Dear Family,
This week was a little hectic, but it turned out great. This week we were planning on baptizing the son of the Ramos family. (Their marriage date in the civil register is in February, so we wanted to baptize him first and them later), but the mom started looking up about the church on internet and came across a ton of anti-stuff, so... we need to strengthen their faith a lot. The good news is we had a baptism anyway. It was the baptism of a member who had never been registered, and nobody remembered their baptism, so they had to do it again. We had several investigators attend which pumped them up a ton for their baptisms and we had six investigators come to church this Sunday, which was an awesome Sunday to pick! We had the Primary program, and the spirit was sooo strong! All the investigators loved it and we are definitely going to see good results out of the ones who attended after having such a good experience.
We have tons of work to do, so I don’t have much time today to write, but I hope you all know I love you tons and wish you a very merry Christmas. The church is true!!
Monday, December 19, 2011
Monday, December 12, 2011
December 12, 2011
Dear Family,
This week we had some super neat experiences!
The best was with the Ávila family. They really are progressing great. On Sunday afternoon we decided to teach them a little about temples. Mario has taken a special interest in temples after one day at church they showed the video "Only a stonecutter" in priesthood. We showed them lots of pictures of temples and told them that our goal for them isn’t just baptism; our goal for them is to reach the temple and be sealed as a family for time and eternity. We talked a little about how through baptisms for the dead our loved ones who didn’t have a chance to hear the gospel will be able to accept a baptism even after death. At that point María started crying and told us that she had two brothers who had died and that for years and years she had asked herself what would become of them and in all the churches she had attended she had never found the answer. There was a really sweet spirit in the room. We committed them to prepare not just for baptism, but for their sealing one year from now and they accepted. :) Those are the types of lessons that make your day, week, month, year, etc... :)
In pondering the passing away of Grandad, a quote from the April conference repeatedly came to mind: "We live to die, and we die to live again. From an eternal perspective, the only death that is truly premature is the death of one who is not prepared to meet God." (Russell M. Nelson, "Face the Future with Faith") I feel very at peace about the passing away of both of my grandparents in my absence, knowing of their good hearts and good works. In pondering death, my conclusion is the same as Mormon’s: "And thus we see the great call of diligence of men to labor in the vineyards of the Lord; and thus we see the great reason of sorrow, and also of rejoicing—sorrow because of death and destruction among men, and joy because of the light of Christ unto life." (Alma 28:14[10-14]) Our duty as members of the church, having a testimony of the reality of the resurrection of Christ and the full import of that in the eternal plan obligates us to respond to the great call of diligence to share that plan with those who do not have it. Mourning with those that mourn and comforting those in need of comfort means providing lasting consolation by sharing the great plan of the Eternal God (Alma 34:9). The best Christmas gift we can give is the good news of the gospel, the gift of "joy because of the light of Christ unto life". That brings everlasting happiness.
I love you all so much. I have the best family ever! Thank you for your prayers. The church is true!
-Elder Spencer
Me and my comp Elder Barcenas. He's such a stud! This is our little Christmas tree.
My birthday pancake
My birthday watermelon. mmm mmm
My birthday "cake" :) Lighting 21 candles wasn't the best of ideas ...
This week we had some super neat experiences!
The best was with the Ávila family. They really are progressing great. On Sunday afternoon we decided to teach them a little about temples. Mario has taken a special interest in temples after one day at church they showed the video "Only a stonecutter" in priesthood. We showed them lots of pictures of temples and told them that our goal for them isn’t just baptism; our goal for them is to reach the temple and be sealed as a family for time and eternity. We talked a little about how through baptisms for the dead our loved ones who didn’t have a chance to hear the gospel will be able to accept a baptism even after death. At that point María started crying and told us that she had two brothers who had died and that for years and years she had asked herself what would become of them and in all the churches she had attended she had never found the answer. There was a really sweet spirit in the room. We committed them to prepare not just for baptism, but for their sealing one year from now and they accepted. :) Those are the types of lessons that make your day, week, month, year, etc... :)
In pondering the passing away of Grandad, a quote from the April conference repeatedly came to mind: "We live to die, and we die to live again. From an eternal perspective, the only death that is truly premature is the death of one who is not prepared to meet God." (Russell M. Nelson, "Face the Future with Faith") I feel very at peace about the passing away of both of my grandparents in my absence, knowing of their good hearts and good works. In pondering death, my conclusion is the same as Mormon’s: "And thus we see the great call of diligence of men to labor in the vineyards of the Lord; and thus we see the great reason of sorrow, and also of rejoicing—sorrow because of death and destruction among men, and joy because of the light of Christ unto life." (Alma 28:14[10-14]) Our duty as members of the church, having a testimony of the reality of the resurrection of Christ and the full import of that in the eternal plan obligates us to respond to the great call of diligence to share that plan with those who do not have it. Mourning with those that mourn and comforting those in need of comfort means providing lasting consolation by sharing the great plan of the Eternal God (Alma 34:9). The best Christmas gift we can give is the good news of the gospel, the gift of "joy because of the light of Christ unto life". That brings everlasting happiness.
I love you all so much. I have the best family ever! Thank you for your prayers. The church is true!
-Elder Spencer
Me and my comp Elder Barcenas. He's such a stud! This is our little Christmas tree.
My birthday pancake
My birthday watermelon. mmm mmm
My birthday "cake" :) Lighting 21 candles wasn't the best of ideas ...
Monday, December 5, 2011
December 5, 2011
Dear Family,
This was a hard working week, but we had some excellent fruits! So the main problem that we're facing right now is that we have 4 great families that we're teaching, but none of them are married (it's suuuper common out here), even though all of them have kids. When we asked them why they hadn't gotten married the most common response was that they weren't sure they were ready to make that kind of commitment. Apparently having kids together these days isn't much of a commitment. Anyway, apart from that, they're all super great families and we've been focusing a lot on the Law of Chastity and the Proclamation for the Family. The good news was that we had 6 investigators come to church, which was a huge blessing since we've been struggling to get people to come to church recently. Fast Sunday is usually a pretty risky day for investigators to come to church for the first time because you never really know what some member will say... ...especially in Argentina where the church isn't quite as mature as the USA, but this Sunday was super good and all the investigators liked it. Next step, marriage :)
The Ávila family is progressing wonderfully. We taught the law of chastity and Mario really understood how the family is key to the Plan and how God set up commandments to protect the family. The biggest problem is that all of the couples have disagreements here and there, so we have to do a little bit of marriage counseling as 20-year old kids who have never had any experience in the subject. Haha! Luckily, the prophets and apostles do have experience, so we mainly stick to things they've said.
The Ramos family is also doing great. Their son Rafael is such a stud. He's only 9, but he reads everything we give him to read and understands it so well. In Primary, he came as an investigator, and volunteered to give a prayer. This week they even assigned him a part in the Primary program! He reminds me of my awesome nieces and nephews!
Today we spent the day running around downtown and the municipality to print off a huge map of our area. It's pretty sweet, about a meter squared. Later I'll send you pictures of our apartment when we finish decorating for Christmas :)
I love you all! I love this time of year to be able to remember one of the most important events in the existence of humanity. Christ's birth was so anticipated that heavenly choirs could not be withheld from bursting through the veil in songs of praise. Take advantage of this special time to share your testimony of Christ with someone not of our faith. The church is true!
-Elder Spencer
My comp and I with Agustin and Alejandro Arenas. We couldn't get a picture the day of their baptism, so we took this the day after.
This was a hard working week, but we had some excellent fruits! So the main problem that we're facing right now is that we have 4 great families that we're teaching, but none of them are married (it's suuuper common out here), even though all of them have kids. When we asked them why they hadn't gotten married the most common response was that they weren't sure they were ready to make that kind of commitment. Apparently having kids together these days isn't much of a commitment. Anyway, apart from that, they're all super great families and we've been focusing a lot on the Law of Chastity and the Proclamation for the Family. The good news was that we had 6 investigators come to church, which was a huge blessing since we've been struggling to get people to come to church recently. Fast Sunday is usually a pretty risky day for investigators to come to church for the first time because you never really know what some member will say... ...especially in Argentina where the church isn't quite as mature as the USA, but this Sunday was super good and all the investigators liked it. Next step, marriage :)
The Ávila family is progressing wonderfully. We taught the law of chastity and Mario really understood how the family is key to the Plan and how God set up commandments to protect the family. The biggest problem is that all of the couples have disagreements here and there, so we have to do a little bit of marriage counseling as 20-year old kids who have never had any experience in the subject. Haha! Luckily, the prophets and apostles do have experience, so we mainly stick to things they've said.
The Ramos family is also doing great. Their son Rafael is such a stud. He's only 9, but he reads everything we give him to read and understands it so well. In Primary, he came as an investigator, and volunteered to give a prayer. This week they even assigned him a part in the Primary program! He reminds me of my awesome nieces and nephews!
Today we spent the day running around downtown and the municipality to print off a huge map of our area. It's pretty sweet, about a meter squared. Later I'll send you pictures of our apartment when we finish decorating for Christmas :)
I love you all! I love this time of year to be able to remember one of the most important events in the existence of humanity. Christ's birth was so anticipated that heavenly choirs could not be withheld from bursting through the veil in songs of praise. Take advantage of this special time to share your testimony of Christ with someone not of our faith. The church is true!
-Elder Spencer
My comp and I with Agustin and Alejandro Arenas. We couldn't get a picture the day of their baptism, so we took this the day after.
Monday, November 28, 2011
November 28, 2011
Dear Family,
What a week! First I want to make a brief commentary about the weather here. It’s crazy. This morning we woke up and it was cloudy and cold. A few hours later when we went shopping it was roasting hot right when we got to walk 8 blocks home with grocery bags, haha, then while we were eating lunch it started raining. After we finished cleaning up it was sunny again, and right now it is POURING. The bad part was, today is a national holiday, so we went running all over the area looking for an internet café and got soaked before we found one. I’m telling you, the weather here is crazier than Colorado!
Well this week was pretty awesome. We have started working with a new family that is progressing really well. They are called the Avila family. Maria, Mario and 4 cute little daughters ages 7, 5, 2 and 1. They used to go to an Evangelist church, but got really tired of it because the only thing they ever preached was the importance of tithing, haha, so they stopped going. On Tuesday we taught them about baptism and invited them to follow the example of Christ by being baptized by one with the proper authority. They accepted, and then they asked us how soon they could do it! Talk about people hearing the voice of the Lord and not hardening their hearts! (D&C 29:7) Maria and her daughters went to a Primary activity Saturday morning with a member mom that came with us to one of the lessons, and the whole family came to church on Sunday and liked it a lot! The only problem is that, like every single other family here, they aren’t legally married, so this week we’re going to teach about the law of chastity and the family and commit them to get married so they can get baptized.
Well, I don’t have really any time left to write today because we spent so much time running around looking for an internet café, but I hope you all had an excellent Thanksgiving, and I love you all. The church is true!! Miracles happen when we obey!!
-Elder Spencer
What a week! First I want to make a brief commentary about the weather here. It’s crazy. This morning we woke up and it was cloudy and cold. A few hours later when we went shopping it was roasting hot right when we got to walk 8 blocks home with grocery bags, haha, then while we were eating lunch it started raining. After we finished cleaning up it was sunny again, and right now it is POURING. The bad part was, today is a national holiday, so we went running all over the area looking for an internet café and got soaked before we found one. I’m telling you, the weather here is crazier than Colorado!
Well this week was pretty awesome. We have started working with a new family that is progressing really well. They are called the Avila family. Maria, Mario and 4 cute little daughters ages 7, 5, 2 and 1. They used to go to an Evangelist church, but got really tired of it because the only thing they ever preached was the importance of tithing, haha, so they stopped going. On Tuesday we taught them about baptism and invited them to follow the example of Christ by being baptized by one with the proper authority. They accepted, and then they asked us how soon they could do it! Talk about people hearing the voice of the Lord and not hardening their hearts! (D&C 29:7) Maria and her daughters went to a Primary activity Saturday morning with a member mom that came with us to one of the lessons, and the whole family came to church on Sunday and liked it a lot! The only problem is that, like every single other family here, they aren’t legally married, so this week we’re going to teach about the law of chastity and the family and commit them to get married so they can get baptized.
Well, I don’t have really any time left to write today because we spent so much time running around looking for an internet café, but I hope you all had an excellent Thanksgiving, and I love you all. The church is true!! Miracles happen when we obey!!
-Elder Spencer
Monday, November 21, 2011
November 21, 2011
Dear Family,
This week was hectic and excellent. We had a baptism! He’s the 9 year old son of a less active family we have been working with to reactivate. His name is Agustín and he’s a super stud! They took notes in all of our lessons and know the stuff better than some of the old members, haha! He reminded me of my awesome nieces and nephews!
My birthday went awesome. We worked really hard and had a great successful day, the best way I could really ask to celebrate my birthday. The best part was that I was able to celebrate it doing something I’d never be able to do up there: Eating a delicious watermelon. We were thinking about buying a cake, but then I saw the fruit salesman and I couldn’t resist, so I got myself a watermelon for a whopping 4 US dollars (15 pesos). I forgot to bring my camera, so next week I’ll drop ya’ll the pictures. Thanks for your well wishes!!!
I had a great birthday! If you want to give me a present, go give your local missionaries the names of 2 friends who are going through a hard time or abrupt change in their life (birth, death, problems with teens, just moved, etc...).
The Ramos family is progressing great and we’ve found several other families we’re working with right now who are also super receptive. It’s all been happening because we’ve been accepting the challenge of our mission president to talk to everyone we see and to ask references from everyone we talk to. I know that miracles come from obedience. If you need miracles in your life look for ways in which you can more completely obey the Lord’s command and I promise you that the windows of heaven will be opened unto you. I love you all so much! The church is true!!
-Elder Spencer
This week was hectic and excellent. We had a baptism! He’s the 9 year old son of a less active family we have been working with to reactivate. His name is Agustín and he’s a super stud! They took notes in all of our lessons and know the stuff better than some of the old members, haha! He reminded me of my awesome nieces and nephews!
My birthday went awesome. We worked really hard and had a great successful day, the best way I could really ask to celebrate my birthday. The best part was that I was able to celebrate it doing something I’d never be able to do up there: Eating a delicious watermelon. We were thinking about buying a cake, but then I saw the fruit salesman and I couldn’t resist, so I got myself a watermelon for a whopping 4 US dollars (15 pesos). I forgot to bring my camera, so next week I’ll drop ya’ll the pictures. Thanks for your well wishes!!!
I had a great birthday! If you want to give me a present, go give your local missionaries the names of 2 friends who are going through a hard time or abrupt change in their life (birth, death, problems with teens, just moved, etc...).
The Ramos family is progressing great and we’ve found several other families we’re working with right now who are also super receptive. It’s all been happening because we’ve been accepting the challenge of our mission president to talk to everyone we see and to ask references from everyone we talk to. I know that miracles come from obedience. If you need miracles in your life look for ways in which you can more completely obey the Lord’s command and I promise you that the windows of heaven will be opened unto you. I love you all so much! The church is true!!
-Elder Spencer
Monday, November 14, 2011
November 14, 2011
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
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 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
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
