E-mail 12-16-13

Hello!  I would totally send you some awesome photos but the computer isn’t letting me.  I have the slow computer this week and it’s not working very well.  Sorry about that.  I got some cool photos on top of the castle in the middle of town. You’ll just have to wait and see next week.  Be excited. That’s legit that Tommy got home.   Kid is a boss . It’s been fun watching and hearing about all the success he’s had on his mission and the changes that have come from it into his life. He’s been a huge example for me and for many others.  Missions rock eh . I’m sure he preached the good word on Sunday with authority.  Elder Stockard always was a real crowd pleaser.   #NextPresident  I agree with you.   Sundays are good.   We had some super good talks yesterday as well.   We had the stake leader come.   He gave a killer talk on the importance of the Sabbath.   That’s good that Bishop Schank got my letter.  I wrote it quickly but I think it will be just fine.   I always do come in clutch ehh?    Learned that from you Dad. That’s awesome that the ducks have been coming in like crazzzzy!  Send me some photos.   I miss killing them greenies (ducks).   Hopefully next winter is nice and cold again. Is it still super cold there?

   

So we went back this week to the family with the 13 year old son. We only taught he mother though. He was still sleeping along with his brothers.  We had to go early in the morning but that’s okay.  It was a super lesson.  We went over the restoration again and focused on the Book of Mormon.  I was pretty scared because she LOVES the bible and believes it’s the only way to God,  but she was surprisingly open, the spirit worked on her and she accepted it and will start reading.  The spirit was powerful.  She is so golden she just hasn’t realized it yet! haha.  She just needs to get her bum to church!  She’s gonna be there this week, I can feel it.  We will be seeing her and her kids this week so that we can share a Christmas message.  Pretty excited for that!  Nothing better then teaching families. 

So my new comp is pretty legit.  He is from Austria as I said.  He speaks German.  His French and English are super good though as well.  He has been on the mission for a year.   I’ve learned a lot these last couple of days.  He really has a desire to serve and love everyone.  He is super obedient as well.  This is going to be a good transfer!  C'est trop sûr!  On va baptiser tout le monde!  On va frapper tout le monde avec l'esprit de noël!  On va donner tout le monde le la meilleure cadeau du monde... une occasion de parler avec les missionnaires... qui savent toute choses. Je blague. Mais sait sur qu'on parlera avec tout le monde. Attention a l'esprit de noël!

So this week we had an awesome mission council. This was my 6th one.  I was the oldest zone leader there.  Pretty weird.  I still feel like I just got here but time says otherwise.  President gave an awesome lesson on staying young!  So in our mission there are a lot of young missionaries who are now zone leaders and district leaders.  It was not like that in the past.  He told us the parable of wine or something... Not sure in English.  It was all in French so I can’t really explain it to good.  He explained the need of youth and wisdom.  He told us all straight up that there is no better feeling then leaving the mission the way we all came in... with the fire to baptize and teach everyone!   Lots of missionaries, more often in European  countries,  work hard for a certain amount of time but loose the fire . Lots of missionaries’ missions to often turn into vacations by the end.  They work hard for a time but coast to the end.   NOT COOL.  I am determined to not lose the fire!   To make sure I keep the fire I have made some pushing goals.  I am pumped and determined to use every last second of my mission.  I WILL go out with a bang. 

So yesterday we had some random investigator guy show up to the church.  He came with us to priesthood,  to amis class,  and to sacrament meeting.  Not sure where he is from.   Turns out he doesn’t speak English or French. haha.  There is like no way of communicating.   He did love church though... that we did understand.   Not too sure what we are going to do.   We will just have to use Goggle Translator or something to teach the gospel to him haha.   Should be a good time. 

That’s all for this week.   Thanks for being awesome.  Have a good last week of school!    Still not sure what we will do for Christmas concerning skype and all that.   I will have to let you know next week.   I’ll keep you posted.  Don’t fret it.   I will end in answering your questions.   Sorry I forgot.  We do have some pretty good Christmas  plans. We are invited the 24th, 25th, 31st, and 1st to members houses  . Gonna be a good time!   Frenchies know how to eat well during the holidays.   They have many traditional foods such as foi gra (exploded duck), snails, and lots of sea food.  And yes Christmas is a big deal here.  Just like America.  There are shopppersss everywhereeeee!   So much money spendin. There are lots of Christmas lights here.   All of down town is lit up.   I’ll send pictures.   LUVZ!  Joyeux NOEL!

Love Elder Adamz

PS:   We have time so I’m going to use another computer to send some pictures.  It’s your lucky day Mom.

E-mail 12-9-13

So yes transfers were this week.  I will be going to Paris this week to pick up my new collègue!   He is from Austria!   He is a boss I hear.  His name is Elder Meissner.   I know nothing about him except for the fact that he served with my old collègue Elder Maxwell.   Should be legit!

So many questions... so little time!  . And yes it snows in Caen but not too often.  People say it only really snows around January.   We will see. 

So this last week was pretty legit.  A couple we have been teaching came to church yesterday again!  They are so legit. They came to the investigators class for the first time. This week as well we were able to find a super cool new ami.  He is Muslim but super open to what we have to say.  He told us that he would listen to us and then put it to practice.  He will be baptized soon if he sticks to his word!  We will have to see.  He has only known us for three days and he has already committed to coming to church services and coming to the church for a tour.  He is also married and has a kid.   Exactly what we are looking for. FAMILIES!    Teaching families is the best.    Preach my gospel says, "Strive to find and teach families  ." Not an easy task but I have seen the fruits of it.  The family is being attacked today maybe harder than anything else.  I know there is no better solution then the gospel.   The gospel can make any family better!   The gospel is the magic solution that holds all families together and keeps them on the straight and narrow!    I am determined these last 6 months to find families and to baptize them! Sounds like a good time to me. 

Life rocks.  Don’t forget it.  This is the best time of year and always will be... so let it be that way!   Be happy peepz.   Tiz the season to be jolly!   Have a good week.   BISOUS!   HOLLA!   PEACE OUT.  

Elder Adamz

E-mail 12-2-13

Hello.  I got the slip mother but I have yet to pick up the package.  I will get on that soon.  I have never had to pay for a package before so don’t worry  about that.  I am pretty sure I will still be in the same area.  With the way I move around its not 100 percent sure but don’t worry haha.  Just send it here to Caen.  If I end up leaving the missionaries can bring it to me during our Christmas conference.   Sounds like y’all had a super good Thanksgiving.   Small, but I’m sure it was still a good time.  Good to hear that grandpa is recovering.  That’s good that he was able to go to church.  Sure he liked that. The Fallon 5th ward will never be the same without gramps . That’s funny that Garrett and his bleu (greeny) came.  I think that something like that could happen with Elder Davis the kid I trained.  We are pretty tight.  He is a boss.   Not sure if I told you already but he went Zone leader along time ago.  He was like the youngest zone leader ever.  Kid is a boss.  I think we all know why... his father (trainer)? lol.   I’m done.  

 That’s crazy that both Whit and Garrett  got some phat tv'z at Wal-mart during black Friday.   Did you buy me one?   Thanks.   C'est gentil.  Sounds like the BYU Nevada game was pretty close.   Thats cool. That stinks that BYU won. They are garbage. GO NEVADA.

 

So yes thanksgiving was pretty dang legit.  Instead of turkey and ham we had big ole pieces of chicken . It was suppppper good.   And instead of making some pie I made some famous pomegranate salad.  Every loved it of course.  And of course my potatoes were off the charts.   If I’ve  learned anything on my mission it’s been how to cook a mean bowl of mashed potatoes.    And any other form of potateos haha.    Gosh , I love them things.   Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday I’m pretty sure.   The Christmas season is the best but nothing beats Thanksgiving day.   LOVE IT.   I ate sooo much.   I am seriously getting so fat.   I know It’s not the new year yet but I  have already made some new resolutions. Eat less . Exercise more.   No baggets.   No coke.   Less  cereal.   Smaller portions.  No more patisseries.  Life is gonna suck!   But that’s okay.  I think it will be better than coming home a friggin whale.   I lived it up for long enough.   I’m pushing 230 now  (229 to be exact)  hahaha.   I know.   Pretty legit right?    Please help me help myself by not sending to much candy in the Christmas packages.   Every morning I wake up and look at myself in the mirror and I cry a little bit.  I miss that old skinny Elder Adamz.   Pray that I can find him again please!   Okay enough nonsense.   Thanksgiving was a success for sure.   We played ping pong for a good 4 hours.   I don’t think I need to tell you who the champ was.  You know. 

So legality was not a success.   It was horrible.  The 5 hour train ride was pretty much worthless.  I went all the way to the Huge Police prefecture like I was supposed to.   They sent me to like 15 different parts of the building where the person would just end up sending me somewhere else.   I then went up to the front desk and talked to some lady who then sent me to a building on the opposite side of Paris! haha.   Then when I got there I had to wait in line for 3 hours before I got a ticket and then had to wait another 2 hours.    And then finally they called me!   After a 30 second conversation the lady told me that I had all the right paper work and that everything looked good but she didn’t have time so I would have to fix another Rendez vous and come back another time.   FRIGGIN .  So pretty much I don’t think I am going to ever be legal haha.   But that’s okay.   Life is fun being an illegal criminal.   They’ll never catch me! 

Sorry I am out of time.  SORRY.  Time flies. We have got some stuff to do.  Quick story about how legit Caen is.   So today on the bus we met a guy that knows a ton of members of the church back in America.   HE LOVES AMERICANS.   He lives in a town right next to where all of the famous war beaches are and it wsa the Americans who came and saved his family when he was ten years old!   He is now 80 something  years old.  There are not a whole lot of people left from these days.   We talked for a while.    He has never been to the church before but was invited not that long ago by some members.   He might show up one of these days.   Sorry if none of that made sense.   In short.... GOD BLESS AMERICA LAND THAT I LOVE!   . And FRANCE , it’s a good place too!  . Have a good week !    LOVE YOU.   Sorry for the lack of spirituality this week and the lack of missionary experiences.    I will work on that next week.    Love me anyways.  

BYE,  Elder Adams

E-mail 11-25-13

Whoa that’s a lot of questions mother.  I’ll try my hardest to answer all of them but no promises.  Yeah I’m still pretty decent on the ping pong table.  We play once in a while here at church with our amis.  We have some amis that are pretty dang good too.  The Africans know how to ping it up.  On p days we sometimes do things with other missionaries but not too often.  We are not allowed to go in groups bigger then 4.  I hope to be able to see the beaches of Normandy but I’m not sure if I will be able to.   It depends if we can find a member to take us or we can pay a lot but  I  don’t want to do that.   There are a ton of other historic things a lot closer, maybe we will be able to visit some stuff here soon.  And yes we are celebrating Thanksgiving this year again.  On Thursday we have from 10 am to 6 pm to celebrate with our districts.  Luckily in my district we have an American couple who will be doing a lot of the cooking.  Thank goodness!   I was given the task of making potatoes (easy) and pie. No idea how to make pie.  Do you have any good recipes for me?   I could use them.  Thanks.   This year we will not be playing football though.   They have always done that in the past but to many missionaries have gotten hurt so Prez decided to cut that.  I guess we are not even supposed to be celebrating Thanksgiving according to the mission headquarters but Prez wants us to haha.  We don’t argue with him.  So I have yet to do my legality in Paris.  I will be traveling there tonight and in the morning very early I will make my way to the Préfecture to do my legality.   Hopefully that all works out, haha.   It would be nice if they could give me that dang card already.  Only time will tell.   I think that answers most of your questions.   If not, you just go ahead and pose them next week.   Désolé.  

Sounds like you guys will have a quiet little Thanksgiving.  That will be fun.  Gotta do one of those every once in a while. Is grandpa going to be there?  Good to hear that he is getting better.  I’ll be waiting for that package.  I got so many pics I would like to take but I can’t haha!   That will be nice to have a little camera gain.  That’s a bummer that theGeenwave lost in the championship football game, but that’s okay.   Sounds like they had a solid season.   That’s SOO good to hear that Sister Hubbard is recovering well.  Miracles happen.  Prayer works. 

This last week wasn’t an easy one but that okay.  Life goes on. We had 3 baptisms in the planning but ALL three are not doing so hot.  Sad, not cool but we were able to see some good stuff anyways.  Sunday we had a couple come to church that we have been teaching!  And right after we went to the Bishops house and had an awesome meal  (potatoes and meat) and discussion.  They asked a gazillion questions so it was nice to have the Bishop, who is French and can communicate a little better than us silly Americans, answer a lot of them for us.  Not sure if i have told you yet but the Bishop here is amazzzing.  He is really pushing hard on missionary work. In the ward there are about 80 members (on a good Sunday) and he wants to double the size of the ward in 2 years.  And he isn’t kidding.  He means business!  We had an awesome ward meeting last week.  So pretty much anytime we have a lesson he wants us to teach with members. And the members are completely ready to teach with us.  The work here in Caen is gonna start poppin pretty soon.  This transfer has been a little rough but things are starting to turn around.  Baptisms are COMING,  I can feel  it.  Work hard, harvest hard.  Sounds like fun to me.

And also this week we started teaching a family!  They are super legit.  So when we showed up last time all of the kids were there in the lesson.  We had a circle of 7 in the living room!  The spirit was strong as we testified of Joseph Smith and shared the message of the restoration.   Just a little side note.   So the mother has been struggling with her 13 year old son who has been getting himself into trouble and doesn’t seem to care about what his mother says to him. The first time we came he shook our hands and barely even said hi before running back to his room.  (I don’t blame him though, for reals,  American strangers professing weird things would send me to my room too haha)   Right now he is at the "I’m to cool stage" in life.   Best time ever.   So this last time he was completely different. 

After a little chat I  got him to join the lesson!   And he was loving it!  He was participating and everything.  His mother was verrrrrrrry surprsied!   Simply put, it was cool to see what the spirit can do to others.   The spirit really does soften hearts... whether it be an 80 year old man who says he's set in his ways or a 13 year old boy who is too cool for school.   All is possible.   Just pray.   Ask for the spirit.  Be worthy of it.  Go out of your comfort zone.   Be bold.  Say what you feel.   Then give thanks!   That’s the little recipe I’ve learned on my mission.   If it seems too work,  Try it!

Have a good Thanksgiving.   Sorry this letter had nothing to do with giving thanks but that okay,  church is true! Party hard.  Eat a lot.  Think of me.  Bisoussss! LUVZ!

Elder Adams