Week 96 in Paraguay Change 16 Week 5

So I'm just about out of time today so this one will probably be a little short, but don't worry, anything I don't say by now I'm pretty sure I'll remember enough to tell you when I get home. First things first about the finances, so they took advantage of me in Saltos. I bought a camera for 90 dollars and specifically asked them to charge me in dollars because the exchange rate is higher there so they can rip people off and make money, they charged me in Guaraníes anyways, so that is why the camera was more expensive. I wish I would have noticed, but I didn't notice until the next day because the receipt they gave me said 90 dollars, but the receipt that was with my card said 400 mil, which is more than 90 dollars. Then the next day I just decided to take out the rest of my money to start buying some last things and use in the airports to have cash, and I just tried a high amount, still not realizing I got jipped in Saltos on my camera, just to see if it was on my card not really expecting it to all come out and it did. I think probably because you put more money on my card on Monday, so yes I took out money.
As for the baptism, it didn't happen because the little girl got sick over the weekend, there was a whole lot of rain, but we have it planned for this week, she will get baptized before I go home for sure, my last baptism. Other than that I don't really have much more to say, well I do but I really don't have time, I had a really awesome spiritual experience in a lesson this week, you are going to have to remind me when I get home to tell you, I won't forget and I wrote it down. I want to cook some Paraguayan dishes I've learned to make for you when I get home. I love you all so much, I really feel for my BYU cougars, but I'm alright as long as they have a good team next year! Love you so much, see you next week! Elder Adamson V

Week 95 in Paraguay Change 16 Week 4

Hey Family! So I'm in Saltos right now, I came here today to teach the rest of the Elders in the zone in a joint district meeting and then stayed for P-day, I'm going to be doing a division with them tonight and I'm heading back to Santaní on the 11 oclock bus. First things first, I bought a camera today, I have been thinking about it a lot but never wanted to do it because they are so expensive in Santaní, but today I was in Saltos on the border of Brazil and the prices are a lot lower here, so I didn't really think about it and just bought one, it was 90 dollars. The cheapest one I've found in Santaní is over 140 dollars, and the one I got is pretty nice too. I wanted to get one so I could have one for the airport and things, a few people are going to go here to see me off and I want to be able to take pictures with them, and it will be nice to not have to use my comps camera for the next two weeks. Well, I don't have very much time to write, we've got to go get doing some other things, but we had a baptism last week! I attached a picture of their wedding, my companion has all the pictures of the baptism though. It was such a great baptism, and we are going to have another one this week, and some more next week, if everything goes well, so I should be finishing everything out strong, it really hasn't quite hit me yet I'm going, it's all gone by so fast. Well, a quick story from this week. We called out a little 5 year old kid for lying to us, it was so funny. So Paraguayans when they don't want to talk to you they send out their kids to tell you that they aren't home. It's pretty normal, but I've never had something like this happen, the kid ran out and we had just seen the mom go in from the bathroom and he tells us that no one is home but him, a little 5 year old kid; so I tell him, "Then who is the lady that just finished showering and entered the house?" he just looked up at us dumb and told us he didn't know, like all other Paraguayan kids, and then my companion looks at him and says, "Are you lying to us?" and the little kid, all hurt, just said yes and then went running into the house yelling for his mom. Anyway, I love you all so much, can't wait to see you in a couple weeks and explain things to you a little better! Love you sooooo much, Elder Adamson V

Week 94 in Paraguay Change 16 Week 3

Hey Family! I can't believe it is SEPTEMBER! But believe me, I don't know if I am going to want to go when the time comes. My mission and my area are better right now than they have ever been my entire mission. We are putting things into pratice and we are really seeing results. I can't believe what Santaní is like now, it is completely different than when I first got there. I am really excited for what is going to happen these last three weeks. Yesterday we went out to look for investigators to take them to church and everyone we went by to take to church wasn't ready. We went for three different people, two were in bed and the other one didn't even have any response to our claps, so we just went to church, and when we got there, there were 4 investigators there waiting for us, and 5 other investigators came before sacrament meeting started! It was amazing, the branch is growing so much, we used to have an average total church attendance of about 35 people when I got here and yesterday we had 90, including 14 investigators, 9 from our side and 5 with the other Elders. The work is really moving forward and the Lord is blessing Santaní. This Saturday Justino Salas is going to be getting married and baptized. He is going to marry in the morning and then get baptized in the afternoon. He started investigating the church 15 years ago and has gone to sacrament meetings on and off for the last 2 years. Right now we have a Paraguayan Elder in Santaní on the other side that has made real good friends with him because he hardly speaks any Spanish. He told him that the only reason he hasn't listened to the missionaries or got baptized is because they never understand him, this is the first time that people have tried to teach him in Guaraní, and it isn't me. I try to teach him in Guaraní, but I really don't speak very much, but the members go there 2-3 times a week and teach him. He told Elder Aguilar that once he gets baptized he wants to receive the priesthood, get a calling and help us teach his friends. When I first got here he wouldn't even leave the house to shake our hands, and now he has completely changed and its all because someone tried to teach him in his own language. Guaraní is so great, I love the language so much, it is just so hard, sometimes, I can't motivate myself anymore to study it because of how little time I have, but I know I need to, the very little I speak has helped us so much. I have never been more laughed at my whole life though. You really have to have no fear to learn Guaraní, it's so hard because most people you can't communicate well enough with in Spanish, so it seems worthless, then on top of that once you even try the littlest thing they make fun of you, they laugh at me sooo much, but I've got to the point where I really just don't care and I expect it, and I laugh with them, and they help me learn that way. Anyway, running a little bit off topic and I don't have too much time. As for the other investigators, Cintia's mom went to church again, she has a baptismal date for next week, the 17th, and she is set to go. The only thing she can't get over is her ex husband, they aren't married so if she wants to be with him they have to get married before she can get baptized, but he doesn't want to marry her and they aren't even living together, but every time we talk about it she says that she misses him. I was pretty frank with her one day and just laid out the law of chasity to her and asked her some pretty frank questions, and she says they haven't done anything to break the law in over 2 months, but she still wants to be with him even though he is off and the rumor is he has another family. So we are going to gently, but probably boldly, to get her to make a decision to just let him go completely. We will see what happens. We are working with this really cool family too, don't have too much time to write about them, but they went to church for the first time yesterday too. One of the sisters has been twice and the older sister and her couple went yesterday. The younger sister is Karin and the older sister is Viviana and her husband is Jose. They came to church completely alone, we didn't look for them and no members went by their house, they are really sincere and I could really see them getting baptized at the end of the month, we are going to challenge them with a date for the 24th tomorrow. Anyway, I don't have much time and I'm sure you would like to know how things went with President Arnold, to wrap it up short it was one of the most spiritual experiences of my life. I have never met and sat with any man as in tune to the spirit, he knows exactly what to say and you can tell he completely relies on the Holy Ghost to guide his words. He talked a lot to me about life after the mission, in fact everything we talked about was about after the mission. He put a goal with me to pay off my house completely by the time I was 30. It is a really lofty goal, but it was amazing how much confidence he put in me, and I could feel the confidence my Heavenly Father put in me. I have no idea how I am going to do it, but I'll do it, because I know the Lord has the confidence in me, and who knows, maybe the Lord will need me for some reason or other and that is why he wants me to do that. Pretty much the whole interview we talked about setting goals, planning for goals, and actually completing with the goals we set. It really put into an eternal perspective the little things I've been learning here on my mission. Anyway, I'm all out of time now, I am so very thankful for this mission, I am having the time of my life right now, the mission is better than it has ever been and the time is going by way too fast I can't believe it. We have so many people to teach and the work is really moving forward. I love these people and I am truly going to miss them, but I am going to serve them the best I possible can in this little time that the Lord has given to me that I have left. I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior and that he truly is directing this work, I love you all so much and I am so thankful for your support, Elder Adamson V

Week 93 in Paraguay Change 16 Week 2

Mba'echapa che familiakuéra? Asrivíhina pe carta katu peikuaa haguâ la ohasáhina che vídape ko'anga. Aipota otermina haguâ che misión Santanípe. Che a'aprendese guaraníme gui, a'aprende chupe hasyeterei! Well, there's a little bit of jopará for all of you, I'm learning Guaraní, but I really don't know how to speak it all that well. The people here don't really either, they just speak what they call Jopará, which is a mix of Guaraní and Spanish. For all you that speak Spanish you can see the Spanish in what I wrote. I wrote, "How are you my family? I'm writing this letter so you can know what is happening in my life right now. I want to finish my mission in Santaní. I'm learning Guaraní, but learning it is really hard!" It's coming along, but the progress is slow and time is really winding down fast. I still don't speak it well enough to hold a conversation, but I can teach simple things, like prayer and things like that, it really helps to get into houses, everyone loves someone that speaks Guaraní. I'm kind of sad that I've never really been anywhere they speak Guaraní a lot until now. It would have been nice to be where I'm at now before I got here and go off of that, but what can you do, I've been and I'm at exactly where the Lord wanted and wants me to be. Speaking of which, President gave us a little heads up that there are going to be a lot of special changes this next week to get ready for the real changes, because changes this time is going to be really crazy. Luckily I'm not in the office anymore to take care of that, in this change when I go home and the last change combined there were 46 new missionaries, which means 46 new trainers because trainers have to stay with the greenie for two changes, and 18 zone leaders went home, which means in just two changes there is going to have to be 46 new trainers, 18 new zone leaders, and the mission has to open 5 new areas, that is a lot of weight on a lot of young missionaries and a lot of stress for a Mission President, so he wants to do a lot of the moving people around next week, which means there is a good chance Elder Felix might leave. Of course we don't know, but I've got the office Elder blood and it's always fun to speculate and think about who will be going up and who is going to be leaving their area. But anyway, that probably doesn't interest you much, the real news of the week is that we moved houses, we are living now on the second story of a really nice place that is a lot cheaper than where we were at before, some members showed us the place and we have known for a while that our old owner was charging us way too much and taking advantage because we were American, so when they showed us how nice the new place is and told us the price we accepted and moved. It worked out really well too because we are right at the end of the month so we have two houses until Wednesday and we have the big zone conference with Elder Arnold tomorrow, so the Assistants are going to stay in our old house tonight. My interview with the Area President will be tomorrow during lunch, 66 people are going to be in the conference, among which there will be 8 zone leaders, all the other missionaries are going to a restaurant to eat lunch while the 8 of us stay at the church alone with President Arnold to eat and have interviews. It's just a little intimidating but I'm really excited, it will be a really great opportunity to have the interview with a General Authority. He gave a conference talk either last year or 2009 if you want to look him up to see who he is, he is one of the most powerful men I have ever heard speak, he's the one that came back in March. It should be fun. His full name is Mervyn B. Arnold if you want to look that up, it was a great talk. Anyway, I'm out of time, the time on P-day always goes by way too fast, but I love you all sooo much. Elder Adamson V

Week 92 in Paraguay Change 16 Week 1

Well, one more week has gone by in Paraguay, I can't believe how fast time goes, I woke up a little early today before the alarm went off and I just sat there thinking and I started to think about all my old roommates from BYU, and it hit me that every single one of them are home now, pretty much everyone I know that left is home now, they're all just waiting for me now, and now officially I am in the oldest group of missionaries in the mission, we are the next ones to go home. It's really exciting, but the truth is it's a pretty sad thought, Santaní is really starting to get going now and we haven't had any baptisms yet, the members are so excited and it looks like things are really going to blow up here, right as I'm about to go. We have so many people we are working with and each one of them are so close to getting baptized, but they are just have these little doubts, but we are getting through it, we have been bringing so many people to church and they just aren't committing to baptism. It's a little frustrating because throughout my whole mission in every other area if I brought a person to church more than once they got baptized, but here we have some investigators that have gone to church multiple times and still don't want to make a commitment. I really think we'll be having some in September though. We are working with some couples to try and get them married, two couples specifically and in both couples the wife is already a member, so we are trying to get them married and the husband baptized. We are really close with one of them, but they don't speak hardly any Spanish, I try to teach them with my broken Guaraní, but they don't understand much, but members have really been helping a lot with that. I have been learning so much Guaraní here to try and teach people. I told you about Cintia, well she still hasn't missed a Sunday since she first went with us and we are trying to baptize her mom. She doens't speak much Spanish either. She has been my motivation to learn Guaraní. I really want to be able to see her baptized, she went to church with us the week before last, but yesterday she went to her old church again, so we are going to keep working on that. Her daughter bore her testimony in the testimony meeting she went to and I think that really helped her a lot. She said she had a dream that she went out working with us one day and was teaching the gospel with us, she told us before that she would pray and seek an answer if she should get baptized, so I thought she was telling me about the dream because she thought it was an answer. So I asked her, "You're going to get baptized now then, right?" and she just said that in the dream we didn't say anything about baptism, that we were just talking about God, so it has been pretty frustrating, but I think I will be able to see her baptized, hopefully. It's going to take a lot of faith, but it will help Cintia out soo much, she cried and cried when we told her that one of us was going to leave at changes, and then we got changes and we're staying together. Oh yeah, I didn't tell you yet, Elder Felix and I are still together, it looks like he might be my last companion, but he has been here a really long time so we are thinking there might be a special change before changes. We'll see. Anyway, out of time, I don't know how that happened. Anyway, as for the airport stuff, being able to my sister in Atlanta, I'm sure I can leave and I don't need a comp, I'm flying to spokane alone and I always travel alone here. I'll ask my mission president, but I'm sure it won't be a problem as long as I don't leave the airport. I'm just a little worried about making flights, I only have an hour and 40 minute layover in Atlanta and I have to go through customs because I'm coming into the country on that flight, in Utah it might be easier, I already sent a letter to Andrea asking her to see if she could get permission to pass security in Atlanta, we get permission here, but I don't know if its going to be the same in the states. I love you all so much, Elder Adamson V

Week 91 in Paraguay Change 15 Week 6

So, we still haven't gotten our changes today. We always get them Monday at night so we should be finding out what is happening tonight. It will be kind of funny if Elder Felix stays and I have to leave because we already went to a few peoples houses and Elder Felix said goodbye and told them he was leaving when we really didn't know. We told them we weren't sure but that it was more probably that he leaves and not me. This week has been a really great week. There were some special changes on Wednesday and one of the missionaires from the other companionship here in Santaní got changed (transferred to a new area), and since the changes were so close to the actual changes we just stayed in a trio, Elder Felix, Elder Aguilar, and I. We have been working a lot with members to go on divisions and what not, to be able to work both areas. This branch is changing so much, we haven't had any baptisms yet, but the Branch is so much better than when I got here, the members are visiting a lot of people without us even asking and things are a lot better. We have a lot more people to teach and people are progressing a lot quicker than they were before. It is kind of sad that all this is happening right as we are getting changes, but the Lord knows where he needs us and what the work is that we need to do. As for the trip to the waterfall last week, I'll just have to tell you the story in a few weeks when I'm home, I don't want to take too much time talking about it right now. I attached a few photos for you to look at to see what it was like.

We have been traveling so much lately. I went to Puente Kyha, then to Concepcion, then to Saltos del Guiará. Our zone is so huge it is kind of fun to travel and work with missionaries, but it is so tiring. This week we have changes so we are going to have to get up in the middle of the night again, all the trips we make are 4 hours or more and the bus always comes at about 3 in the morning. Luckily the buses are really nice and its pretty easy to sleep. All except this bus to Concepcion, it was worse than a school bus and it was a 5 hour trip one way. Anyway, that is about all that is happening, we are going to have our zone conference with Elder Arnold in two weeks, I'm going to have a personal interview with him. I love you all so much, Elder Adamson V

Week 90 in Paraguay Change 15 Week 5

So this week was probably one of the most tiring weeks in my mission, we did a lot of traveling and lost a lot of sleep on buses, but we got a really good nights sleep last night and we're ready to go for a new week ahead of us. The bad news is that today we went to this waterfall in our area because this is the last chance Elder Felix and I were going to have together to see it because changes are next week. We have other things to do next P-day, so we went to the waterfall and it was a lot further away than we thought and it took a very large chunk out of our P-day, so I really don't have any time at all to write because we still have a lot of things to do and we have to get to work at six, sorry, but we got a whole lot of really awesome pictures. The big news of the week is that yesterday we went to Concepción for our district conference, Elder Ávila was there, and area seventy, and we had 11 investigators in church! Concepción is 5 hours away so we left here at one in the morning yesterday and didn't get back until 7:30 at night, it was a long trip, but a lot of people went with we hadn't even met until yesterday, probably really to get to know Concepción, but we were able to talk a lot to them and we have plans to visit them this week. Anyway, I really love you all, sorry for the really short letter, I'll send a better one next week, but I better not promise because everytime I do it seems I can't, anyway, I love you all sooooo much, Elder Adamson V

Week 89 in Paraguay Change 15 Week 4

Santaní is really teaching me a lot about hard work and dedication, we are finally starting to see a lot of good things happen here and it is because of the work that we are putting into it. I don't think I have ever fasted more in my life, I really am gaining a testimony about the power of a fast. When I got here Elder Felix told me they had been fasting once a week for Santaní, for the members and for the work, he invited me to join him and I gladly accepted. Each week we think of a specific thing that would help the work and we fast for it, and we are really seeing the miracles. A lot has changed in Santaní just since I got here, pretty much everything but the church attendance, but now I think the leaders are really ready now to help people come back to church. All the active members are finally learning to visit people and the work is really moving forward. Yesterday there weren't that many people in church because it rained pretty hard, and you know how Paraguayans are when it rains, but it really is going a lot better and I think soon we will be seeing changes here. I love the mission so much, I don't know if I'm going to want to go home when the time comes, I mean I could easily go another two years without seeing the family... No, that really would be the only reason I would want to go back. Right now we are in the terminal again in Asunción, we just had zone leader council at President's house and we are going to be heading back to Santaní pretty soon. The next couple weeks we are going to be going out doing a lot of divisions with the zone to help people out, the zone is really not doing to well right now, so I talked to President today about what we could do and presented him the idea and he thought it was a good idea to travel the both of us, Elder Felix and I, to do divisions in one day with more than one companionship because of the distance we have to travel. So this week I'm going to go out to Puente Kyha and Elder Felix to La Paloma, and then next week we are both going out to Saltos because there are two companionships there. It's going to be pretty fun, but we have to work super hard too though. We want to leave a real good impression with the missionaries to help them work a little bit harder from now on. Anyway, as for our investigators, we are finding some really cool new people recently, the girl that had fecha for the 13th didn't go to church because of the rain, she is still pretty solid though. We just have to check on some things because she has a boyfriend, and it doesn't matter how old you are, here in Paraguay we all know what that means, so we moved her fecha yesterday to the 20th, so she can still go to church two more times before her baptism. Anyway, things are going great really, I am really happy, I saw a lot of old mission buddies today at concilio and we sat and talked for a while, it was a lot of fun, but don't worry, I'm focused, I'm feeling the spirit a lot everyday, and just all around I'm happy, its a funny thing because I don't think I have ever been so tired or worked so hard my entire life, but I really am super happy, I love you all so much, I can't wait to see you at the end of next month... Love you! Elder Adamson V

Week 88 in Paraguay Change 15 Week 3

How is everyone doing? So, first of all, update on the Copa America, the final was yesterday, Paraguay vs Uruguay, Paraguay lost 3-0, seems like it was a pretty big blowout, Paraguay can't complain though because they technically didn't win a single game and they still made it to the final. They tied all three games in the qualifiers and then won the two playoff games in shootout, and then lost 3-0 in the final. We heard today though that the Paraguayan goalie got the MVP award for the Cup, in the two shootouts he blocked 3 of the shots, which is actually really impressive, I think it was just for that though that he got the award.

The meetings with President went great, it was just a training meeting on the 8 funamental principles that they have been implementing over the past year, it was a really nice meeting. I really liked how they set it up, President split all the missionaries into workshops with his wife, the two asistants, and himself. It turned out really well and we have been trying to apply more things in our teaching and it's really helping out. As for the division with the Asistants, it didn't happen, we had a little bit of miscommunication, they really just wanted to do splits with us until their bus left and their bus ended up leaving right after all the meetings, so we didn't work with them. Things in the Rama are really changing though for the better, we are in the Concepción District and they just barely got a new District President, he heard about some of the problems in the Branch and came on Sunday to clean a few things up, he went on a division with us Saturday and had a bunch of interviews on Sunday to show our Branch President some things and to get some new callings, we now have a new Elder's Quorum President and a Ward Mission Leader, so we are going to be working a lot with them to try and get things moving well here. Yesterday we had an investigator in church that Cintia brought to church, I don't know if I told you about Cintia yet, if I haven't, sorry, there isn't enough time, but she brought someone to church yesterday and we went to her house after and invited her to get baptized on the 13th and she accepted. Hopefully everything goes well there, she is a pretty smart girl, which is nice, and she understands what we are teaching her, so I think everything will go well and she'll get baptized, it will be nice to get another baptism after having gone so long here without one. Anyway, I'm already out of time, I love you all so much, I hope everything is going great back home, Elder Adamson V

Week 87 in Paraguay Change 15 Week 2

So, this was one of the fastest weeks I think I have ever had in my mission, seriously, it is just flying by, and the funny part is we really aren't having any success, that usually makes it go pretty slow, but somehow it's flying by. Anyway, I've got some good stories from yesterday, so right now the Copa America is being played, it's pretty much the world cup of the Americas. Last night Paraguay played in a Quarter Final game against Brazil, the two time reigning champion of the tournament, and Paraguay won in shoot out. Their goalie blocked two shots by himself, which is actually really impresive. President told us to move our studies during the Paraguay games because no one accepts us during the games. We were studying just waiting for the bombs to go off when they scored and it was the silentest game ever. We finished our studies and we were about to leave, thinking Brazil had won because we didn't hear any fireworks, when we got a call from Elder Reyes, who is the senior comp of the other side of Santaní. There are four missionaries in the branch, anyway, he called us and told us that his comp left him and was at the house, he had called the mission president and he told him to go home to his companion, but he didn't want to go because he was so mad he thought he would punch him, so I told him to stay at the member's house he was at and we went straight to the other Elder's house. Well, meanwhile while all this was happening the game went into shoot out and people just went crazy, screaming at goals, swearing at missed shots, and then Paraguay won and it was the craziest thing I have ever seen. I have never seen people celebrate anything like that, so Santaní isn't really a big city. It has 3 main streets that make a triangle through the middle of the city, anyway, once Paraguay won EVERYONE got into their car, or on a moto, or just went to those streets, which we just happened to be walking on to get to the other Elder's house, with super loud music and honking horns, people were riding on windshields, people were hanging out windows, it was crazy, but I guess they deserved to celebrate, I mean they did beat Brasil, which is a powerhouse soccer team, and they made it to the semi final. They play Venezuela on Wednesday to see who goes to the final, the other semi final is Uruaguay and Peru, hopefully Paraguay wins and plays Uruaguay so we can have a battle of the "guays", get it? I've got some videos of the celebration from my comps camera and Elder Reyes's camera. Anyway, as for the missionaries, we got to the house and Elder Aguilar was in his room crying, so Elder Aguilar is brand new and Elder Reyes is kind of lazy, and he went to the member's house to watch the game, and Elder Aguilar is Paraguayan and he wanted to be obedient and not watch the game so he got in a fight with his companion and just left. I talked to our mission President with a plan we came up with and he gave us permission to do a quick division overnight, I slept in the other house and Elder Aguilar stayed with my companion for the night. I was able to talk a whole lot to Elder Reyes after talking to Elder Aguilar and it sounds like both of them are a little too prideful and think the other one is always wrong, well, anyway, Elder Reyes is getting a special change on Wednesday to an area in Asunción so tomorrow we are going to find out who is the new missionary coming to Santaní. Anyway, I'm past time already, President is coming tomorrow to do a capacitation with our zone, so the whole zone is coming tonight and we have interviews with President tomorrow and then we are doing a division with the assistants on Wednesday, so we have a pretty full schedule for the week already. Anyway, I love you all so much, oh, other news, another one of the missionaries in my zone got a gun pulled on him this week. They were teaching a teenager of about 16 years and his dad came out with a gun pointed at them telling them to get out of the house. We've got a pretty fun zone, love you all! Elder Adamson V

Week 86 in Paraguay Change 15 Week 1

first off, the shift key is not working on this computer so don't get upset that everything is going to be in lowercase, well not everything, it works on some letters and not others. I really don't get it, it is really throwing me off, but it's alright, I'm in paraguay. secondly, I'm already almost out of time, I can't believe how fast an hour goes by, but I will try to make the best out of the time I've got left. so about the missionaries that got held at knifepoint, their cell phone was stolen so I can't really talk to them to see how they are, they called their district leader on sunday from a member's phone to pass their numbers and told him they haven't been working later than 7:30pm because they are afraid they'll get robbed again. we're going to have to talk to them about that because we have to stay out until 9:00pm. I wonder what they are doing with all that extra time in their house. anyway, as for the work, things are pretty tough right now, we are really having problems with the leaders in the branch, investigators aren't coming back to church and less active members don't want to go to church because of "the family" that goes, the only people with callings in the whole branch, so it has been really hard. There is nothing worse than going over to an investigators house after church to see how it was and they tell you they aren't going back because of the members that go. Yesterday we had this father go to church with his family that are all members, except him, and he told us yesterday he didn't want to go back to church because the church isn't a church of jesus Christ it's a church of the a family's. so it is pretty tough right now. But we are working through it, my companion and I are thinking of things we can change right now and new ways to find new people and stuff, we really still having fun despite the situation, we are working hard with the members, but its tough to get them to do things, but we're making it fun, tonight we are going to make pigs in a blanket with the family and try to get them excited to do some visitas to some less active members to try and get something going. I love you all soooo much, sorry for the short letter again, can't wait to see you all! Elder Adamson V (hey, caps lock works!)

Week 85 in Paraguay Change 14 Week 6

I don't really know what to write this week, we're in Asuncion again, we had our zone leader council today and we are in the bus station waiting for our bus to come so we can go back to Santan. Things in the area and the branch are pretty slow right now, Liz and Edgar haven't gone to church now in 4 weeks and we are going to have to drop them if they don't decide to either get married or move out this week. It has been really hard with them, but in the end I think it will help them to just be really direct and drop them for a little while. We are teaching this teenage boy named Rodrigo that went to church yesterday. He lives super far away from the church and is really excited about going, we haven't talked to his parents yet though. That is the project for this week, to try and meet them and get permission for Rodrigo to get baptized. They have a huge farm with a bunch of cows and other animals, so they are usually really busy when we come over, but we'll find a way to get to them. It is kind of fun to go to his house, it is actually a miracle we found him, because he lives way back in the woods and its the only house on the road. We just walked by him one day in the street and he told us how to get to his house, so we contacted it one day and they were really receptive. We were teaching his sister and her husband also, but they moved to Asuncion for work, so we were left with just Rodrigo. Other than Rodrigo we are working with this other lady named Dolly that lives with the Branch President's family, she was baptized last year but never got confirmed, so we are trying to get her and her mate, pair, boyfriend, (I really can't think how to say that) married so she can get confirmed and so he can get baptized. We have a few other investigators here and there, but they are progressing the best. Other than that is was a pretty uneventful week. Oh, other than the fact that one of our missionaries in the zone got robbed at knifepoint. They were a couple kids that robbed them and one of the missionaries got stabbed at, but he was wearing his big coat because of the cold and nothing happened. The kids just stole their cell phone and ran off, they didn't take any money or anything else. So other than that it was a normal week, I'm out of time now too, I love you all so much, sorry for the short email, love you, Elder Adamson V

Week 84 in Paraguay Change 14 Week 5

Mba'e piko?! E'a! I can't believe Kimi already had her baby! It sounds like it was quite the process, but I'm glad to hear the baby came really healthy and everything is alright, as for me things are going great here too, but we had some delays today because of some health issues with some people in the zone, some logistics about missionaries going home going to the temple because we are so far away, and some other zone leader business like that. So I'm a little hurried, but I'll try to make the most of the letter, the biggest news, it's freezing right now! It is so cold, I didn't believe it got this cold here, this morning I climbed our tree and found frost on the top of it, when we went to bed the thermometer was at 4 degrees Celsius, and I'm sure it got colder as we slept, but it was beautiful today, we played some american football and it felt just like Thanksgiving, the air was perfect and the Paraguayans thought we were crazy in our shorts and T-shirts in the cold, but its really not that cold anymore, I think it was just last night. Anyway, I'm just going to answer your questions quick,
How many districts do you have? We have 3 districts in our zone, two with two companionships and one with three, and then us, we don't belong to any district, which is kind of fun.
How many sisters in your zone? None, Sister missionaries usually don't come this far out, the mission likes to keep them a little closer to Asunción, there's really only one exception, but that's not in our zone.
Have your people gotten baptized yet? Sadly, not yet, they are going through some problems trying to get married, and its not looking very good right now, hopefully things improve and I can give you some good news next week, but as for now it looks like the soonest she could get baptized is in about 2 weeks.
How has your week been? It was a pretty good week, the only really eventful thing was that my comp got athlete's foot really, really bad, the mission nurse said it was the most miserable case of athlete's foot she has ever seen. It got so bad that his toe got infected on top of the athlete's foot and half of his foot down to his toes was all swelled up, so we had to stay home a little bit this week, we got a little bit of extra time to sharpen the saw.
Is your health good? My health is great, and it felt so great to play football today, and now my comp is doing really well too, the infection is gone, he's still trying to get rid of the last little bit of athlete's foot, but it doesn't hurt him as much now.
Anyway, I really don't have time, sorry for the short letter, say hi to Jackson for me and wish him luck if you can, tell him he's going to do great. I love all of you so much, Elder Adamson V

Week 83 in Paraguay Change 14 Week 4

Due to some technical difficulties in the cyber space here, my computer is super slow. It shut down on me once, and I don't really have much time to write much of anything, but, so you know I am still alive and well, here I am. This week was a really adventurous week. We had a lot of unplanned things happen and we tried out our first division here as zone leaders and it turned out to be really exhausting. Our district leaders live about 6 hours away from us and we have to travel at night. So needless to say we took a good nap today and there might be another one coming here shortly. As for the investigators, Liz and Edgar are still in a little rut, we have been working a lot with them but they are progressing a little slowly. We thought maybe the baptism could be happening this week, but they didn't go to church yesterday and when we went over we realized it was because of some bigger doutbs that they have, and so the baptism is getting pushed to at least next week sadly. We really need to teach them well this week so they can get baptized next week because you can tell Satan is using this time to his advantage and he is just going to keep making things harder for them, so we're trying to get things moving as quickly as possible. Other than that we don't really have much of anything right now, we found a new family this week, the Branch President's sister in law and her husband. His sister in law was already baptized but never confirmed, and she is living with her husband and they aren't married yet, so we are going to work with them to plan a wedding and a baptism and then 2 confirmations once they are all ready. We also have this other young 14 boy that has gone to church every single week since I've been here, but his parents aren't too into the idea of him getting baptized, hopefully we can help them understand and if so, he already commited to getting baptized this week, so we may have one. Anyway, I love all of you so much, I know this is the true church and this is Christ's work, and I thank all of you so much for your support, Elder Adamson V

Week 82 in Paraguay Change 14 Week 3

First off, that's a little bit trunky to get my flight plans, don't worry, it doesn't effect me much, but I'm just saying, it's getting pretty close! Anyway, this week was a pretty great week. Elder Felix and I had a little bit of a scare with our investigators, but everything has been settled and things are back on track for the wedding this week. We are teaching this lady named Liz who is the pareja of a member (I really can't figure out how to say that in English, sorry) and they are going to be getting married this week. She and her daughter are going to be getting baptized. We had a big scare on Tuesday, we went over to their house and Liz was there alone and a lot of their things were gone, so I asked her where all the things went and she told me that she got in a fight with Edgar and he moved out. At first I honestly thought she was joking, but then we sat down and talked about it and it turned out Edgar got upset because Liz was sick because of all the family problems she has and they were giving her a lot of stress, and Edgar couldn't take her always taking care of her parents and siblings and neglecting their family, so he took off. It was probably one of the saddest lessons I have ever had on the mission, it was so dissapointing. So Elder Felix and I fasted (well, the truth is we fast every week here for the Branch so we will be able to help fix some of the problems, but this time we fasted for Edgar and Liz) and we were able to have some really spiritual lessons with them and help them work through the problems and they are happy together again. The work here is amazing, there are so many problems here, but somehow we find ways to work through them and help members and find investigators and have people in church, it is so awesome seeing the Lord's hand in the work here. I love it soo much. I am so grateful to be on a mission, I have been learing so much even just since I've been here in Santaní. I know without a doubt that this work is true, I know the Lord is guiding and protecting us and helping us with the work here. I love you and I am so thankful for your support, sorry I don't have very much time again, I love you all, Elder Adamson V

Week 81 in Paraguay Change 14 Week 2

Hey Family, right now I'm sitting in the bus terminal waiting to get on a bus to go back to Santaní with my comp Elder Felix. We came into Asunción last night to be here today for Zone Leader Council with President and all the other Zone Leaders. It was a lot of fun. The mission is going back in the right direction. We had over 100 baptisms again this last month, after 6 straight months below 100, so President was really happy, but at the same time he talked pretty straight to all of us about some things that need to change. President Arnold, the seventy that is area president, is coming back to our mission for my next and last zone conference. All the zone leaders are going to have personal interviews with him, which means I'm going to have one, unless for some crazy reason I get moved out of the area before my last change, which honestly is not very likely. He'll be here August 30 and 31 and September 1. It should be pretty interesting. A lot of things in the mission are changing, I can already tell Justin is going to have a pretty different mission experience than me even though he'll only be going a year after me because of all the changes we are getting that are worldwide. They really are good changes, a lot of things I wish I had known since the beginning of my mission, but I'm aprove charing while I can. Anyway, I really don't have much time because I have to catch a bus and go home, but good news, we are going to be having 3 baptisms next week. I will tell you more about them and answer all of your questions next Monday, send me the same questions again so I don't forget them, I love you all soooo much, Elder Adamson V.

Week 80 in Paraguay Change 14 Week 1

Well, another week down and another change down, this one was a big one, as you probably all expected from my former comments. I'm in a new area, Santaní, I don't even know where to start. Well, first off, I'm still zone leader, my companion is a zone leader too, he just went up from district leader this change. His name is Elder Felix, he's a Mexican from California, so he grew up speaking English and Spanish. So I kind of have a Latin comp again, but not really, we still speak English all the time. Both of his parents were born in Mexico, but he was born in the United States. He didn't learn English until he was five though, but honestly he still speaks English better than Spanish, not that his Spanish isn't good, it's great, but its not as good as his English. He goes home in December, so speaking from my Office mind, I'm pretty sure we are going to stay together two changes, then he'll leave and I'll get a new companion here and end my mission here. It's kind of crazy to think that I am most likely in the place where I'm going to end. I mean it's not for sure yet, but I'm pretty sure that's how it will be. I would still like to train, it would be fun to leave after a change and open up an area with a brand new missionary, but I don't see it happening.

So about Santaní, I'm back out of the greater Asunción area, finally after over a year, Santaní is this really cool little city about 3 hours outside of Asunción. It is probably the most beautiful area I have ever been in, the trees just go on for miles and the city is all hills, its taking a little while to get used to it. I've been coming home pretty tired each day so far with all the walking up and down hills here. It really is an amazing area and its got a great market to buy things. It would be a good place to end honestly to get recuerdos and things I want to take home. The only problem out here is the branch, so I'm in a branch again, but it has more problems than I would have ever imagined even existed in the church, even in Paraguay. President Madariaga came this last weekend to work with us to try and figure some things out and he had a fireside Sunday afternoon with all the members and talked really strong and frankly about gossip, about repentance and about callings. The building here is beautiful, it is one of the best church buildings I've ever seen in Paraguay, if not the best. I think we will just about have our hands full these next couple of months. I'm sure I'll be hearing a lot more stories too, but as of right now I really like it here, the people are really receptive to the gospel, we have 3 people getting ready to be baptized here in a couple of weeks, and the gossip issue seems to be hitting a plateau. It is just gorgeous here, it is really one of the most beautiful parts of Paraguay I have ever seen, and from being in the office I was able to see a lot. I'm really excited, plus, I have a companion that really wants to work hard, and I'm almost guaranteed 12 weeks with him, well 11 more now, so I'm thinking we are going to have a really good experience. On top of all that, the zone I am over is called Zona La Paloma, which is the biggest zone by square milage in the mission, so I'm going to be getting to travel a lot and see a lot more of Paraguay out here. Saltos, another border city on the border of Brazil, is in my zone and we are going to be going out there to visit District meetings and things so I'm super excited. All in all life is good, and the rest of my mission is really looking up, I love you all so much, I know this work is true and that Jesus Christ is our Savior, love ya all, Elder Adamson V

Week 79 in Paraguay Change 13 Week 5

So this week was another great week in Paraguay, it went by soo fast I can't believe it, Milciades, Miguel and Jorge all got confirmed this week. Now we are kind of back to ground zero, I mean we have a few people to work with, but we didn't have anyone in church yesterday so this week we will be doing a lot of finding, that is if I end up staying here. Changes are on Wednesday and we should find out what changes are tonight, as of right now it really looks like I'm going to be leaving, but we really don't know, honestly it would be nice to leave just to get to my last area and have a good 4 months there, speaking of which, today is my 20 months mark! 20 months down, 4 to go, but don't worry, I'm still working hard, sometimes I can't even feel the time, it is amazing how fast it goes, but then other times it seems like September will never come, but luckily its the first feeling more than the last one. This week we had some crazy things happen, first of all, everyone, I mean everyone we talked to asked us about the end of the world and if it would really come of Saturday? I can't tell you how many times we read Matthew 24:36 with people, a week ago I wouldn't have even had any idea what that scripture even said and now I have the reference memorized. People here really thought it was going to come. The crazy part of it all though was that on Friday night, around 7:30 ish, there was a huge meteor that flew accross the sky and hit the ground in Ita. It really lit up the whole sky. I had never seen anything like it, people were telling us that on the news it showed people in San Lorenzo and Capiata get on their knees and pray after the thing went across the sky thinking it was the end of the world; kind of a funny coincidence that came right as this guy tells everyone the world is going to end. It was bright, by 7:30 the sun is completely down and it is really dark out and everything was lit up for a second. At the time we were at the house of this inactive member that works for a huge chicken company here in Paraguay called Pechugon, he goes in unmarked vehicles that haul the money from city to city in teams fully armed and sometimes he even has to handcuff himself to suitcases of money and things. His car one time had already been assaulted by people trying to steal the money and he has had death threats by people telling him they are going to come to his house and stuff. He is a pretty jumpy guy, anyway, when the meteor went overhead he didn't see it very well and he immediately went to the back of his house to check out what had happened, as he did he put his hand right into his waistline on his back, we're pretty sure he had a gun on him and he pulled it out to see what was up. Anyway, he has a pretty crazy life. He's only 20 years old and his girl he is with is waiting for their first child. He said he has a two week vacation soon and he's going to try to get his life in order. I wonder what he is going to decide to do. Anyway, other than the end of the world, nothing big really happened this week. My companion had to get his ears checked because he's got some kind of growth on the inside of one ear, the docter told me I have super dirty ears and gave me some instruction on how to clean them. We had a fun division this week with the assistants, I was able to work with the new assistant for a day and we found some cool new people together, and that is about all that happened. This week should prove to be a little more eventful with changes happening and everything, so I think I'll have a little more to write about next week. I love you all so much, I know that this church is true and that this is the Lord's work. It is such a blessing to be here and see these people except the gospel in their lives. There is no where I would rather be right now. I know Christ is our Savior and that we can come unto him no matter what the situation and he is ready to fill our hearts with his love to heal us. I love you all, can't wait to see you all, Elder Adamson V

Week 78 in Paraguay Change 13 Week 5

This week went by super fast, and we got a lot done and had 4 baptisms! Diana and Jorge got baptized on Friday and then Miguel and Jorge on Sunday, and Milciades got baptized last Sunday, which makes 5 baptisms in the last 9 days! It has been a lot of fun, but honestly the work was pretty hard this week. We really don't have too many other people we are working with so we are a little worried for what we are going to do in the future now that all the people we were teaching are now members. We did find a few families this week, one of which is really receptive and I think will really progress, the only problem is that the husband has to work every other Sunday, so they couldn't go to church yesterday, but they are pretty excited about going for the first time this week, hopefully everything goes well. They are a little hard to teach because they live really far away and they don't have any kind of number to call them and communicate with them, we had an appointment with them yesterday and they weren't there, so now it's just kind of a guessing game to teach them while they're home, hopefully we can find them in their house because they are a really great family. Anyway, more about the baptisms, the baptism we had on Friday was so hard to prepare for, it seemed like Satan was doing everything in his power to try to keep it from happening. The bishop changed the lock on the church this week so our key didn't work and we had to go to his house to get the only copy of the key, his house which is super far away, and then we couldn't find hymnals for a really long time, the key we had didn't open the font so we had to meet up with the other missionaries in our ward to get their key to open the font, it almost rained, some other Elders had borrowed our baptismal clothes and never sent them back so we had to go and get them. We had to cancel it on Wednesday and move it to Friday because their mom was sick. So we had to tell all the members, then when we finally had everything set up perfect we got to their house and their dad showed up, which was the biggest scare ever, but it turned out he didn't do anything. So these kids, Jorge and Diana, live with their mom because their dad is a paranoid schizophrenic and he didn't want them to get baptized, so they got baptized without him knowing, when he showed up and we were there we thought something was going to happen, but it was all good and he took off. Once we finally got to the church everything went great, the water was a little cold, but we weren't in it too long. Then on Sunday the baptism was just as crazy, the ward was having a baptism the same day without anyone really knowing. They just kind of said their son was 8 and thought everything would be planned for them to be able to do a baptism also, and the dad of the 8 year old didn't know how to do a baptism or how to put his child in the water and ended up having to say the prayer multiple times and try submerging his son 3 times. But, in the end it all turned out well, the only downside to yesterday was the Milciades had something go wrong with his bike and didn't come to church, so he wasn't able to get confirmed, so he'll be getting confirmed with his nephews this next Sunday. Anyway, I don't really have much more news, I threw on some pictures like you asked, the first is a picture of Me, my companion, Milciades, Miguel, and Jorge in their ties right before Milciades's baptism, then there are a few from the baptism of Jorge and Diana, with some pictures right after coming out of the font, and then the last picture is at Jorge and Diana's house right after their baptism. Anyway, so we are moving into the last week of the change, it should be a pretty tough week too trying to get the investigator pool rolling again. The assistants called us yesterday and we are going to be doing another division with them on Thursday. My companion is going to Campo Grande with Elder Neyra and I'll be staying here with the brand new assistant Elder Thiemann. I'm looking forward to it, it should be a good way to sharpen the saw and get a good look at what we can be doing better in our own area. Elder Thiemann is a great missionary, for over a year people have been saying he would be assistant, he's got right around 3 months left now and he finally went up, it'll be an exciting division. Anyway, we're going to go and play some soccer today, it'll be the first time we've played anything for a really long time. I love you all so much, hope you have a great day, I'll be praying for Tiffani, love you all, Elder Adamson V

Week 77 in Paraguay Change 13 Week 4

It was so great to be able to talk to you last night, I wish it could have been a little longer, but the Lord knows what He has in mind. As you probably guessed, I don't really have too much to talk about today, the biggest news is that we are going to have a lot of baptisms this week. Milciades, the 17 year old, got baptized yesterday, Jorge and Diana are getting baptized this Wednesday, then all three of them will get confirmed this Sunday. We have two more baptisms planned for Sunday, Milciades' nephews, Miguel and Jorge, so it should be a pretty exciting and quick week. In other news, the secretary just called me to set things up for my flight plans, I can't even believe that, so you should be getting my plans in about a week or two, if you don't you don't have to worry, they might not send them until I only have 3 months left, I really don't know how it is going to work, but don't worry, I'm not getting trunky, the baptisms are helping keep my mind focused on what I'm doing. Well, I really don't have too much to say, I shared everything with you on the phone yesterday, our Mother's Day call. I'll write all about the baptisms next week, I love you all so much, Elder Adamson V

Week 76 in Paraguay Change 13 Week 3

So first things first, I'll get things out of the way with the Mother's Day call, so this time the area presidency only approved 40 minutes for us to be on the phone, I want you to call at 4:00 your time in the evening.

Anyway, as for the week, we had a super awesome Sunday. We had 8 investigators in church, that is double than the highest I have ever had in the rest of my mission, we have 7 people that have baptismal dates and 4 that are getting baptized within the next 10 days. Two are getting baptized this Sunday after church, Milciades and his little brother Jorge, and then two more, Jorge and Diana, are getting baptized the following Wednesday. We are going to have a whole lot happening in the next couple of weeks. Finally seeing the fruits of our labors. It was so nice this Sunday because we didn't pass by anyone because it was getting close to the date for their baptism and we had to make sure that they were able to go to church on their own, and everyone showed up. Milciades came bringing all of his family, including 3 investigators. Jorge and Diana came with a member friend that they had, and then we went by 2 other investigators to take them to church and when we got there they were outside waiting for us with another friend that they had invited to come with them, 3more investigators, and 5 that came without our help at all! It was such a great feeling during sacrament meeting watching the members greet them and help them understand the hymns and things like that, it was awesome. All of them are really excited about baptism, a few of them are kids that we are teaching and the mom isn't too excited, so we are takng a little more time with them, but hopfully all of their enthusiam will help the mom to go to church one sunday to get to know what it is that her kids are enjoying so much. She shares with us during the lessons, but never wants to go to church, but we are still working there.

Anyway, so I don't have very much time, I took a lot of time trying to figure things out with the call with Elder Cambra. I love you all so much, I love this work and I know that our Savior lives, He lives and loves each of us, I can't wait to talk to you all on Sunday! Love Elder Adamson V

Week 75 in Paraguay Change 13 Week 2

I'm going to have to apologize right now, we had some problems to figure out today with the owner of our house about the light and water bills, so we had to go to Asunción and I don't have any time to write anything.

Don't worry at all about my leg, it hasn't bothered me at all, not even a little bit, I just thought I would tell the story because I thought it was funny. It is already healing and I don't even notice it.

As for the work we are seeing some more success. We were able to teach some great lessons to Jorge and Diana, the 13 and 11 year olds. We are teaching them with their dad and mom and they are all set to be getting baptized here soon. Milciades went to church again this last week so he will be getting baptized next week. We should have 3 baptisms in May for sure. Sorry I don't have much time, I love you all soooo much, Elder Adamson V

Monserrath's Baptism

Week 74 in Paraguay Change 13 Week 1

Sounds like everything is a little crazy back home, babies, heart attacks, settle down and just wait a little longer! Well, this week was one of the hardest weeks of my mission work wise, but Elder Cambra and I are working hard and it really isn't even that frustrating. We are being super diligent, too. We have a few people that are progressing pretty good right now. We have been working a lot with references from members and things like that. One member gave us a reference for this less active family that no one has visited for a really long time, so we went to see them and there is a 9 year old boy in the house that has never been baptized and a 17 year old guy that is the brother in law of the mom of the family that went to church with us and is getting ready to get baptized. It looks like the next couple of baptisms we'll be having should be right before the phone call on Mother's day. Speaking of which, when would be the best time for us to do the call? I'm thinking we will probably just be using skype, but I still don't really want to use the video, that way it will be so much cooler in September when I see all of you for the first time. I'm only going to write two more times after this before the call so I guess we better start setting up some kind of time, when do you go to church on Sunday?
Life is pretty good right now, my finger is almost completely healed already, but I think it will leave a scar, so I'll be able to show you all when I get home. The bite hasn't really changed my door approaches, but I do trust dogs a lot less now, my comp always makes fun of me because of it, but you never really do know which ones are the nice ones. There are so many dogs here, everywhere, but the ones in the street aren't too bad, the one that bit me was behind a fence.
I'm glad to hear that Dad is doing better now, I can't wait to talk to all of you on Mother's day, make sure you all hold out until then at least. I had a little bit of a scare today too, we were cleaning up our house really nice and neat to make a video because this house is probably the nicest house in the mission, I'll have to send you the video. I was cutting the back yard with a machete, just like any normal Paraguayan, but it was super hot and I went to cut something and the machete flew out of my hand, hit the metal bars on one of our windows and flew back and sliced my leg, I know, it sounds pretty serious right now, but really I didn't even realize what had happened at first I didn't feel anything, so I started cutting some things again and I started to feel it, I looked down and there was blood all over my lower leg, but don't worry, we have it all cleaned up and it wasn't anything deep enough for stitches, like I said, my companion was studying to be a doctor and he patched me up pretty good, its going to leave a good scar though.
Anyway, I don't have too much to say about what happened this week, my companion and I went on an avocado craze, we had 21 avocados, and big ones too, and made a whole lot of guacamole. Monserrath, the little girl that just got baptized, moved to Argentina to live with her mom who is not a member, I was worried about that, I just didn't think it would happened this fast, I thought she would at least stay until November to finish school. Other big news I almost forgot, we had another big training meeting, this time with Elder Foster, a seventy and the second councilor of the area presidency here, he talked to us all about working with members and how we can get to the point of us helping members do the missionary work to get more baptisms and be more effective in our efforts. It is the next little step of what we need here to get back where we were. Speaking of where we were, I found out that President Wade was made a seventy over the Utah South Area, so I can still see him when I get back home, I was worried he was going to get sent somewhere far away and we wouldn't be able to go and see him, but he's still just going to be in his house in Saint George. Did you hear his name at Conference?
Well, that's about it, I love my companion, I love the work, and I love this gospel, the time is moving along super quick now, I almost can't believe it, I'll talk to you all in 3 weeks! Love, Elder Adamson V

P.S. I sent the Mission deferment a week before I sent one to you, so once you get one in the mail BYU should have gotten one a week before that. I love you all soooooooo much!

Dog Bite Pictures

Week 73 in Paraguay Change 12 Week 6 Dog Bite

I didn't realize Tiffany was already having her baby, I knew she was pregnant, but I didn't realize she was already so far along, that's so exciting! I'm sure she didn't even mind feeling it all now that she's here; the girls are taking over Scott's house, tell them congratulations for me!
This week went by sooo fast, I can't believe how fast the time is going by now. Elder Cambra and I are doing great together, we've known each other pretty much the whole mission, so we've been pretty good friends, and we're already having a blast. He's the one that was in Yby Yau from San Francisco while I was in Pedro Juan , He was in the same stake as my MTC companion Elder Mitchell, small world right? I would have never expected that we would be companions, but it's kind of a nice surprise. He has more time on the mission than I do. He goes home the first week in July, and we just got changes yesterday, we are staying together for the next 6 weeks, which means it is probably going to be my last 6 weeks in Aratiri logically speaking, because if we stay together another change I would have to stay here until August because Elder Cambra is going home in July or Elder Cambra would have to go somewhere else for the last 6 weeks of his mission, both of which don't seem very probable, but you really never know what could happen, stuff like that has happened before, so I'm just going to keep working like I'm staying here forever.
Well, this week was such a fast week I don't really know what to say. There were some big health news stories, first of which, my companion got pink eye, and still does, so I've been super cautious about touching my eyes and my companion. He's had it for about 3 days now though and I haven't got it yet so I think I'm doing a pretty good job. Bigger news though, I got bit by a dog, it's South America so I figured before the end of my mission it would happen, but my whole mission I have always just told myself I never want to get bit by a dog, and this week it finally happened. We went to this house to do a contact and the dog came out to the fence barking at us, but once it got to us, just like all the other NICE dogs, it stopped barking, put its paws up on the fence and started wagging its tail like it was all right around us. Now, just to put in a little disclaimer before I say what happened next, Paraguayan dogs are super lazy, it seems, so they always come running at you barking and then they stop and just let you do what you want, so you can pet them and what not, so when this dog did that I thought it was like any other dog I see everyday, so I started petting its head just like I do with every other dog and it got me good. When it bit me it only got my index finger, but when I pulled it away there was blood everywhere and I thought it had got my whole hand, right when it happened I really couldn't feel anything, it didn't hurt at all. No one came out of the house so we just went to the next house and showed them I got bit by a dog and they helped us dress it and clean it, just some random strangers, we were able to teach them a quick lesson and then I called the mission presidents wife. So it turned out that since my bite was above the waist and I didn't know the dog, I had to go in the same day and get a rabies shot just in case, so I got a rabies shot and they told me to watch the dog and if it dies within the next 10 days it had rabies. So we have gone back to the home with the dog and talked to the owner, they had the certificate that the dog had been vaccinated and to make me feel better they told me the dog had already bit them and nothing happened to them... I'm going to attached some photos of my finger. My companion was studying to be a doctor before his mission and he liked looking at my bite because he said it was cool because they were puncture wounds, which means the dogs teeth weren't strong enough to break the skin on their own, but the skin broke because of straight force and pressure. The bruise from the bite was worse than the actual cut.
Anyway, some good news with the little time left, we had 3 investigators in church yesterday and we are finding a lot of new people to teach. Wow, I don't have any time left, I took way too much time on that bite story, but anyway, I'm going to attach the pictures of the baptisms I had with Elder Juhasz, I love you all so much, thank you so much for everything you do, can't wait to talk to you in a couple weeks! Elder Adamson V

Week 72 in Paraguay Change 12 Week 5

It's a good thing no one really wrote me and I didn't have to read too much because this week was probably one of the most eventful weeks in all of my mission, I won't say the most eventful, but it was sure a kicker. It went by so fast I couldn't even believe it, it was so eventful I'm going to have to go through it day by day:
Tuesday, 29 March 2011
So on Tuesday I went on a division with Elder Jolley I had had plan for a little while. Elder Jolley is one of the District leaders in the zone. His companion was really sick, so Elder Juhasz, my companion, went to his house and stayed with him all day while Elder Jolley was with me in my area. We got a call in the morning from a less active member for us to come over and give him a blessing of health so he could get better from this sickness he had had for about 2 weeks. I went out there with Elder Jolley and we gave him the blessing, it was a really spiritual experience because as I was giving the blessing I felt a distinct impression to bless him that he would be able to go back to church. I knew he worked on Sunday and they are pretty poor, so I kind of pushed the feeling aside and didn't say it, then I really just couldn't think of anything to say and the impression was stronger to bless him that he and his family could go back to church, so I blessed him he would be able to attend church again with all of his family. After I finished the blessing we sat down and talked for a little bit and he said that he had been thinking a lot about going back to church and that his sickness he felt was a sign that he should start going back to church with his family. He collects money for a business as a living, he just goes from house to house collecting money, so he said it would take a few weeks, but he is going to go around and tell his clients that he is going to go on Saturdays instead of Sundays to collect all the money he usually collects on Sunday so he can start going to church. We talked to him about conference and he told us he would go on Saturday with his family (because he still had to work Sunday) and he showed up, and it actually turned out better anyway that he went on Saturday instead of Sunday because of what happened on Sunday, which I will write later in the letter.
Wednesday, 30 March 2011
So Wednesday I was finally able to do the division with Elder Levos in the office. I was with Elder Juhasz working until about three in the afternoon and the two assistants showed up in the van. Elder Neyra stayed with Elder Juhasz and Elder Levos and I took off to work in Campo Grande. Every Tuesday I talk to President at night to talk about the zone and discuss things we can improve and concrns, so I told him I would be coming in for the division and we agreed to have a quick interview in the office on Wednesday. When Elder Levos and I got there I went in and had a great interview with President about a few things and he gave me this 24 page article to read entitled Becoming the Fourth Missionary, it talks about 4 different types of missionaries and it is super good. It was written by a mission president in Chile a while ago who is a seventy now and it is so good, it has really helped me put things in focus and change my view and teachings. Anyway, Elder Levos was reading it too and we talked about it pretty much the whole day, we had a great division, we went over a lot of things, but the best part was that we were finishing the division in the morning. I got to sleep at the office house, so Elder Levos and I ordered Mexican food from Papagos, something I've wanted to do for a really long time, and we enjoyed a nice night talking to some mission buddies kicking it at the office house. I felt so good after the division, it was like President, Elder Levos, and just the division in general helped me just take a second to sharpen the saw like Mom likes to say and really see the solutions to things I wasn't quite doing well with the zone and with my area. It was a super successful and fun day.
Thursday, 31 March 2011
So Wednesday night I had convinced all the office Elders that we would play soccer Thursday morning for excercises because the thing by far I miss the most right now is just playing sports, so I woke everyone up at six, we got in the van and went to the church to play soccer, we played until about 6:50 and went home to get ready and study. All of my study time I spent reading the article and finished it so to be able to talk about some things with Elder Levos on the car ride home, it is such an amazing article. I really want Justin to read it before he goes on his mission, I don't have too much time to talk about what it says, but President said he is going to email it to the whole mission after we finish reading Preach My Gospel as a mission, which we started on Friday, so when I get it I'll send it off to you. Once I got back we planned our day and got ready to prepare people for conference because we were going to the temple on Friday so it was our last day to talk to people before conference. So we were working super hard, had some cool things happen and a lot of success, when I got a phone call from Elder Levos, SPECIAL CHANGES. So President has got some big plans for this change coming up because there were special changes in 11 companionships on Saturday, one being mine. I now have a new companion, you might remember him, his name is Elder Cambra, he was out in Pedro Juan with me at the beginning of my mission, not as my companion obviously but there close. He goes home in July, he went up to zone leader so now we are in a companionship as co-zone leaders. I'm training him on how to be a zone leader, and from the looks of it when real changes come around in about a week and a half, I should be leaving, but you never really know. Anyway, Elder Juhasz went to Zeballos Cue, a place in Asuncion, with Elder Canales from Chile, so hopefully the Spanish should be coming now, he'll be a good companion for him. So yeah, special changes happened and I have a new companion now, it is nice because he has a lot of time in the mission and we can really work together, it was just really unexpected, but that's how the mission is sometimes.
Friday, 1 April 2011
We went to the temple, it was so awesome, we kind of guessed wrong about how long it would take the bus and got there really early, so we got to do baptisms and confirmations before the session, I baptized Elder Juhasz and then he baptized me, our last day together we spent baptizing each other for the dead, it was actually a really nice experience. During the session I thought a lot about the Fourth Missionary and stuff, basically the idea is the difference between the law of sacrifice and the law of consecration, the need to consecrate your life to the Lord on your mission instead of just sacrificing it; it would make more sense if you could read the article, but it was a uplifting experience and I really learned a lot I'm going to be putting into practice.
Saturday, 2 April 2011
So Jorge was able to go to conference on Saturday, I don't know if I told you about him, I'll talk more about him next week just for lack of time, but the biggest news from Saturday came from the second session of conference, I don't know if you noticed, probably not, but we were all listening to it here, President Wade, my mission president that went home in July, was called as an area seventy, we all saw it coming, but it was so fun to hear it with all the other missionaries. We sit in a seprate room in the church to listen to conference in English, so it was just a room full of missionaries, and I have to admit it wasn't very reverent when we heard his name, we all were cheering, it was really fun.
Sunday, 3 April 2011
I'm running out of time, but just to make a long story short, Sunday was a disaster, the satelite lost its signal so we spent about the first hour of conference trying to figure out the problem, so many people just got up and left, and in the end they just decided to play a recording from the first Saturday session because pretty much no one went and the people didn't really even know the difference. So we went to a members house to watch the second session from the internet and we ended up watching the first and second session back to back, it was really long, and we had to watch it all in Spanish, but we were able to watch it at least, conference was amazing, I love conference.
Monday, 4 April 2011
Today we spent all day cleaning and rearranging the house, it is so awesome now, but we still have a lot to do, the house is so big, I'll have to make a video of it after we finish getting it nice. Anyway, all out of time, I'm glad to hear you liked the gift, it's my pride and joy of the office, hope you liked the Bonus Track, I love you all so much, have a great time in Utah, Love Elder Adamson V

President and Sister Madariago, Elder Juhasz and Elder Adamson

Week 71 in Paraguay Change 12 Week 4

This week was a little more of a slow week, I really don't have too much to write about, so I'm just going to go through and answer some of the questions that mom sent me.
Well how is life as a missionary this week? Honestly nothing really exciting, we didn't have too much success this week finding investigators or teaching really. We spent a lot of time looking for more less active people we had been told about and trying to get references from members. I think we were really able to gain a lot more confidence this week with a lot of members though, and some of the less active members we have been working with went to church yesterday, so that is a good thing. On the side of investigators, nothing really. Monserrath got confirmed yesterday, so she is officially a member of the church now. That was really exciting, they called her up to the stand to get confirmed and she wouldn't go up because she thought she was going to have to speak. We had to explain to her quick that she just had to sit down and that was it, and then she went up.

How was the split off with Elder Levos? How did your companion do with Elder Neyra? Well, I'll tell you next week because I'm still looking forward to the division, the assistants had to cancel on us because President had a last minute special assignment for them because of the training meetings they have been doing. It was kind of our fault for trying to plan the division during the trainings, but after Wednesday all of the training is over so we are starting the division Wednesday evening and ending it Thursday morning, and this time it is for sure.

How is your companion's Spanish doing? It's been about two months he is probably a lot more confident now? He still isn't too confident, he understands a lot more but it is still pretty frustrating, it is a little frustrating for me sometimes because I feel like he doesn't even want to try, but I can't judge. I know how it was, and it is hard, and that was after I had 4 years of high school Spanish. The members and others too are getting kind of mad at him for speaking English and stuff. I'm pretty much the only one that talks a lot of the time in lessons, but we're working on it and we'll see how it goes. I'm thinking there are only about two and a half more weeks that we are going to be together, so I better train him well, just in case he's with a Latin next change.

Any great prospects? We have a few people we are working with that are progressing, but nothing super fast. We didn't have any investigators in church yesterday. It was tough, I think it was the first time in a really long time that has happened to me. We have General Conference coming up so it is a great oppurtunity for people to go for the first time with so many different times you can go and it being in the afternoon and everything. The first session doesn't start until one here, so it should be a really good way to get a lot more investigators in church this week.

Have you enjoyed the flowers and plants of Paraguay? From your perspective of working with so many flowers before your mission, do you notice them in Paraguay? A lot of times I do notice flowers I sold and things, but I can never remember their names, and there are so many more plants I don't know that are really different. It is really cool sometimes how amazing Paraguay is, but almost anything grows here. People with big gardens always say that it is super easy to grow things here, all you have to do is throw a seed on the ground and come back in a couple months.

Have you any pictures lately? I attached the picture of me with Elder Juhasz the day we left the office when he came. The truth is my camera is broken, the lens won't open, I'm going to try and get it fixed, but I haven't taken any pictures in a while because of that. Luckily my companion has a camera and I can just stick my chip in his camera to get some pictures, I have pictures, I just don't have any way of getting them off the chip right now, but they have what I need in the office, so the next time I go I can save all of them on my thumb drive.

Well, my time is just about up, I love you all so much. This week is going to be a really full week, tomorrow I'm doing a division with one of my district leaders, then Wednesday a division with Elder Levos, then Thursday in the area, then Friday the zone is going to the temple, then Saturday and Sunday we have General Conference, and then on Monday I have Zone Leader Council, so I should many things to share next time I write again, I love you all so much, Elder Adamson V

Week 70 in Paraguay Change 12 Week 3 A Baptism

Hey mom, thanks for the heads up on my mission deferment at BYU, that is just a little important. I am absolutely positive I filled one out and BYU should have it. What happened was my last week in school at the Y, I went to turn one in and they told me I couldn't turn one in until after I got my call, so I brought one home, filled it all out, and then once we got my call we sent it, maybe it didn't get there or something happened, but I specifically remember sending it. My president said I could do whatever I needed to do, so I'm going to print it out and send it this week, it takes about 4 weeks to be sure that it got there, so about this time in April we should check and see if they got it, if they didn't I'll try sending it again. Which reminds me, I sent you and dad an anniversary present, pretty much the best present I could have ever given you, it was supposed to be a suprise, but its been a really long time since I sent it, so I just want to know if you've got it yet, hopefully you have, or you get it this week or something, because it was such an awesome gift I hope it didn't get lost in the mail. I don't want to say what it is just to not ruin the suprise, hopefully you already have it, but I thought for sure once you got it you would have said something because of how awesome it is, so I thought I would just check. (Note-Dad and Mom have not received it. It has been over a month since it was mailed.)

Anyway, the week turned out to be a pretty good one, but it turned out to be kind of a let down, we had so much success finding new people and teaching Tuesday and Wednesday, and then as the week went on and we were preparing people to go to church people began to dismiss us and it started to get a little more difficult. On the happy side, Monserrath got baptized yesterday! It was really exciting for her to finally get baptized. We told her over and over and over again to invite friends, and she brought two of her friends to church and they stayed for the baptism after. Today we are going to try and meet her friends families and see what they thought about the baptism, hopefully we can get a lot more people to teach that way. All and all things have been really good as of late, the week before this one was really tough, and we are still kind of just coming up off of that, but we are going in a good direction. Tomorrow I'm going on a division with one of the assistants, Elder Levos, one of my really good friends from the office days, so I'm excited for that, it should be a really fun day and it should help me out a lot figuring out how to work as a zone leader with the zone and get some good training. Elder Neyra, the other assistant, is going to be working with my companion, it should be a good day for him, since Elder Neyra doesn't speak any English and my companion is just kind of getting to know the area, hopefully he doesn't get too lost and he can remember people they find, but it should be a good learning experiece for the both of us.
Anyway, I really don't have too much more to say, the big highlight of the week was the baptism, I'm really glad we were able to get it done, she'll be getting confirmed next week in church so we've still got a week to teach her how to listen to the spirit. I love this work so much, its been really hard lately, especially with all the new responsiblities on top of training a new missionary, but it hasn't been overwhelming, and I am trying hard to exceed expectations. I know the Lord will help me as I put my trust in him. I love you all so much, I can't wait to hear all the great things that happen this week next week. Elder Adamson V

Week 69 in Paraguay Change 12 Week 2

It sure has been a crazy week, almost everyone has been telling me about the tsunami in Japan. I was looking forward to today though because I knew that you would tell me what really happened. I have heard so many different things from the people here. My favorite was this one member that told us a 2000 meter wave hit Japan, but the Japanese people were ready and waiting for the wave, so they all got on their rooftops and only 1200 people died, after a wave more than a mile high hit the country. So I'm glad to have the correct information now.
Anyway, about the skype call thing, I don't know if it will even work this time because it will be Sunday and the only place we have internet here we have to pay to use it, so the phone call will probably just be a regular phone call like all the other ones. We'll plan it well before it happens, we still have 8 more weeks to worry about that though, but really only 7 more letters after this one if you think about it, but that's still a lot of time, we'll get it all figured out once it gets a little bit closer.
Well to answer some of your questions, Monserrath still hasn't got baptized, Wednesday for sure the baptism is happening, we just wanted to wait a little longer so she understood a few more things. Other than that the missionary work has been a little slow lately. We have been doing a lot of planning and ligistical things lately, getting references and things, this week should be the pay off week. Hopefully we can really get a lot going, it has been really good working with members and trying to start to work a lot more off of references. It really is a lot more effective, and it helps the members, especially less actives and recent converts, it is exciting to get them excited about sharing the gospel and hearing all their stories about people they taught in that past and people they brought to church. Last week we were able to contact a few of the references we got, but this week is the big week.
As for the zone, I'm over 5 units, 4 wards and 1 branch. The branch has sisters so there's one set of sisters in the zone. It has been good so far being zone leader, its a lot more work, but luckily I've got a pretty small zone, so its not too bad, and its fun to teach and train them, plus I'm still training Elder Juhasz, so I've got a lot to do.
Anyway I better get going, don't stop sending the BYU news, its fun to hear about, and honestly I don't even think about it during the week, I just miss it on P-day and then I forget about it until the next Monday, go Cougs, I love you all so much, Elder Adamson V

Week 68 in Paraguay Change 12 Week 1 Zone Leader

I didn't know you were all into the skype phase of life, I'm going to have to confess something, we got a letter from Salt Lake while I was in the office that said all missionaries now have permission to skype their families for their Christmas phone calls to cut down on the cost of calls. I didn't tell you because I thought you would have to install it, even though that only takes about 5 minutes, and I kind of thought it would be cool to be able to say I didn't SEE my family for 2years, but if we wanted to for Mother's Day we could probably do it, I don't know, I still think it would be kind of cool the suprise in September after having not seen each other for 2 years. Anyway, just had to make that little confession now that you have been talking so much about skype.
Anyway, to answer a few of your questions, I am still with my companion, Elder Juhasz, but we did, get a little change, I went up to zone leader, I'm over all the missionaries in the front half of Capiata, a zone of 12 missionaries, and I'm the only zone leader. It's been pretty fun so far, I haven't really had to do anything much different yet, but we'll see what happens. As for the little girl, she is supposed to get baptized this week, but we've been talking about it and we want to wait until next week. She's only 9 years old and her parents aren't members and she doesn't understand really yet the questions for her baptismal interview. I mean I know she's only nine and she won't be able to respond as intellegently as an adult, but I don't want to baptize her just because her aunt wants her to and then she goes back to live with her mom and never goes to church again. I think we should at least wait until she understands how to pray on her own, so I'm pretty sure it might get postponed a little. I think it will work out well too, because her cousin, that is the daughter of a member, just turned 8 and we can plan a baptism for them to get baptized together, so the girl will get interviewed by the bishop on Sunday, and then Monserrath by one of my district leaders (I like how that sounds) on Tuesday and we'll do the baptism next Wednesday. That way we'll have another week to get her more prepared, we'll go over there and teach her everyday to make sure she's good and feel a little better about it.
As for the letters you sent me, thank you so much for the pictures, I can't believe how much everything has changed, the mission is really weird in a way that it feels like everything has just kind of been put on pause and will be the same when I get back, its kind of weird to accept the fact that the world moves on without you. I can't believe Nick is married! No one ever told me that, I guess he's been home for 6months now, which is also just insane to me, I've been gone a really long time, and I've still got quite a bit left. It was just a weird kind of reality check.
Anyway, we're going to be going, I love you so much, sorry I didn't write much today, I spent a lot of time reading things over again, but I love you all so much, can't wait to hear from you again next week, Elder Adamson V

Week 67 in Paraguay Change 11 Week 6

Hey Family! It has been one crazy week with a whole lot of rain, but sadly, I really haven't had a P-day today and it doesn't really look like I am going to get too much of one, so I don't really have a lot of time to write. We had to be here in the office today, all the zone and district leaders, for a leadership council with President Arnold, the President of the South America South Area, to go over some issues and discuss some ways to better the mission because it is lower now than it has been in a very, very long time. Well, to say the least, it was a very powerful meeting with a lot of correction and really blunt and frank words. I really consider it a privilege to have been able to attend, but we had to arrive here really early, we had to get up before 5 to get here on time and its now past 3 and I'm still in the office because President wanted me to stay for an office meeting to give input on how to implement some things. I don't really have tons of time, but the whole week there was a lot of rain, pretty much every day. Toribio finally was able to go to church, we are gong to try and put another baptismal date with him so he can get baptized a couple weeks from now. We also had this little girl in church too that came from the out there place, the acampaña, I don't know how to say that in English, anyway, she lives with her aunt now that's a member and she is going to get baptized next week. Anyway, I love you all so much, remind me to tell you some of the new changes next week, LOVE YOU, Elder Adamson V

Week 66 in Paraguay Change 11 Week 5

Here in Aratiri everything is moving right along, time moves so fast sometimes I can't even believe it, this next week is already week 6 of the change (It looks like time has got you a week behind, updating to Week 5 instead of Week 4), the last week of the change and then changes next week. I feel like it was just yesterday I met Elder Juhasz and brought him here. This last week was a little bit more of a tough week. It felt like we were always walking and never being able to find anyone in there house. The few people that we have progressing are really hard to find and the few times we do find them they are only there for a few minutes so we can't teach too much.

Marisa, the girl that went to church last week, was busier than ever this week running errands for the family she works for, and then she left to go see her baby yesterday because it was the only day she had off. The whole week we weren't able to talk to her, just a couple times on the phone and once at her house, but never for more than 3 minutes, she knows the church is true and wants to get baptized, but she is just so busy that other things are keeping her from going to church and reading and keeping that testimony strong enough to want to change.

Then we have Toribio, the man that stopped us in the street and quit smoking to be able to get baptized, he is doing great, he is probably one of the most prepared person I have taught, but we are having the same kind of problems. They are a pretty poor family and have to work a lot of make any kind of money, so its hard to find them to teach them and sometimes they have to work Sundays. Well we went and taught them on Tuesday and they told us that they talked to their boss and he gave them permission to take Sundays off so they can go to church, but then we passed by again on Thursday and Toribio was really sick, so we gave him a blessing and that was the last time we saw them. Their neighbors tell us that they have been working a lot because the man was sick on Friday and didn't go to work and they had to go to the doctor, so what we think happened is that since he didn't go to work on Friday his boss told him he had to work on Sunday to make up his work, which is pretty likely. I guess we'll see what happened when we are able to talk to them again. I still am sure that he will be getting baptized sometime in March, he is really prepared. It is just a question of how he is going to be able to get to church and how we are going to be able to teach him everything in time before the baptism, but the Lord works in mysterious ways, and His will will be done, so we are just going to keep doing all that we can.

We are working with the 9 year old sister of Miguel, the 14 year old that just got baptized this month. She is so great and it seems like she really likes church and really likes talking to us, but her mom doesn't want her to get baptized. It took a long time, long before we even got here, for Miguel to convince his mom that he should be baptized. I don't know how long it is going to take for her to tell Isabel she can get baptized since she's only 9 years old. She told us that she wants to get baptized, but it really depends on the mom since there isn't any dad in the house. They both come to church though, every single week. Miguel passed the sacrament yesterday in his new white shirt and tie and his Sunday School and Priesthood teachers say he is the most active participant in the class and an example for everyone else. So I think they will stay active and Isabel will have the chance to get baptized when the time comes, whether its with us or not doesn't really matter. We are just really focusing on helping her grow her testimony and stay active in church and when her mom tells her she can get baptized we'll be there.

The Aguero family, the family of the girl I blessed last June, has been doing better, they've come to church once, they still aren't really active, but this last week they helped us a little in teaching investigators and finding some more new people to teach, so its coming, it seems like they really have the desires to go to church, but the little things just let them stay home, like rain or soccer tournaments or just being tired, but when they are feeling good they come. We are still working with them because they are helping a lot with other less active families, even though they are less active themselves. Once we can help them to go to church consistently they will help a lot of other people to go to church.

The family we found in the corner that I always wanted to contact didn't turn out to be as great as we thought at first. They haven't really been keeping commitments and every time we pass to talk to them they aren't very focused in what we are saying and make a lot of excuses for not doing things, its sad because we can see how much the gospel will help their lives, but they treat us more like their friends coming over to sip terere than missionaries, so we aren't visiting them as often. We still pass by their house all the time and say hi and see how they are doing, but we don't usually stop to teach, maybe a little bit further down the road when they really need it they will be a little more prepared to accept it.

Other than that we found a lot of new people this week, we have been working a lot with this new family that really gets it, they really understand what we teach and want to know more, but I think they are afraid of knowing that it's true because they are so Catholic. They are really active in the Catholic church and they don't want to change that part of their life. We spent a good lesson just talking about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon and you could really tell that they understood and felt the spirit, but they aren't ready to give up the life they have, we just found them last Tuesday though, so who knows, maybe something will change this week that helps them understand and change and sincerely pray to know.

Honestly it was a pretty hard week, hopefully we can learn from it and push hard this week to have some more success. March is looking like a promising month, the last month of Summer, the last month of the hottest heat I'll ever have to bear, and we have one more week to prepare for it, so we're going to make the best of it. I love you all so much, can't wait to hear from you again next week, Elder Adamson V