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