Dear Family,
So great to hear from all of you. For those of you who I couldn’t talk to, I love you tons, and don’t worry, my voice hasn’t changed much. Perhaps a little manlier, but still just as awesome. It was fun to hear you guys and I hope you all had a merry Christmas and have a happy new year.
I just got here to the Capital City of Santiago del Estero, my new province, after a nice 6 hour bus ride, and now my comp and I are waiting for the bus that will take us to our area, another 3 hours of fun. The nice part, however, is that the Zone Leaders went all out and bought me first class on the bus, which means super comfy seat and a huge window to enjoy the view. Salta is soooo green right now. I love it. Tons of forested hills and valleys. I’ll send the pics in the next email. Santiago, however, is pretty flat and deserty, so the Colorado boy in me is a little bit disappointed. Oh well, it’s pretty in its own way. It’s got what we call a "sweet spirit" as far as looks go, haha.
The last Sunday in San Ignacio was super cool because all of the less active families that we had been continually inviting for the last 3 months finally showed up to church. I got to give a talk and it was a big blessing for me to see them feel back at home again. I hope they keep coming and feel the fullness of blessings that come when we obey. It was also kinda sad to have to say goodbye to another group of people and another area, but I’m also excited for my new area and can’t wait to get to work. The highest church attendance they’ve ever had was about 45, (the lowest was 5), and right now the average is 15-20. Sounds like it’ll be a challenge, but I’m ready for one.
Also, cool story about Freddy. The other day we were talking about what he had read in the Book of Mormon and it was amazing. He completely understood everything he was reading and he told us that when he read he tried putting himself in the shoes of the people in the stories. Wow! He learned in a month what it took me 19 years to learn. He’s doing great and should be baptized within a month.
Anyway, that's about it. I’ll let you know all about my new area next week and be sure to send pictures, now that I’m in a place where I can take out my camera without worrying about it getting robbed, haha.
Love you tons! The church is true!
- Elder Spencer
Monday, December 27, 2010
Monday, December 20, 2010
December 20
Dear Fam,
Great week! First things first, Freddy’s doing great! He hasn’t touched a drop of alcohol this week. The other day we had a lesson with him where he told us that he had decided to read the Book of Mormon from the beginning. This is a huge step for him because earlier he was very hesitant to read. He’s 31, but doesn’t have a high school diploma so it is one of his weaker areas. Last week we read Lehi’s dream with him and showed him the painting of it and explained it to him and that had a really good effect on him and built up his confidence for reading the scriptures. We had always left him sections to read that we thought he might like, but we got to our appointment and he told us that he felt like he should start from the very beginning. We were super excited for him! We also challenged him to be baptized that same appointment. He told us that he wanted to wait and see because he felt like he would do it right now for us because he loved us so much, but he wanted to do it for God. We challenged him to pray and ask God if that’s what he should do and the next day he told us he had prayed and God responded to him and told him that that was what he needed to do. Yay! He should be baptized by the end of January
And that’s about it on the mission front. We also had a baptism yesterday of a lady who had talked to the Missionaries about a year ago but didn’t get baptized for one reason or another. We found her about 2 months ago knocking doors and she’s progressed super well. As it turns out both her daughter and sister are receiving the discussions and her daughter got baptized a few weeks ago and has been a super good support for her mom in helping her progress to baptism.
In other news, the weather here is crazy. Right now we are in the middle of summer. It’s been a little weird listening to Christmas music while eating watermelon, but it’s a nice twist. The weird part is that about once a week out of the blue it rains super hard for a day. So there is a week of grueling hot weather, in some parts up to 50 degrees Celsius (120 degrees F), and then one day it gets wet, cold and rainy. It’s actually quite refreshing having the break from the heat, but after it stops raining, immediately it all evaporates and it is nice hot, heavy air again. Nuts, huh?
Anyway, that’s about it. I look forward to hear your beautiful voices on Christmas and if I don’t hear from you, have a very Merry Christmas and remember what it’s all about. The Church is true!
-Elder Spencer
Great week! First things first, Freddy’s doing great! He hasn’t touched a drop of alcohol this week. The other day we had a lesson with him where he told us that he had decided to read the Book of Mormon from the beginning. This is a huge step for him because earlier he was very hesitant to read. He’s 31, but doesn’t have a high school diploma so it is one of his weaker areas. Last week we read Lehi’s dream with him and showed him the painting of it and explained it to him and that had a really good effect on him and built up his confidence for reading the scriptures. We had always left him sections to read that we thought he might like, but we got to our appointment and he told us that he felt like he should start from the very beginning. We were super excited for him! We also challenged him to be baptized that same appointment. He told us that he wanted to wait and see because he felt like he would do it right now for us because he loved us so much, but he wanted to do it for God. We challenged him to pray and ask God if that’s what he should do and the next day he told us he had prayed and God responded to him and told him that that was what he needed to do. Yay! He should be baptized by the end of January
And that’s about it on the mission front. We also had a baptism yesterday of a lady who had talked to the Missionaries about a year ago but didn’t get baptized for one reason or another. We found her about 2 months ago knocking doors and she’s progressed super well. As it turns out both her daughter and sister are receiving the discussions and her daughter got baptized a few weeks ago and has been a super good support for her mom in helping her progress to baptism.
In other news, the weather here is crazy. Right now we are in the middle of summer. It’s been a little weird listening to Christmas music while eating watermelon, but it’s a nice twist. The weird part is that about once a week out of the blue it rains super hard for a day. So there is a week of grueling hot weather, in some parts up to 50 degrees Celsius (120 degrees F), and then one day it gets wet, cold and rainy. It’s actually quite refreshing having the break from the heat, but after it stops raining, immediately it all evaporates and it is nice hot, heavy air again. Nuts, huh?
Anyway, that’s about it. I look forward to hear your beautiful voices on Christmas and if I don’t hear from you, have a very Merry Christmas and remember what it’s all about. The Church is true!
-Elder Spencer
December 13
Dear Family,
Another great week! This week had some good and some bad, but all in all good. First good news, we had a baptism. It was a girl of a less active family we’ve been working on activating, so hopefully this will be a good motivation for them to come back to church. There are soooo many inactive families here, and they all have rather petty reasons for leaving the church and most of them tell us they want to come back to church. I totally wish I had 25-40 hour days, especially Saturday, to pass by all of them and motivate them to come back, because all they need is a nice little kickstart and they’ll come back. We’ve also been trying this idea of doing a few FHEs on weeknights and inviting the less actives and investigators to those so they make friends with the members and have a reason to come on Sunday. That’s actually been working pretty well and we have a family who is coming back to activity because of it. Neat, huh?
Bad news. Freddy made it 2 and a half weeks without drinking, but on Friday after work his friends all invited him and he caved. Incidentally, we had scheduled an appointment with him that night and he showed up super late and pretty out of it. I have to admit, I was pretty disappointed. He was our golden investigator and every time we taught him I imagined him in the future as a bishop or something because he was so good and progressed so well. That experience made me think a lot about how Heavenly Father must feel when we do something stupid like blatantly disobey him. Not mad at all, just disappointed because our actions limited our future opportunities. He sadly watches as we paint ourselves into a corner, captive to our own choices. Luckily, there is a way out. There is always a way out. Long, perhaps; difficult, probably; worth it, certainly. Faith and Repentance are always an option, no matter how far into the corner we go. The next day we talked with Freddy and he felt so bad for what he had done. He recognized how he had been disobedient and the consequences and he felt determined to not make the same mistake again. He is now even more resolute to change his life and not fall again. He told us that falling made him see how bad it was before and how much he wants to change and he is going strong again. A great lesson for him and me.
I love you all tons and pray for you all. The church is true!
Elder Spencer
Another great week! This week had some good and some bad, but all in all good. First good news, we had a baptism. It was a girl of a less active family we’ve been working on activating, so hopefully this will be a good motivation for them to come back to church. There are soooo many inactive families here, and they all have rather petty reasons for leaving the church and most of them tell us they want to come back to church. I totally wish I had 25-40 hour days, especially Saturday, to pass by all of them and motivate them to come back, because all they need is a nice little kickstart and they’ll come back. We’ve also been trying this idea of doing a few FHEs on weeknights and inviting the less actives and investigators to those so they make friends with the members and have a reason to come on Sunday. That’s actually been working pretty well and we have a family who is coming back to activity because of it. Neat, huh?
Bad news. Freddy made it 2 and a half weeks without drinking, but on Friday after work his friends all invited him and he caved. Incidentally, we had scheduled an appointment with him that night and he showed up super late and pretty out of it. I have to admit, I was pretty disappointed. He was our golden investigator and every time we taught him I imagined him in the future as a bishop or something because he was so good and progressed so well. That experience made me think a lot about how Heavenly Father must feel when we do something stupid like blatantly disobey him. Not mad at all, just disappointed because our actions limited our future opportunities. He sadly watches as we paint ourselves into a corner, captive to our own choices. Luckily, there is a way out. There is always a way out. Long, perhaps; difficult, probably; worth it, certainly. Faith and Repentance are always an option, no matter how far into the corner we go. The next day we talked with Freddy and he felt so bad for what he had done. He recognized how he had been disobedient and the consequences and he felt determined to not make the same mistake again. He is now even more resolute to change his life and not fall again. He told us that falling made him see how bad it was before and how much he wants to change and he is going strong again. A great lesson for him and me.
I love you all tons and pray for you all. The church is true!
Elder Spencer
Monday, December 6, 2010
Dear Family,
This week was absolutely excellent. Several good news. First good news: we had a baptism! It was of a 16-yr old girl named Mariel Chocobar. 3 of her sisters and her mom are members, and when the missionaries started teaching her family she wanted nothing to do with the church. One week she showed up at church with her sisters and we didn’t recognize her so we introduced ourselves and asked if she would like to have us teach her. She accepted and we started teaching her. She had already heard the lessons from like 6 different sets of missionaries, but didn’t have a testimony so we focused on gaining a testimony and every lesson instead of teaching the normal lessons we read sections of the Book of Mormon with her and explained it. The Sunday after her baptism (yesterday) was fast and testimony meeting and she got up and bore a sweet testimony even though she was very nervous. Her family was so happy and she’s excited to continue strong in the church.
Second good news: Remember Freddy, the guy we helped drop alcohol? He’s a stud. Last week he dropped alcohol and was doing great, went cold turkey and completely kicked the habit. Every time we teach him he tells us about times in the last days where he’s said no to alcohol. Well, he also smokes. This week we put him the goal to drop smoking completely and... he did it! He gave my comp his last pack of cigarettes (mostly full) and never bought another one. That one was a little harder for him and for the first couple of days he had a little depression problems, but now he is doing great and it’s been 6 days since he dropped smoking. He told us that he loves being free of his addictions. Before he could only think about smoking and drinking and was a really hateful person, always thinking about grudges and such, but now he told us he is so much happier and that he has so much more love for his 6 little kids. (They are so cute! 5 little girls, one little boy.) He loves reading the pamphlets we give him and loves the Book of Mormon and wants to get baptized super bad, now we just need to get him to church a few times and he can get baptized! Yesterday he asked us what he needed to do to get baptized and my companion told him he needed to go to church 3 times. He told us "I don’t want to go 3 times, I want to go the rest of my life!!!!" What an awesome guy! He’s the 2nd oldest of a family of 11 kids, mainly boys with similar problems. His youngest brother (18) after seeing his great example told him that he wants to stop drinking and smoking and drugging too because his life really stinks right now and he doesn’t feel good at all. We’re going to teach both of them tonight. Pray for Freddy and Maxi to keep progressing! They are such great guys!
Anyway, that was my awesome week. Today we went to another All-You-Can-Eat restaurant, which is pretty pricey down here, but I’d say we got our money’s worth. Hehe, the waiters kept on looking at us as we went up for the 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th plates. I love you all tons and I hope you’re all doing great. The church is true! Keep on living the gospel! It’s not easy. President Packer said that it has never been easy to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. But even though it’s not easy it is most certainly worth it, so do the courageous thing and keep the commandments!
Love,
Elder Spencer
At the baptism. The girl between my comp and me is Mariel, the
rest is her family. The guy under my arm is the bishop. Awesome guy!
Me and some missionaries at the All you can eat. There were 6 of us.
This week was absolutely excellent. Several good news. First good news: we had a baptism! It was of a 16-yr old girl named Mariel Chocobar. 3 of her sisters and her mom are members, and when the missionaries started teaching her family she wanted nothing to do with the church. One week she showed up at church with her sisters and we didn’t recognize her so we introduced ourselves and asked if she would like to have us teach her. She accepted and we started teaching her. She had already heard the lessons from like 6 different sets of missionaries, but didn’t have a testimony so we focused on gaining a testimony and every lesson instead of teaching the normal lessons we read sections of the Book of Mormon with her and explained it. The Sunday after her baptism (yesterday) was fast and testimony meeting and she got up and bore a sweet testimony even though she was very nervous. Her family was so happy and she’s excited to continue strong in the church.
Second good news: Remember Freddy, the guy we helped drop alcohol? He’s a stud. Last week he dropped alcohol and was doing great, went cold turkey and completely kicked the habit. Every time we teach him he tells us about times in the last days where he’s said no to alcohol. Well, he also smokes. This week we put him the goal to drop smoking completely and... he did it! He gave my comp his last pack of cigarettes (mostly full) and never bought another one. That one was a little harder for him and for the first couple of days he had a little depression problems, but now he is doing great and it’s been 6 days since he dropped smoking. He told us that he loves being free of his addictions. Before he could only think about smoking and drinking and was a really hateful person, always thinking about grudges and such, but now he told us he is so much happier and that he has so much more love for his 6 little kids. (They are so cute! 5 little girls, one little boy.) He loves reading the pamphlets we give him and loves the Book of Mormon and wants to get baptized super bad, now we just need to get him to church a few times and he can get baptized! Yesterday he asked us what he needed to do to get baptized and my companion told him he needed to go to church 3 times. He told us "I don’t want to go 3 times, I want to go the rest of my life!!!!" What an awesome guy! He’s the 2nd oldest of a family of 11 kids, mainly boys with similar problems. His youngest brother (18) after seeing his great example told him that he wants to stop drinking and smoking and drugging too because his life really stinks right now and he doesn’t feel good at all. We’re going to teach both of them tonight. Pray for Freddy and Maxi to keep progressing! They are such great guys!
Anyway, that was my awesome week. Today we went to another All-You-Can-Eat restaurant, which is pretty pricey down here, but I’d say we got our money’s worth. Hehe, the waiters kept on looking at us as we went up for the 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th plates. I love you all tons and I hope you’re all doing great. The church is true! Keep on living the gospel! It’s not easy. President Packer said that it has never been easy to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. But even though it’s not easy it is most certainly worth it, so do the courageous thing and keep the commandments!
Love,
Elder Spencer
At the baptism. The girl between my comp and me is Mariel, the
rest is her family. The guy under my arm is the bishop. Awesome guy!
Me and some missionaries at the All you can eat. There were 6 of us.
Monday, November 29, 2010
November 29, 2010
Dear Family,
This week went super well. One of the highlights was finding an awesome investigator we have. His name is Freddy. We were walking down the street one day when a drunk man from the side of the road called out to us. Here that's pretty normal, and we usually ignore them and continue on our way to avoid safety issues. My companion, however, decided to go talk to him and I followed him pretty skeptically. Freddy then told us how he was separated from his wife and 6 kids by a horrible alcohol addiction. We started teaching him. We told him about how important his family was and convinced him that with the help of God he would be able to drop the addiction. We left him the story of Enos to read and committed him to stop cold turkey with alcohol. We knelt down in a circle and he gave his first prayer. The spirit was really strong. We came back the next day and he had managed to make it a day without drinking. He loved the story and showed it to his wife and kids and had them read it. We came back each day of the week to check up on his goals to stop drinking. On the weekend, Saturday night, he told us that it was the first weekend he had spent sober in a very long time and how happy he was and how great he felt. He was so glad he had spent the whole day working on building a house for his family in stead of drinking as normal. He is progressing super fast and doing great. We're going to visit him tonight to keep teaching him and see how he's doing.
Other great news, I talked with my old companion Elder Staker and his new ward is in the same stake as our old area. They had a stake conference and he was able to see several of the people we had worked with. Remember Alejandra, whose husband was an inactive and her and her daughter were baptized? They are now preparing to go to the temple in a year!! Her husband still has some problems with alcohol, but he is now completely active and the family is progressing great. How cool is that!!?! Elder Staker also told me that another investigator we had worked hard with, but that was progressing really slow, finally chose her own baptismal date for the end of December! Also, the missionaries had invited her to see a baptism (of Veronica's daughter), and it turns out that she and Veronica are really good friends, so she's already got a familiar face in church! What a blessing to see the people I taught progress in the gospel! That's really what makes it all worth the while.
Anyway, other than that, a normal week. I accidentally forgot about Thanksgiving, but celebrated it the day after with the only other American in my district by eating PB and J sandwiches. We decided that that was a pretty good substitute for turkey as far as traditional American foods are concerned. Anyway, love you all tons. This week I found an excellent quote by Elder Scott that stuck with me and I've been thinking about it all the time: "We become what we want to be, by constantly being what we want to become every day". Love you all, church is true!
Elder Spencer
This week went super well. One of the highlights was finding an awesome investigator we have. His name is Freddy. We were walking down the street one day when a drunk man from the side of the road called out to us. Here that's pretty normal, and we usually ignore them and continue on our way to avoid safety issues. My companion, however, decided to go talk to him and I followed him pretty skeptically. Freddy then told us how he was separated from his wife and 6 kids by a horrible alcohol addiction. We started teaching him. We told him about how important his family was and convinced him that with the help of God he would be able to drop the addiction. We left him the story of Enos to read and committed him to stop cold turkey with alcohol. We knelt down in a circle and he gave his first prayer. The spirit was really strong. We came back the next day and he had managed to make it a day without drinking. He loved the story and showed it to his wife and kids and had them read it. We came back each day of the week to check up on his goals to stop drinking. On the weekend, Saturday night, he told us that it was the first weekend he had spent sober in a very long time and how happy he was and how great he felt. He was so glad he had spent the whole day working on building a house for his family in stead of drinking as normal. He is progressing super fast and doing great. We're going to visit him tonight to keep teaching him and see how he's doing.
Other great news, I talked with my old companion Elder Staker and his new ward is in the same stake as our old area. They had a stake conference and he was able to see several of the people we had worked with. Remember Alejandra, whose husband was an inactive and her and her daughter were baptized? They are now preparing to go to the temple in a year!! Her husband still has some problems with alcohol, but he is now completely active and the family is progressing great. How cool is that!!?! Elder Staker also told me that another investigator we had worked hard with, but that was progressing really slow, finally chose her own baptismal date for the end of December! Also, the missionaries had invited her to see a baptism (of Veronica's daughter), and it turns out that she and Veronica are really good friends, so she's already got a familiar face in church! What a blessing to see the people I taught progress in the gospel! That's really what makes it all worth the while.
Anyway, other than that, a normal week. I accidentally forgot about Thanksgiving, but celebrated it the day after with the only other American in my district by eating PB and J sandwiches. We decided that that was a pretty good substitute for turkey as far as traditional American foods are concerned. Anyway, love you all tons. This week I found an excellent quote by Elder Scott that stuck with me and I've been thinking about it all the time: "We become what we want to be, by constantly being what we want to become every day". Love you all, church is true!
Elder Spencer
Monday, November 22, 2010
November 22, 2010
Dear Family,
Another incredible week. It started out pretty interesting when we got home with my comp and it turned out that there was no power. My poor comp had all his stuff packed up and when we got back after teaching that night there was no light to unpack. Our neighbor gave us some candles and we spent that night in the dark. The next day, my birthday, there was still no light. I was planning on making some birthday pancakes, but with no power, I ended up taking advantage of the breakfast time to defrost the freezer. We worked that day, the member where we had lunch surprised me with a cake, which was super nice of them, and when we got home there was still no power. However, ten minutes after we walked in the door, they turned it back on and I was able to blow out the candles!
After that the week went great. We had lots of awesome appointments and we are going to have a baptism in 2 weeks, so we are pretty pumped about that. Every day I am more thoroughly convinced that the success of missionaries is 100% blessings. We can work the whole day with investigators who are nowhere near progressing and use our very best knowledge of the scriptures and we will not succeed. In the end, though, all the people who progress and are baptized are people that we have to exert almost no effort in teaching because they accept everything and understand everything amazingly fast. The Lord has tons of people out there who are ready to receive his gospel, but they just don't know where to find it. It’s been such a blessing being led to find some of them.
This Sunday we were running a little late for church and walked in during the opening hymn of priesthood meeting to find nobody other than the area president Elder Arnold sitting in the room. I immediately felt completely embarrassed and decided from that day on I would never ever be late for church, because you never know when a General Authority will show up to your ward. He is a super great guy and taught us a lot. We also had the Primary program this Sunday, so all in all, despite the embarrassment, it was an awesome Sunday. Today I decided to give myself another shot at cutting hair and it actually turned out really good! (Except I think it’s a little short in the back; oh well, the difference between a good haircut and a bad one is 1 week, so I’ll live.) My new comp and I are doing great and I'm loving it here in Salta. It’s hot, but beautiful.
Anyway, got to go. Love you all tons! Send me pictures! I want to see your bright smiling faces!
-Elder Spencer
Salta the Beautiful
Saying goodbye to Elder Miranda in the bus station
New haircut, done by yours truly!
Another incredible week. It started out pretty interesting when we got home with my comp and it turned out that there was no power. My poor comp had all his stuff packed up and when we got back after teaching that night there was no light to unpack. Our neighbor gave us some candles and we spent that night in the dark. The next day, my birthday, there was still no light. I was planning on making some birthday pancakes, but with no power, I ended up taking advantage of the breakfast time to defrost the freezer. We worked that day, the member where we had lunch surprised me with a cake, which was super nice of them, and when we got home there was still no power. However, ten minutes after we walked in the door, they turned it back on and I was able to blow out the candles!
After that the week went great. We had lots of awesome appointments and we are going to have a baptism in 2 weeks, so we are pretty pumped about that. Every day I am more thoroughly convinced that the success of missionaries is 100% blessings. We can work the whole day with investigators who are nowhere near progressing and use our very best knowledge of the scriptures and we will not succeed. In the end, though, all the people who progress and are baptized are people that we have to exert almost no effort in teaching because they accept everything and understand everything amazingly fast. The Lord has tons of people out there who are ready to receive his gospel, but they just don't know where to find it. It’s been such a blessing being led to find some of them.
This Sunday we were running a little late for church and walked in during the opening hymn of priesthood meeting to find nobody other than the area president Elder Arnold sitting in the room. I immediately felt completely embarrassed and decided from that day on I would never ever be late for church, because you never know when a General Authority will show up to your ward. He is a super great guy and taught us a lot. We also had the Primary program this Sunday, so all in all, despite the embarrassment, it was an awesome Sunday. Today I decided to give myself another shot at cutting hair and it actually turned out really good! (Except I think it’s a little short in the back; oh well, the difference between a good haircut and a bad one is 1 week, so I’ll live.) My new comp and I are doing great and I'm loving it here in Salta. It’s hot, but beautiful.
Anyway, got to go. Love you all tons! Send me pictures! I want to see your bright smiling faces!
-Elder Spencer
Salta the Beautiful
Saying goodbye to Elder Miranda in the bus station
New haircut, done by yours truly!
Monday, November 15, 2010
November 15, 2010
Dear Family,
Another great week. Sad news was that today was transfers and I had to send off Elder Miranda. Every time transfers happens it’s like I lose a brother. The good thing is that I get a new one to get to know for at least a month or so, so it ends up working out fine. My new companion is an Elder from Buenos Aires (the Capital of Argentina) who totally looks like an American. His name is Elder Garay and I just met him about 3 hours ago. He seems very nice and I’m looking forward to getting to know him well.
Other good happenings of the week: Right now we are teaching a man who just kinda showed up to church with one of the member families. He’s so great. He asked for a D&C and a Gospel Principles manual and he studies a ton between appointments and is super receptive. Talk about prepared! We can only teach him once a week because of how his work schedule is, but we always teach him in the house of the member family and they even help him study in between appointments. He will definitely be baptized soon! Fun fact: 66% of investigators taught in the home of members are baptized. That is a golden statistic, when you figure that only about 1% of the people that let us in their doors the first visit get baptized. Moral of the story: Invite over a friend the next time you have the missionaries over for dinner, because there is a 66% chance they will get baptized.
Anyway, that’s about it for this week. Things are going well. Today we went to an all you can eat restaurant to celebrate the big 20. I honestly wouldn’t have my birthday any other way than right here in the Lord’s field havin’ a blast working. Love you all tons!
Another great week. Sad news was that today was transfers and I had to send off Elder Miranda. Every time transfers happens it’s like I lose a brother. The good thing is that I get a new one to get to know for at least a month or so, so it ends up working out fine. My new companion is an Elder from Buenos Aires (the Capital of Argentina) who totally looks like an American. His name is Elder Garay and I just met him about 3 hours ago. He seems very nice and I’m looking forward to getting to know him well.
Other good happenings of the week: Right now we are teaching a man who just kinda showed up to church with one of the member families. He’s so great. He asked for a D&C and a Gospel Principles manual and he studies a ton between appointments and is super receptive. Talk about prepared! We can only teach him once a week because of how his work schedule is, but we always teach him in the house of the member family and they even help him study in between appointments. He will definitely be baptized soon! Fun fact: 66% of investigators taught in the home of members are baptized. That is a golden statistic, when you figure that only about 1% of the people that let us in their doors the first visit get baptized. Moral of the story: Invite over a friend the next time you have the missionaries over for dinner, because there is a 66% chance they will get baptized.
Anyway, that’s about it for this week. Things are going well. Today we went to an all you can eat restaurant to celebrate the big 20. I honestly wouldn’t have my birthday any other way than right here in the Lord’s field havin’ a blast working. Love you all tons!
Monday, November 8, 2010
November 8, 2010
Dear family,
Another awesome week. Things are continually improving out here on the edge of the civilized world. The downside to being on the very, very, very edge of the city is that the roads are 98% unpaved. Normally, that is not a problem, but apparently there exists for a few weeks every year in Salta (which lies in a valley surrounded by mountains) a time of windstorms, and if your roads aren’t paved, dust storms. I swallowed so much dirt that every time I ate anything it had the delicious aftertaste of dirt. Dońt worry, after lots of water, mouthwash, and teeth brushing, it’s gone away, but I learned an important lesson: God made dirt, dirt don’t hurt, however, it don’t taste good either, so keep your mouth shut if you are in a dust storm.
More cool news. My investigator Alejandra from my last area and her daughter got baptized this week! The dad who was inactive for about 30 years is also coming to church now and they are enjoying the blessings of the Gospel as a family! Yay! Next stop, the temple!!
Speaking of which, we had a really cool conference with a Seventy (Elder Ayllou, I think) who came here for a stake conference and gave the missionaries a special meeting. He spent most of the time answering questions that we had and then at the end he told us that Salta is going to have a temple. They have not picked the ground or anything yet, but in some future time, when the stakes are strong enough, Salta will have a temple. He told us that a temple is not built with money or materials, but with faith. We need to faithfully strengthen the stakes, wards, and members, and one day we will be able to come back and see the dedication of the Salta, Argentina temple. It was soooooo cool and the spirit was so strong. I can’t wait for the day when I can come back and see the Salta temple dedication. What a cool promise from a servant of the Lord, but like all promises from the lord, it is according to our faith that it happens. (Moroni 7:33) So, lesson learned, let us be in the business of temple building, by faithfully strengthening our wards to the point where the Lord can build one.
Love you all tons!!
-Elder Spencer
Another awesome week. Things are continually improving out here on the edge of the civilized world. The downside to being on the very, very, very edge of the city is that the roads are 98% unpaved. Normally, that is not a problem, but apparently there exists for a few weeks every year in Salta (which lies in a valley surrounded by mountains) a time of windstorms, and if your roads aren’t paved, dust storms. I swallowed so much dirt that every time I ate anything it had the delicious aftertaste of dirt. Dońt worry, after lots of water, mouthwash, and teeth brushing, it’s gone away, but I learned an important lesson: God made dirt, dirt don’t hurt, however, it don’t taste good either, so keep your mouth shut if you are in a dust storm.
More cool news. My investigator Alejandra from my last area and her daughter got baptized this week! The dad who was inactive for about 30 years is also coming to church now and they are enjoying the blessings of the Gospel as a family! Yay! Next stop, the temple!!
Speaking of which, we had a really cool conference with a Seventy (Elder Ayllou, I think) who came here for a stake conference and gave the missionaries a special meeting. He spent most of the time answering questions that we had and then at the end he told us that Salta is going to have a temple. They have not picked the ground or anything yet, but in some future time, when the stakes are strong enough, Salta will have a temple. He told us that a temple is not built with money or materials, but with faith. We need to faithfully strengthen the stakes, wards, and members, and one day we will be able to come back and see the dedication of the Salta, Argentina temple. It was soooooo cool and the spirit was so strong. I can’t wait for the day when I can come back and see the Salta temple dedication. What a cool promise from a servant of the Lord, but like all promises from the lord, it is according to our faith that it happens. (Moroni 7:33) So, lesson learned, let us be in the business of temple building, by faithfully strengthening our wards to the point where the Lord can build one.
Love you all tons!!
-Elder Spencer
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
November 1, 2010
Dear Family,
This week was great. I’m starting to notice a pattern. Every week is great, haha! Happiness does not depend on circumstances, it depends on our obedience. If you are obedient to God’s commandments, you can have come what may, and love it. :)
This week was hot. really hot. really really hot. (95 degrees and it’s only the beginning of spring.) There is a hill right next to our area, about the size and distance away as Y Mount from BYU. This Friday, it caught on fire all by itself and burned half the mountain. Hot hot hot. Fortunately, we had lots of appointments the hot part of the week, so we spent more time in than out. Even so, I am now nice and bronze, except for my nose, which is cherry red unless I use sunscreen. I started using sunscreen.
Also fun, this week we had a Mother’s Day dinner (they celebrate it in October down here) for the moms of the ward and the master chef of the chickens was yours truly. It was so fun! We charcoal grilled 20 whole chickens and they turned out soooo yummy! The best news is, only 12 moms came to the dinner, hahaha, so we got to take 2 chickens home! This week was also great because we finally found some more people who would actually let us in their house and teach them, after a nice long dry spell of that the last few weeks. We are happy campers and hopefully this Sunday we’ll have a few families in church.
The best news of the week for me happened when my old comp called me to update me on some exciting things in my old area. First of all, remember my baptism Veronica Zamorano? We baptized her, then two of her kids, and we were teaching her two older daughters before I left and the baptism of one of them is scheduled for next week. Well here’s the news. Her "husband" (they were never married) had always been pretty against us. He was never rude to our faces, but he did not want for her to get baptized because he belongs to a rock and roll evangelist church. She kicked him out of the house because he was turning the kids against her and the church and telling them they could do bad things. Anyway, fast forward a few months and now all the family but him has been attending regularly for 2 months. They improved so much as a family and it was so incredible to see the change. Anyway, Alberto, the husband, was walking by the church one day, and stopped and looked at it and started crying because he had been seeing all the blessings his family was enjoying and he was missing out on his family and the blessings. He is now listening to the missionaries, and he came to church this Sunday for the first time. He is making lots of changes, including dropping alcohol and lots of other vices, and he wants to be baptized. I am so happy to see this family come together. That’s what the gospel is for, families. They can go from the most destroyed, separated wrecks (as they were), to complete happiness by living gospel principles, and one day they will be able to enjoy this happiness that they have worked so hard to build, by changing their lives and accepting the gospel, for eternity as they go to the temple and are sealed.
The church is true! Salvation and true Happiness aren’t easy to reach, but they are sure worth every brick we lay to reach them (D&C 64:33-34). I love you all!
-Elder Spencer
This week was great. I’m starting to notice a pattern. Every week is great, haha! Happiness does not depend on circumstances, it depends on our obedience. If you are obedient to God’s commandments, you can have come what may, and love it. :)
This week was hot. really hot. really really hot. (95 degrees and it’s only the beginning of spring.) There is a hill right next to our area, about the size and distance away as Y Mount from BYU. This Friday, it caught on fire all by itself and burned half the mountain. Hot hot hot. Fortunately, we had lots of appointments the hot part of the week, so we spent more time in than out. Even so, I am now nice and bronze, except for my nose, which is cherry red unless I use sunscreen. I started using sunscreen.
Also fun, this week we had a Mother’s Day dinner (they celebrate it in October down here) for the moms of the ward and the master chef of the chickens was yours truly. It was so fun! We charcoal grilled 20 whole chickens and they turned out soooo yummy! The best news is, only 12 moms came to the dinner, hahaha, so we got to take 2 chickens home! This week was also great because we finally found some more people who would actually let us in their house and teach them, after a nice long dry spell of that the last few weeks. We are happy campers and hopefully this Sunday we’ll have a few families in church.
The best news of the week for me happened when my old comp called me to update me on some exciting things in my old area. First of all, remember my baptism Veronica Zamorano? We baptized her, then two of her kids, and we were teaching her two older daughters before I left and the baptism of one of them is scheduled for next week. Well here’s the news. Her "husband" (they were never married) had always been pretty against us. He was never rude to our faces, but he did not want for her to get baptized because he belongs to a rock and roll evangelist church. She kicked him out of the house because he was turning the kids against her and the church and telling them they could do bad things. Anyway, fast forward a few months and now all the family but him has been attending regularly for 2 months. They improved so much as a family and it was so incredible to see the change. Anyway, Alberto, the husband, was walking by the church one day, and stopped and looked at it and started crying because he had been seeing all the blessings his family was enjoying and he was missing out on his family and the blessings. He is now listening to the missionaries, and he came to church this Sunday for the first time. He is making lots of changes, including dropping alcohol and lots of other vices, and he wants to be baptized. I am so happy to see this family come together. That’s what the gospel is for, families. They can go from the most destroyed, separated wrecks (as they were), to complete happiness by living gospel principles, and one day they will be able to enjoy this happiness that they have worked so hard to build, by changing their lives and accepting the gospel, for eternity as they go to the temple and are sealed.
The church is true! Salvation and true Happiness aren’t easy to reach, but they are sure worth every brick we lay to reach them (D&C 64:33-34). I love you all!
-Elder Spencer
Monday, October 25, 2010
October 25, 2010
Dear Family,
This week was great! It was one of those ones that shows you what you’re really made of. We had it planned to be a super effective week and we had members scheduled to go out with us every day. Unfortunately, nearly all of our appointments fell through. Almost every single new investigator we had did not show up for the second appointment and we ended up walking a lot, passing by every investigator we have to at least teach someone. What made it great was that despite all the difficulties we had, we were still able to teach several people and the people that we are teaching really are progressing. They are reading the Book of Mormon on their own and keeping their commitments and in those lessons we did have, the spirit was felt. Despite the hard times, we were really blessed.
The family I told you about are definitely progressing. This week we had a lesson with them and the bishop and his wife, who live across the street. It was a super great lesson. They have been having problems with family unity and the dad recently came back to the family after years of being separated. Because of this, the kids don’t really listen to him that much. We taught them about how fatherly leadership should not be one of forcing and shouting, rather leading by example, service, invitation, and love. I told them how my own dad never forced us to go to church, just woke us up with a glass of cold water if we slept in and made pancakes to serve us. A great example of the leadership prescribed in D and C 121. They really liked the lesson and still haven’t come up with a wedding date, I think partly because of the family unity problem, but are progressing well and doing prayers every night as a couple and then as a family and also FHE. This Thursday we have another appointment with them so hopefully by then we can get things rolling some more.
This week I finished the Book of Mormon again. It is the word of God and physical evidence of the veracity of the church and truthfulness of the restoration. Read it. Cherish it. Those pages contain the power to change lives, increase faith, and invite the spirit more than perhaps any other thing I can do as a missionary.
Anyway, got to go now. I love you all! Choose righteously! It takes courage, but it’s worth it. Elder Scott said in his conference talk that happiness in this life comes from making many right decisions, none of which is hard to make. No matter how difficult your circumstance, you can always find happiness, peace, and safety for the soul by choosing the right.
-Elder Spencer
PS, this week we got to our house one day to find our gate blocked by a cow eating the bushes in front of the sidewalk. We ate well that night... haha, just kidding. (There really was a cow though!)
This week was great! It was one of those ones that shows you what you’re really made of. We had it planned to be a super effective week and we had members scheduled to go out with us every day. Unfortunately, nearly all of our appointments fell through. Almost every single new investigator we had did not show up for the second appointment and we ended up walking a lot, passing by every investigator we have to at least teach someone. What made it great was that despite all the difficulties we had, we were still able to teach several people and the people that we are teaching really are progressing. They are reading the Book of Mormon on their own and keeping their commitments and in those lessons we did have, the spirit was felt. Despite the hard times, we were really blessed.
The family I told you about are definitely progressing. This week we had a lesson with them and the bishop and his wife, who live across the street. It was a super great lesson. They have been having problems with family unity and the dad recently came back to the family after years of being separated. Because of this, the kids don’t really listen to him that much. We taught them about how fatherly leadership should not be one of forcing and shouting, rather leading by example, service, invitation, and love. I told them how my own dad never forced us to go to church, just woke us up with a glass of cold water if we slept in and made pancakes to serve us. A great example of the leadership prescribed in D and C 121. They really liked the lesson and still haven’t come up with a wedding date, I think partly because of the family unity problem, but are progressing well and doing prayers every night as a couple and then as a family and also FHE. This Thursday we have another appointment with them so hopefully by then we can get things rolling some more.
This week I finished the Book of Mormon again. It is the word of God and physical evidence of the veracity of the church and truthfulness of the restoration. Read it. Cherish it. Those pages contain the power to change lives, increase faith, and invite the spirit more than perhaps any other thing I can do as a missionary.
Anyway, got to go now. I love you all! Choose righteously! It takes courage, but it’s worth it. Elder Scott said in his conference talk that happiness in this life comes from making many right decisions, none of which is hard to make. No matter how difficult your circumstance, you can always find happiness, peace, and safety for the soul by choosing the right.
-Elder Spencer
PS, this week we got to our house one day to find our gate blocked by a cow eating the bushes in front of the sidewalk. We ate well that night... haha, just kidding. (There really was a cow though!)
Monday, October 18, 2010
October 18, 2010
Dear Family,
Another great week in the green hills of Salta Argentina. Well, it’s actually more like dusty roads, and brown hills right now, but, they say that in the next couple months all the hills turn completely green, so I’m pretty pumped.
This week we’ve been keeping up a lot of what we were doing last week. We don’t really have any good investigators who are progressing so we’ve just been knocking doors pretty much all day every day. Bad news, it’s pretty hot. Good news, I have a very enviable tan, and we are starting to find lots of really good people willing to listen to us. This week we have been working with a part member family where the whole family are members except for the dad, and they aren’t married. Missionaries have been trying for a while to convince them to get married so the Dad can get baptized, but the problem is that the mom and kids don’t have a very good relationship with him. We tried taking a different approach and have been teaching them about charity and the importance of FHE, family prayer every night and scripture study to form family unity and now they are starting to show lots of progress. They told me the family is changing tons and they are starting to feel a spirit they never had felt in the house before. We were pumped. This week we are going to have them make a goal for when they can get married, now that they are starting to feel ready. I’ll let you know how it goes :)
Other than that, pretty normal week. We had a stake conference this week with super good talks. One of the speakers dropped cane on all the youth (and adults) by saying that the same person who tells you he can’t memorize scripture mastery could probably recite to you in a heartbeat the latest pop songs lyrics. Haha. It’s funny because it’s true.
Read the scriptures. They are important. They aren’t a novel, they are an exercise program. You need to do what they say in order to get any results. Love you all, the church is true!!
-Elder Spencer
Another great week in the green hills of Salta Argentina. Well, it’s actually more like dusty roads, and brown hills right now, but, they say that in the next couple months all the hills turn completely green, so I’m pretty pumped.
This week we’ve been keeping up a lot of what we were doing last week. We don’t really have any good investigators who are progressing so we’ve just been knocking doors pretty much all day every day. Bad news, it’s pretty hot. Good news, I have a very enviable tan, and we are starting to find lots of really good people willing to listen to us. This week we have been working with a part member family where the whole family are members except for the dad, and they aren’t married. Missionaries have been trying for a while to convince them to get married so the Dad can get baptized, but the problem is that the mom and kids don’t have a very good relationship with him. We tried taking a different approach and have been teaching them about charity and the importance of FHE, family prayer every night and scripture study to form family unity and now they are starting to show lots of progress. They told me the family is changing tons and they are starting to feel a spirit they never had felt in the house before. We were pumped. This week we are going to have them make a goal for when they can get married, now that they are starting to feel ready. I’ll let you know how it goes :)
Other than that, pretty normal week. We had a stake conference this week with super good talks. One of the speakers dropped cane on all the youth (and adults) by saying that the same person who tells you he can’t memorize scripture mastery could probably recite to you in a heartbeat the latest pop songs lyrics. Haha. It’s funny because it’s true.
Read the scriptures. They are important. They aren’t a novel, they are an exercise program. You need to do what they say in order to get any results. Love you all, the church is true!!
-Elder Spencer
Monday, October 11, 2010
October 11, 2010
Dear Fam,
Not much time this week, but it sufficeth to say, great week. My new area is right outside of Salta capital, at the very very end of the city. The roads are pure dirt. Translation, the soles of my shoes are completely worn out. I’m having them replaced tomorrow for a whopping 15 dollars, haha, gotta love cheap labor and such down here. Luckily another elder left another pair in the apartment which, while uncomfortable, will work until mine get fixed.
The area where I am is jam packed with people and it’s pretty poor, but the people are super nice and receptive. There weren’t many (...any) investigators progressing when I got here, so this week we busted our bottoms to find a ton of people. We did, but unfortunately none of them came to church, so this week we are going to keep teaching them and find tons more until we can find someone who will progress.
This p-day was awesome. It was a holiday (one of the very, very many) so we went with the ward to a little town that’s about 30 minutes away from the city that is super cool and has awesome mountains and a lake. Super awesome views. Salta is really pretty. There are mountains everywhere and I love it here. About as hot as San Diego. Anyway, because we went there, we don’t have much time to write. So, love you all tons, church is true, and I’ll let you how things are next week if things get a little more exciting.
Love,
-Elder Spencer
Dog bite. It got a little bit bigger and puffier than this later on. (buff leg, eh?)
Saying goodbye to our awesome investigator Alejandra
Not much time this week, but it sufficeth to say, great week. My new area is right outside of Salta capital, at the very very end of the city. The roads are pure dirt. Translation, the soles of my shoes are completely worn out. I’m having them replaced tomorrow for a whopping 15 dollars, haha, gotta love cheap labor and such down here. Luckily another elder left another pair in the apartment which, while uncomfortable, will work until mine get fixed.
The area where I am is jam packed with people and it’s pretty poor, but the people are super nice and receptive. There weren’t many (...any) investigators progressing when I got here, so this week we busted our bottoms to find a ton of people. We did, but unfortunately none of them came to church, so this week we are going to keep teaching them and find tons more until we can find someone who will progress.
This p-day was awesome. It was a holiday (one of the very, very many) so we went with the ward to a little town that’s about 30 minutes away from the city that is super cool and has awesome mountains and a lake. Super awesome views. Salta is really pretty. There are mountains everywhere and I love it here. About as hot as San Diego. Anyway, because we went there, we don’t have much time to write. So, love you all tons, church is true, and I’ll let you how things are next week if things get a little more exciting.
Love,
-Elder Spencer
Dog bite. It got a little bit bigger and puffier than this later on. (buff leg, eh?)
Saying goodbye to our awesome investigator Alejandra
Monday, October 4, 2010
Oct. 4
Dear Family,
It has been quite the week. Starting from the top: somewhere around Tuesday I lost my voice completely due to a bad sore throat. No fun. Then, Wednesday night, I got bit by a dog for the first time, thus confirming my childhood fears that dogs really are mean. It got a pretty big tooth mark and blood and stuff and we tried asking the people to see it to make sure it didn't have rabies or anything but they didn't let us, so we just went home and put on some antibiotic and hoped for the best. Then, Friday, I got the news that I was to be... transferred! After 6 months in my first area, Tucuman, I got changed to my new area where I am writing right now in Salta, San Ignacio. I had to go say goodbye to all my converts, which was sad, but for lunch on Friday Teresa taught me how to make empanadas, which was a fun way to have a going away party, and then Saturday and Sunday we were chock full of conference (Which was incredible by the way!)
This morning I hopped on a bus at 5 a.m. and arrived here in Salta at 9 a.m. I´ve been getting my stuff put away and washing clothes for the last little while so we decided to come take a break to write to you. So, it has been quite the week.
My new area is a whole lot farther out of the city and a whole lot poorer than the last. The people are super kind and receptive and it is usually a very successful area. I'm looking forward to getting to know it more. My companion is a Columbian named Elder Miranda. Today while I was starting to sweat, I noticed he had a sweater vest. I asked him why and he told me because he was COLD! He is very dark skinned and told me where he lives it's 40 degrees Celsius (about 105 Fahrenheit) year round. Go figure. I'll stick with Colorado weather :) I'll send pics next week.
Conference was incredible! One of the things that most impressed me was the frequent references to agency, our power and responsibility of choice. The scripture 2 Nephi 2:27 was quoted tons. One thing mentioned is that it is easier to keep the commandments 100 percent of the time rather than 98 percent. This is because of an idea I like to call "spiritual momentum". As we make decisions for either the right or wrong, those decisions build a precedent to make it easier to make future decisions in that same direction. We build up a momentum, per se, in the direction of our chosen destination. Repentance is so difficult because it is not just the immediate changing of decisions from right to wrong, but also the fighting against the momentum of hundreds of earlier wrong choices, whereas, as we continue to make right decisions, when obstacles come in our way, the built up momentum we have allows us to continue forward with ease, no matter the problem. Right choices build on right choices to build an almost unstoppable course to eternal life. Choose the right, there's peace in righteous doing, there's safety for the soul.
I love you guys so much! We have heard the voice of God this weekend. I encourage you to study it and apply it. God gives us prophets to bless us, let us follow them and receive the blessings he has waiting for us. Write me! (Prophets orders! =))
Elder Spencer
It has been quite the week. Starting from the top: somewhere around Tuesday I lost my voice completely due to a bad sore throat. No fun. Then, Wednesday night, I got bit by a dog for the first time, thus confirming my childhood fears that dogs really are mean. It got a pretty big tooth mark and blood and stuff and we tried asking the people to see it to make sure it didn't have rabies or anything but they didn't let us, so we just went home and put on some antibiotic and hoped for the best. Then, Friday, I got the news that I was to be... transferred! After 6 months in my first area, Tucuman, I got changed to my new area where I am writing right now in Salta, San Ignacio. I had to go say goodbye to all my converts, which was sad, but for lunch on Friday Teresa taught me how to make empanadas, which was a fun way to have a going away party, and then Saturday and Sunday we were chock full of conference (Which was incredible by the way!)
This morning I hopped on a bus at 5 a.m. and arrived here in Salta at 9 a.m. I´ve been getting my stuff put away and washing clothes for the last little while so we decided to come take a break to write to you. So, it has been quite the week.
My new area is a whole lot farther out of the city and a whole lot poorer than the last. The people are super kind and receptive and it is usually a very successful area. I'm looking forward to getting to know it more. My companion is a Columbian named Elder Miranda. Today while I was starting to sweat, I noticed he had a sweater vest. I asked him why and he told me because he was COLD! He is very dark skinned and told me where he lives it's 40 degrees Celsius (about 105 Fahrenheit) year round. Go figure. I'll stick with Colorado weather :) I'll send pics next week.
Conference was incredible! One of the things that most impressed me was the frequent references to agency, our power and responsibility of choice. The scripture 2 Nephi 2:27 was quoted tons. One thing mentioned is that it is easier to keep the commandments 100 percent of the time rather than 98 percent. This is because of an idea I like to call "spiritual momentum". As we make decisions for either the right or wrong, those decisions build a precedent to make it easier to make future decisions in that same direction. We build up a momentum, per se, in the direction of our chosen destination. Repentance is so difficult because it is not just the immediate changing of decisions from right to wrong, but also the fighting against the momentum of hundreds of earlier wrong choices, whereas, as we continue to make right decisions, when obstacles come in our way, the built up momentum we have allows us to continue forward with ease, no matter the problem. Right choices build on right choices to build an almost unstoppable course to eternal life. Choose the right, there's peace in righteous doing, there's safety for the soul.
I love you guys so much! We have heard the voice of God this weekend. I encourage you to study it and apply it. God gives us prophets to bless us, let us follow them and receive the blessings he has waiting for us. Write me! (Prophets orders! =))
Elder Spencer
Monday, September 27, 2010
September 27
Dear Fam,
This week was awesome, with a few slightly bad news. Bad news, Carlos and Macarena can't get baptized yet because they haven't quite kicked some problems. It's all right, they'll be baptized in another few weeks. Good news, we have this really awesome investigator named Alejandra. Last week was her first Sunday in church, and after church at the night we had a little activity with her in the church and watched The Testaments. Her husband was baptized 30 years ago but hasn't been active for the last 15 years, where, in the meantime, he married her and had a family. He still doesn't feel ready to come back to church yet, but he's getting there. This week we had a lesson with them and we talked about prayer and the importance of it and at the end of the lesson we had a kneeling prayer with the whole family (3 kids) and he gave it. It was awesome. You could feel the spirit super strong after that prayer. Then, Alejandra went to the RS session of conference with one of the members on Saturday and loved it. She is already identifying here as a member of the church and is meshing super well with the ward. This Sunday she came with all her kids (no husband still) and loved it. She even gave the prayer in gospel principles class, which was super awesome. This Sunday night, we had another activity and this time her husband came instead of drinking with his friends like he did the last one and got to know the current bishop. He knows he needs to change a lot of things in order to have a happy family, but he is always there helping his wife with the discussions and she is progressing super well. She will probably get baptized the next week after conference, which is a shame because conference is a day before transfers and I won't be here. But it has been such a blessing to get to find her, teach her, and see her progress, that even if I don't get to be here for her baptism, I'll still be super pumped.
Also, other cool stuff that happened this week. After working with several investigators for a loooong time, we had 12 come to church on Sunday. The mission goal is 4. We were super blessed. Also cool thing: Veronica (my convert from a few months ago) got called as a Primary teacher and this Sunday was her first week teaching. Her son Junior who recently got ordained passed the Sacrament this Sunday for the first time. It was pretty awesome seeing them get rooted in the Gospel and I am so grateful for the opportunity I have had to be able to teach such awesome people. Anyway, that was my week. Pretty much the same as always, teach, work, see blessings. The Church is true. I'm so excited for conference this week. We have a chance to hear from a prophet of God and here the will of God in these the modern days. Listen well.
Love you guys! Thanks for writing!
-Elder Jonathan Spencer
This week was awesome, with a few slightly bad news. Bad news, Carlos and Macarena can't get baptized yet because they haven't quite kicked some problems. It's all right, they'll be baptized in another few weeks. Good news, we have this really awesome investigator named Alejandra. Last week was her first Sunday in church, and after church at the night we had a little activity with her in the church and watched The Testaments. Her husband was baptized 30 years ago but hasn't been active for the last 15 years, where, in the meantime, he married her and had a family. He still doesn't feel ready to come back to church yet, but he's getting there. This week we had a lesson with them and we talked about prayer and the importance of it and at the end of the lesson we had a kneeling prayer with the whole family (3 kids) and he gave it. It was awesome. You could feel the spirit super strong after that prayer. Then, Alejandra went to the RS session of conference with one of the members on Saturday and loved it. She is already identifying here as a member of the church and is meshing super well with the ward. This Sunday she came with all her kids (no husband still) and loved it. She even gave the prayer in gospel principles class, which was super awesome. This Sunday night, we had another activity and this time her husband came instead of drinking with his friends like he did the last one and got to know the current bishop. He knows he needs to change a lot of things in order to have a happy family, but he is always there helping his wife with the discussions and she is progressing super well. She will probably get baptized the next week after conference, which is a shame because conference is a day before transfers and I won't be here. But it has been such a blessing to get to find her, teach her, and see her progress, that even if I don't get to be here for her baptism, I'll still be super pumped.
Also, other cool stuff that happened this week. After working with several investigators for a loooong time, we had 12 come to church on Sunday. The mission goal is 4. We were super blessed. Also cool thing: Veronica (my convert from a few months ago) got called as a Primary teacher and this Sunday was her first week teaching. Her son Junior who recently got ordained passed the Sacrament this Sunday for the first time. It was pretty awesome seeing them get rooted in the Gospel and I am so grateful for the opportunity I have had to be able to teach such awesome people. Anyway, that was my week. Pretty much the same as always, teach, work, see blessings. The Church is true. I'm so excited for conference this week. We have a chance to hear from a prophet of God and here the will of God in these the modern days. Listen well.
Love you guys! Thanks for writing!
-Elder Jonathan Spencer
September 20
Dear Family,
This has been a good week, but it's had its ups and downs. I'll get the downs over with first. I got some kind of food poisoning so I spent the past couple days running to either the apartment or the chapel between appointments. Still don't feel too pretty, but, as they say down here "A la carga, dijo Varga" which means "[Go] to the task, said Varga" aka, the Nike slogan, "Just Do It".
This week we were also teaching Carlos´ mom and Grandma and had a really good lesson. The spirit was so strong in that room. We have been working with them for quite a while, but we can't get them to come to church. We promised so many blessings and helped them to realize how important it is to come to church, but they still didn't come this Sunday. That's one of the big disappointments of the Mission: You come to love the people and want the very best for them, and provide a way for them to be happier, but because of their agency, they don't choose those things that will truly make them happy. Other than that, the week went really well. Pretty much a normal week, not much out of the ordinary. We got to ordain Dante (Junior) this Sunday as a deacon and next Sunday he'll get to pass the Sacrament. We are working with his sister (Macarena) and her boyfriend Carlos to get baptized this Saturday. We have been teaching them for the last 2 months and it seems like they are really prepared. Yesterday, however, we talked about their baptismal date and they were pretty nervous about getting baptized this week. We're going to be visiting them almost every day this week, so hopefully we can conquer their fear and get them baptized. They already know everything, just a little nervous. Pray for them.
Anyway, short on time. The church is true and it's the only way to be completely happy! Love you all tons. I'm doing great, gettin' fat and happy. I´m totally loving it down here, but still miss you guys. Write me! (Promise, it's worth it.)
Love, Elder Spencer
This has been a good week, but it's had its ups and downs. I'll get the downs over with first. I got some kind of food poisoning so I spent the past couple days running to either the apartment or the chapel between appointments. Still don't feel too pretty, but, as they say down here "A la carga, dijo Varga" which means "[Go] to the task, said Varga" aka, the Nike slogan, "Just Do It".
This week we were also teaching Carlos´ mom and Grandma and had a really good lesson. The spirit was so strong in that room. We have been working with them for quite a while, but we can't get them to come to church. We promised so many blessings and helped them to realize how important it is to come to church, but they still didn't come this Sunday. That's one of the big disappointments of the Mission: You come to love the people and want the very best for them, and provide a way for them to be happier, but because of their agency, they don't choose those things that will truly make them happy. Other than that, the week went really well. Pretty much a normal week, not much out of the ordinary. We got to ordain Dante (Junior) this Sunday as a deacon and next Sunday he'll get to pass the Sacrament. We are working with his sister (Macarena) and her boyfriend Carlos to get baptized this Saturday. We have been teaching them for the last 2 months and it seems like they are really prepared. Yesterday, however, we talked about their baptismal date and they were pretty nervous about getting baptized this week. We're going to be visiting them almost every day this week, so hopefully we can conquer their fear and get them baptized. They already know everything, just a little nervous. Pray for them.
Anyway, short on time. The church is true and it's the only way to be completely happy! Love you all tons. I'm doing great, gettin' fat and happy. I´m totally loving it down here, but still miss you guys. Write me! (Promise, it's worth it.)
Love, Elder Spencer
September 13
Dear Family,
Fun fact: the numbering system for hair clippers is different here than in the States.
Other Fun fact: I loaned my clippers to another apartment and couldn't wait to get mine back, so used a Latino elder´s clippers.
Determine your own conclusions.
The truth is, my hair is pretty short. In the last two days I've been called "bald head" more times than I have fingers or toes to count, and I tried calling on some she-bears to avenge me (2 Kings 2:23-24), but nothing happened, so I'm just enjoying the nice scalp breeze and hoping it reaches a decent length before zone conference in 2 weeks. I'm sending some pictures, and if you're wondering what the expression is on my face in the bald pictures, its the " ...wow, I can't believe I cut my hair that short" expression. Hope you all enjoy (also please note the nice wedges of baldness creeping in... uh oh..)
Other than that, the week went pretty awesome. This Thursday we got to have a conference with all the missionaries in the closest 3 zones and one of the 70 who is in the new Area presidency. His name is Elder Bradley Foster and he is a stud. He gave us a super good training on how we are going to be able to strengthen the wards down here and work with the members a whole lot better. This is great, because Argentina has one of the lowest retention rates world-wide. Right now I'm in a ward with membership around 400 and our weekly attendance averages 70 per week (including us and the 8 investigators we have with us). That's one of the things I wish we had here a lot: strong wards with strong leadership. Here we don't have an elders quorum president, let alone ward missionaries or anything like that. Hopefully though, the things the church is working on right now will work. Elder Foster told us that if the church down here keeps running the way it has (it's pretty relaxed), in 20 years it will shrink till it disappears. Wow. Lots of work to do.
He also gave a really cool talk on how Heavenly Father listens to prayers and how he knows each of us personally. The church did some study and found that half of the members surveyed were not sure about those two facts. He told us that our job as missionaries is to make sure that everyone knew those two facts. We also did this really cool thing where we read the first chapter of the book of Moses replacing our name for where it said Moses' name. I recommend it to you guys too. He also showed us some videos from deepastronomy.com when we read the parts about God showing Moses the universe and all his creations. After seeing those I could really understand why Moses would say "I realized that man was nothing, which thing I had never supposed". Then after all that, seeing all the grandeur of God's creations, we read in Moses 1:39 that all of the greatness and glory and purpose of God is centered completely on us, our well being, and eternal happiness. Pretty cool stuff.
Our investigators are doing well. Carlos and his girlfriend Macarena are doing great getting ready for their baptism in 2 weeks. This week they both dropped coffee cold turkey, and we taught Macarena a lesson on treating our bodies with respect and dressing modestly. She was super accepting about it, and earlier was going to get a lip peircing, but decided against it, and completely stopped wearing immodest dresses. We are super happy for her and she and her mom are now working together on reading the whole Book of Mormon for personal progress. Her mom, Veronica, whom we baptized 2 months ago, just got called to be a Primary teacher, so we are also super excited for her.
Also, her son Dante (Junior), the 12 year old we baptized last month, will get the preisthood this Thursday and be able to pass the Sacrament on Sunday. So cool!
Carlos is also doing super well. He comes from a very rough family background and he used to be very involved in drugs and gang violence (and he's only 15). The other day, he told us that in their house they didn't have anything to eat, so he walked outside with the idea of robbing to get food for his mom and little brothers. As he got outside he started thinking about what he had learned from us when we taught him about the iron rod and the temptations that were the fiery darts. He decided to go inside to pray and read the scriptures to be able to
overcome the fiery darts of the devil, the temptation to rob. He didn't rob, and his mom was able to get some work and they had enough food. He is doing super great now and is reading and praying daily. So is his mom, and she has almost quit smoking completely. She started out smoking 20 cigarettes daily and now she is down to 1 or 2. It is completely amazing to see what a huge change the gospel has wrought in their family. It truly is, as it says in Mosiah 5:2, a mighty change in heart. I know the church is true, and every experience like that that I have makes my testimony stronger. Hold to the rod with all you've got. If it can help Carlos stop doing drugs, stop fighting, stop robbing, and become a loving patient son of God (and soon to be priesthood holder), it can help you in whatever problem you have.
I got the letters you all wrote from the family reunion and I was mighty happy to hear from all of you. I love you all tons. Keep me posted!
-Elder Spencer
P.S. Funny story, my companion this week repaired his suit with super glue. Who knew those crazy missionary stories were actually true.
Me and my comp making the cookies last week. So fun.
Posing in front of the cookies.
Another pose, I'm considering modeling when I get back.
All the cookies cooked. There were a lot, and the people were mighty happy to eat them.
The beautiful Argentine scenery.
Wow, there goes my hair, and modeling opportunities...
Another hair shot, I tried putting on a pretty distracting tie to divert attention from the hair. It didn't work.
Fun fact: the numbering system for hair clippers is different here than in the States.
Other Fun fact: I loaned my clippers to another apartment and couldn't wait to get mine back, so used a Latino elder´s clippers.
Determine your own conclusions.
The truth is, my hair is pretty short. In the last two days I've been called "bald head" more times than I have fingers or toes to count, and I tried calling on some she-bears to avenge me (2 Kings 2:23-24), but nothing happened, so I'm just enjoying the nice scalp breeze and hoping it reaches a decent length before zone conference in 2 weeks. I'm sending some pictures, and if you're wondering what the expression is on my face in the bald pictures, its the " ...wow, I can't believe I cut my hair that short" expression. Hope you all enjoy (also please note the nice wedges of baldness creeping in... uh oh..)
Other than that, the week went pretty awesome. This Thursday we got to have a conference with all the missionaries in the closest 3 zones and one of the 70 who is in the new Area presidency. His name is Elder Bradley Foster and he is a stud. He gave us a super good training on how we are going to be able to strengthen the wards down here and work with the members a whole lot better. This is great, because Argentina has one of the lowest retention rates world-wide. Right now I'm in a ward with membership around 400 and our weekly attendance averages 70 per week (including us and the 8 investigators we have with us). That's one of the things I wish we had here a lot: strong wards with strong leadership. Here we don't have an elders quorum president, let alone ward missionaries or anything like that. Hopefully though, the things the church is working on right now will work. Elder Foster told us that if the church down here keeps running the way it has (it's pretty relaxed), in 20 years it will shrink till it disappears. Wow. Lots of work to do.
He also gave a really cool talk on how Heavenly Father listens to prayers and how he knows each of us personally. The church did some study and found that half of the members surveyed were not sure about those two facts. He told us that our job as missionaries is to make sure that everyone knew those two facts. We also did this really cool thing where we read the first chapter of the book of Moses replacing our name for where it said Moses' name. I recommend it to you guys too. He also showed us some videos from deepastronomy.com when we read the parts about God showing Moses the universe and all his creations. After seeing those I could really understand why Moses would say "I realized that man was nothing, which thing I had never supposed". Then after all that, seeing all the grandeur of God's creations, we read in Moses 1:39 that all of the greatness and glory and purpose of God is centered completely on us, our well being, and eternal happiness. Pretty cool stuff.
Our investigators are doing well. Carlos and his girlfriend Macarena are doing great getting ready for their baptism in 2 weeks. This week they both dropped coffee cold turkey, and we taught Macarena a lesson on treating our bodies with respect and dressing modestly. She was super accepting about it, and earlier was going to get a lip peircing, but decided against it, and completely stopped wearing immodest dresses. We are super happy for her and she and her mom are now working together on reading the whole Book of Mormon for personal progress. Her mom, Veronica, whom we baptized 2 months ago, just got called to be a Primary teacher, so we are also super excited for her.
Also, her son Dante (Junior), the 12 year old we baptized last month, will get the preisthood this Thursday and be able to pass the Sacrament on Sunday. So cool!
Carlos is also doing super well. He comes from a very rough family background and he used to be very involved in drugs and gang violence (and he's only 15). The other day, he told us that in their house they didn't have anything to eat, so he walked outside with the idea of robbing to get food for his mom and little brothers. As he got outside he started thinking about what he had learned from us when we taught him about the iron rod and the temptations that were the fiery darts. He decided to go inside to pray and read the scriptures to be able to
overcome the fiery darts of the devil, the temptation to rob. He didn't rob, and his mom was able to get some work and they had enough food. He is doing super great now and is reading and praying daily. So is his mom, and she has almost quit smoking completely. She started out smoking 20 cigarettes daily and now she is down to 1 or 2. It is completely amazing to see what a huge change the gospel has wrought in their family. It truly is, as it says in Mosiah 5:2, a mighty change in heart. I know the church is true, and every experience like that that I have makes my testimony stronger. Hold to the rod with all you've got. If it can help Carlos stop doing drugs, stop fighting, stop robbing, and become a loving patient son of God (and soon to be priesthood holder), it can help you in whatever problem you have.
I got the letters you all wrote from the family reunion and I was mighty happy to hear from all of you. I love you all tons. Keep me posted!
-Elder Spencer
P.S. Funny story, my companion this week repaired his suit with super glue. Who knew those crazy missionary stories were actually true.
Me and my comp making the cookies last week. So fun.
Posing in front of the cookies.
Another pose, I'm considering modeling when I get back.
All the cookies cooked. There were a lot, and the people were mighty happy to eat them.
The beautiful Argentine scenery.
Wow, there goes my hair, and modeling opportunities...
Another hair shot, I tried putting on a pretty distracting tie to divert attention from the hair. It didn't work.
Monday, September 6, 2010
Hey family!
Hey Family!
We had a pretty good week! We spent all Tuesday afternoon making 192 cookies (16 dozen) and then spent the whole night delivering them. They were very well received by our investigators. Our purpose in making them was trying to get closer to our investigators, get more confidence in them that way they might start keeping commitments and just showing them that we loved them. I’d say it worked pretty well, but even if we don’t see any immediate success from it, we sure as heck had a good time making them, and I know they had a good time eating them, so I feel pretty justified in the labor.
All our strong investigators are doing great (Carlos, his girlfriend Macarena) and continue coming to church every week, and they even bring their friends, which is really sweet, but we’re still having a hard time getting our other investigators who have never been to come for the first time. It seems like every week they have some long lost relative come visit, or something crazy, or the sky fall, to make it so they can’t come. Oh well, Just proves the quote "You can have eternal life, as long as you don’t want some other thing more". We were finally able to get in contact with one of my favorite investigators, Rosaura, again. We found her when I barely got here and taught here for a good stretch of 2 weeks where she progressed super well until she disappeared off the map. We found her again a month later with my new comp, started teaching her again, got her all the way to the baptismal interview and then she disappeared again. We finally found her again and turns out she’s been working a ton, but she really wants to get baptized, so we’re going to work with her to get work off on Sundays so she can come to church and get baptized!! She put down the goal to get baptized October 2nd, so hopefully everything goes well and she can get baptized then. Other than that, all is well. This Thursday we get a private conference with Elder Bradley Foster, one of the 70 and our area president, so I’m pretty excited for that.
I’ll let you know if I learn anything cool.
Love you guys! Church is true!
-Elder Lindo
We had a pretty good week! We spent all Tuesday afternoon making 192 cookies (16 dozen) and then spent the whole night delivering them. They were very well received by our investigators. Our purpose in making them was trying to get closer to our investigators, get more confidence in them that way they might start keeping commitments and just showing them that we loved them. I’d say it worked pretty well, but even if we don’t see any immediate success from it, we sure as heck had a good time making them, and I know they had a good time eating them, so I feel pretty justified in the labor.
All our strong investigators are doing great (Carlos, his girlfriend Macarena) and continue coming to church every week, and they even bring their friends, which is really sweet, but we’re still having a hard time getting our other investigators who have never been to come for the first time. It seems like every week they have some long lost relative come visit, or something crazy, or the sky fall, to make it so they can’t come. Oh well, Just proves the quote "You can have eternal life, as long as you don’t want some other thing more". We were finally able to get in contact with one of my favorite investigators, Rosaura, again. We found her when I barely got here and taught here for a good stretch of 2 weeks where she progressed super well until she disappeared off the map. We found her again a month later with my new comp, started teaching her again, got her all the way to the baptismal interview and then she disappeared again. We finally found her again and turns out she’s been working a ton, but she really wants to get baptized, so we’re going to work with her to get work off on Sundays so she can come to church and get baptized!! She put down the goal to get baptized October 2nd, so hopefully everything goes well and she can get baptized then. Other than that, all is well. This Thursday we get a private conference with Elder Bradley Foster, one of the 70 and our area president, so I’m pretty excited for that.
I’ll let you know if I learn anything cool.
Love you guys! Church is true!
-Elder Lindo
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
August 30
Hello Family!
This week my comp and I tried our hand in the kitchen a little more than normal and we were able to get our hands on some brown sugar, so we made some chocolate chip cookies. They turned out yummilicious, so we’re going to make 4 batches tomorrow and bring them by every single one of our investigators. We’re pretty excited about that. I also introduced him to wild and wacky willies and he loved it. The missionary pancake tradition shall go on!
Also great news. We had a lesson with Carlos, our awesome investigator who’s been coming to church for the last month or so, and we challenged he and his girlfriend to be baptized. We had been asking them for about the last three weeks when they wanted to do it, but they were both super nervous and didn’t want to think about it at all. Now, they are both super excited and want to get baptized on the same day. Wéve tried changing our approach after teaching them for a while without seeing much progress. Instead of continuing to teach them the lessons, we started just reading chapters out of the Book of Mormon with them and praying with them to help them develop more faith. It worked super well! Lesson learned: Read the Book of Mormon!!!!!!
Some other funny stories, we were talking to the bishop this week and apparently that crazy lady we met last week, after she was baptized told the obisbo (bishop) that she got a revelation she would be the next obisba (female bishop...) heh heh heh, gotta love the crazy people.
I don’t know if I told you yet about the political parties yet, but out here politics is pretty funny. When I first got here I thought there was a ton of graffiti, but turns out that *before* election time, all the political parties send out groups to clean up the streets and paint their name on all the curbs and walls so the people like them and vote for them. I was talking with a member who works for one of the clean up crews and he told me they have turf wars just like gangs, and when the other political party gets into their neighborhood, they go over to their neighborhood and paint over the other party’s names and paint their own. Haha, pretty funny. Argentines have this other weird obsession with watering dirt. Some people have real sidewalks and driveways, but a lot just have dirt sidewalks and driveways. Anyway, you always see the people with real tile sidewalks outside hosing them off to keep them clean, but the funny part is seeing the people who have dirt sidewalks hosing off the dirt to get it... cleaner? Yesterday we saw a lady who had wet down the entire dirt road in front of her for about 50 ft. in either direction. Haha, what a waste of time.
Anyway, good to hear from ya’ll. Keep up the updates, and email or send pics, I like seeing your smiling faces.
Church is true!
-Elder Spencer
This week my comp and I tried our hand in the kitchen a little more than normal and we were able to get our hands on some brown sugar, so we made some chocolate chip cookies. They turned out yummilicious, so we’re going to make 4 batches tomorrow and bring them by every single one of our investigators. We’re pretty excited about that. I also introduced him to wild and wacky willies and he loved it. The missionary pancake tradition shall go on!
Also great news. We had a lesson with Carlos, our awesome investigator who’s been coming to church for the last month or so, and we challenged he and his girlfriend to be baptized. We had been asking them for about the last three weeks when they wanted to do it, but they were both super nervous and didn’t want to think about it at all. Now, they are both super excited and want to get baptized on the same day. Wéve tried changing our approach after teaching them for a while without seeing much progress. Instead of continuing to teach them the lessons, we started just reading chapters out of the Book of Mormon with them and praying with them to help them develop more faith. It worked super well! Lesson learned: Read the Book of Mormon!!!!!!
Some other funny stories, we were talking to the bishop this week and apparently that crazy lady we met last week, after she was baptized told the obisbo (bishop) that she got a revelation she would be the next obisba (female bishop...) heh heh heh, gotta love the crazy people.
I don’t know if I told you yet about the political parties yet, but out here politics is pretty funny. When I first got here I thought there was a ton of graffiti, but turns out that *before* election time, all the political parties send out groups to clean up the streets and paint their name on all the curbs and walls so the people like them and vote for them. I was talking with a member who works for one of the clean up crews and he told me they have turf wars just like gangs, and when the other political party gets into their neighborhood, they go over to their neighborhood and paint over the other party’s names and paint their own. Haha, pretty funny. Argentines have this other weird obsession with watering dirt. Some people have real sidewalks and driveways, but a lot just have dirt sidewalks and driveways. Anyway, you always see the people with real tile sidewalks outside hosing them off to keep them clean, but the funny part is seeing the people who have dirt sidewalks hosing off the dirt to get it... cleaner? Yesterday we saw a lady who had wet down the entire dirt road in front of her for about 50 ft. in either direction. Haha, what a waste of time.
Anyway, good to hear from ya’ll. Keep up the updates, and email or send pics, I like seeing your smiling faces.
Church is true!
-Elder Spencer
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
August 23
Hey Fam,
Crazy to think that summer is ending for you guys when here it’s just starting! Two days into spring and I’m ready to pack my bags and head somewhere cooler. It’s hot, humid and long (a nice 8 months of heat.) This was a pretty crazy week. It started off being a little jittery because it’s when we find out transfers and I had already been here for 3 transfers (quite a bit). Turns out I’m staying, which is super nice, and I’m still with Elder Staker, which means this next transfer will go by pretty quick because we get along great and have a good time working together.
Funny story, on Wednesday we were walking to an appointment when we heard this lady call out "Elders! Elders! Ím so glad I found you! I need your help!" Needless to say we were pretty excited to hear that, so we ran over to help her. She then started explaining to us that her brother was sick and needed our help getting him to the hospital. We started walking to her house and on the way she mentioned that her brother wasn’t normal sick, but mentally sick. A little loco. We looked at each other, shrugged, and kept on going to her house. Got to the house and went to the back yard to see this 70-year old man hunched over a guitar. We were thinking he looked pretty normal and I was hoping he’d turn out to be a master at the Spanish guitar. We convinced him to play us a song and he put on this nice toothy (rather toothless) smile with a really deep creepy chuckle and started plucking on the high string and moving his hand up and down making this really wierd song. We suggested to him the idea of going to the hospital and he got super mad, and scurried off to lock himself in his room (full of trashbags and empty jelly bottles) muttering insults under his breath. We spent the next half hour coaxing him out before his schizophrenic great-niece and sister started shouting at us and he ran back in. The sister who brought us (the most sane of the house, but still got a few loose screws) finally gave up and sent us home. As soon as we got out of the house we just kinda stared at eachother in amazement after seeing a whole house full of the craziest people I’ve ever met. So yeah, that definitely spiced up the week a bit.
The other good story of the week was Saturday morning when I was doing my exercises and I decided to do handstand pushups in the middle of the room. I normally do them on the wall for extra security, but I was feeling extra testosterony, so I started doing them in the middle of the room. I kicked up into the handstand the first time and did a couple before I dropped down again, then kicked up again to finish the set, but kicked up way too hard and flew into the coat rack that was in front of me and gashed up my toe on one of the hooks. Lesson learned: My manliness levels have decreased since I got here. Must eat more meat.
Other than that, all is well down here in Argentina. One of our investigators (Carlos’ brother) just had his first kid today, so we’re going with their whole family to the hospital tonight to see it. One of the daughters of my convert from a month ago, Veronica, who was super rebellious and against the church, started opening up and told us the other day that she wants to quit smoking and start going to church, so hopefully by the end of this transfer we’ll be able to have the entire family baptized (except for the dad, who’s separated). This week I’ve been continuing in my quest to actually learn something from the war chapters of Alma. We can actually learn a lot about dealing with our own problems and temptations from studying what captain Moroni did to defeat cities the Lamanites had taken. Like Moroni, we need to plan ahead, make the decision of how we are going to react in a certain situation of temptation now; that way when the problem comes, it’ll be a whole lot easier to choose the right when we’ve made our plan. As well, Moroni never attacked the strong spots of the enemy directly, so if there are places or situations that are strong spots against us, we need to avoid them as much as possible and fight the battle on our own terms, where we are prepared and ready to overcome temptation. It’s a whole lot easier to not drink if you aren’t in a bar, whole lot easier to not gamble if you aren’t in a casino.
Anyway, Hope you enjoyed the letter. Keep-em-coming. Love you guys,
Church is true!
-Elder Spencer
Crazy to think that summer is ending for you guys when here it’s just starting! Two days into spring and I’m ready to pack my bags and head somewhere cooler. It’s hot, humid and long (a nice 8 months of heat.) This was a pretty crazy week. It started off being a little jittery because it’s when we find out transfers and I had already been here for 3 transfers (quite a bit). Turns out I’m staying, which is super nice, and I’m still with Elder Staker, which means this next transfer will go by pretty quick because we get along great and have a good time working together.
Funny story, on Wednesday we were walking to an appointment when we heard this lady call out "Elders! Elders! Ím so glad I found you! I need your help!" Needless to say we were pretty excited to hear that, so we ran over to help her. She then started explaining to us that her brother was sick and needed our help getting him to the hospital. We started walking to her house and on the way she mentioned that her brother wasn’t normal sick, but mentally sick. A little loco. We looked at each other, shrugged, and kept on going to her house. Got to the house and went to the back yard to see this 70-year old man hunched over a guitar. We were thinking he looked pretty normal and I was hoping he’d turn out to be a master at the Spanish guitar. We convinced him to play us a song and he put on this nice toothy (rather toothless) smile with a really deep creepy chuckle and started plucking on the high string and moving his hand up and down making this really wierd song. We suggested to him the idea of going to the hospital and he got super mad, and scurried off to lock himself in his room (full of trashbags and empty jelly bottles) muttering insults under his breath. We spent the next half hour coaxing him out before his schizophrenic great-niece and sister started shouting at us and he ran back in. The sister who brought us (the most sane of the house, but still got a few loose screws) finally gave up and sent us home. As soon as we got out of the house we just kinda stared at eachother in amazement after seeing a whole house full of the craziest people I’ve ever met. So yeah, that definitely spiced up the week a bit.
The other good story of the week was Saturday morning when I was doing my exercises and I decided to do handstand pushups in the middle of the room. I normally do them on the wall for extra security, but I was feeling extra testosterony, so I started doing them in the middle of the room. I kicked up into the handstand the first time and did a couple before I dropped down again, then kicked up again to finish the set, but kicked up way too hard and flew into the coat rack that was in front of me and gashed up my toe on one of the hooks. Lesson learned: My manliness levels have decreased since I got here. Must eat more meat.
Other than that, all is well down here in Argentina. One of our investigators (Carlos’ brother) just had his first kid today, so we’re going with their whole family to the hospital tonight to see it. One of the daughters of my convert from a month ago, Veronica, who was super rebellious and against the church, started opening up and told us the other day that she wants to quit smoking and start going to church, so hopefully by the end of this transfer we’ll be able to have the entire family baptized (except for the dad, who’s separated). This week I’ve been continuing in my quest to actually learn something from the war chapters of Alma. We can actually learn a lot about dealing with our own problems and temptations from studying what captain Moroni did to defeat cities the Lamanites had taken. Like Moroni, we need to plan ahead, make the decision of how we are going to react in a certain situation of temptation now; that way when the problem comes, it’ll be a whole lot easier to choose the right when we’ve made our plan. As well, Moroni never attacked the strong spots of the enemy directly, so if there are places or situations that are strong spots against us, we need to avoid them as much as possible and fight the battle on our own terms, where we are prepared and ready to overcome temptation. It’s a whole lot easier to not drink if you aren’t in a bar, whole lot easier to not gamble if you aren’t in a casino.
Anyway, Hope you enjoyed the letter. Keep-em-coming. Love you guys,
Church is true!
-Elder Spencer
Monday, August 16, 2010
August 16
Hello Family,
Wow, what another fast week. We’re on to the last week of the transfer and I’ve already got 6 months in the mission. I can hardly believe it’s gone by this fast, it’s seriously like a dream. The days blend into weeks, weeks into months, and before you know it you’re moving on. This week had its ups and downs. Downs: we’ve had to start dropping a lot of the investigators I really liked because they weren’t progressing. My comp got suuuper sick so I got to spend a whole day cleaning the apartment and making him tea while he baked in bed with a fever. Ups: We’ve been finding lots of awesome new investigators. I got to have a sweet interview with the mission president where he taught me lots of cool doctrine. My comp got better super quick and now we’re runnin’ full steam.
Time is super short, as always, but something really cool I learned this week was from the war chapters of Alma (43). I was a little bummed when I got there thinking, what can I learn from all these chapters about war, and what does that have to do with preaching the gospel, but I learned something really cool, which was about how Moroni motivates his troops. Instead of getting mad at them when they didn’t perform, or when they got scared, he filled their minds with inspiration, the things worth fighting for. He gave them a distinct purpose of why they were fighting and helped them focus on that. For missionary work, the same thing applies. Many investigators and recent converts have difficulty keeping commitments. Rather than just telling them the same things over and over, we as missionaries can inspire them with the reasons why they’re doing what they’re doing. For you all as normal people, life has its good times and its bad times, but as you focus on what your goal is and the people you love and who depend on you doing what you’re doing, you will find the inspiration to give you the strength you need.
I’m doing great, but still hoping for some letters, packages, or even emails from my fam. Love your guts!
-Elder Spencer
Wow, what another fast week. We’re on to the last week of the transfer and I’ve already got 6 months in the mission. I can hardly believe it’s gone by this fast, it’s seriously like a dream. The days blend into weeks, weeks into months, and before you know it you’re moving on. This week had its ups and downs. Downs: we’ve had to start dropping a lot of the investigators I really liked because they weren’t progressing. My comp got suuuper sick so I got to spend a whole day cleaning the apartment and making him tea while he baked in bed with a fever. Ups: We’ve been finding lots of awesome new investigators. I got to have a sweet interview with the mission president where he taught me lots of cool doctrine. My comp got better super quick and now we’re runnin’ full steam.
Time is super short, as always, but something really cool I learned this week was from the war chapters of Alma (43). I was a little bummed when I got there thinking, what can I learn from all these chapters about war, and what does that have to do with preaching the gospel, but I learned something really cool, which was about how Moroni motivates his troops. Instead of getting mad at them when they didn’t perform, or when they got scared, he filled their minds with inspiration, the things worth fighting for. He gave them a distinct purpose of why they were fighting and helped them focus on that. For missionary work, the same thing applies. Many investigators and recent converts have difficulty keeping commitments. Rather than just telling them the same things over and over, we as missionaries can inspire them with the reasons why they’re doing what they’re doing. For you all as normal people, life has its good times and its bad times, but as you focus on what your goal is and the people you love and who depend on you doing what you’re doing, you will find the inspiration to give you the strength you need.
I’m doing great, but still hoping for some letters, packages, or even emails from my fam. Love your guts!
-Elder Spencer
Monday, August 9, 2010
August 9
Family,
Another busy week. We didn’t have a baptism this week so we decided to have an activity on Saturday night. My comp made a peach cobbler thing. Basically, you buy some peaches, cut them up into chunks and then take a vanilla cake mix and dump the powder covering the peaches, and then top it off dumping Sprite over that. It was pretty yummy, but we didn’t have any butter to grease the pan with, so my comp just decided to line it with paper. Seeing the goeyness of the peaches gave me second thoughts as we were putting it in, and it turns out I was right. Luckily/unluckily, only one person came to our activity, so while we had to scrape all the paper off and only ended up being able to eat about half of what was there, we had enough for everybody at the activity... oh well. Our church attendance this week was also pretty low because this Sunday was a holiday, dia del niño (childreńs day). What stinks is that Argentina has a *ton* of holidays (worker’s day, friend’s day, animal’s day, seriously), and if it ever falls during the week they move it to the weekend and make it a long weekend. It also stinks for us because instead of being able to teach lots of people we have to put up with the hordes of drunks in the streets. Yay. We did however get to help out serving food at a big block party one of the members was having, so we got to get to know lots of families from that neighborhood, which was awesome. We also got the best lunch ever, a huge barbeque with the yummiest steaks I’ve ever had, so I was pretty pleased.
Our investigators are doing pretty well. It’s so amazing to see them progress and keep commitments, and super sad to see when they don’t. The worst was, last week we had this super awesome investigator, Rosaura, come to church and a baptism and we gave her the commitment to get baptized and she got super excited and told her whole family. This week she didn’t come because she had work so we had to bump the date foreward, but it really stinks having to break her the news that she has to wait to get baptized because she didn’t do her part. Oh well, I guess that’s how it works, do your part - get blessings, don’t do your part - don’t get blessings. As long as we as missionaries do our best, we’ll be happy. As a result, Elder Staker and I are staying super busy and having a super good time.
This week I found a super cool scripture in Moroni 9:6 where Mormon is telling Moroni how incredibly wicked the people are and how they are past feeling and they are a lost and fallen people. Sounds like a pretty tough crowd to convert; I’d probably call it quits and just dust off my feet, but Mormon tells Moroni that: "notwithstanding their hardness, let us labor diligently; for if we should cease to labor, we should be brought under condemnation; for we have a labor to perform whilst in this tabernacle of clay, that we may conquer the enemy of all righteousness, and rest our souls in the kingdom of God." So, no matter how hard the problem, there is one solution: labor diligently because in doing your labor you are becoming a better person, even if you never reach the solution.
Love you all
-Elder Spencer
Another busy week. We didn’t have a baptism this week so we decided to have an activity on Saturday night. My comp made a peach cobbler thing. Basically, you buy some peaches, cut them up into chunks and then take a vanilla cake mix and dump the powder covering the peaches, and then top it off dumping Sprite over that. It was pretty yummy, but we didn’t have any butter to grease the pan with, so my comp just decided to line it with paper. Seeing the goeyness of the peaches gave me second thoughts as we were putting it in, and it turns out I was right. Luckily/unluckily, only one person came to our activity, so while we had to scrape all the paper off and only ended up being able to eat about half of what was there, we had enough for everybody at the activity... oh well. Our church attendance this week was also pretty low because this Sunday was a holiday, dia del niño (childreńs day). What stinks is that Argentina has a *ton* of holidays (worker’s day, friend’s day, animal’s day, seriously), and if it ever falls during the week they move it to the weekend and make it a long weekend. It also stinks for us because instead of being able to teach lots of people we have to put up with the hordes of drunks in the streets. Yay. We did however get to help out serving food at a big block party one of the members was having, so we got to get to know lots of families from that neighborhood, which was awesome. We also got the best lunch ever, a huge barbeque with the yummiest steaks I’ve ever had, so I was pretty pleased.
Our investigators are doing pretty well. It’s so amazing to see them progress and keep commitments, and super sad to see when they don’t. The worst was, last week we had this super awesome investigator, Rosaura, come to church and a baptism and we gave her the commitment to get baptized and she got super excited and told her whole family. This week she didn’t come because she had work so we had to bump the date foreward, but it really stinks having to break her the news that she has to wait to get baptized because she didn’t do her part. Oh well, I guess that’s how it works, do your part - get blessings, don’t do your part - don’t get blessings. As long as we as missionaries do our best, we’ll be happy. As a result, Elder Staker and I are staying super busy and having a super good time.
This week I found a super cool scripture in Moroni 9:6 where Mormon is telling Moroni how incredibly wicked the people are and how they are past feeling and they are a lost and fallen people. Sounds like a pretty tough crowd to convert; I’d probably call it quits and just dust off my feet, but Mormon tells Moroni that: "notwithstanding their hardness, let us labor diligently; for if we should cease to labor, we should be brought under condemnation; for we have a labor to perform whilst in this tabernacle of clay, that we may conquer the enemy of all righteousness, and rest our souls in the kingdom of God." So, no matter how hard the problem, there is one solution: labor diligently because in doing your labor you are becoming a better person, even if you never reach the solution.
Love you all
-Elder Spencer
Saturday, August 7, 2010
Hey fam!
Hey fam!
Super good week. We were incredibly busy with appointments every night and we had 2 baptisms, so by the end of the week we were pretty ready for p-day to take a rest from everything. We have a ton of awesome investigators right now. They are all progressing super well and we are working our tails off. Looks like we’ll probably have 3 more baptisms this transfer and some more for the beginning of the next one.
Some fun stories... So this week we learned how Argentine electric companies and such work. Apparently the office elders had screwed up and not paid our electric bill so one day all of a sudden we just didn’t have any electricity. It was a pretty cold night and we wanted to be able to use the electric heaters so we did a little investigating... This is how Argentine electricity works, there is only one breaker for the entire apartment and it is not located inside the building, rather, on the outside on a busy street corner with no cover over the panel. When the electric company shut us down they just turned off the breaker and unscrewed the (now) cold lead. We snuck down right before bed and turned it back on until 6 am so we could stay warm during the night and then shut it off. Luckily we only had to steal power one night, because other elders told me they’ve had to spend several days without power. Sweeeeeet. Oh well, part of the big ol’ experience, eh?
Oh, other funny thing. We were in an appointment with an investigator and she commented how her son was almost about to turn one year old. She then told us that she needed to get the son baptized before he turned one so the little elves didn’t carry it away. Hahaha, seriously. Around here (mainly in the poorer, less educated parts) they believe in these things called duendes (elves) that come out at night and move things in your house (unless you leave an open Bible out) and steal unbaptized babies. I thought she was joking with us, but apparently that’s what people think. Good thing we were there to teach her the truth and set her fears at rest.
Anyway, that’s about all for the week. I hope all goes well with ya’ll. A good scripture I read this week: D&C 29:36 where God tells us the source of his power: his honor. Think about that and remember that if you want more spiritual power, you need to work on becoming a more honorable person.
"but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister; And whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant: Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister" (Matt 20:26-28)
Love all your guts! Family, e-mail me! (Ask Mom if you don't know it.)
-Elder Spencer
Super good week. We were incredibly busy with appointments every night and we had 2 baptisms, so by the end of the week we were pretty ready for p-day to take a rest from everything. We have a ton of awesome investigators right now. They are all progressing super well and we are working our tails off. Looks like we’ll probably have 3 more baptisms this transfer and some more for the beginning of the next one.
Some fun stories... So this week we learned how Argentine electric companies and such work. Apparently the office elders had screwed up and not paid our electric bill so one day all of a sudden we just didn’t have any electricity. It was a pretty cold night and we wanted to be able to use the electric heaters so we did a little investigating... This is how Argentine electricity works, there is only one breaker for the entire apartment and it is not located inside the building, rather, on the outside on a busy street corner with no cover over the panel. When the electric company shut us down they just turned off the breaker and unscrewed the (now) cold lead. We snuck down right before bed and turned it back on until 6 am so we could stay warm during the night and then shut it off. Luckily we only had to steal power one night, because other elders told me they’ve had to spend several days without power. Sweeeeeet. Oh well, part of the big ol’ experience, eh?
Oh, other funny thing. We were in an appointment with an investigator and she commented how her son was almost about to turn one year old. She then told us that she needed to get the son baptized before he turned one so the little elves didn’t carry it away. Hahaha, seriously. Around here (mainly in the poorer, less educated parts) they believe in these things called duendes (elves) that come out at night and move things in your house (unless you leave an open Bible out) and steal unbaptized babies. I thought she was joking with us, but apparently that’s what people think. Good thing we were there to teach her the truth and set her fears at rest.
Anyway, that’s about all for the week. I hope all goes well with ya’ll. A good scripture I read this week: D&C 29:36 where God tells us the source of his power: his honor. Think about that and remember that if you want more spiritual power, you need to work on becoming a more honorable person.
"but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister; And whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant: Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister" (Matt 20:26-28)
Love all your guts! Family, e-mail me! (Ask Mom if you don't know it.)
-Elder Spencer
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
July 26, 2010
Family,
I swear the weeks out here just keep getting faster and faster. This week we were able to have the baptism of our investigator Teresa that got postponed because she didn’t understand fully the Word of Wisdom. It was super awesome and I got to baptize her (a little more difficult than I thought because she is 52 and pretty heavy, haha, I guess that’s why we do exercises in the mornings). The best part is we have a ton of investigators that are progressing super well and we are set to have lots of baptisms in the future. This week we will baptize the two boys of my other convert Veronica. They are super awesome, and this last week we taught them about the armies of Helaman and how they followed their mothers. The boys were super excited to hear that story and then we gave them the invitation to be baptized by following their mom, just like the armies of Helaman. One of them, Guillermo, gave us a resounding yes, but the other one, more shy, we had to convince him a little to do it so soon. He knows a lot but is shy and wanted to have his brother go first. We got him excited about doing it with his brother and now the two of them will get baptized this week. We are also working with the older daughters of Veronica, but they are a little harder to reach.
The coolest thing is that the other day we started talking to the boyfriend of the daughter of Veronica named Carlos. He went to Veronica’s baptism with his girlfriend and has already been to church 3 times. He is awesome! Last Sunday was the coldest Sunday here because of the snowstorm and only half of the ward came, but Carlos came a half hour early and was there waiting at the door when the bishop came to open it up at 9:20 (it starts at 9:30). He is accepting everything super well and progressing super fast and we will probably baptize him in 2 weeks. It’s seeing people like that that make it so worth it and awesome to be a missionary.
Anyway, funny story: So apparently there is a tradition in Catholicism where when you pass a church or a priest you have to do the cross sign thing. The other day we were walking by a Catholic church and this girl passed the church, did the cross thing, then passed us, and did it again. Haha, talk about wicked traditions of their fathers. Anyway, I think that’s about it for the week. One of the things I’ve been working on is developing my Christlike attributes. It’s kinda hard because we have some roommates who get on my nerves from time to time. One of the things that has helped me the most is a nice little guide Brother Rockwood taught me in seminary: "It’s more important to be kind, than it is to be right." Give it a shot, It works well.
Anyway, love your guts, if you sent me a snailmail and I havn’t answered it yet, it’s because I’m super busy, sorry!!
-E Spencer
I swear the weeks out here just keep getting faster and faster. This week we were able to have the baptism of our investigator Teresa that got postponed because she didn’t understand fully the Word of Wisdom. It was super awesome and I got to baptize her (a little more difficult than I thought because she is 52 and pretty heavy, haha, I guess that’s why we do exercises in the mornings). The best part is we have a ton of investigators that are progressing super well and we are set to have lots of baptisms in the future. This week we will baptize the two boys of my other convert Veronica. They are super awesome, and this last week we taught them about the armies of Helaman and how they followed their mothers. The boys were super excited to hear that story and then we gave them the invitation to be baptized by following their mom, just like the armies of Helaman. One of them, Guillermo, gave us a resounding yes, but the other one, more shy, we had to convince him a little to do it so soon. He knows a lot but is shy and wanted to have his brother go first. We got him excited about doing it with his brother and now the two of them will get baptized this week. We are also working with the older daughters of Veronica, but they are a little harder to reach.
The coolest thing is that the other day we started talking to the boyfriend of the daughter of Veronica named Carlos. He went to Veronica’s baptism with his girlfriend and has already been to church 3 times. He is awesome! Last Sunday was the coldest Sunday here because of the snowstorm and only half of the ward came, but Carlos came a half hour early and was there waiting at the door when the bishop came to open it up at 9:20 (it starts at 9:30). He is accepting everything super well and progressing super fast and we will probably baptize him in 2 weeks. It’s seeing people like that that make it so worth it and awesome to be a missionary.
Anyway, funny story: So apparently there is a tradition in Catholicism where when you pass a church or a priest you have to do the cross sign thing. The other day we were walking by a Catholic church and this girl passed the church, did the cross thing, then passed us, and did it again. Haha, talk about wicked traditions of their fathers. Anyway, I think that’s about it for the week. One of the things I’ve been working on is developing my Christlike attributes. It’s kinda hard because we have some roommates who get on my nerves from time to time. One of the things that has helped me the most is a nice little guide Brother Rockwood taught me in seminary: "It’s more important to be kind, than it is to be right." Give it a shot, It works well.
Anyway, love your guts, if you sent me a snailmail and I havn’t answered it yet, it’s because I’m super busy, sorry!!
-E Spencer
Monday, July 19, 2010
July 19, 2010
This week was super great and super fast (the time just keeps on speeding up, I swear). One of the highlights was that one of the elders in our apt. had a birthday so I made a breakfast of pancakes and syrup (homemadeish) and for lunch we ate shishkabobs (we cooked it) and pizza (from a member) and had two cakes (we cooked one) for dessert. No wonder missionaries gain weight.
Our baptism had to get postponed for the next week because apparently we didn't explain the Word of Wisdom well enough (she thought it was just for missionaries) and had smoked the day before her baptismal interview. She has a super strong will and dropped it cold turkey right after we explained it better and will be getting baptized this week.
The biggest surprise from Tucumán, Argentina is that we had SNOW!! They said that this is the first time in over 18 years that they've had snow fall in Tucumán capital city and everybody was going crazy. It was super fun seeing the people go crazy seeing this white stuff for the first time in their life. As missionaries we took the occasion to go up the hill to a big statue of Christ which has a nice view of the city and lots of snow left on the ground. That was super fun but we missed the bus to get down so we decided to just walk down the road to get down (2 hr. walk). My comp and a few other elders and I decided we were going to take the shortcut down the mountain... bad idea. Apparently my guardian angel protection that existed before the mission in order to get me here safely also exists here as well because we cut the travel time in half by half running, half sliding down a rocky dry riverbed (waterfallish) we thought was a path. He he he. You can take the boy out of the mountains but you can't take the mountain out of the boy. Anyway, that was pretty much the week. We had only half the ward come because it was so cold. Oh well, it's warming up now so hopefully we can get things going again.
The church is true!
-Elder Spencer
Me and Elder Staker
The zone and a snow man
The zone and the Cristo
Info about the Cristos
.JPG)
Tucuman from the top (lotsa pollution)
.JPG)
Snow man on the car! (They did lots of those.)
Our baptism had to get postponed for the next week because apparently we didn't explain the Word of Wisdom well enough (she thought it was just for missionaries) and had smoked the day before her baptismal interview. She has a super strong will and dropped it cold turkey right after we explained it better and will be getting baptized this week.
The biggest surprise from Tucumán, Argentina is that we had SNOW!! They said that this is the first time in over 18 years that they've had snow fall in Tucumán capital city and everybody was going crazy. It was super fun seeing the people go crazy seeing this white stuff for the first time in their life. As missionaries we took the occasion to go up the hill to a big statue of Christ which has a nice view of the city and lots of snow left on the ground. That was super fun but we missed the bus to get down so we decided to just walk down the road to get down (2 hr. walk). My comp and a few other elders and I decided we were going to take the shortcut down the mountain... bad idea. Apparently my guardian angel protection that existed before the mission in order to get me here safely also exists here as well because we cut the travel time in half by half running, half sliding down a rocky dry riverbed (waterfallish) we thought was a path. He he he. You can take the boy out of the mountains but you can't take the mountain out of the boy. Anyway, that was pretty much the week. We had only half the ward come because it was so cold. Oh well, it's warming up now so hopefully we can get things going again.
The church is true!
-Elder Spencer
Me and Elder Staker
The zone and a snow man
The zone and the Cristo
Info about the Cristos
.JPG)
Tucuman from the top (lotsa pollution)
.JPG)
Snow man on the car! (They did lots of those.)
Monday, July 12, 2010
July 12, 2010
Hey Family,
Good to hear from you guys!! For those of you who don’t know my e-mail, ask Mom, and I’m allowed to write any family, so if you aren’t family I can’t reply to you by email. Sorry :( However, you can send me letters (and packages :D wink wink) to this address:
Elder Jonathan Spencer
Argentina Salta Mission
Los Eucaliptus 75
4400 Salta
Salta, Argentina
Anyway, this week was super great! The biggest news was that we had transfers and my old companion Elder Vidal was sent to the other side of Tucumán in the other zone about 40 minutes away and I got a new companion! His name is Elder Staker and he is from Eagle Mtn., Utah. He is super big into dirtbiking and worked fixing dirtbikes for a while so I told him I’d have to introduce him to my brother sometime. He just barely got in this morning, so I will let you know more about him next week.
As far as the missionary work, this week went great. We had a ton of lessons and we had 7 investigators in the church this week which is the best I’ve ever had. Right now we are working a lot with the kids of Veronica, our baptism from last week, who are super awesome. We had a FHE with them this week and I was super excited because they are just awesome kids. They learn super fast, read everything we give them, and even stick up for the church in school when the other kids make fun of them because their mom got baptized. Their mom told us that the first Sunday they were getting ready to go to church was super hard dragging heels to get them ready because they felt embarrassed about other kids seeing them dressed up, but this last Sunday they had laid out all their clothes Saturday night so they could be ready and on time for church. They totally rock and remind me a lot of my little nephews and nieces: valiant, strong, and super fun. We will baptize two of them in the coming week and we are still working with her older daughters who are a little rebellious, but they are starting to listen as they see the changes the gospel brings in their family.
We’re also working with 2 other mothers who will get baptized this Saturday, and we are working with their families to get baptized in the coming weeks. I’ll let you know how the baptism goes. In other news, the world cup finally passed with very little fanfare and the whole city is now back to normal, thank goodness. Also, I had rabbit the other day for lunch with a member. It tastes a lot like chicken, but yummier. Neat, huh.
Anyway, fam, thanks for all the love, keep it comin’. This week I got to give a talk in church (with 5 minutes notice) and the bishop had me talk about repentance. I talked about the example of the father of King Lamoni (Alma 22:15-19ish) who after hearing Aaron’s teaching told Aaron that he would give up his whole kingdom to obtain this eternal life, this happiness he had spoken of. Aaron told him that the way is much simpler than that: repent. The whole world is looking for lasting happiness but they can’t find it because the answer is too simple: repent. I love the king’s response, that he will give up all his sins to know God. I like to think that I’m doing pretty good in most things, but we all have our favorite sin that we need to give up before we can be truly happy. Give up the sin, be happy, it’s the only way.
Love you guys,
Elder Spencer
Good to hear from you guys!! For those of you who don’t know my e-mail, ask Mom, and I’m allowed to write any family, so if you aren’t family I can’t reply to you by email. Sorry :( However, you can send me letters (and packages :D wink wink) to this address:
Elder Jonathan Spencer
Argentina Salta Mission
Los Eucaliptus 75
4400 Salta
Salta, Argentina
Anyway, this week was super great! The biggest news was that we had transfers and my old companion Elder Vidal was sent to the other side of Tucumán in the other zone about 40 minutes away and I got a new companion! His name is Elder Staker and he is from Eagle Mtn., Utah. He is super big into dirtbiking and worked fixing dirtbikes for a while so I told him I’d have to introduce him to my brother sometime. He just barely got in this morning, so I will let you know more about him next week.
As far as the missionary work, this week went great. We had a ton of lessons and we had 7 investigators in the church this week which is the best I’ve ever had. Right now we are working a lot with the kids of Veronica, our baptism from last week, who are super awesome. We had a FHE with them this week and I was super excited because they are just awesome kids. They learn super fast, read everything we give them, and even stick up for the church in school when the other kids make fun of them because their mom got baptized. Their mom told us that the first Sunday they were getting ready to go to church was super hard dragging heels to get them ready because they felt embarrassed about other kids seeing them dressed up, but this last Sunday they had laid out all their clothes Saturday night so they could be ready and on time for church. They totally rock and remind me a lot of my little nephews and nieces: valiant, strong, and super fun. We will baptize two of them in the coming week and we are still working with her older daughters who are a little rebellious, but they are starting to listen as they see the changes the gospel brings in their family.
We’re also working with 2 other mothers who will get baptized this Saturday, and we are working with their families to get baptized in the coming weeks. I’ll let you know how the baptism goes. In other news, the world cup finally passed with very little fanfare and the whole city is now back to normal, thank goodness. Also, I had rabbit the other day for lunch with a member. It tastes a lot like chicken, but yummier. Neat, huh.
Anyway, fam, thanks for all the love, keep it comin’. This week I got to give a talk in church (with 5 minutes notice) and the bishop had me talk about repentance. I talked about the example of the father of King Lamoni (Alma 22:15-19ish) who after hearing Aaron’s teaching told Aaron that he would give up his whole kingdom to obtain this eternal life, this happiness he had spoken of. Aaron told him that the way is much simpler than that: repent. The whole world is looking for lasting happiness but they can’t find it because the answer is too simple: repent. I love the king’s response, that he will give up all his sins to know God. I like to think that I’m doing pretty good in most things, but we all have our favorite sin that we need to give up before we can be truly happy. Give up the sin, be happy, it’s the only way.
Love you guys,
Elder Spencer
Monday, July 5, 2010
July 5, 2010
Dear fam,
This week was incredible. My investigator Veronica Zamorano who went to stake conference got baptized and it was awesome. I got to baptize her and the spirit was super strong. Veronica is such an awesome person. She brought her kids to church on Sunday and is ready to do FHE every week and wants to get her kids baptized soon, so we will probably baptize them next transfer (they have to come to church 3 times before they can get baptized). She bore a super powerful testimony in church and I was amazed to see how much she has grown and changed spiritually. I am completely convinced that my abilities as a missionary and teacher have almost nothing to do with it, rather, the spirit worked through me to do help her. That’s how it’s supposed to be :) The carpenter is perfect, I just need to work on being a better tool.
That’s the best news of the week, we spent most of the week centered around the baptism and we should have some more coming up in the next few weeks. Other news, Argentina lost to Germany in the quarterfinals of the world cup soccer. That’s big news here. The country literally stops to watch the team play. (All the businesses shut and the streets are bare, it makes for the most peaceful study time I’ve ever had.) Funny story: up until now my comp and I have been pretending to speak German when we walk in the streets because he has pale chileno skin and I’m white. We just kinda spoke gibberish plus the ten German words I remember from elementary school, and thought nothing of it. This started about 4 weeks ago, and suddenly it just so happened that Argentina came against Chile in the world cup and now all the kids in the street that think we are German shout at us when we walk by. Heheh, funny turn of events.
Also, fun stuff, today for P-day we had the world cup tournament of the missionaries, which had the teams: Chile, Peru, Argentina, The rest of the world, USA-Utah, USA-the rest. That was super fun because we had both the zones from Tucuman come and afterward we had a big barbecue with 50 pounds of meat :D My comp is a super good cook so I became assistant chef and learned how to do a really yummy BBQ with pure coal. It was a blast.
Anyway, all is well down here. Here’s a quote for you to chew on that I found the other day: "Circumstance does not make the man; it shows him who he is."
-- James Allen
The only way to develop strong moral integrity and character that can withstand temptation and problems is lots and lots of practice. Choose the right 100% of the time and things will go just fine.
Love your guts!
-JCS
Veronica and her Fam at the baptism
The two chefs
Fifty pounds of meat!! Beef, it's what's for dinner.
The zone eatin'
This week was incredible. My investigator Veronica Zamorano who went to stake conference got baptized and it was awesome. I got to baptize her and the spirit was super strong. Veronica is such an awesome person. She brought her kids to church on Sunday and is ready to do FHE every week and wants to get her kids baptized soon, so we will probably baptize them next transfer (they have to come to church 3 times before they can get baptized). She bore a super powerful testimony in church and I was amazed to see how much she has grown and changed spiritually. I am completely convinced that my abilities as a missionary and teacher have almost nothing to do with it, rather, the spirit worked through me to do help her. That’s how it’s supposed to be :) The carpenter is perfect, I just need to work on being a better tool.
That’s the best news of the week, we spent most of the week centered around the baptism and we should have some more coming up in the next few weeks. Other news, Argentina lost to Germany in the quarterfinals of the world cup soccer. That’s big news here. The country literally stops to watch the team play. (All the businesses shut and the streets are bare, it makes for the most peaceful study time I’ve ever had.) Funny story: up until now my comp and I have been pretending to speak German when we walk in the streets because he has pale chileno skin and I’m white. We just kinda spoke gibberish plus the ten German words I remember from elementary school, and thought nothing of it. This started about 4 weeks ago, and suddenly it just so happened that Argentina came against Chile in the world cup and now all the kids in the street that think we are German shout at us when we walk by. Heheh, funny turn of events.
Also, fun stuff, today for P-day we had the world cup tournament of the missionaries, which had the teams: Chile, Peru, Argentina, The rest of the world, USA-Utah, USA-the rest. That was super fun because we had both the zones from Tucuman come and afterward we had a big barbecue with 50 pounds of meat :D My comp is a super good cook so I became assistant chef and learned how to do a really yummy BBQ with pure coal. It was a blast.
Anyway, all is well down here. Here’s a quote for you to chew on that I found the other day: "Circumstance does not make the man; it shows him who he is."
-- James Allen
The only way to develop strong moral integrity and character that can withstand temptation and problems is lots and lots of practice. Choose the right 100% of the time and things will go just fine.
Love your guts!
-JCS
Veronica and her Fam at the baptism
The two chefs
Fifty pounds of meat!! Beef, it's what's for dinner.
The zone eatin'
Monday, June 28, 2010
June 28, 2010
Hey Mom!
Great to hear from you!! I got the package, thank you sooooooooo much!! I have a confession, however, that the m&ms arrived at a time when there was almost no food in the pension and we were waiting for our monthly allotment so... I only shared them with a few investigators... :D Thanks for all the stuff again!! It was super cool to read the letters from the other missionaries.
That’s awesome Steve is in the Bishopric. You guys are pretty lucky because out here there is no bishopric; there isn’t enough priesthood leadership to go around. It sounds like you guys are just going from one party to the next! I guess that’s how summer is. I’m glad to hear all the good news (and the bad news too, opposition in all things, eh?). As far as the smoker quitting, any suggestions would help. We kinda got nothin’. Right now he’s smoking 60 a day (yeah, a ton, right?) but has a heart of gold, reads the Book of Mormon and prays 3 times a day. His problem is that he is partially mentally handicapped after getting hit really hard 18 years ago doing kung fu. He has progressed tons since the accident and now he’s almost normal, but lacks the same kind of self mastery that normal people have. I’m sure in his final judgment he won’t be held very accountable, but we still really want to help him shake loose of this horrible addiction that he is captive to.
Even so, this has been the best week in the field. This week was the week of conferences. We had mission conference on Wednesday and stake conference on Saturday and Sunday. The mission conference was super cool. Our mission president talked a while about how the coming of Christ to the Americas was a type of the second coming and we need to study it to know what will happen. He also talked about the scripture that says that the day nor the hour no man knoweth, not even the angels in heaven, and read us something that Joseph Smith said that because "surely the Lord God will do nothing but he revealeth his secret to his servants the prophets" (Amos 3:7), every time that phrase of not knowing when is written in the scriptures, it is written in the present tense, and the prophet will definitely know before the second coming. Crazy, huh?
The stake conference was even better. We had a seventy from Buenos Aires named Elder Avila come and speak to us and he was awesome. In the Saturday night adult session he gave a really detailed awesome lesson of the plan of salvation and our investigator who was there loved it. He also talked about the armor of God and how important it is to put on every piece every day, because if you forget one piece or one day, Satan will attack you then and there. The next day he talked about the importance and influence of parents, and how there were a ton of Lamanites who were wicked because of their unrighteous parents, whereas with Alma started 7+ generations of prophets because they were strong, righteous influences on their children. Our investigator (Her name is Veronica Zamorano) told us afterward that she was ready to be the start of generations of members in the church, and that even though she didn’t have her grandmother or mother to look to for an example, that her 5 children and their children would have her to look to and she wants her 3 sons to grow up in the church and be missionaries so their sons can look to the examples of their fathers. She is incredible!! She understands and applies everything completely and is willing and ready to give up all her sins to know God (Alma 22:18). She is going to get baptized this Saturday and her kids probably in the next transfer. She is the first baptism that I found and taught all the way through and I am so happy because she is so strongly converted and has such a strong testimony already. We taught her a short lesson on baptism Sunday night after the conference and she was so excited for the baptism invitation. Having a convert like that and feeling the spirit touch their hearts with converting power is what makes it all worth it. I’ll let you know how the baptism goes on Saturday!!
Anyway, before I go, fun fact: The very first baptism in Tucumán (where I am right now, and the biggest city in my mission and 5th largest in Argentina) happened 50 years ago this year, and now there are two whole stakes covering the city. The cool part for me is knowing some of the people who’ve been here before me: Elder D Todd Christofferson, the dad of Alan Vawdrey (my brother in law)[****Heidi, make sure he knows that Ím in Tucumán right now and have him shoot me an e-mail if he wants to find out more about the area], and Steve Rockwood. And now Ím here walking the same streets, working the same work. That’s how the church gets built, brick by brick, person by person. By small and simple things, great things come to pass.
"Wherefore, be not weary in well-doing, for ye are laying the foundation of a great work. And out of small things proceedeth that which is great." -D&C 64:33
So keep on the well doing, even if you’re tired of it, and keep the letters coming. I thought that being from a family of 12 would mean I get more mail... hint hint ;) (you can use e-mail if you’re feeling too lazy to run to the post office, it really doesn’t make a difference to me).
Love you all, especially Carrie who is serving with me right now.
-Elder Jonathan Spencer
Great to hear from you!! I got the package, thank you sooooooooo much!! I have a confession, however, that the m&ms arrived at a time when there was almost no food in the pension and we were waiting for our monthly allotment so... I only shared them with a few investigators... :D Thanks for all the stuff again!! It was super cool to read the letters from the other missionaries.
That’s awesome Steve is in the Bishopric. You guys are pretty lucky because out here there is no bishopric; there isn’t enough priesthood leadership to go around. It sounds like you guys are just going from one party to the next! I guess that’s how summer is. I’m glad to hear all the good news (and the bad news too, opposition in all things, eh?). As far as the smoker quitting, any suggestions would help. We kinda got nothin’. Right now he’s smoking 60 a day (yeah, a ton, right?) but has a heart of gold, reads the Book of Mormon and prays 3 times a day. His problem is that he is partially mentally handicapped after getting hit really hard 18 years ago doing kung fu. He has progressed tons since the accident and now he’s almost normal, but lacks the same kind of self mastery that normal people have. I’m sure in his final judgment he won’t be held very accountable, but we still really want to help him shake loose of this horrible addiction that he is captive to.
Even so, this has been the best week in the field. This week was the week of conferences. We had mission conference on Wednesday and stake conference on Saturday and Sunday. The mission conference was super cool. Our mission president talked a while about how the coming of Christ to the Americas was a type of the second coming and we need to study it to know what will happen. He also talked about the scripture that says that the day nor the hour no man knoweth, not even the angels in heaven, and read us something that Joseph Smith said that because "surely the Lord God will do nothing but he revealeth his secret to his servants the prophets" (Amos 3:7), every time that phrase of not knowing when is written in the scriptures, it is written in the present tense, and the prophet will definitely know before the second coming. Crazy, huh?
The stake conference was even better. We had a seventy from Buenos Aires named Elder Avila come and speak to us and he was awesome. In the Saturday night adult session he gave a really detailed awesome lesson of the plan of salvation and our investigator who was there loved it. He also talked about the armor of God and how important it is to put on every piece every day, because if you forget one piece or one day, Satan will attack you then and there. The next day he talked about the importance and influence of parents, and how there were a ton of Lamanites who were wicked because of their unrighteous parents, whereas with Alma started 7+ generations of prophets because they were strong, righteous influences on their children. Our investigator (Her name is Veronica Zamorano) told us afterward that she was ready to be the start of generations of members in the church, and that even though she didn’t have her grandmother or mother to look to for an example, that her 5 children and their children would have her to look to and she wants her 3 sons to grow up in the church and be missionaries so their sons can look to the examples of their fathers. She is incredible!! She understands and applies everything completely and is willing and ready to give up all her sins to know God (Alma 22:18). She is going to get baptized this Saturday and her kids probably in the next transfer. She is the first baptism that I found and taught all the way through and I am so happy because she is so strongly converted and has such a strong testimony already. We taught her a short lesson on baptism Sunday night after the conference and she was so excited for the baptism invitation. Having a convert like that and feeling the spirit touch their hearts with converting power is what makes it all worth it. I’ll let you know how the baptism goes on Saturday!!
Anyway, before I go, fun fact: The very first baptism in Tucumán (where I am right now, and the biggest city in my mission and 5th largest in Argentina) happened 50 years ago this year, and now there are two whole stakes covering the city. The cool part for me is knowing some of the people who’ve been here before me: Elder D Todd Christofferson, the dad of Alan Vawdrey (my brother in law)[****Heidi, make sure he knows that Ím in Tucumán right now and have him shoot me an e-mail if he wants to find out more about the area], and Steve Rockwood. And now Ím here walking the same streets, working the same work. That’s how the church gets built, brick by brick, person by person. By small and simple things, great things come to pass.
"Wherefore, be not weary in well-doing, for ye are laying the foundation of a great work. And out of small things proceedeth that which is great." -D&C 64:33
So keep on the well doing, even if you’re tired of it, and keep the letters coming. I thought that being from a family of 12 would mean I get more mail... hint hint ;) (you can use e-mail if you’re feeling too lazy to run to the post office, it really doesn’t make a difference to me).
Love you all, especially Carrie who is serving with me right now.
-Elder Jonathan Spencer
Sunday, June 27, 2010
June 21, 2010
Great to hear from you!
This week went pretty well. Everybody is still crazy as ever over here about the world cup, and since they’ve won two games already the people are just getting crazier and crazier. This coming week Elder Vidal and I are planning to do a ward activity on the theme of the soccer tournament. So far it’s gonna be pretty sweet, I’ll let you know how it goes. Because of the craziness we had a ton of appointments fall through and we walked a ton more than usual, which is the hard part of missionary work. Teaching is easy, it’s the walking miles and miles and miles when appointments fall through that does it. Luckily, Elder Vidal and I have a good time together and we think up games to make the traveling fun. Sometimes we pretend to speak German as we walk past people, leaving them super confused since they’re used to gringos speaking English. Anyway, even though it was a difficult week, we made it fun, worked our tails off, and had a decent turnout at church anyway. I found out something super interesting this week, however. We were visiting a member one day asking for referrals when they began to tell us a little about their history in the church. Turns out they were baptized by D. Todd Christofferson! Talk about big shoes to fill! That really gave me some perspective about how big a responsibility I have, how big of a stewardship I need to watch over.
Anyway, time's short, church's true. Love you guys!
-Elder Spencer
This week went pretty well. Everybody is still crazy as ever over here about the world cup, and since they’ve won two games already the people are just getting crazier and crazier. This coming week Elder Vidal and I are planning to do a ward activity on the theme of the soccer tournament. So far it’s gonna be pretty sweet, I’ll let you know how it goes. Because of the craziness we had a ton of appointments fall through and we walked a ton more than usual, which is the hard part of missionary work. Teaching is easy, it’s the walking miles and miles and miles when appointments fall through that does it. Luckily, Elder Vidal and I have a good time together and we think up games to make the traveling fun. Sometimes we pretend to speak German as we walk past people, leaving them super confused since they’re used to gringos speaking English. Anyway, even though it was a difficult week, we made it fun, worked our tails off, and had a decent turnout at church anyway. I found out something super interesting this week, however. We were visiting a member one day asking for referrals when they began to tell us a little about their history in the church. Turns out they were baptized by D. Todd Christofferson! Talk about big shoes to fill! That really gave me some perspective about how big a responsibility I have, how big of a stewardship I need to watch over.
Anyway, time's short, church's true. Love you guys!
-Elder Spencer
June 14, 2010
This week was great! Out here everybody is super excited and energetic over the world cup soccer tournament. Out here, soccer is everything. They have a 2 hour game, and then spend the next four days on every single channel analyzing what happened and figuring out ways to say how awesome their team is. Everybody watches it, all the time. Seriously, every house we go into to teach a lesson they either have the game on or sports commentators talking about it. They’re fanatics. And if Argentina wins a game, they light off a ton of fireworks and all get drunk that night. It’s kinda like the superbowl but 5 times bigger.
Anyway, because of the world cup, this week was a little slow; we had lots of appointments fall through, but we still worked our tails off and our district met all the mission goals. The ward out here isn’t very big and doesn’t put on many activities, so as missionaries we are looking for opportunities to unite members with investigators. Our Mission President told us we should do an activity at least once a week. It gets hard to be creative after a few months in the same place but we still managed to keep things interesting. This week we put on a special refreshment: "Panqueqes gringos" which are just normal pancakes, but they have never tried them out here. It turned out great, but we spent the three hours of study time taking turns studying and making pancakes one at a time because we don’t have a griddle, just a fry pan. It turned out great and we got a ton of members, less-actives, and investigators to come and mingle. Our investigators are doing great, and we should have 2 baptisms in the coming week. We have another investigator who is super great, comes to church, reads the Book of Mormon (he started from the beginning a few weeks ago and is already in Mosiah!), but has a huge smoking problem. He smokes roughly 30 cigarrettes a day. We’ve tried a lot of things with him, having him read and pray when he feels the desire to smoke, but he’s super addicted. Any suggestions?
Anyway, all is well in the field. Sounds like you guys are having a blast out there! I should get the package from Bro. Calley this week at district meeting. Have fun, work hard, don’t forget to read your scriptures every day. It’s important stuff.
Love,
Elder Spencer
Anyway, because of the world cup, this week was a little slow; we had lots of appointments fall through, but we still worked our tails off and our district met all the mission goals. The ward out here isn’t very big and doesn’t put on many activities, so as missionaries we are looking for opportunities to unite members with investigators. Our Mission President told us we should do an activity at least once a week. It gets hard to be creative after a few months in the same place but we still managed to keep things interesting. This week we put on a special refreshment: "Panqueqes gringos" which are just normal pancakes, but they have never tried them out here. It turned out great, but we spent the three hours of study time taking turns studying and making pancakes one at a time because we don’t have a griddle, just a fry pan. It turned out great and we got a ton of members, less-actives, and investigators to come and mingle. Our investigators are doing great, and we should have 2 baptisms in the coming week. We have another investigator who is super great, comes to church, reads the Book of Mormon (he started from the beginning a few weeks ago and is already in Mosiah!), but has a huge smoking problem. He smokes roughly 30 cigarrettes a day. We’ve tried a lot of things with him, having him read and pray when he feels the desire to smoke, but he’s super addicted. Any suggestions?
Anyway, all is well in the field. Sounds like you guys are having a blast out there! I should get the package from Bro. Calley this week at district meeting. Have fun, work hard, don’t forget to read your scriptures every day. It’s important stuff.
Love,
Elder Spencer
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