Dear Family,
A great week with Elder Dehnike. He’s a super fun guy and likes to talk a lot and we get along great. This week has been quite fun. A couple highlights. José got called to be a ward missionary!!! He’s so awesome! He went home teaching for the first time this week and afterward told us: "It seems to me like as a home teacher a 15-minute visit once a month doesn’t come even close to what these people need. The church also needs more strong leadership to help the weak inactives to progress." I was pretty much wowed. We happily explained him that he had caught the right vision of home teaching, that you are taking charge over the well being of the people and that you are being their ministering angel. This week we’re going to tell him that we need him to help us find strong leadership to teach. He’s such a stud. It’s gonna be hard to leave him. We’ve really formed a great friendship.
Other fun thing! You remember how we had done a fireside about sharing the gospel with friends? Well we did, about a month ago, and a whopping 7 people came. The bishop had a great idea, though, for us to teach the same thing but in Mutual and in RS, so we did. As we prepared it for each specific occasion, it turned out better and more refined, and the one we taught to YM/YW this week was really good. We taught that there are 4 basic steps:
1 Live the Gospel. Be an example (1 Tim. 4:12). Let your light so shine!
2 Pray for opportunities to share (Matt 7:7). When the opportunities come...
3 Answer gospel questions with simple, direct responses, full of testimony. Share your personal experience and blessings you have received.
and none of this is worth anything unless you...
4 Invite! They can come to church, activities, firesides, conference, mutual, visit the church website, read the Book of Mormon, read pamphlets, come to a Family Home Evening, come to a dinner with the missionaries, meet with the missionaries, etc.. There are tons of things you can invite your friends to do, and you’ll never know unless you invite them. In Preach My Gospel it teaches a cool commitment pattern: Invite, Promise, Testify. e.g. "Our family is having a FHE this Monday and we’d love for you to come to see how it is. You’ll see how much family unity it brings and you’ll feel a really special spirit. Doing FHE has really helped my family to grow together and teach my children to live righteously. So will you come?" Easy, no? And you don’t even have to use the words invite, promise, or testify to do it.
So yeah, it was fun. Use it and send me your success stories so I can share them with the members here.
I’d like to finish up sharing my love for the Gospel. Six years ago I gained a whole new perspective on things. I really know that Jesus Christ is the Savior and Redeemer of the world, and that by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel our families can be together forever. Obedience brings protection, security, and happiness. Ether 12:4. I know that when I am obedient, not only do I have an anchor in this life, but the hope to live with my family after this life. Remember Carrie!
I love you all!!!!
-Elder Jonathan Spencer
Monday, June 27, 2011
Monday, June 20, 2011
June 20, 2011
Dear Family,
A great week, pretty uneventful though. My new comp is great. Elder Dehnike is from Buenos Aires and is the first missionary in his family. He’s super fun and before the mission he studied Gastronomy (which I thought was something medical, but as it turns out it’s basically cooking school). That’s good and bad. Good, because if we ever have a lunch cancel I’ll have my own personal chef. Bad, because it’ll be pretty underutilized here in Villa Alem, the best ward in the mission for lunches. We have lunch every day without fail. Yep, pretty spoiled. We joke around that this is the Celestial Kingdom, and I got sent here as a reward for surviving Frías. In all seriousness, it’s pretty nice. I’m pretty sure it’s the biggest ward in the mission, and more than half of all the stakies are from our ward.
The sad thing was having our last Zone Conference with President and Sister Northcutt this week. It was so good. They both gave wonderful talks. They have such strong testimonies of the Savior. President’s last talk was on two topics: The Lord knows us individually and answers prayers. He gave an experience from when he was 15 and got lost in the woods on a campout and was stranded overnight in below freezing weather, but survived (almost got hypothermia) and the next day was found. He had said a prayer that night and heard a voice that everything would be all right. Immediately his body started warming up. He slept in that spot and the next day about midday a helicopter found him. His other topic was about how to choose a wife. He said that that is the most important decision you will ever make then he told that when he was in highschool he made a "qualification" list for his wife. The most important qualification was that the Holy Ghost confirmed to him his decision. He told the story of how he met and dated Sis. Northcutt and really wanted to marry her, but was willing to follow the Lord́s response if the Lord said no. The Lord told him yes. :) It’s going to be really sad to see them go, but it’s nice that they live decently close (San Diego) so I’ll be able to see them after the mish.
Sorry I couldn’t write much this week. Everything is going well down here. I love you guys a lot. The church is true!!!!!!!
-Elder Spencer
A great week, pretty uneventful though. My new comp is great. Elder Dehnike is from Buenos Aires and is the first missionary in his family. He’s super fun and before the mission he studied Gastronomy (which I thought was something medical, but as it turns out it’s basically cooking school). That’s good and bad. Good, because if we ever have a lunch cancel I’ll have my own personal chef. Bad, because it’ll be pretty underutilized here in Villa Alem, the best ward in the mission for lunches. We have lunch every day without fail. Yep, pretty spoiled. We joke around that this is the Celestial Kingdom, and I got sent here as a reward for surviving Frías. In all seriousness, it’s pretty nice. I’m pretty sure it’s the biggest ward in the mission, and more than half of all the stakies are from our ward.
The sad thing was having our last Zone Conference with President and Sister Northcutt this week. It was so good. They both gave wonderful talks. They have such strong testimonies of the Savior. President’s last talk was on two topics: The Lord knows us individually and answers prayers. He gave an experience from when he was 15 and got lost in the woods on a campout and was stranded overnight in below freezing weather, but survived (almost got hypothermia) and the next day was found. He had said a prayer that night and heard a voice that everything would be all right. Immediately his body started warming up. He slept in that spot and the next day about midday a helicopter found him. His other topic was about how to choose a wife. He said that that is the most important decision you will ever make then he told that when he was in highschool he made a "qualification" list for his wife. The most important qualification was that the Holy Ghost confirmed to him his decision. He told the story of how he met and dated Sis. Northcutt and really wanted to marry her, but was willing to follow the Lord́s response if the Lord said no. The Lord told him yes. :) It’s going to be really sad to see them go, but it’s nice that they live decently close (San Diego) so I’ll be able to see them after the mish.
Sorry I couldn’t write much this week. Everything is going well down here. I love you guys a lot. The church is true!!!!!!!
-Elder Spencer
Monday, June 13, 2011
June 13, 2011
Dear Family,
What a week! Good news and sad news. Sad news, Elder Petersen got transferred to Jujuy. Good news, I have a new companion, Elder Dehnike, who is from Buenos Aires. We’re just getting to know each other, but he is super nice and I am excited for this transfer because we’re going to work a lot and hopefully have lots of success.
So this week we decided to try to use José in a lesson. Remember Fernando Herrera? He’s the guy who was super excited to read the Book of Mormon (he’s really old), but couldn’t meet with us for a while because of a mortgage problem. We ran into him and he said he wanted to meet with us again. We decided to set up an appointment with José and... It was soooooo good!!! Holy Smokes! We couldn’t have scripted him better. He bore his testimony so great, but from one man to another. He committed Fernando to read and pray and come to church and offered to pick him up. It was just soooo great, and the spirit was so awesome.
Other good news. So since we started teaching José, his wife kinda just lurked in the shadows and didn’t really comment much. Of the times he went to church, she only went about half the time. She’s a member, but has been inactive for quite a while. Well, this week we also did a Family Home Evening with them and it went great. We did that cornstarch thing about testimonies and talked about how the substance was the testimony, but it was worthless unless we constantly worked it so it could become something. It isn’t enough just to have a testimony, we need to become converted. It’s not what we know, it’s consistently living what we know so as to become. Apparently it had a good effect on them because yesterday when we stopped by for Elder Petersen to say goodbye Noemi surprised us with the great news that she had quit smoking! Yay! They’re making their way toward the temple!!
Also, we had stake conference this week. Elder Anderson, Elder Packer, Elder Zivic (Seventy), Rosemary Wixom spoke. It was soooooo Good!!!!
Anyway, that’s about it on the mission front. I love you all tons. The church is true! The Book of Mormon is great! Read it!
-Elder Spencer
What a week! Good news and sad news. Sad news, Elder Petersen got transferred to Jujuy. Good news, I have a new companion, Elder Dehnike, who is from Buenos Aires. We’re just getting to know each other, but he is super nice and I am excited for this transfer because we’re going to work a lot and hopefully have lots of success.
So this week we decided to try to use José in a lesson. Remember Fernando Herrera? He’s the guy who was super excited to read the Book of Mormon (he’s really old), but couldn’t meet with us for a while because of a mortgage problem. We ran into him and he said he wanted to meet with us again. We decided to set up an appointment with José and... It was soooooo good!!! Holy Smokes! We couldn’t have scripted him better. He bore his testimony so great, but from one man to another. He committed Fernando to read and pray and come to church and offered to pick him up. It was just soooo great, and the spirit was so awesome.
Other good news. So since we started teaching José, his wife kinda just lurked in the shadows and didn’t really comment much. Of the times he went to church, she only went about half the time. She’s a member, but has been inactive for quite a while. Well, this week we also did a Family Home Evening with them and it went great. We did that cornstarch thing about testimonies and talked about how the substance was the testimony, but it was worthless unless we constantly worked it so it could become something. It isn’t enough just to have a testimony, we need to become converted. It’s not what we know, it’s consistently living what we know so as to become. Apparently it had a good effect on them because yesterday when we stopped by for Elder Petersen to say goodbye Noemi surprised us with the great news that she had quit smoking! Yay! They’re making their way toward the temple!!
Also, we had stake conference this week. Elder Anderson, Elder Packer, Elder Zivic (Seventy), Rosemary Wixom spoke. It was soooooo Good!!!!
Anyway, that’s about it on the mission front. I love you all tons. The church is true! The Book of Mormon is great! Read it!
-Elder Spencer
Monday, June 6, 2011
June 6, 2011
Dear Family,
Great week! It got cold! Really cold! Haha, actually not that bad, but once you’re used to 110-120 degree weather, Colorado weather seems frigid. For example, yesterday I was so cold I went out with 2 coats, a scarf and gloves. Later on we checked my companion’s thermometer and it was a whipping 60 degrees. Hahaha. I guess I’ve turned wimpy. :)
So the cool news of this week is that we found a completely golden family. First, let me explain something. Our mission president has challenged us as missionaries to set a baptismal date in the first lesson we have with people. This does several things. First, it sets up the relationship and our purpose as missionaries, lest the people misunderstand and expect something else of us. Second, it gauges their real interest. The baptismal date we do is really a conditional one. We invite them to pray about our message and then ask them, "If you receive an answer to your prayers will you follow Jesus Christ and be baptized by someone with the restored priesthood authority of God?" It was about 4 months ago when President Northcutt challenged us to do it in every first lesson. For me it was very difficult at first to summon up the boldness to do that. Anyway, we were knocking doors a few weeks ago and got to a little corner grocery store and asked the lady if she knew anybody who could use a visit from the missionaries. She told us about a lady who lived half a block down. We tried finding them but there was nobody home. We kinda just forgot about them until this week we were left with a few extra minutes before we needed to finish up the night. We looked over our agendas at the contacts we had done and saw them and decided to give them a shot. The mom and her son were there. She immediately let us in and we started talking. We didn’t have much time so we taught them about how God is our Heavenly Father and the Gospel blesses families and about how to pray. It was about time to go, but we decided to be bold and invite them to be baptized. ...and they accepted! We went back for the next appointment and the wife had prayed and had had a wonderful experience. The husband was there and years earlier had spoken with missionaries, but had never been baptized. He, too, accepted. The next appointment the husband and wife had read from the Book of Mormon and the wife was so excited about it. She told us about how she was seeing such a big difference in their life. Their daughter was there this time and she accepted the invitation as well. Pretty much they are just counting the minutes until they can get baptized, haha. We feel super blessed to have found them and are excited for their progress.
Anyway, that’s about it from the Argentine front. I love you all so much. The gospel is so true! Christ is our Savior and Redeemer and he made it possible that our families can be together forever.
Love, Elder Spencer
Great week! It got cold! Really cold! Haha, actually not that bad, but once you’re used to 110-120 degree weather, Colorado weather seems frigid. For example, yesterday I was so cold I went out with 2 coats, a scarf and gloves. Later on we checked my companion’s thermometer and it was a whipping 60 degrees. Hahaha. I guess I’ve turned wimpy. :)
So the cool news of this week is that we found a completely golden family. First, let me explain something. Our mission president has challenged us as missionaries to set a baptismal date in the first lesson we have with people. This does several things. First, it sets up the relationship and our purpose as missionaries, lest the people misunderstand and expect something else of us. Second, it gauges their real interest. The baptismal date we do is really a conditional one. We invite them to pray about our message and then ask them, "If you receive an answer to your prayers will you follow Jesus Christ and be baptized by someone with the restored priesthood authority of God?" It was about 4 months ago when President Northcutt challenged us to do it in every first lesson. For me it was very difficult at first to summon up the boldness to do that. Anyway, we were knocking doors a few weeks ago and got to a little corner grocery store and asked the lady if she knew anybody who could use a visit from the missionaries. She told us about a lady who lived half a block down. We tried finding them but there was nobody home. We kinda just forgot about them until this week we were left with a few extra minutes before we needed to finish up the night. We looked over our agendas at the contacts we had done and saw them and decided to give them a shot. The mom and her son were there. She immediately let us in and we started talking. We didn’t have much time so we taught them about how God is our Heavenly Father and the Gospel blesses families and about how to pray. It was about time to go, but we decided to be bold and invite them to be baptized. ...and they accepted! We went back for the next appointment and the wife had prayed and had had a wonderful experience. The husband was there and years earlier had spoken with missionaries, but had never been baptized. He, too, accepted. The next appointment the husband and wife had read from the Book of Mormon and the wife was so excited about it. She told us about how she was seeing such a big difference in their life. Their daughter was there this time and she accepted the invitation as well. Pretty much they are just counting the minutes until they can get baptized, haha. We feel super blessed to have found them and are excited for their progress.
Anyway, that’s about it from the Argentine front. I love you all so much. The gospel is so true! Christ is our Savior and Redeemer and he made it possible that our families can be together forever.
Love, Elder Spencer
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