Dear Family,
We had a great week! Happy Easter to all!!
Easter here is kinda funny. So Argentina has lots of European influence (e.g. they use bidets). The Easter here is funny because they are suuuper Catholic, but they have big commercial traditions as well. For example, Easter eggs. I never really noticed much about Easter eggs in the states. Maybe the occasional chocolate bunny, or just lots of chocolate in general. Here however, they have a big custom of Easter eggs, which are big hollow chocolate eggs that have some goodies inside. The week of Easter, on almost every street corner there are people selling them, and they range in size from a grape to a football. Very entertaining. At the same time, there are big Catholic traditions surrounding Easter. One of the big ones down here is that they do lots of reenactments of the torturing and the crucifixion of Christ. Two nights this week we were sitting in the apartment at the end of the night planning for the next day when we heard what sounded like a riot outside. We looked out the window and saw a group of people acting out the scene of the Roman soldiers whipping Christ (with pretty legit costumes and everything) as a parade taking up the entire street with about 100 or so people watching them and following them. They went pretty slowly and stopped for a little bit when the got to each intersection, acted out a little more, and then a car that was following them with a big loudspeaker on top would start reading off some prayers and they continued the acting until the next intersection. I tried getting a video of it, but it was pretty dark, so I only got a few decent pictures. (There were a few egg-salesmen and a man with a popcorn cart who trailed behind too). It was nice to see them giving attention to this important time, but I felt like they just completely missed the boat, focusing on the trial and persecution after Christ had already done so much of what the Atonement is in Gethsemane, and forgetting to show the triumphant resurrected Savior.
Anyway, José is doing great and progressing well. We had lunch this week with him, and at the end of lunch after sharing the scripture we asked them the standard missionary question "Who do you know that we could share the gospel with?" José’s wife is a member since she was a kid, but is now inactive and working on reactivating. She gave us the standard member response. "Oh, elders, we know lots of people, but none of them would be interested in the gospel." José however, butted in and gave an awesome response: "Elders, we know lots of people, but we don’t know if they’re interested *yet*." What a great response! So many times we see our friends as they currently are, and how well their current self would fit in the church. We forget that people can change. That’s actually kinda the purpose, to change. And how do we know if our friends are interested unless we give them a chance? So be like José. Be great missionaries! Your friends are depending on you to bring them the gospel whether they know it or not.
I love you all tons! Happy Easter! Remember what it’s all about, then share it with someone!
-Elder Spencer
Monday, April 25, 2011
Monday, April 18, 2011
April 18, 2011
Dear Family,
This week we had some great things happen. Our best investigator, José, told us on Tuesday that he wanted to get baptized, and he felt like he had repented in his head, but not in his heart. He told us that he struggled a lot with prayer and having sincere prayers. (He said that every time he started to pray Messi popped into his head to score some epic goal, haha.) We had a really great lesson about prayer, read about Enos, and then helped him work out his problems with it giving suggestions, like thinking out what he was going to say before praying, or whispering silently the words rather than just thinking them. We then committed him to pray. Our next lesson with him, at the end of the week, he said that the week had been super difficult at work, but that he was able to find so much peace and strength through prayer, something which had been so difficult for him earlier. He had also never come to church before, and before, it was like pulling teeth to get him to commit to coming. That appointment, however, he told us how excited he was to come to church this week! We also had planned to reset his baptismal date that lesson because it had fallen, and when we were getting to the end of the lesson, he brought up the subject of his baptism himself and told us the day he wanted to get baptized. There you have it, prayer can change the night to day!!
In other news, our other investigators aren’t doing so hot. Fernando had lots of problems with a house he has in another providence, so he is traveling a lot and doesn’t have time. And the others have kinda fizzled out a little which gives us lots of time to... ...look for new ones!! We actually found some really cool new investigators this week who were super super receptive and we have lots of appointments for the coming week with them, so hopefully that will turn out well. In the mean time, we’ve also been working a lot with inactives and part-member families, and we’re starting to see some progress there too. The work progresses, brick by brick.
Anyway, love you all tons. The church is true! Tell everyone you know!
-Elder Spencer
This week we had some great things happen. Our best investigator, José, told us on Tuesday that he wanted to get baptized, and he felt like he had repented in his head, but not in his heart. He told us that he struggled a lot with prayer and having sincere prayers. (He said that every time he started to pray Messi popped into his head to score some epic goal, haha.) We had a really great lesson about prayer, read about Enos, and then helped him work out his problems with it giving suggestions, like thinking out what he was going to say before praying, or whispering silently the words rather than just thinking them. We then committed him to pray. Our next lesson with him, at the end of the week, he said that the week had been super difficult at work, but that he was able to find so much peace and strength through prayer, something which had been so difficult for him earlier. He had also never come to church before, and before, it was like pulling teeth to get him to commit to coming. That appointment, however, he told us how excited he was to come to church this week! We also had planned to reset his baptismal date that lesson because it had fallen, and when we were getting to the end of the lesson, he brought up the subject of his baptism himself and told us the day he wanted to get baptized. There you have it, prayer can change the night to day!!
In other news, our other investigators aren’t doing so hot. Fernando had lots of problems with a house he has in another providence, so he is traveling a lot and doesn’t have time. And the others have kinda fizzled out a little which gives us lots of time to... ...look for new ones!! We actually found some really cool new investigators this week who were super super receptive and we have lots of appointments for the coming week with them, so hopefully that will turn out well. In the mean time, we’ve also been working a lot with inactives and part-member families, and we’re starting to see some progress there too. The work progresses, brick by brick.
Anyway, love you all tons. The church is true! Tell everyone you know!
-Elder Spencer
Monday, April 11, 2011
April 11, 2011
Dear Family,
Wonderful week! Today was great! We went down with both of the Tucuman zones (about 50 missionaries) to a dam and had an asado (Argentine BBQ). My first companion taught me how to make a pretty solid charcoal fire, and I learned about my 2nd month on a mission that a frisbee works really well for fanning fire, so I made the fire and it turned out pretty delicious. That’s one of the great parts of Argentina, the meat. There’s meat in every meal. Meat meat meat meat. You still have to be careful, though. Last week my comp and I decided to make "choripan", which is basically just bratwurst, but you use the Argentine mystery sausage, chorizo. Yep, we both got pretty sick off that and had to have healthy dosages of pepto bismol afterwards. Oh well, it was pretty delicious.
Well, the missionary work is coming along really well. Elder Petersen and I get along fantastically and we have a great time working together. Fernando’s doing great. In one week he read to... (drum roll please) ...1 Nephi 19! Pretty impressive. I think that’s the farthest I’ve ever had an investigator read. We had a great lesson with him this week and we brought over the stake patriarch, who happens to live in our ward and be about the same age as him, and it was a good lesson. One of the coolest stories from this week was that of a couple we’ve been working with, Martin and Sandra. He’s an inactive and she’s not a member. They have lots of weird beliefs, kinda agnostic, they think that God is just an energy. This has always presented a problem with prayer because they don’t feel like God is anything you can direct yourself to in prayer. We talked about prayer a little and then invited them to pray every single day to ask God if he existed and if our message was true. They didn’t want to because they didn’t think it would work. Then we explained that that is when faith comes in, and sooner or later we will always be backed up to the wall of faith, having to walk into uncertainty solely trusting. We invited them to trust in our words and pray every day, and... they accepted! We were so excited that we fasted this weekend that they would get a response. We have an appointment with them tomorrow and can’t wait to find out how it went.
Well, that’s about all for this week. I love you all tons! The church is true! Tell all your friends, for "their souls are precious" (Alma 31:35).
-Elder Spencer
My good lookin' comp Elder Petersen and I
The beautiful views at Cadillal
Wonderful week! Today was great! We went down with both of the Tucuman zones (about 50 missionaries) to a dam and had an asado (Argentine BBQ). My first companion taught me how to make a pretty solid charcoal fire, and I learned about my 2nd month on a mission that a frisbee works really well for fanning fire, so I made the fire and it turned out pretty delicious. That’s one of the great parts of Argentina, the meat. There’s meat in every meal. Meat meat meat meat. You still have to be careful, though. Last week my comp and I decided to make "choripan", which is basically just bratwurst, but you use the Argentine mystery sausage, chorizo. Yep, we both got pretty sick off that and had to have healthy dosages of pepto bismol afterwards. Oh well, it was pretty delicious.
Well, the missionary work is coming along really well. Elder Petersen and I get along fantastically and we have a great time working together. Fernando’s doing great. In one week he read to... (drum roll please) ...1 Nephi 19! Pretty impressive. I think that’s the farthest I’ve ever had an investigator read. We had a great lesson with him this week and we brought over the stake patriarch, who happens to live in our ward and be about the same age as him, and it was a good lesson. One of the coolest stories from this week was that of a couple we’ve been working with, Martin and Sandra. He’s an inactive and she’s not a member. They have lots of weird beliefs, kinda agnostic, they think that God is just an energy. This has always presented a problem with prayer because they don’t feel like God is anything you can direct yourself to in prayer. We talked about prayer a little and then invited them to pray every single day to ask God if he existed and if our message was true. They didn’t want to because they didn’t think it would work. Then we explained that that is when faith comes in, and sooner or later we will always be backed up to the wall of faith, having to walk into uncertainty solely trusting. We invited them to trust in our words and pray every day, and... they accepted! We were so excited that we fasted this weekend that they would get a response. We have an appointment with them tomorrow and can’t wait to find out how it went.
Well, that’s about all for this week. I love you all tons! The church is true! Tell all your friends, for "their souls are precious" (Alma 31:35).
-Elder Spencer
My good lookin' comp Elder Petersen and I
The beautiful views at Cadillal
Monday, April 4, 2011
April 4, 2011
Dear Family,
An awesome week! It started off with this wonderful investigator we have. His name is Fernando and he is an older man. Last week we were looking for an address and asked him for directions. We got to talking and he told us that he had always seen us walking around and had been curious about what we do. We asked him if he had a minute to talk and he did and invited us into his house. He is super sincere, just trying to become closer to God and open to really anything. We taught him a little about how God calls prophets to guide us and how he established his church during Christ's ministry. We left him a pamphlet to read and came back this week. When we got there he told us that he didn't have very good memory, but read the pamphlet every single day and had lots of questions. His biggest question was: Where can I get a copy of the Book of Mormon and how much is it? He was in luck because we just happened to have a few copies of that book lying around so we could give him one. He was super excited to get it and we're getting together on Tuesday so hopefully it goes well.
The thing that struck me most about that experience was that it was just some random guy whom we asked for directions. He asked us why we were so different from the normal young people and we responded with a simple invitation. How many people do we know like Fernando? People who would accept the gospel, but are held back by shyness (ours or theirs). In conference, I think President Uchtdorf said something like: "We should preach the gospel at all times, and if necessary, use words." Be wonderful examples of the gospel and when people ask why you are so different, respond with a simple invitation to come to church, or learn more.
I hope you loved conference!! It was wonderful! How about another temple for Colorado?! And for those of you who saw priesthood session, go BYU Basketball!! =)
I love you all! The church is so true!!
-Elder Spencer
An awesome week! It started off with this wonderful investigator we have. His name is Fernando and he is an older man. Last week we were looking for an address and asked him for directions. We got to talking and he told us that he had always seen us walking around and had been curious about what we do. We asked him if he had a minute to talk and he did and invited us into his house. He is super sincere, just trying to become closer to God and open to really anything. We taught him a little about how God calls prophets to guide us and how he established his church during Christ's ministry. We left him a pamphlet to read and came back this week. When we got there he told us that he didn't have very good memory, but read the pamphlet every single day and had lots of questions. His biggest question was: Where can I get a copy of the Book of Mormon and how much is it? He was in luck because we just happened to have a few copies of that book lying around so we could give him one. He was super excited to get it and we're getting together on Tuesday so hopefully it goes well.
The thing that struck me most about that experience was that it was just some random guy whom we asked for directions. He asked us why we were so different from the normal young people and we responded with a simple invitation. How many people do we know like Fernando? People who would accept the gospel, but are held back by shyness (ours or theirs). In conference, I think President Uchtdorf said something like: "We should preach the gospel at all times, and if necessary, use words." Be wonderful examples of the gospel and when people ask why you are so different, respond with a simple invitation to come to church, or learn more.
I hope you loved conference!! It was wonderful! How about another temple for Colorado?! And for those of you who saw priesthood session, go BYU Basketball!! =)
I love you all! The church is so true!!
-Elder Spencer
Monday, March 28, 2011
March 28, 2011
Dear Family,
Well this week was downright awesome. First, a clarification, Tucuman is a pretty big city, and it has zones, so I am now in the other zone on the opposite side of the city. Anyway, I love my new ward, it is called Villa Alem, and it is wonderful. It is the biggest ward in the mission with 4 missionaries and roughly 160 active members. It used to be much bigger, and they’ve already divided another ward and a branch off of it because it is just solid. It’ll probably form the next stake here in Tucuman.
Anyway, my new companion is seriously awesome. He is super new, on his second transfer, but is not afraid to talk, and his Spanish is improving super quickly. He’s also a super genius and knows tons about the gospel and we get along fantastic. This week we taught several lessons where the spirit was just so strong that I couldn’t help just walking around with a big grin on my face the whole rest of the day.
One of our lessons was with a recent convert who relapsed to her smoking addiction and is having a hard time quitting. We read Alma 43:45-50 and talked about how even when our opposition is strong and we want to give up, we just need a little inspiration. It can come from church leaders or scriptures, or thinking about loved ones, then, if we pray with all our might we can overcome the difficulty. With her, we had her write down a list of reasons why she wanted to quit, an inspiration list. It included her health, being free, her children and setting an example for them, and being able to feel the spirit. We then challenged her to read that and pray every time she felt like smoking. So far she’s been doing good. I’ll let you know how it goes.
This weekend we have General Conference. Can you imagine? We have the opportunity to listen to the prophet of God. What an incredible opportunity!!! Don’t miss one minute!
The church is true!
-Elder Spencer
Well this week was downright awesome. First, a clarification, Tucuman is a pretty big city, and it has zones, so I am now in the other zone on the opposite side of the city. Anyway, I love my new ward, it is called Villa Alem, and it is wonderful. It is the biggest ward in the mission with 4 missionaries and roughly 160 active members. It used to be much bigger, and they’ve already divided another ward and a branch off of it because it is just solid. It’ll probably form the next stake here in Tucuman.
Anyway, my new companion is seriously awesome. He is super new, on his second transfer, but is not afraid to talk, and his Spanish is improving super quickly. He’s also a super genius and knows tons about the gospel and we get along fantastic. This week we taught several lessons where the spirit was just so strong that I couldn’t help just walking around with a big grin on my face the whole rest of the day.
One of our lessons was with a recent convert who relapsed to her smoking addiction and is having a hard time quitting. We read Alma 43:45-50 and talked about how even when our opposition is strong and we want to give up, we just need a little inspiration. It can come from church leaders or scriptures, or thinking about loved ones, then, if we pray with all our might we can overcome the difficulty. With her, we had her write down a list of reasons why she wanted to quit, an inspiration list. It included her health, being free, her children and setting an example for them, and being able to feel the spirit. We then challenged her to read that and pray every time she felt like smoking. So far she’s been doing good. I’ll let you know how it goes.
This weekend we have General Conference. Can you imagine? We have the opportunity to listen to the prophet of God. What an incredible opportunity!!! Don’t miss one minute!
The church is true!
-Elder Spencer
Monday, March 21, 2011
March 21, 2011
Dear Family,
A crazy week!! It all started out on Monday when I felt like I got a pebble or something small in my eye. I pretty much ignored it until Wednesday night when it started getting pretty painful. Now, in Argentina you don’t really need a prescription for anything; you can just go to a pharmacy and ask the pharmacist, and if it doesn’t sound too ridiculous they’ll give it to you. On Wednesday night my eye was hurting like mad, so in a frantic decision I ran in to the pharmacy and asked them for something to fix it. I thought I had gotten it from a cat I was playing with on Monday, so the pharmacist gave me some random antibacterial eye drop. Zone Conference was the next day and while we were there the mission mom told me "Elder Spencer! You’re supposed to call me before buying medication, you know that!" I had honestly completely forgotten that we were supposed to do that.
We looked through her medical binder and decided that I had pinkeye from what the descriptions were (she doesn’t have medical training, but they give all the missions a really nice diagnostic book), so I went off and got pinkeye medicine. While I was figuring out what type I needed to buy I called the missionary doctor for the area and told him my story. He told me exactly what I needed, and after hearing what I did at first (buying eyedrops without calling) he said "Elder, I really wish you wouldn’t do that. Those eye drops have substances that many people are allergic to and it could have really harmed you." (Luckily, I had only used them twice before realizing how dumb that was.)
The story continues... after 2 days, the pain wasn’t going away and it was getting way worse, almost excruciating when I saw light. I called him again and after hearing what I had to say he immediately realized the I had an ulcer in my cornea. He prescribed me some eye drops and told me to see an eye doctor to see what they said. Well, as it turns out, the missionary doctor is a complete stud and was exactly right and diagnosed to the nail what I had and needed, and the eye doctor just told me I have to wear and eyepatch for the next couple of days for it to heal more quickly. The pain is almost completely gone and I am much better.
So moral of the story: Sometimes we decide not to obey God’s commandments. In Elder Kearon’s talk in October 2010 General conference, he said that many times, out of laziness or rebelliousness we decide not to obey the commandments; and whenever we do that we invite undesirable results. I honestly forgot that that was a mission rule that we always needed to call the doctor, but by not consciously making an effort to remember the commandments and their importance, we choose to forget. I wonder how many times God says the same thing as the doctor when we disobey the commandments. "Jonathan, I really wish you wouldn’t do that. Those activities will harm you. That’s why I forbid them, because I love you and want the best for you." We cannot afford to let laziness, rebelliousness, or forgetfulness keep us from keeping the commandments. When we stop consistently making the effort to remember the importance of trusting in God by daily scripture study, we fall into the same group as Laman and Lemuel. My dumb mistake turned out all right, but it caused extreme pain. As the doctor said, corneal pain is some of the most intense pain of the body. Whenever we choose to trust in the arm of flesh instead of the arm of God, we get stung, bad.
Anyway, hope you liked my little story. I got transferred and I’m back in Tucuman with Elder Peterson from Maple Valley, Washington. I love you all tons!! Go BYU Basketball!!!!!
-Elder Spencer
A crazy week!! It all started out on Monday when I felt like I got a pebble or something small in my eye. I pretty much ignored it until Wednesday night when it started getting pretty painful. Now, in Argentina you don’t really need a prescription for anything; you can just go to a pharmacy and ask the pharmacist, and if it doesn’t sound too ridiculous they’ll give it to you. On Wednesday night my eye was hurting like mad, so in a frantic decision I ran in to the pharmacy and asked them for something to fix it. I thought I had gotten it from a cat I was playing with on Monday, so the pharmacist gave me some random antibacterial eye drop. Zone Conference was the next day and while we were there the mission mom told me "Elder Spencer! You’re supposed to call me before buying medication, you know that!" I had honestly completely forgotten that we were supposed to do that.
We looked through her medical binder and decided that I had pinkeye from what the descriptions were (she doesn’t have medical training, but they give all the missions a really nice diagnostic book), so I went off and got pinkeye medicine. While I was figuring out what type I needed to buy I called the missionary doctor for the area and told him my story. He told me exactly what I needed, and after hearing what I did at first (buying eyedrops without calling) he said "Elder, I really wish you wouldn’t do that. Those eye drops have substances that many people are allergic to and it could have really harmed you." (Luckily, I had only used them twice before realizing how dumb that was.)
The story continues... after 2 days, the pain wasn’t going away and it was getting way worse, almost excruciating when I saw light. I called him again and after hearing what I had to say he immediately realized the I had an ulcer in my cornea. He prescribed me some eye drops and told me to see an eye doctor to see what they said. Well, as it turns out, the missionary doctor is a complete stud and was exactly right and diagnosed to the nail what I had and needed, and the eye doctor just told me I have to wear and eyepatch for the next couple of days for it to heal more quickly. The pain is almost completely gone and I am much better.
So moral of the story: Sometimes we decide not to obey God’s commandments. In Elder Kearon’s talk in October 2010 General conference, he said that many times, out of laziness or rebelliousness we decide not to obey the commandments; and whenever we do that we invite undesirable results. I honestly forgot that that was a mission rule that we always needed to call the doctor, but by not consciously making an effort to remember the commandments and their importance, we choose to forget. I wonder how many times God says the same thing as the doctor when we disobey the commandments. "Jonathan, I really wish you wouldn’t do that. Those activities will harm you. That’s why I forbid them, because I love you and want the best for you." We cannot afford to let laziness, rebelliousness, or forgetfulness keep us from keeping the commandments. When we stop consistently making the effort to remember the importance of trusting in God by daily scripture study, we fall into the same group as Laman and Lemuel. My dumb mistake turned out all right, but it caused extreme pain. As the doctor said, corneal pain is some of the most intense pain of the body. Whenever we choose to trust in the arm of flesh instead of the arm of God, we get stung, bad.
Anyway, hope you liked my little story. I got transferred and I’m back in Tucuman with Elder Peterson from Maple Valley, Washington. I love you all tons!! Go BYU Basketball!!!!!
-Elder Spencer
Monday, March 14, 2011
March 14, 2011
Dear Family,
Super busy week, but super great. The biggest thing was having the Mission President come down on Saturday for an audit of the financial records, and then talking in church on Sunday. That turned out to be about a 2-hour sacrament meeting, because they had 4 people talk: Him, his counselor, my comp, and one of the members, and all of the talks were *really* long. The President’s talk was really good though. He talked about 1 Nephi 14:11-14 and how they church will always be comparatively small because of how much of a hold Satan has on the hearts of the world. He then, however taught that although we are small, we will go forth and cover the earth. The Mission Presidents had a meeting with Elder Anderson and he told them that they need to get Argentina (and every other country) self sufficient and more with missionaries, because the First Presidency is currently having talks with Chinese leaders and the time is soooo close to be able to get into mainland China, and when we do go in, the current 50,000 missionaries we have aren’t enough for just China. That’s part of why last conference the Prophet made the call for missionaries, we need them!! So, you future missionaries, get ready!!!
Anyway, I’m out of time, but I love you all tons! The church is so true!!!
-Elder Spencer
Super busy week, but super great. The biggest thing was having the Mission President come down on Saturday for an audit of the financial records, and then talking in church on Sunday. That turned out to be about a 2-hour sacrament meeting, because they had 4 people talk: Him, his counselor, my comp, and one of the members, and all of the talks were *really* long. The President’s talk was really good though. He talked about 1 Nephi 14:11-14 and how they church will always be comparatively small because of how much of a hold Satan has on the hearts of the world. He then, however taught that although we are small, we will go forth and cover the earth. The Mission Presidents had a meeting with Elder Anderson and he told them that they need to get Argentina (and every other country) self sufficient and more with missionaries, because the First Presidency is currently having talks with Chinese leaders and the time is soooo close to be able to get into mainland China, and when we do go in, the current 50,000 missionaries we have aren’t enough for just China. That’s part of why last conference the Prophet made the call for missionaries, we need them!! So, you future missionaries, get ready!!!
Anyway, I’m out of time, but I love you all tons! The church is so true!!!
-Elder Spencer
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
