Elliot's December 13 email

Here’s the latest email from Elliot.  It sounds like he’s doing great and enjoying his area.  And from the “it’s a small [Mormon] world after all” department, Elliot met one of the greatest missionaries ever, Elder John Sorenson.  John, aka Sorby, was my companion in Caaguazú, Paraguay, back in 1984.  Caaguazú was a remote town (“remote” accurately describes most of Paraguay outside of Asunción) in the center of the country.  We had a great time serving together and I’m delighted to know he and Elliot have met.  You can read Elliot's email and see a couple of new pictures after the page break.  (About the pictures: I compress them for the blog.  If anyone wants better digital versions of the pictures, leave me a note in the comments.)

Hey!

So I got the package from mom, and I already opened it hahaha. I'm still a kid at heart: I can't wait for Christmas! But I will definitely put it all back under our Christmas tree for Christmas morning. But I love it all and I'm wearing one of the ties right now!

We actually didn't get snow here in my area yet, but it's been cold enough outside that it easily could. It's really chilly out here which does make biking difficult, but that's okay. I have a coat, scarf, sweaters, and a beanie so I'm good enough!

The work is going very well; me and my companion have really dug deep and found a lot of people to teach and we've been having awesome lessons and experiences. My Spanish has improved a lot lately and I really think it's fun to speak. The only thing that's tough is at times I'll try to open my mouth to talk in English and Spanish will start coming out. Like last night some of the OKC South Spanish 6th Branch went caroling and at the end we found ourselves really close to President Taylor's house, so we caroled to them in Spanish as well. After singing I tried to talk to President, but I couldn't get the languages straight in my head! I even tried to play it off saying "I can't speak English anymore," but it started to come out "No puedo hablar Ingles." It's funny though. I just hope that shows President Taylor that I love being in this Spanish area and that I shouldn't be moved out! This area really is awesome and with all of the work we've put into it I would be sad to see it go these next transfers.

So I met someone very interesting yesterday, Dad. I missed his first name, but his last was Sorenson. He gave a talk in the Spanish Branch yesterday and after I asked him "Donde servio usted?" [“Where did you serve?”] He said "Paraguay" and I said "Mi papa tambien!" ["My dad too!"] Then he took a second look at me, then my name tag, then back at me and said, "Are you Eric Adair's son?!" I said yeah and he went off about how you served together as Zone Leaders and about how you were the man and everything like that. It was awesome. I gave him our home address and your cell. He said he'll give you a call and that sometime he'll have me over for dinner. Ojala que si! So that was pretty awesome.

Anyway, I hope you all are having a Merry Christmas season! Les amo!

Elder Elliot Adair

P.S. I'm gonna attach a few pictures. Enjoy!  [I assume that's his current companion, Elder Whipple from Ojai, in the picture of Elliot in front of the temple.]