Hey Family! I completely forgot today is Memorial Day, I really hope things clear up for you up there and you can have an awesome time for the holiday. Sounds like things have been pretty busy back home with Bert's family and Joe's family coming and going, keep having fun and don`t make things to hectic...
Anyway, things are still going good here in San Lorenzo, we had a little bit of a slower week, but I think we are going to bounce back well and get back rolling so we can get Elder Willy some more baptisms before he goes home. I can hardly believe how fast the time is going, we are already halfway through the change, but we don`t have very many progressing investigators, we have hit a little bit of a slow point. Anyway, so what happened is this week on Tuesday I started feeling a little sick, but we worked the whole day and then I went to bed, woke up in the morning and the first thing I did was throw up, then I called the Hermana Wade (President Wade`s wife) and then went right back to bed, we left on time and everything still that day, went to a service project, had one lesson, ate lunch, and my companion told me I didn`t look good and we went back home. Then Thursday and Friday we worked all day and then Friday night we did a little division and I was with our ward mission leader and we were at the church to end the division, we went upstairs to his office, because he is also the stake secretary and I had to use the bathroom, and outside all the bathrooms are these water filter things that heat and cool the water to drink, so it has two little levers, exactly like what we had in our home in New York. Here it is just hooked up to the buildings water like a sink would be, but the water has little levers just like what we had in New York. The hot water here is set to 80 degrees Celsius (176 degrees F) so the people can drink their Mate, the stuff that Gary always talked about in Argentina. Anyway, I was thirsty and there weren`t any cups so I stuck my head down to drink and my forehead hit the hot side, and anyway, to make a long story short, I burnt my head pretty bad. I have a patch of pretty much just raw flesh about an inch wide and two inches long on one side of my forehead. That happened Friday night, right about nine at night, and then Saturday morning my companion had to go into Asuncion to get an ingrown toenail removed and it turned out that Hermana Wade had to come to our church in the morning, to drop off President so she called us and offered to give us a ride. President sees me and he gives me a hug and then just looks at my head and asks me,
"What happened?". I told him I burnt my head with hot water. He looked at me kind of confused and just asked, "How did you get water all the way up there?".
Anyway, was by far not the smartest thing I have ever done, but it has been giving something to talk to people about lately. All the missionaries get a good laugh out of it, and I don`t think it is the end of it yet because this Wednesday I have zone conference and we have it with two other zones. It is actually the last zone conference I`ll have with President Wade, because the new President from Argentina is coming in next change. Anyway, that is pretty much the story of last week, was a little slow yesterday and Saturday because my companion can`t really walk because he got his ingrown toenail taken out. What happened is he tried taking it out himself a bunch of times and it just kept on getting worse and it was so deep the Doctor actually had to go into the skin a little to get the nail all the way out, and I got to watch the whole thing with a front row seat with orange juice. Anyway, so my companion couldn`t really work the last two days and we had some trouble getting divisions at the last minute, so I wasn`t even able to get full days in either, but hopefully he will be all set to work tomorrow and we can get things rolling again like they were. Anyway, I think that is about all I am going to have time for, I love you all and I am so thankful for all you are doing back home for me, love Elder Adamson V
Monday, May 31, 2010
Monday, May 24, 2010
Week 27 in Paraguay Change 5 Week 2
Hey, so sorry again, I don`t have tons of time, but I have a lot of important things to say, so this is going to be a jam packed letter of just awesome stuff, ready? Hey Family! How is everything going back home? It sounds like everyone is going to be pretty busy in the coming up months.
First things first, we had another baptism! And it was another super cool one because it was our ward mission leaders sister. It is always super awesome when you teach and baptize someone that has had a family member that they have been trying to share the gospel with them for a long time. He said that there have been a lot of missionaries that have tried to teach her, but she has problems talking. She is almost mute, so it is really hard to understand what she is saying. She doesn`t know how to read, so he said that missionaries usually would teach her once or twice and get frustrated and drop her. She is one of the nicest people I have ever met in my life. It was really great to see him have the chance to baptize her and confirm her on Sunday.
Secondly, the mission office is moving locations to a safer part of the city to avoid incidents like what happened about two changes ago with the armed robbery, so I now have a new mission address for letters and packages, it is:
My Name
Paraguay Asuncion North Mission
Avda. Santisima Trinidad 1280 c/ Julio Correa
Asunción Paraguay
Also, my ward mission leader has been trying for some time to get into BYU to study, he has good enough grades to get in and that kind of thing, he just doesn`t really understand the process, he would be a transfer student from a University here named UCSA (Universidad del Cono Sur de las Americas). The application says that even international students have to take the ACT and SAT, but I don`t understand how they could do that here. Anyway, if you could mom, just send an email or call someone with those questions and try to figure out what has to be done and how he can take those tests, that would be great, he would try to get in to study the same time Justin would be going there, so he has some time.
And the last thing, I am going to take out about $65 today, I got a big discount on some scripture covers that are hand painted and customized so I took the offer and placed an order, and I want to buy a sweater the zone lejos made as a recuerdo to remember Pedro Juan, and I can get all three, two scripture cases and a sweater, for $65 so I`m going to take the money out today, hopefully that is okay. Anyway, I love all of you so much, sorry I don`t have more to say, and for a nice spiritual thought, here is what I just sent to my mission president that I was thinking about today,
So another quick week has gone by really fast here in San Lorenzo, but a little more of a slow one. We did have the opportunity again to baptize, for the third week in a row, which has made both Edler Williamson and I very happy. It has been fun helping out Elder Job and Elder Ventura also. We are trying to get all of the members we have to help out, now that we have two sets of Elders in the ward, instead of just the ones that always helped us last change. I feel like this change I have already learned a lot more and grown from even where I was last change. It was a little hard at the beginning of this change, Elder Williamson and I have always got along really great and for some reason at the beginning of this change we just seemed to have some differences about every little thing, but I think now we have been able to work through that and come back more to the common ground we were on before. I had been thinking a lot about what had been happening this change and what my dad had sent me to try and teach me this last Monday about Nephi 4 and how it applies to Ether 12:27 and he presented a question that maybe humility is the gate to receiving Redemption. I was thinking a lot about this and one day sharing 2 Nephi 31 to put a baptismal date, it kind of was made a lot clearer to me. We will be judged by our obedience and receive redemption according to our obedience to the gospel, but the reason Christ was perfect and perfectly obedient is because he was first perfectly humble, He knew He had his choice and gave it up because He knew that the Father`s plan was perfect and would be the best for all mankind, and because He was humbled to see that, He was perfectly obedient to the Father`s commandment, including the command to be raised on the cross. Anyway, that is something that I figured out this week and something I want to really focus on, being more obedient to receive the blessing, but doing it by being humble in pray and doing exactly as Heavenly Father would want. I love you President and I am so thankful for all that you do, I`m looking forward to this next zone conference, love ya, Elder Ryan Adamson
Love you all, Elder Adamson V
First things first, we had another baptism! And it was another super cool one because it was our ward mission leaders sister. It is always super awesome when you teach and baptize someone that has had a family member that they have been trying to share the gospel with them for a long time. He said that there have been a lot of missionaries that have tried to teach her, but she has problems talking. She is almost mute, so it is really hard to understand what she is saying. She doesn`t know how to read, so he said that missionaries usually would teach her once or twice and get frustrated and drop her. She is one of the nicest people I have ever met in my life. It was really great to see him have the chance to baptize her and confirm her on Sunday.
Secondly, the mission office is moving locations to a safer part of the city to avoid incidents like what happened about two changes ago with the armed robbery, so I now have a new mission address for letters and packages, it is:
My Name
Paraguay Asuncion North Mission
Avda. Santisima Trinidad 1280 c/ Julio Correa
Asunción Paraguay
Also, my ward mission leader has been trying for some time to get into BYU to study, he has good enough grades to get in and that kind of thing, he just doesn`t really understand the process, he would be a transfer student from a University here named UCSA (Universidad del Cono Sur de las Americas). The application says that even international students have to take the ACT and SAT, but I don`t understand how they could do that here. Anyway, if you could mom, just send an email or call someone with those questions and try to figure out what has to be done and how he can take those tests, that would be great, he would try to get in to study the same time Justin would be going there, so he has some time.
And the last thing, I am going to take out about $65 today, I got a big discount on some scripture covers that are hand painted and customized so I took the offer and placed an order, and I want to buy a sweater the zone lejos made as a recuerdo to remember Pedro Juan, and I can get all three, two scripture cases and a sweater, for $65 so I`m going to take the money out today, hopefully that is okay. Anyway, I love all of you so much, sorry I don`t have more to say, and for a nice spiritual thought, here is what I just sent to my mission president that I was thinking about today,
So another quick week has gone by really fast here in San Lorenzo, but a little more of a slow one. We did have the opportunity again to baptize, for the third week in a row, which has made both Edler Williamson and I very happy. It has been fun helping out Elder Job and Elder Ventura also. We are trying to get all of the members we have to help out, now that we have two sets of Elders in the ward, instead of just the ones that always helped us last change. I feel like this change I have already learned a lot more and grown from even where I was last change. It was a little hard at the beginning of this change, Elder Williamson and I have always got along really great and for some reason at the beginning of this change we just seemed to have some differences about every little thing, but I think now we have been able to work through that and come back more to the common ground we were on before. I had been thinking a lot about what had been happening this change and what my dad had sent me to try and teach me this last Monday about Nephi 4 and how it applies to Ether 12:27 and he presented a question that maybe humility is the gate to receiving Redemption. I was thinking a lot about this and one day sharing 2 Nephi 31 to put a baptismal date, it kind of was made a lot clearer to me. We will be judged by our obedience and receive redemption according to our obedience to the gospel, but the reason Christ was perfect and perfectly obedient is because he was first perfectly humble, He knew He had his choice and gave it up because He knew that the Father`s plan was perfect and would be the best for all mankind, and because He was humbled to see that, He was perfectly obedient to the Father`s commandment, including the command to be raised on the cross. Anyway, that is something that I figured out this week and something I want to really focus on, being more obedient to receive the blessing, but doing it by being humble in pray and doing exactly as Heavenly Father would want. I love you President and I am so thankful for all that you do, I`m looking forward to this next zone conference, love ya, Elder Ryan Adamson
Love you all, Elder Adamson V
Monday, May 17, 2010
Week 26 in Paraguay Change 5 Week1
Mba`echiapa! Hey Family, sounds like the summer parties have started a little at home, here its just getting colder and colder and it is pouring rain outside right now. So changes were pretty exciting here, Elder Williamson and I are still together, I`m going to send him home just like I thought, but it turned out that we did so well here last change that President Wade picked our area to split and open up a new area, so we have two other missionaries living in our house now working in half of our area. Their names are Elder Job and Elder Ventura, Elder Job has 20 months in the mission, pretty old now, and is our district leader, and he is training his comp, Elder Ventura from El Salvador, brand new little missionary that has less than 5 weeks as a missionary and hasn`t even turned 19 yet. It is pretty crazy in the house with 4 of us now because the house wasn`t really that big to begin with, but the work will really start to pick up now with two pairs of us always working, plus divisions with members. We had another baptism this week too, a man named Juan Duarte that is 20 years old, and he has already been interviewed and he is getting the priesthood this week, we found him pretty much the first week we got here in San Lorenzo so it was really cool to finally see him get baptized. This week we are baptizing again, we have been working with the family of our Ward Mission Leader and we are baptizing his sister this week and his niece the next week, there are more in his family too we have been trying to teach so hopefully we can get a lot of them to church this Sunday. Other than that not much has changed, we are working really hard and having a lot of success right now and it looks like for now it is going to keep going that way, but don`t worry, we will keep working hard so that it can always be that way. I am a little sick with a head cold with the change of weather here. I think I am getting over it now, so don`t worry, and tell dad I am taking Vitamin C, sorry the letter is a little short this week, I don`t have much time left, but I`ll make sure to write some things down beforehand so my letter can be longer next week, love you all so much and I am so thankful for such an awesome family, Love Elder Adamson V
Monday, May 10, 2010
Week 25 in Paraguay Change 4 Week 6
Hey Family! All is well and moving along here in Paraguay, we will be getting changes either today or tomorrow so next week for sure I`ll be able to tell you all about how it is going to go down. I really am hoping that I am going to be able to just stay in this area, I really don`t think I am leaving, but there are some that do, so it kind of worries me, but just because I love the members here so much and we have a lot of baptisms coming up really soon. It was really nice to talk to you yesterday. I was kind of scared when we started and the connection was being wierd, but it all turned out well. We`ve now started the longest amount of time in my whole life I will go without talking to you, my family, but you don`t have to worry about that, and good thing I left when I did because I only have to do the Mother`s day to Christmas wait once in my mission, it won`t be too bad.
The mission has been awesome lately, I am really starting to feel the blessings of the Lord in my mission. I have really been trying lately to focus a lot more on relying on the Lord, I read something in Preach My Gospel this week that really stuck out to me, that every missionary should start each day and pray for Heavenly Father to fill their mouths with the things they need to say, and that is not only applying to the language but to everything we do. I started to do that and I have really seen a change here, I am more confident and I am more receptive to the power of the Holy Spirit and the power of the priesthood that I carry. It has been hard for me lately, and I haven`t really exactly figured out why, but I think I have figured out again what makes it easier, completely relying on the Lord instead of in yourself. It has made such a difference just having that attitude. I love the work, I love the area, and I love the members a whole lot more since I have started doing that and now we are going to be baptizing a lot more.
Our typical work day here has kind of gone like this, we leave the house and work to lunch, eat at a members house, work till about 3-4 and then we do a division and work with a Paraguayan until about 7-8, then we finish off the night at a members house working to get references. I feel like I`m hardly ever with my companion and I`m really just comps with the members of our ward. We have been getting so much help with work and food it doesn`t seem at all like the same area everyone tells us about. San Lorenzo Centro, the area we are in, was closed for over 4 months because the missionaries here weren`t getting help from members and only baptized 3 people last year. It seems like the members are very cooperative and everyone wants to help us so they don`t lose us again. Now six weeks in the area we are going to baptize the same amount that they baptized all last year, and it is all because the members are working so hard.
Anyway, everything here is as tranquilo as ever, don`t really have much to say today, I think we pretty much went over everything yesterday, I really loved your experience mom about the dream you had. The Paraguayan people are all about dreams, a lot of people in their conversion stories here found out if it was true through a dream, and a lot more tell us they won`t go to church until they get a dream. This one lady in Pedro Juan we went to that had investigated the church before told us that she even had a dream where Jesus Christ came to her and told her that if she read the Book of Mormon her brother in the hospital would be healed, I don`t know why, but she never read it, she had a very Catholic mother that really did not like us, but she was older than 20, so she could decide for herself. We dropped her for a little while and then went back after a couple weeks to see how she was and she told us her brother had died in the hospital and that she still hadn`t read the Book of Mormon. That is a sadder story. Being down here has made me think a lot more about dreams and how our Heavenly Father can use them, so I really did enjoy your experience, it made me think a lot about the Paraguayans and their dreams.
Anyway, I love you all and I was so happy to talk to you yesterday, I love this gospel and I know its true, with all my heart, and I am so happy to share it with other people, I love you all, Elder Adamson V
The mission has been awesome lately, I am really starting to feel the blessings of the Lord in my mission. I have really been trying lately to focus a lot more on relying on the Lord, I read something in Preach My Gospel this week that really stuck out to me, that every missionary should start each day and pray for Heavenly Father to fill their mouths with the things they need to say, and that is not only applying to the language but to everything we do. I started to do that and I have really seen a change here, I am more confident and I am more receptive to the power of the Holy Spirit and the power of the priesthood that I carry. It has been hard for me lately, and I haven`t really exactly figured out why, but I think I have figured out again what makes it easier, completely relying on the Lord instead of in yourself. It has made such a difference just having that attitude. I love the work, I love the area, and I love the members a whole lot more since I have started doing that and now we are going to be baptizing a lot more.
Our typical work day here has kind of gone like this, we leave the house and work to lunch, eat at a members house, work till about 3-4 and then we do a division and work with a Paraguayan until about 7-8, then we finish off the night at a members house working to get references. I feel like I`m hardly ever with my companion and I`m really just comps with the members of our ward. We have been getting so much help with work and food it doesn`t seem at all like the same area everyone tells us about. San Lorenzo Centro, the area we are in, was closed for over 4 months because the missionaries here weren`t getting help from members and only baptized 3 people last year. It seems like the members are very cooperative and everyone wants to help us so they don`t lose us again. Now six weeks in the area we are going to baptize the same amount that they baptized all last year, and it is all because the members are working so hard.
Anyway, everything here is as tranquilo as ever, don`t really have much to say today, I think we pretty much went over everything yesterday, I really loved your experience mom about the dream you had. The Paraguayan people are all about dreams, a lot of people in their conversion stories here found out if it was true through a dream, and a lot more tell us they won`t go to church until they get a dream. This one lady in Pedro Juan we went to that had investigated the church before told us that she even had a dream where Jesus Christ came to her and told her that if she read the Book of Mormon her brother in the hospital would be healed, I don`t know why, but she never read it, she had a very Catholic mother that really did not like us, but she was older than 20, so she could decide for herself. We dropped her for a little while and then went back after a couple weeks to see how she was and she told us her brother had died in the hospital and that she still hadn`t read the Book of Mormon. That is a sadder story. Being down here has made me think a lot more about dreams and how our Heavenly Father can use them, so I really did enjoy your experience, it made me think a lot about the Paraguayans and their dreams.
Anyway, I love you all and I was so happy to talk to you yesterday, I love this gospel and I know its true, with all my heart, and I am so happy to share it with other people, I love you all, Elder Adamson V
Monday, May 3, 2010
Week 24 in Paraguay
Hey, crazy day today and I`m going to write you a nice letter in a second, but before that I just want to send the stuff for the call this Sunday on Mother`s Day.....
Okay, so I thought I was going to have some time to write a good letter after the little one, but it doesn´t look like I´m not going to be able to now. We have had a super different P-day today because of some different things that has gone on and my comp was able to help the office elders with, so President asked us to come into the office today and we have been all over the place with little time. Anyway, the work is still moving along and we are still going to have a baptism this week, one of them fell through so we are only going to have one, but it will still be wonderful to tell you all about it, this week has been very busy too, so remind me to tell you all about the baptism when you call one Sunday. I love all of you so much and I am really looking forward to being able to talk to you this Sunday. Love Elder Adamson V
Okay, so I thought I was going to have some time to write a good letter after the little one, but it doesn´t look like I´m not going to be able to now. We have had a super different P-day today because of some different things that has gone on and my comp was able to help the office elders with, so President asked us to come into the office today and we have been all over the place with little time. Anyway, the work is still moving along and we are still going to have a baptism this week, one of them fell through so we are only going to have one, but it will still be wonderful to tell you all about it, this week has been very busy too, so remind me to tell you all about the baptism when you call one Sunday. I love all of you so much and I am really looking forward to being able to talk to you this Sunday. Love Elder Adamson V
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