Dear Family,
This week was fantastic!! The Ramos family is doing great and accepted the challenge to be baptized. The best part of the week, though, was being blessed with a personal visit from Elder D. Todd Christofferson!
So here’s kinda how it went. On Saturday we had a mission conference, where the whole entire mission traveled to Salta for the conference (a pretty big deal to have everyone together since some live more than 8 hours away from Salta). In the conference we had Elder Spitale (Area Seventy), Elder Arnold (Area President), Elder Jensen (Presidency of the Seventy), and Elder Christofferson (Apostle) and their wives. A pretty epic lineup. It was a really neat meeting. For the first hour there was a musical number and a few talks by Elder Jensen, his wife, and Elder Christofferson’s wife. President Levrieno and his wife bore their testimonies to the mission and that was really neat. Then, Elder Christofferson spoke. He is just a genuine wonderful guy. He even cracked a joke about how Spanish is better than Portuguese, haha. He talked for a few minutes and then left about a whole hour to answering questions. They were some great questions and some great answers. It was honestly probably the strongest I’ve ever felt the spirit in a meeting. Simply beautiful. We got to shake his hand at the end and when I did I told him my dad, Richard Spencer, said hi. He said I look a bit like him and told me to tell you hi, so there you go, Dad, consider yourself greeted. :)
Then on Sunday we had the extra special treat to be here in Jujuy because he came up here for a special stake conference. In it, he talked a lot about putting the family in order (D&C 93:50). He started out reminding the young single adults to get their act together and get married or they’d turn out ministering angels (D&C 132) and then talked about the utmost importance of the family traditions of daily family scripture study and daily family prayer. He finished up talking about how we need to be a light to the world (3 Nephi 18:24) and how the people around us need to recognize us as followers of Christ simply by the way we act.
I think what made the conferences so special was the special attachment that he had to this part of the world. He told us that he considered this mission sacred ground, and that whenever he assigns a missionary to come here he asks himself: "Really? Are they really worthy?" He said that we could probably all have the same if not more success in other parts of the world, in other missions, but the Lord wanted us here, now, for a very specific purpose.
It was pretty incredible. The spirit this last weekend has been a feast. After feeling that spirit there is no room for doubt that that man really is a Special Witness of Jesus Christ and has his Apostolic authority. Really, it’s the best birthday present I could ever ask for. I hope you all have an excellent week. I love you all tons! The church is true!!
-Elder Spencer
Monday, November 14, 2011
Monday, November 7, 2011
November 7, 2011
Dear Family,
Well this week, just like each and every week on the mission has been so great. Elder Bárcenas and I get along so well. I really like him a lot, he's really humble, happy and ready to work. It's really nice to be with a new missionary because they come onto the field with guns blazing ready to baptize the whole world, and that's exactly what we plan to do. :)
This week the best thing that happened was finding the Ramos family. Let me give you a little back story. President Northcutt used to have a required amount of street contacts and doors knocked per week. That went for a while, but for one reason or another he had the missionaries stop reporting the number of those that they did. As a result, all the missionaries completely stopped doing street contacts. A few months later, I got to Argentina. So basically, I went a good year and a half without ever doing more than a handful of street contacts because I didn't know it was something you were supposed to do. Then, President Levrino a few weeks ago challenged us to talk to everyone and promised us much more spiritual power as we "open[ed] [our] mouth[s]" (D&C 33:7-10) and shared with us a promise from Elder Ballard that if a missionary opened his mouth talking with everyone the Lord put in his pathway, he would have twice as many baptisms than if he had not. I took the challenge. It wasn't easy, nor still is, but miracles have followed as we have followed this promise from a man of God. (See 2 Kings 5:1-14.) The miracle that occurred this week was the Ramos family. Victoria Ramos was a street contact. We didn't think much of her, but one night after our plans had fallen through and we had a little time before we headed home, we dropped by her house.
They are from Bolivia and very humble. Two families live in the house: her family and the family of her brother-in-law. (Her husband and husband's brother are identical twins named Eduardo Carlos and Carlos Eduardo ... what a sense of humor that mother had. Haha!) Anyway, they are pretty much golden investigators. They have a 9-year old son who read the pamphlet we left with them and the chapter of the Book of Mormon and totally understood it all and had great questions. Carlos had read everything and even though we only left him 2 Nephi 31 to read, he read it and also started from the beginning of the Book of Mormon and read all of the introduction really thoroughly. They are probably the most sincere, humble seekers after truth that I have met in the mission. When Carlos gave the closing prayer in the last lesson he asked God forgiveness for having so many questions. What humility! They are great! I'll keep you posted on them. Pray for their progress.
On a side note, Ariel and Gisela are doing great! Ariel got the Aaronic Priesthood this week and they are so excited to be doing what God wants for them.
Anyway, that's been my miraculous week. I love you all so much! Miracles happen when we obey with exactness what the Lord asks of us.
The church is true!
-Elder Spencer
Well this week, just like each and every week on the mission has been so great. Elder Bárcenas and I get along so well. I really like him a lot, he's really humble, happy and ready to work. It's really nice to be with a new missionary because they come onto the field with guns blazing ready to baptize the whole world, and that's exactly what we plan to do. :)
This week the best thing that happened was finding the Ramos family. Let me give you a little back story. President Northcutt used to have a required amount of street contacts and doors knocked per week. That went for a while, but for one reason or another he had the missionaries stop reporting the number of those that they did. As a result, all the missionaries completely stopped doing street contacts. A few months later, I got to Argentina. So basically, I went a good year and a half without ever doing more than a handful of street contacts because I didn't know it was something you were supposed to do. Then, President Levrino a few weeks ago challenged us to talk to everyone and promised us much more spiritual power as we "open[ed] [our] mouth[s]" (D&C 33:7-10) and shared with us a promise from Elder Ballard that if a missionary opened his mouth talking with everyone the Lord put in his pathway, he would have twice as many baptisms than if he had not. I took the challenge. It wasn't easy, nor still is, but miracles have followed as we have followed this promise from a man of God. (See 2 Kings 5:1-14.) The miracle that occurred this week was the Ramos family. Victoria Ramos was a street contact. We didn't think much of her, but one night after our plans had fallen through and we had a little time before we headed home, we dropped by her house.
They are from Bolivia and very humble. Two families live in the house: her family and the family of her brother-in-law. (Her husband and husband's brother are identical twins named Eduardo Carlos and Carlos Eduardo ... what a sense of humor that mother had. Haha!) Anyway, they are pretty much golden investigators. They have a 9-year old son who read the pamphlet we left with them and the chapter of the Book of Mormon and totally understood it all and had great questions. Carlos had read everything and even though we only left him 2 Nephi 31 to read, he read it and also started from the beginning of the Book of Mormon and read all of the introduction really thoroughly. They are probably the most sincere, humble seekers after truth that I have met in the mission. When Carlos gave the closing prayer in the last lesson he asked God forgiveness for having so many questions. What humility! They are great! I'll keep you posted on them. Pray for their progress.
On a side note, Ariel and Gisela are doing great! Ariel got the Aaronic Priesthood this week and they are so excited to be doing what God wants for them.
Anyway, that's been my miraculous week. I love you all so much! Miracles happen when we obey with exactness what the Lord asks of us.
The church is true!
-Elder Spencer
Monday, October 31, 2011
October 31, 2011
Dear Family,
Wow, this week was super crazy. I’m so glad to be in this mission! I wish I could stay an extra two years!!
Ok first. My new companion came in!! His name is Elder Bárcenas and he’s awesome!!! He’s from Toluca Mexico and he’s pretty much a stud. So I went to Salta Tuesday at midday to pick him up because he was supposed to get in Tuesday night. To pass the time I went out to work in the afternoon with the elders who spend the morning doing office work. That was super fun and we had lots of great lessons. Then, about 6 o’clock we get a call that apparently he’s supposed to get in on Wednesday. I’m a little disappointed with that prospect because I didn’t bring any change of clothes with me from Jujuy, but still happy for a little change of scenery. We kept on working and went to their apartment at the end of the night. At about 10:30 we were all ready to crawl into bed when we get a phone call. Apparently the church offices in Buenos Aires had screwed up with the itinerary of my comp and he had actually flown in that night as we had originally thought. Here’s what happened. He waited at the airport for 2 hours. Then some friendly people who just happened to live a couple blocks from the church offices offered to take him there. Weighing his options, he accepted and got there about 10 at night and of course there was nobody there. They took him to a pay phone around the corner where he called the mission president from Mexico who called the church offices who called President Levrino (who was in Tucumán at the time). My comp headed back to the mission offices and Sister Levrino swung around to pick him up a few minutes later. Really, a pretty smooth turnout considering what could have happened. The next morning we went first thing to the mission home and picked up my companion. Yay! The only other bad news was that we had to stay another day in Salta to do his visa paperwork, and I still didn’t have any change of clothes, but that’s lo de menos. So that’s the big story. Now we’re all safe and sound and working our tails off here in Jujuy.
President Levrino is awesome. This month as a mission we had 177 baptisms. That’s more than the mission’s had since 1995. We’re just seeing so many miracles out here. We’re also all very excited for the visit of Elder Christofferson to Jujuy in two weeks (the 12 and 13 of November). I love the gospel so much and it’s so true! God is still a God of miracles! Look for them, obey, and you will find them.
Much love,
Elder Spencer
Wow, this week was super crazy. I’m so glad to be in this mission! I wish I could stay an extra two years!!
Ok first. My new companion came in!! His name is Elder Bárcenas and he’s awesome!!! He’s from Toluca Mexico and he’s pretty much a stud. So I went to Salta Tuesday at midday to pick him up because he was supposed to get in Tuesday night. To pass the time I went out to work in the afternoon with the elders who spend the morning doing office work. That was super fun and we had lots of great lessons. Then, about 6 o’clock we get a call that apparently he’s supposed to get in on Wednesday. I’m a little disappointed with that prospect because I didn’t bring any change of clothes with me from Jujuy, but still happy for a little change of scenery. We kept on working and went to their apartment at the end of the night. At about 10:30 we were all ready to crawl into bed when we get a phone call. Apparently the church offices in Buenos Aires had screwed up with the itinerary of my comp and he had actually flown in that night as we had originally thought. Here’s what happened. He waited at the airport for 2 hours. Then some friendly people who just happened to live a couple blocks from the church offices offered to take him there. Weighing his options, he accepted and got there about 10 at night and of course there was nobody there. They took him to a pay phone around the corner where he called the mission president from Mexico who called the church offices who called President Levrino (who was in Tucumán at the time). My comp headed back to the mission offices and Sister Levrino swung around to pick him up a few minutes later. Really, a pretty smooth turnout considering what could have happened. The next morning we went first thing to the mission home and picked up my companion. Yay! The only other bad news was that we had to stay another day in Salta to do his visa paperwork, and I still didn’t have any change of clothes, but that’s lo de menos. So that’s the big story. Now we’re all safe and sound and working our tails off here in Jujuy.
President Levrino is awesome. This month as a mission we had 177 baptisms. That’s more than the mission’s had since 1995. We’re just seeing so many miracles out here. We’re also all very excited for the visit of Elder Christofferson to Jujuy in two weeks (the 12 and 13 of November). I love the gospel so much and it’s so true! God is still a God of miracles! Look for them, obey, and you will find them.
Much love,
Elder Spencer
Monday, October 24, 2011
October 24, 2011
Dear Family,
An excellent week!! Biggest news is that Ariel got baptized! It was really neat, but quite stressful for me. Here's why. The baptism was scheduled to begin at 5. We got there at 5 and were the only people there. That was kinda stressful. Ariel got there at 5:20 and there was still nobody there. That was also pretty stressful. The nice part was that the ward came through and at 5:30 pretty much everyone showed up and it turned out really nice. He even invited his mom and brother, who aren't members and we're going to find out if they want to start receiving the missionaries in their neighborhood. The confirmation also went really neat and Ariel said he felt really good during the confirmation. He doesn't have a burning testimony like his wife. He was at the point of not getting baptized this week because he felt like he hadn't received a huge shouting YES from the Holy Ghost. He then decided to do it because he felt like it was the right thing to do and because he wanted to change his life. He's going to be good, but he'll need to have some good strengthening from the ward to stay strong. The good thing is that now he's getting into a good habit of scripture study so with time he'll get stronger and stronger. Pray for him.
This week was actually pretty weird having a mini missionary. I felt really alone, even though there was somebody by my side constantly, because it was basically like going on divisions with the members for a whole week. It sure is a blessing to have an experienced companion to be with to make decisions together. After this experience I'm starting to dread the time when I get released and don't have a companion at all. Guess I gotta get married quick... ;)
We also had a pretty miraculous day in church. We planned super hard to get a ton of people to come to church. We stopped by a ton of people and all of them fodged us. We got to church, and the members we had assigned to help us hadn't had any success either. However, the Lord was extremely merciful with us and we had 3 people show up without us doing any work. 2 were old investigators that we hadn't been visiting, and one was the friend of a recent convert who he had invited to get to know the church. How about that! God is still a God of miracles!!
Well, that's about it for this week. Cool story, last Monday night while I was with him Elder Gomez got his mission call! He's going to Brazil in a month and a half! On Tuesday I'll be traveling down to Salta to pick up my new companion and Elder Gomez goes home to get ready for his mission. The best part is that I get to train! Me new comp is a Mexican. :) I'll tell you all about him when I meet him.
I love you all! The church is true!!
-Elder Spencer
An excellent week!! Biggest news is that Ariel got baptized! It was really neat, but quite stressful for me. Here's why. The baptism was scheduled to begin at 5. We got there at 5 and were the only people there. That was kinda stressful. Ariel got there at 5:20 and there was still nobody there. That was also pretty stressful. The nice part was that the ward came through and at 5:30 pretty much everyone showed up and it turned out really nice. He even invited his mom and brother, who aren't members and we're going to find out if they want to start receiving the missionaries in their neighborhood. The confirmation also went really neat and Ariel said he felt really good during the confirmation. He doesn't have a burning testimony like his wife. He was at the point of not getting baptized this week because he felt like he hadn't received a huge shouting YES from the Holy Ghost. He then decided to do it because he felt like it was the right thing to do and because he wanted to change his life. He's going to be good, but he'll need to have some good strengthening from the ward to stay strong. The good thing is that now he's getting into a good habit of scripture study so with time he'll get stronger and stronger. Pray for him.
This week was actually pretty weird having a mini missionary. I felt really alone, even though there was somebody by my side constantly, because it was basically like going on divisions with the members for a whole week. It sure is a blessing to have an experienced companion to be with to make decisions together. After this experience I'm starting to dread the time when I get released and don't have a companion at all. Guess I gotta get married quick... ;)
We also had a pretty miraculous day in church. We planned super hard to get a ton of people to come to church. We stopped by a ton of people and all of them fodged us. We got to church, and the members we had assigned to help us hadn't had any success either. However, the Lord was extremely merciful with us and we had 3 people show up without us doing any work. 2 were old investigators that we hadn't been visiting, and one was the friend of a recent convert who he had invited to get to know the church. How about that! God is still a God of miracles!!
Well, that's about it for this week. Cool story, last Monday night while I was with him Elder Gomez got his mission call! He's going to Brazil in a month and a half! On Tuesday I'll be traveling down to Salta to pick up my new companion and Elder Gomez goes home to get ready for his mission. The best part is that I get to train! Me new comp is a Mexican. :) I'll tell you all about him when I meet him.
I love you all! The church is true!!
-Elder Spencer
Monday, October 17, 2011
October 17, 2011
Dear Family,
This week was super intense. First, bad news. Elder Petersen got transferred. We were both pretty sad. We were hoping for at least one more transfer, but he is needed somewhere else. Gisela was pretty sad to see him go. The good news is that right now I have a mini missionary! No, that isn’t a derogative way to call a really short person, but a program that our mission does with young men who are preparing for the mission. When there is a shortage of missionaries for one reason or another (visas usually), they call some local pre-missionary waiting for their call to serve for a couple of weeks. Mine is really nice, his name is Elder Gomez and he lives on the other side of Jujuy. He’s great and excited to get to work.
Our Friday was quite interesting. So the Area presidency has been working really closely with our new mission president (probably with all the mission presidents I’d imagine, but it just we’ve had an abnormally lot of contact with them). Anyway, they did a special training with all the Zone Leaders, who then taught all us, on the importance of specific planning. Normally we do a 3 hour planning session every Friday morning for the coming week. In Preach My Gospel it outlines how you’re supposed to do it, but we usually run out of time and need to teach before we can completely and thoroughly do it. Well, now they want us to do it completely, no matter how long it takes. We did it on Friday and it ended up taking 7 whopping hours. We were pretty tired by the end, but we did it. They told us that the first time it would take a long time, but as we continued to do it correctly it would take less and less time as we improved. Lesson learned: It is much better to do something the right way, even if it takes more time, than to do it some efficient incorrect way.
The Highlight of the week was finishing it off with a Zone Conference with Elder Aidukaitis of the Presidency of the Area (1st Quorum of Seventy). Incredible. Simply Incredible. He talked some more about goal setting and planning, saying that they are godly principles (See Abraham 4) and that if we don’t learn how to set goals and plan, we will reach a small part of our potential. Then he talked about how to become more powerful missionaries (members, priesthood holders, etc...). I’d tell you how, but that’s one of the secrets, you can’t tell anybody. Haha, just joking. For more read Alma 26:22.
Well, that’s it for today, folks. I love you all so much. The church is true!
-Elder Spencer
This week was super intense. First, bad news. Elder Petersen got transferred. We were both pretty sad. We were hoping for at least one more transfer, but he is needed somewhere else. Gisela was pretty sad to see him go. The good news is that right now I have a mini missionary! No, that isn’t a derogative way to call a really short person, but a program that our mission does with young men who are preparing for the mission. When there is a shortage of missionaries for one reason or another (visas usually), they call some local pre-missionary waiting for their call to serve for a couple of weeks. Mine is really nice, his name is Elder Gomez and he lives on the other side of Jujuy. He’s great and excited to get to work.
Our Friday was quite interesting. So the Area presidency has been working really closely with our new mission president (probably with all the mission presidents I’d imagine, but it just we’ve had an abnormally lot of contact with them). Anyway, they did a special training with all the Zone Leaders, who then taught all us, on the importance of specific planning. Normally we do a 3 hour planning session every Friday morning for the coming week. In Preach My Gospel it outlines how you’re supposed to do it, but we usually run out of time and need to teach before we can completely and thoroughly do it. Well, now they want us to do it completely, no matter how long it takes. We did it on Friday and it ended up taking 7 whopping hours. We were pretty tired by the end, but we did it. They told us that the first time it would take a long time, but as we continued to do it correctly it would take less and less time as we improved. Lesson learned: It is much better to do something the right way, even if it takes more time, than to do it some efficient incorrect way.
The Highlight of the week was finishing it off with a Zone Conference with Elder Aidukaitis of the Presidency of the Area (1st Quorum of Seventy). Incredible. Simply Incredible. He talked some more about goal setting and planning, saying that they are godly principles (See Abraham 4) and that if we don’t learn how to set goals and plan, we will reach a small part of our potential. Then he talked about how to become more powerful missionaries (members, priesthood holders, etc...). I’d tell you how, but that’s one of the secrets, you can’t tell anybody. Haha, just joking. For more read Alma 26:22.
Well, that’s it for today, folks. I love you all so much. The church is true!
-Elder Spencer
Monday, October 10, 2011
October 10, 2011
Dear Family,
Well another awesome/crazy week. We had 6 people in church this week, the best we’ve had in quite a while. It was also nice because it just so happened to be the day when the stake president decided to do a surprise visit. More on that later.
Funny story. On Thursday night I woke up at 1:58 sleep walking and woke up my companion to come into the kitchen to pray. He woke up and washed his face, looked at the time and told me to go back to bed. I obediently went back to bed. When he told me in the morning I didn’t believe him at all, but he gave me some evidence and apparently it was true. I’m diligent, even in my dreams :)
Well Ariel is progressing great. We were going to baptize him this week, but the stake president was unable to interview him, and Ariel didn’t feel prepared. We prayed a lot that he would feel ready, but in the end, I think it was all for the better that he waited. He’s now got his baptismal date for two weeks from now and preparing a lot more, reading, praying, doing stuff with his family and changing his life.
Anyway, our stake president is pretty awesome. He showed an awesome example by leaving the 99 and coming for the one. The express reason for his visit to our ward was for Ariel because he hadn’t been able to interview him. What a solid guy! What a wonderful example. Ariel isn’t even a member yet, but the Stake president left his home ward on a fast Sunday to make sure that everything was all right. It inspired me. I hope we can all take the same care in our callings and seek out the one.
I love you all! The church is true! Thank you for your prayers!
-Elder Spencer
Well another awesome/crazy week. We had 6 people in church this week, the best we’ve had in quite a while. It was also nice because it just so happened to be the day when the stake president decided to do a surprise visit. More on that later.
Funny story. On Thursday night I woke up at 1:58 sleep walking and woke up my companion to come into the kitchen to pray. He woke up and washed his face, looked at the time and told me to go back to bed. I obediently went back to bed. When he told me in the morning I didn’t believe him at all, but he gave me some evidence and apparently it was true. I’m diligent, even in my dreams :)
Well Ariel is progressing great. We were going to baptize him this week, but the stake president was unable to interview him, and Ariel didn’t feel prepared. We prayed a lot that he would feel ready, but in the end, I think it was all for the better that he waited. He’s now got his baptismal date for two weeks from now and preparing a lot more, reading, praying, doing stuff with his family and changing his life.
Anyway, our stake president is pretty awesome. He showed an awesome example by leaving the 99 and coming for the one. The express reason for his visit to our ward was for Ariel because he hadn’t been able to interview him. What a solid guy! What a wonderful example. Ariel isn’t even a member yet, but the Stake president left his home ward on a fast Sunday to make sure that everything was all right. It inspired me. I hope we can all take the same care in our callings and seek out the one.
I love you all! The church is true! Thank you for your prayers!
-Elder Spencer
Monday, October 3, 2011
October 3, 2011
Dear Family,
What an excellent general conference!! Let's all put down specific goals to apply what we learned.
Conference was especially great because of some more Miracles we witnessed. Remember Gisela who got baptized a few weeks ago? She's suuuuper solid. Anyway, we've been working a lot on her husband Ariel. When the missionaries first started teaching her 2 weeks before I got here, he was icy cold. He told Gisela that he didn't want to know anything about God. Anyway, this week was miraculous and we witnessed his heart starting to change. He rejected an invitation to go fishing with "the boys" and came to General Conference instead. He came to three sessions including Priesthood session! He's progressing great and starting to really pray about the church and the Book of Mormon. Conference really inspired him.
God really can change the hardest of hearts. The Gospel's true! Study up those General Conference talks and apply them!
I love you all!
-Elder Spencer
PS. Congrats Joseph on your eagle!
What an excellent general conference!! Let's all put down specific goals to apply what we learned.
Conference was especially great because of some more Miracles we witnessed. Remember Gisela who got baptized a few weeks ago? She's suuuuper solid. Anyway, we've been working a lot on her husband Ariel. When the missionaries first started teaching her 2 weeks before I got here, he was icy cold. He told Gisela that he didn't want to know anything about God. Anyway, this week was miraculous and we witnessed his heart starting to change. He rejected an invitation to go fishing with "the boys" and came to General Conference instead. He came to three sessions including Priesthood session! He's progressing great and starting to really pray about the church and the Book of Mormon. Conference really inspired him.
God really can change the hardest of hearts. The Gospel's true! Study up those General Conference talks and apply them!
I love you all!
-Elder Spencer
PS. Congrats Joseph on your eagle!
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