Loose his life for my sake shall find it

Of course I know who Rod Stweart is. I can imagine his funny looking face right now. I hope you had a super cool time at the concert.

About the plane seat, the office secrectary told me that everyone is one of us has scatered isle seats. Does Karen have the power to change that stuff? I would have loved an isle seat. but it's all gooood.

Mother's day came up fast no?! But yeah we can skype for sure. it'll be great! It's the 8th right?

Brett is back?! Whaaat. Give him a huge hug for me and tell him to hold on tight tell i get home in two months!

This week was great! We don't have many investigator's, but everyone that we do have has a baptismal date! So we have quiet a few people to help get baptized this month. One of our investigators invited us to eat dinner tonight with them. GREAT!

I'm sending fotos this week so I hope that makes up for my short letter!

I had a very interesting appointment yesterday, with a new convert from around February in the ward. He's about 20 years old. He likes the church, and feels that it is true along with the book of mormon. We started talking to him about a mission, and he quickly cut us off and told us that the mission isn`t for him. He told us that he lives with his parents that he is trying to gain independence and that two years was just ´´too much time´´ and would ruin his plans. And how he would come back from the mission without out a dime to his name, so he just can't do it.

When then opened up to matthew 16...

´´Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.

For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.´´

We waited for a momment as the spirt filled the room, and he understood it. He told us that it ment for him that if he went on the mission, God would take care of him and he would have new opportunities when he came back. But the stubbornness got the best of him as he then started coming up with excuess on why he didn't go, and i felt as though when we left he had the same idea about the mission as when we left. It frustrated me that he understood it but he just didn't have enough confidence in God to follow through. As I listened to him excuse himself from the instructions that God had just gaven him though the power of the Holy Ghost, i thought of the parable of the sower.

´´(some seeds) fell upon stony places, where they had not much earth: and forthwith they sprung up, because they had no deepness of earth.

And when the sun was up, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away.´´

He understood, but he just couldn't accept it. I hope we can learn for this!

I love you all!!

e.adams

Listening learning and resolving

familia mia,

Great to here that Ramsey got his call to the Philippines! I'm sure he'll be a great missionary, like his brother, and well, his two sisters as well!

I'll be sure to pass that email over to Pres. Clayton's convert. I'm sure he'll be pumped to write him!

As for the weather her in Colombia, there is still quite a bit of rain. But as for Bucaramanga, it seems as though it is immune to freak storm patterns. It's great! Knock on wood! Tomorrow we have interviews with the president, so I'm going to slyly make comments like ´´i sure love this zone´´ or ´´I would love to finish my mission here´´, to try to but it in his head that he needs to leave me here for my last transfer. nevertheless, iré y haré.

As for summer, it seems like I got a pretty easy schedule, 3 classes, two of which i can take online. So I assume I'll be able to kick it with you guys pool side quiet a bit. That doesn't make the whole, be at home for three days idea sound as bad.

I've realized that lately that I just love to talk to be people and help them with their problems. As of a couple months ago I've completely changed my style of teaching, from talking and teaching to asking questions, listening, learning and resolving doubts and problems. I have learned the amount I talk is inversely related to how much they learn. My companion and I just sit down with the investigator and talk with them like a friend, forgetting the lesson and focusing completely on them trying to find out exactly how they need Christ in their lives and why they would want to come closer to Him. And as we listen attentively they will tell us exactly what they want to here, and then when we tell them what they want to here, they develop more faith and desire to complete the commitments that we give them. If I could find a career where i could just sit and talk and ask people questions and then help them solve their problems, I would be a happy worker.

Ran out of time. but don't worry! I'm super happy!

Love you all!

e. adams


P.S.

THANKS FOR THE PACKAGE!

I HAVE GREAT PICTURES BUT I FORGET MY CABLE! ILL TRY TO SEND THEM TO YOU SOON!

Conference through investigators eyes

oh familia,

I loved receiving letters from almost all of you about conference(minus josh, but i'm positive that he is going to redeem himself with a great letter for next week! right, right!?)

I also loved how everyone loved the same talks. being, elder scott and president monson's temple / marriage based talks. I guess that's what i get when everyone that write's me is madly in love! After Pres. Monson's priesthood talk, on of the brothers on my side lined and hit me on the shoulder and told me 创good luck!创 I quickly responded 创not yet创! I imagine the provo marriage presure scene is going to be on fire! yikes!

I think confrence is the best as a missionary. Because I have the oportunity to soke up revelation not only for me, but for my investigators as well. It's great, but the best is when the investigators that we take to church get their own inspiration. I'll tell you about it!

Mariela is a single mom of four kids. Three of her kids are already members, they were baptized about four years ago. She's seen the blessings of the gospel in the lives of her kids, but the whole church thing hasn't clicked, until now.

Monday we visited her with the bishop, she had some great words to share about church. like 创organized创 or 创divine创. We then asked if she had recieved an answer to her prayer about the book of mormon, she told us yes, and that elder bednar's talk had help her realize that sometimes those answers don't come as instantly like a light switch, but more like a sunrise. She feels sure about what she's doing and she's excited to get baptized the 30th of april with her youngest daughter. God blesses so much when we just act, when we do things.

Her in my new ward i found a brother that I just sat and watched and loved his enthusam for the gospel and service in the church, every time i looked at him he had a smile on his face, He later gave the class in the elder's quorom, and I loved how much he cared about the class. Later, when we were leaving church he asked me where i was from, I said Arizona, his eyes lit up, and he asked do you know Pres. Clayson!? He baptized me! He later pulled out of his triple combination of what looked like a weding anouncment of pres. clayson and sister clayson. I wasn't able to remember his name but he want's pres. clayson's email address. Small world no?!

Sorry about not writing you guys last week, I just couldn't find the time! forgive me. But i am now registered for summer and fall semester! Prep醨ese provo!

Thanks for eveything that you guys do for me! I love you all! And i'll try my best to write well for the rest of my mission!

youre the best!

Love,

e. adams

Canaveral Transfer

We had changes this Wednesday so I was busy dropping off and taking elders to the bus terminal so I wasn't able to write. They changed up our whole zone, my companion went to Cucuta. I thought I was going to stay because i only have two weeks in the area, but I also was transferred. I was pretty bummed because I was loving the area, we have a bunch of investigators with baptismal dates, but what happen is the stake president lives in a different ward in the stake and he wants the zone leaders to be there to have more communication with us, so president moved us over there. It's like changing from the Lakewood ward to the foothills ward kind of a thing. But I'm sure it will be a great change. Right now I'm still here in Diamante showing elder seaton (he was with my in the mtc) the new area, and my new area is cañaveral, bucaramanga. We'll probably finish our missions together here in the same zone. CRAZY.

My new companion is elder sierra, he's from chili, super smart / cool kid. My goal to keep working the hardest i can for these last two transfers. can't stop wont stop. I never understood why elders get trunky. when your disobedient and lazy you feel bad, when your obedient and work you feel happy. You just gotta choose.

talk about current events. As missionaries we basically have to sift our way through the rumors, because we don't really have access those things. First i heard 200,000 killed in japan, but from what I have heard lately is more like 8,000? not sure. Also heard of nuclear plant expulsions? When we went to lunch the day it had happened we saw some of the images. Absolutely nuts.

One thing that has been hard for is instead of people mourning with them, they make up reasons why they deserved such things. This time they say its because they worship cats, in haiti its because of wickedness and prostitution. I guess human nature tells us that it's easier to judge than to succor.

Sorry for my short letter. next week I'll try to write longer and more understandable.

I love you all so much!

e. adams

p.s. GO BYU!

Come unto me

Glad to hear that it's starting to warm up, but don't forget those out of no where may snow storms that result in fallen branches on toyota camrys. beware. or, better said, ¡ojo!

The trek is great josh! I loved it but, I do lift up a voice of warning; be ye aware of polyester pants. (bad mistake.)

Welp i'm still loving bucaramanga. We woke up early sunday morning and were able to pick up a good share of investigators. We're working a lot with our ward mision leader --- coolest guy ever. Were going to have a noche de hogar (fmaily home evening) in his house tonight.

Yesterday we were talking with a family that was having a bunch of problems, and my companion had them read ether 12:27, which i've always loved, but he had them read just the first sentence that says ´´And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness.´´

Make me realize something that I had never noticed in the verse before, that phrase ´´come unto me´´, And I realized how true it is. In the mission as I have progressed in time and testimony, the more and more i learn how much i need to fix and get better on, or to say my weaknesses. As we come more and more unto Christ, he lets us, he shows us, our weaknesses so we can become more and more perfect. And it completely agrees with the process of repentence that i see in our investigators. Our purpose as missionarys is to invite others to come unto Christ. This princple is crucial so that they can start to repent.

I ran out of time! But i still love you all!

Love,

e. adams

The spirit teaches

Familia!

I write you from my other home! Bucaramanga! Friday night we got a call telling us that we were having an emergancy transfer, that some elders weren't getting along, so they sent me here! best change ever! When i started the mission I knew i wanted to come back and finish it here in Bucaramanga. its the best. so different then Bogota. The ward is great too. My son, elder ramirez (the huge chilean), is a district leader here so we have interchanges with them tomorrow. I'm pumped to see how he's progressed after a year in the mission. My companion is elder zamora. the best! he's from ecuador. It's most likely that i'll have a new companion here in a week or so when there are actual transfers. It was a great four months with elder huaita. such a great kid. Probably one of my best companions. super stud.

I'll explain yesterday afternoon so you can understand how great Bucaramanga. We saw an area that my companion had never contacted so we went down to knock some doors. We knocked on about 5 doors and we had four lessons en a row. what's up! three of which invited us to come back and showed some potential. The people here are great. I believe its because of the temperture, and it Bogota it's got a lot of the big-city hard-to-trust syndrome. But I still love that city.

Mom, I already talked with an old companion that is going to be living up in provo for the summer. His name is Mike Larson. I just sent him an email so i'll try to get you the status and his phone number as quick as i can.

A couple days before I left Bogota we had a lesson with la familia buitrago, clara, the mom, and manuel, her 17 year old son. Every time we go to the house you just get overwhelmed with the spirit. Anyways, clara in the middle of the lesson after telling us how much she wants to get baptized, told us she wanted to know how Manuel felt about the whole baptism idea. So we asked him. He said he's thought about it everday. And he's thought about how many little things have been changing in his life over the past couple weeks, He told us that he use to say swear words in high school, and he's noticed that he's stopped doing that, and that he fells like he really has been changing and repenting. He's awesome. His mom is so proud of him that he walks to church with his book of mormon in his hand without caring what the other kids think. So when he told us this i started to think ´´when did we talk about using good language with him?´´ and I realized, never. It was only our 3rd lesson. I learned how important the Spirit and a personal desire to change is. When the people have those two things, they really don't need us too much, because when they complete with the commitements that we ask them to do, the spirit starts to work in them teaching them and showing them and helping them to change the little things. We can't teach them everything, but the Spirit is always there, helping them along the path.

''the Holy Ghost, ... will show unto you all things what ye should do.'' 2 nefi 32:5.

Thanks for everything that you do all do for me.

les quiero muchismo!

e. adams

Converts progressing

Monday night I got on the Internet to do our progress report for the ward, and got there just in time to see that mom had emailed me to tell me that I got into BYU. the best!! It´s been one of my biggest goals. realized later that from 2007 I started trying to get into BYU. Feels great to be able to go back and immediately start to go after new goals. Thanks family for helping me out, especially MOM! You guys are the best.

I started to think that it´d be cool to stay home with you guys for the summer, but i realized that my admission depends on my attendance to summer term. Oh well, i´m sure it will just be a good excuse for you guys to come up to Utah to get away from the heat.... I hope.

I started looking at the classes i have to take and realized that I only have two generals left. Snikes. One of them being a writing class. HA, i thought it would be a good idea to acustomate me to English before taking that class. So I really have to start to think about what I want to major / do with my life. life's nuts. But I figure that I can really start to establish that when I get back for fall because i won´t be able to fill my schedule with generals anymore. But I´m super thankful that I´ve learned to depend and seek guidance from the Lord.

Last night while I was trying to get to sleep, I was thinking about the power of knowledge, and how it sets everyone apart. About how liberating it it is. How my vision of life and how it is completely enveloped in God´s plan changes everything for me. This week I was teaching a family we found while knocking doors in the rain, they told us they opened up the door for pity, but as we asked them questions concerning their lives and the gospel, that pity left and the spirit entered. One of the sons was studying to be a tattoo artist. I asked him what made him happy in life, he responded by saying that he has goals, projects in life and what makes him happy is striving to complete them. We told him that is great, but then we asked him how he is going to make him happy when he´s reached or left those goals. He sat for a second, and said that he had never really thought about it. I realized that we can never have true eternal happiness if we never have true eternal goals. That is why I feel that knowledge, testimony, changes everything.

This last week I was able to go back to Campiña(the area that i was at here in suba about a year ago for 6 months), and visit a bunch of my converts on divisions. It was super rewarding to see how some of them have progressed so much. Some have received the Melchizedek priesthood, some are getting ready to receive their patriarchal blessings, others preparing for temple marriage. My first baptism in Bucaramanga received her endowment in January. Others have fallen away from the path a little bit, but I still know that God is aware of them and some day he will call them back again, and they will have the opportunity to feel the blessings of the gospel in their lives.

Life is great. Suba is the best. We´re teaching 73 year old Jaime to get his life back on track. He´s made plans to get baptized the 19th of march.

I love you all x infinite

e. adams