Ik hou van de MTC!!! (I love the MTC!)

Saying goodbye to my teacher Brother Van de Graaff.

I'm so happy to be cleaning toilets...I was sad this would be my last time

More toilet cleaning

Double teaming the toilets!

Sweater Thursday

Sister Schwab and our Custodial friend Alicia

Me with the swesome Elder Salinas and Elder Fisher.  Elder Fisher is who accompanied me in all my songs heer at the MTC.

Our teacher drew a picture of us!

Saying goodbye to Brother Robinson

Saying goodbye to Brother Norton

Saying goodbye to Brother Mohrman on the left and Brother Klippel on the right.  I had just shed a few tears because I was so sad to say goodbye to them!!

Wow, I feel like that is how I begin every post...but at the end of every week I feel like a year has gone by. I thought my 6 weeks at the MTC would take forever...turns out they didn't. They flew by much faster than I anticipated. I want every one to know that I loved the MTC!!! 

Before coming to the MTC, I had no idea what to expect. I had a pretty solid testimony of the gospel and figured we would be focusing on the language. Turns out, our main focus was on the doctrine of the gospel and on becoming truly converted. I can honestly say that I have become more fully converted to the gospel of Jesus Christ and are more prepared to bear witness of him on a daily basis. 

This week was different from all the rest. I knew it was my last week and it would have been very easy to slack off and not keep working like I wasn't leaving. The Elders and I did our very best to work as hard as we could. We did have one day that wasn't the best but other than that we did a good job on focusing on the task at hand and not worrying about the fact that we were leaving. I had some amazing lessons with my investigators and in the end committed 2 of them to baptism and set a date!!! I was incredibly excited!! I know that my investigators weren't necessarily real. They were my teachers acting as investigators but because I took the situation seriously, I feel like I learned more than if I would have thought of the situation lightly. In my mind, my investigators Daniel, Hans, Geerte, and Charles were as real as they could be. Because I chose to believe that I was working to bring these investigators closer to Christ, I was then able to. My teachers remarked today that even though they were acting as investigators, they felt that they personally had been brought closer to Christ through our lessons. It honestly, was sad to say goodbye to my investigators today because I grew to love them and I wanted to see how they would progress. It sounds like a crazy idea but it was truly an incredible experience. I truly learned how to teach by the spirit and through Dutch. I know that it isn't going to be super easy come Tuesday when I am teaching real investigators in Dutch but I know that I am prepared and ready. I also learned how to teach people and not lessons. It was really cool this week, I was teaching all of my investigators the same lessons for some reason. I prepared the same lesson for of them. The most amazing part was, even though I had prepared the same lesson, I taught the lesson in a different way with each investigator. The principles and the things I hoped they would learn were all the same but the way I applied those principles were different every time. I would share different stories or explain things differently. It was amazing for me to see a difference in the way I taught depending on the investigator. I made me realize that we are all different but God has prepared a way for all of us to come back to him. No matter how different that plan may be, he has a plan for all of us.

I went to In-Field orientation and that was a lot of fun. It got me super excited to enter the field in 2 days!!! I freaks me out how fast it is coming!!! I said goodbye to my teachers today and that was one of the hardest things aside from saying goodbye to my family. My teachers have become my family in a strange way here. I love them and they truly have helped and guided me to becoming a better missionary. I really struggled with having to just say goodbye. I did cry...I will be honest. We sang "God Be With You Till We Meet Again." I cried through that as well. They mean a lot to me and they have been so patient with me and I just am so grateful that the Lord gave me the opportunity to be taught by them. I know that there were specific things I needed to learn from each of them and I am grateful. They also made us laugh a lot and we had a lot of fun!! I will miss them a great deal. 

I am so excited to board a plane to Amsterdam in two days!! I am so excited to speak Dutch all the time and to grow to love the Dutch people. I don't know what is waiting for me in Nederland but I know that what ever it is I am ready for. I have been preparing for this moment since before this life began. I can't wait to meet my first companion...seeing as I haven't had one really and to meet my mission president!! It is going to be hard and nothing like I have ever experienced before but I know that it will be good and I can hardly wait!! 

Tot Nederland,

Zuster Adams