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
Monday, November 29, 2010
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
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