Email excerpts 6/15 - 7/6

Dear Friends and Family,

It is hard to believe it has been a month since I sent out the last "Tidbits from Adrian". Here is the latest news from the mission field.

Letter dated 6/15
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I will only read the original study materials (standard works and the other four books) for the first year of my mission. Then we can branch out to a few other things. Books I've heard suggested for 2nd year reading are "The Infinite Atonement" and "The Inevitable Apostasy."

And Aunt Karen's package! Wow. Tell her thanks for me!

My Spanish is ... going slow right now. I've got to improve that. It sort of slowed after I got out of the MTC. So I've got to re-work on my language study.

Did I tell you that we're teaching a guy who used to claim Atheism, but had a change of heart after a near death experience with alcohol. So he's quitting, and even taking the missionary discussions.

We're having an extra hard time getting our investigators to sacrament meeting. None of them came this last week, which was pretty disappointing. We had a good goal, then had to put the actual down as zero for this week. Nothing to do but keep on trying, though.

If you ever get the Mission Newsletter with baptisms from May, look for Flores and Perez. Those are the baptisms I was at.

We do service probably once a week. If we are asked to. I've done it most weeks, but we might not do it every week. We help people move, help people with their back and front yards, which sometimes involves moving rocks, of all things.


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Letter dated 6/22
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Summer hit this past week and it hit hard. Now I have all sorts of heat to look forward to but hey, I knew that was going to happen sometime, right?
We had an unexpected opportunity at district meeting: we played chess and we fenced! The District Leader had a chess instructor in his ward, and so his family came to the meeting with a bunch of equipment and ran the fencing part of the event. I used an epee, which we didn't use in BYU, but the training with the foil (at BYU-I) certainly helped.

Does anyone have some stories about tithing to share? That question came up in the MTC and I would appreciate having some stories to share when teaching.

It is still nearly impossible to contact "potential investigators." We've also got included in that, some referrals that we just can't seem to get in contact with.


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Letter dated 6/29
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Well, the pollution and humidity aren't so bad where I am in the desert, but I have definitely had to do some over 100 degree tracting. And thanks for the stamps thought, that always helps. And yeah, and stories from anywhere in the family help, or others too, I guess.

I discovered that when I get back, I really want to learn to play the piano. Actually, there's a whole bunch of stuff I want to learn that I just didn't have the gumption to tackle before or want it as much. But now, there's all sorts of things, about computer, piano... gun laws.. photography... and other things and other types of music, and well, anything I can learn! My thirst for knowledge and talents has certainly grown.

Right now... an investigator came back from a trip to New York. It was my first time meeting him. Actually, he's working towards getting a baptismal date! His name's Raul, and his mother may even have interest now, but we don't know that for sure yet. The Marins, a family of recent converts who have been going through some trouble, finally came back to Church! It was really treat to see them there. They seemed really happy to be there, too.

We had another Zone Conference. All the missionaries in the entire desert area got together with President Sanchez and various other people. It's a pretty cool opportunity.

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Letter dated 7/6
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...we finally MOVED this past week! Elder Strang and I have a really nice apartment, that even has its own washer and dryer, is spacious, clean...I mean, I could see myself actually living there, if I weren't on my mission. It's pretty cool. It's got two bathrooms. For two people. It's actually kind of ridiculous. It wouldn't fit six, but it'd still be a nice set up for four missionaries.

Actually, I think the move is helping both our companion study and our language study. So far mostly the companion study, but I hope to amp up the language study soon. It was a little difficult with six elders in the house, which is one of the reasons, well, probably the main reason, that they moved us. They generally try to keep it to four in a living establishment. And now I am in Victorville, actually. But I still serve in both Adelanto and Victorville.

We haven't seen the former Atheist in the past little while. He and his friend Jenny, who we teach together, are doing well, they just haven't come to church. We have a solid appointment for teaching Jenny and hopefully Jesus next week. We'll be studying the asking questions section of PMG (Preach My Gospel) to try and assess where she is / start her progressing again. Sometimes you have to come up with a bunch of different plans to try and get an investigator to progress. You just keep inviting...

We've been told to look for "missionary purpose" scriptures. Like 1 Nephi 19:18; 1 Nephi 20:6 and 2 Nephi 25:23, 26. I have a bunch of insights listed in my study journal now.

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That is the latest from his letters. If anyone would like to share a tithing story with Adrian - please send it either directly to him at
California San Bernardino Mission
8280 Utica Avenue Ste 150
Rancho Cucamonga, CA 91730-3851
or email it to us and we will be glad to send it on.

Thanks again for your support of Adrian on his mission. I'll try not to wait a whole month before I send out the next message.

Kristi