Peru Kyle Adams

Kyle.adams@myldsmail.net

Hello Elder Adams, Dear Brother Kyle,

This is Vern Jensen, a retired Jr. High Science teacher and our ward chorister. I am only 59 but my principal Barbara Garrett wanted me out of teaching. Times have changed and I was giving her too much grief.  Watch out for mad scientists!

I served a mission in Guatemala and was so proud to go to such a cool sounding country. Peru is awesome too. I have written you once before and told you how when your dad was teaching our EQ he asked Pete Neilsen what Peru was like for his son and Pete said, fine.

Not very helpful in giving information was he?  Perhaps he thought our lesson time should be used more efficiently than talking about son’s country missions.

I have been bugging your parents for your address for a month or two. Two weeks ago when Mary, mom, came into the ward library where I was substituting I asked her to write it down since your dad hadn’t remembered. She said, I don’t know it.  I just press a button.

Makes sense to me.

It is Monday night and Sunday night I sent another email to your dad to remind him. Ta Daaaaa. Here it is.

I love missions and missionaries. Is there a more noble cause in the world? I tried to live true to my HF on my mission and I knew how my family needed his blessings. So that was part of my prayers. HF, if possible, please bless my family for any worthy work I perform here.

I really did not deserve it but I got to help 2 new missionaries start and served as a zone leader and then one of two assistants to the president when he changed to the next one. Arnold -> O’Donnal were the two presidents I served under. How I loved President Arnold. I only worked with President O’Donnal for 3 months and he was just settling in as the new president. He gave me a gold and green pen/mechanical pencil set as a going home present. I don’t know if I would be remembered by him or not. But it was such a privilege to serve and help. I was blessed way more than I deserved.

Perhaps I have always had a loud voice and when the assistants got to teach at the Zone conferences and translate for the Spanish speaking native elders, I was some help. At least I tried hard.

Sometimes we feel like the man with 2 small fishes. We do not feel like we have much to offer the Savior but we offer him our two small fishes anyway and he is able to feed the multitudes.  That was me. I did take typing in High School and I had 3 years of Spanish as well as a semester of Spanish at BYU, even if I did get a “C”.

I wasn’t a very good typist but better than some. My job was to plan and arrange for all the district conferences. I was the assistant in charge of member issues and conferences. My companion was the assistant in charge of the elders. We both had to read all the letters to the president each week and write comments on them and point out things we did not want him to miss.

One of my new missionaries turned out to be a reformed thief and drinker etc.. It broke my heart to be in the office and a part of his excommunication when he was sent home. I tried writing to him but never got a response. He was put with a weak elder and they habituated a saloon and gave in to female temptations. Hard to believe isn’t it?

In Guatemala they have all kinds of catholic saint celebrations. One of my lesson acceptors/investigators was a silver jeweler and we would visit him while he worked. He had  a special blow pipe he would use in the burner to focus the heat on the jewelry to melt and shape it. It was fascinating the first 5 times we visited him. One season his house was chosen as the shrine place and he cleared out his living room with the dirt floor for the mother Mary image to be placed. Many lit candles and worshiped there in that little neighborhood. Eventually the day arrived for the anticipated celebration and they hosted a party with special painted gourds to eat and drink from. Of course we were invited. They had both red and black tamales. The drink tasted of alcohol for my first time and I warned my companion not to drink ours. He said, really? Cool! And drank them both. He told me of these really cool speakers he had stolen before his mission and before repentance and how he had figured out how he could get the radio to turn off automatically by putting in a cassette tape. When the cassette ended the system would turn off.

So even though this elder cut his hair nice and short he had some dark temptations and patterns inside. I was heartbroken at his excommunication and wished I had been able to be his companion and kept him safe.

I love General Conference talks. My parents were wackoes so distrust is strong in my family. But thank heavens I can trust the prophet and apostles. I appreciate the fact that when evil or wickedness is found it is removed in the leadership of the church. I needed to center myself somehow last year when I retired. I decided to try and listen to all 43 years of GCtalks. Soon I discovered lds study tools and began highlighting my favorite passages and filing them on line. I have 4500 at this point and they are wonderful parts/ truths /insights that I love and value and teach me.

Your dad, Tim and I get along fantastic. WE both love to joke and laugh. He has a much broader vocabulary than I do. If I used a big word I had to explain what it meant period after period all day long so I soon learned to explain things in Jr. High vocabulary.

I took me forever to carefully memorize all the discussions. It was hard, hard work for me. We had flip charts and one of the pictures was of the then current prophet, Spencer W Kimball. [I still have his signature on my mission call.]  To help me concentrate I would place his picture on the glass block window sill and give him my discussions over and over again as I was learning them.

Kyle, I found a comment from your dad so strange recently. He said becoming a psychotherapist was easy as long as you could memorize and regurgitate the material.

Evidently he had a good memorization mind. Not me! It kept me humble I suppose. There was one elder in my MTC group who could memorize without hardly trying. But he had testimony and  attitude issues, and red hair. : )

Anyway, I made a special file for humor from the general authorities. There must be a couple of hundred entries. Don’t you love it when they crack a joke?

In my last letter I include some riddles. Bishop Salmon taught me how to do riddles in a fun way at scout summer camp last year. The riddler is only allowed to answer yes /no questions. That way you can get hints along the way to discovering the answer.  I will include 10 silly riddles just so you can practice with your companion if you want.

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21. How do we know that Noah was preceded from the ark by at least three other people? (Because the Bible says that Noah came forth [fourth].)

22. Why was the giant Goliath very much astonished when David hit him with a stone? (Because such a thing had never before entered his head.)

23. Why didn’t Noah catch more fish than he did during the voyage of the ark? (Because he had only two worms.)

24. Where was Noah when the light went out? (In the d’ark).

25. Who was the strongest man in the Bible? (Jonah, because the whale couldn’t hold him even after he got him down.)

26. What proof have we that there was sewing in the time of David? (He was hemmed in on all sides.)

27. In what place did a rooster in the Bible crow where all the people in the world could hear him? (In the ark.)

28. What reason is there to think that Moses wore a wig? (Because he was sometimes seen with Aaron [hair on], and sometimes without.)

29. Which are the two smallest things mentioned in the Bible? (The widow’s mite and the wicked flee [flea].)

30. Who was older, David or Goliath? (David must have been because he rocked Goliath to sleep.)

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Here are my 5 most recent humors from Conference:

“Follow Me”

Joseph B. Wirthlin, April 2002 General Conference

"There was simply too much to do in the time available. Instead of sacrificing things of significance, I decided I’d get up earlier, take care of my business, then spend the time required to be a good father and husband and a faithful member of the Church. It wasn’t easy. There were mornings when the alarm clock went off that I cracked open an eyelid and glared at it, daring it to keep ringing."

It Can’t Happen to Me

James E. Faust, April 2002 General Conference

"One of the great myths in life is when men think they are invincible. Too many think that they are men of steel, strong enough to withstand any temptation. They delude themselves into thinking, “It cannot happen to me.” Borrowing a thought from Bertrand Russell, “We are all like the turkey who wakes up [Thanksgiving] morning expecting lunch as usual. Things can go wrong at any time.” 1 Brethren, it can happen to any of us at any time. So much of our course in life is influenced by forces we only partly perceive."

Dear Are the Sheep That Have Wandered

James E. Faust, April 2003 General Conference

"When my wise mother-in-law saw other children misbehaving, she used to say, “I never say my children would not do that because they might be out doing it right while I am speaking!”"

Loyalty

Gordon B. Hinckley, April 2003 General Conference

"Very recently a certain moving picture was acclaimed the best of the year. I have not seen it, nor do I anticipate doing so. But I am told that it is laden with sex, that the use of profanity runs throughout."

Loyalty

Gordon B. Hinckley, April 2003 General Conference

"You, of course, have heard of the man who lived to a ripe old age and was asked by reporters to what he attributed his longevity. He replied that when he and his wife were married they determined that if they argued, one would leave the house and go outside. He said, “Gentlemen, I attribute my longevity to the fact that I have breathed so much fresh air during all these many years.”"