A Merry Christmas from Elder Adams (best Christmas gift ever)

So I don't have a lot of time to send this email, so in the email I'm going to just say one quick thought about Christmas and then share my favorite thing about each person in our family. My quick Christmas thought is by President Thomas S Monson. "Sometimes we forget how to keep the spirit of Christmas, when all we have to do is drop the last part, and make it the spirit of Christ". If we focus our Christmas around Christ we can always remember the true meaning and spirit of Christmas. I miss you all and I hope you are all having a wonderful Christmas. I'd like to just share a few kind words this Christmas day about my family:

Mom: You are the best mom in the whole world, I love you and miss you so much. You are so sweet, thoughtful and caring, getting your heartfelt letters and care packages make my day. You are always there for me, so loving, so kind, and so un-judgmental. you love me for who I truly am and have never left my side once. You have taught me so much and I'm so glad I have someone like you to call mom.

Dad: Thank you for being such a good example, a great role model and a man that I can look up to. Thank you so much for your good example of serving a mission and your constant example of working hard to provide for our family. You truly are amazing and I'm so excited to be able to share this very special experience of serving the people in Mexico City.

Lexie: You are so fun, so funny, and so caring and loving of those people who are close to you. All of your friends are extremely lucky to have a great, caring, loyal friend such as yourself. You always bring a great mood into the family, we love having you visit and smile that you put on all of our faces! :)

Emily: Emily you are the kindest, sweetest, caring daughter of God I have ever met. You truly resemble how Christ wants us to act towards each one of God's Children. You embody the true spirit of Christmas every day and I'm so happy to have a younger sister who truly cares about every member of the family, and even those she doesn't know. 

Josh: You really are my best friend. You are so cool, so much fun to be around and I love spending time with you. All of your friends are so lucky to have someone like you in their life and I know that I'm grateful to be able to call you my best friend. I miss you tons and can't wait to see you and hang out with you in almost 22 months! :)

I love you all and I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas!!

Much Love,

Elder Adams

Week Five

Wow I can't believe it is week 5 already!! I have 2 more P-days before I'll be in Mexico!! So crazy right?? This week has been insane, we had all of the sisters in our district leave this Monday, most of the Elders leave this Wednesday, and the last 4 were supposed to leave on Thursday but their flight was cancelled and they don't leave now until Sunday. Almost all these missionaries were supposed to leave Monday, but because of the delays, rather than getting 5 new districts in we only got 2 new districts (9 sisters and 6 elders). Our zone has a robe ceremony tradition, where there are 4 robes that we wear at night (almost like a coat) that get passed down. The 4 robes include the King Robe, Suave Robe, Stud Robe, and Chill Robe. 3 of the 4 people who currently wore the robes left this Wednesday and so Tuesday we had a Robe Ceremony where those 3 elders passed down their robes. Elder Moffitt (The old zone leader) passed to me the King Robe and I will attach Pictures of the robe ceremony. We also had some crazy times tie trading. I traded 3 ties with Elder Edgington, Elder Russon, and Elder Moffitt. These were 3 of my best friends who left this week and I will have 1 more best friend staying here with me. We signed each tie we traded and now when I wear their ties I will always remember them, which was really cool. Elder Russon and Elder Edgeington are 2 of the missionaries whose flight got delayed, and even though I am sad for them I am selfishly happy. I love spending time with them and they are only 2 of the 4 missionaries here that I would love to hang out with and see after my mission. 

With the 2 new districts coming in Elder Wanner and I were able to get to know them really, really well as zone leaders. We have had 2 long meetings with all of them to teach them about all the rules, things we have learned and to get to know them better. I really like the new districts so far. They look up to us a lot, which is really weird because in a week we just went from the youngest in the zone to the oldest in the zone. Because we only got 2 districts we still need 3 more, but because next Wednesday is Christmas we won't get any for 2 weeks (Our last week in the MTC).

Just a few spiritual thoughts to share this week:

1. President and Sister Rasband talked to us about Christ on Tuesday night. Sister Rasband told us a story about a missionary who really really wanted a shoe shine. I won't share the story because it is somewhat long and I have limited time to email, but her ultimate point was: "Shoe shine? How about a soul shine? Christ shined our soul and gave us the chance to have eternal life, what can we do for him?". This is so true, and especially during Christmas time we should all think about what we can do for him because of how much he has done for us.

2. My teacher in a lesson said the key to missionary work, and I think applies to everyday life also, is to "Be interested, not interesting". This is so true, showing our love and care for someone else is so much better than trying to be the most interesting person in the world and come off as arrogant, unintentionally.

I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas! I would love to hear from all of you and you are all in my hearts during this time. It is really hard being away from home for the first Christmas ever and it doesn't even feel like Christmas time because I haven't experienced the mayhem of commercialism. Merry Christmas!! Love You All!!!!

Much Love,

Elder Adams

 1. Me and Elder Moffitt (New and old zone leader)

2. Elder Edge and I wearing the ties we traded each other.

3. Elder Russon (My best friend here) and I wearing the ties we traded each other.

4. Me putting on my new robe.

5. The 3 new robe owners with the 3 old robe owners.

6. My 3 best friends in the zone Jamming out. (Hadley on the left, Edge in the middle, and Russon on the right).

7. Me and some buddies the day before Elder Russon and Elder Edge were supposed to leave

8. Elder Tambo and I

3. Elder Jones and I

Week Four (Still in the MTC)

Wow where to begin, this week has been crazy and so many things have happened this week. By Wednesday 5 of the 6 districts in our zone will have left to their missions (aka all the districts but mine). I'm really excited for all them to go but selfishly its really sad to say goodbye to everyone I have grown to love!! Elder Wanner and I have been called to be the new Zone Leaders (Leaders of all 6 districts in our zone) and we will be getting 40 new missionaries into our zone on Wednesday! It will be lots of work but I am really excited! Today is the half way mark and I am so excited to get out to Mexico already!! As for my companion and district I feel very off and on about them, I really love Elder Hadley who is in the same apartment as me and the rest of my zone is alright. Love them someday's and other days not so much, just something I have to work on/through. I have become really close to one of the Elders in another district, Elder Russan, He is the man and I'm gonna miss him like crazy! (He leaves on Wed.). I have also become really close to Hermana Pepcorn who is a sister in the district right next to ours, she leaves Monday but reminds me so much of Emily, she is the nicest girl I have ever met and has the most sincere love for every she meets. She is so awesome and being friends with her is a huge blessing!!

Just a few spiritual notes I would like to touch on that I learned this week:

1. President Tyler came in one night as was talking to us and said: "Look at every situation through the lens of the the scriptures". The scriptures contain many similar situations and trials we have in our lives, and though reading the scriptures, and making choices similar to those the prophets would in the scriptures we can make the right decision and come close to God.

2. My teacher, Hermano Ramsey, told us that this life is not a way to earn our way to Christ, but we are here to learn our way to Christ. The more and more we learn of Christ each day the closer and closer we can draw unto him and ultimately live with him again.

3. Lastly I have a new favorite missionary scripture, this describes to a T the reason I'm on a mission and I love it so much!! its Alma 36:24 but unfortunately I don't have my scriptures with me so you will have to look it up for yourselves. 

The MTC is going well, the days seem long, but the weeks seem to fly by, very weird concept but whatever! The Spanish is coming along very well but I know It's going to be really really really hard once I finally make it down to Mexico and rather than my teacher speaking his Spanish at 60% speed I will have natives spiting out words at 100 miles and hour.... Yesterday I got a care package from Brother and Sister Hazen which was amazing!! My whole day was turned around and It was so nice to hear from them! I love receiving packages, letters and dearelders from anyone and everyone, I will send back letters if you send me something so make sure to write me if you aren't!! :) I miss everyone tons and would love to hear from each and everyone of you!! I hope you are all having a great Christmas season, and make sure to remember this is a great time to serve others!!

Much Love, 

Elder Adams 

 

PS: Here is my address:

Elder Taylor Michael Adams

Jan6 MEX-MEXW

2023 N 900 E Unit 881

Provo, UT 84602

This was our "Sexy" look for a lot of my friends in the zone

This is my new best friend Elder Russan and the massive icicle we found

This was our last zone picture before a lot of people from our zone leave.

All 3 Elder Adams in our zone

One of the districts next to us, including Elder Russan.

The sisters singing goodbye to the Elders leaving

Our passing down the robes ceremony

Week Three

December 6, 2013

Hey everyone!! This week has flown by; it seems like just yesterday I was emailing you all. The MTC so far has been good, its hard to write about the MTC and experiences I have because the MTC is very repetitious and always the same. We have half our zone leaving this Monday, then the other half next Monday, so in the span of a week we will go from being the youngest in the zone to the oldest. I'm really excited to get out to Mexico and I'm really excited that I'm speaking Spanish. We are on main campus right now and we are seeing lots of Elders speaking different languages that would be so hard to speak. Spanish at least has the same alphabet, I took 3 years in high school, and I'm still having a hard time with it. Its coming fast and a lot faster than I anticipated but it is still hard learning a new language. Of course as always the MTC is very spiritually and I am learning so much everyday. We had 2 devotionals this week that were really awesome and besides that everything is the same and seems to blur together. We have lots of GYM, which is so nice to relax, we are currently teaching two fake investigators in Spanish and both are going well. I feel like I know Spanish pretty well but there is so much I still have to learn. Our teacher said that on a scale from 1 to 10, 10 being fluent we are around a 2 or 3, which doesn't sound too terrible in my book. I can get through conversations and say what I need to say but there is still a lot that I would like to say that I couldn’t formulate. I can understand Spanish pretty well and even if I don't understand some words I get the gist of what they are trying to say. I do miss my family and friends but it's not as hard as I thought it would be and I usually don't have enough time to worry about how much I miss them. The only other thing I'm sad about besides leaving friends and family is the fact that I will miss out on the Seahawks' best season to win the Super Bowl. I heard about them killing New Orleans and I was really excited, and then I realized that I was going to miss the playoffs of the best team the Hawks have ever had which made me sad. This letter is going to be a lot shorter than my last two letters because there isn't really anything that stands out in my mind over this past week. We had some great lessons in class about the plan of salvation and about the book of Revelations. We also had a great Christmas message this past Sunday that I would like to share, but besides that my week has been more or less the same... As for this past Sunday the biggest thing I wanted to share was a line that really stood out to me. "This season we will all receive gifts of all sorts, but the very first gift we ever received from Christmas was Christ himself." With this gift he gave us his perfect example, The Atonement and many other gifts. So this Christmas season rather than thinking about what we are going to get our siblings or parents for Christmas we should focus on what we are going to give Christ! Some ideas include: Serving the needy and showing love unto everyone, like Jesus showed us. Keep his commandments, and be representatives of him during the Christmas season. One more thing that I thought of, that I would like to share with you, is a few Mormon messages that I really liked watching and I encourage all of you to watch these few 5 minute videos when you get the chance:

http://www.lds.org/pages/mormon-messages#a-secure-anchor

http://www.lds.org/pages/mormon-messages#stay-within-the-lines

http://www.lds.org/pages/mormon-messages#dare-to-stand-alone

http://www.lds.org/pages/mormon-messages#none-were-with-him

I hope you all have a safe rest of your week, I love you and miss you all and again would love to hear from every single one of you, send me a letter at:

Elder Taylor Michael Adams

Jan6 MEX-MEXW

2023 N 900 E Unit 881

Provo, UT 84602

Or even if you use www.dearelder.com I would love to hear from every single one of you, and if you write me I promise to write you back, the only catch with that is if you email me I might respond in the form of a letter because I have a lot more time to write letters than I do to email. Love you all, have an awesome Holiday season and I will be thinking about each and everyone of you!

Much Love,

Elder Adams 

Week Two

Hey everyone! This week has gone by a lot faster and has been pretty great. Yesterday was a little hard being Thanksgiving and not having my family around and it was the first day where I was truly homesick. Although I was homesick, I had a great day yesterday. We started off the day by being bused over to the main campus early for choir practice (my whole district is in the choir). We then had a devotional that was broadcast with Elder Russell M Nelson. If you have the chance to watch that do it because it was 1. an awesome devotional. 2. I was shown on the screen during the choir number multiple times. :) 

I miss you all and hope you had a wonderful thanksgiving without me. After the devotional we had an awesome Thanksgiving feast for lunch then had another devotional about service. After the devotional about service, we participated in a humanitarian project. In the MTC, we prepared 350,000 meals for starving children. We then got to watch the movie Ephraim's Rescue while we snacked on milk duds. This week has been very spiritual and I have learned lots from my amazing Branch President and all the devotional speakers. I wish I had all my notes with me to share some more experiences I have had, but the 4 things I can think of off the top of my head are:

1. In the movie Ephraim's Rescue, after he preformed many miracles, someone asked him how he was such a great man, and his response was "I'm not. I am just an ordinary man who makes lots of mistakes." The lady then asked him how he was able to preform all of these miracles and his answer was, "Because I try." We all make mistakes and none of us are perfect, in the definition of being flawless, but we can all become perfected in Christ. Using the other definition of the word perfect, to do that which is required of us. If we do what the Lord wants us to do today, and try our best everyday, we can do great things and will be blessed for giving everything we can. 

2. Elder Russell M Nelson said "It is better to build character then to be one." This is very true. In the MTC, and in life. There are so many people who are fake in the things they do. They aren't serving a mission for the right reasons. They do good things just so others can see them doing good things, rather than doing good because they have character and because they love everyone of God's children and because they are will to serve those in need of help.

3. Russell M Nelson also said, "Teaching and baptizing can lead to thanksgiving everyday." Giving people the joy that we have been able to feel because of the church, will bless everyone involved. Not a whole lot to say about this except for I know the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ can bring everlasting joy to everyone who is a part of it. Knowing that families can be together forever, knowing that we can once again live with our Father in Heaven though our Savior can bring a joy that is unmatched.

4. President Tyler gave an amazing talk about feeling the Spirit, how to feel the Spirit, and how we can recognize its promptings. During that lesson he gave us the scripture 3 Nephi 11:27 (I think this is the right scripture but I don't have my notes in front of me so I'm not 100% sure. It should be about being able to have the Holy Ghost because the Savior lets us). President Tyler told us that every blessing we receive from God, including the Holy Ghost, is because Christ wishes us to have it. President Tyler imagines the Savior saying to our Heavenly Father "I know _______ has messed up and is not worthy to receive this blessing but give it to him for me, and take it out of my "Atonement Bank Account"". This has brought me to a whole new level of gratitude to my savior, for what he did for both you and I.

I miss everyone and would love to hear from anyone and everyone. Make sure to emphasize on Facebook and through relay of this email that getting a letter in the MTC (weather it is hand written or sent through dearelder.com) is the greatest feeling in the world. 

I will spend almost all my time emailing you (Mom) and my friends who are on missions because email is the easiest form of communication. I will always send an email back if you email me, but I would prefer a letter or dear elder. For those who don't want to hand write a letter dearelder.com is pretty much just a print off of an email you send me that I get in my mailbox that day. Once again my address is:

Elder Taylor Michael Adams

Jan6 MEX-MEXW

2023 N 900 E Unit 881

Provo, UT 84602

I miss you all and would love to get letters from you whenever!! I hope you all had a good week and great thanksgiving and will send you another lengthy email next week. 

Hasta Lugeo

Elder Adams

Elder Adams was spotted at Jamba Juice today.

I received this anonymous text from someone who ran into Taylor and took this picture. Thank you random person! What a stud. This is his companion.

FIRST LETTER!! First Week

Hey Mom (and everyone else), my first few days in the MTC have been great, long but great. I love my district and my companion and everything seems to be going well even though I miss you all. Its crazy but my district has 7 elders going to the Mexico Mexico City West Mission also! My companion is very cool and is going to play Defensive End at the University of Utah after his mission. 

Some cool things that have happened in the MTC are still to come. For example, this Thanksgiving will be awesome because Elder Russell Nelson of the quorum of the 12 is coming to speak to us. We also will have a big feast here in the MTC and then we will participate in a Humanitarian project. Also one thing I forgot to mention because we are Spanish speaking missionaries in the Provo MTC we have our own separate campus at Wyview for all the Spanish Missionaries. 

I love our Branch and my District President as well as his companions and their wives they are like my Parents away from home. Our Zone motto is so awesome! We say, "Obedience brings blessings, exact obedience brings miracles" 

I miss home and still not a huge fan of the MTC but I feel a lot more at peace this time around and even when I'm feeling down I know that this is where I need to be. I am excited to go out to Mexico already but I know I need to prepare before I leave. 

Just some information: I have P day every Friday where I have a chance to email for an hour. We go to the temple every morning and today we did sealing's which was an awesome experience! After the temple as a zone we go onto the main campus where we will print out all of the emails we have received over the week to read during personal time (this way our reading emails doesn't interrupt our actual emailing time). After personal time my companion and I will eat lunch and then come email for about an hour. 

The majority of this time my be spent emailing my family and friends who are on missions so if you would like to contact me, please write me a letter, that will be the best way to keep in touch as the time I have on the computer to email is very brief. 

As for basketball.  We don't play actual basketball but we play knock out with about 30 missionaries. Yesterday I won 4 games in a row and when someone finally got me out in the 5th game everyone cheered.... haha I guess I would too if I were them. 

My mom had a few questions for me that I will post and answer now: 

-Where are you staying? Raintree?

I am staying in Wyview and I don't know where Raintree is.

-Do you have Brother Garrett as a teacher?

My Teacher is Hermano Day not Hermano Garrett sadly.

-Is the Hamilton boy in your district?

Because Duncan is going to MEX City South and the majority of my district is going to the west mission Duncan is not in my district but I do see him on campus quite a bit and almost all the Spanish speakers in the MTC about twice a day.

-Dirt on your companion? Is he cool?

My Companion is really cool, He is a big football guy and is going to play at the U of U after his mission. My whole district is so awesome though and I would love to be companions with anyone in the district.

-Are you happy?

That is kind of a hard question, I am not the biggest fan of the MTC but it's a necessary evil. Things are much better because I get along with my companion as well as my district. Although it's a lot of hard work we find ways and time to have fun which is nice to relieve the stress and home sickness. 

-Do you need anything?

My van's and an alarm clock are the only two things I have forgot so far but I'm sure I will have a much bigger list for you next week ;)

Well i know it has only been a few days so I doubt has much change has come upon you and the family as it has upon me but please let me know what's going on and if there is anything new. I miss you guys a lot and I look forward to Friday every week now!! Everyone stay safe and remember my Zone scripture, "Look unto me in every thought, doubt not, fear not!" D&C 6:36. President Tyler believes that this scripture is the key to all happiness in our lives and I completely agree! Have a great week everyone and I look forward to emailing you all again on Friday. 

Hasta Luego! 

Elder Adams

Taylor and his companion.

Our goodbye at the MTC.