Dear Family,
We had a great week. We had lots and lots of investigators come to church on Sunday, and a ward family home evening Sunday night where lots came too. We're just working super hard.
We have these two awesome Young Men who are going to get baptized Feb 11th. They're brothers and they're just screaming through the Book of Mormon. Right now one's in Mosiah and the other finishing up 2 Nephi. They came this week for the first time to all 3 hours of church (before they had just gone to sacrament meeting) and loved it. The whole family come to the family home evening.
We also found this excellent family, the Obanda family. First we taught the mom and one of her daughters. The first visit when we invited them to pray about our message, they said, "I don't need to. From the moment you walked in, and even more so when you offered that prayer, we knew what you were teaching was true". Then the second visit it was the mom with a different daughter and the daughter's daughter. Again, a powerful spirit. At the end of the visit we asked them if there was anything we could do for them. Their petition: return. We were happy to oblige. At the third visit the daughter presented us to her husband and, miracle, they're already married! He was great and offered the last prayer even though it was the first time he prayed. When we came back the next time they had all prayed about our message and felt it was true. Because of work they couldn't come to church this week, but next week they will.
God is still a God of miracles! He's preparing people all around us to hear his message. We just need to be a little bold and open our mouths. I love you all! The church is true!!
-Elder Spencer
Monday, January 30, 2012
Monday, January 23, 2012
January 23, 2012
Dear Family,
What a great week!
We had another zone conference. It was super good, super inspiring. It was just what the zone needed because lots of missionaries had gotten a little out of focus from Christmas, so this helped to get everyone back on track. They talked about vision and showed this really cool video about soap sculptors and how you can create anything, it just depends on what you see in the soap bar. Try and see if you can find it. The message was that in our lives and in the lives of our investigators, we can take any possible form we desire, we just need to have a vision of what we or they can become. Neat. So we have this really cool investigator named Damian. He’s 19 and his older sister is a convert from about 3 years ago. Anyway, we’ve been teaching him for about the last 3 or 4 weeks but we could not at all get him to commit to come to church. Some people will say yes, and not go, but Damian wouldn’t commit at all. We tried so much to find out what was holding him back and he told us he didn’t even know what was holding him back. So, we prayed really hard, and prepared a lesson about faith. We talked about how we use our faith to gain a testimony of the truth (Alma 32) and we talked about how we can also us faith to produce miracles in our lives, using the story of Naaman (2 Kings 5), and finished up talking about the commandment to keep the Sabbath day holy. The spirit was really strong the whole lesson, and at the end my companion and I bore our testimonies, and then, without us even asking him he blurted out, "I’ll go to church this Sunday." Sunday rolled around. Sacrament meeting here is at the end. We waited outside church before Priesthood meeting started. Nobody. We went back and waited before Sunday school. Nobody. Finally before Sacrament meeting we waited until it started. Nobody. We walked in a little downcast, and then right as we were singing the opening hymn, in walks Damian with his sister. We were pretty happy. He really liked it, and this week we’re going to set a baptismal date with him. He’s going to institute with his sister, and just loving it too. The funny part is that he’s totally a punk rocker with long hair, bad habits, and again, one of the last people you would expect to get all excited about the gospel, but when the spirit works on somebody’s heart it changes. Don’t judge a book by its cover. Everybody needs the gospel. Everybody has some empty spot in their soul that is looking for the spirit to fill it. Parties, Music, Money, and things will not fill it. Only the restored gospel of Jesus Christ will fill it.
Well. This week we have lots of work cut out for us. I love you all, I thank you for your prayers and support. The church is true! He that endureth to the end, the same shall be saved.
-Elder Spencer
What a great week!
We had another zone conference. It was super good, super inspiring. It was just what the zone needed because lots of missionaries had gotten a little out of focus from Christmas, so this helped to get everyone back on track. They talked about vision and showed this really cool video about soap sculptors and how you can create anything, it just depends on what you see in the soap bar. Try and see if you can find it. The message was that in our lives and in the lives of our investigators, we can take any possible form we desire, we just need to have a vision of what we or they can become. Neat. So we have this really cool investigator named Damian. He’s 19 and his older sister is a convert from about 3 years ago. Anyway, we’ve been teaching him for about the last 3 or 4 weeks but we could not at all get him to commit to come to church. Some people will say yes, and not go, but Damian wouldn’t commit at all. We tried so much to find out what was holding him back and he told us he didn’t even know what was holding him back. So, we prayed really hard, and prepared a lesson about faith. We talked about how we use our faith to gain a testimony of the truth (Alma 32) and we talked about how we can also us faith to produce miracles in our lives, using the story of Naaman (2 Kings 5), and finished up talking about the commandment to keep the Sabbath day holy. The spirit was really strong the whole lesson, and at the end my companion and I bore our testimonies, and then, without us even asking him he blurted out, "I’ll go to church this Sunday." Sunday rolled around. Sacrament meeting here is at the end. We waited outside church before Priesthood meeting started. Nobody. We went back and waited before Sunday school. Nobody. Finally before Sacrament meeting we waited until it started. Nobody. We walked in a little downcast, and then right as we were singing the opening hymn, in walks Damian with his sister. We were pretty happy. He really liked it, and this week we’re going to set a baptismal date with him. He’s going to institute with his sister, and just loving it too. The funny part is that he’s totally a punk rocker with long hair, bad habits, and again, one of the last people you would expect to get all excited about the gospel, but when the spirit works on somebody’s heart it changes. Don’t judge a book by its cover. Everybody needs the gospel. Everybody has some empty spot in their soul that is looking for the spirit to fill it. Parties, Music, Money, and things will not fill it. Only the restored gospel of Jesus Christ will fill it.
Well. This week we have lots of work cut out for us. I love you all, I thank you for your prayers and support. The church is true! He that endureth to the end, the same shall be saved.
-Elder Spencer
Monday, January 16, 2012
Dear Family,
This week was great! Dario got baptized! It was so awesome. He invited three of his friends to come see it, and the spirit was so neat in the baptism and now his friends are really interested. He told us that he just feels so great, so clean, so awesome now that he’s baptized. It has really been such a blessing to witness such a mighty change in heart.
So I pretty much love this ward. Because of how well the Christmas activity we did turned out, the new Elder’s Quorum President is really excited to do lots of activities and so now we’re shooting to do one every other week. This week we had another winner: A Karaoke Night. It was super great and lots of investigators showed up. The best part was this: We have this investigator that’s a 65 year old man and super cool. As it turns out, he’s a charro (the lead singer in a mariachi band) and he’s really good and has a band of 12 mariachis and they have CDs and such. Mariachi is purely Mexican, so here they are very uncommon. Well, when we told him about the Karaoke night he got really excited and told us he would come. And he showed up with his entire mariachi uniform and a mariachi guitarist to accompany him. It was really quite the treat.
We also had quite the miraculous experience last night. We were at the house of a recent convert, Monica. She’s not that strong in the church, and she isn’t able to attend that much because she usually ends up staying home taking care of her mom, who’s old and wheelchair-bound. Well we were going over the restoration again with Monica and her husband (a member for many years) and suddenly her mom says: "I want to get baptized!" My comp and I were kinda shocked because we didn’t even know she was paying attention, but we obliged her request, and set a date for early February. Although because of her age she didn’t understand much of what we were teaching, she had felt the spirit as we sang and prayed and taught, and knew that it was good. Moral of the story: when the Spirit reaches a heart, the heart changes.
I love you all! The church is true!
-Elder Spencer
This week was great! Dario got baptized! It was so awesome. He invited three of his friends to come see it, and the spirit was so neat in the baptism and now his friends are really interested. He told us that he just feels so great, so clean, so awesome now that he’s baptized. It has really been such a blessing to witness such a mighty change in heart.
So I pretty much love this ward. Because of how well the Christmas activity we did turned out, the new Elder’s Quorum President is really excited to do lots of activities and so now we’re shooting to do one every other week. This week we had another winner: A Karaoke Night. It was super great and lots of investigators showed up. The best part was this: We have this investigator that’s a 65 year old man and super cool. As it turns out, he’s a charro (the lead singer in a mariachi band) and he’s really good and has a band of 12 mariachis and they have CDs and such. Mariachi is purely Mexican, so here they are very uncommon. Well, when we told him about the Karaoke night he got really excited and told us he would come. And he showed up with his entire mariachi uniform and a mariachi guitarist to accompany him. It was really quite the treat.
We also had quite the miraculous experience last night. We were at the house of a recent convert, Monica. She’s not that strong in the church, and she isn’t able to attend that much because she usually ends up staying home taking care of her mom, who’s old and wheelchair-bound. Well we were going over the restoration again with Monica and her husband (a member for many years) and suddenly her mom says: "I want to get baptized!" My comp and I were kinda shocked because we didn’t even know she was paying attention, but we obliged her request, and set a date for early February. Although because of her age she didn’t understand much of what we were teaching, she had felt the spirit as we sang and prayed and taught, and knew that it was good. Moral of the story: when the Spirit reaches a heart, the heart changes.
I love you all! The church is true!
-Elder Spencer
Monday, January 9, 2012
January 9, 2012
Dear Family,
This week went grrrreat!!! So a couple of months ago we were working with lots of families that weren’t married. They were super nice people, but unfortunately they didn’t progress much and they’re still floating around the same status of wondering if they should get married even though they have several children together. Oh well. Well since then we’ve been fasting and praying a lot so that we could find new investigators who are ready for baptism. Our prayers were answered and last transfer we found lots of great people through the randomest of ways. A little old grandma who always sits outside told us she doesn’t want to listen to us, but she gave us two references and they turned out to be some of our best. One’s getting baptized next week, the other, early next month. I really know that the Lord listens to, and answers prayers.
This week, the biggest miracle we have seen was in one of our investigators, Dario. He’s a 30 year old single guy and has pretty much lived the life of the party for the last 10 years. When we first met up he seemed really depressed. He said that he had lots of fun living his life, but he didn’t feel peace in his life. He didn’t believe that he could develop the kind of will power that would help him resist the temptations that offer that kind of lifestyle. Well now he’s been coming to church for the last month. He wasn’t reading very well the Book of Mormon at first, but now he’s devouring it and marks up his copy a lot and is starting on 2 Nephi. His baptism is this Saturday and he’s so excited. This week in church he sat next to one of our other investigators, Maxi. Maxi was telling him that he didn’t think that he would be able to make it, to resist all the temptations and make the true change in his life, and Dario totally pumped him up and told him that he could do it, that they would change their lives together. Yesterday Dario brought us to the house of his best friend so that we could teach him and helped out a ton in the lesson.
If you knew the background and the lifestyle of Dario before we met him, you would probably think that that type of person could never change, but I really know that it is possible. The Holy Ghost can work a mighty change in the heart (Mosiah 5:2) of anyone that looks for it. All we have to do is start to experiment on the word (Alma 32:27-28), feasting daily on the words of Christ, and the Lord will work miracles. Never give up on anyone! The church really is true! The gospel really does change lives!
I love you all!
-Elder Spencer
PS - Transfers came in and.... I get to finish up my mission here with my trainee, Elder Bárcenas!! Yay!! We’re totally going to tear up the area here in a BIG STRONG FINISH!!
This week went grrrreat!!! So a couple of months ago we were working with lots of families that weren’t married. They were super nice people, but unfortunately they didn’t progress much and they’re still floating around the same status of wondering if they should get married even though they have several children together. Oh well. Well since then we’ve been fasting and praying a lot so that we could find new investigators who are ready for baptism. Our prayers were answered and last transfer we found lots of great people through the randomest of ways. A little old grandma who always sits outside told us she doesn’t want to listen to us, but she gave us two references and they turned out to be some of our best. One’s getting baptized next week, the other, early next month. I really know that the Lord listens to, and answers prayers.
This week, the biggest miracle we have seen was in one of our investigators, Dario. He’s a 30 year old single guy and has pretty much lived the life of the party for the last 10 years. When we first met up he seemed really depressed. He said that he had lots of fun living his life, but he didn’t feel peace in his life. He didn’t believe that he could develop the kind of will power that would help him resist the temptations that offer that kind of lifestyle. Well now he’s been coming to church for the last month. He wasn’t reading very well the Book of Mormon at first, but now he’s devouring it and marks up his copy a lot and is starting on 2 Nephi. His baptism is this Saturday and he’s so excited. This week in church he sat next to one of our other investigators, Maxi. Maxi was telling him that he didn’t think that he would be able to make it, to resist all the temptations and make the true change in his life, and Dario totally pumped him up and told him that he could do it, that they would change their lives together. Yesterday Dario brought us to the house of his best friend so that we could teach him and helped out a ton in the lesson.
If you knew the background and the lifestyle of Dario before we met him, you would probably think that that type of person could never change, but I really know that it is possible. The Holy Ghost can work a mighty change in the heart (Mosiah 5:2) of anyone that looks for it. All we have to do is start to experiment on the word (Alma 32:27-28), feasting daily on the words of Christ, and the Lord will work miracles. Never give up on anyone! The church really is true! The gospel really does change lives!
I love you all!
-Elder Spencer
PS - Transfers came in and.... I get to finish up my mission here with my trainee, Elder Bárcenas!! Yay!! We’re totally going to tear up the area here in a BIG STRONG FINISH!!
Monday, January 2, 2012
January 2, 2012
Dear Family,
Wow, talk about a crazy week! New Year’s here in Jujuy is like WWII. Haha!! Seriously though, there were soo many fireworks. I normally sleep like a rock, but man, oh man, not even a bear in hibernation could sleep through that.
This week actually went great! We have this investigator named Micaela. She’s the 18 year old great granddaughter of one of our members. She was a reference and she seemed nice the first time we talked to her, but the first time we tried teaching her we heard from behind the door "if it’s the Jehovah’s witnesses tell them I’m not home." Haha. When her sister answered the door to tell us that Micaela "wasn’t home" we informed her that, all the same, we aren’t Jehovah’s Witnesses. Since then, Micaela saw us in the street a week or so later and told us that she actually did want us to teach her, so we’ve been teaching her and she’s progressing so great. She was usually a downcast shy girl, but ever since she’s been reading the Book of Mormon and praying, she’s totally changed, she's always happy, and she was so excited to give us a reference to go teach her aunt. She’s going to come with us and have a lesson all together. The gospel really changes lives! Put it into practice and it does wonders.
This weekend I got super super sick with a nasty stomach/intestine infection. On Saturday I was knocked out. I couldn’t even stand up. Between the medicine that the mission Doc had me buy and the bills I had to pay this month, and being right at the end of the month, I was completely out of money. One of the key things I needed to recover was Gatorade, and lots of it. The problem is, here, Gatorade is really expensive, like 3 times the cost of other beverages of equivalent size, and I had no money. Well, God worked a pretty huge miracle and on Saturday and Sunday I had an investigator and a member offer me big bottles of Gatorade, which is really uncommon for someone to just have on hand at home. It was just what I needed right when I needed it and it couldn’t have waited until Monday, when I would have received my monthly allowance.
I know that the Lord knows and loves each one of us. He provides miracles for us always. We need to recognize them and thank him for them. I love you all so much!
-Elder Spencer
Wow, talk about a crazy week! New Year’s here in Jujuy is like WWII. Haha!! Seriously though, there were soo many fireworks. I normally sleep like a rock, but man, oh man, not even a bear in hibernation could sleep through that.
This week actually went great! We have this investigator named Micaela. She’s the 18 year old great granddaughter of one of our members. She was a reference and she seemed nice the first time we talked to her, but the first time we tried teaching her we heard from behind the door "if it’s the Jehovah’s witnesses tell them I’m not home." Haha. When her sister answered the door to tell us that Micaela "wasn’t home" we informed her that, all the same, we aren’t Jehovah’s Witnesses. Since then, Micaela saw us in the street a week or so later and told us that she actually did want us to teach her, so we’ve been teaching her and she’s progressing so great. She was usually a downcast shy girl, but ever since she’s been reading the Book of Mormon and praying, she’s totally changed, she's always happy, and she was so excited to give us a reference to go teach her aunt. She’s going to come with us and have a lesson all together. The gospel really changes lives! Put it into practice and it does wonders.
This weekend I got super super sick with a nasty stomach/intestine infection. On Saturday I was knocked out. I couldn’t even stand up. Between the medicine that the mission Doc had me buy and the bills I had to pay this month, and being right at the end of the month, I was completely out of money. One of the key things I needed to recover was Gatorade, and lots of it. The problem is, here, Gatorade is really expensive, like 3 times the cost of other beverages of equivalent size, and I had no money. Well, God worked a pretty huge miracle and on Saturday and Sunday I had an investigator and a member offer me big bottles of Gatorade, which is really uncommon for someone to just have on hand at home. It was just what I needed right when I needed it and it couldn’t have waited until Monday, when I would have received my monthly allowance.
I know that the Lord knows and loves each one of us. He provides miracles for us always. We need to recognize them and thank him for them. I love you all so much!
-Elder Spencer
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