April 24, 2017 - New Area

So this week was a bit of a crazy one. Well a week ago on monday we got a call saying that Elder Pacajá had emargency changes but he was just going to aother area here in Usulután. Well of course right when we were getting into the swing of things everything gets changed around. Well I am on companion #4 in the feild now and 3 of them are from Guatemala. The new comp is named Elder de Leon and we are working good together. This week has been one of the most successful weeks I have had here in Usulután and it has been awesome. Well from this change that we had, I learned that our Heavenly Father is always giving us chhallenges to grow. I have had to change my teachings and adapt to new companions but now I am capable of teaching in different ways that might help a certian investigator more than another way. As it says in Ether, "And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselces before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them." We are always given trials to grow. It is hard at times to always see the benifit of the hard times that we have, but when we can come to this realization, "I will make weak things become strong unto them." 

Well I'm sorry  because I say this almost everytime but the time is short. Sorry for the short letter but I love you all! Keep looking for missionary opportunitites and the chance to change someones life... its worth it... you got nothing to loose. 

Love,

Elder Adams Jr.

April 17, 2017 - Semana Santa

Family,

So yesterday being Easter or as they call it here, "Resurrection Sunday", the last day of "Holy Week", I have had a lot to think about and study. What did Jesus really do for us? I think at times we become a little forgetful and we don't remember what He really did. I have thought about this a ton throughout my mission and especially in this time of the year. He suffered every single pain, affliction, trial, hard time, hurt feeling, stubbed toe, and sad moment in our lives (Mosiah 3:7). I know that no man would be able to suffer anything near the amount that He did. The most amazing part was, it was His free will, He still had His agency to back out or to follow through out of love. Well I was reading in Luke the part when Jesus is teaching His disciples the Sacrament and He is talking to his disciple Simon. In Luke 22:33 Simon responds, "And he said unto him, Lord, I am ready to go with thee, both into prison, and to death." This verse really made me think. Am I a true disciple of Christ? Am I willing to stand next to Christ and go through what He did for us? I know that it would be extremely hard but I hope that we all can answer yes. Just a thought that I had during my studies. I hope this Easter you all had the opportunity to reflect on the part that is most important, our Savior and Redeemer Jesus Christ.

So this week was another awesome one highlighted with a trip to the temple. We went all as a mission to the temple with all our investigators, less actives, recent converts, and members. We weren't supposed to go in this time because we were with our investigators but pretty much the night before we got a call saying we were going to be able to enter. Well, this opportunity to go in was awesome. I could feel the presence of our Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost. I was reminded of the blessings that we can recieve when we are obedient and faithful to the covenants that we have made. I am so grateful to be able to have the blessing of the temple in my life. I know that only through the temple and the power of the Holy Priesthood we can live together forever as families. 

So the cool story of the week... for those of you who don't know, my Uncle Dean served his mission here in El Salvador about 39 years ago. Well this week we had our Stake conference and I was sitting with Elder Pacajá before one of the sessions and I saw some guy looking at me. After a little bit he came up to us and asked if I was Elder Adams. We talked for a bit and he told me thaat Uncle Dean baptised him 39 years ago and how grateful he is for the Gospel in his life to this day. He even pulled 2 little wallet sized pictures out of his shirt pocket of Uncle Dean. Thought you would all enjoy. What a small world and I'm super stoked to be able to say I met him. Faithful and strong, just how each and every one of us needs to be.

Love,

Elder Adams

P.S. Sorry for no pics this week I had some camera problems but this week we will get back on it!

April 10, 2017 - SIX MONTHS

WOW time is flying! This week I passed 6 months in the mission! I know that I still have a ton of experiences to be made and people to meet and by no means do I want it to go any faster. I am loving this time I have here and I know it just keeps getting faster and faster. SLOW DOWN! 

Well in this time I have learned a ton. One thing that I have really focused on learning is trying to see people through God's eyes. I know we can all silently judge at moments or have a little thought pop into our heads but when we always look at people and try to find the best in them, we always benefit. Especially here on the mission, if I make the judgement to not talk to someone because of their appearance or the way they go about things, I am not doing the Lord's will. I will not be able to have His power with me or be able to find the people that He has prepared. When we are outgoing and talk to everyone, literally everyone, we see the hand of God in the work that we are doing for His children. 

Another important thing that I have learned and that I have shared before is how important the scriptures are, especially The Book of Mormon. We have a guide to our lives in front of us and many times we are to selfish with our time and we don't even pick it up. I definatly was guilty of this before the time I have had here. I could have studied my scriptures much more and I could have gained so much more before the mission. I wasn't humble enough to read my scriptures and learn from the teachings of prophets, which are the same as the teachings of our Heavenly Father (D&C 1:38). Well now that I was kind of forced to leave my old lazy self behind I have learned and found out what I was missing all this time. I have come to know that The Book of Mormon is sacred scripture that can help in every way imaginable. All we have to do is pick it up every once in a while and actually read it! As President Monson said, "If you are not reading The Book of Mormon every day, please do so." 

Lastly, I have learned to solve a Rubiks cube. Just kidding, well I did learn that but another thing that has really helped me, like Bryan and Kevin have always said, has been loving the people. I have felt love for so many people in this short time that I have been here. From all the people that I got to know in Alta Vista and also now in Usulután, I have come to love every single one of them. When we have this love for everyone, it helps us on those hard days. I can always just think about the people that we are helping and it gives me the drive and desire to keep working hard and trusting in thhe Lord. Most importantly, we need to love our Heavenly Father and His Son Jesus Christ. Especially in this Easter season, we can reflect on what the sacrifice of Jesus really means. Are we humble enough to accept this gift of forgivenes? Are we too prideful to realize that we are in the wrong? I encourage every one to study Alma 7:11-13 and really think about what Christ did for you. 

Well this week has been an awesome one. We have focused on finding new people to teach and with the help of Heavenly Father and many prayers, we found some really amazing people. I hope your week was just as good and that you can have an amazing week this week full of oportunities to remember Christ and what He has done for you. I'm happy, healthy, and and loving my mission!

Love,

Elder Adams Jr.

P.S. If you haven't seen "Ephraim's Rescue" you're missing out. We only watched a part of it in a multi zone conference but from the 20 minutes that we watched, I could tell it is a sweet movie.

Mom and Dad

Elder Pacajá, the new comp

Well we celebrated a bit, 12 pupusas was a bit much

 Leaning tower of pupusas

April 3, 2017 - Usulutan

Fam,

So this week was another good one here in Usulután. I'm used to the area and my companion now but getting used to the heat is still taking its time. We have been lucky with it not being too hot but it still can be powerful. Kev I know that I have nothing to talk about. I'm sure Africa is 10x hotter haha. 

Well like you all know, this week was highlighted by conference. Conference here feels like Christmas at home :). There was so much counsel and teachings we could learn. In specific, a few talks really stood out and called my attention. First was a talk in the Saturday Afternoon Session by M. Russell Ballard. In this lesson he taught, we learned abut goal setting and how we need to set goals. Not only a goal is necessary, we need to come up with a plan to lead us to that goal. It really changed my perspective on the subject when he said that we have the perfect example of the Goal/Plan pattern. Heavenly Father's goal is "to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man." He has this goal that is not an easy one haha but He has created a perfect plan to accomplish His goal. The Plan of Salvation is the perfect plan to bring the children of God back to his presence in happiness. He added that we need to ask ourselves, how are we doing? I think we can all apply this to our lives and really set goals and more importantly, we can achieve them.

In the Priesthood Session, David A. Bednar talked about Missionary Work and what our focus should be in life as young Priesthood holders. He started out with the letter that every missionary receives to know where they will labor. The first sentence calls us to serve and the second calls us to labor. Everyone of us has been called to serve as missionaries. Maybe some of us have not had the opportunity to be assigned to labor but, like in D&C 80 says "...whether to the north or to the south, to the east or to the west, it mattereth not, for ye cannot go amiss." Every single one of us are called to the work. It doesn't matter if we are at home or on the mission, we "cannot go amiss". Full time missionaries or member missionaries, we always have work to be done. 

Well there were a ton of talks that really were awesome and helped change my view on certain aspects of the Gospel and on our lives. I could say a little something about every talk that I liked but it would bore you all to death. Hopefully you all already heard all these messages and are applying them! Conference is a huge blessing for us. We have the opportunity to listen to the living Prophet and his Apostles. We have the chance to receive guidance from our Father in Heaven through His holy servants. Now it is our turn to apply these teachings in our daily lives and live as servants of our Father also.

I am happy, healthy and loving my mission. Thank you all for your support and love. I pray for each and every one of you all the time. Have an awesome week and I'll talk to you all too soon!

Love,

Elder Adams Jr.

Sorry I didnt take many pics this week but heres a random one of parts of the new area. some places look like jungle and others like deserts haha its weird 

March 27, 2017 - Craziest Week Yet

So this week was the craziest one yet. After we wrote and were shopping last week I got a call that I had transfers and had to be ready wednesday morning. My first transfer. I had one day to say bye to all these people that I had been with for all this time. Luckily we are going as a mission to the temple soon and we can see all of our investigators and people if they go. Tuesday a a long and sad day. We still went around and taught lessons but I had to say bye to all these people. Like Kevin always says, the goodbyes are always the hardest. We spend so much time with these people, we see their lives change, we learn to love these people, and boom you got a day to say bye to them. Well I could tell you about all the people that we have met while being in Alta Vista, all the members, investigators, and drunk guys but, I'll just send some pics. 

Well wednesday morning we got up with all my bags packed and went to the bus terminal. After waiting for ever, not knowing where I was going, who was going to be my new companion, and what the new area was like, I got thrown on a bus with some other elders. We took a 4 hour bus ride to San Miguel which is on the east side of El Salvador. There they told us who our companions were going to be and where we were going from there. The new area is called Usulután and I am with another Elder from Guate named Elder Pacajá. Well just a little about the area, it is nothing like Alta Vista. We are in the "city" of Usulután but it is literally the middle of nowhere. We cove a part of the city but its pretty much a market and a few shops. It is sweet though, we get to experience it all haha. Well it is like 3x hotter here then in Alta Vista and we walk way more too haha. Besides that I am trying to get used to the way people talk here. They don't pronounce anything the same, its like a whole new language. 

Well I am just getting used to everything after my first transfer and settling in. I hope next week I'll hae something a little more spiritual to share. I love you all and miss you but I nee to be here in Usulután right now getting all sweaty and with heat exhaustion haha. I'll talk to you all way too soon... 

Love,

Elder Adams Jr.

Pics-

So pretty much all the pics are with a bunch of the people that I had to say bye to and the new area... yep I'm in the middle of nowhere.

March 20, 2017 - Apply His Teachings

Fam,

So im just going to say sorry before I start because this is going to be a little short and all over the place. So this week was a good week, didnt get sick,  had some investigators in church, and the work is progressing We didnt have too much out of the normal lessons and meetings. 

So this week I was studying the life of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and I realized that I can try a little harder to apply His teachings and His attributes in my daily life. One of the attributes of Christ that I focused on this week was patience. There are many times that we are too impatient with ourselves, others and most importantly with our Heavenly Father. I know that we all, me included, want blessings immediatly and we dont want to wait time for them to come. Often we give up on the things that we need because it is taking too long or we dont think that we will recieve it. This week i hvae tried to be patient with blessings and our Heavenly Father. He wants to bless us but as we learn in the scriptures, we need a trial of faith before we are going to see these miracles. Many people think that if we could see miracles they would be able to have faith. That is what the adversary wants us to think so we wont have faith. It is our Heavenly Father's plan to test our faith and then give the blessings.

Sorry its so short this week I had a whole letter written up and it got deleted:) Next week I hope I dont have the same luck. Well I love you all and hope and pray that each and every one of you is doing well and is loving the trials and blessings that our Heavenly Father gives us. 

Love,

Elder Adams Jr. 

Yes He really did turn 803 years old. 

The District just being nerds

Progress on the shack

Action shots with Elder Adams and Elder Vasquez

March 13, 2017 - Importance of Baptism

Mi Familia,

             So this week was another awesome week. We had a sweet experience that made me see the power of our Heavenly Father in practice when we put our faith in Him and work for our answer. So last week we baptized Sandra and her son Mario. From pretty much the beginning, they were set on getting baptized. However, the Dad in the family, Juan Antonio wasn’t very excited about it. He had the concern that he had already been baptized so he didn’t need to do it again. We had a date set for the family to get baptized together but, he didn’t come to church enough times, so we couldn’t have them the same day. We changed the date for the 11^th, the next week but he wasn’t super set on it. Last Sunday he came up to us and said that he didn’t want to get baptized right now and maybe in April. I talked to him during the whole 3^rd hour of church about the importance of baptism and how it is a commandment. After that he agreed to just delay it one week until the 18^th of March. Of course it was kind of a bummer because he was not super excited about this amazing covenant that we have the opportunity to make. Well we kept teaching and preparing him for baptism throughout the week.

              On Thursday we went to another investigators house who is Juan Antonio’s friend and he said that Juan wanted to talk to us about baptism. Of course the worst came to my mind first. I thought that he was going to tell us that he didn’t want to get baptized anymore or that he wanted to change the date again. We got to their house and the first thing he said (pretty much yelling) was “Hermanos, can I get baptized this Saturday?!?”It was Thursday. We made a ton of calls and got an interview scheduled for the next day, Friday. Long story short, we had his baptism this Saturday and it all went smooth. I know that because He was reading his scriptures, praying, and coming to church, he received his answer. He was super excited and he is even happier now. We now are teaching them about the things they have to do to be an eternal family. 

                I think one of the coolest parts for me was sharing his story with another investigator. This lady is married to a member and her daughter is a member but she just doesn’t want to commit to being baptized. She comes to church every Sunday and we teach them on a regular basis but she just doesn’t want to commit to anything. On Saturday after the baptism we went to their house and I shared the power of Heavenly Father in our conversion when we do the things that he asks of us. I shared Juan’s story and how he did a 180 degree turn from not wanting to be baptized to “Can you baptize me in 2 days? ”While sharing that I just had the best feeling and knew that she felt it too. We are doing our best with her and I know someday she will get in the water. 

                I know that was all over the place and I might have forgotten some things but to me it was a cool story and testimony that Heavenly Father works and only works on us when we are doing our part. I love these people, this area, El Salvador, all of you, and especially my Savior Jesus Christ and our Father in Heaven. 

                Have an awesome week and keep putting your faith in our Heavenly Father. He will bless you! Have an awesome week and stay safe. 

Love,

Elder Adams Jr.

P.S. Sorry not too many pictures. All I can say about them is I’m still trying to teach them how to smile