June 21, 2010

HELLO PEOPLE OF THE AMERICAN CONTINENT, GENTILES, and all other inhabitants of this wonderfull planet that we live on!!!!!

NEWSFLASH!!!!! this week happens to be transfers and after enjoying a wonderfully short six weeks in the coolest place on planet earth (INNSBRUCK) i will be transferred to Vienna to be a Zone Leader there. ha ha so dont be too quick to be sending that package of Garments otherwise we will be having another situation like the ones that are probably still in Bamberg. As for the pen, mom what do you think we are. A dryer? I have not seen a dryer since i was in the MTC. the way they do it here is they hang it all up. Plus our apartment is way too small to contain a convenient device that would make clothe drying possible. Hairspray that i can try. but if it doesnt work out then dont go buying me shirts. you get some pretty cheap white shirts here and whats even cooler is that they are european style and that means they look a lot better than american stuff. Europeans know how to do fashion i have to tell you. Speaking of that. As i was packing this morning i counted all of the ties that i have gathered from buying and from finding them from missionaries that have died and left them in apartments, i came to the realization that i have 47 ties. Hmmmmm. That is a lot of weight. How many ties did devin bring home?

in regards to the bike In Wien they dont use bikes, they use the strassen bahns and busses and stuff like that public transportation. So to pay 250 dollars to get 70 dollars that doesnt make too much sense. Plus bikes here are a lot more expensive than 320 dollars they are like 320 euros at least and with the conversion that would not work to well. So do it if you feel it would be necessary. but i dont think i will be buying a new bike my mission is half over and i only got 5 months of use out of the last one, and who knows how long i will be in Wien. so you can do it if you think that it would be good. Then you could just keep the money, or send it to the josh fund and i could buy y'all some chocolate. Your decision. LOVE YOU!!!!!

So i am pretty bummed that i only got to spend one transfer here in Innsbruck. This is a pretty coveted part of the mission. The ward here is really awesome. They are so motivated to do missionary work. Plus the work had been going really bad dureing the middle of the transfer. We had two baptismal dates at the beginning and then both of them fell through. They werent ready to get baptised. And they didnt want to make the commitment. So that was hard. We lost quite a few investigators towards the middle of the transfer. We were down to teaching about 3 different people. So that was tough, but then just barely this last week we had a street display and at this street display we all just pretty much go our own ways and talk with as many people as possible. I by myself made out five appointments. three of which became awesome new investigators. they are really prepared people and ready to be baptised. Patrice, one of the new investigators, said that she has been looking for a church to go to but she didnt know which one. and then we invited her to be baptised and she said that she has already been baptised but she doesnt feel like she has been baptised. She didnt feel like her baptism was right. so we taught about the restored authority to act in Gods name and she is excited to meet with us and learn more. Aida is another one. She is such an amazing lady. Plus she has a family. And a son who is twelve years old, he can get the priesthood. We need that here in innsbruck because they dont have enough priesthood holders to become a ward they are just a branch. So ya the work is starting to explode here. I was a part of it, and now im going away. Its kind of what happened in Bamberg. I left and they had two Baptismal dates. This man that i told you about Rudiger Schneeberger, he is so cool. I heard from the assistents as we did an exchange with them this week that he got baptised. I wanted so bad to be there and to be a part of that, but i couldnt. Its tough. Plus we set a baptismal date with a lady this week that we have been teaching. She is from Cuba. Her name is yurkie. I havent seen a convert baptism my whole mission. I work so hard for that, and that is my goal, to bring others to Christ and for some reason everytime that it comes close to that i get transferred away. O well. I know that i am giving my best. I love it just being a missionary and helping myself come closer to Christ through the process of helping others. I have grown so much. I have learned a ton. I love it. I think it is cool as well how people ask me about where i studied theology. They think to be a religious teacher you have to have a degree from a university and whatnot. But my authority comes from a better source. :) yup. We have it. This is the one and only true church on the earth.

Cool experience this week as well. A religious teacher at a high school in the area invited us to come to their class and to give a lecture about our church. "The Mormons" . We went there. I was on an exchange with Elder Ray (great missionary by the way) and we were given two hours to teach and talk and answer questions of this class that was filled with 16, 16 year old kids. They thought we were really cool and really interesting. So we got invited back, they wanted us to come back to explain more. That was so cool. To explain and teach and give testimony in a school to a group of very impressionable kids, who now think that our church is not so wierd as all the rumors have said. I mean its hard to believe i know but we are not polygamists. that totally shattered their universe when we broke that news to them. Technically, and according to preach my gospel that is 16 new investigators..... i wonder if president condie would let us count that. they all want to learn more and they are all pretty interested. They all asked questions and stuff so that is cool. WEll you have probably heard enough of me tell you about how cool this area is, and how much i am going to miss it, especially the people here. So i will make an end to my writings and tell you how excited i am to go to wien. I am gonna tear it up there. I will help someone get baptised. I think president condie has placed a lot of trust in me to go there. To be a zone leader still and because they have not seen to much success for the last six months or so in the way of baptisms, so i am going to go in guns a' blazin' just kidding books of mormons a blazin' and do my best. Well I wish you a wonderfull week. I will send you my adress in wien as soon as i get it and hopefully i wont be transferred so quickly. Everything is well with me. Except for this morning my ear was bleeding like that one time back at home when you took me to the hospital. There was a lot of blood. And it kind of hurt this morning, like an ear ache but now it stopped and it doesnt hurt anymore. so LOVE YOU ALL!!!!!! have a great week!!!!!!!

From ELDER ADAMS