Dear Family,
It’s been a great week to be a Lakewood Tiger! Raaarrrrrrr!!! On Monday we found this awesome family. On Friday we went back to their house and they had done everything we left for them as homework (aka, read pamphlet). Yay! Rare! and they understood everything and they read it again the night before we came just to have it fresh. On Friday we introduced them to the Book of Mormon and invited them to be baptized if they received a testimony. They accepted. I’m pretty sure they’ll get baptized. The mom told us that she had searched for lots of answers through prayer to know what to do in big decisions and had received responses. Sounds like she’s pretty prepared to receive us. :)
This week was also a little bit of a bummer in church because it was super cold and it rained really hard, which means that the two investigators that were going to get baptized this week didn’t come to church, which means they won’t be getting baptized this week. A little frustrating, because one of them was having a hard time getting up on time for church so we decided to pass by his house every day at 8:30 to wake him up to get him in the habit so he wouldn’t have a hard time on Sunday. He woke up every single day on time... except for Sunday :/ oh well, diligence wins the prize.
Church itself was really good. We had ward conference and all the talks were super awesome. This one guy gave a great talk on member missionary work. He started off talking about "the new commandment" to love one another as *he* loves them. He talked about that that love is demonstrated most fully by missionary work and one of the points he highlighted is the need to recognize our duty that we really are all missionaries and we will be held accountable for the member missionary work we do or don’t do. He also talked about the need for befriending new converts and inactives, and that the reason that there are empty seats is because of lack of befriending before they reach full conversion. It is way easier for us to make friends with them than for them to make friends with us. Reach out!!
Anyway, other than that, all’s well in Zion. Elder Singer (the other elder who lives with us and a great friend of mine) is training and because of problems with the volcano ashes in Southern Argentina, his new comp took 3 days longer to get here. His comp’s really cool. His name is Elder Carlson (from Orem), but he doesn’t speak a lick of Spanish. Poor guy.
Love you all tons, family!
-Elder Spencer
Monday, August 1, 2011
Monday, July 25, 2011
July 25, 2011
Dear Family,
Kinda a crazy week, but a good one! Crazy because it was the last week of the transfer, so we didn’t know if my comp or I would be staying in the area or going. Great news, we’re staying together! I feel really blessed because I feel like I’ve worked hard, but I could still work even harder, so I feel like I’ve been given a second chance to work in this part of the viñard. The great part of the mission, and the church, is knowing that our calls to serve come straight from God. In the mission, not only is my calling straight from God, but the very place I am in is called from God, which means that I have a special purpose here right now. Pretty neat. Oh yeah, this week I also had to make a nice 8-hour round trip to Salta to get my visa finally worked out. Good news is that I’m completely legal for the next year.
So sad news, Fernando, our old investigator told us flat out he decided he didn’t fit in in our church. He told us that after 80 years of eating oranges, he didn’t want any apples. It’s always hard when people decide not to get baptized, especially when you know that they’ve felt the spirit teach them how true the message is. The good news is, this week we had 3 investigators in church, and in the coming weeks we’ll be having some baptisms.
Last night we were knocking doors and we ran into a couple who had just walked outside to start arguing. We started talking with them and I realized how much it’s true that the Gospel blesses families. Without the Gospel, families become one of the sources of greatest pain and suffering, but with the Gospel in our families, men might really have joy. Thanks for being a great family! I love you guys a lot! The church is true!!
-Elder Spencer
Kinda a crazy week, but a good one! Crazy because it was the last week of the transfer, so we didn’t know if my comp or I would be staying in the area or going. Great news, we’re staying together! I feel really blessed because I feel like I’ve worked hard, but I could still work even harder, so I feel like I’ve been given a second chance to work in this part of the viñard. The great part of the mission, and the church, is knowing that our calls to serve come straight from God. In the mission, not only is my calling straight from God, but the very place I am in is called from God, which means that I have a special purpose here right now. Pretty neat. Oh yeah, this week I also had to make a nice 8-hour round trip to Salta to get my visa finally worked out. Good news is that I’m completely legal for the next year.
So sad news, Fernando, our old investigator told us flat out he decided he didn’t fit in in our church. He told us that after 80 years of eating oranges, he didn’t want any apples. It’s always hard when people decide not to get baptized, especially when you know that they’ve felt the spirit teach them how true the message is. The good news is, this week we had 3 investigators in church, and in the coming weeks we’ll be having some baptisms.
Last night we were knocking doors and we ran into a couple who had just walked outside to start arguing. We started talking with them and I realized how much it’s true that the Gospel blesses families. Without the Gospel, families become one of the sources of greatest pain and suffering, but with the Gospel in our families, men might really have joy. Thanks for being a great family! I love you guys a lot! The church is true!!
-Elder Spencer
Monday, July 18, 2011
July 18, 2011
Dear Family,
An excellent week!!
So update on Fernando (our 78-year old stud). We went there on Tuesday and he gave us some bad news. He had gone on Sunday to a birthday party for his mom (98!!!) and it was a big family reunion. The topic of religion popped up and he told them how he was planning on getting baptized. That opened up a huge can of worms and they all ganged up on him telling him that he was disgracing his family by breaking the tradition of Catholicism that had existed since his great grandfather. When we got there on Tuesday he told us: "Bad news, my friends, I’m not going to get baptized." We listened intently as he told us what had happened. Then we explained to him that as far as religion is concerned, it’s not really a matter of preference, it’s either right or wrong. If it’s wrong, don’t follow it, but if it’s right, follow it, no matter what the consequence. We shared with him Mom’s conversion story, and then committed him to pray and seek an answer and then follow it, promising him that happiness would come by following that answer. We also invited him to come to church for the first time. We tried setting up a return appointment, but he said that he would tell us in church when to come by. So basically, everything hung on how church went. If it went well, we would be able to keep teaching him and he’d get baptized, if it went badly, I don’t think he was planning on setting up a return appointment. Well, we set up for José to take him to church and..... He loved it!! We’ve got an appointment with him on Tuesday, so I’ll let you know how he’s doing.
We met our new mission President this week. He’s super great! He’s young, he’s got 5 kids, and he’s about 45-50. He’s super direct and to the point. He gave us a wonderful conference on the doctrine of Christ.
My time to write is far spent, there is little remaining. I love you all tons! The church is true!!!
-Elder Spencer
An excellent week!!
So update on Fernando (our 78-year old stud). We went there on Tuesday and he gave us some bad news. He had gone on Sunday to a birthday party for his mom (98!!!) and it was a big family reunion. The topic of religion popped up and he told them how he was planning on getting baptized. That opened up a huge can of worms and they all ganged up on him telling him that he was disgracing his family by breaking the tradition of Catholicism that had existed since his great grandfather. When we got there on Tuesday he told us: "Bad news, my friends, I’m not going to get baptized." We listened intently as he told us what had happened. Then we explained to him that as far as religion is concerned, it’s not really a matter of preference, it’s either right or wrong. If it’s wrong, don’t follow it, but if it’s right, follow it, no matter what the consequence. We shared with him Mom’s conversion story, and then committed him to pray and seek an answer and then follow it, promising him that happiness would come by following that answer. We also invited him to come to church for the first time. We tried setting up a return appointment, but he said that he would tell us in church when to come by. So basically, everything hung on how church went. If it went well, we would be able to keep teaching him and he’d get baptized, if it went badly, I don’t think he was planning on setting up a return appointment. Well, we set up for José to take him to church and..... He loved it!! We’ve got an appointment with him on Tuesday, so I’ll let you know how he’s doing.
We met our new mission President this week. He’s super great! He’s young, he’s got 5 kids, and he’s about 45-50. He’s super direct and to the point. He gave us a wonderful conference on the doctrine of Christ.
My time to write is far spent, there is little remaining. I love you all tons! The church is true!!!
-Elder Spencer
Monday, July 11, 2011
July 11, 2011
Dear Family,
Well this week was great! Great, but tiring. We have lots of investigators that are almost progressing well. Almost. Translation, we have been working a lot, visiting them, committing them, following up, making arrangements for people to walk with them to church, recommitting, etc. The good news is that we have about 5 people committed firmly to get baptized this and next month. The bad news is that it is pulling teeth to get them to come to church. Oh well, salvation isn’t a cheap experience.
One especially cool experience we had. Remember Fernando, our awesome 78-year old investigator who was just dying to get hold of the Book of Mormon (no pun intended). We had taught him, then he had tons of problems with a mortgage to work out, so we left him for a while. We ran into him a month later; things had improved, but he still had some issues to take care of. Well this week we had some plans fall through one night and we decided to pay him a visit. He was very excited to see us. :) He’s already in Helaman 6! We talked for about 10 minutes and circled the conversation around to baptism. Earlier, he had a baptismal date, but it had fallen because we stopped teaching him. I asked him how he felt about putting another baptism goal and he readily accepted. He offered the closing prayer, and in it prayed that he would be able to get baptized and that he would be able to prepare himself in time for his goal (mid August). It was a very nice appointment. He has such a humble, accepting heart. He loves the Book of Mormon. It’s a pretty good book :)
This week’s going to be busy! We’ve got conference and interviews with the new Mission President. We’ve also got to work like crazy to get all of our investigators to church. We had one baptism scheduled for Saturday, but he can’t get baptized because he didn’t go to church, so we had to bump it back again. My comp’s great! Today he cooked pizza for the whole district. What a stud!
Love you all tons! The church is true!
-Elder Spencer
Well this week was great! Great, but tiring. We have lots of investigators that are almost progressing well. Almost. Translation, we have been working a lot, visiting them, committing them, following up, making arrangements for people to walk with them to church, recommitting, etc. The good news is that we have about 5 people committed firmly to get baptized this and next month. The bad news is that it is pulling teeth to get them to come to church. Oh well, salvation isn’t a cheap experience.
One especially cool experience we had. Remember Fernando, our awesome 78-year old investigator who was just dying to get hold of the Book of Mormon (no pun intended). We had taught him, then he had tons of problems with a mortgage to work out, so we left him for a while. We ran into him a month later; things had improved, but he still had some issues to take care of. Well this week we had some plans fall through one night and we decided to pay him a visit. He was very excited to see us. :) He’s already in Helaman 6! We talked for about 10 minutes and circled the conversation around to baptism. Earlier, he had a baptismal date, but it had fallen because we stopped teaching him. I asked him how he felt about putting another baptism goal and he readily accepted. He offered the closing prayer, and in it prayed that he would be able to get baptized and that he would be able to prepare himself in time for his goal (mid August). It was a very nice appointment. He has such a humble, accepting heart. He loves the Book of Mormon. It’s a pretty good book :)
This week’s going to be busy! We’ve got conference and interviews with the new Mission President. We’ve also got to work like crazy to get all of our investigators to church. We had one baptism scheduled for Saturday, but he can’t get baptized because he didn’t go to church, so we had to bump it back again. My comp’s great! Today he cooked pizza for the whole district. What a stud!
Love you all tons! The church is true!
-Elder Spencer
Monday, July 4, 2011
July 4, 2011
Dear Family,
Another exciting week! It started off with another interesting story. So on Wednesday we had a service project. I really ought to just delegate them considering my past experience. This week a sister from the ward needed help taking the roof off of a shack in her backyard. Here pretty much all the roofs are made out of those wavy metal sheets (corrugated steel?). She needed the roof for another part of her house, and she had an old shack in her backyard with lots of extra roof, so instead of having to buy new roof sheets, she had us take off the old ones. Problem: we did the service in the morning so there was frost on the roof. Another problem: I’m pretty reckless when it comes to climbing up buildings. Biggest problem: the neighbors had a wall right next to the roof with a nice inviting topping of broken glass bottles. So, put two and two together and I was walking along the edge of the roof, slipped, and jammed my hand on the bottles. Yeah, bad news bears. The good news is, I was able to jam some cotton balls in a glove with my hand, and by the time we finished it stopped bleeding. It’s a much smaller wound than the machete chop, and it’s almost healed. Next week I’ll send pics.
Also, I got all your letters!!! Thanks a million!! It was great hearing from you guys and receiving all your love. I really appreciate it. Today to celebrate the 4th of July we went up to the mountains and got lost again. Haha, we accidently missed the city bus back, so we ended up taking a nice 3 hour trip by foot, local bus, and taxi. We did get to see some really cool waterfalls, though. God Bless America!
This week we also found this really cool newlywed couple. I don’t know if I told you, but here it’s pretty much a miracle to find people that are married, because the majority aren’t married (casados), they’re juntados (...together). Some people live their whole married life, have kids and everything without actually getting married. The sad part is when one dies and the other has absolutely no legal rights to inheritance and loses everything. Anyway this couple, Gabriel and Gabriela Gomez (no joke) are super legit. We knocked their door one day and Gabriel told us that he had always seen us walking around and had always wanted to talk to us. We obliged. We taught a great lesson to them and at the end of the lesson (their first one) set a baptismal date and they accepted. Gabriela said the closing prayer, her very first prayer, and started crying. It was a really cool moment. I’ll let you know how they progress.
This week I had the opportunity to give two priesthood blessings. On both occasions I felt the Spirit very strongly and was very grateful for being worthy and prepared to do that. We never know when the Lord needs us to help one of His children. Save the trouble and always be ready. The church is true!!!
I love you all so much!
-Elder Jonathan Spencer
Another exciting week! It started off with another interesting story. So on Wednesday we had a service project. I really ought to just delegate them considering my past experience. This week a sister from the ward needed help taking the roof off of a shack in her backyard. Here pretty much all the roofs are made out of those wavy metal sheets (corrugated steel?). She needed the roof for another part of her house, and she had an old shack in her backyard with lots of extra roof, so instead of having to buy new roof sheets, she had us take off the old ones. Problem: we did the service in the morning so there was frost on the roof. Another problem: I’m pretty reckless when it comes to climbing up buildings. Biggest problem: the neighbors had a wall right next to the roof with a nice inviting topping of broken glass bottles. So, put two and two together and I was walking along the edge of the roof, slipped, and jammed my hand on the bottles. Yeah, bad news bears. The good news is, I was able to jam some cotton balls in a glove with my hand, and by the time we finished it stopped bleeding. It’s a much smaller wound than the machete chop, and it’s almost healed. Next week I’ll send pics.
Also, I got all your letters!!! Thanks a million!! It was great hearing from you guys and receiving all your love. I really appreciate it. Today to celebrate the 4th of July we went up to the mountains and got lost again. Haha, we accidently missed the city bus back, so we ended up taking a nice 3 hour trip by foot, local bus, and taxi. We did get to see some really cool waterfalls, though. God Bless America!
This week we also found this really cool newlywed couple. I don’t know if I told you, but here it’s pretty much a miracle to find people that are married, because the majority aren’t married (casados), they’re juntados (...together). Some people live their whole married life, have kids and everything without actually getting married. The sad part is when one dies and the other has absolutely no legal rights to inheritance and loses everything. Anyway this couple, Gabriel and Gabriela Gomez (no joke) are super legit. We knocked their door one day and Gabriel told us that he had always seen us walking around and had always wanted to talk to us. We obliged. We taught a great lesson to them and at the end of the lesson (their first one) set a baptismal date and they accepted. Gabriela said the closing prayer, her very first prayer, and started crying. It was a really cool moment. I’ll let you know how they progress.
This week I had the opportunity to give two priesthood blessings. On both occasions I felt the Spirit very strongly and was very grateful for being worthy and prepared to do that. We never know when the Lord needs us to help one of His children. Save the trouble and always be ready. The church is true!!!
I love you all so much!
-Elder Jonathan Spencer
Monday, June 27, 2011
June 27, 2011
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
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 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
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