12/03/12

Hey Family!

 

I can't believe it, but I am getting transferred  This was very unexpected. I don't want to go! Too much good stuff is going on right now and I don't want to leave. On Saturday night I got the call and then that night I could not sleep because of all the things I was going to miss. I couldn't stop thinking. I was a mess! I feel like my area is a gold mine and I was looking forward to working in it for a while. Also, I am so sad to leave my ward! They remind me of the Meadows Ward. They are so nice and there are a ton of kids and I am going to miss them. I am going to miss the sweet Christmas party, we had a sweet Christmas day set up with a few of the members, we just started to teach some really promising people and I won't be part of the teaching (but if they do get baptized, I would definitely be coming for those!). I am sad to leave. It is just weird that I am leaving because we didn't think that I would leave Elder Meyers because he goes home in January, so just one more transfer. It is sad. I loved this area. I don't know where I will be next though. I will find out on Tuesday.

 

So I got up and gave my testimony in church yesterday. It is really hard to do. I did not know really how I was going to say anything, so I felt like I was having a hard time speaking. That is one of the few times I have gotten up in a ward to bear my testimony. I didn't really ever do it when I was at home, at least not that often since I was 14, and I never got up in my college ward and said my testimony. So it was different for me to get up. I pretty much just talked about how the gospel is where we find true happiness and the most happiness. That has been a big deal for me lately.

 

Random funny fact you would appreciate Mom. So there was a girl in the ward name Beth Liddicoat and she is about 10 years old and she told me a few weeks ago she wanted me to come over to her house and sign her Captain America poster for her because she thinks I look like him. I thought that was pretty sweet. I might even wear my captain america glasses over there. But the sad thing is that I might not be able to do that now because I am getting transferred. I just thought you would think that was funny!

 

The coolest part of my week is when I was on exchanges with Elder Ford (quick side note, he just went to Tracy, CA to talk with some people to get looked at) and we got a message from our bishop to go and visit a man who is not a member, but has had contact with the church in the past. We were told he had lost his mother recently and that he had become depressed. We went over to his house at about 7:30 at night. We knocked. We rang. Then we waited. These moments are always difficult for me because we don't usually have to walk up to doors of people we don't know, so knowing what to say in these situations is tricky. Then a man came and opened the door. He welcomed us right away, and let us come in. I thought this was a little weird, especially since we didn't even introduce ourselves or say we were with the church, but I imagine that he had recognized us as missionaries with our name tags. So we began to talk to Bill Matthews. He is probably in his 50s and he lives alone. We talked to him about his situation and he told us about his life. We talked to him a little bit about the plan of salvation, but he seemed to already of had know that he will see his mother again. We talked about other gospel things and he seemed to know stuff about our church. We were talking about the early stages of our church and a little bit of church history and then Bill says "Joseph Smith is my hero, man. He is amazing!" In my mind I was like "oh my gosh, me too!" I thought that was so cool and this man wasn't even a member. I am sad that I will not be able to teach him though. It was a great night. He said many times throughout the meeting that it was just a miracle that we came over now. Then he brought up tha the would go to church, but he thought that there were not very many churchs in CA, but his mind was blown when we told him there was one just down the street form him, less than two miles away. He was blown away by that. He said that was another miracle  He came to church this Sunday for sacrament meeting. It was very cool. Moroni 7:30-31 is so true! (If this is not the scripture about miracles  my bad.) I love that I got to see this and also that Bill could see it was a miracle  I am so grateful for the gospel. It will change lives, it does change lives, and it has shaped mine. I hope that we can all hold fast to the gospel and let it be our strength and happiness. I love you all so much! I am excited to see what will happen as I change areas. Good luck to you all! Be awesome! Have a Merry Christmas!

 

Love, 

Elder Adam Seelos    

Adam's Current Address

Here is Adam's current address.  He would love to hear from you!

Elder Adam Tyler Seelos
82 Kip Drive #34
Salinas, CA 93906

1/30/13

Hey Family!

So here is an interesting thing about the transfer I am in right now. For all missionaries it is only five weeks instead of six. This will make it so that the changes that happened in the MTC with their lengths work out. So this is going to be a short transfer. And that means I will come home one week earlier. Yay! Things are good though. There is plenty of work to do here. I feel like we are busy most of the time and that is a good feeling.

I don't know if I have told you much about the details of my days. To exercise in the morning I either run to the church and shoot hoops with one hand, stretch when I am feeling lazy, or I do some sit-ups. No push-ups right now. That would be a bad idea. For breakfast I usually eat cereal. I am eating some Tootie Fruties right now, but I have been enjoying Captain Crunch and Frosted Flakes. For studying, I read the Book of Mormon. I just read straight through and I as I read I look specifically for the parts where I see the Gospel of Jesus Christ. That has been awesome for me. I love it. I also read from Preach My Gospel. I haven't stayed in one place too long, but I read a part on where I think I can improve. Then in companion study we talk about what we studied and then we read and study in Preach My Gospel. That has been good. I love reading the chapter about My Purpose. Then I go and do missionary work for the rest of the day. We visit less-actives, actives, and non-members all day. There is not a lot of service that we do down here like I did up in Mountain View, but I hope to find more service. The main service we do is with the Food Bank. Doing service there reminds me of my job back at Nutra. It has the same warehouse feel and the types of jobs feel like the same thing. And it is sort of long and it has breaks just like Nutra did. It makes me laugh to be there. Then I usually eat lunch in the apartment. Mac and Cheese, cup of noodle, or leftovers is what I usually eat. It is really exciting. But I did by some raw meat. I felt like  you mom of I had the meat in my fridge and I remembered that it had to either be eaten or frozen by a certain day, and that day was today. It was about ten o'clock at night when I remembered this, so I was making patties and putting them in bags. It just reminded me of you mom. Thanks! Then for dinner it is usually with a member, and we have been taken care of pretty well. That is nice. Some of my favorite dinners have been where we go to a spanish member's home and they only speak spanish. I love that. I really feel like I am experiencing another culture (which I am) when I am there. I just wish that I could speak spanish and understand what is going on. I am slowly working on my skills. I really do love going to spanish member's homes.

This week felt sort of slow though. We had zone conference and that was awesome. We have two baptisms set for the 9th of February. That is really exciting. They both should go through. One of them is Charlotte who is an elderly woman and then there is Suzanne who is a teenager. It is cool to teach them. We just washed all of Charlotte's walls and blinds for her this past week. You could tell she was really appreciative of that. It is awesome to see her learn more and understand the Gospel. Being a missionary is great at these times. I love you all so much.

Oh, a funny but sad thing happened this weekend. Our ward mission leader has been wanting to go on splits with us and so he said he finally had a Saturday he could go with us.It was going to be called "Operation Infiltrate Salinas" and we were going to go with the spanish elders too, so there would now be four sets of people going out.  So he said he would find people to come with us and nothing but the apocalypse was going to stop this from happening. Well... the Apocalypse sort of happened  Our ward mission leader broke his foot and is on crutches and in a lot of pain. We couldn't believe it and it was absolutely crazy that this came up and we couldn't do it with him. Ah well, we got stuff worked out and we still saw some good people  I hope you guys are doing well. I love you so much.

Love

Elder Adam Seelos

1/23/13

Hey Family!

 

Things have been interesting this last week. So to begin, just a little after I emailed you, I had my debut(?) or first experience giving a hair cut. I cut Elder Annias' hair. It was pretty easy. His hair is pretty basic. But it looks shorter and good. I was pretty impressed with myself. I am sorry mom, but I could not really remember any haircutting tips you had given me. I just tried to make small cuts and then work from there. I just used a buzzer and the attachments. Someone had left them in the apartment, so we basically have a full haircutting set. This brings me to my next interesting thing. So there is a guy in the ward named Brother Robert Gross. He lives in a really small house alone with his many cats. It sort of reminds me of the mountain. Mainly just the smell and the clutter-ish of it all and all the small interesting things he has. It is a mess though. There is stuff all over. I am always telling him he should get on him cleaning his house up (we are good friends and I promise I am not being insensitive at all). Also I am always telling him I am willing to help him and I have helped him before. I told him about how growing up my mom had us play the game "tornado" or "hurricane" and we had to clean up super fast and then hide in our closets until the storm passes us. He laughed at that. I told him this on the same day that I cut Annias' hair and that I said I probably should get a haircut too. As we were walking away, he told me that if he cleaned up part of his house, then would I let him cut my hair. I don't trust him that much, since he is not really experienced, so we decided he could trim my sides up. I agreed because I knew that I cut my companion's hair just fine, so other people could trim my hair. Retrospect moment- BAD IDEA! Later that week I saw him and he said that he had cleaned up his counters and table and the whole time he cleaned up he was thinking about Seelos and his tornado story and also if Seelos could do it, he could do it. He was inspired by the tornado game, but I don't think he hid in his closet. So a deals a deal. I had him trim my hair. It was all good, except for one part. He did a major chop mark on my right side. He didn't even really say whoops in the moment, I saw it and he just laughed. I had to go to our dinner appointment right then though, so I left with a chopped hair mark. Then I went to dinner. The first thing I asked to mom was if she cut her boys hairs and she said she did. Her name is Sister Dillinder. Great family. I showed her my hair and she laughed a little and said she would try to help it. After dinner, she pulled out here buzzer and scissors and helped it. It really reminded me of mom again because she did it right in her kitchen and I could see mom doing that same thing. It was really funny. It just felt like mom. The only thing is that she made the sides of my hair really short and my top is still really long. And it wasn't the best haircut ever because it wasn't very even. I just feel like it is sort of a rockstar haircut. Long top and really short sides. I am grateful she did it, because it looks better, but it is still funny to see my hair. I just laugh when I see it. So, advice, be careful with who gives you a haircut!

 

The other thing about this week was zone conference. I don't think anyone in the zone can play the piano very well. I know one sister who can play a few hymns, but I played. So I played the opening and closing songs- "there is sunshine in my soul" and "I stand all amazed." I did ok, but I muffled through some of the parts. I had to play even though I can't play with my thumb and I am in a brace. It was super funny, but I am glad I could play the piano though. I will hopefully still play for them when needed and I don't get replaced because it was shabby. It was just another funny experience. And I had my funny haircut at zone meeting, so a lot of people got a good chuckle out of that. But the message of zone conference was great. Be obedient, work hard, use ward members and councils, and take the blame and give credit. I want to work hard, but I don't really know what to do sometimes, so I lose focus. I really want to do great. I loved our meeting.

 

Other good things that are happenning. We have a baptism date for Feb 2nd for Charolette. She has been cool to work with because when we first met her, her non-member son said good luck with trying to convert her because she is very catholic. From the moment we met her though, she has been pretty receptive to our message and it has been great for us. We do see that she has been prepared as we have talked to home teachers that have gone by (the non-member son married a member). The home teacher said that she hasn't really been open about hearing more, but for us she has been doing great. When she came to church, she said she was here to become one of you. It was pretty nice. There is still work to do. We may have lost Gus, but we have gotten another and more others. I would tell you more, but I am almost out of time. My ridiculous stories took too much time. I love you all. Please, pray and find out what is true and gain a testimony of this gospel. Read and pray. I know that having a testimony of our own is what will keep us strong and healthy in the Gospel. I look forward to the day that I get to talk to you all about the gospel. I can't wait for scripture study with you! Thanks for all you have been doing for me. Thanks for the letters.

 

Love,

Elder Adam Seelos

1/14/13

Hey Family!

 

What an awesome surprise is was to talk to you for a few minutes this past week. It was good to hear from you and also to have a bonus hello from Grandma and Grandpa. That was sweet. Also, my companion was super happy that he got to talk to you guys. That made his day and you did a great job of making him happy. For my wrist. It is doing really good I think. I don't walk around in any pain really. The only time it hurts is when I do to much as a missionary. The funny thing is that I helped push a huge shed and mowed a lawn all one handed. And I won the game of 21 and HORSE with two other missionaries. Soy un jefe! Just kidding. I am not really that proud. It was just funny.  You still have to be a missionary, even if you are hurt. Don't worry though, I have been careful of keeping it in my brace and not using it.ALso, I feel like my wrist with the brace sort of smells like cheese-its. It is kind of weird.

 

I am trying to learn spanish. It is really hard. There are some spanish books in my apartment so I have been using those and I ask people how you say things in spanish. I really am not that good at all. I can't say anything still. I mainly just want to be able to contact someone on the street and have them understand who we are. Then I will just give them to the spanish elders to teach them. Spanish would also be nice because the spanish branch was dissolved and part of it was integrated into our ward. So we now being a bilingual ward. In sacrament meeting we have headphones and translators for some people. Then in class we have people translate what the lesson is either by having the teacher be bilingual and give the lesson in spanish and english, or have people whispering to translate for people besides them. It has been interesting, but I think we will be able to work it out. It is a fun new experience.

 

One transfer has passed with Elder Annias and I in Salinas. Neither of us got transferred this time. I am sort of bummed because the out-going fireside was yesterday where the missionaries going home get to bear their testimonies and Elder Meyers is going home and I could not get up there. We were too busy and we had no one to take. I don't think I will see him again, but I don't know. Also, two of my other favorite missionaries are going home. Elder Brewer and Elder Grimm. They are amazing elders. I am going to miss them so much. Luckily they are both from Utah, so maybe I will see them later.

 

An update for the people I am working with. Gus said that he wanted to be baptized on sunday and then on Tuesday he said that God actually wants him to stay with his Baptist church. So we are taking a step back from him now. I don't really know if we will be working much with him anymore. I think he will come back to us eventually, but for now it is looking like a no. That was pretty sad. We have an elderly woman named Charolette who is doing really great. She would be baptized on the 26th of January, but she has been sick and hasn't been able to come to church enough times to get baptized at that time. It was such a bummer when she told us she was sick. She told us on Sunday morning. She is doing good and progressing. And we have still been working with some less actives. They are doing pretty good. I don't have much to say about them at this time.

 

I am doing good. I am happy. Time is going by pretty fast. It has almost been five months since I have left. That is crazy. Time is really short here. I am really liking Salinas and I am not missing my last area so much anymore. I miss you all and love you so much. I am glad you say you are being blessed at home and that you continue to be blessed because I am trying my best and it is not the easiest work. It is hard. Oh well, that is life of a missionary. I love it though.

 

One thought that I had lately when my companion and I were studying. Elder Annias has been studying faith and he brought up something. Enoch was translated because of his faith. That is cool. He had so much faith that there was not point of him being in this world anymore. That is a lot of faith. I like that thought. I want to have that much faith at some point. Have faith.

 

Love

Elder Adam Seelos

So... I broke my arm.

1/07/13

Hey Family,

 

Happy New Year. My new year's eve was not really exciting. I went to bed at ten thirty like I always do. You gotta be obedient. That is just how a mission is. So, I guess you were told already, but I crashed on my bike this last wednesday. It was about 8 PM and we were riding down a hill and we had to avoid a fire hydrant, which I did, but I went off the sidewalk into the dirt by the sidewalk and when I came to get back on, the sidewalk was too high for my bike, and it made me tip over making me fall off my bike. I hit the top of my shoe, my right knee, I hit my left wrist pretty hard and my sholder hurt too. And, somehow I rolled instead of just skiddingg. It was pretty amazing and lucky. I didn't hit my head at all. I ended up about five feet away from my bike and on the side of the road. we did a quick body check, everything seemed to be ok, no tears really, and nothing too major it seemed like. I sucked it up and we rode the fifteen minutes home on my bike. My left wrist was really hurting and it felt like something was poped out. I just rode with one hand ofr th most part because it hurt. We rotated my wrist around, hoping something would pop back in (not the best idea I know now!) and we called our medial advisor and we got set up for the dotors the next day. Sadly, I took some ibuprophen that night and then in the morning to lessen any swelling. So I can't say I didn't take any medicine on my mission! It didn't swell really after the first day. We were at the doctors a lot the next two days. I didn't hve the proper insurance card, so that was difficult, but we got it worked out. I will get a cast on later today. Lucky me! It is so hard to do everything one handed. You don't realize how many buttons are on a white shirt until you have to do it all one handed! Elder Annias has been helpful when i have asked him to help me. It just takes a lot longer to get ready in the morning. This has mede me sort of frustrated and mad about my situation. I don't want to be broken, I want to be stong, but I guess the Lord has other plans for me. I am working through my difficulties and I am getting better. I will probably have it on for about six weeks.

 

Another cool thing is that our investigator Gus has decided to be baptized for sure. He has been up and dow with us. He is pretty involved with his baptist church and he likes it there. Then he is finding that we are good too. So he is liking us and then he doubts. H has scriptures that are making him doubt like things that say Christ's church will never fail, so why was there a need for a restoration. Stuff like that.We had a good talk with him last night. We brought our ward mission leader and since it was wet outside, we sat in our mission leaders tiny clown car for the lesson. That was funny, but it was a good spot. It was us just bearing testimony to him for a while. I didn't really say anything though which was weird. Our mission leader and Elder Annias just talked and talked. It was ok though. Our mision leader, Brother Robinson, put things pretty clear of find your answer and stick with it, or we will have to come back to you, meaning we would drop him for the time being. Later that night we got a text from Gus saying he wants to go for it and be baptized. That was cool. God answers our prayers. It was a good night.

 

I am glad I get to be on a mission. It is hard, it is challenging, it is disappointing, but it is worth it. It is great to have time to study the scriptures and learn from them and then help others learn too. I love that. Teaching is definately one of my favorite parts. Also, I have been thinking about how you get to the Celestial kingdom lately, and I read a part in moses. I think it is Moses 6:68 I think (it is in the bottom right of the right page in chapter 6). It says to "enjoy the words of eternal life." I love that. When we can find that we love the scriptures, when we love doing good all the time, and when we do love this gospel, we will be ready for eternal life in the celestial kingdom. That is what I really want. I want to be there with all of you so do everything you can to get there.

 

I love you all so much. Thanks for your support to me. I need it and use it.

Love

Elder Adam Seelos

Mary's Baptism

Here is Mary's Baptism.  Elder Meyers, my first companion, is on the left.  It was the best day of my mission!

12/31/12

Hey Family!

 

So I say this sort of jokingly, but as of tomorrow I can officailly say see you next year! That is cool, but not really because I still have over a year and a half, but I can still say it. It was so awesome to see you on Christmas. You definately made me lose it big time. I was such a mess. Then I had to go all red eyed and probably puffy faced and talk to the people at the house still. I felt a little weird, but it was ok. It was a big deal to see you and I don't mind if other people know that I love and miss my family so much. It was an awesome christmas though. I liked it a lot. It is different on the mission, but I liked it still. Partly because I got to see you guys on that day! The next day was hard to go and do work though. I was a little bit down in the dumps. Was I homesick? Yes. It was hard, but the next day I got better. It was hard to think about you guys and not being able to see you for a long time. I am doing a lot better now and I am super glad to be on my mission. Missionary work is great!

 

Lately I have been having a hard time street contacting people. I have not know what to say and I know follow the spirit, but I have been having a hard time with it. We sometimes walk around outside shopping centers and I feel bad about talking to some people. Then other times, I am on a bike and I just feel so weird to stop all of the sudden and talk to people. I don't know what to say to them and my words are jumbled I feel like. Sometimes I am successful and other times not. Also, I know that I have been called to do this and that I have the authority and I know I should have more faith, but I am just having a hard time with it. That will probably be my goal for the next little bit is try to talk to people better. That has been a struggle of mine lately. I really do alright, but I just feel like I am not that good of a tool in the Lord's hand. It is pretty much like I am a screwdriver and God is trying to finish his task. He has a very handy tool and gets the job done, but it takes some work from the Lord and it is slow. He know that if I figure things out a little more and makes me try harder, I can be a power drill in his hands. Both effective and fast. I want to have the power and effectiveness as I progress in the mission. The first step I guess should be believing that I can be that power drill or having faith that I can. I want to be a hard working missionary and a good tool in the Lords hands, and maybe be the Lord's go-to tool someday!

 

Working with our investigator Gus has been like a roller coaster. He up and liking the church, then he is down and liking his church and is against us. Then he gets an answer from God and he is back with us, then he switches back. It is crazy. The craziest one was a few weeks ago when he said he found his answer that our church was not for him. Then a few days later as he was waking up, he heard a distinct voice like a man standing next to him that said "God was once a man." This had been one of his concerns with us and something he had been wondering about. His thoughts immediately went to us and he contacted us again and let us know how he felt. He was sort of freaked out by the voice, but it was really cool to get an answer like that. Later he was second guessing that voice because of scriptures that said God is a spirit. We helped him resolve those doubts. He dropped us again one morning and then asked if we could meet later that day. We did, and he felt better about us. We have been using the book of mormon as our most powerful thing to help him find the truth. It has been really cool. He feels like one of the investigators that I practiced with in the MTC. I am hoping and praying that things end up well like it did in the MTC. My MTC experience really is helping with what to do in this situation. I am excited to see what happens.

 

The last thing I will say about this week is that we meet a less active woman at the El Dorado Motel where she live. We don't go in because there is no man in the house, so we stand on the porch. It is the most sketchy motel in the whole world! It has a bad feel about the whole thing. This time, Gina who lives there, was telling us what was going on. Drugs, drugs, more drugs, no sleep, guns, gangs, no sleep, drugs, bed bugs, no money, swearing, saying terrible things, more swearing, drugs, fighting, some actual fighting, swearing, and did I mention drugs. She just layed brick after brick of things that were there and it was so crazy. There were two people next to us who just broke up( they just happened to be our current investigators we saw the week before) and they were yelling and swearing and I was worried the guy was going to go downstairs and get shot. There was not much we could do. We did help Gina feel better and have some peace. Also, she said she wouldn't forget me because I had blue eyes. Cool! We felt like the place was going to blow up right as we were there. We wanted to get out of there ASAP! I don't know how often we will be going back there now.

 

Things are good though. We got a lot done. Thanks for all your support! I love you!

 

Elder Adam Seelos

12/17/12

Hey!

   So it has been a good week. There have been some major ups and downs. My companion is pretty new to the area, so we have both had to learn the area together. I have a hard time knowing what to do all of the time because I have only been out two transfers. Also, I feel like I am sort of crippled because I don't have a car full-time. It takes so much work to make a plan now because everything we plan, we have to bike it! It has been good though.

  Here is a breif update on Mary from my last area. She is getting baptized this coming Saturday, the 22nd, and I will be giving a talk on baptism. I am so excited to see her. I really do miss working with her. She was perfect to teach. She has probably read the Book of Mormon about three times now. How cool is that. I am so excited to see her again!

   We have an investigator named Gustavo. I don't have much time to tell you about what happened, but it is amazing. God does answer our prays. God wants people to know that there is a restored Gospel. I love that I am able to share it with people, especially during this christmas season. I miss seeing you. I am going to miss going to Arizona with you. Have an awesome trip and I hope to hear more about it.

Love Elder Adam Seelos