May 31, 2010

SErvus!!!! that is how the people here in österreich greet each other. I dont know if i have told you or not but the area that we are in, so innsbruck, is part of a state called Tirol. Home of beautiful snowcapped mountains and thick dialects that make german the language that eveyone thinks is really a disgusting language. Seriously. we met some people this week whose dialects are so nasty. When you think about german like from the hollywood films or anything where it sounds like they are trying to disloge a massive chunk of pflegm or a bronchiole cyst then this is called tirolerish!! And as a part of my calling as a missionary to absorb culture and try my best to communicate with these children of God in their mother tongues i have started to learn tirolerish. This dialect is fun. The people laugh because they can still notice my american accent but as i say words that are only in their dialect they laugh and we get off to a good start. Making friends in less than ten seconds on the street is the name of the game and then they are more open to that which we want to tell them about the restored gospel of Christ. REally cool stuff.
Sounds like a lot is going on at home base. Devin being home. Cool stuff. I cant even imagine being home that would be so weird. I can only think of mission life and what it is like here. whateva. So, ja viel spaß zusammen! ich werde mein arbeit hier tun!!!!!! (that means, actually you should look up what that means) have you gotten a german dictionary yet? you better be able to communicate with me when i completely forget englisch.
This week was great in the way of the work. However it was a really hard week. It was one of those weeks where we had the highest of highs and lowest of lows. our week was bi-polar. So to start it off. we had an amazing appointment wit Liljana on tuesday. We taught her about the baptism and confirmation, just to that she could understand it a little bit better that it was our first covenant that we make, that leads us on the path to eternal life. then we left our area we got the opportunity to take a five and a half hour train ride through the mountains of rivendale to a town called klagenfurt. Seriously the landscape that we rode through looked like something out of the lord of the rings. We got to do an exchange with the elders that are working there in klagenfurt. They have been having a pretty tough transfer so far. They havent seen too much success, so on tuesday we got there pretty late at night and then on wednesday we worked with them the whole day and that was so great. WE kranked out the work we found two new investigators as we were there and we taught 3 lessons and just had an overall super succesful exchange. so then we stayed the night there again till thursday morning because we had a 5 hour train ride ahead of us. so thursday morning we rode back to our area however we got on the wrong train. So instead of one of the faster trains we got in one of the slower trains on accident and it stopped in every little village on the way back to innsbruck so we ended up spending seven hours in a train. But we stayed effective. I got caught up on my journal writing. we cleaned and updated our area book and talked to some nice people. time is so important as a missionary. we dont have a lot of it and effectiveness is important. but also having fun is important. they are both important. when you combine them real good you are happy. :) Then we eventually made it back to our own area, where i found out that my bike had been stolen..... yup. pretty happy about that one. but whateva. i got over it real quick like. i thought about it for about an hour about how much money that was and how much i am going to miss my awesome bike, but then i realized that it was just money, and that is not important i also realized that the work was more important, and that you would have to worry about me less getting into accidents and whatnot, and that the sooner i got over it the sooner i could be happy just teaching people about Christ. So we had another appointment with liljana on the eve of bike theft, it went great she was excited to keep the law of chastity and the word of wisdom and she was excited to be baptised on the 13 of june. WE found three new investigators this week and im stoked about that. then on saturday we should have had another appointment with liljana however that fell through and later we met her on the street and she said that she did not want to have anything to do with us. I dont know what caused such a great change from being stoked about being baptised to saying that she didnt want to have anythign to do with us. It kinda was a bummer a lot. But we then got over that Found another investigator. Taught him and invited him to baptism and he said he would do it as soon as he finds out that it is true. Super cool. On sunday i gave a talk in church. I had no time to prepare it, because the branch president called me on friday and time is something that i dont have a lot of. But it went really well. I talked about committments and how they help us make progress in the gospel. The branch loved it. I thought it was good. and that was pretty much my week. Ups and downs highs and lows. but all great. Still super happy to be serving my God and my Savior.
This week i convinced elder mecham to buy lederhosen so we are going to buy them. and then next week we are going to go up on the mount in them. THere is a thing called the Nordketter, basically a massive tram that takes us up there to about 3,000 meters. but thats next week. It costs however like 26 euros so i was wondering if you could put a little money in my account for that and plus i had a suit of mine cleaned and that was like 14 euros. so if you could transfer a little money into my account that would be good. Hey well i gots to write a record of the weeks doings to president condie. Dad had a b-day sometime ago didnt he? Im sorry that i missed it. you should remind me of things like that. They are hard for me to remember on my own. WEll have a lovely week. I love you all and wish you the best!!!!!! ELDER ADAMS out!!!!

Hello,

Bro. wow that sounds tough. I dont know what to say. But you are capable. you served two years as a representative of Jesus Christ. You were on the concrete hours a day and these experiences will help you be successful as a member missionary. The knowledge that you have is something that you will treasure now. Knowing that you are a child of God and that he loves you will help you make it through this transition and you know that he only wants whats best for you. Geh weiter. You got this. Know that you are in my prayers and that you are awesome. THanks for being an example. By the way your testimony was hamma! Ich habe geweint. i cried. By the way this is a pic of me so that you can recognize me. :) Have a great week. I love you.

Elder ADAMS

May 24, 2010

Schönen Guten Tag!!!!!
hey well this week was a super week. We were also really busy. You have to worry about a lot of things when you are in a position of responsibility. hmm. Well the first thing that went well was that we had zone conference. We had no time during the week because we have been making out appointments like crazy and so we had to plan for zone conference and the workshop that we needed to give during our last p day. so that was fun. You know you are a missionary when you pray for more time. we had to choose a list of songs people that would say prayers what we were going to teach the zone so that they could see more success in their work. It was really cool. I love thinking about the needs of other people and then planning for that and then putting it into action to help them reach their highest potential.
Calls on sunday night are insane. we have to take the numbers from all the district leaders in the zone and then from three other sets of elders whose district leader is in germany. ya it is a weird situation and we just have to deal with it. with being so busy it makes it hard to keep up with my journal writing. We have so much to do and not enough time to do it. So i am a lilttle behind on my journal but i gotta work on that today because today is a holiday and like every holiday here in catholic land the stores are closed, everything is closed except for this email shop so we will have time today to chill a little bit. No planning this pday. Zone konference was on thursday the 20th (my year mark whoa! time is the abominable death i dont like it) anyhow zone konference was amazing. we had an amazing spiritual time there. I think it was my best zone konference ever. I learned more than i usually do i felt the spirit stronger than i usually do and it was so amazing to teach. I felt the spirit speaking through me. Because those were definately not my words. It was really an amazing experience. I look forward to the next opportunity to help my fellow missionaries.
On friday we had something called a street exhibit. All four innsbruck elders came together at a really busy part of the town in like a platz area where it is open, i dont know how to describe that in englisch. but we had a table with lots of material on it and we contacted people for four hours. It was so awesome. Speaking with everyone and helping them make that step to come closer to Christ is really awesome.
Then with my new calling we get the opportunity to have exchanges with the district leaders. This week i got to work with a really amazing elder named Elder Gneiting. He is so good. and that is the weird thing. All of the Elders in our zone are all older than me and more experienced on thier missions. i feel that i learn more from them on these exchanges than they learn from me. but hey maybe my example helps them and maybe they learn from me as well.
the week went by really fast. I can hardly believe that i am writing you again. But i am happy that i get to hear from you again. It sounds like all is going well. My new address is
Kirche Jesu Christi HLT
Elder Joshua Adams
Höttinger Au 36/34
6020 Innsbruck
Österreich

I did not get the package yet. Hopefully i will get it at interviews. If not then it will be lost in the frankfurt mission forever. just kidding i will figure out a way to get elder Gruse, my boy, to send it to me. Congrats to brannen!!!!!!!
as for lesson tips on the atonement. keep it simple. We as members sometimes try to go into this deep space doctrine of the Gospel, but that is not how it should be. Jesus Christ as he was on the earth taught so simply that everyone could understand. The gospel is simple. Faith, Repentance, Baptism for the remission of sins, the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. He kept it simple so should we. Three scriptures that go with the three simple points of the Atonement that i like personally are lukas 22:41-44 for his sufferingfor our sins, 1 nephi 11:33 for his crucifiction dying for our sins, and then lukas 24:36-39 for his resurrection. Then bear humble testimony. We have all had experiences in our lives where we have had to rely on the savior for help. Rely on his atoning blood for the mistakes that we have made. I know i have and that is what has brought me closer to the savior. I know he lives. I imagine feeling the prints in his hands like it is described in the last scripture. I love my Redeemer! i leave that with you in His sacred name. Amen.
till next week, love from your Elder Adams.

May 17, 2010

HELLLOOOOO!1!!!!!!!!!!
ok so it is awesome!!!! life is so good being a misisonary. We work so hard as zone leaders. Our area has to be an example for the other missionaries in our zone. So we use all the skills we have and energy and efforts we have to bring people to Christ. I love it. A lot of the missionaries in our zone are really good though. Throughout my mission i have looked up to these men because of their amazingness in this work and now Elder Mecham and i have the role to teach them and help them reach their highest potential in this wonderful work. It was super stressful this week. I had to get everything packed from Bamberg. that took up most of the night. I was stressed and worried about leaving bamberg. The work was really on fire there and i know that i helped with that and i just kindof wanted to see it through. O well. No i did not get permission to go back to Bamberg to be able to Baptise Rüdiger Schneeberger. I talked to president and he told me that the rule was that if i was within 2 hours of the place where the baptism would take place then he would allow it but innsbruck is pretty far away. Rüdiger is a man by the way. He is way cool and i am happy that he is going to be making this step in his life to come closer to God. I am thankful that Elder Gruse and i could help him in this direction, and i am thankful for the converting power of the Holy Ghost. I already made plans to come back to Bamberg. All the members there said they love me and that they want me to come back. Br. Wolf and Sister Wolf especially. I had such a great relationship with them. They told me that i need to come back and spend at least two days in their house, because brother wolf said that we also needed to go to the alpine slide that they have in bamberg. Rudi also said that i need to come back and that we need to spend more time together because he felt like he got robbed of time since he only got to know me for 2 weeks then i got called away. So put bamberg on the list. Places to visit people to see things to do, not enough time.
And seriously not enough time is an understatement. As a zoneleader it is absolutely riddiculous. We have so much to do. We have to worry about the people we have that are preparing to get baptised. 2 are going to be baptised here in innsbruck we have to make appointments out for other investigators. Set time aside for planning for zone conference, we also had mission council on saturday, where we had to take a train to munich to meet with mission president and the assistents and the other 3 pairs of zoneleaders. We talked about what the mission needs what we want to accomplish and how we are going to do that. WE have to recieve all the numbers from all the district leaders in our zone on sunday evening and then report that to the mission assistents. I had to unpack. I am not really stressed about things that i have to do because if the mission has taught me one thing (although it has taught me many things) is that i have to manage time good.
Our apartment here in innsbruck is really small. we have two rooms that are about as big put together as my room at home and then we have a bathroom that is about as big as my closet at home and then a kitchen that is as big as our pantry at home. Cool huh!!!!!!!! The ward here is amazing. They all love doing missionary work. they all love coming on joint teaches. and they like finding people for us. I like it. it makes me happy.
I liked hearing your voices on monday. That was good stuff. Ya my ward mission leader in Bamberg is awesome. I love Br. Wolf. Well it is time to go forward. Gots lots of stuff to do. Have a good week. I love you all very very much!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ps no package recieved, however i gave elder gruse permission in writing to pick it up from the post office. he will pick it up and then send it to me through mission post. No worries :) Be happy

May 4, 2010

Sister Adams,

I talked with Elder Adams yesterday and he had already purchased the contacts.  He doesn't waste time when he makes a plan. :)  He will be grateful for the garments, however.  I also reassured him that it was OK that you had contacted me--that I am here to serve our missionaries. 

Thanks for your continued support!

Sister Condie

May 3, 2010

HELLO!!!!!!!! AMERICA!!!!!!!!!!
Well so it sounds like this week was good for ya'll. I had a great week as well. we were supa busy as we made out like 14 appointments last week. We had absolutely no finding time. Dooring time. anything like that. We just walked from appointment to appointment and talket to the people on the way and we made more appointments out through that. I think it is so awesome. When the work is going good and when we get to teach then that is a way to have a happy missionary. Im happy. We were invited to a special stake presidency meeting with the quorum of the seventy member Elder Causse. That was awesome. He spoke very highly of us as missionaries, because as of late we have been cranking the work out like monkeys on crack (we do it actually like monkeys on crack with the spirit). Because it doesnt go with out the spirit. However. He spoke highly of us and pumped us up and everything but we had to remember to stay humble otherwise we would be humbled. So this week we stayed humble to the dust and worked like crazy this week. and we are seeing further the success and fruit of our labors. Member work is going good here. I am dead tired. We have such busy time plans. If it wasnt for the Holy Spirit, and the power of the priesthood, (two of the main forces that are holding my body together), i think that i would fall apart and collapse in the beautiful cobblestone streets of Bamberg. But it goes forth. I recieve daily spiritual nourishment from the scriptures and physical nouris´hment from members like Sister weiss who made us the most amazing asparagus and Schnitzel on wednesday.
I would however like to tell you at this point that i find it really hard to type in English. It has taken me almost 45 minutes to type this little short paragraph. please dont hate me. I give my best.
I would like to use the remaining few minutes to answer questions and pose a few questions of my own.
Dad. I know a member who wants the recipe for cobbler. Can you send that to me. any kind of cobbler. Peach would probably be the best. thanks
Mom. The washing machine here ate a pair of my garments. There is currently shipping problem from the Frankfurt temple to our mission and so the soonest that i could get a pair from frankfurt would be the end of may or beginning of june. however if they dont have my size in stock, wich is the case, it will take three weeks longer. So i was wondering if you could buy me 2 of just the pants size 32 spandex style. the sport ones. i dont need the shirts because they didnt get eaten. so then you could send them to me in the mail if you felt like it.. When you send them you have to take them out of their packages so that they can not be resold. and you write on the outside of the package that it is just clothes. as for the contacts i will just buy them here because that will be just as expensive as you buying them and sending them. i will use the money that grandma gave me for my b-day. that will suffice i believe. hey thanks for all your amazingness and kindness to me my whole life. I Love you all so much as a token of my love for you. I send unto you a bounty of pictures. Love your JOSH, Elder ADAMS, ra-reet! o ps i dont know when to call on sunday we have several appointments. i can talk to president or our Ward mission leader and he or they can email you about a time. Dont worry i will call. i have to because that is how i love you. :) have a great week.