So Alejandro quit smoking in a week and was more than ready for his baptism. Ha he was so ready that the little kids in the front of the font ended up getting soaked. Let me explain. During the baptism, he was so ready that after I said the prayer he just flung back and he’s taller than me so it resulted in a pretty sweet tidle wave.

But after as we normally do, we asked him to share his thoughts and feelings after the baptism. Which resulted in one the most joyfull moments of my life. He talked for about 10 minutes about his Journey to get to know God. He said that he seriously began searching for a relationship with God when had 17 years old. And after he couldn’t find what he was looking for he began to study Philosophy, but after time he knew that there was something more. He shared that after the baptism while he was watching the a video we played while everyone changed, he felt for for the first time, in this ten year quest--at peace with Christ. He said he felt the love of God fill him. He said he felt like it was his first time in church where he heard everyone saying that this was the true church, but he can now say this, because he felt is so powerfully in his heart. I know with out a doubt he decided to be baptized because of what he genuinely felt, not because what he knew. He had been learning about the church for less then a month, and I haven’t heard many people testify with more conviction and power than in the manner in which he did. I left feeling as though it wasn’t me who helped Alejandro, but really him that helped me. How great is this work!

Giovani and Liliana are getting married and baptized this weekend! I’m pumped! Then next Tuesday Elder Fernandez goes home and I get a new companion. The president said I’ll be here in campiña for a while. Rockin!

So you guys are actually moving. Tell Josh that moving to Arizona from Utah, although I felt like it was the worst thing ever at first, ended up being one of the biggest blessings in my life. A change that was crucial for me.

Welp. Gotta go. I Love you all so much. Give each other a big hug for me.

Con amor,

e. adams

Monday, January 11, 2010

te amo campiña!

Welp first things first: GO CARDS!

Now that we have that taken care of, today we went to a theme park called ‘Salitre Magico’. I´m pretty sure that it's against the general mission rules to go to a theme park, but yeah we did it! Of course with the permision of the President. Some how one's zone got permision to go and they invited my district, so we jumped on that. The park was pretty much just like a sketchy carnival, same exact rides, but it was in COLOMBIA, hence enjoyable. I got fried though. Because its so high in altitude here, when it’s the middle of the day the sun is super strong, and I think I heard something about there being a weak ozone layer here too. Soo HIGH ALTITUDE + SUCKY OZONE = UV RAYS GALORE. Trying to stay up on the math so I can rock calculus when I get back. What´s up. But oh how I love Bogota. I always hear people say that Bucaramanga is el mejor (the best), but I just don´t, Bogota´s treatin me real good, real real good.

There is ony two more weeks in this change! I´ll have a new companion in two weeks. This is nuts! Even though my companion is getting ready and wanting to pack his bags, so glad there is a lot of work to do here in Campiña. We most likely won’t finish up with 10 baptisms this change, but maybe 8, but a sure 6. But those 6 are rockin it. After the end of this month were going to have 6 new men in the elders quorum. Our Class of the principles of the Gospel is off the hook. These 4 new families love to share their testimonies and ask questions. All are so eager to learn more about Christ and to strengthen their testimonies in them.

One of these families is the Silva family. This past week was all about them. I believe I wrote about how we ran around Bogota this past Monday for 8 hours getting all their papers ready, while the rest of the week were finishing up and setting a date for the wedding: Success. The're getting married the 23rd and being baptized the 24th. The're legit. They both have super super strong testimonies of the Church, and are waiting with anticipation to receive the saving ordinances that Christ offers through it. They moved this week to a new apartment, and they talked very openly with us. He told us he went to visit his old Pastor, in which he was part of the Leadership, he told him why he had left the church, and told where he is now (in the church of jesus christ), he feels is really Christ´s church, the true church, and where he doesn´t feel like the church is a business, and that he sees the members love one another, and can really see the hand of God guiding it. THIS MAN IS PODER! He also talked about his past, and how him and Liliana want to start off new in this house, which they want to be built upon the Gopsel, with love and no bad words of influences. We then proceeded and gave a blessing on the house. Liliana shared how much she would love to have her daughter (1 year old) to serve a mission one day.

We have the baptism of Alejandro this week. This guy quit smoking this week. He shared that he doesn´t want anything to hold him back from growing in the gospel after his baptism. Also did I tell you he teaches philosphy and studied in one of the best universities here in Colombia, the guy is legit! I believe he is about to finish 2nd nephi after just 3 weeks!

I´m telling you. Things are hot here in Campiña! Next week were going to do a zone activity where the whole zone comes and does contacts the whole day in an area. The next week will be here. Last week in the area where we had the zone activity, they had 31 new investigators in 1 week!

I love you all. And I’m completely content.

Fuertismo abrazo (super strong hug!),

e. adams