Week 3

I am doing as good as I sound! I am loving the MTC more and more each week!  This place is a time warp!  It feels like I have been here for 4 days, but it also feels like it was 3 months ago that I got dropped off!  This week was so amazing!  I had so many great spiritual experiences!  My teachers are the best! We have two teachers!  One is Brother Martinez and I just found out that he went to the same mission as Zac and he knows him!  hahaha crazy!  He was at the mission reunion with Zac the night I got my mission call!  I asked if he knew that Zac and I were cousins and he said he was pretty sure the whole time! hahaha I dont know why he didn't say anything!  Tell Zac for me!  

Food is great!  Im healthy!  I'm glad that it is raining there because it is not raining here! hahahh The rain must not like me!   

So last P day we went to the temple directly after writing emails!  I always love the spirit that is felt there ! It is different!  After we got out, I was walking down the pathway and I saw someone that looked like Uncle John and as I got closer, I knew it was him! He walked down the hill with me and it was nice to talk for a minute.  It was great and refreshing and it made me think of dad because you two are so similar!  

So on Tuesday we went to Salt Lake City to go to the Mexican Consulate to get our visas done!  Some people warned me that we would hate the trip if we did not focus on talking to as many people as we could! So that is what I did! I made it my goal to talk to as many people on the bus and on the street as I could!  It was cool! As we were walking form the train to the building, we passed this lady and I got an impression that I needed to talk to her.  So I turned around and we started talking!( me and my companion and two other elders)  We talked to her and she said that she was struggling in life and needed a purpose!  We talked to her for about 20 min and taught her a short lesson! It was so cool!  She was amazing and was seeking for Christ in her life! I taught her that God knows her personally and has a plan for her and that is the Plan of Salvation! She started crying and was so happy!  My companion gave her his moms number so she could call her and get in touch with the missionaries in Salt Lake!  We felt really bad that we could not come back and teach her the lessons, but it was still great! She said she was going to call the missionaries and take the lessons!  We told her the Lord loved her and that HE has a plan for her and part of the plan is that she needs to be baptized!  She said that she would be baptized after taking the lessons!  I was so shocked but I realize that the Lord bless us for following what He asked us to do!  I was so overwhelmed with the spirit and I was so surprised that I almost fell over! haha Not really, but it was the best moment ever!  We ended by asking her if she ever prayed! She said that she didn't but wanted to!  We then taught her how to pray and we kneeled down on the side of the road and I said the first pray so she would feel comfortable with it and then she said an awesome second prayer. It was so powerful!  I bet it looked a little weird seeing missionaries kneeling on the side of the road with this lady, but it was so cool!

I don't know what is going to end up happening with Crystal but I know that the Lord put her in our path that day so we could teach her and introduce her to the gospel!  I never thought that I would have a real baptismal invitation in the mtc but I am so grateful for the opportunity that The Lord gave us that day!  It made me so excited to get down to Mexico and teach those people:)  I can't wait! The joy that comes from helping people and inviting pepple to come unto Christ is indiscribable!  AHHHHHHHH and amazing!  I love it!  Oh and I got called to be district leader!  It is very humbling because I am younger then most all the elders in the district but I am excited to serve as a leader in the MTC!  

The Lord has blessed me so much and I know that He helped us when we were teaching Crystal!  It was a very humbling experience!  I love you all so much!  

This is such an amazing gospel and I am growing closer to Jesus Christ every day!  Humility is so important!

We got pranked

Love Elder Quist

Week 2

This weeks has been great!   The second week is better than the first. The MTC is awesome. I have been learning so much it is crazy!  I love it!  My teachers are the best.  There are amazing people and they are so inspiring!  Spanish is coming along but it is slow!  I can tell that the Lord is helping me so much when I am in my lessons!  We teach 2 lessons a day in all Spanish!  It is so hard but it helps me learn so much!  My brain was about to explode the first few days but I have realize I don't need to know everything right now! I just need to do my best and rely on the Lord to help me.  If I put in the work he will bless me! At the end of last week I was feeling a little overwhelmed because of how much I needed to learn and how inadequate I felt!  I prayed and had an awesome experience. I will tell you more about it in a written letter home!  But yeah I feel so much better and I know that the Lord is watching out for me.  The most important thing that I have learned so far is that the Lord loves me and he wants the best for me.  My Book Of Mormon teacher at BYUI  said one time " The Lords plan or will for you is the best possible outcome for you life"  It seems kind of obvious but it is so important to remember! I am learning to put all my trust in the Lord!  

So my first night in the MTC we had a devotional by the MTC president. Right after we had dinner, my companion and I sat at an empty table and the MTC president, his counselors and their wives sat right next to me. We got to talk to them and it was awesome. 

I can't believe that it has already been 2 weeks!  It feels like I have been here for 3 days!  It is awesome though!  Spanish is coming along and I am trying to only speak Spanish to my companions but it is so hard!  I am have a lot more fun now that I am learning to relax. 

I have seen Haley, Jon and Janelle 3 time already, but they left yesterday at three in the morning!  I loved getting to see them and talk to them for a few minutes.  We took a picture together and it was awesome!  

PDay is for temple laundry, basketball, food, writing and cleaning! It is awesome.  PDay is a nice break but Sunday and Tuesday are even better because of the Devotionals. They are so spiritually uplifting!  Elder Holland came on Sunday for the devotional because his son was the one talking.  He talked for a few minute and gave us some advice!  I can't believe I got to hear from my favorite apostle on my second week!  His son is Matt Holland president of UVU and he talked about the life of Joseph Smith! It was so awesome and really helped strengthen my love for that Man!  I was in the choir for that meeting and we sang Praise to the Man! That is one of my favortie songs and the spirit was so strong!  I guess during the song, one of the cameras zoomed in on my face like they sometimes do at general conferance!  There were 600 people in the choir and they picked me! I had no idea until after when everyone came up to me and told me that I had that close up! hahah  Good thing they didn't zero in on my voice because that would have been pretty terrible!  I was pretty much just mouthing the words becuase I didn't want to mess up the choir with by terrible voice!  But I guess it was pretty cool that Elder Jeffery R Holland got to see a close up of me singing Praise to the Man!  

Life in the MTC is great!  I keep seeing more and more people that I knew from BYUI on main campus and on west campus!  I have so much fun with my district!  It is awesome!  Sometimes we just can stop laughing and it is bad! The teacher makes fun of us when we say crazy things in Spanish!  Janelle was telling me how she was so counting down the minutes until her classes got over because she knew she was leaving that night!  I'm glad that I am not counting down the minutes yet because that would be a long next month that I have  left in here!  I think it is because I still have so much to learn.  I am loving this experience and I am so grateful to have this opportunity to go down to Mexico and serve for 2 years! It is awesome!  This gospel is so true and so awesome! 

I loved all of the Dear Elders I got this week! The candy you got me isn't gone yet!  I am rationing it!.  I am learning to stuff myself at meals so that I can last to the next one!  hahah

Mom-  Please tell Onna that I am so grateful for the donuts!  Those helped so much the first weeek!  She is so thoughtful and kind!  Also tell Lauren and Andrew thank you for the package!  Those chips and cheese dip are my favorite!  Tell Nicole and Grandma thank you for the letters and I will write them as soon as I can.   

 I am so glad I have such good sibblings! Alex, Shelby and Abby are the best ever!     I wish I could see the changes in Abby!   

WOW i have such a great family! I am so lucky!

Life is Good!

Love Elder Quist

Week 1 of Adam's mission

 It is so good to hear from you today on my first Pday.  My Pday is on Thursday but we did not get a Pday the first week because it was our second day in the mission field.  Life is Good.  The first two days were really difficult.  Probably the hardest days of my life but I got through them.  They much English to us and I felt kind of alone because I didn't know anyone.  We basically just learned Spanish and stumbled through the first couple days.  By Sunday I started to feel really comfortable and was so happy to be here in the MTC.  I am starting to get to know my companion and my disrict really well.  They are all awesome. We don't share alot of the same interests, except for a love for the gospel, so it is great.  My companion is from Lehi Utah.  I know that the Lord has placed me in this district with these companions for a reason.  I am so grateful for all of my blessings.  I am struggling with Spanish, but it is all good.  I am going to take the advice of Zac and not worry about the language just now.  I have already learned so much Spanish and even though it was hard the first few days. I am glad that we have a teacher who doesn't speak to us in english.  He is awesome! He served in Peru Lima east I think, so that was really cool.  On the second day I meet with the branch president and he really helped me get through those first couple of days.  He said that he promised I would love the MTC and that it would be one of my favorite places every.  He told me that I would experience a miracles here at the mtc and that made me really excited:)  Jake Jarman is in my district, so that is pretty cool... hahah Jk, but one of the elders in my disrict is the twin of Jake Jarman.  He Looks like him.  He talks like him and he has the exact same personality as him.  I have never met anyone who is as similar to another person.  It is crazy. Also do you remember Elder Woodward.  His twin is also in my district so it is pretty gtreat to have these people in the district that I already know- haha.  My zone is pretty awesome and a have alot in common with the elder in the other districts.  I have gotten to know them pretty well while playing basketball with them.  When we do something awesome here in the MTC we say "Matandalo Hoy" (which literally  means "Killing it today")  It is pretty awesome.  Man! the MTC is the Best...It is just so fun and spiritual.  It is so great.  I wouldn't want to be anywhere else right now.  To be honest that was not what I was thinking the first few days though.  I would have done anything to be in the ten hour car ride home with two screaming babies (not really but that was how it felt).  

The food is good,But I am hungry alot though so I have to eat snacks.  

We taught of first practice investigator on the second full day.  We didn't know any Spanish and we failed on the first couple of lessons.  Yesterday we taught our fourth  lesson about the restoration to Fernando our investigator.  It went so well.  I felt the spirit in that meeting so strong and it made me happier then I have ever been.  I was great.  I was blessed with the gift of tounges for sure.  There were words that came to my mind that I did even think that I know.  My companion and I were so happy and we immediately prayed after the lesson to give thanks to the Lord for how much he help us durring that lesson.  I really wanted to say --"matandalo hoy" during the lesson but I think that would have been inappropriate.  

The devotionals are great here and the spirit is so strong.  I have already started to learn that I am not here for myself.  I am here to bless the lives of the people around me and the people in Miexico.  Even though I am loving the MTC, I am excite for when it is time to go down toMexico  and experience all of that.  

What else...oh I am in choir.  Let me just say that again in case you didn't understand...I'm in choir and it is great, even though am am the worst singer in the history of the world.  Elder Holland and his son are coming Sunday for devotion and we are going to sing "Praise to the Man".  His son is the only one that is going to speak but I am sure he is just as good as his dad.  

I saw Jon, Janelle and Haley on Sunday and it was so great to see people that I knew.  We took a picture together...I'll send it to you.  I have seen alot of people I know from BYUI.  Life is good.  The Lords work is the most important work.  I am learning to be patient here in the mtc, but it is great.  "Patience is a process of perfection"

I am learning so much here and learning how much I don't know.  What I don't know doesn't matter though. Who I am and who I am becoming is more important then the scriptures that I know.  We can't invite others to come unto Christ unless we are already close to Christ.  I am growing closer to Christ everyday and it is the best thing ever!  

Tell Paul congrats on his mission call to Argentina 

My unit number is #857 and I leave the Mtc on March 17

 Please write me physical letters:) Dear Ellder works great in the MTC....it is great

 http://www.dearelder.com/index/inc_name/mission_selection/ Tell everyone to use that to write me in the MTC and select print it instead of email.  Letters would be awesome.  I love you so so so much

I love you all I have to go now but I will be on on Thursdays mostly at 10:00 to 11:00 to write emails.

I am so happy!!

Elder Quist