33 - Zone Conference on the Island

Well first off, that cake looks great! You would be surprised with the lack of sweet things there are in Central America/ Latin America, whatever you want to call this place. I guess we are kind of Caribbean/Central/South America. And for my day of birth remembrance, we had a grill out! But it was not just any grill out! The ZLs came and so did all the other missionaries in the zone. We took a lot of pics. I’ll have to send them some other time; the internet is being a little temperamental today. But we built the fire using paint thinner as fuel, you know whole eagle scout training kicked in. but one of my ZLs was doing it, and the fire climbed the stream and caught the rim of the bottle on fire. He ran to the ocean to try and put it out but as he threw it into the water, it sprayed and caught the ocean on fire. So we had a fire tornado kinda thing going on right by the bathroom. My first thought was --wet the dock so it doesn’t catch fire. Finally we put out the ocean fire but it was pretty stinkin cool if I do say so myself!
 
But that’s crazy to hear about my buddy. It’s too bad that things like that happen to people that I was so close to. I still feel like he is one of my good friends. It’s just sad to see how badly a few decisions can switch your life.

So about the package. The first thing I thought, what the freak am I going to do with 15 CTR rings????!! haha just kidding. Thanks mommy! But maybe I’ll get em. We are going into the city for Christmas the first Friday of December. So maybe I’ll be able to get them then. But we will just have to wait and see! I really hope I can get some. And if not, it’s not like I’m gonna be sad! It just means I’ll just have to wait. But we are trying to get permission to stay in the city an extra few days so we can be there for changes. We need to buy some new pans for the house and such so we are trying to get that worked out. We will see how it goes I guess.

I’m sure that would be good spam- jalapeno! Out in the mission, spam is a good thing! Just fry it up with some oil and boom! It turns good! I’ll make it when I get home. Don’t you worry your little spam-deprived heart!
 
I don’t know why time is going slow for you. It feels really fast for me! Like it feels like I just got back into the mission a few weeks ago! But it was actually a few months ago. But don’t worry. I’ll be home before you know it!
 
That is a good thought you sent me. Learning and gaining a testimony is a lifetime of work. I have been thinking a lot about that. A man who was really strong in the Gospel here is kind of inactive now. It’s just kinda weird to think you could practically go from bishop to inactive just within a few short weeks. But maybe my thinking is wrong on this one. I’m not sure!
 
Oh good old region dances. So much fun! I totally would have come and chilled with you guys! That would have kind of been fun to chaperone! Just you, me and dad watching a bunch of little kids. We would have had some pretty funny comments come out of that group. But I guess I’ll just have to wait till another time to do it with you guys!
 
But that’s awesome Marcus got a birthday gift! And it’s only a month late! That’s awesome! ;) haha I’m just messin with ya mom! But that’s actually a cool gift!

I’m so glad I’m not there to watch granny go through all this chemo and stuff. I don’t know if I could handle all that! But I’m just a little tender I guess.

You guys are gonna party that place up at Christmas! And I’m pretty sure I’ll be able to skype. We will get it figured out! It might have to do it on a different day, but that’s only if like some freak storm takes out the power on the island or something big like that.
 
But other than that, this week was good. We had the zone conference, then taught some good lessons. Me and Elder Murray cleaned the entire building before these guys came. But now it’s dirtier than before, and they have been here less than a week. So now we’ll have to clean again! But we have a baptismal date and we are hoping to get at least 2 more this week. So we got high goals! And we think these are good solid dates. So I’m pretty excited! But that’s about it. I love you! Keep up the hard work.

Oh, and remind dad he has to ride the scooter a little bit so the gas doesn’t go bad and ruin it. But I love you! See ya!
 
Love
Elder Adams

10 - The worth of One Soul

Well this week, since I talked to you two days ago, has been great! It was so good to see all you guys on Skype! And just so you know, I do miss you guys a ton, I just don't want you to worry about me! I miss you more than I let on! But I decided I do need to take charge a little more. I'm going to try and do more to be an example and follow the rules even more closely. Tell dad and Marcus I said thank you for telling me how important it is to do that. And for me to push to be even better. I have been okay with just average, and I shouldn't be. And tell dad I love him. He was so quiet during our Skype, I thought he was kinda ticked for some reason. So tell him I love him and I hope I didn't do anything to make him mad. I swear I'm turning into Grandma because even thinking about dad possibly being mad at me makes me almost cry! Haha

So technically google maps doesn't have our house. It was taken before our house was built. But if you can look at the mall, it goes through a little neighborhood thing, then there is a space and it hits another neighborhood. We are right in the middle of those. But thanks for looking!

I have realized how much I really want to help people. I want them to feel even a little bit of how I feel. I was reading in Helaman today, and it was Nephi the son of Helaman the son of Helaman I think. And he was on his tower crying to the Lord because of the iniquity and sin that was among his people. I started getting really sad because so many people in the world aren't doing very good, and I'm a missionary. I need to be trying to help in any way I can. But remember the scripture that says how great is the worth of one soul in the eyes of God and how much greater are more than one. Okay, I got my whole spiritual montage out of the way. Haha

But I decided I'm just going to have to shower morning and night, and do exercises in the morning. Regardless of how badly I want to stay in bed. It's been raining a lot lately here. Actually right now our clothes are getting another wash. We thought it would be okay because the wind was moving the clouds away and it was super hot! But that's Panama for ya I guess. Yesterday me and my comp had an hour between our lessons and dinner, so we went home. Then he said one of our investigators needs our help so we went there. They were trying to figure out their son's math homework and were getting really mad. So while my comp helped the mom understand one of the harder ones, I helped the son (Miguel) with one of the easier ones. It was a little different in Spanish but it was still pretty easy to explain to him. 

But I actually saw a crocodile come up this morning. I remembered from the show Swamp Wars what to look for! haha! I saw the bubbles and then I saw its eyes pop out of the water. It was kind cool that it actually worked!  Other than that, things have been pretty good here! I got 3 National jerseys today- Argentina, Brazil, and Real Madrid- for like 10 bucks. It was pretty awesome.

I wanted to say thank you to dad, for all you have done for me. There was a kid at church on Sunday, he was with his dad in Elders Quorum. Everything his dad did, he did, if his dad would fix his tie, his son would pretend to fix his tie. He did every little thing and it made me really grateful for everything you have done for me, dad, and the example you have been for me. I hope that I am making you proud. If I can be half as good of a father as you I will be pretty happy with that. I love you dad.  

But I love you all. I hope you are having a good week. Tell everyone I love them and hi to anyone who is reading the blog! Are people reading it? I love you mom.

8 - We got to use Machetes!

Haha Why all the questions woman??? Ha Just kidding. 

The Spanish is still super tough, but it's slowly getting better. A few people speak bits and pieces of English but for the most part no one really speaks it.  It is really hard but it is slowly getting better as my Spanish gets better. But yes it is a million times better to be out here in Panama. I'm not stuck in a prison! (The MTC in Mexico City doesn't let the missionaries leave the grounds.) The people of Panama are nice. They feed us quite a few meals, but there are a few times when we don't have appointments. Our fridge is tiny and no one really buys food because it will go bad before we eat it all. So we just eat like cup of noodle or crackers. In the malls they have everything from McDonald's to Popeye's, so that's kind of nice. 

It's mainly desert here in my area, which is weird. Me and my comp get along pretty well. We have fun sometimes. I don't really work out, but I do study. We don't really have comp study though. Here is weird, some other Americans told me like some missionaries kind of do whatever sometimes. So it's kind of hard.  I am just going through the Gospels and highlighting all the teachings of Jesus. So if you have any good scriptures and insights about them I would definitely love to hear them!

I don't know if we will get to Skype or do a phone call on Sunday for Mother's Day. No one really has internet out here. We go to internet cafes to use the internet so I could use that. But I do need you to send me my log in stuff just in case we Skype. 

I'm glad you guys all had a good time at Grandpa's wedding. Dolores is such a sweet lady. I hope she feels welcome in our family.  I'm glad to hear about the wedding. I really hope Grandpa does take good care of her. She is amazing and so caring.

But this week was pretty good. We had a few lessons and found a few less active members. But it's still hard here. We do a lot of walking but we also ride the bus a lot, and I mean a lot. It's still super difficult but things are going a little better. I got a Panama National jersey for 10 bucks! It's from the last World Cup but still! And I saw an Infiniti g37 last week! That is the coolest car I've seen here so far. It was red and I got so excited! One thing that was pretty cool, we got to go do service and we had to use machetes to clear this lady's back yard. We had a lot of fun.

The family pictures look awesome! I can't wait to get mine! But I might need more contact lenses. I sweat so much that it's impossible to wear glasses here. So we will have to see about that one! 

Other than that, there isn't much happening. I have a few pictures from getting here and I have some cool pictures from this last week but they won't load on the computer. I got one of the temple to load though. But this week wasn't all that eventful that I can remember! Sorry that it's so short! But I get to see you guys in 2 weeks so I'm pretty excited about that! I love you!