Dear Mom & Dad,

How are you doing? It has been extremely hot down here I don´t know how the other missionaries do it. Even the breeze kind of burns and that isn´t a joke. Everyone is telling us that this is the fall weather and that the heat is tremendous. We got food poisoning twice this week the worst being this last Saturday. We are still a little sick, but we both bought Gatorade, a lot of water, crackers, and Pepto. Yep, the pink stuff is very common down here and everyone knows what it is, because even their own food gives them problems.

I enjoyed conference but we were only allowed to go the Priesthood Session on Saturday night and only the morning session in Sunday. All of the other sessions including the afternoon session were prohibited unless we could bring an investigator. We tried to get a family of four to conference who were former investigators, but they slept in from the time change. President Salinas tells me that he is here to take me to my absolute limits, and I believe him. I have felt my abilities increase. I am still suprised that I am a trainer. Presidente said that the Spirit would not let him deny that I needed to be a trainer when he was doing the changes. He said that nothing could change the Revelation that he recieved about me being a trainer - nothing and no one.

Elder Serrano and I get along really really well. Presidente Salinas and Hermana Salinas interviewed us and Presidente said that Elder Serrano loves me up to absolute craziness (I think is the translation). We have our own private jokes about everything. Man he has had the runs poor Poblano (Poblano means that your from Puebla, also called the City of Angels). He went to the bathroom like nine times yesterday in the evening and we stayed in the house. We are going to a store called Cheddraui, which is like Walmart, because it´s closer and he says that he won't make it on the ride on the bus. No Walmart :( I haven´t had problems since yesterday morning. I have started like a permanent sweat since two or three weeks from the heat. It is so hot! I think when I come home I will put on a sweater outside in mid-summer.

I want you to know that I love you and that really I am doing my best.Thanks for the poem of Invictus, I remember watching a movie that was based on the South African soccer team that won the World Cup and united the country when Nelson Mandela took power and motivated everyone. I really like the movie. Please congratulate Kira for Mexico I don´t have time to write her or Chet - I still have to write President my weekly report. I love you.Please help us all find the Revelation that we need now. I will take care of myself down here and we are doing it.



Mase

Another P-day!

Hey guys,

I got another preparation day because I got transferred out of the offices, so I had a preparation day on Saturday and now on Monday. Last night I found out that I was going to train. They have made me a trainer. Don`t ask me how revelation works with the Lord.

Now, I am sitting in a ciber (a place where they have computers were you can use to pay) with my new green missionary straight out of Distrito Federal from the MTC. He is from Puebla, Mexico, and his name is Elder Serrano. The funny thing is that I got burned out in the offices and didn`t buy a house for an area called Montes de Ame here in Merida. Well, Montes de Ame is where I will be training, and I have to find a house. Is that why I am here? I already trained the new Secretary of Registros (records). The good thing is that I know the process to buy a house, and I brought the contract we use and everything. So that is kind of the joke of the whole thing.

It is going to be difficult to continue and things have been hard, but please keep in touch with me with your prayers and everything. I love you all. It is really hot, too :)

Now I have to learn how to do missionary work all over again. This is a different spectrum.




Mase

Hi,



My calling is really challenging. I am trying to get better and better each day and in some areas I have improved so much. However, obtaining and switching houses for the Elders is really difficult and it creates a lot of stress. I think I might be able to do anything after this. I still have one area where we cannot find a house and several elders are living together and have to walk to their area. I never thought that I would be renting houses in Mexico. I almost rented a house and signed a contract that would have given the owner the right to throw the renter out when they wanted. Luckily I know what this contract is called. I am not a Mexican lawyer, but I try.



We did have a big breakthrough this last week I helped move 5 companionships and with the help of Elder Hoyos, we renewed a contract for our largest house where we now house newly arrived missionaries in the field and those that are going out. We were able to convince the owners to pay for the cost of the renewal because it was very expensive – I did most of the talking on that conversation, and Elder Hoyos helps when I don´t understand. I am a little jealous of this Elder. He is the perfect customer service guy. He has helped me a lot.



We picked up several more investigators as well. I will be losing my companion Elder Nguyen as he is now training Elder Talbot from Orem, Utah to be the new Executive Secretary. I did help in Elder Traconis and I am actually setting up an appointment for him to go to Immigration. There is a system here in Mexico and I am over the passports and immigration documents, so much to do in only four hours. We don´t baptize in rivers, last week the assistants both baptized in a Font.



Élder Adamson

Élder Adamson

Querida Familia,



How are you all doing? Maybe you shouldn´t send me pictures of home because I forgot what our dog looked like. Just kidding, send me as many as you want thank you. My neck size is 16, thanks you so much for taking care of me mom. I still haven´t gotten the package, but I am looking forward to it. It makes my day.



The investigators that I told you about didn´t come to church. However, I had an excellent interview with President and Hermana Salinas yesterday. They expect a lot out of me, and they really appreciate what I am doing. I just have to rely on God more and not on myself, because sometimes I don´t know what I am doing, and can´t make the best decision, but it is better to make decisions than to sit in a stationary condemnation. However, I have gained their trust and was told that up front.

Oh, and I rode in both types of moto-taxis. It literally feels like you could fall out of the front with one that has the bike on the back but they don´t go very fast the bike clutches aren´t designed for the stress. Some of the carts vibrate from the weight. It´s a poor man´s taxi.



I forgot to tell you that a few weeks ago the police pulled over the assistants in our van. It was a bit odd for the police officer an American, an Ecuadorian, in a Chevy van with Mexico City state plates in Yucatan. Nothing happened it just made a funny joke. Occasionally the police set up cones and make all the cars go through one lane and watch the people go through. One night we passed through one and they made us roll down the window and the main officer was going to ask me what we were doing or something but his co-worker said to him, “son mormones”, or, they´re Mormons, and he waved us right through the check point.



I didn´t have to do too much for transfers. I order these special magnets for President´s personal transfer board where he puts up little profiles of all the missionaries on their areas. Hermana Salinas has said that she has seen him in their praying to find out Revelation. He will stay working all day on that board until ten to eleven at night. I played soccer mom and drove missionaries back and forth to the bus-stop after some of the new missionaries got their new trainers. The bus stops here are like airline terminals I am not kidding. I did some Visa paperwork. Our Americans are coming this Monday so we will have even more work and I will have a lot of paperwork to control. More transfers but it will be nice. Imagine that! Their visas came late, but it is all good.



I love talking to home owners, especially when I can´t understand. I know it sounds weird, maybe even a little scary. I had a home owner that we are renting from come in and she made it sound like a giant plant was eating the side of her house and cracked a window. I called the elders and they said that there is a bunch of weeds. Hum…….



So President´s valija, or his mail, comes through the office and there was a particular Christmas card that came through and I was so very tempted to open it and conceal it later. Bueno, President came to the offices one night and a secretary gave him his mail. He saw the note and I told him how I was tempted to open it. So President said, well let´s open it, and we did. How did you get such good Spanish? Ok, I won´t lie there was only one translation error – one. Nice job, and thanks.



The assistants both baptized tonight and everyone in the offices went. It was good. I love you and I will keep you informed of what is happening. Love you Mom, Dad, Chet, Kira, and everyone else!







Elder Adamson

Mototaxi Ride

Querida Familia,

This next coming Monday marks the first transfer that I have been in the office. There is some logistics to be done and I have no idea what role I am going to play. The assistants and President Salinas plan most of the transfers on Thursday before transfers and then make a few changes and the list of changes comes on Monday. Then, we have to make sure that it happens and no one gets on the wrong bus and everyone knows what is going on. It has been tough here because of the general organization of the other secretaries, but I learned and I sensed that this week everyone is doing the best that they can. Entonces, there is no room to criticize, just work and be as happy and productive as we can. However I continue to make suggestions and live up to my word with all the missionaries.

We passed by and saw our investigator and he promised that he would be at church this next Sunday. I made a mistake and his mom's name is not Aurora but another women in the ward. I feel like we are fighting for people to teach, but we did some more finding and we have a person with a return appointment today, so we will see how it goes.

I was wondering if I could get two short sleeve shirts? It is not a disaster but one of my shirts got ruined by a pen explosion. What a nerd. Oh, and if you could send something to some of the elders here if it isn´t a hassle. I don´t know something cool from America that they could use. I really like this secretary his name is Elder Hoyos and he is from Veracruz and I don´t think he has a good backpack and neither does our assistant from Ecuador. They both really are always funny and keep me humorous and going. Whatever you can do would be great. Oh, and in Mexico they don´t have the black pilot pens that I like :) .37 fine please.

I love you and I hope that you are all doing well. This week I got to ride in a motor-taxi in a pueblo out in the middle of nowhere. It is a chopped up motorcycle hooked to a cart that you ride on. It was a weird feeling to be moving and be sitting on a wood padded seat with the road moving in front of you and no seat belt or door just open.




Elder Adamson

Querida Familia

Querida Familia,

I don´t think I have worked this hard before. There are so many things to do and so very little time to do it in. I definitely feel the pressure to help missionaries so that they can focus on their job. It is difficult to relax. However, I really feel like I have made a difference here in the offices, and that my suggestions and input make a big difference.

Since I came in I have moved about 4-5 elders from houses that had problems to better properties. It is very intimidating to negotiate in a foreign language about renting a home or notifying a good member that there is problems and that the elders can´t live in their property anymore. Sometimes people don´t even understand me, and it is frustrating because everything that they say I can understand perfectly. Sometimes the people don´t understand me because I have to use words that aren´t in the normal usage and that I haven´t heard spoken before.

President Salinas has personally told me that I am the type of person that could do anything and be anything. He and Sister Salinas are just about ready to finish an entire tour of the entire mission, having interviewed every single Elder within the mission where they currently live. I don´t know how they found the stamina to do it. It is amazing.

I did see Elder Haws at a Zone Conference here in Merida about a month ago but I never had time to say hello. Some of the Mexican elders appear really young because they have the opportunity to embark on their missions beginning at age eighteen. I think that this is due to the high levels of inactivity, low levels of youth that leave on missions, and the way the school systems work. My MTC companion is serving in a pueblo called Tizimin which is a hour away from Cancun on the Merida side.

Thanks for sending the pictures everybody. I got Scott and Missy´s card in the mail the other day. I can´t wait to meet Finley.




Elder Adamson

Snail Mail...

We just received our first regular mail letter from Elder Adamson in Mexico. It is dated November 1, 2010. It took two and a half months to reach us. I now understand the meaning of Snail Mail. We are so blessed to be able to get his weekly emails. And oh, how we loved getting his letter and picture with President and Sister Salinas. He looks so good, doesn't he?!




Elder Adamson with President and Sister Salinas
November 2010

Buenos Dias!

We just had our training about the rules and the system of the mission. It was a long meeting, but everyone here is really involved and caring. I respect our leaders. I understand all of the last hours of Spanish; the Gospel is a different language, and hidden personalities behind the meanings of sounds. I am making a ton of friends, and help out the brand new missionaries that arrived from the Mexico City, MTC (they call Mexico City the "DF" which means Federal District).

President Salinas and Hermana Salinas our called of God to preside over this mission. I have never been so motivated to perform for the Lord after this morning when President Salinas gave us a very spiritual meeting about how to be a successful missionary. He says that we are in a war. Christ is the Capitan, and he gets the privilege to be our Sergeant - more intense in the Spanish context, making someone feel like he absolutely true. This comes from his joy of the ability to use the Atonement to be the best and his deep testimony.



Elder Adamson

Èlder Adamson

Hey guys,

Well, this week went extremely busy. We sent a missionary home because it was his time to go and President´s van blew a tire and they were afraid that they weren´t going to make it to the airport on time. They all showed up unexpectedly at the office and had to take the big white Chevy that I drive around here. I heard President was impressed with how clean the van was inside and out. That morning me and one of the assistants, Elder Villa, from Ecuador, had washed it inside and out. It used to be pretty filthy. They were able to take the missionary to the airport from there.

I have been trying to organize myself in the office and help serve the missionaries, but the overall organization of the entire office is something that I am trying to help work on.

Last week we had a really big weekly office meeting with President and it was really amazing. He is helping minister to us and talked about some very relevant things and how to deal with them.

Right now I am developing a plan to get contracts from every house where there is a missionary, so about 80 properties. Mexico is pretty relaxed and a lot of missionaries rent out from members, but the previous organization was not very good and so every time they changed a residence due to a problem, no one ever got a contract. They have already tried emails, but I am planning to obtain these through the mission leadership chain of command and President´s authority. It looks promising and I think we will start this snowball rolling next month which should be good because it is right in the middle of a transfer. This will make us a safer mission because we will know what to do when there are damages, and we have all the information to move the Elders immediately and wont have to go searching for the owners or our security deposit and the proper amount.




Elder Adamson

La Misión

Well, it does not feel like 2011, or that we had Christmas or New Year. It just feels like another part of the mission. I sent you a picture on this email I hope that you are able to open it. It was our new year celebration, me and Elder Hoyos, who is the financial secretary. In the white board it says "Happy New Year" and "I love you".

I am teaching Elder Hoyos English and he is teaching me more Spanish and we get along pretty well. We have to cooperate in the office, because I arrange the houses and he has the money. It is really hard to teach someone your own language.

Elder Adamson

Secretario de Registros

Hi!

They have decided to keep me in the offices. I am now the secretary of records. My responsibilities are over the baptismal records, passing references, all of the passport and migration papers for the American elders, obtaining houses and rental agreements, and I have stewardship over the mission van, a big Chevy, that we will be using to pick up and drop off elders and run errands for the office - no one can use it without my permission. Things are really disorganized here in the office and I spent all day yesterday organizing rental payment receipts and contracts by zone and I still have to do them by date order. The other day I signed a rental contract with a bishop and paid him and got the keys, but I still have to arrange our direct deposit, and tell him when the elders are going to arrive so that he can show them some things.

I put our picture book in my office next to our family photo. It looks real good in my new office. All of this was kind of surprise and happened after transfers, so the other secretario de registros left unexpectedly. Oh, and because I drew all of the zone and area lines on Google Earth by helping the secretary of materials, Elder Visser, I have the most efficient way to pass references. So the benefits were more than a mango shake but made my work about 10 times faster. I can just type in the address and bam it is there I have no idea how they were doing it before. Hard work, pays off.

We get to plan every week with President Salinas and Sister Salinas. They are awesome and very dedicated to the elders. I have already learned a lot from them. My new companion is Elder Ngyuen, the executive secretary from New Jersey. His mom is Peruvian and his dad is Vietnamese. We do our normal studies from 8 until 10:30 and at 2 we leave after working in the office to go do missionary work. My preparation days are going to be on Saturdays from here on out for about 4 to 5 transfers is the length of a secretary calling according to President.

Oh and the Christmas lights you sent me are in the offices, along with the stocking on the wall, and the garland on the stair railing. President saw the box of lights and insisted that it be put up.




Elder Adamson

¡Can you believe it! I have been out in the field exactly six months

Elder Adamson has been transferred to the Mission Office in Merida to get some rest. He is feeling much better. We are all grateful for you concern and prayers in his behalf.


Merida Temple and Merida City








familía,

Well right now I am temporarily living in the mission offices in Mérida. It has been a cool experience. I have been able to go on divisiones (exchanges) with the Assistants and see how they work. I have also had the opportunity to see how this mission plans and works with President Salinas. I have really helped to organize the office and do things that the mission secretaries and others do not have time to do. Mainly I have been helping do missionary work in the city center with Elder Nguyen from New Jersey y Élder Díaz from Monterrey. We taught a family the other night that we have been trying to help activate. It was kind of eye-opening because each individual in this family felt isolated and alone. We were able to help them alot and encouraged them to use the Atonement, read their scriptures, and go to church. I was able to let them know that in the beginning of every war the enemy´s first step is to cut the lines of communication. This isolates us, makes us feel alone, and makes us fight alone. We have the tools and the resources available to conquer and win.

¡Can you believe it! I have been out in the field exactly six months. Time has literally been flying. I want to let you know that while I have been in the office I have had more opportunity to rest and get good food. I am feeling better. In fact, I think I am going to do fine. One of the AP´s bought me a fresh made shake made with real mango (the fruit here has no comparison to the US) to pay me off for drawing up area maps on Google Earth so that we can pass references much faster. I completed it and he straight up got me a shake. Mérida is a gorgeous almost kind of European place with narrow streets and cool people.



Élder Adamson


My preperation day is on Saturday in the offices. Monday is the most busiest day here. I am not sure if my next preparation day will be Saturday or Monday it depends where President sends me and when. Transfers are next Monday I don´t know if I will still be in the offices.

November 24, 2010

Hi,

All the great battles of this century start with health care.

This week on Saturday I started feeling really really sick. We went to another group of elders baptism with our investigator and I broke into a high fever. I got home and I had a fever of 101. I bounced the whole night between 100-101. I walked the whole week sick until I broke into the fever. It was really bad. I had chills and I felt like I was going to throw up. I read my travax reports and it fit perfectly with dengue. I have got so many mosquito bites and I have been so careful. I am living in a suburb but the screen to our house is broken upstairs where we sleep.

I slept in a different apartment all day sunday so that my companion could be at church with our investigators while our district leader planned. The district leader called the mission doctor. Our mission doctor lives in Mexico City. He agreed that I probably had dengue and recommended to take ibuprofen and another drug I don´t even know the name that we went and bought.


I have stayed the last 3 days in a hammock. I am fine now. This is the reason why I am emailing late.

Mason



Chet,

Sorry I didn´t write back to you a week ago. I was really busy and rushed for time. So, the bishop has a parrot. We ate with him a few weeks ago. After I finished eating it jumped on my dirty plate and started cawing at me in attack mode, but bishop calmed him down and put him on a stand in the stairwell of their house. The people keep telling me that I need to be careful of the coconuts they grow all year round and they fall .

Mase



November 29, 2010

I am still having problems. President and Sister Salinas called friday night and I ended up going to the hospital so that this member doctor could do a free diagnosis. They took my blood again that night beforehand. They are saying that by the blood platelet levels they can tell if its dengue or not. My level went up and so they presume that I dont have it. At this hospital (kind of creepy) this doctor told me that I have salmonella. He hooked me up with an antibiotic, something that is like tylenol or ibuprofen and a medicine that puts cultures in your stomach to rebuild stuff. It all doesn´t make sense. I have not had problems with diahrea. However, I keep having these fevers come back over and over and over again. They go from normal to about 100 or 101 degrees and last for hours and combe back. I get very worn out after these. According to the doctor this will last for about a month. Meanwhile I can't eat any meat, foods with grease (every food here is cooked with grease), any dairy product. These are all the foods that I get stamina from. I will be talking to president. I have been living off of gatorade, bananas, and bread. The ZL´s came by and bought us food. I have been in the hammock since friday afternoon and I am so dizzy. Last weekend I had to stay in the hammock for about the same amount of time. This is going to be a continual thing if it is this salmonella. Elder Rose has no symptoms and we always eat the same things and never eat off of the street. The members are telling me that all and all this will last for 6 months not being able to eat certain things and the fevers will last a month.

Mason

Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing

Good Monday Afternoon!

This week went from good to amazing. We baptized three people: a boy, and a mom and her daughter. I had the opportunity to perform all three. The woman that we baptized and her daughter are so strong in the church everyone says that they are potente, which means potent or powerful. I believe if they stay strong that they will be future leaders in the church. This woman when she came down into the fount made a promise with the Savior that she would follow him, take his name upon her, and recieve a complete remission of errores. I have never been happier in my entire mission, and I could her soft sobs from behind the font. I presume that they were hers.

This has been a physical, spiritual, intellectual journey - heart, might, mind, strength - but behind it all are these simple things that are actually really complex. As I have had some space to think about everything that has been moving around me I have come back to some very basic questions about the truth. Who was this Christ of Galilee? What did he do? How can it help me?

It seems like the world is full of challenges, and our job as missionaries is not to be a psychiatrist or a lawyer, but to find those that are on the tip of already accepting these things in their lives, and help them come unto Christ by helping them recieve the restored gospel through ordinances, covenants, promises - simple things that are deeper. The Gospel works but we do not really know why, and when we presume that we know why we can not know the Gospel because that is intellectual faith. The Gospel working is something that we feel. Or job as missionaries is to invite people out of the abyss of doubt and fear and into the light of Christ, and into the wake of the Spirit, so that they can feel the Gospel working through them forever.

My favorite hymn right now is Come Thou Font of Every Blessing. Prone to wander, Lord I feel it, prone to leave the God I love. Let thy goodness as a fetter bind my wandering heart to thee. Every time I was in the temple I read Hebrews 11 and tried ot coax out more and more faith. Faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things that are not seen. Es pues, la fe, es lo que se espera, la conviccion de lo que no se ve. I feel like I am entering the mission field step by step. The scriptures have gotten more complicated as they say something critically different to different people with different situations. Taking a question and searching in the scriptures is more rewarding than I had thought.

We are continuing to learn as a companionship. I like working with my companion, very easy going and forgiving. I know why I am in this companionship at this time. The Mexican wards here are tricky to deal with. They will send out visiting and home teachers right after people become inactive. It is frustrating. This is the Catch 22. The wards in the US are brilliantly organized but have less converts, and vise versa with Mexico. If Cancun alone were to get all their inactive people that are eligible to go on missions it would amount to over 500 missionaries. We would not have any reason to be here. However, we are building relationships with the bishop and his counselors and auxilliaries and I intend to use those to homefield advantage with my new recent converts.

I forgot to tell you that you should send packages through the US Postal Service and make them light as you can. I found a paper in the introductory binder they gave us about mail stuff. I do not have time to look at a lot of stuff because of priorities. They say if you send packages through other services like Fed ex and UPS you can kiss them goodbye. The more expensive does not garauntee anything according to the paper. Oh, and I forgot my white shirt and tie for baptisms. It is in the rest of my clothes that I sent home. One of our zone leaders joked when he found out that I did not have my clothes that it is because I did not think that I was going to baptize in Texas. Send mail through the pouch mail service only. The other letters take months. It is much quicker and safer that way.

President Salinas is amazing he answers every little letter I send to him every week. I learned so much more on my last exchange. There is so much to change, grow, and to be done.



Elder Adamson

Poco a poco

Hi guys,

Things have really been going well down here in Cancun. My companion is Elder Rose from Utah, and we are working at getting better and better at our goals and the things we are trying to accomplish. I am finding that the more energy, love, and boldness that a missionary has with someone will ultimately effect not only the people but the perception of the missionary towards his mission. We are working to get better and better. Elder Rose is really relaxed(which is so nice). This has been a learning experience. I have room to grow and experiment here.

So this morning we washed our clothes at a members house. These wash machines are so funny. They are basically two seperate plastic bins and one is the washer. The other is the dryer. You fill the washer with a hose, dump detergent in and your clothes press a button and the water swirls around like a whirlpool, and the dryer is like this can that spins really fast and dries out the clothes. I think you would laugh.

I was able to obtain a Mayan Book of Mormon and now all I need is a dictionary and I will be set. The language has been transfered over into English pronounciations, and is structured somewhat like our language, hopefully it should be fairly easy to pick up. However, if I get it down I am afraid they might send me to the jungle - man I already feel like I am permanently camping, and it has not been that bad. A cold shower is great after the heat around here.

It is the winter and it has been I do know probably around 70 degrees (everything is in Celsius) perfect temperature. Please get colder! ha ha. It rained a few days ago and some of the streets had like 6 inches of water permanently for awhile on the roads. Luckily not all the sidewalks are uniform and we walked around the giant puddles.

On Tuesday we will be baptizing a young boy about 10 years old, and this next Saturday a mom and her 15 year old girl. We are working with these people. Man I love the people down here. They are so humble, and so easy to listen. They are even patient with our sometimes not to smooth Spanish. Man us Americans are jerks, now if they could just drive like us - ha ha.

When I went on divisiones (splits) with that other Elder I told you about we were able to get into house after house. I wondered why we were not achieving this in our companionship and been praying to change and to improve. So at the end of this week we were able to finally do it. We got into a house after a door contact and taught a guy to pray. All it took was some confidence and energy. It seems like time here is slower in Mexico and we have more of it. It is kind of nice. Things were a little crazy in Texas. So we are going bit by bit here poco a poco.



Mase