Wow, what a week! After 2 days straight of travel, I finally got in late Tuesday night to my new zone and area. I’m in the Zone Tucuman Oeste, and in an area to the north called Villa Muñecas. It is super pretty here. We live in the fourth floor of a kinda sketchy building (it’s pretty nice for down here), but we have a super cool view where you can see the green rolling hills for miles. It’s sweet. We also live above a bakery, so every morning I wake up to the smell of fresh bread. Yeah, it’s nice.
The people down here are super poor, but incredibly nice, and they just make do with what they have. My first day we did a service project for this lady whose house was about 20 ft by 20 ft. I climbed up her palm tree and hacked off dead limbs while the rest of the zone hauled bricks and mud to her backyard. I have to admit, that was pretty cool. The culture here is also super laid back. Everything closes between 1 and 6 pm because of the siesta. This makes sense in the summer when the heat is treacherous, but in the winter they keep the same schedule and just stay up super late at night, which makes the time in which we can work pretty short. We study during the siesta time and work in the morning and night, but the night gets a little hard as well because some parts of our areas are pretty sketchy at nights, especially if you are white.
Right now we are working with lots of investigators, and they all love hearing the message and talking with us, but they don’t keep their commitments or show up for church or show up for appointments. It gets kinda frustrating because the whole culture just kinda averts responsibility, but the most I can do as a missionary is do my very best to invite the Spirit as strongly as I can and then invite them to change their lives.
My companion is a Chileno named Elder Vidal. He’s very nice, and even though in this area members don’t feed the missionaries a lot, Íve been eating well because he’s an excellent cook. Anyway, that’s about all the time I’ve got today. Be your best self! The church is true!!
-Elder Spencer
Monday, April 26, 2010
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Another Awesome Week!
This week we got our travel plans and I leave on Monday the 19! Also, this means I'll be a whole lot more out of contact than before. I don't think the DearElder works very well out there too. Either email me if you're family or shoot me off a snailmail. Also, packages, apparently the public couriers aren't very good so you should use DHL or OCA if you want to send packages to Argentina.
Anyway, this week was incredible. It started off with this amazing devotional by L Lionel Kendrick, an emeritus 70. He gave an amazing talk about the Holy ghost and cleared up a whole lot of doctrinal questions I had always had, like, what's the difference between the power and personage of HG and how is it possible that he can only be in one place at one time, yet still have his influence felt all over. It was awesome. He also gave this really good quote from Elder Packer that said: "We live far beneath our privilege", that is to say, because of our choices, we void ourselves of many many blessings. That's a good one to think about for a while.
This week we also did hosting for the new missionaries coming in, which was sweet. It reminded me of my first day out here, which is weird because that seems like forever ago. We also got some way cool new elders in our Zone, my favorite is an Elder named Elder Frey, who is a 5' 100lb ball of awesome. He's super fun and the night we discovered how much he weighed, we all tried doing pullups with him on our back. Nobody got a full one, but most of us got about half way.
Also this week our fireside was Men's Chorus singing for an hour instead of speaking, which was super neat and I got to see Taylor Call and Hang out with him afterward, which was super cool. Oh, by the way, Justin Thunnell is here too and I see him all the time.
It's exciting to think I'll finally be in the field! I have one request for all siblings and sibling-in-laws, and friends who read this who served missions. Could you all send me creative finding Ideas? We've been talking a lot about that this week, about how for missionaries, and members interested in sharing the gospel, sticking your foot in someone's business by knocking on their door is not the best way to find people, rather, you want to peak their interest in such a way that you start asking you questions, so for members, you just make it painfully obvious you are a member until they ask you about the church. Send me your ideas!
Anyway, this is the last time I'll be checking my email before I leave, so if you have anything important to tell me, dear-elder it, and don't use dear-elder after Monday because I hear it takes forever to get out to Argentina. By the way mom, last night one of the very competitive elders in our district received 16 letters and 1 package, so he pretty much took the cake on the mail war. Good game, though :)
Anyway, the church is true!! Miss you all!!
-Elder Jonathan Spencer
Anyway, this week was incredible. It started off with this amazing devotional by L Lionel Kendrick, an emeritus 70. He gave an amazing talk about the Holy ghost and cleared up a whole lot of doctrinal questions I had always had, like, what's the difference between the power and personage of HG and how is it possible that he can only be in one place at one time, yet still have his influence felt all over. It was awesome. He also gave this really good quote from Elder Packer that said: "We live far beneath our privilege", that is to say, because of our choices, we void ourselves of many many blessings. That's a good one to think about for a while.
This week we also did hosting for the new missionaries coming in, which was sweet. It reminded me of my first day out here, which is weird because that seems like forever ago. We also got some way cool new elders in our Zone, my favorite is an Elder named Elder Frey, who is a 5' 100lb ball of awesome. He's super fun and the night we discovered how much he weighed, we all tried doing pullups with him on our back. Nobody got a full one, but most of us got about half way.
Also this week our fireside was Men's Chorus singing for an hour instead of speaking, which was super neat and I got to see Taylor Call and Hang out with him afterward, which was super cool. Oh, by the way, Justin Thunnell is here too and I see him all the time.
It's exciting to think I'll finally be in the field! I have one request for all siblings and sibling-in-laws, and friends who read this who served missions. Could you all send me creative finding Ideas? We've been talking a lot about that this week, about how for missionaries, and members interested in sharing the gospel, sticking your foot in someone's business by knocking on their door is not the best way to find people, rather, you want to peak their interest in such a way that you start asking you questions, so for members, you just make it painfully obvious you are a member until they ask you about the church. Send me your ideas!
Anyway, this is the last time I'll be checking my email before I leave, so if you have anything important to tell me, dear-elder it, and don't use dear-elder after Monday because I hear it takes forever to get out to Argentina. By the way mom, last night one of the very competitive elders in our district received 16 letters and 1 package, so he pretty much took the cake on the mail war. Good game, though :)
Anyway, the church is true!! Miss you all!!
-Elder Jonathan Spencer
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Merry Conference!!!!
This week was awesome, being both conference and Easter. Conference is a big deal around here because we only get a general authority every Tuesday night for an hour, and this weekend we got ten hours of general authorities in a row. Hence, Christmas!!! We had a blast for Easter, because apparently our district is really popular, so we got tons of candies and such. On Sunday afternoon after conference we had an Easter egg hunt in our classroom building which was tons of fun. My comp and I won because he's big and Samoan and I'm like an altoid: small, white, and curiously strong. Speaking of big and Samoan, we also learned the Haka from one of the teachers on our floor who is Samoan (My companion and I already knew most of it, but we had forgotten some parts). I think my favorite part of the Haka is the face you have to make, described as a mixture of: you smelling something bad, and being really surprised and angry about it, and getting ready to put on chapstick. Unfortunately, due to my very white heritage, it doesn't look that good when I try to do it, but it looks pretty sweet on my companion. So that's some of the fun stuff we've done this week.
Great news! My visa is coming along! I met on Friday with the travel services to get myself fingerprinted and such, and this morning I'll present myself in front of the consulate and hopefully get my visa. Keep your fingers crossed!! Also, I realized I didn't explain how Elder Zayas' accent was weird. In Spanish, different countries speak way differently. E.g.: in Puerto Rico, they speak super fast and drop of the ends of words. Como estas becomes comoeta when you hear them say it. In Argentina, they speak with a little bit of a lisp and they take all the "y" sounds and turn them into a "sh" sound. It's interesting, because the elders in my zone right now are from all over, so I get to hear all the different accents.
Conference was incredible, wasn't it? I think this is the first time I've made it through all 10 hours without sleeping one bit. Some of my favorite talks were: President Uchtdorf's during preisthood, Julie Beck's, D. Todd Christofferson's, Hallstrom's, Cook's, Foster's, and all of President Monson's. The music was also incredible. On Sunday night, when we normally have a fireside, they did something different. They had a few elders get up to the microphone and say their favorite hymn, why they loved it, and then we sang it. We did this for an hour and it was probably one of my favorite firesides since I've been here. Anyway, here are some of my favorite conference quotes that I'm going to try to live by.
The question is not when we fill face trials, but how we will face them - Martino
A distraction does not have to be evil to be effective - Foster
How we disagree is a measure of who we are and how we follow the Savior - Cook
No matter the size of the issue, how we respond can reset the course of our life - Hallstrom
After the Savior said "it is finished" he continued to work. - Eyring
In your patience you will win mastery of your soul - Uchtdorf
Anyway, the time is short. Thanks so much for all the letters! I love your guys' guts!! The church is true!! My prayers are with you all, especially Granny and Grandad.
-Elder Spencer
Great news! My visa is coming along! I met on Friday with the travel services to get myself fingerprinted and such, and this morning I'll present myself in front of the consulate and hopefully get my visa. Keep your fingers crossed!! Also, I realized I didn't explain how Elder Zayas' accent was weird. In Spanish, different countries speak way differently. E.g.: in Puerto Rico, they speak super fast and drop of the ends of words. Como estas becomes comoeta when you hear them say it. In Argentina, they speak with a little bit of a lisp and they take all the "y" sounds and turn them into a "sh" sound. It's interesting, because the elders in my zone right now are from all over, so I get to hear all the different accents.
Conference was incredible, wasn't it? I think this is the first time I've made it through all 10 hours without sleeping one bit. Some of my favorite talks were: President Uchtdorf's during preisthood, Julie Beck's, D. Todd Christofferson's, Hallstrom's, Cook's, Foster's, and all of President Monson's. The music was also incredible. On Sunday night, when we normally have a fireside, they did something different. They had a few elders get up to the microphone and say their favorite hymn, why they loved it, and then we sang it. We did this for an hour and it was probably one of my favorite firesides since I've been here. Anyway, here are some of my favorite conference quotes that I'm going to try to live by.
The question is not when we fill face trials, but how we will face them - Martino
A distraction does not have to be evil to be effective - Foster
How we disagree is a measure of who we are and how we follow the Savior - Cook
No matter the size of the issue, how we respond can reset the course of our life - Hallstrom
After the Savior said "it is finished" he continued to work. - Eyring
In your patience you will win mastery of your soul - Uchtdorf
Anyway, the time is short. Thanks so much for all the letters! I love your guys' guts!! The church is true!! My prayers are with you all, especially Granny and Grandad.
-Elder Spencer
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