Week 45 in the Mission Happy Birthday Year Mark

We have had another quick week here in the mission, with a lot of big days for me,
20th birthday, my one year mark, and I was able to go to the temple this week because conference is coming up. That was probably the highlight of my week, being able to go to the temple, it was a really awesome experience, spiritual experience. It was a lot better this time because I actually understand everything, the Spanish that is a least, the first time I went in Paraguay I understood a lot because of how often I had gone in English, so I could follow really well, but this time I was actually understanding, following the Spanish like a Spanish speaking person, not just because I can translate it into English, if that makes any sense.
That made it more enjoyable and meaningful, and at the same time it was Thursday, which was the same day I finished a year of my mission, so I was able to make it a kind of “rendimiento” with my Heavenly Father, everyone that speaks Spanish will understand that, well, maybe not, because I heard it has a different meaning here. I really can’t find an English word that does it justice, the word means an evaluation of performance, or a report, here the people use it to say a testing week, if they have to rendir, it means they have to take a test, but anyway, I’m getting off topic. The whole time in the temple I was just sitting there thinking about what I had been able to accomplish my first year, really pleading for forgiveness for mistakes, and seeking an approval of what I had done well, so I thought about that through the whole session, really focusing on understanding what was being said and looking for things that could help me be better.

As I waited to pass through to the celestial room I started to really notice how much the Lord has done on my mission for me. How much he has helped me, lifted me up, and how much he has really built upon my weaknesses to make me a better person. and as I entered into the celestrial room, I just felt the most amazing peace, like I was supposed to be there, like I was being accepted into his presence. It was amazing, it was probably one of the best feelings I have felt in my life; I truly felt his grace. There are a lot of things I have done, or didn’t do, on my mission I wish I would have done differently, but that night in the temple I really understood that I don’t have to, I don’t have to go back and try and change all those little things, all I have to do is live today a better person than I was yesterday, and let His love help me grow to be better the next time, because I have been forgiven. He is the reason I have grown, I am way too human to give any credit to myself, but I know that if I were to have to go to Him right now He would accept me, because He is whom I have put my trust in.

Those moments in the Celestial Room have really made me see things in a different light, and have really made me, at the same time, want to really reach my full potential. I know I’m not perfect, but the temple shows us that we can be, if we are doing all we can. That’s a little quote from Elder Gage, he told me that in the Celestial Room, we had a really nice conversation in the Celestial Room, it was actually kind of sad, it was like when you’re with all your buddies hanging out for the last time before you have to go on some big trip and you won’t see them for a really long time. Elder Gage is definitely one of the best friends I have in the mission as of now, and I’ll probably be here in the office to drive him home in January. I really hope he goes to BYU or something, or we can get together after the mission somehow, he has helped me out more than any other companion I have had, and it’s going to take a lot for any other to help me grow more.

Anyway, so all in all I had a really great week, we have still been working really hard with the rest of Laura’s family, there is definitely something developing there, but there is just something lacking, I don’t know what it is yet, but I’m going to do the best I can to find it. We had a really good lesson this week with them reading Alma 32, we went through where they are and how they can really receive a perfect knowledge that they need to be baptized, I explained that we get the seed and we experiment on it and it will begin to grow, Heavenly Father will help our faith in Jesus Christ increase, but we have a responsibility still to act upon our faith, we can’t expect Heavenly Father to give us the perfect knowledge Himself, or we wouldn’t be using our faith. We started reading in verse 28 and we went to verse 35, but I really stopped in 34 were it says, “And now, behold, is your knowledge perfect? Yea, your knowledge is perfect in that thing, and your faith is dormant;” I asked them why they thought our faith would be dormant, then I explained that principle, how we don’t receive any testimony until after the trial of our faith, the scripture really is trying to say that because our knowledge is perfect our faith is dormant, but they understood what I was trying to say and I think the application is really what they needed, it was a really good lesson, I know they felt the Spirit in it and they accepted a date to be baptized next week, they are still a little not sure about it though, so I don’t know if it will happen, we will make sure we do all we can so they can get baptized this next week, but if not, it’ll be done in the Lord’s time.

That is pretty much all there was to the week, other than that the area has been really tough lately, we haven’t really been getting in to teach anyone new, but they will come, as long as we keep being diligent. Sorry, I didn’t answer too many of the questions in this letter, but I think you got basically the feelings for the birthday week. Tell Merrill I’m really excited for him, I did know him a little bit before we moved to New York, but not too much, but I’m sure he’ll remember me if you tell him congrats for me. Keep me updated on the other mission calls, and see how Nick is doing for me. It is funny that you mentioned him coming home because I was walking in the streets with my companion the other day and he asked me what I thought my friends from 8th grade were doing. I immediately thought of Nick and Tim, and how they were both on missions, then it hit me that Nick was either home or going home in the next week, because I had seen his parents in September at BYU when they dropped him off at the MTC, so I was right. It is so weird to think he is already a returned missionary, he might even be married before I get home...

Anyway, I love you all so much, can’t wait for General Conference, I will write you between sessions on Saturday, love you, Elder Adamson V

Laura's Baptism

Week 44 in Paraguay Office District Leader

This week was probably the most stressful week of my entire mission. There was so much to do with changes and everything I thought I was going to go crazy (sorry Dad, but that is a correct use of the word, love you Dad) Anyway, when Thursday night came I was probably the happiest man alive, it was like a huge task was completely finished, and I didn’t even mess anything up. The major downside though to the week was we didn’t get to missionary work in our area very much; Monday we only got 2 ½ hours in our areas, nothing on Tuesday or Wednesday, then about 3 hours on Thursday and then back to normal on Friday, so with all that I have only been out in the area doing missionary work this week for about 10 hours, that is less than I would normally do in one day before I came into the mission office. Good news though, every companionship in Campo Grande baptized this week, so we have 3 confirmations for church on Sunday. More news, at changes I got called to be the office District Leader, so I’m going to start doing baptismal interviews and teaching district meetings on Tuesdays. I was able to do my very first interview this last Wednesday for a baptism on Thursday, It was this investigator that has been investigating the church since before I even got to the office, and she new everything perfectly, it was the easiest interview I have ever had to do... Anyway, so we had 3 people get baptized on Tuesday, the Assistants baptized two and Elder Gage, Elder Dailey and I baptized Laura, her whole family was at the baptism and the service went super well. We just went on Thursday to see how they were doing and talked a little to Fatima, Laura’s younger sister, and she told us that before she had never really taken anything we said seriously, and when she saw Laura getting ready to be baptized and finally get baptized, she realized that is was something that could really be true and important, and told us that she is going to start really reading to know, that was what we were hoping for, that Laura getting baptized would help the rest of her family really discover the gospel on their own. Laura is awesome, she is so willing to do what God wants her to do, she is a single mom, 23 with a 4 year old son, and she is one of the nicest people I’ve ever met, and she told us she is going to start reading with Fatima so she can help her sister discover what she has discovered. This family has been all I can really think about lately, I want to help them so bad, and it has been some of the best experiences watching them find out for themselves and be blessed by the gospel. Juan Jose told us the other day about his conversion, the Mom is always looking things up on Mormon.org, Fatima is trying to find the answer now, and Laura is getting confirmed tomorrow. I am so grateful for the work that we are doing with this family, teaching people like them is what keeps you going and makes it all worth it.

Anyway, sorry this email is a little scrambled, we just played some soccer against the south mission and I don’t have any energy at all, it is starting to get hot again, and its only September, it is supposed to be in the 90’s here tomorrow, but anyway, I’m still hanging in there, I don’t have much time left, I hope everyone has a great week, it is going to be the last week of my first year, time is going by way too fast, CRAZY, I love you all so much, Elder Adamson V

Week 43 in Paraguay Change 7 Week 5

Another hectic week in the office, every week I get into the office and think it is going to be a little more relaxed so I can get caught up on a lot of things, and then it is just a hectic week just the same. Next week there are changes, so that definitely won't be a relaxed week, so I guess you just never get a chance to relax in the office, but that is a good thing, it is making the time go by really fast, I have almost already been here in the office just as long as I was in San Lorenzo, it felt like an eternity in San Lorenzo and I feel like I have just got here, maybe that is just a blessing from the Lord though because he knows how long I really am going to be here. Anyway, today has been a pretty crazy P-day, more like it hasn't been a P-day at all, we have been doing office work all morning and just now I've got some time to write and do some things, but anyway, I don't really have too much time to write because of that. Anyway, we are having a baptism this Tuesday! I am so excited, we are baptizing Laura, one of the girls from this family we are teaching. The rest of the family still wants to wait a little while, but I had probably one of the best lessons in all of my mission with them a few days ago, it really just made all of it worth it, I don't really even know what happened in the lesson, but I felt different, really accomplished, like I was really doing absolutely everything I could for someone, and they were actually understanding and learning and willing to change. It put everything into perspective, seeing all of them happy for literally eternity, and seeing how I stood right in the middle of it, it was really one of the best moments in my entire mission, something I will never forget. It was also probably one of the hardest moments of my mission too, because I bore my testimony and everything, and they really understood, and Laura told us she wanted to get baptized with Juan Jose, her brother who had already decided he wanted to get baptized but has never gone to church. In the kindest way possible we had to tell him that he couldn't get baptized yet until he goes to church a few times, I have never had someone tell me they wanted to get baptized on a specific date and had to tell them no, and I really hope I never have to again, but it was a very good lesson and he understands a lot better what he has to do to be able to be baptized, and he honestly wants to so he will get baptized, just not on Tuesday. Hopefully Laura's baptism will help out the whole family, the whole family is going to go and hopefully the experience will help them all decide that it is the right thing to do. They are such great people and I feel honored to be the missionary to teach them, they really have made my whole mission worth it, and I hope through my teaching they can feel that importance that I place in them. Anyway, sorry to cut things a little short, but I really don't have too much time, I just want you all to know I love you so much and I am so grateful for the calling that I have, I am coming to appreciate it more and more everyday. I love you all so much, Elder Adamson V

Week 42 in Paraguay Change 7 Week 4

So this week was a week of changes, there is a whole new office staff now! Elder Payne and Elder Daily came into the office and started working on Tuesday, you know what that means, I am the oldest office Elder other than the assistants with time in the office and in the mission, how crazy is that! Elder Daily and I did come together though, so I guess I can’t really say I have more time than him in the mission, but now that I think about it, I do think I got off the plane before him...

Anyway, Elder Decker, the old records guy, left on Tuesday and is a Zone Leader now in Limpio, he only trained Elder Payne for one day and Elder Payne has been working like crazy ever since. Elder Gage on the other hand is training Elder Dailey for two and a half weeks, so we still get to have some fun before he leaves the office. Elder Dailey is a great guy, the last three days in a row Elder Gage couldn’t come with us into our area because of divisions and things, so Elder Dailey and I have been teaching together already for a while now. He has a lot of stories and we get along great, we kind of teach a little differently, but that always happens with new companions, we’ll figure that out really quick. The office has been pretty hectic lately. The new mission President is still trying to get everything up to date and make sure everything works really efficiently. He is all about efficiency, which is giving us a lot of work now, but I think in the long run it’ll give the office Elders a lot less work. They will start working in their areas a lot earlier in the day, I think once the office staff that is in the office now gets out, President will change it so it so office elders will get out into to their teaching and finding areas sooner in the day. I’ve had tons of assignments lately just proof-reading things, loading things into this new system President has made, and going over computer files to see how we can put everything into this system to make it easier and work faster. It has been a lot of work, but it really makes the time go by so fast, I can’t believe it is September already, I’ve been in the office for over two months now and I feel like I just got here. Oh, and originally President had told me I would be in the office for 6-8 months, but he is making it sound now that everyone will leave the office once they have been in the office for 6 months, which would put me out of the office right at the new year, so who knows, maybe I’ll be getting out of here a lot sooner than I had thought before, I won’t get my hopes up though, just in case, I’d rather leave thinking I was going to stay than stay thinking I was going to leave, if you know what I mean.

Anyway, so a lot of good things have been happening lately, usually it is really hard to find new investigators in our area, but lately we haven’t been doing too many contacts and investigators are just coming out of nowhere. We went back to this old investigator this week, this really old lady that can hardly move, but has a really big family, just to see if we might be able to teach her daughter a little more because she had seemed kind of interested, but instead we met the ladies grandson that has 15 years, and he was really humble and really awesome, we had a really good lesson one with him and said a prayer on our knees with him before we left, we are going to be going back to him tonight, we’ll see what happens. Then after that we got another new going back to an old investigator, then another off of a contact, then another in a contact. The last one we got last night is a professional soccer player here in Paraguay and was super nice and humble, but I think it is going to be hard to get him to go to church because of his career, plus he told us that he has a girlfriend and because of his career he doesn’t get to see her much so he goes to her house on the weekends, but he really wants to learn and hopefully that is enough to change his life.

Our family has been doing really well too, they didn’t go to church last week, I think because of the mom, but this week we were able to teach them how to mark scriptures and pray to receive answers and I think that has really been helping them to discover the truth of the gospel. Thanks for the help, with why they didn’t like church, but I think the problem was more of the opposite, the church is definitely reverent, so reverent you could fall asleep sometimes, the average age of our ward is probably around 45-50, and our investigators that went are 19 and 23 and they thought the meeting was boring, there were a few members that went up to give their talks and just read from the Liahona, so it is understandable for their first time there, but we went over a few things with them the last couple weeks to try and help them get more out of the meeting so it isn’t as boring. I just keep praying they’ll decide to come back though, we put a baptismal date with them for the 14th, but every time we go over there the mom tells us to have patience with them, and the son just got a new job where he has to work on Sunday and he doesn’t even have any attendance yet, so we’ll see what really happens, but I am going to make sure they get baptized before I leave the office at least, we are trying to push for them to get baptized before Elder Gage leaves, but I don’t know if it is going to work out that way, but we are praying for them and they are definitely progressing, we just have to get them more excited about committing to go to church every Sunday.

I will try to do some epic things this week to make the letter even more awesome than usual. Spiritual thought of the day, something I thought about during studies, we were looking over good quotes from the last mission President and his wife and one that his wife used to always say was, “If you want to be great, go to Alma 48” that’s the chapter that talks about how if all men would and ever would be like Moroni, Hell would have no power. I thought of how Mormon was writing that part and I wondered, maybe Mormon named his son Moroni because he was writing this part and he wanted to name his son after the example of Captain Moroni, just a thought, I wanted to look at the dates to maybe see if it was possible, tell me what you think, also I was thinking in Guaraní, which is an ancient American language, when you put “i” on the end of a word it means the same thing but little, and Moron was a named from Jerusalem right, maybe Moroni just means little Moron, or like the son of Moron, maybe that is where the name came from, just interesting thoughts I had today.



P.S. About the letter you got, I didn’t type it, the President’s wife did, but I did create a Word Document out of it with Mail Merge fields so I could Merge the names of all the Elders, I printed it, matched the pictures, and put them in the envelopes, but I didn’t write it, only proof read it, love you all again! ¡Rohayhu che familiakuéra! (I love you my family)

Week 41 in Paraguay Change 7 Week 3

I can hardly even remember what happened this week it went by so fast. We had our big training meeting all week long. We had to coordinate a lot of elders and things this week, and that made it go by faster. This next week should be pretty normal, we haven't been able to have a normal week in the office in a long time, so it will be nice to have a little bit of time to just get caught up on projects and really get things organized in the office.
Big news though, I don't know if I already told all of you, but the office staff is changing and the new elders are coming in tomorrow. There is going to be a new fichero and a new financiero, a new records guy and a new money keeper, that means tomorrow I'm going to be getting a new companion. Elder Gage will still be here to train him, for the next 2 and a half weeks, but I'm going to miss him when he goes, he has definitely been a great companion. Definitely a favorite companion. My new companion's name is Elder Daily, he came with me to the mission field, so we will be hitting the year mark together. I don't really know him at all though, we were in different districts in the MTC, and I've only seen him in passing since the day we flew down together. So I'm going to have to wait another week to tell you a little more about him. I do know he is a convert to the churc, the first member in his family. Baptized a year before he came on his mission, and he baptized his mom before he left, but they are the only members in his family still. That is pretty neat. It reminds me of a part of the blessing Dad gave me before I left, how I would have companions that were new to the church and I would learn from their simple faith, but when I heard that I just assumed those companions would be Latin, but Elder Daily is 100% American.
I guess I'll get to those questions and I'll tell you a little more about the new office elders next week after they have been in a while.
How's the missionary work? How many people are you working with? Are they coming to church? The work lately has been really good, we still really don't have too many people we are working with, but the people we are working with are really cool and are progressing. We are teaching this family, the mom, two daughters and a son, the mom and one of the daughters are separated from their husbands, the other daughter is 19 and the son is 17, and they are some of the coolest investigators I have had thus far in my mission. They always read and they actually understand what they are reading, they could do a little better on the prayer part, but at least they don't lie. I have been thinking about this family a lot lately, just trying to think about how we can help them more, three of them went to church and they told us they liked all of it until the last hour, sacrament meeting, the most important part of church. My companion and I have been trying so hard with them, we are going back again tonight to get them all ready for church. We have got to figure something out so they have a good time in church, this training meeting has been a big help with that too though. One of the eight focuses in the new curriculum is Revelation through church attendance, hopefully we can apply some of those things tonight to get a good commitment with them so they can feel the Spirit during sacrament meeting tomorrow. I want so bad for them to get baptized, right now their baptismal date is set for the 10th of September, we are a little worried for them though because they haven't been too excited about church this week, and if they miss just one Sunday, Elder Gage will already be gone before they get baptized.
How's the office? What have you been doing? How is driving in the city? The office has been great, it has been really hectic this week though because of all the missionaries that were in the office, it always seems like the office is just busy based on the number of missionaries just standing around, and it always seems like every one of them want to talk to President for some reason or another. But really honestly it has been great, recently my latest project was to re-make the change board so they are all individual magnets, instead of just taping magnets to pictures of missionaries. It is all in and cut and all I have to do now is put it up on the board now, so I'll be finishing that project this week. I've been doing a lot of flight plans lately too, I had to do the last ones a little bit earlier so we could make sure missionaries going home close to Christmas had flights. Driving is crazy, I am really glad you never have to drive in this country, it is a whole new world, but I am pretty used to it now. I just hope it doesn't show through when I get back to the states, because it really isn't the best way to drive, but I don't think it will, once I actually have big streets again and people that aren't trying to constantly cut you off, I think I will drive just like I did before. It is really good though that I learned how to drive a stick before my mission, I can't imagine trying to learn how to drive a stick on these kinds of roads, and I would not be able to do my job without being able to drive, maybe me crashing the car back in New York was really just a tender mercy so I could learn how to drive a stick and be a more effective missionary as a mission secretary, probably not, but it makes me feel a little better about it anyway. I attached a picture I found on the computer of the old office car, the one we drive now is almost exactly the same, same color and everything, just a newer model. I'll try to remember to take a picture of the real Randog, that's what we call it, for next week.
Have lots of new missionaries? New people in the office? Has your new President got things the way he wants? There will be a lot of new missionaries coming soon, and new people in the office soon, and I think President will be getting a lot of things the way he wants really soon. He already has changed a whole lot of things, but really just in the office, if I were just a regular missionary in the field not much would have changed. The new President is super smart with computers and he doesn´t really like the system we have been using, so he started making this completely new system and is uploading it to all of our computers, now we kind of use both systems, but soon it´ll just be the one he made.
Anyway, no more time, I love you all so much, can't wait to write you again next week, hopefully with news of awesome people going to church, finding new people, and preparing for baptisms. Love you so much, Elder Adamson V

Week 40 in Paraguay Change 7 Week 2

Down here everything is pretty relaxed right now. Just normal P-day fever. About the week, this last week seemed to just fly by, I honestly don't even really remember it starting, but a lot of good things happened. First of all, Zone Conferences are over, I got to go on Wednesday, there is this new focus with all missionaries all over the world on teaching skills. The church has come out with this whole new training program to help missionaries become better missionaries. It sounds like it is really going to help out a lot of things. With that the leaders of the mission are attending this 4 day training this next week, I think I already talked about it a little bit, I went out to Pedro Juan on a division for the last one, but now its my turn to go because this one is for young leaders. It focuses on eight specific points from Preach My Gospel to help missionaries focus more on helping their investigators understand their purpose and feel the Spirit. We have been applying just a few of the points recently in our area and the outcomes have been really awesome. Just this week we put five new baptismal dates for the 10th of September, on Justin's birthday, hopefully they go through so I have an awesome birthday present for him. Tonight we might be putting three more on the calendar, so eight to be baptized that day. We were planning earlier in the week with a map of our area because we pretty much have nothing happening right now, and we decided to contact these five secluded blocks on the other side of our area where we never go because it is a huge walk to get there. So we get out there and the very first house we contact we go inside and put three baptismal dates on the calendar, and have since then put another one in the house. There is a single mom that lives there with three of her kids, ages 23, 19, and 17 ish. The 23 year old is also a single mom, and all of them are preparing to be baptized. They are seriously some of the best investigators I have ever had in my mission, and they actually understand really well, which doesn't happen very often, well pretty much everyone in this area does. They read and discuss the Book of Mormon with us and all should be at church tomorrow. I think two of them will come for sure, the other two are a little iffy, but we've got faith. Then there is this other girl, Lurdes, that let us in and we shared the gospel with her and her two children and she is also one of the best investigators I have ever taught. She has so much desire to do what is right and look for what Heavenly Father wants her to do. She has a few more problems though, she is living with someone and they aren't married, and they have been together a long time, but marriage isn't a problem, except he isn't the father of the children and we aren't sure if she was married before? Divorce is a problem here because it takes a very long time and is expensive, so hopefully she never got married in the first place so we can just get her married and baptized. We haven't ever talked to her boyfriend yet. Her two sons, ages 9 and 11, both play soccer Sunday mornings, so getting to church might be a little problem. The other date we could put tonight is with this single girl named Alicia, she has already been to church once, but since then she has kind of fizzled out. We are going there tonight and we are going to either leave her with a baptismal date or we are going to drop her.
I am really excited though to be able to go to the training meeting this next week and start applying all of the points. We are having more success in our area right now than I think we have had since I got here in the office, and I really think it is because of these new things we are applying to our teaching. It still is kind of hard to plan from 4:30 to 9 though because of how few investigators we have. Generally the investigators we have are really awesome right now. It is really sad thought considering everyday before I got the office we planned from 10AM in the morning to 9PM at night without any problems filling the whole day, and now we have trouble filling more than 2 hours, and we just end up contacting the rest of the time. I am really excited for the near future, and I really hope we can get Lurdes to church tomorrow and prepared for everything, because if we can get her and her boyfriend married and baptized on the 10th of September, that would be a family before I hit my year mark so I might have a chance to go through the temple with them to get them sealed before I go home. If it doesn't go through that way, I think for sure we will be having baptisms again before the end of September.