Hey Family! So it was a really crazy week this week with a lot of rain, you wouldn´t believe how much rain we had, I got some cool pictures though, so I guess you will be able to imagine when you get them. We also have changes this week so that will be exciting, I could actually go to a different area this time, it is pretty split in the zone, about half think I´ll leave and go on and the other half thinks I´ll just stay here with Elder Rodiguez, but who knows, maybe Elder Rodriguez could even leave, but that news will be for the next letter.
Anyway, so the week, first off last P-day was probably one of the coolests Mondays of my life, we went on a sweet hike in the wilderness of Paraguay called Naranja Hai to go see this waterfall that is in Elder Brazier´s area, the other missionary that is living with us. The one that was in the back of the truck with me in the video. The hike was really awesome. I got some really fanastic pictures of the scenery. I already have all on CDs which I´ll be sending home.
The zone activity was super fun, but the rest of the week didn´t turn out that great. We haven´t been having a lot of success and that combined with the rain has made it a little hard... Paraguayans don´t do anything when it rains. We have been blessed though, we were able to put three baptismal dates yesterday with pretty legit people. One is the sister of a member that went to church when she was younger, but never got baptized. She went to church yesterday. We went by after church to just talk about baptism. She for sure will progress, but she is under 18 and I guess her dad doesn´t really like it, so we´ll see. The other two are pretty cool too. A lady and her niece that lives with her, are planning on going to General Conference with us, so we´ll see where that goes.
Out of time, I love you all and I know this work is true and there is power when we do what God wants us to. I know this church is true and I´ll be working extra hard this week to get the blessings we need for this branch, love you all! Elder Adamson V
Monday, March 29, 2010
Monday, March 22, 2010
Week 17 in Paraguay
We went on a zone activity today hiking through the mountians here to a waterfall, I`ve got some seriously awesome pictures, but it took the whole P'day, need to get back out and to work on time. More next week.
Monday, March 15, 2010
Week 16 in Paraguay
The work here is going good, we have been working hard and getting the numbers, but it has been really hard to get people progressing and in church. Yesterday we had 4 people in church in total, 3 members, the only 3 actives in our branch, and an investigator. That is the lowest the branch has ever been. On top of that we have this huge goal for this month put out for the whole mission that President Wade gave us because the mission only had 128 baptisms in the month of February when we averaged 200 baptisms every month last year. President sent out to every district for the first district meeting, a goal of 384 baptisms in the month of March. Every companionship with a list of the things we can do to be worthy to receive the miracle we need to complete the goal. This week we have to have at least 4 investigators in church that already have one asistencia, that is that they have already gone to church once. We have one lady right now that has been to church and she has a baptismal date for the 28th and is looking good for that. We will be really working hard this week to reach that goal so we can complete what we need to do here. We could just use a lot of prayers from back home, but it really is all up to us here. We´ll be working really hard with members this week to try to figure out the people that have already gone to church and where they live, especially the people we have in our area book. There are a few really cool people in there that went to church a bunch of times. A lot of the things in the area book are from 5 years ago because Elder Dennis and I just opened up the area again.
The question you had about money, we get money the first day of every month no más. Eight hundred mil for a month, that is about 200 dollars every month for food, bathroom things, washing clothes, cutting hair, and doing other stuff. It really is actually a lot of money here for just one month, so you don´t have to worry about anything here, the only days we really spend a lot of money are on Pdays when we eat and do our shopping for the week.
Anyway, don´t have any time left, but everything here is going really well, love my companion and we are working hard, can´t wait to tell you about all the cool stuff I´m sure we are going to be able to do this week. I know the Lord will bless us as we are diligent and obedient and I´ll be super focused this week so that we can receive this miracle that we need in this branch this month. Love you so much, only one more change til calls again, time goes by very fast.
The question you had about money, we get money the first day of every month no más. Eight hundred mil for a month, that is about 200 dollars every month for food, bathroom things, washing clothes, cutting hair, and doing other stuff. It really is actually a lot of money here for just one month, so you don´t have to worry about anything here, the only days we really spend a lot of money are on Pdays when we eat and do our shopping for the week.
Anyway, don´t have any time left, but everything here is going really well, love my companion and we are working hard, can´t wait to tell you about all the cool stuff I´m sure we are going to be able to do this week. I know the Lord will bless us as we are diligent and obedient and I´ll be super focused this week so that we can receive this miracle that we need in this branch this month. Love you so much, only one more change til calls again, time goes by very fast.
Monday, March 8, 2010
Week 15 in Paraguay
Since last time was so rushed I made sure I wrote a few things down in my planner this week that I forgot to tell you last week.
First off, the big one I forgot was something that happened while we were down in Asuncion for zone conference. So it is a 100 mil ticket to get on the bus to go down to Asuncion. That is 1/8 of all the money we get for the whole month and zone conference was on the 24th of February, almost the end of the month. Monday we had to use pretty much all the money we had left to buy our tickets just to get down to zone conference. It wasn´t really that big of a deal though because at zone conference we always get the money back from the office and then they pay for the ticket back. Well we were at the very end of conference and President Wade was giving his testimony to all of us and his phone goes off, he silences it and then it goes off again, he picks it up and it's one of his Assistants. He says, "Elder Peterson, what is so important it can´t wait until after zone conference?" His face got really serious. Turns out three guys with guns and knives went and robbed the office with all the Office Elders there. One of the robbers knocked on the door and one of the Office Elders looked through the peep hole to see who it was and the guy looked normal. They have a lot of people come in and out of the Mission Home all through the day to drop off letters and important things. So the Elder opens the door and right as he did he got hit over the head with a revolver and this guy puts all the Elders into a corner while two other guys were searching and robbing the place. To say the least, we never got our money back, which really was fine, but we had about 4 days until the end of last month and we were were completely broke. It was really interesting to see how the Lord took care of us. There were many times during those few days where people would invite us to eat with them. Random people, that we contacted even invited us to eat some sanwhiches that they were making. It is just amazing to me how important this work is to the Lord and how whatever happens here the Lord will always take care of us and help our testimonies to grow. It was faith promoting and testimony strengthening to see how when we had no money left, people were so willing to share with us, without even knowing about anything about our money situation.
Anyway, so that was really the only thing I really forgot to put in the last letter. It was better this way because I was able to tell the story well because I have a lot more time.
I´m going answer some of those other questions now from last week.
I was wondering how the new companionship is going? I felt the spirit and wondered if there are a few challenges?
The new companionship is going really well, and I´m learning a lot of Spanish, its really fun to be with a Latin, it's really different from being with an American. Especially those times when you just don´t know how to say something so you just end up acting out things right in the middle of the street until your companion can figure out what you want and tell you how to say it in Spanish. It is really different in the teaching and contacting situations too, he´ll just go right up to anyone and tell them just as it is. I would say the only challenge I have been having lately is trying to let the Spirit have a bigger place in the teaching situations and trying to be really united with my companion. Sometimes we have completely different ideas of what we should do or who we should see. That is just a little frustrating sometimes, but for the most part we are doing really well together and as of right now the language has not really been a barrier at all, which has been a huge blessing.
This week was a really fast week, but really hard. We finally had a real investigator in church, but she is moving, I really think she will get baptized this month, but it won´t be in our area. It is amazing how we can teach more than 40 lessons every week and then not have anyone go to church. This week I´m going to really work hard on how we can make the lessons more effective and truly find the elect. It is amazing how much this mission has us as missionaries do. We saw the Brazilian Elders the other day and compared numbers, every one of our mission normas, or numbers we have to have as a minimum goal for the week, are double theirs. The biggest being contacts, they have to do 70 every week and we have to do 150 every week. I am so glad to be here is such a blessed mission, and I don´t mean to say that to brag about the mission, but to really just show how fortunate I am to be in a mission where the missionaries work hard and actually teach. This week we´re going to get some more to church for sure.
First off, the big one I forgot was something that happened while we were down in Asuncion for zone conference. So it is a 100 mil ticket to get on the bus to go down to Asuncion. That is 1/8 of all the money we get for the whole month and zone conference was on the 24th of February, almost the end of the month. Monday we had to use pretty much all the money we had left to buy our tickets just to get down to zone conference. It wasn´t really that big of a deal though because at zone conference we always get the money back from the office and then they pay for the ticket back. Well we were at the very end of conference and President Wade was giving his testimony to all of us and his phone goes off, he silences it and then it goes off again, he picks it up and it's one of his Assistants. He says, "Elder Peterson, what is so important it can´t wait until after zone conference?" His face got really serious. Turns out three guys with guns and knives went and robbed the office with all the Office Elders there. One of the robbers knocked on the door and one of the Office Elders looked through the peep hole to see who it was and the guy looked normal. They have a lot of people come in and out of the Mission Home all through the day to drop off letters and important things. So the Elder opens the door and right as he did he got hit over the head with a revolver and this guy puts all the Elders into a corner while two other guys were searching and robbing the place. To say the least, we never got our money back, which really was fine, but we had about 4 days until the end of last month and we were were completely broke. It was really interesting to see how the Lord took care of us. There were many times during those few days where people would invite us to eat with them. Random people, that we contacted even invited us to eat some sanwhiches that they were making. It is just amazing to me how important this work is to the Lord and how whatever happens here the Lord will always take care of us and help our testimonies to grow. It was faith promoting and testimony strengthening to see how when we had no money left, people were so willing to share with us, without even knowing about anything about our money situation.
Anyway, so that was really the only thing I really forgot to put in the last letter. It was better this way because I was able to tell the story well because I have a lot more time.
I´m going answer some of those other questions now from last week.
I was wondering how the new companionship is going? I felt the spirit and wondered if there are a few challenges?
The new companionship is going really well, and I´m learning a lot of Spanish, its really fun to be with a Latin, it's really different from being with an American. Especially those times when you just don´t know how to say something so you just end up acting out things right in the middle of the street until your companion can figure out what you want and tell you how to say it in Spanish. It is really different in the teaching and contacting situations too, he´ll just go right up to anyone and tell them just as it is. I would say the only challenge I have been having lately is trying to let the Spirit have a bigger place in the teaching situations and trying to be really united with my companion. Sometimes we have completely different ideas of what we should do or who we should see. That is just a little frustrating sometimes, but for the most part we are doing really well together and as of right now the language has not really been a barrier at all, which has been a huge blessing.
This week was a really fast week, but really hard. We finally had a real investigator in church, but she is moving, I really think she will get baptized this month, but it won´t be in our area. It is amazing how we can teach more than 40 lessons every week and then not have anyone go to church. This week I´m going to really work hard on how we can make the lessons more effective and truly find the elect. It is amazing how much this mission has us as missionaries do. We saw the Brazilian Elders the other day and compared numbers, every one of our mission normas, or numbers we have to have as a minimum goal for the week, are double theirs. The biggest being contacts, they have to do 70 every week and we have to do 150 every week. I am so glad to be here is such a blessed mission, and I don´t mean to say that to brag about the mission, but to really just show how fortunate I am to be in a mission where the missionaries work hard and actually teach. This week we´re going to get some more to church for sure.
Monday, March 1, 2010
Week 14 in Paraguay
I don´t have a lot of time, so this will be short. I am so glad you got the pictures, it might be pretty expensive to send things here, but it is actually pretty cheap to send things home, it was about 10 dollars to send both of those packages, about 5 dollars each, not too bad. Zone conference was a total power house on the Book of Mormon and questions of the soul, I´m going to just add a little of what I wrote to President Wade this week explain this. ..."I also have been trying to do what you said in my interview and study my notes from conference to answer my question I had and really focus on following the Spirit more. The question I wrote at the beginning of conference was, "'How can I love my companion all the time no matter the situation?', in studying my notes and cross referencing things I have really began to learn a lot about how humility is connected to love." It is a great concept Moroni shows us in Moroni 7 in his dicourse when he is talking about Charity. How we can pray for the love that will make us like Jesus Christ, but first we have to humble ourselves to pray. I connected this to what it says in 2 Nephi 9 in verse 39, about how we have to humble ourselves to pray. What I learned really is that love really can come from humility, knowing that Heavenly Father knows best. Heavenly Father has worked through you to have us use the Book of Mormon more, I can humble myself and my methods and work with my companion to do this, and in humbling myself I can develop more love, as I seek and pray for it." I don´t know how much of that made sense, but that is kind of what I learned...
In our mission, what our mission president says about music is if you can feel the spirit you can listen to it. We have all kinds of church artists at our house, including pretty much all of EFY. The music here in the streets is crazy, all the time people are playing music as loud as they come down the street. There is a lot of music in English too. Some songs I know, and that is always fun. I´m suprised it wasn´t in the video, I'm sure if you listen looking for the music you can hear some. The Rama has been really hard lately. The President of the Rama is the only one with a calling now and we only had 8 people in church yesterday with 0 investigators. We found some good people this last week. My companion was just called by the Mission President to be the first counselor in the Rama (Branch) and I am going to be the secretary. We are going to be sustained this week. Its hard but we are progressing, we had this super inactive family go to church last week too, which was really awesome. I have to go, I´ll tell you more next week.
In our mission, what our mission president says about music is if you can feel the spirit you can listen to it. We have all kinds of church artists at our house, including pretty much all of EFY. The music here in the streets is crazy, all the time people are playing music as loud as they come down the street. There is a lot of music in English too. Some songs I know, and that is always fun. I´m suprised it wasn´t in the video, I'm sure if you listen looking for the music you can hear some. The Rama has been really hard lately. The President of the Rama is the only one with a calling now and we only had 8 people in church yesterday with 0 investigators. We found some good people this last week. My companion was just called by the Mission President to be the first counselor in the Rama (Branch) and I am going to be the secretary. We are going to be sustained this week. Its hard but we are progressing, we had this super inactive family go to church last week too, which was really awesome. I have to go, I´ll tell you more next week.
Monday, February 22, 2010
Week 13 in Paraguay--Elder Rodriguez
Ha upei mi familia! Ikatu que la familia está tavora ko`äga. There`s a little jopará for you again, it means it could be that the family is crazy right now, pretty good huhpa. Anyway, this keyboard is really messed up because it is in Portugues, so I can`t put a question mark, and pa in Guaraní just means its a question, so if you see a pa, its because its a question and I don`t know how to put a question mark. I can put this cool thing really easy though ç, they use that a lot in Portugues. This computer also keeps zooming in, so everything keeps on getting bigger, and the typing is kind of slow, but I`m just going to answer all those questions from mom one by one, so here it goes.
Who is the new companion? Has he been out a long time? What nationality?
My new companions name is Elder Rodriguez, and yes, he is Latin, from Uraguay, but he is actually really white, he really looks like this one kid from Canada I knew from BYU. He has been out on the mission now for 17 months and goes home in September and he is also the District leader here right now, so he knows a lot about the mission. He is super funny and talks a lot in the street, so the Spanish is really improving quickly. He also talks super fast, a lot faster than anyone else here I`ve talked to, so again, the Spanish is going to improve quick. He is really excited about the work too, which is nice, because the Rama right now is right down about as low as it can possibly get. We went to go make a mission plan for the Branch with our Branch President two days ago because our mission President asked us to have one before the next zone conference which is this week. The very first thing our branch president did was laugh, and then talked about all the reasons we don`t have success here. It wasn`t fun. But we made the plan with him, when we actually got into it the President kind of changed. He really is a great guy, he just doesn`t want to do anything more than he has to, but he does want to help. We are going to get it going here and we are going to work really hard and I really feel like these next six weeks are going to be productive.
How were your days with the zone leader?
The days with the Zone leader were actually really awesome, we have probably the two most obedient Elders in our whole mission as our zone leaders right now. Just from one day with one of them I could really tell that he understands really well exactly why we are all here on the mission. The zone leaders when I got here were a lot different, they baptized a lot together, but now with the eight baptisms that they had that I personally know of, only one of them goes to church, which is kind of sad. They could get people to church really easily, but I don`t really think that the understanding of really why was there. I`m really excited for this change because of that too, because the zone leaders now are really getting on us for doing things the exact way they are meant to be done. Just from those couple days with Elder Snow I learned a lot about how the mission runs, how we should approach the work, and more about just working hard. He really showed me how important even the very littlest things are.
There are now four of you in your apartment again?
There are four in the apartment again, and I actually haven`t lived yet in the mission with just two. It is a lot more fun with four people but sometimes it can get pretty distracting. It takes a lot more to really get to it and focus, especially in the mornings, but we have been really good with it this past week so I hope it can keep going well for the rest of the change. I live with my companion and Elder Brazier and his companion Elder Hill. Uncle Lloyd before I left to go to the MTC actually told me to look for Elder Hill. They are next door neighbors, and now we are living together, so you are going to have to tell Uncle Loyd that we`re together now.
How are your investigators?
Honestly we don`t have many, we keep getting a lot of news and we have a few people to go back to this week, but we are pretty much starting out fresh now. We did have an investigator in church on Sunday, but it is this brother of one of the members we have already tried to work with and he was really drunk while he was there. He only stayed about 20 minutes. He just kind of walked in on his own during Sunday School, was a little mixed up about stuff, and then left on his own. It was something different. So we are going to be doing a lot of looking this week. We have a couple girls we are going to teach today that had a lot of good questions and I think really could progress because they actually have that desire to know, one of them has even investigated a lot of different churches because she doesn`t like the Catholic Church. Her parents make her go to church so we are going to have to do a lot for that one. We also have this man and his wife that seem really cool, we are going back tomorrow to teach about the Book of Mormon so we will see how that works out. I would really like to have a baptism this change, so we are going to work really hard to get that. We are in one of the highest baptizing missions in the world so I think we can do it.
What has happened to the young woman who was your first baptism? Do you follow-up with her or is the branch taking care of that?
She actually wasn`t really my baptism, I didn`t teach her anything, I just baptized her, and now she is a mess, she doesn`t go to church at all and doesn`t really like the missionaries or the members. I don`t really know what happened to that family, they had four converts in the family that were golden, did everything, and now none of them go to church.
What is the weather like there?
It`s really weird because we are in the Tropic Circle up in Pedro Juan so it started to get darker earlier like it was moving into fall, and then now it is getting lighter again and it is super hot right now, we are right in the time of the year where Paraguay is the closest thing to the sun, so it is really hot, but not as bad as Asuncion, it got up to 47 degrees out there recently, that is 127 degrees in the US, its crazy, all the Elders tell me I have no idea when I complain about the heat, but I will be here for all of summer so I guess I lucked out, to be in a cooler area of the mission.
Well, I`m out of time now, send me other questions next week, with the same ones I didn`t answer and I`ll do it again next week, I`m excited to talk to you about zone conference.
Who is the new companion? Has he been out a long time? What nationality?
My new companions name is Elder Rodriguez, and yes, he is Latin, from Uraguay, but he is actually really white, he really looks like this one kid from Canada I knew from BYU. He has been out on the mission now for 17 months and goes home in September and he is also the District leader here right now, so he knows a lot about the mission. He is super funny and talks a lot in the street, so the Spanish is really improving quickly. He also talks super fast, a lot faster than anyone else here I`ve talked to, so again, the Spanish is going to improve quick. He is really excited about the work too, which is nice, because the Rama right now is right down about as low as it can possibly get. We went to go make a mission plan for the Branch with our Branch President two days ago because our mission President asked us to have one before the next zone conference which is this week. The very first thing our branch president did was laugh, and then talked about all the reasons we don`t have success here. It wasn`t fun. But we made the plan with him, when we actually got into it the President kind of changed. He really is a great guy, he just doesn`t want to do anything more than he has to, but he does want to help. We are going to get it going here and we are going to work really hard and I really feel like these next six weeks are going to be productive.
How were your days with the zone leader?
The days with the Zone leader were actually really awesome, we have probably the two most obedient Elders in our whole mission as our zone leaders right now. Just from one day with one of them I could really tell that he understands really well exactly why we are all here on the mission. The zone leaders when I got here were a lot different, they baptized a lot together, but now with the eight baptisms that they had that I personally know of, only one of them goes to church, which is kind of sad. They could get people to church really easily, but I don`t really think that the understanding of really why was there. I`m really excited for this change because of that too, because the zone leaders now are really getting on us for doing things the exact way they are meant to be done. Just from those couple days with Elder Snow I learned a lot about how the mission runs, how we should approach the work, and more about just working hard. He really showed me how important even the very littlest things are.
There are now four of you in your apartment again?
There are four in the apartment again, and I actually haven`t lived yet in the mission with just two. It is a lot more fun with four people but sometimes it can get pretty distracting. It takes a lot more to really get to it and focus, especially in the mornings, but we have been really good with it this past week so I hope it can keep going well for the rest of the change. I live with my companion and Elder Brazier and his companion Elder Hill. Uncle Lloyd before I left to go to the MTC actually told me to look for Elder Hill. They are next door neighbors, and now we are living together, so you are going to have to tell Uncle Loyd that we`re together now.
How are your investigators?
Honestly we don`t have many, we keep getting a lot of news and we have a few people to go back to this week, but we are pretty much starting out fresh now. We did have an investigator in church on Sunday, but it is this brother of one of the members we have already tried to work with and he was really drunk while he was there. He only stayed about 20 minutes. He just kind of walked in on his own during Sunday School, was a little mixed up about stuff, and then left on his own. It was something different. So we are going to be doing a lot of looking this week. We have a couple girls we are going to teach today that had a lot of good questions and I think really could progress because they actually have that desire to know, one of them has even investigated a lot of different churches because she doesn`t like the Catholic Church. Her parents make her go to church so we are going to have to do a lot for that one. We also have this man and his wife that seem really cool, we are going back tomorrow to teach about the Book of Mormon so we will see how that works out. I would really like to have a baptism this change, so we are going to work really hard to get that. We are in one of the highest baptizing missions in the world so I think we can do it.
What has happened to the young woman who was your first baptism? Do you follow-up with her or is the branch taking care of that?
She actually wasn`t really my baptism, I didn`t teach her anything, I just baptized her, and now she is a mess, she doesn`t go to church at all and doesn`t really like the missionaries or the members. I don`t really know what happened to that family, they had four converts in the family that were golden, did everything, and now none of them go to church.
What is the weather like there?
It`s really weird because we are in the Tropic Circle up in Pedro Juan so it started to get darker earlier like it was moving into fall, and then now it is getting lighter again and it is super hot right now, we are right in the time of the year where Paraguay is the closest thing to the sun, so it is really hot, but not as bad as Asuncion, it got up to 47 degrees out there recently, that is 127 degrees in the US, its crazy, all the Elders tell me I have no idea when I complain about the heat, but I will be here for all of summer so I guess I lucked out, to be in a cooler area of the mission.
Well, I`m out of time now, send me other questions next week, with the same ones I didn`t answer and I`ll do it again next week, I`m excited to talk to you about zone conference.
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