August 8, 2011

Dear Family,

Probably the most exciting email of my mission so far, so hold on to your chairs so you don’t fall off. First, sad story. There is an elder in our district who two weeks ago had a seizure for the first time in his life. They’ve been told to stay in the apartment all day every day in case it happens again, and in the meantime he’s been in and out of the doctor’s office every few days for analysis and scans and whatnot. He’s a really awesome guy from central America. They were just completely getting cabin fever, so on Tuesday and Wednesday we went on divisions with them so his comp could get a little fresh air and they could teach some of the families they had been working with. My companion and I split the time staying with the sick elder half and half. I brought over my rubik’s cube so they would have something to do and wrote out a basic explanation of how to solve it. Well funny story, the day my comp was there he was pretty excited to have all the extra study time, but as it turns out he ended up spending 4 and a half hours working on the cube and couldn’t get it. Haha, he even called me halfway through the night because he was stuck at one part. Later on both he and the sick elder ended up getting it. The sad part is that they found out this week that he has a tumor so he needs to get operated and probably needs to go home :( Pray for him, his name is Elder Angel.

Awesome story: Last week new elders came in, so this week they had about a week and a half in the field. There is a set of elders in our district who live about 15 minutes away, in a pretty dangerous part. En fin, a new elder (Latino), about a week in his area so he doesn’t know it at all, and on top of it all, it’s dangerous. On Monday night they were walking down the street when two men in coats approached them. One missionary started running away and one robber followed him (really bad idea) leaving the new missionary with the other robber. The robber asked him for money and the like and the missionary truthfully said he had nothing. The robber got mad, pulled out a knife and threatened him and asked him again. The missionary again, had nothing, so the robber tried stabbing him. This is where it gets interesting. The robber *tried* stabbing (strongly) him 5 times, but *nothing* happened. The missionary said he felt like he was being prodded with something dull, but he has no marks. On top of all that, the tip of the knife bent over a cm or so, leaving a J-shaped knife. No joke. The missionary, at this point completely surprised and awestruck, told the robber, "I have the power of God! You can’t touch me." The robber is now pretty scared at this point and makes a slash at the face of the missionary leaving a so-so cut (not deep because the knife tip was bent) and the missionary pushes over the robber. The other missionary outruns other robber, circles around and missionaries go home pretty wowed.

Yeah, crazy. The Lord sure protects his missionaries. Obedience to our covenants brings real power.

This last week we also had a pretty busy week preparing 2 people for baptism. They both came to church on Sunday which means that if all goes well this week we’ll have 2 and next week one. Yay! We’ve also been working a lot with inactives and recent converts and several came to church on Sunday! Double Yay!

Well, out of time, but I love you guys a whole ton! The church is true!!!

-Elder Spencer