Dear Mom,

A lot has happened this week and I cannot write even a fraction of the things that we have planned to happen this next week.  We are finding a lot of less actives each week and letting them know that we are still here for them and see which ones just need a reminder to come back to church. We are having CSP's and we are having a fireside about home and visiting teaching for the branch on Saturday. I am excited about that.

Ok Mom, Love you long time,

Elder Conte

Working hard.  Adam is happiest when serving!

Oh yeah!!

On a district visit maybe?

hey mom!!

We are emailing earlier to day because we are making announcements for the zone and are going to email to them so we have to get on the computer before they do. :)

well this week we had a great time!! full of spiritual experiences and some of the greatest times ever!

 While we were studying in the morning on DL exchanges something amazing happened. i remembered a dream that i had about 1 months prior to that day...  "this is it" !  I told the DL about it and  that we needed to change the plan. i said when we go to their house later if there is electricity we will teach about prayer but if there is no power we will teach about the plan of salvation like in my dream. so the time came and guess what!!!! there was no power!!! we taught the father who is preparing to be sealed to his family.  there was a candle right behind his head just like in my dream. then he said the power was just cut 3 hours earlier. wow. so many things happend that we ended up being at his house at the right time. so the lesson was amazing!! the spirit guided both of us. the conversation was guided and by the end he was  teaching himself  he was saying how these trials are not the last and it is going to get worse the closer they get to the temple trip.  he said that he has a real desire now to get sealed to his family in the temple and he doesnt want to wait till may he wants to go up there right now and get sealed right away.  so it was just so amazing how the Lord taught me in a dream what needed to happen that night. 

well that is all the time that i have for today. we still have alot to do. this week is going to be so busy will a lot of things. zone training!!! apt. checks!!!! fixing apartments!!! just we have alot to do and we wish we had more time in our area. 

 

i love you all so much i will not be able to write the other peeps but i miss you guys alot and i am excited to finish strong. we are going to die this transfer we are so busy love you all so much

love you long time

Elder Conte

Elder Adam Conte got a new companion this transfer as his companion finished up his mission.  His new companion's name is Elder Laimana from Hawaii!  Elder Conte was his district leader on Masbate and now they are reunited working hard as Zone Leaders.  They have a great relationship and are dropping dead asleep in their beds when they return home.  Things are going great!!!

hey mom!!!

i watched a dvd about Doctrine and Covenant stories and that has helped alot as well. those sacrifices of early saints are so powerful.

there was this one called, only a stone cutter. her was converted and moved from england to america, he then was part of the hand cart company and he pulled his own cart the whole entire way. he then moved to alpine when they reached the salt lake valley. he was then called as a stone cutter for the Salt Lake Temple. so every monday morning he would get up at 2:00am and walk 22 miles to work on the temple, he would stay there until friday and then walk home once the work was done. he would get home around 12 midnight and wake up 5 hours later to work on his farm and do all the choirs. he did that for 3 years and then one day he was milking his cow and the cow kicked him and snapped his leg. after his recovery, he made a fake leg and still walked the 22 miles with one wooden leg. amazing!!! when his wife was like "what are you thinking, walking that far with one leg" he said to her. "i dont remember ever being released" hahahahah amazing! such faith and dedication! it was very inspiring.

then another one was a very wealthy man was converted and gave everything to the church!! he gave litterally everything till the point where him and his 9 children would beg for food. when the prophet met him, he cried so hard. the prophet Joseph Smith, reveived revelation for him to serve a mission in england. with no doubt he went and before he left, he gave the prophet $2,000 to go towards the temple. the prophet cried and told him that his children with never beg for food again.

such faith. such sacrifice. that is amazing. i want to do that. i want to give everything. worldly things dont phase me no mo!!!! money, who cares. big house nice car, so what  happy family, the spirit. yes thats what i want. i do want to live with my family for eternity in the Glory of God. that is what i want .

well we had a baptism on Saturday, Pearly was baptized and it was great. alot of the YSA came to support her but none of her family came. that made me really sad. especially because we are teaching 2 of them. then on sunday, TRIALS CAME FAST!!!! please pray for her, she has a hard life. we will see how she handles it.she will need to understand the atonement and really rely on the Savior through all of this.  she has great fellowshippers though so that is good.

well mom i love you so much!! i am thankful for you and i sent dad the future plans. let me know what you think about them. i am very excited about the future plans. but i still dont know which option is the right one. i know that it would help dad alot and put his mind at ease about his parents.

i love you long time,

Elder Conte

ok so mom i want to share an experience that i had just yesterday. so for the branch we give workshops to the future missionaries.. and just yesterday we had a great experience. so yesterday was our district Conference and there was a General authority that came and spoke and it was amazing and all the speakers really invited the spirit,. so afterwards we had a workshop for them

so i was first going to do the workshop on mission rules, but i was prompted to talk about the topics talked about during conference. so we all shared what we liked, then we went one by one and talked about it. and how we were going to apply it. so we talked. we were open and we discussed challenges and how we are going to do it and apply it.

i had the biggest GEEk attack ever. a geek attack: definition: comes from the brown suga origin:) : it means that i just get super excited about the gospel and just talk about it and explain what i have learned and experiences and just pour out my soul in teaching and explaining with power. so i had the biggest one of my life. i actually had two, one right after another. so once the geek attack was done about the conference, i had another geek attack about the pre-mortal life. A week ago i had a dream that me and my comp were teaching a group of people about the pre-mortal life and the council in Heaven. i remember having a sweet feeling. and during the workshop, ( i was prompted to bring one of my earlier study journals and i read a story from it.) and as i was speaking it felt, so light, like there was no thinking going on. it just came out so smooth,. i was literally guided on what to say. as i was speaking, i would see their faces light up because the spirit just help them realize something. they would say, "oh, ok i get it now." I talked about the WOW, (word of wisdom) LOC (law of chastitu) and bore testimony of our Savior Jesus Christ. it was one of the most powerful experiences that i have had yet. i will never forget that. after wards, we said a kneeling prayer. and after the prayer, there was a special spirit there. there is always a special spirit when you talk about pre-mortal life. but one of them said, "it feels like we are in the temple." it was just that feeling. that feeling, the reverence, it was there in that little chapel room. the General authority that spoke said, "when everyone's voice is heard, miracles happen." during the workshop,, everyone participated and gave insight. and A MIRACLE HAPPENED!!! it was amazing mom.

i feel like it compared to the power that is talked about in the Book of Mormon. I spoke with power and Authority. my faith is still growing in my calling and in who i am as a Priesthood holder. I am so thankful for that time. it reminds me of when you said that you guys had that great experience in seminary. AMAZING!!! it was so peaceful, we should have just sat there after and just soaked it in.

the general authority also talked about, all of us being on the same team. we are all on the same team. we should have no enemies or fights with anyone because we are all on the same team. they talked alot about reactivation and how we are all very special sons and daughters of our Heavenly Father. they are all our Brothers and Sisters.

ok mom. it was amazing, everything that he said was great,. i have reviewed my notes and i have made plans on how i am going to apply it. he told a story about when he was being trained to be a GA, Elder Bednar got up and held his scriptures high in the air for 1 whole minute. that is a long time. and then he talked about the importance of the scriptures. i am going to apply that.

well mom, these are exciting times. i love you mom

love you long time

Elder Conte

LETTER RECEIVED MARCH 12, 2012

Hey Mom!!!!

Wow that seminary day seems to have been the best as your student felt what peace and joy the spirit can bring.  I remember the feeling of being in seminary and the peace and happiness and the longing just to stay at the church building. I remember saying to someone, if only we could have school at the church just with our seminary class, that would be amazing.

What an amazing atmosphere that you all made. Thank you again for the hold to the rod program. We are going to do it. I told the branch about it and they really want to do it. I want to find a huge tent and lights and just make it the best ending ever. Pray that everything will happen that needs to.  I  hope it will be a success.

Well this week we were able to go over the baptismal questions with one of our investigators. She said early on in the teaching that she wanted to get rid of heavy feelings of guilt from her past.  So two days ago were went over the questions and she just started bearing some intense testimony. It was amazing and it was a very spiritual lesson. She said that she has felt forgiven for what she has done and has forgotten about it. Another concern of hers is that she had a hard time believing if God loves her. We invited her to ask Him herself and she was scared because she said, "what if he doesn't answer." Yup lack of faith. So anyway as she went to church, and as she read our reading assignments over and over and prayed and followed the WOW (word of wisdom) she was more open to the spirit..she said that Saturday night she asked God if He loved her. When she went to church the next day while sitting in Sacrament Meeting she said that she felt something come over her and then the question that she asked came into her mind. "do you love me?" she said that she took that for her answer. She now knows that she has a Loving Heavenly Father because she has felt it.

Last night we taught her proverbs 15:1 to help with her family. It is amazing. She is learning that being a member is not easy because we have high standards but she is super willing to do her best to live the gospel. Her Baptism is in 2 weeks.  

We are going to look for new less actives and our mission is to contact every single member of the branch here. Ok mom i love you. I am loving studying! We are doing some great work.

I love you long time!!

love,

Elder Conte

Doing Laundry in Tiwi

Fun Zone Leaders!

Elder Conte and Elder Gonzales in Sorsogon

The rat they caught IN their apartment in Mobo, Masbate

One of my favorite, favorite pictures.  In Panganiban.

Brother Camara's Baptism

Short excerpts from his letter this week:


Hey mom!!

well we are in Naga right now and we are going to have a zone leaders council.

well it seems that this past week was really crazy for you guys and this up coming week seems like a emotional roller coaster.

i love you mom very much and i testimony was strengthened again during sacrament meeting about our potential to be like Gods. :) we are His children. i know we know that but i also know how easy it is to forget that.

This Sunday we had the first "MTC training" for the branch. Every Sunday the youth always come and work with us. So before we go out to work we are going to teach them how to teach.  And we will train them how to be missionaries.  So when they go on their missions they will be wizards. There are about 3 young men getting ready to go. Its a rough start but they will be able to have a heads start at least for when they go to the MTC.

I love my mission. I love teaching and sharing the Gospel and am saddened by the thought of taking my name tag off. A little boy took my tag and it felt like i couldn't breathe, like something was missing of my self.


love you long time
Elder Conte

ps sorry no pics. the internet is super slow here.

mmmmm, lunch!

A closer look

Still "GQ"

Companion

The Volcano

Super cute kid!

Add caption

This week Elder Conte went on visits with his companion Elder Gonzales to four different Districts.  They had lots of hours on jeepneys!  They returned to their apartment exhausted, but continued to be called upon for service to their members.  They were sustained!  This is a story he included in his letter:

There was a little boy playing psp on an airplane, now on this airplane all the people were going crazy, they were yelling, scared, had their oxygen masks and life jackets on. The plane was going to crash so all the people were getting ready. The people finally realized that this little boy was not scared at all.  He was just sitting there quietly playing his psp. A man came up to him and asked ,"Aren't you scared?" the little boy replied, why should I be scared, my Dad is the pilot."

I love that. Why should we be scared when our Father in Heaven has a plan for us. It's just a short story, but I really liked the message that it has. Maybe you guys can ponder more about the meaning.

 

 More from his letter:

In the morning got up and went to Irosin. That is the area for the District Leader. So we went there and we had what you call a District Leaders Council. We talked with both of the District Leaders and told them what their jobs were and what we expected from them and it was very spiritual and very good. Then we went on exchanges with the District Leader. I went on exchanges with the junior companion. He is very humble and very nice. He has a speech problem so he is very humble. So what happened is while we were planning what we were going to teach, he randomly says, "I was reading in this 50 year old Liahona and he read a story about the 10 virgins.  I was like ok we can share that. Now this less active is a returned missionary and is very busy with life and a lot of kids that are crazy!!!! So when we shared that story with her, she was remembering that story and she explained it perfectly on what she needed to do. She said, " I need to fill my lamp" and we were like YES!!! It was amazing just watching the spirit teach this less active what she needed to do for herself instead of us telling her what to do.

 

In Matnog:   while we were working we really felt the spirit. The area was really nice and we met a lot of great people. There is this one super old member. He is like 120 years old but still strong. Anyway his grandchild is sick so he paid for everything even though his job is riding a bike and taking water jugs to people. So he paid for everything, then his wife got sick and now they have no money. Then his niece comes asking for money because her son has nothing to eat. Then what he did is late at night while it was raining super hard he gets out on his bike and went to ask for money, so he came back with enough money for his niece and not enough for him and his wife. It was just a great example of sacrifice for me.

 

Then when we got home we closed and while we were talking i noticed that he was getting emotional, so i asked him if he wanted to talk about anything and he said, anything? and i said, Anything. he then began to tell me how he has been in the mission for 1 year now and he is still having a really hard time. he then started to cry and kept saying that he could'nt do it anymore and that he wants to go home. so i prayed for help and said things that came to my mind. i used the verses that philip shared with me. the moroni 7: 16-17 and then i told him that he can do it. he is also having really bad body pains. he had an accident before he came on his mission. he is from the rice fields, so he would carry heavy bags of rice on his head, so one time he get injured from it and the pain keeps coming back. sometimes they don't work because it hurts so bad. . then i asked him how his prayers were. he said ok. i then asked him if they are sincere. then he said sometimes. i then challenged him to have sincere prayers. he said that her would because the sincere prayers would help him a lot more. because i have experienced it. especially when it comes to getting help from the Atonement. so i told him that He was there for him. That was a very humbling experience for me. it really means alot to me when i am able to be an instrument in the hands of the Lord to help one of His missionaries. I really felt the spirit that night and i am glad that i was able to do my part. He is just so humble and once he gets the confidence that he needs in the Lord, he will be able to do miracles.

 

Then we went to SAN VICENTE AND BULAN. it is an hour away again. so when we got on the jeepney there was a guy smoking hard core right next to a baby and i was like. "i ain't havin' none of that!" i said " pwede ka lang sa labas" that means. can you be outside. so right when i said that he got straight up and left.  i really felt the spirit having my back on that one.  Then we got the apartment and ate a lot of food:) what i noticed is when you are the ZL missionaries worship you. i don't know why but they just treat you like royalty!!!! every apartment we went to there was so much food and they did everything. But we were not having none of that either, we did dishes and cleaned up as well so they don't get the wrong about the ZL's coming over. Then we had a intense 2 hour companionship study. one of the companionships there is training so they have to have 2 hours of companionship study everyday.

 

Elder Conte wrote a lot more, but it would be too long to post here!!  I will post pictures next! 

 

Elder Josephson - Elder Conte's trainer in Tiwi

Elder Conte eating Balut!

This is Elder Conte's first apartment in Tiwi

Elder Conte in coconut tree on the Island of Masbate

Good Morning Everyone.  Today is January 24, 2012.  I have finally decided to make a separate blog from the missionsite blog for Elder Adam Conte.  I will be posting pictures and letters and updates  on Mondays after we receive his weekly emails and photos.

Elder Conte has been serving almost 16 months now and is currently assigned to the Sorsogon Zone.  He is serving as a Zone Leader with his companion Elder Gonzales.  He is enjoying it very much.