February 21, 2011

Dear Family,

Well this was a pretty busy week. So, big news is that the Branch President here was released and they made my companion the new branch president. The last president had been so for the last 10 years and in the last 2 months that I’ve been here, he came to church 3 times. The branch here needs lots of work to get things up to date, so Elder Mayhoffer and I have been working like crazy trying to track down addresses of people that haven’t been to church in 15 years and have moved twice. The Mission President announced that he was coming down this weekend to do the audit of the branch, so we also spent lots of time organizing things and preparing for that. As it turns out, his counselor called him at the last minute telling him that he wouldn’t be able to, which was good for us, because now we have a few more weeks to get everything ready.

In the February Ensign, there is a big theme of seeking out the lost souls, so when we got that and read it, I felt like it was written just for us. I really like the story of the prodigal son because of the reaction of the father. The father gave his son whatever he wanted, even when he knew that it might not be for his good. He respected his agency, and watched sorrowfully as his son discovered for himself that wickedness never was happiness. When the son returned, the father seeing him afar off ran to meet him and shared a tearful embrace. That father was anxiously watching for any sign of his son’s return. Our Father in Heaven does the same. The worth of souls is so great to Him and he loves each of his children so much and anxiously waits his return. When we had first started this project of tracking down all the old members, I had a kinda bad attitude. I just saw each one as another name that had broken a covenant with the Lord to stay active in the church. Studying that story helped me see how much Heavenly Father cares about every one of his children and no matter how far they have strayed, he waits anxiously for their return. A beautiful hymn that I recently discovered for the first time describes that love he has and our duty to help love his lost sheep back. - "Dear to the heart of the shepherd".

Anyway, that’s about all the time. I love you all! Happy Valentines day! We made the traditional heart shaped pizza, but since we’re missionaries it got broken really quick. :)

-Elder Spencer

February 14, 2011

Dear Family,

What a great week! I got the "Family Yearbook" that Mom sent me and it was great! You all are so good lookin’!

So this week we’ve been working a ton on tracking down all the inactives and inviting them to hear the missionary lessons again. We’ve been praying a lot that the Lord can soften the hearts of the people we are looking for and we’ve seen lots of miracles. People who have been under the radar for more than 10 years we were able to find by lots of "coincidences" (I’ve come to learn that there’s no such thing as coincidences, only tender mercies of the Lord helping us out.)

Super short on time, but I hope you all have a great week. The Lord answers prayers. The church is true!

-Elder Spencer

February 7, 2011

Dear Family,

What an awesome week! This week we had a total attendance of 10 people for fast and testimony meeting, but it was probably one of the best ones I’ve ever attended. The church is still true, even in a little city in the middle of Argentina!

The big news for the week is that we found out the transfers and Elder Mayhoffer and I are staying together for another 6 weeks, which we are both very happy about because we get along great and are ready to go all Samuel Smith all over Frías for the next month and a half. We’ve been working a whole lot more effectively the last couple weeks since we’ve both learned the area really well and started building good connections with the members and we’re glad that we get to keep on working together to keep up the momentum we’ve been building and the projects we’ve been working on and I feel like this transfer we’re going to be able to help the branch grow and strengthen a lot.

So we’ve just been on a roll with the great Family Home Evenings. This week we did one where we talked about testimonies and how it is something that once we have one we need to keep up. To illustrate that principle we made a testimony using the words of Christ (Corn Starch) and the Spirit (Water), which when you mix it well turns into a really cool liquid that stays liquid, but upon impact turns into a solid. You can pick it up, but if you don’t constantly keep it moving and constantly work on forming it and keeping it solid it turns back into a liquid and melts through your fingers. Super fun activity! Moral of the story: Testimony - if you don’t consistently work on it (Prayer, Scripture study, Church...) you lose it.

Anyway, that’s all the time for now. Love you all tons!!!

-Elder Spencer

January 31, 2011

Dear Family,

This week was great! It started off with the greatest family home evening lesson ever! Out here there are several members who are the only active member in their family so we do a Branch FHE for them where we have about half the active members (5-7 people) show up and we do a lesson. This week we decided to teach about building upon the Rock of our Redeemer (Hel. 5:12) and so my comp and I labored tediously during companionship study to make little cardboard houses. I made a nice simple brick house and he made the Babylon house that was covered in glitter glue. Then we read scriptures about how we can build upon the rock in our lives by living the gospel (3 Nephi 11:38-39), taking the sacrament every Sunday (3 Nephi 18:1-12) and hearing and *doing* the words of Christ (14:24). And then we did a super awesome demonstration where we filled a cardboard box with sand and a brick. We super-glued the bottom of both houses and put my house on the brick and the Babylon glitter-house on the sand. We then took the hose and let the rains come down and the floods come up as my comp power-sprayed the houses with the hose. Miraculously, my house stayed stuck on, but both houses were so soaked that they were kinda falling apart. Oh well, it was fun. :)

This week we’ve also been working super hard to update all the church records here. There are about 180 members on the list, and about 40 of them have moved, but nobody tracked down their new address, I think 5-10 of them are dead, and only about 10-15 actually come to church. So, we are now making a huge push to visit every single household and encourage them to return to church activity. The first presidency sent out a few months ago a new mission plan for working with ward councils to reactivate (and hence baptize lots from part member families and references from reactivated families. Recent converts and recently reactivated families are actually some of the best reference sources), but since there is no ward council here we’re just gonna do it all by ourselves. Haven’t been on it long enough to see fruits yet, but we’ve been getting great referrals and hopefully it’ll have good yields.

Anyway, that’s about all that time allows. I love you all tons! Let your light so shine so that men may see your good works and glorify your Father in Heaven. A question I wrote in my planner once: Do I live in such a way that people, without even talking to me can recognize me as a disciple of Christ?

The Church is true!

-Elder Spencer

January 24, 2011

Dear Family,

Well this week we had double the church attendance! 15 people showed up, which was super awesome, and part of it was some of the people that we had Home Taught during the week, so that was pretty nice to see some immediate fruits of our labor. In Preach My Gospel at the end of the first chapter it has quotes from all the Prophets on missionary work and one of them is really good. It says something like: "Missionary work is Home teaching to those that are not baptized yet, and Home teaching is missionary work to those that have already been baptized." I guess I always knew that Home Teaching was important, but when a prophet of God says something like that, it kinda makes you think a little bit more. Out here in most of the wards I’ve been in (especially this little branchito) there has been hardly any Home Teaching, which I think explains the low retention rates. It is soooo important! Elder Bednar said that Home Teaching is part of what it refers to in D&C when it talks about the keys to the ministering of angels. As Home and Visiting teachers, members get a chance to be ministering angels for other members. What an amazing principle! What a blessing for all that participate! I’m pretty sure that that is a large part of what president Hinckley referred to when he said that every new (and active and inactive and returning to activity) member needs a friend and to be nurtured by the good word of God. Moral of the story: Home Teaching is awesome and it totally works!

Elder Mayhoffer and I are also preparing a "General Conference Night" activity where we are going to watch 5 or so talks from this last General Conference. Out here they don’t have cable, or internet in the church, so only the Members who can afford the 2 ½ hour trip to the capital city get to see General Conference. :( Sad, huh? General conference is so awesome!

Anyway, short on time, but I love you all tons! I got lots of Christmas letters in the mail this week. Thanks sooooooooo much! I have the best lookin’ family out there! (You probably inherited it from me ;) ) The church is true!

Love, Elder Spencer

January 17, 2011

Dear Family,

Another great week. It was also another pretty crazy/awesome week. So on Thursday my comp and I had agreed to do a service project for a little old grandma here in the ward who hadn’t cut her grass in quite a while. As it turns out, the grass was really tall, like 2 ft. tall, so instead of using the suuuper wimpy plug-in electric weed whacker we opted for machetes. I must admit, it is kinda thrilling cutting grass with a machete and I was getting the hang of it pretty well when suddenly... I got a nice big gash in my thumb. We went inside, poured on some alcohol and taped on a kleenex and got back out there to finish the job: proof that I really am Richard’s son. Well it turned out being a pretty big gash, but we didn’t want to mess with going to a clinic or anything here so I just kinda soaped it up, poured on some hydrogen peroxide and bandaged it up. A day or so later, however, I decided I wanted to close it up more securely so I squeezed it shut and put some super glue on top to hold it shut. Now it’s doing a whole lot better.

Sunday was a pretty cool day. The church had a whopping 14.28% increase in attendance from last week!!! (8 instead of 7) Haha, but it was still really great. A man who had been baptized the week before I got there got ordained. It was so cool being in the circle ordaining him and watching him as he blessed the sacrament for the first time. The Spirit was so strong that day, testifying of the veracity of the authority. So cool. It doesn’t matter if here in Frías we are smaller than any other religious congregation, we have the authority of God, and no unhallowed hand can stop the work from going forth. Oh, it was also sooooo hot. We had been baking cookies after eating lunch, and we walked outside to work shortly after and it seriously felt hotter than standing in front of the oven. :) I tried imagining what snow would be like, but my mind couldn’t wrap itself around that concept. :)

Anyway, that kills my time for the week. I love you all! Church’s true!

Elder Spencer



The Frías chapel. It's a house that they rent out. That's about the full size of it. The chapel's about the size of the living room and the classrooms and bishop's office take up about the space of the girls' end bedrooms.



A chopped thumb.



A better look.

January 10, 2011

Hey Family!

This week was great! It was also a pretty crazy week. Biggest news of the week, my comp and I are now famous in Frías. Last week we were knocking doors when we ran into a way cool guy who turned out to be a part time radio announcer here in Frías. We got to talking and I asked him if some time it would be possible for us to have a little radio chat. He was completely fine with it and told us the hours he was on and told us to come on in on Saturday. We came in on Saturday and had a sweet little radio chat. We taught most of the first discussion between the questions he asked and invited the whole city to come to church. It was super fun and now we are famous! Haha!

So this Sunday was also a pretty crazy experience. It ended up raining this Sunday and so the total church attendance was... 7 people. My companion and I were the only priesthood holders so we ended up teaching all the classes, presiding, directing, doing the Sacrament, and giving the talks all by ourselves. It actually turned out being a really great meeting. It was a chance for me to realize that the church is true no matter where you go and that no matter how many people a church might have, it is the power and authority of the priesthood that makes the difference. All in all, it was actually one of the better sacrament meetings I have attended. Well family, time is short, but I love you tons. Keep the commandments, in this there is safety, in this there is peace. The book is blue, the church is true, Go Cougars!!

-Elder Spencer