Elder Adam's November 30th Email

Dear Family,

We had the last of the four scheduled baptisms this week, and we were
able to baptize and confirm Sister Sandra! It was a very close call
too, because that very week, she found a new job at a very nice
restaurant next to a zoo that we didn't even know existed (but it was
in our area, so ok) :P. We thought that she would no longer be able to
get Sundays off.

We thought we might have had to postpone the baptism again, because we
didn't know how her job was, but we winged it and visited her in the
restaurant. She explained that her part of the job is very lenient and
that her boss, too, is very flexible. Thank goodness to that, she was
able to get Sundays off and be baptized on Saturday!

Her baptism was very nice, but the best part is when she told us about
her conversion story. She said that she was very reluctant about going
to church and didn't quite believe that God knew her personally. The
missionaries began visiting her, but she wasn't that interested.

Then she had a dream that there was a big house she wanted to enter,
but to enter, she had to be washed clean. That same day, we were able
to teach her about baptism. That's when she started to catch on to the
gospel, and eventually, get baptized. She also mentioned that the
night of her baptism, she looked up and could've sworn that the sky
was smiling at her. Her conversion really was a miracle. I'm glad to
have been able to teach her!

But all our planned baptisms have all been baptized, so we probably
won't have any more baptisms anytime soon. :/ But we did find some
awesome families this past week, so we'll be working very hard with
them! I'm excited to see where it goes!

Congratulations to Lilli! She's going to Belgium/Netherlands! I'm so
excited for her! You're going love it, Lilli! The people are the best
and the language is perfect for you! You'll have to send me some
Belgium chocolate! :P

How was Thanksgiving for you all? And Black Friday? For Black Friday
(which isn't celebrated down here), I bought some Jello mix and made
Jello to celebrate Thanksgiving! It was pretty tasty!

I love you all! Get well soon, Katie!

Love,
Adam

Elder Adam's Thanksgiving Email!

Dear Family,
We want to thank all who prayed and fasted for Katie yesterday. There is great power when those with faith fast and pray together. We love you all!

Just in passing Adam mentioned in an email to me today giving me some answers to questions I had asked him, he said that a missionary in his last area sent him an email telling him that an investigator family just had a little baby and named him Dixon. I thought that rather interesting! Had to share!

Love you all,
Mom  

Dear Family,

This week went very well for us! After weeks of delays and postponing,
we finally had three of the four baptisms (the last one is scheduled
for Saturday the 28th)! We baptized Luis and Elena Chumbe and
re-baptized Sister Sylvia!

The baptism went surprisingly smoothly, until near the end. Luis and
Elena invited their entire family to the baptism, so they also made
dinner and bought soda for everyone, and didn't tell us until
everything was wrapping up, when their son came in with a giant pot of
food. So we stayed after for about another hour, trying to get people
to finish up so we could close and lock the church doors.

And Sunday, we were very occupied getting the baptism papers all set
and stone, which ate up a lot of our time and we weren't able to get
very many lessons in this week. But after talking with some of the
converts, I felt alright again.

Before being baptized, Luis asked me if he could share his testimony
in front of everyone afterwards. It surprised me, because no one asked
if they could do that. We usually just sprung the opportunity on them
by surprise. I told him of course and he bore a very firm and sweet
testimony of the change he's experienced in his life. He compared
himself to an animal before he chose to live the gospel. The spirit
was very strong!

On Wednesday, we also had a Zone Conference, so I spent the entire day
up in Iquitos. I got to tag-along with one of the new missionaries,
Elder Greene. It was a very cool experience, being able to work with a
brand-new missionary.

This next week, like I mentioned, we're going to be baptizing Sister
Sandra. She's got a ton of faith, and I'm very excited for her
baptism!

How is everyone doing up there? Is it already Thanksgiving time? I'm
going to have to do something special to celebrate. I'm also going to
do a special fast for Katie. Get well soon, Katie! I love you!

Love,
Adam

We

Katie's blast number was 30% which is very troublesome and the leukemia doctor is recommending emergency chemoyherapy requiring several days in the hospital. We are deeply concerned at this bad news
We are inviting all family members to join us in fasting and prayer on Sunday.
We are planning to start with prayer at 5PM Saturday and fasting until 4:30 PM Sunday.
Amyone who wishes is welcome to join us for the prayers and for sandwiches afterwards.
Love,
Mom and Dad

Elder Adam's November 16th email and THANKSGIVING!

Dear Family, As you know next week is Thanksgiving. As you may also know it is our 'off' year, meaning we share with the other sides of the families. BUT, just an FYI, if you find that you an empty spot in your Thanksgiving Day at around 11 am, we will welcome you with open arms.  Peter and Faunice will be coming because Faunice's family does their dinner at a different time. Let us know if you can make it to the Dixon house that day.

If you can't make it for lunch....there is always pie!! At 5 pm we will have anyone who would like to come, enjoy a slice (or two) of  pie with us.

We are so thankful for such wonderful children and grandchildren. We are so blessed!

Dear Family,

We kinda had another bumpy week with our investigators and no one
ended up getting baptized this week, BUT we've got three coming up
this Saturday, so everyone cross your fingers! :)

One thing I like about the jungles here is that everyone starts
celebrating Christmas when they should--at the beginning of November.
Now, whenever we contact a house, through the doorway or the front
window, I can see their Christmas tree all set up with ornaments and
singing lights! I'm already starting to feel the Christmas spirit!

Also, if it were at least 50 degrees colder, we'd see about a mountain
of snow! The rain is relentless (even as I type this) and it seems
that the atmosphere down here wants to celebrate the tradition as
well! (It celebrated Halloween, so why not Christmas?)

This week I've been thinking a lot about our investigators and their
progression, and one thing I've noticed is that each one of the four
people who want to be baptized have previously rejected the church.
Luis was once an alcoholic that wanted nothing to do with the church,
but now uses his free time studying the Book of Mormon and the
pamphlets we've given him.

What I've come to the conclusion is that we never know who might be
prepared to hear the gospel. When I ask for references from members, I
often hear "Oh, they would not be interested" or "They're part of a
different church". Sometimes it just takes a try. That's what I advise
to you all. If you feel like you want to share the gospel with
someone, just go for it. Don't think about what they'd think.

That's pretty much it. It's been kind of a boring week. This next
week, though, will be fantastic! I'm sure of it!

How have things been going on there? Has the snow started the descend?

Love,
Adam

...Where she goes, nobody knows...

Hey Fam.

I have just finished turning in my mission papers.  WOOHOO! 

So here comes the million dollar question... Where am I going?

If you would like to guess than comment, or let anybody at home know and we will put your guess on the map.

The winner will get a feeling of satisfaction

and the losers will also get a feeling of satisfaction because they will know where I am going :)

Christmas List!

Well, this is the time that all good girls and boys look forward to.....Christmas! Last Sunday we had a majority of family so decided to draw names. Those who were not here we had someone who loves you a ton and very impartial draw for you!
As we have in the past let's keep the cost around $25.00, if that's sounds OK with you. Also if you could put some hints on the blog to help us out for Christmas, that would be grand!!

Christmas Name Exchange

Dad---Missy

Mom---Scott

Heather---Faunice

Missy---Emily

Sarah---Jim

Lilli---Kristy

Emily---Robert

Katie---Heather

Robert---Tom

Christopher---Steven

Mary Kate---Anna W

Millie---Tom and Kristy's new baby girl

Joshua---Isabelle

Anna T---Tommy

Sarah T---Owen

Mary W---Dad

Scott---Mom

Steven---Sarah T

Anna W---Mary Kate

Becca---Christopher

Ellie---Malia

Tommy---Grant

Mimi---Brevan

Alice---Joshua

Peter---Sarah D

Faunice---Erin

Owen---Becca

Tom---Peter

Kristy---Katie

Xander---Ellie

Brevan---Anna T

Isabelle---Geoffrey

Grant---Alice

Malia---Mimi

Tom and Kristy's baby girl---Millie

Jim---Mary

Erin---Lilli

Geoffrey---Xander

 

Elder Adam's November 9th Email

Dear Family,

We had a pretty interesting week with all our investigators who are lined up to be baptized. We have four, who are:

-Sylvia, the mother of one of the members, Jaime.

-Luis and Elena, the couple we had married.

-Sandra, the lady who's got the most faith out of any investigator I've taught.

In short, we pretty much had to delay the baptisms of all of them. First, Sandra, who had planned on going to church this week wasn't able to attend because of a transportation problem from a recent trip she took. Each investigator needs a certain amount of attendance at the church, so she falls short just 1 of baptism! Maaan! But she's still going strong and feeling the spirit! 

We had the baptism of Sylvia this week, but the thing about baptisms is that they have to be done perfectly or else they don't count. Everything was going well through the baptismal program. Her son, Jaime, was ready to baptize her and everything, and it was all perfect...until he asked, "Do I baptize her with her maiden name or her married name?"

Both my companion and I looked at each other with an expression that yelled, "Uh oh!" Sister Sylvia was divorced and with the whole confusion of the names here in Peru (everyone has at least four names here), we had no idea, so we took an educated guess that he had to use her maiden name. 

Turns out, according to the mission president, it had to be her married name. So the entire baptism we had planned out for her that day didn't count...and she travelled to Iquitos immediately after church the next day for a two-week visit to her other son. She took the news well, but both me and my companion were a bit discouraged when we found out we had to wait two weeks until we can baptize her again. Luckily, I remembered the quote of Mrs. Cazier from my choir class when she said, "You can't dwell on past mistakes. Sometimes you just have to shrug and say 'Oh well'." Oh well. Looks like we'll have to wait a couple of weeks. :/

Now, with Luis and Elena, we arrived at their house and they were having a bit of a "discussion". Luis, who was previously an alcoholic, and was trying his best to stop drinking, gave in due to peer pressure, and Elena was giving him a hard time about it. Earlier that day, I had carried a pamphlet of "Proclamation to the World" with me for a lesson with a less-active family about the temple. They weren't there, so I was left with carrying around the pamplet for the rest of the day.

I felt inspired to share the pamphlet with them, and it worked a miracle. We gave it to them to read together and it, with the Spirit, seemed to do the trick. After resolving a few more doubts between them, they are still on the path to baptism! 

The Proclamation to the World really is an inspired document, and I thank the First Presidency for making it. I know that it has blessed the lives of many families all around the world for its 20 years like it has blessed the lives of Luis and Elena. It's truly inspired by God. My experience with the proclamation was a powerful and spiritual one. I invite all of you to have a copy of the proclamation in a place in your homes where you could all see it everyday.

How is everyone up there? What's everyone up to? Is Jim celebrating No-Shave November again? :P

I love each and every one of you! You are all the best!

Love,

Adam

Elder Adam's November 2 email and Christmas List

Halloween was so much fun! Afterwards though we realized that we had forgotten to draw names for Christmas. So we have a couple of options, 1-we could wait until everyone gets together again then draw names, or 2-we could use a program that randomly draws the names for us. Which would you all like to do? If you could respond by Sunday then we will be able to know how to proceed.

Have I told you how great it is to be in this family with you! Dad and I feel so blessed! We love you all very much!


Dear Family,

Unfortunately, Peru doesn't celebrate Halloween like United States does. They acknowledge it's existence, but rather than celebrate it, they resort to their normal Peruvian holidays and instead celebrate Day of the Dead, which is the day right after Halloween.

How do they celebrate Day of the Dead? It's pretty much the exact same as Memorial Day, where the people visit the graves of those who have passed on. 

I, too, celebrated Day of the Dead in my own special way: With an awesome lesson on the Plan of Salvation! We were teaching a family about where everyone goes after dying, and one of our investigators had so many good questions, and we had so many good answers! It made me feel good to be answering so many questions and for her to be understanding each and every one on the spot (because down here, sometimes it takes multiple explanations of the same thing to be understood). In the end, she was very touched by the fact that God gives all his children the opportunity to hear the gospel and live its ordinances. 

I dressed up as a missionary for Halloween this year! I'll admit, I may have been the only one in Nauta who loves Halloween like a child, but the sky that night told me otherwise. It was extremely cloudy (but not rainy), with lightning nearly every second, making it a perfect Halloween night. I know Scott would've loved taking pictures of it!

This week, we also were able to get two investigators married! Luis and Elena are now one step closer to their baptism! We've also got a baptism coming up this week! We're going to have a good couple of weeks coming up!

What's everyone up to over there? Did you all have a fantastic Halloween? I'm glad Dad was able to make it back home safely. What kind of stuff do you guys have coming up these next few weeks?

I love each and every one of you, and so does the Lord! Always remember he's there to lend a hand when we trust in him!

Love,

Adam