FREE STUFF!

I've been doing first-of-the-year cleaning!

I have a bunch of stuff I gotta get rid of.  I want to put it up for dibs with you guys first before I send it off to DI.  Here's the haul!

2 lavenderish 18-inch pillows

An IKEA magnet board

2 red and black seat covers (pretty much new)

4 light fixtures and 1 smaller one

IKEA grayish end table--never been used

Also 2 2-lb weights.  I don't think these belong to me.  Do they look familiar to anyone?

Here's a lovely ceramic pot that I had every intention of painting and taking to be fired (which costs about $4.)  I've realized I'll never have the time to paint it.  It comes with the paint.

Elder Adam's Last email of 2015

Dear Family,

Gee, it was the best being able to see and talk to you all on
Christmas! That really renovated my week! I'm glad each and every one
of you is doing well! It's weird to think that there's just one call
home left.

My Christmas was pretty great! We went up to Iquitos for Thursday to
have a Christmas Conference with the President, in which he gave us
some Mexican candies (he's from Mexico), and we got to break open a
piñata! Yours truly nearly destroyed it. :P We also managed to see a
Christmas parade passing through the streets, with Santa and Missus
Claus throwing out candy to all the kids. Us four missionaries from
Nauta were walking in a part of the road that had no people besides
us, but Santa still threw candy to us adults. Awesome!

For Christmas Day, we went and explored Iquitos a little bit and saw
some sights that I never knew existed (such as a cruise ship that's
been dried out of the water). We bought a few things (like Cup of
Noodles!) and I talked to you guys afterwards. It was pretty much the
best out-of-America Christmas ever!

Afterwards, this Sunday, we managed to find a family that has so much
family love that it nearly surprised me. When we ask people how
important their families are to them, they say "They're important" and
move on. This family, however, began spilling out their hearts on us
about how much they love each other. I could feel their love radiating
when they were talking. They're pretty much the best family we've
found so far!

It makes me think how much we love each other in our family. It made
me ask "When was the last time I did something nice for a family
member just to show my love for them"? That's a question I'd like you
guys to ask yourselves.

How's everyone been in the past few days? Is everyone having a Holly
Jolly Season?

Love,
Elder Dixon

It's Christmas!!! And Adam's Call!

Christmas Day at the Dixon's

Dear Wonderful Dixon Family,

   Christmas is coming so fast and we have so many blessings to be thankful for this year! Katie is home from the Huntsman center, and although she has to stay at her house in isolation, she and her family get to celebrate Christmas together. We are so grateful to Heavenly Father for this blessing. Thank you so much for all your prayers, fasting and faith in her behalf.

    Also, Missy flew in from Boston last night, and is here until next Saturday. It is heavenly to see her again!

    Adam phoned this morning....yes, that's right, I talked to him for about 45 seconds on the phone and he told me he was going to Skype us Christmas day at 11:00 our time. 

So, this is the plan....We will start serving breakfast at 9 am. It is Belgian waffles. Then hopefully start our Christmas gift exchange about 9:30. I'm hoping we can work something out with Katie and Skype (we will look into that and talk to Katie and Robert).  Then because we are so organized and clever we will all be ready to Skype with Adam at 11:00 am.

How does this sound to everyone?

Dad and I want to tell you how blessed we feel to have such wonderful children and their sweethearts and grandchildren. We love you all so much. Thank you for being the best family ever!

Let us know if you have any questions about Christmas Day!

Love,

Mom and Dad

CAN'T WAIT! CAN'T WAIT! CAN'T WAIT!

Dear Family,

So, this week is Christmas, and since it's on a Friday, that will be
our P-Day, so today, they only gave us half time to write, so I only
have time for a little mini-email, which is lucky, because this week
didn't quite stand-out from the others (though I DID get to hold a
baby bunny, a baby otter, and a baby crocodile. My life is complete).

I will be calling to coordinate the call today. Yes or yes. I will be
calling about an hour or two after you get this email, so be ready!
I'll be calling through skype again, this time through my companion's
account, which is:

marce.maldonado4

I love you more than pizza (which I've had a hankering for lately)!

Merry Christmas!

Elder Adam's December 14th email

Dear Family,

Have I mentioned how much I love Christmas? It's got to be the best
day out of all the days. I love it more than I love cake.

Recently the mission began an indicative where we share cards and a
video for our first visit, and it's been running smoothly! The new
Christmas video the church put out is awesome! I'll share the link
with you guys!

christmas.mormon.org

We've been sharing this video with pretty much everyone, and it's been
working super well! We've been getting in so many doors and getting
more investigators! I love sharing the message about the birth of our
Savior and teaching about what he's done for us! I've come to realize
and appreciate the Atonement, and to know that whatever pain or
temptation we've felt, he's felt too. We always have a close friend to
rely on whenever we need help!

Aside from that, the lights are beginning to blossom! The main plaza
of Nauta has Christmas lights, a Christmas tree, and a huge nativity
scene now! One thing I learned about the traditions here is that they
don't put the baby Jesus in the Nativity scenes until Christmas Eve.
Everyone's starting to get a little festive, including me. I often
find myself singing Christmas songs around the house now.

Congratulations on the new baby, Kristy and Tom! She looks very
beautiful and healthy! And congratulations on the baby girl that you
are about to have, Erin and Jim! I hope everyone is doing well up
there in the states! Stay safe with all the snow!

Love,
Adam

P.S. To Mom, I should be calling sometime this week to coordinate the
Christmas call.

 
Dear Family,

After a baptism bash of four people, our area in Nauta is starting to go through a downhill stage. We've got a lot of new recent converts and we're very low on investigators. Every investigator we've found that has potential travels a lot and usually we can't find them in their homes. But when we do find them, we always have killer lessons! The Spirit takes over and the investigators understand everything very well! 

One investigator we have is one we actually found a few weeks ago, but due to his work, we haven't been able to find him very much. His name is Jesus Emmanuel (because his parents names were José (Joseph) and Maria (Mary) and he was born on Christmas Eve at 11:59 in the night. I'm not kidding!) He always listens and he understands everything extremely well! He explains his thoughts openly and we're able to resolve his doubts super well. 

Another thing about him is that he knows a lot. He's very, very smart. He knows how to play piano, he knows English, Spanish, and German, and he knows a ton of trivial, yet interesting facts. For example, the other day, before one of our lessons, he explained to us how the common types of neckties came to be. I forgot the entire story, but what they're supposed to represent are swords, which is why they're shaped like one. Perhaps this is the sword of truth in the armor of God? Just an interesting fact that I wanted to share with you all. :P

This week, too, I've been studying like crazy. I've been studying about knowledge, and how we can learn to know more and more. I've learned that with the spirit of prayer and a faithfulness to the gospel, we can be able to learn things about the gospel that no man has ever known before. When I read that in D and C, I was very impressed. With the diligent study of the scriptures, we may be able to resolve whatever worry or doubt we may have, thanks to the spirit and the love God has for us.

In short, we didn't have much progression in the area, but I had a ton of progression in my study. It was a pretty good week!

How is everyone up in the cold, cold states? Is Katie feeling any better? You're going to have to tell me about Kristy's baby and the name she and Tom will give! You're going to also tell me about Erin's upcoming baby! And Lilli's also going to have to tell me more about Belgium and the Netherlands (after learning about her call, I got super interested in learning more about it!)

I love you all! I keep praying for you every single day! You are all the best!

Love,

Adam

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

HALLOWEEN!!!

BOO!

Halloween

At the Dixon's!

Bring all your ghosts and goblins, super heroes, villains and princesses to the

Dixon house 

on

Saturday October 31st

at 5:00 pm

for some very spooky fun!

We will have you make your own pizza,

before you go out to

haunt the neighborhood.

ALSO, for those not going and would like 

not to haunt, there will be the 'good' treats and we will stream a Halloween movie!

Let me know what your favorite treat is and I'll make sure it's here. 

Start thinking of your favorite movie to watch. 

PLUS, Opa comes home that day and will get home just in time for the party.......yayayayayayayay!

CAN'T WAIT! CAN'T WAIT! CAN'T WAIT!

Elder Adam's October 26th Email

Dear Family,

We worked very hard this week, and our work was payed off in itself! We found at least 3 families that want to hear the gospel, that are already progressing, and that understand what we teach very easily! The Lord is truly blessing us! It made me think that whatever we want in life, we've got to achieve it by work. That's how God made it so we can keep progressing!

This week, we're going to be getting a family married! We're going to wed a guy named Luis with his future wife, Helena. Luis, surprisingly, was one of the easier investigators I've had. I thought he would've been difficult, judging by other experiences other missionaries had with him and his addiction to alcohol that he no longer has. He actually learns very fast and, frankly, is pretty funny too. I'm excited for their wedding! 

This last Sunday, we had a Stake Conference broadcast, however, because we're in Nauta, the broadcast didn't quite work out, so we were stuck with all the members and investigators sitting in the church waiting for something to see on the projector we had. 

So, instead of the Stake Conference which wasn't going to load, we put on the Joseph Smith movie. I wasn't quite sure if that was the best substitute for a Stake Conference or a sacrament meeting for that matter, but by the end of the movie, I noticed that most people were in tears, even some of our investigators. I shared my testimony of Joseph Smith to everyone after the movie and the spirit grew even stronger. I know Joseph Smith was a prophet. All he did was for the salvation of man, and I know that the Lord has called prophets in this era to recieve revelation and preach the gospel to us.

How is everyone doing over there? The cold season is starting to roll around up there about now, isn't it? Down here, the rain has started to pour buckets on us. So much that I kinda slipped face-first into mud (it was hilarious, now that I look back on it). Halloween's coming up! What's everyone dressing up as? I'm going to dress up as a missionary again! :P

I love you all and keep you all in my prayers!

Love,

Elder Dixon

Elder Adam's October 19th Email

Dear Family,

This week went fantastically! We've been finding more people to teach, and a lot of people that have been with the previous missionaries are starting to agree to baptism! We've got about 5 people in the "Baptism Line". All we need to do is work with them a little bit more!

One of the investigators that are lined up for baptism actually had a very cool spiritual experience. The other missionaries before us had made a goal date for baptism, which was the 10th of October. However, because of her work, Sandra (which is her name) was not able to come to church. Not once. Because of that, she wasn't able to be baptized like she could've been.

On the 10th of October, she noticed something. Her work was going terribly that day. Nothing, not one thing, was working out for her that Saturday. She told us that she took a look at her phone's clock to wonder what time it was and when the day would be over. Underneath the time, she realized that the date had read the 10th, and remembered, "I was supposed to be baptized today..."

Sandra instantly understood her bad day as revelation. The reason her work wasn't working was because being baptized was what she was supposed to be doing at that precise moment. She repented and pleaded with the Lord to give her a second chance...

...A few days later, we were out of plans, and just happened to be in the area. We had kind of given up on Sandra and her family, simply because they weren't progressing, but we both had the desire to visit her home one last time. So we did, and we were greeted with that awesome experience she had. She had managed to quit her job on Sundays and we were able to get another baptismal date set up for her. She came to church and is very excited to get baptized!

We were both pretty wow'd out at that awesome spiritual experience she had! To sum it up, we had a great week this week. 

How was this week for you all? I didn't hear much this week from you guys. :( Hope everything is going well! (BTW, Jim and Erin, Congratulations!) How are all my nieces and nephews? How's Katie doing? And Dad too?

I love you all and keep you all in my prayers! 

Love,

Adam

...

Elder Adam's October 12th email

Dear Family,

I ought to mention that the P-Days here in Nauta are pretty fun! The first P-Day we had here, we hopped into our regular clothes, walked over to the Marañon (the name of the big river next to the city), and began to fish! We managed to catch some decent fish (I caught the second-biggest one). We plan on doing it again today, and this time, I'm gonna catch the biggest! 

This last P-Day, we kind of had a funny experience that reminded me of a talk Elder Uchdorf gave a while back. When I came here to Iquitos to head to Nauta, the assistants to the president told me about this big, Texas-styled restaurant just a few streets from the offices. The food is imported directly from Texas, and everyone in Iquitos saves up to eat there. I, too, wanted to go there and retry a bit of some good ol' American food, but eating there was kind of expensive and we didn't have the time to go there.

Last P-Day, we travelled back to Iquitos to play a huge game of soccer with 3 other zones in the mission. We wrote our families there and bought what we needed there. We didn't quite plan for lunch, though, so I just bought a couple of apples to eat, not wanting to waste money on anything expensive. 

Turns out, one P-Day for every month, travelling to and from Iquitos and eating there is competely free for the missionaries in Nauta. I totally could've eaten at the Texas-restaurant if I wanted to, but I found out too late. Guess I gotta wait until next month. :P

That experience reminds me of the talk Uchdorf gave called "Your potential, Your privileges". I want to share the video with you guys. It's pretty funny! 

https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2013-01-001-your-potential-your-privileges?lang=eng

Sometimes, we're given spiritual and priesthood gifts that we're given to bless the lives of others. Those are privileges in and of themselves. We can all pray to know how we can better use these gifts for the advantage of all. 

Down here, the rainy season is rolling around. How are things up there? Is everyone doing their "ponderizing"? This week, I'm going to do Ether 12:27. What's everyone going to do this week? How's school going for everybody?

I love you all and keep you all in my prayers! 

Love,

Adam

Elder Adam's October 5th email

Dear Family,

General Conference fue lo maximo! We had a few investigators come and enjoy the talks! The conference seemed to speak out right to me! There were so many things I was able to learn and so many more things that I'm going to apply! For example, I'm going to start the "ponderizing" process, starting with not only a verse, but with an entire chapter! I'm going to start ponderizing with D&C 4! What are you all going to study?

Down here in Peru, General Conference is only big in the first session in Sunday. There are people that watch all the sessions though. We watched the conference in the branch, with someone hooking up their laptop to a projector. It was almost in real time, but with the distance and the weather, there was a bit of buffer, especially in the 2nd session in Saturday. The buffer was so bad that my comp and I decided to proselyte and review the talks later. :S 

Conference is such an amazing event! I felt the Spirit so strongly, testifying to me that all this was real. I already knew the church was true, but there was no feeling like the kind I felt in that building, telling me that the church and the gospel was 100%, undoubtedly, undeniably true. It's perfect. How people can turn down an amazing gospel plan such as this just confounds me. I'm so happy to know that if we all stay on the right path, we will all be able to live together for eternity with our beloved Heavenly Father. I wouldn't want it any other way.

Halloween is coming up as well! All the shops sell their decorations for the event, but unfortunately, there aren't many people that buy them. Halloween down here isn't quite as big as Halloween up there, but the stake will host a youth party that day, so I guess it exists. :P

My companion, Elder Maldonado, is pretty docile and very obedient, yet has a distinct funny side to him. I love the kid. He, too, wants to make food for us one of these P-Days. (BTW, Mom, do you think you could send me the recipe for baked brocolli?) :)

We were able to commit someone to baptism! We're teaching the mother of a member who was baptized a few years ago and was able to go to the temple with his wife and children a few months ago! Congrats to them!

I love you all! You are all the best! Katie, I love you so much too! Remember that the Lord will bless us so much if we all center our lives on him and his gospel!

Love,

Adam

CONFERENCE TIME!

 

 

It's Our Favorite Time Of The Year!!

CONFERENCE!

 

Come watch conference with us on Sunday and enjoy lunch after the morning session.

We will be having a potato bar!

 

If you'd like to bring something let me know by Friday morning.

 

Katie has said she will bring a green salad. 

I think Peter mentioned something.....but I have forgotten, sorry Peter.

 

We will have apples for snacking!

 

Can't wait! Can't wait! Can't wait!