Week 13: In which I visit Ricardo, meet Elder Aguirre, and contemplate armies of Chihuahuas

Hola!

This was a super cool week. We finally got to talk to Ricardo again, and he's just so cool! He finally opened up to us a bit, and we were able to talk to him again about the restoration. As it turns out, he had some doubts and questions, but the spirit in the room was strong enough that what questions he had seemed to dissipate with no effort. He's super busy all the time, so he has had trouble reading and praying, but when we invited him this last time, he just said he really did want to get an answer and that he would read and pray that night. He's so cool! He's really open, and willing to experiment. I think his biggest challenge will be finding time to keep too many commitments.

I have some relatively sad (don't worry, not THAT depressing) news, which in some ways doesn't come as a huge surprise. Kenia, the awesome person who had decided to get baptized, has been completely impossible to contact for a week. We've tried by her house a lot, but she didn't keep her first appointment and hasn't been opening the door for a week. We know she was there at least 2 of those times (including the appointment). We ended up deciding the best thing to do was to just hold off on trying to visit her for the next week. We're hoping that we can then return, try to set up another date (she had the 3rd of September as a date before, but we have to change it), and try to help resolve whatever concerns or questions she may have. I am confident that if she continues trying to find the answers she wants, she will be very well off in the Lord's hands.

Oh, yeah! I also have a new companion, Elder Aguirre. He's so awesome! I am so excited for this transfer. He's from Colorado, but was born in Chihuahua. He'll get along with all of the chihuahuas in this area, that's for sure. Man, I think sometimes here they have a different philosophy for guard dogs. Sometimes, there will be a massive, threatening Rottweiler, German Shepherd, or Pit Bull. However, the vast majority of the time, people substitute quality for quantity. Some yards have entire armies of chihuahuas, completely undisciplined, but readier than anything to attempt to bite your ankles off. 5 chihuahuas is about the average.

I didn't see this, but I heard a story from another missionary that he personally witnessed. Once, there was a group of 5 or so chihuahuas chilling in the middle of the street. They were super friendly to each other, but a mean bunch to anything else that moved. Before long, another little chihuahua gang rolled around the corner, and the first group proceeded to instigate a chihuahua war. The leaders went at each other, and the other dogs followed suit. It was, according to the other missionary, a little chihuahua gang war in miniature. I guess that was a rough neighborhood, at least as far as chihuahuas were concerned. I'm going to have to get a picture of one of the highly trained and greatly feared chihuahua private armies to send. One of these days.

I also found out something pretty cool last week. Remember Bob? The prospector guy? Well, turns out he is hard core. Some of you may be familiar with an event known as the Iran Hostage Crisis. Well, apparently Bob played an important role in that. He was, for several years, leader of a Special Ops squad. He had an office in the pentagon. Well, during the Hostage Crisis, he flew in on a civilian airplane, completely unarmed. He then just strolled into the office of the President of Iran, looked him in the eye, and said a line worthy of a movie: "I'm not armed right now, and I'm not here to cause problems. But if you continue to cause trouble, I'll come back and there'll be a bullet through your head." He said the president was always nice to him after that.

This week has been super fun. I know I've said that before, but it's so true! I just keep learning more about this work I am trying to do. I love the people here so much! They're all just great. I don't even mind the chihuahuas, despite the fact that they think when we walk away that they chased us off. We are trying to find a lot of people right now, and have begun focusing on helping the members discover the joy that comes with this work. Right here, right now, there is no other place I'd want to be.

Elder Adams

Okay, picture time!

This was my companionship with Elder Wunderlich in a nutshell:

The next one is a relatively normal picture...

...And the next is not.


 Proudly presenting... Elder Aguirre! (with Elder Call)


 Yep, these are our Zone Leaders.

Week 12: In which I lose my trainer, we challenge a lack of faith, and explore an abandoned mine.

Alright, time for some crazy news! Despite the fact that I'm not finished with my training yet (not for another transfer), Elder Wunderlich is being transferred to a different zone in the mission. He's being made a zone leader up in Omack. Same stake, different zone. He'll be by here every once in a while for the Mission Leadership Councils in Yakima (the Omack zone leaders stay the night with us the night before because it's so far). I'll be finishing my training with Elder Aguire (or Aguirre? I'm actually not sure), who was actually training my MTC companion this last transfer.

This last week was really, really slow. It felt like wherever we tried to go, everything fell through. Our lessons fell through, then our backups, then no one wanted to talk with us. It was hard, but that has never discouraged me. I know that some weeks will be slow, and others will seem like miracle after miracle.

In an effort to find some more people, we went to the hospital this week to try to arrange to help out and talk to people who are going through a crisis. That might help with finding, although I'm not sure how eager the hospital chaplains were to let us help a lot. They were definitely nice, and very accommodating. They seemed very glad to get our contact information.

Bit by bit, we're trying to get better at planning together. We're trying to implement all of the points in Preach My Gospel. We still need a lot of practice for it to truly become natural and a habit, though.

I think one of the most powerful experiences this week was when I was on exchanges with Elder Brassanini. That happened to be the day we had planned to go by one of our investigators. We hadn't had a proper appointment with this particular investigator yet, but so far, he had seemed pretty wishy-washy when it came to keeping commitments. When we finally met with him and his wife, it became abundantly clear after only a few minutes that there was zero faith in either of them.

In a rare experience, a lesson that could have been extremely uncomfortable was very powerful. It was not a usual lesson, but a loving cry to repentance. They both kept saying "Yes, yes, we have a lot of faith. Heaps of it. We are very devoted followers of Christ. We're Catholics!" At the same time, the wife said "I'm a Catholic. I don't really care if I'm wrong or not, that's what I am and I don't want to change." Now, there's absolutely nothing wrong with being a Catholic; that's great! What saddens me is that so very often, people are afraid to even experiment with new things, out of the fear they might be wrong. Why can't we all be more open? I sincerely hope I would be!

These people, whom I love so dearly, were astoundingly unwilling to change. Despite knowing that such things are quite common, I was incredulous. Why would anyone be so, so closed to hearing a simple message? When their lack of true faith (as opposed to simple belief, which doesn't involve action) became clear, I felt myself speak with a power not my own. To be honest, I often don't like being as direct as we were with people. It often makes more enemies then friends. However, that lesson, Elder Brassanini and I were both extremely direct. In short, when they refused to pray yet continually professed their faith in Christ, we asked: "If you have so much faith, why not show it with a simple prayer? Is that so hard?" When they again refused and yet again spoke of the great faith they had, Elder Brassanini said "Then your faith is only with words and not actions?"

It was not your average lesson. It was very direct, without any beating about the bush. Without a miracle, we will almost certainly stop teaching them for the time being. However, I do believe that such miracles are possible. They were both doing some serious soul-searching during that lesson, of that I am sure. I saw it in their eyes. The spirit was also extremely strong, calling them to repent. The only question is, will they fight the spirit like they were clearly doing before?

Sometimes, I think we are too timid or polite to follow such inspiration. It's hard to say something as harsh as that to someone, even if done out of love for them. I know that as we try to be better and follow the spirit, we will have words put into our mouths. In two very different ways, it happened with Kenia and it happened again this week. With such miracles occurring day by day, my faith is growing continually stronger. I doubt I have ever had as much as I do now, and for that I am eternally grateful. I receive witnesses in my heart every day of the truth of this message. I only wish that people through all ages were not so stubborn in their hearts and quick to do evil. I hope that I will be able to be the Lord's tool in helping to sift those faithful few from the proud masses. I am not perfect myself, as I will be the first to admit. Still, I know that with the Lord's help, we can strive to be better every day.

Alright, now for what we did for fun last Monday! We went up near a little town called Leavenworth to hike. To save my mother the effort of looking Leavenworth up and stalking me, I'll just tell you basically what it is. Leavenworth is a little town in the mountains that is very... German. It's advertised as a "Bavarian Town". It's not like an actual town in Germany, but it has tons of signs in German, at least one little bakery, and a bunch of German restaurants. It's a kind of fun place, even though we only drove through to get to our hike.

The hike was gorgeous. It was drizzling a bit, but it was a fantastic mountain view. We also went through a really awesome abandoned mining tunnel. It went through a mountain. Picture time!

 These two are from Leavenworth:
 
 

This is the river we saw on the hike:

These next few are the abandoned mining tunnel:
 

 

This is us emerging from the other side of the mountain:

This is the bridge we crossed on the hike:

Basically, it was awesome. Most Mondays we just spend playing chair soccer or something as a zone. This last week was pretty awesome, though.

Much love,

Elder Adams

Week 11: In which Kenia accepts an invitation, our neighbor thinks we are CIA, and I deal with a discouraging weekend

Dear family and friends,

I love it here! I can't say it enough. Really, one of my favorite things is all of the learning experiences and chances to meet and (try to) help so many people. It doesn't matter to me if a day or a week is disappointing, I still love it. It is from opposition that we stretch and grow. To be honest, this week was in some ways disappointing. From Friday through Sunday, no matter how hard we tried, every single one of our appointments and backups fell through. There was almost no one on the streets. As a result, we pretty much walked from place to place on lonely streets, and were hardly able to see any tangible results. Such a situation could have been extremely discouraging, but it wasn't too bad for me. Things happen! I was buoyed up by the spirit of the work and by an incredible experience just days earlier, on Wednesday.

Elder Wunderlich and I had been teaching a wonderful investigator named Kenia. She has been keeping all her commitments, and once even told us that she would never have opened the Book of Mormon had she not believed us. We prayerfully decided that it was the right time to give her a church tour, and set plans with her to have one last week.

Alas, it was not to be. Her job got unexpectedly demanding, and she was expected to work afternoon and night shifts Mon-Fri, and all day on Sundays. We were crushed. We did take the time to visit her once after our personal and companion studies, but we didn't know how we could continue with such a seemingly insurmountable obstacle in view. We both prayed and prayed for some sort of miracle, and hoped with all our hearts that a way would open for us to continue to teach her and help her progress.

As we were walking by her house Monday evening, we were surprised to see her sitting on her porch! It was exactly during the time that she was required to work. Curious, and wanting to know what was going on, we stopped and talked for some time. As it turns out, her job was downsizing, and she had been laid off just the day before. Both my companion and I were shocked. I don't think either of us knew what to think. It was a terrible time for her, and yet also exactly the kind of miracle we had been praying for. We offered to do what we could to help, and set up an appointment for a church tour on Wednesday.

When the time came for the church tour, we began setting up early to be as prepared as possible for the church tour. We were caught off guard, however, when she arrived a half-hour early for the appointment! We began trying to teach about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and introduce the building in an attempt to stall for the member to arrive. We felt completely unprepared and very unsure. After a brief tour, we decided to show Kenia the chapel. As we entered the chapel, we began talking about the sacrament and its significance. At that moment, the wonderful member arrived just in time to testify of the sacrament. We were still on our toes, but we were thankfully going a little more according to the plan now.

We then decided to show her the baptismal font, where we would talk about baptism, why it needs to be done with the authority, how it's done, what a service is like, and many other things. Our plan was to follow that up with an invitation to baptism. However, shortly after we talked about Christ being baptized by John the Baptist, our plan was turned on its head. As I opened my mouth to talk about the importance of authority, I couldn't speak. I knew it wasn't the right thing to say. I tried a couple of times, all unsuccessful, to talk about priesthood authority. I then felt slapped around by the spirit a bit. I knew for a certainty in that moment what to do, for it was as if a voice whispered to me "Just invite her already."

So I did. I opened my mouth, which had been dumb before, and broke through my stupor of thought by speaking what I really knew all along I had to say. In that moment, her eyes lit up, and as I spoke the invitation, she kept nodding. After a brief pause to ask why she would need to be baptized again (followed by a brief explanation of priesthood authority), she answered without hesitation. It was a quiet, yet determined, yes. The spirit was like a tidal wave filling the room as we testified with the member of the great blessings attending baptism. She felt it; I know she did. I could see it in her eyes.

Also of note is the fact that several members have since forwarded her several very promising job opportunities, which she is looking into.

While my experience is admittedly lacking, Wednesday was the first time on my mission that anyone has agreed to be baptized. I know full well that many of the greatest challenges lie ahead, but I also know that with the help of the Holy Ghost, she can be ready.

While the rest of the week has been somewhat hard, my testimony has grown because of my experiences with Kenia. It is very apparent that the Lord is very, very aware of her. I know that he is, and he cares for her a great deal. I continue to hope that with the help of the spirit, a precious daughter of God will be brought back into His fold.

Well, that was a lengthy telling of a single story. I've got one more, and it's a little funnier.

So, we've got a guy living in our apartments who is a bit, well, touched. I've heard him randomly yelling German at the sky before, and we've had a couple more interesting encounters as well. Last night, he looked at us four missionaries as we were returning, and said something rather odd. We didn't even respond, we were so surprised. I'll do my best to paraphrase accurately: "Hey! You guys! When are you going to admit to being CIA? I know you're CIA! I've got satellites; just look up and say 'Hi, we're CIA!' Just do it, so they can see your faces!"

Yeah.

So anyway, we were leaving the apartment this morning, and we ran into him again. Before my companion and I got there, he told the other Elders that he knew they were CIA, that he had recently become owner of the apartment complex, and that he wanted us all to vacate as soon as possible. As I began helping Elder Call to back out of the parking space, he began hailing Elder Brassanini. In an attempt to settle the issue, the poor harried Elder tried to use a futile call to reason. In response, the man simply said: "Do you know how I pegged you as CIA?" He then gestured to me, causing me to think along the lines of "Uh-oh". He then went on to say it's because we back each other out of parking spaces. "I know it makes sense, and it's just smart; that's why the CIA does it!" Elder Brassanini responded as such: "Would it help if I told you we're really not CIA, and that's just Church policy? We belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints." The guy just said "Yep. Uh-huh. Sure." We then left.

So, it's been a somewhat interesting week. Awesome experiences... and weird experiences. Just about normal out here.

I love you all a ton! My love for you is not in any way the square root of negative one. I love Wenatchee, too.

Finally, I'll end with a little saying shared by a fellow missionary in the MTC, which I constantly strive to follow: "Be the Lord's tool, not a tool." Have fun, stay strong, and keep on being awesome. Also, thanks for sending me a lot of cookies. I'm going to enjoy them... with other missionaries, of course. Our apartment will try to save some for the sisters in our district.

Love,

Elder Adams

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BONUS: A Tour of our Apartment

I'm not gonna lie: our apartment isn't that bad at all. The one thing, though, is that some earlier Elders (I promise not me), umm, accidentally punched quite a few holes in the wall. I think they body-slammed the wall a few times while wrestling or something. That's the only thing that could possibly do that kind of thing, I think.

Okay, now for the virtual tour!

Here is the living room, eating, and sleeping quarters. My bed is the top bunk, but is not in the picture. It's off to the right, at a right angle with the bed in the picture (for the other companionship):

 

This is the living room again, but looking into the kitchen this time:

 

This is the kitchen. There is a second microwave, an oven, and a stove not in the picture.

 

This is the main hallway going off of the living room:

 

This is... the bathroom!

 

This is the study room of the other companionships (complete with Elder Brassanini):

 

And this is our study room (complete with Elder Wunderlich). My desk is on the right:

 

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Bonus #2:

[Editor: Elder Wunderlich's mom sent us a couple of pictures of Ben & Elder Wunderlich helping some people move last Friday.]

   

Week 10: In which our investigators are too busy, I hatch a plan to bake cookies, and forget my SD card. Again.

Hola, mi familia y mis amigos! Estoy muy emocionado por esta semana. Esta semana, estaba aprendiendo por la opportunidad a ser un mejor misionaro. Inserio! Yo espero que mi Espanol este mejorando, pero no estoy seguro. Cierto, ahora esta mas facil a hablar en el idioma, pero siempre estoy aprendiendo como mi espanol es todavia... horible. Claro, esta bien. Mama, en su ultima carta, yo creo que yo entiende todas de sus palabras. Lo siento, no puedo escribir espanol en la computadora perfecto, porque es dificil a hacer eso. Entonces, necesito escribir in ingles, porque tengo dolor de mi cabeza cuando yo trato a pensar en espanol. Tambien, muchos de ustedes no hablan esta lengua. Entonces, aurita hablare en ingles.
 
[Hi, my family and friends! I am very excited about this week. This week, I was learning for the opportunity to be a better missionary. Really! I hope my Spanish is getting better, but I'm not sure. Certainly, it is easier to speak in the language now, but I am always learning how my Spanish still is...horrible. Clearly, it's fine. Mom, in your last letter, I think I understood all your words. I'm sorry, I can't write perfect Spanish on the computer, because it is difficult to do that. So, I need to write in English, because I have a headache when I try to think in Spanish. Also, many of you don't speak this language. So, now I will speak in English.]

So, yeah. I'm working on my Spanish. Yep. All the time. 

This last week was pretty awesome. I think this week I'm going to focus on the people we've been teaching. We have indeed been by Natalie's again, but she's super busy preparing for her quince, going to dance classes, and working. Because of that, she hasn't been able to find time to pray and search for an answer yet, but when we went by yesterday evening, she promised she would do it today. I'm crossing my fingers! I know that if she prays wanting to know the truth, she will receive an answer.

We have also been talking to some other really cool people! We've been teaching another family as well; the dad's name's Jose, and his wife is Yesenia. They're pretty cool, but like Natalie, they haven't really taken the time to actually look for an answer. Our visits with them are few and far between, and I'm not sure if they're progressing. Still, they are definitely feeling the spirit when we go over. I think if we try one or two more times to really highlight the importance of action, they might take the time to read and prayerfully ponder the scriptures and our message.

Someone else we've been by is Ricardo and his wife Marina. They are just so awesome! Ricardo works in construction, and they have a really beautiful house. Ricardo speaks really great English (I don't even think he has any accent whatsoever), and so does his wife, but she feels more comfortable with Spanish. Because Ricardo is so busy with his construction job, he hadn't found time last time we went by to read or pray at all. Are you all sensing a pattern? It's a very common difficulty around this area, especially during the summer. The thing is, everyone here is so overworked during the harvest seasons that they really don't have a lot of time to either meet with us or try to search for truth. If people read the scriptures and pray to God, they can receive an answer! I did it myself years ago. It's admittedly sometimes hard to watch people stagnate because of a lack of commitment. Honestly, all it takes is a willingness to experiment and a desire to search for the truth.

Anyway, we're going by Ricardo and Marina tonight, so I'm hoping that will go well. We plan on inviting them to a tour of the church building, which would be great! We also want to give a tour to another person we're meeting with, Kenia (or Kenya, I honestly don't know how to spell that). We had a church tour scheduled with her for Friday, but when she went outside to come, she found out her husband had borrowed her truck without telling her. See, his was being fixed at the shop. So, that fell through. Still, we're excited to talk with her more this week and set another one up.

Kenia is really great. She is, however, facing quite a lot of opposition. She works selling phone plans, and the office at which she works recently became really short-staffed. They're running at below half-ideal. Because of that, she's working both afternoon and night shifts and 6 days a week, including all day on Sunday. That is a real challenge for her on many, many levels. It's made it really hard for her to keep commitments.

Anyway, I don't really have much time left to write more this week. I also can't give you a virtual tour of the apartment yet, since I found out that I left the SD card from my camera at the place where we email last week. I found it this morning, but that means I couldn't really take pictures because of that... so next time. I know I'm somewhat bad at that.

But, regardless, I love you all a ton! Also, thanks so much for the recipes! I'm totally making snickerdoodles and peanut butter cookies to thank the people who have been helping us out, like Hermano Clive, who has been really going above and beyond.

Love you all!

Elder Adams