Week Six (last week in the MTC)

December 27, 2013

Hey friends and family! I can't believe it is already week 6 but here goes another email from the life of Elder Taylor Adams at the MTC. Life is getting a little boring repeating the same thing over and over again, but on the bright side I leave the MTC in 10 days!!! So crazy, I can't wait to get out and actually start serving! As for actually getting down to Mexico on time only time will tell. Yesterday my whole district flew out to Vegas to have their visa interview and to get it approved, except me. I am the only one in my district who doesn't have their visa, yet so I may have to go state side Spanish speaking for a little bit before I get my visa to Mexico.

This week flew by really fast, with Christmas time and all we had going on this week with Vegas, visas and Christmas I can't believe it is already Friday. On Christmas I was able to open all of my presents from my family. We then had an MTC talent show, followed by a Christmas feast. After the feast we had an awesome devotional by Elder David A Bednar. It was a very different devotional but was one of the most amazing devotionals I have ever attended. The reason it was so different was he gave every missionary his phone number and sent out 200 cell phones thought the audience to ask him questions we would like him to answer and that is how his talk went. Some of the questions included: "What is your favorite scripture and why?" "What is the best characteristic you can have as a missionary?" "Why do I feel inadequate?" and many more. No matter how bad or stupid the questions was Elder Bednar gave the best, most profound answers to every question. After the devotional we had a devotional review with our zone (Which is basically like a testimony meeting where we each stand up, say something we learned and bear our testimony). After this we then had a concert with Christmas Jazz music and watched a movie. It was a really good Christmas even though I was missing home a lot.

I will try and share a few spiritual thoughts from the week but it will be a little difficult as I don't have my notes... so here goes nothing:

1. Elder Bednar said the best attribute of a missionary is being able to get out of the way. He said the best missionaries are the ones who are selfless and don't let their personal needs interfere with the work. We need to put ourselves aside for two years and work as hard as we can.

2. Elder Bednar also shared with us a scripture from 3 Nephi 11 where Christ went among the multitude one by one showing ever person that he was Christ, not just showing one persons and having him tell the rest of the people, "yeah its him". After calculations that action by Christ would have taken about 18 hours but Christ is the perfect example of teaching people one, by one. We need to do the same thing, focus on others individually rather than as a group. I have a lot more notes on this but I can't remember them off the top of my head.

I hope you are all doing well. It is crazy to me that next week will be my last P day in the MTC before I head out and start serving. I can't wait to get out there and give it my all. Please let me know how you are doing, send me letter or Dear elders because I would love to hear from you. I miss you and I hope you all had a merry Christmas and a happy New Year!!

Much Love,

Elder Adams

A few other notes from his other emails:

-haha good i'm glad you liked them :) It was kinda hard having my first Christmas away from home, but Elder Puzey (who is awesome, him and Elder Beck filled the void of my two best friends who left) said something that really made my day. He is 24, has already graduated college and is super mature, but he said: "Today we join the ranks of those great men who choose to not spend Christmas with their family for a better cause, weather its protecting our country, weather is is working overtime to make sure you can provide your family with food, or out here doing the greatest work we could ever do, helping other souls receive salvation." There was a poem that  I really liked that said: "The definition of a missionary is someone who gives up two years away from their family so others can be with theirs forever" I know I'm supposed to be here and even though I missed you a lot of Christmas this is where I need to be.

-Yeah there is a chance but I don't think it will come. Even if I get sent state side for a bit it won't be for too long because Mexican visas are really easy to get right now. Depends where I get send but it could be a really cool experience to serve two missions! :)--haha really haven't been called T-Bone in a while... haha I'm really excited to get out of the MTC my Spanish this past week has really shot thorough the roof. My whole district went to Vegas yesterday except for me and one of my teachers is a native of Mexico and doesn't speak English very well. I had to give her a 45 min lesson with someone else who didn't talk at all... in Spanish as she pretended to be a fake investigator. So essentially I talked and conversed with her while she was speaking at her normal speed. I felt really good about it afterwards because I was able to say everything I wanted to say and  I understood her so well. After she told me that my Spanish was amazing and that I am one of the best Spanish speakers from a beginner or intermediate class she has seen in a long time!!