Weekly Ramblings #36
email date : Monday 3 October 2005
"It's a penny for your thoughts, but you have to put your 2 cents in..... somebody's makin' a penny....."
Well, that somebody deffinately isnt me...but I guess pennies really woudlnt do me much good here...wow, Im really hot and tired. we just got finished playing ultimate frisbee 3 on 3, it is rather intense, good little running work out. ME? colorful and random? why the devil would you think that? I mean, I never say random things! booger-plast
...anyway, thanks for the tenders recipe, now i just need to wait til next transfer when I can get to walmart again to find boneless chicken...Im too lazy otherwise...yes, as much as Id really love to learn to cook lots of cool stuff, and just impress all my comps and such...in that regard, my laziness still kicks in bigtime quite a bit...luckily I never eat much for dinner anyway and we have lunch with members. I did make banana bread the other day for an activity we had, it was from a recipe sheet the hermana gave us a while back. it was actually rather a hit at the activity, and I even burned the bottom just a titch, it was kinda hard to spread that butter around the pan...anyway, next time I try Im gonna break the bank and buy a $4 little sandwhich bag of walnuts to throw in the mix.
I guess that's a good a segue (sp?) as any to start about the week. we had an activity last friday, a fireside about faith in Christ. unfortunately, almost no one brought any friends like we had hoped, but it was still a nice little activity. we watched "Finding Faith in Christ", good movie, one of the bishoprick gave a 5-10 minute talk, and I also sang "Press Forward Saints"...it actually turned out really good, even though I was completely nurvous as it wasnt until about 30 minutes before the activity that I decided which song I was gonna sing. I sang completely solo, but it was still cool because for the 2nd verse I just sang the tenor line, it makes a pretty good stand alone part.
last thursday we had a lesson with Fernando...well...he's still a really cool kid, and thinks we are cool and would probably come to talk anytime we wanted, but as far as the gospel goes...he kinda wants to back off a bit for a while, he has a problem with the fact that he had done historicle studies and things like that and had never seen any of the names that are in the Book of Mormon. we could have sat there and explained/showed evidences in the bible and everything, but we really didnt have time and I honestly didnt feel, in the moment, that we would have accomplished much by doing that anyway. I explained that that is one of the tests of our faith, if all the names were in history books and stuff, sure, it would be easy to believe. we invited him to keep reading and praying, he has our number and knows how to find us, if we dont see him at english classes anyway, he'll find us when he has interest again.
then there was saturday...saturday before conferance we went to mario's house...we werent originally going to, but, for sake of DPC (Daily Positive Contact) we decided to go over the very last lesson he needed, which was just "how to donate tithes and offerings", not exactly a profound one, but we didnt go over it that well anyway. so, we get over there, and just in the starting small talk chit chat he comes right out with how bad he's doing. from there it was just 30-45 minutes of wierdness. the man, if he had ever really had a testimony of the gospel, was completely denying everything. my comp tried to explain that satan was just trying to really work on him the last week before his baptism, but that didnt have any effect. I had to drop cane (or, be really blunt/stern) harder then than I ever have in my life. he confessed still believing in the virgin mary, claimed that the bible is the only true book of scripture, the Book of Mormon has just as many errors, if not more, than the bible. claimed that the church's persistance to the poor people of argentina on paying a full tithe isnt just, denied God's hand in the calling of Bishops and that the bishop is not his judge...there could have been more, but that's a good list...it rather drained me, my legs were shaking a lot as I was trying to explain to him what exactly he was saying, it could quite possibly be the first time in the mission where Ive had a sincere concern for the soul of a man.
well, after all that is when we had the opportunity to go to the stake center and watch conferance. that was amazingly awesome, as usual. it was a complete 180 degree turn from what we had just experianced. I dont remember exactly who was my favorite talk of conferance, Id have to go look at my notes, I got to watch all 5 sessions again. President Monson, for the 3rd Priesthood Session in a row quoted Shenendoah: "If we dont try, we dont do, and if we dont do, then why are we here?" I ever do so love that quote, and how he keeps using it, rock on Jimmy Stewart (and his script writers). hey, the church news gets here really slow, so If you guys find out where the 2nd new temple is gonna be built that wasnt announced, shoot that on my way.
Sunday between sessions was good. we went on devisions. my comp went with another Elder to go back to our area and try to pick up an investigator. well, he wasnt there/couldnt go. I, however, was with Elder Henderson (the curly haired elder in the MTC pictures I sent home). between sessions we taught the first lesson to a friend that a member had brought. it was a really cool lesson. first of all, he had already sat through a whole session of general conferance, secondly, we could directly use a lot of what was said to teach the lesson, and third, it was just awesome to teach with elder henderson. last time we had taught a lesson together, it was as a practice in the MTC, teaching other elders, when neither of us could speak spanish yet. it was just really cool. well, the kid is awesome, we are going tonight to set up another appointment with him.
Im pretty sure last week I would have mentioned Suzana, I hope so, because Im not goin through that again. anyway, she's still good, she doesnt have a baptismal date anymore because she didnt make it to conferance on sunday (she had to move) but we did teach her the 2nd lesson (plan of salvation), it went well. and other than that our 2 9 year olds went to conferance and are still doin good. one of them came up with his mom to us at conferance to tell me that he wanted me to baptize him, that was really cool. I hope Im still here. transfers are this thursday and one of us is for sure out of here. anyway, we went from 6 investigators, to 3ish, to 4 again, still good good stuff. Im pretty sure thats all the exciting stuff for this week, as I dont have much time anyway.
which ensign is that article by Bro Sleight in? we still havent gotten the october ensign and I didnt see much of the september one, but Ill go check again...um...other than that, well, I guess in my rushed state of mind that there's not much else to say. Im still doin good here and Im gonna start sweatin' off my stomach here pretty daggon soon, spring doesnt really exist here...it feels like it just kinda goes straight from winter to summer...
Love,
Elder Casey Adams, the brave
edited and posted by anne :o)
"It's a penny for your thoughts, but you have to put your 2 cents in..... somebody's makin' a penny....."
Well, that somebody deffinately isnt me...but I guess pennies really woudlnt do me much good here...wow, Im really hot and tired. we just got finished playing ultimate frisbee 3 on 3, it is rather intense, good little running work out. ME? colorful and random? why the devil would you think that? I mean, I never say random things! booger-plast
...anyway, thanks for the tenders recipe, now i just need to wait til next transfer when I can get to walmart again to find boneless chicken...Im too lazy otherwise...yes, as much as Id really love to learn to cook lots of cool stuff, and just impress all my comps and such...in that regard, my laziness still kicks in bigtime quite a bit...luckily I never eat much for dinner anyway and we have lunch with members. I did make banana bread the other day for an activity we had, it was from a recipe sheet the hermana gave us a while back. it was actually rather a hit at the activity, and I even burned the bottom just a titch, it was kinda hard to spread that butter around the pan...anyway, next time I try Im gonna break the bank and buy a $4 little sandwhich bag of walnuts to throw in the mix.
I guess that's a good a segue (sp?) as any to start about the week. we had an activity last friday, a fireside about faith in Christ. unfortunately, almost no one brought any friends like we had hoped, but it was still a nice little activity. we watched "Finding Faith in Christ", good movie, one of the bishoprick gave a 5-10 minute talk, and I also sang "Press Forward Saints"...it actually turned out really good, even though I was completely nurvous as it wasnt until about 30 minutes before the activity that I decided which song I was gonna sing. I sang completely solo, but it was still cool because for the 2nd verse I just sang the tenor line, it makes a pretty good stand alone part.
last thursday we had a lesson with Fernando...well...he's still a really cool kid, and thinks we are cool and would probably come to talk anytime we wanted, but as far as the gospel goes...he kinda wants to back off a bit for a while, he has a problem with the fact that he had done historicle studies and things like that and had never seen any of the names that are in the Book of Mormon. we could have sat there and explained/showed evidences in the bible and everything, but we really didnt have time and I honestly didnt feel, in the moment, that we would have accomplished much by doing that anyway. I explained that that is one of the tests of our faith, if all the names were in history books and stuff, sure, it would be easy to believe. we invited him to keep reading and praying, he has our number and knows how to find us, if we dont see him at english classes anyway, he'll find us when he has interest again.
then there was saturday...saturday before conferance we went to mario's house...we werent originally going to, but, for sake of DPC (Daily Positive Contact) we decided to go over the very last lesson he needed, which was just "how to donate tithes and offerings", not exactly a profound one, but we didnt go over it that well anyway. so, we get over there, and just in the starting small talk chit chat he comes right out with how bad he's doing. from there it was just 30-45 minutes of wierdness. the man, if he had ever really had a testimony of the gospel, was completely denying everything. my comp tried to explain that satan was just trying to really work on him the last week before his baptism, but that didnt have any effect. I had to drop cane (or, be really blunt/stern) harder then than I ever have in my life. he confessed still believing in the virgin mary, claimed that the bible is the only true book of scripture, the Book of Mormon has just as many errors, if not more, than the bible. claimed that the church's persistance to the poor people of argentina on paying a full tithe isnt just, denied God's hand in the calling of Bishops and that the bishop is not his judge...there could have been more, but that's a good list...it rather drained me, my legs were shaking a lot as I was trying to explain to him what exactly he was saying, it could quite possibly be the first time in the mission where Ive had a sincere concern for the soul of a man.
well, after all that is when we had the opportunity to go to the stake center and watch conferance. that was amazingly awesome, as usual. it was a complete 180 degree turn from what we had just experianced. I dont remember exactly who was my favorite talk of conferance, Id have to go look at my notes, I got to watch all 5 sessions again. President Monson, for the 3rd Priesthood Session in a row quoted Shenendoah: "If we dont try, we dont do, and if we dont do, then why are we here?" I ever do so love that quote, and how he keeps using it, rock on Jimmy Stewart (and his script writers). hey, the church news gets here really slow, so If you guys find out where the 2nd new temple is gonna be built that wasnt announced, shoot that on my way.
Sunday between sessions was good. we went on devisions. my comp went with another Elder to go back to our area and try to pick up an investigator. well, he wasnt there/couldnt go. I, however, was with Elder Henderson (the curly haired elder in the MTC pictures I sent home). between sessions we taught the first lesson to a friend that a member had brought. it was a really cool lesson. first of all, he had already sat through a whole session of general conferance, secondly, we could directly use a lot of what was said to teach the lesson, and third, it was just awesome to teach with elder henderson. last time we had taught a lesson together, it was as a practice in the MTC, teaching other elders, when neither of us could speak spanish yet. it was just really cool. well, the kid is awesome, we are going tonight to set up another appointment with him.
Im pretty sure last week I would have mentioned Suzana, I hope so, because Im not goin through that again. anyway, she's still good, she doesnt have a baptismal date anymore because she didnt make it to conferance on sunday (she had to move) but we did teach her the 2nd lesson (plan of salvation), it went well. and other than that our 2 9 year olds went to conferance and are still doin good. one of them came up with his mom to us at conferance to tell me that he wanted me to baptize him, that was really cool. I hope Im still here. transfers are this thursday and one of us is for sure out of here. anyway, we went from 6 investigators, to 3ish, to 4 again, still good good stuff. Im pretty sure thats all the exciting stuff for this week, as I dont have much time anyway.
which ensign is that article by Bro Sleight in? we still havent gotten the october ensign and I didnt see much of the september one, but Ill go check again...um...other than that, well, I guess in my rushed state of mind that there's not much else to say. Im still doin good here and Im gonna start sweatin' off my stomach here pretty daggon soon, spring doesnt really exist here...it feels like it just kinda goes straight from winter to summer...
Love,
Elder Casey Adams, the brave
edited and posted by anne :o)