Family,
I swear the weeks out here just keep getting faster and faster. This week we were able to have the baptism of our investigator Teresa that got postponed because she didn’t understand fully the Word of Wisdom. It was super awesome and I got to baptize her (a little more difficult than I thought because she is 52 and pretty heavy, haha, I guess that’s why we do exercises in the mornings). The best part is we have a ton of investigators that are progressing super well and we are set to have lots of baptisms in the future. This week we will baptize the two boys of my other convert Veronica. They are super awesome, and this last week we taught them about the armies of Helaman and how they followed their mothers. The boys were super excited to hear that story and then we gave them the invitation to be baptized by following their mom, just like the armies of Helaman. One of them, Guillermo, gave us a resounding yes, but the other one, more shy, we had to convince him a little to do it so soon. He knows a lot but is shy and wanted to have his brother go first. We got him excited about doing it with his brother and now the two of them will get baptized this week. We are also working with the older daughters of Veronica, but they are a little harder to reach.
The coolest thing is that the other day we started talking to the boyfriend of the daughter of Veronica named Carlos. He went to Veronica’s baptism with his girlfriend and has already been to church 3 times. He is awesome! Last Sunday was the coldest Sunday here because of the snowstorm and only half of the ward came, but Carlos came a half hour early and was there waiting at the door when the bishop came to open it up at 9:20 (it starts at 9:30). He is accepting everything super well and progressing super fast and we will probably baptize him in 2 weeks. It’s seeing people like that that make it so worth it and awesome to be a missionary.
Anyway, funny story: So apparently there is a tradition in Catholicism where when you pass a church or a priest you have to do the cross sign thing. The other day we were walking by a Catholic church and this girl passed the church, did the cross thing, then passed us, and did it again. Haha, talk about wicked traditions of their fathers. Anyway, I think that’s about it for the week. One of the things I’ve been working on is developing my Christlike attributes. It’s kinda hard because we have some roommates who get on my nerves from time to time. One of the things that has helped me the most is a nice little guide Brother Rockwood taught me in seminary: "It’s more important to be kind, than it is to be right." Give it a shot, It works well.
Anyway, love your guts, if you sent me a snailmail and I havn’t answered it yet, it’s because I’m super busy, sorry!!
-E Spencer
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Monday, July 19, 2010
July 19, 2010
This week was super great and super fast (the time just keeps on speeding up, I swear). One of the highlights was that one of the elders in our apt. had a birthday so I made a breakfast of pancakes and syrup (homemadeish) and for lunch we ate shishkabobs (we cooked it) and pizza (from a member) and had two cakes (we cooked one) for dessert. No wonder missionaries gain weight.
Our baptism had to get postponed for the next week because apparently we didn't explain the Word of Wisdom well enough (she thought it was just for missionaries) and had smoked the day before her baptismal interview. She has a super strong will and dropped it cold turkey right after we explained it better and will be getting baptized this week.
The biggest surprise from Tucumán, Argentina is that we had SNOW!! They said that this is the first time in over 18 years that they've had snow fall in Tucumán capital city and everybody was going crazy. It was super fun seeing the people go crazy seeing this white stuff for the first time in their life. As missionaries we took the occasion to go up the hill to a big statue of Christ which has a nice view of the city and lots of snow left on the ground. That was super fun but we missed the bus to get down so we decided to just walk down the road to get down (2 hr. walk). My comp and a few other elders and I decided we were going to take the shortcut down the mountain... bad idea. Apparently my guardian angel protection that existed before the mission in order to get me here safely also exists here as well because we cut the travel time in half by half running, half sliding down a rocky dry riverbed (waterfallish) we thought was a path. He he he. You can take the boy out of the mountains but you can't take the mountain out of the boy. Anyway, that was pretty much the week. We had only half the ward come because it was so cold. Oh well, it's warming up now so hopefully we can get things going again.
The church is true!
-Elder Spencer
Me and Elder Staker
The zone and a snow man
The zone and the Cristo
Info about the Cristos
.JPG)
Tucuman from the top (lotsa pollution)
.JPG)
Snow man on the car! (They did lots of those.)
Our baptism had to get postponed for the next week because apparently we didn't explain the Word of Wisdom well enough (she thought it was just for missionaries) and had smoked the day before her baptismal interview. She has a super strong will and dropped it cold turkey right after we explained it better and will be getting baptized this week.
The biggest surprise from Tucumán, Argentina is that we had SNOW!! They said that this is the first time in over 18 years that they've had snow fall in Tucumán capital city and everybody was going crazy. It was super fun seeing the people go crazy seeing this white stuff for the first time in their life. As missionaries we took the occasion to go up the hill to a big statue of Christ which has a nice view of the city and lots of snow left on the ground. That was super fun but we missed the bus to get down so we decided to just walk down the road to get down (2 hr. walk). My comp and a few other elders and I decided we were going to take the shortcut down the mountain... bad idea. Apparently my guardian angel protection that existed before the mission in order to get me here safely also exists here as well because we cut the travel time in half by half running, half sliding down a rocky dry riverbed (waterfallish) we thought was a path. He he he. You can take the boy out of the mountains but you can't take the mountain out of the boy. Anyway, that was pretty much the week. We had only half the ward come because it was so cold. Oh well, it's warming up now so hopefully we can get things going again.
The church is true!
-Elder Spencer
Me and Elder Staker
The zone and a snow man
The zone and the Cristo
Info about the Cristos
.JPG)
Tucuman from the top (lotsa pollution)
.JPG)
Snow man on the car! (They did lots of those.)
Monday, July 12, 2010
July 12, 2010
Hey Family,
Good to hear from you guys!! For those of you who don’t know my e-mail, ask Mom, and I’m allowed to write any family, so if you aren’t family I can’t reply to you by email. Sorry :( However, you can send me letters (and packages :D wink wink) to this address:
Elder Jonathan Spencer
Argentina Salta Mission
Los Eucaliptus 75
4400 Salta
Salta, Argentina
Anyway, this week was super great! The biggest news was that we had transfers and my old companion Elder Vidal was sent to the other side of Tucumán in the other zone about 40 minutes away and I got a new companion! His name is Elder Staker and he is from Eagle Mtn., Utah. He is super big into dirtbiking and worked fixing dirtbikes for a while so I told him I’d have to introduce him to my brother sometime. He just barely got in this morning, so I will let you know more about him next week.
As far as the missionary work, this week went great. We had a ton of lessons and we had 7 investigators in the church this week which is the best I’ve ever had. Right now we are working a lot with the kids of Veronica, our baptism from last week, who are super awesome. We had a FHE with them this week and I was super excited because they are just awesome kids. They learn super fast, read everything we give them, and even stick up for the church in school when the other kids make fun of them because their mom got baptized. Their mom told us that the first Sunday they were getting ready to go to church was super hard dragging heels to get them ready because they felt embarrassed about other kids seeing them dressed up, but this last Sunday they had laid out all their clothes Saturday night so they could be ready and on time for church. They totally rock and remind me a lot of my little nephews and nieces: valiant, strong, and super fun. We will baptize two of them in the coming week and we are still working with her older daughters who are a little rebellious, but they are starting to listen as they see the changes the gospel brings in their family.
We’re also working with 2 other mothers who will get baptized this Saturday, and we are working with their families to get baptized in the coming weeks. I’ll let you know how the baptism goes. In other news, the world cup finally passed with very little fanfare and the whole city is now back to normal, thank goodness. Also, I had rabbit the other day for lunch with a member. It tastes a lot like chicken, but yummier. Neat, huh.
Anyway, fam, thanks for all the love, keep it comin’. This week I got to give a talk in church (with 5 minutes notice) and the bishop had me talk about repentance. I talked about the example of the father of King Lamoni (Alma 22:15-19ish) who after hearing Aaron’s teaching told Aaron that he would give up his whole kingdom to obtain this eternal life, this happiness he had spoken of. Aaron told him that the way is much simpler than that: repent. The whole world is looking for lasting happiness but they can’t find it because the answer is too simple: repent. I love the king’s response, that he will give up all his sins to know God. I like to think that I’m doing pretty good in most things, but we all have our favorite sin that we need to give up before we can be truly happy. Give up the sin, be happy, it’s the only way.
Love you guys,
Elder Spencer
Good to hear from you guys!! For those of you who don’t know my e-mail, ask Mom, and I’m allowed to write any family, so if you aren’t family I can’t reply to you by email. Sorry :( However, you can send me letters (and packages :D wink wink) to this address:
Elder Jonathan Spencer
Argentina Salta Mission
Los Eucaliptus 75
4400 Salta
Salta, Argentina
Anyway, this week was super great! The biggest news was that we had transfers and my old companion Elder Vidal was sent to the other side of Tucumán in the other zone about 40 minutes away and I got a new companion! His name is Elder Staker and he is from Eagle Mtn., Utah. He is super big into dirtbiking and worked fixing dirtbikes for a while so I told him I’d have to introduce him to my brother sometime. He just barely got in this morning, so I will let you know more about him next week.
As far as the missionary work, this week went great. We had a ton of lessons and we had 7 investigators in the church this week which is the best I’ve ever had. Right now we are working a lot with the kids of Veronica, our baptism from last week, who are super awesome. We had a FHE with them this week and I was super excited because they are just awesome kids. They learn super fast, read everything we give them, and even stick up for the church in school when the other kids make fun of them because their mom got baptized. Their mom told us that the first Sunday they were getting ready to go to church was super hard dragging heels to get them ready because they felt embarrassed about other kids seeing them dressed up, but this last Sunday they had laid out all their clothes Saturday night so they could be ready and on time for church. They totally rock and remind me a lot of my little nephews and nieces: valiant, strong, and super fun. We will baptize two of them in the coming week and we are still working with her older daughters who are a little rebellious, but they are starting to listen as they see the changes the gospel brings in their family.
We’re also working with 2 other mothers who will get baptized this Saturday, and we are working with their families to get baptized in the coming weeks. I’ll let you know how the baptism goes. In other news, the world cup finally passed with very little fanfare and the whole city is now back to normal, thank goodness. Also, I had rabbit the other day for lunch with a member. It tastes a lot like chicken, but yummier. Neat, huh.
Anyway, fam, thanks for all the love, keep it comin’. This week I got to give a talk in church (with 5 minutes notice) and the bishop had me talk about repentance. I talked about the example of the father of King Lamoni (Alma 22:15-19ish) who after hearing Aaron’s teaching told Aaron that he would give up his whole kingdom to obtain this eternal life, this happiness he had spoken of. Aaron told him that the way is much simpler than that: repent. The whole world is looking for lasting happiness but they can’t find it because the answer is too simple: repent. I love the king’s response, that he will give up all his sins to know God. I like to think that I’m doing pretty good in most things, but we all have our favorite sin that we need to give up before we can be truly happy. Give up the sin, be happy, it’s the only way.
Love you guys,
Elder Spencer
Monday, July 5, 2010
July 5, 2010
Dear fam,
This week was incredible. My investigator Veronica Zamorano who went to stake conference got baptized and it was awesome. I got to baptize her and the spirit was super strong. Veronica is such an awesome person. She brought her kids to church on Sunday and is ready to do FHE every week and wants to get her kids baptized soon, so we will probably baptize them next transfer (they have to come to church 3 times before they can get baptized). She bore a super powerful testimony in church and I was amazed to see how much she has grown and changed spiritually. I am completely convinced that my abilities as a missionary and teacher have almost nothing to do with it, rather, the spirit worked through me to do help her. That’s how it’s supposed to be :) The carpenter is perfect, I just need to work on being a better tool.
That’s the best news of the week, we spent most of the week centered around the baptism and we should have some more coming up in the next few weeks. Other news, Argentina lost to Germany in the quarterfinals of the world cup soccer. That’s big news here. The country literally stops to watch the team play. (All the businesses shut and the streets are bare, it makes for the most peaceful study time I’ve ever had.) Funny story: up until now my comp and I have been pretending to speak German when we walk in the streets because he has pale chileno skin and I’m white. We just kinda spoke gibberish plus the ten German words I remember from elementary school, and thought nothing of it. This started about 4 weeks ago, and suddenly it just so happened that Argentina came against Chile in the world cup and now all the kids in the street that think we are German shout at us when we walk by. Heheh, funny turn of events.
Also, fun stuff, today for P-day we had the world cup tournament of the missionaries, which had the teams: Chile, Peru, Argentina, The rest of the world, USA-Utah, USA-the rest. That was super fun because we had both the zones from Tucuman come and afterward we had a big barbecue with 50 pounds of meat :D My comp is a super good cook so I became assistant chef and learned how to do a really yummy BBQ with pure coal. It was a blast.
Anyway, all is well down here. Here’s a quote for you to chew on that I found the other day: "Circumstance does not make the man; it shows him who he is."
-- James Allen
The only way to develop strong moral integrity and character that can withstand temptation and problems is lots and lots of practice. Choose the right 100% of the time and things will go just fine.
Love your guts!
-JCS
Veronica and her Fam at the baptism
The two chefs
Fifty pounds of meat!! Beef, it's what's for dinner.
The zone eatin'
This week was incredible. My investigator Veronica Zamorano who went to stake conference got baptized and it was awesome. I got to baptize her and the spirit was super strong. Veronica is such an awesome person. She brought her kids to church on Sunday and is ready to do FHE every week and wants to get her kids baptized soon, so we will probably baptize them next transfer (they have to come to church 3 times before they can get baptized). She bore a super powerful testimony in church and I was amazed to see how much she has grown and changed spiritually. I am completely convinced that my abilities as a missionary and teacher have almost nothing to do with it, rather, the spirit worked through me to do help her. That’s how it’s supposed to be :) The carpenter is perfect, I just need to work on being a better tool.
That’s the best news of the week, we spent most of the week centered around the baptism and we should have some more coming up in the next few weeks. Other news, Argentina lost to Germany in the quarterfinals of the world cup soccer. That’s big news here. The country literally stops to watch the team play. (All the businesses shut and the streets are bare, it makes for the most peaceful study time I’ve ever had.) Funny story: up until now my comp and I have been pretending to speak German when we walk in the streets because he has pale chileno skin and I’m white. We just kinda spoke gibberish plus the ten German words I remember from elementary school, and thought nothing of it. This started about 4 weeks ago, and suddenly it just so happened that Argentina came against Chile in the world cup and now all the kids in the street that think we are German shout at us when we walk by. Heheh, funny turn of events.
Also, fun stuff, today for P-day we had the world cup tournament of the missionaries, which had the teams: Chile, Peru, Argentina, The rest of the world, USA-Utah, USA-the rest. That was super fun because we had both the zones from Tucuman come and afterward we had a big barbecue with 50 pounds of meat :D My comp is a super good cook so I became assistant chef and learned how to do a really yummy BBQ with pure coal. It was a blast.
Anyway, all is well down here. Here’s a quote for you to chew on that I found the other day: "Circumstance does not make the man; it shows him who he is."
-- James Allen
The only way to develop strong moral integrity and character that can withstand temptation and problems is lots and lots of practice. Choose the right 100% of the time and things will go just fine.
Love your guts!
-JCS
Veronica and her Fam at the baptism
The two chefs
Fifty pounds of meat!! Beef, it's what's for dinner.
The zone eatin'
Monday, June 28, 2010
June 28, 2010
Hey Mom!
Great to hear from you!! I got the package, thank you sooooooooo much!! I have a confession, however, that the m&ms arrived at a time when there was almost no food in the pension and we were waiting for our monthly allotment so... I only shared them with a few investigators... :D Thanks for all the stuff again!! It was super cool to read the letters from the other missionaries.
That’s awesome Steve is in the Bishopric. You guys are pretty lucky because out here there is no bishopric; there isn’t enough priesthood leadership to go around. It sounds like you guys are just going from one party to the next! I guess that’s how summer is. I’m glad to hear all the good news (and the bad news too, opposition in all things, eh?). As far as the smoker quitting, any suggestions would help. We kinda got nothin’. Right now he’s smoking 60 a day (yeah, a ton, right?) but has a heart of gold, reads the Book of Mormon and prays 3 times a day. His problem is that he is partially mentally handicapped after getting hit really hard 18 years ago doing kung fu. He has progressed tons since the accident and now he’s almost normal, but lacks the same kind of self mastery that normal people have. I’m sure in his final judgment he won’t be held very accountable, but we still really want to help him shake loose of this horrible addiction that he is captive to.
Even so, this has been the best week in the field. This week was the week of conferences. We had mission conference on Wednesday and stake conference on Saturday and Sunday. The mission conference was super cool. Our mission president talked a while about how the coming of Christ to the Americas was a type of the second coming and we need to study it to know what will happen. He also talked about the scripture that says that the day nor the hour no man knoweth, not even the angels in heaven, and read us something that Joseph Smith said that because "surely the Lord God will do nothing but he revealeth his secret to his servants the prophets" (Amos 3:7), every time that phrase of not knowing when is written in the scriptures, it is written in the present tense, and the prophet will definitely know before the second coming. Crazy, huh?
The stake conference was even better. We had a seventy from Buenos Aires named Elder Avila come and speak to us and he was awesome. In the Saturday night adult session he gave a really detailed awesome lesson of the plan of salvation and our investigator who was there loved it. He also talked about the armor of God and how important it is to put on every piece every day, because if you forget one piece or one day, Satan will attack you then and there. The next day he talked about the importance and influence of parents, and how there were a ton of Lamanites who were wicked because of their unrighteous parents, whereas with Alma started 7+ generations of prophets because they were strong, righteous influences on their children. Our investigator (Her name is Veronica Zamorano) told us afterward that she was ready to be the start of generations of members in the church, and that even though she didn’t have her grandmother or mother to look to for an example, that her 5 children and their children would have her to look to and she wants her 3 sons to grow up in the church and be missionaries so their sons can look to the examples of their fathers. She is incredible!! She understands and applies everything completely and is willing and ready to give up all her sins to know God (Alma 22:18). She is going to get baptized this Saturday and her kids probably in the next transfer. She is the first baptism that I found and taught all the way through and I am so happy because she is so strongly converted and has such a strong testimony already. We taught her a short lesson on baptism Sunday night after the conference and she was so excited for the baptism invitation. Having a convert like that and feeling the spirit touch their hearts with converting power is what makes it all worth it. I’ll let you know how the baptism goes on Saturday!!
Anyway, before I go, fun fact: The very first baptism in Tucumán (where I am right now, and the biggest city in my mission and 5th largest in Argentina) happened 50 years ago this year, and now there are two whole stakes covering the city. The cool part for me is knowing some of the people who’ve been here before me: Elder D Todd Christofferson, the dad of Alan Vawdrey (my brother in law)[****Heidi, make sure he knows that Ím in Tucumán right now and have him shoot me an e-mail if he wants to find out more about the area], and Steve Rockwood. And now Ím here walking the same streets, working the same work. That’s how the church gets built, brick by brick, person by person. By small and simple things, great things come to pass.
"Wherefore, be not weary in well-doing, for ye are laying the foundation of a great work. And out of small things proceedeth that which is great." -D&C 64:33
So keep on the well doing, even if you’re tired of it, and keep the letters coming. I thought that being from a family of 12 would mean I get more mail... hint hint ;) (you can use e-mail if you’re feeling too lazy to run to the post office, it really doesn’t make a difference to me).
Love you all, especially Carrie who is serving with me right now.
-Elder Jonathan Spencer
Great to hear from you!! I got the package, thank you sooooooooo much!! I have a confession, however, that the m&ms arrived at a time when there was almost no food in the pension and we were waiting for our monthly allotment so... I only shared them with a few investigators... :D Thanks for all the stuff again!! It was super cool to read the letters from the other missionaries.
That’s awesome Steve is in the Bishopric. You guys are pretty lucky because out here there is no bishopric; there isn’t enough priesthood leadership to go around. It sounds like you guys are just going from one party to the next! I guess that’s how summer is. I’m glad to hear all the good news (and the bad news too, opposition in all things, eh?). As far as the smoker quitting, any suggestions would help. We kinda got nothin’. Right now he’s smoking 60 a day (yeah, a ton, right?) but has a heart of gold, reads the Book of Mormon and prays 3 times a day. His problem is that he is partially mentally handicapped after getting hit really hard 18 years ago doing kung fu. He has progressed tons since the accident and now he’s almost normal, but lacks the same kind of self mastery that normal people have. I’m sure in his final judgment he won’t be held very accountable, but we still really want to help him shake loose of this horrible addiction that he is captive to.
Even so, this has been the best week in the field. This week was the week of conferences. We had mission conference on Wednesday and stake conference on Saturday and Sunday. The mission conference was super cool. Our mission president talked a while about how the coming of Christ to the Americas was a type of the second coming and we need to study it to know what will happen. He also talked about the scripture that says that the day nor the hour no man knoweth, not even the angels in heaven, and read us something that Joseph Smith said that because "surely the Lord God will do nothing but he revealeth his secret to his servants the prophets" (Amos 3:7), every time that phrase of not knowing when is written in the scriptures, it is written in the present tense, and the prophet will definitely know before the second coming. Crazy, huh?
The stake conference was even better. We had a seventy from Buenos Aires named Elder Avila come and speak to us and he was awesome. In the Saturday night adult session he gave a really detailed awesome lesson of the plan of salvation and our investigator who was there loved it. He also talked about the armor of God and how important it is to put on every piece every day, because if you forget one piece or one day, Satan will attack you then and there. The next day he talked about the importance and influence of parents, and how there were a ton of Lamanites who were wicked because of their unrighteous parents, whereas with Alma started 7+ generations of prophets because they were strong, righteous influences on their children. Our investigator (Her name is Veronica Zamorano) told us afterward that she was ready to be the start of generations of members in the church, and that even though she didn’t have her grandmother or mother to look to for an example, that her 5 children and their children would have her to look to and she wants her 3 sons to grow up in the church and be missionaries so their sons can look to the examples of their fathers. She is incredible!! She understands and applies everything completely and is willing and ready to give up all her sins to know God (Alma 22:18). She is going to get baptized this Saturday and her kids probably in the next transfer. She is the first baptism that I found and taught all the way through and I am so happy because she is so strongly converted and has such a strong testimony already. We taught her a short lesson on baptism Sunday night after the conference and she was so excited for the baptism invitation. Having a convert like that and feeling the spirit touch their hearts with converting power is what makes it all worth it. I’ll let you know how the baptism goes on Saturday!!
Anyway, before I go, fun fact: The very first baptism in Tucumán (where I am right now, and the biggest city in my mission and 5th largest in Argentina) happened 50 years ago this year, and now there are two whole stakes covering the city. The cool part for me is knowing some of the people who’ve been here before me: Elder D Todd Christofferson, the dad of Alan Vawdrey (my brother in law)[****Heidi, make sure he knows that Ím in Tucumán right now and have him shoot me an e-mail if he wants to find out more about the area], and Steve Rockwood. And now Ím here walking the same streets, working the same work. That’s how the church gets built, brick by brick, person by person. By small and simple things, great things come to pass.
"Wherefore, be not weary in well-doing, for ye are laying the foundation of a great work. And out of small things proceedeth that which is great." -D&C 64:33
So keep on the well doing, even if you’re tired of it, and keep the letters coming. I thought that being from a family of 12 would mean I get more mail... hint hint ;) (you can use e-mail if you’re feeling too lazy to run to the post office, it really doesn’t make a difference to me).
Love you all, especially Carrie who is serving with me right now.
-Elder Jonathan Spencer
Sunday, June 27, 2010
June 21, 2010
Great to hear from you!
This week went pretty well. Everybody is still crazy as ever over here about the world cup, and since they’ve won two games already the people are just getting crazier and crazier. This coming week Elder Vidal and I are planning to do a ward activity on the theme of the soccer tournament. So far it’s gonna be pretty sweet, I’ll let you know how it goes. Because of the craziness we had a ton of appointments fall through and we walked a ton more than usual, which is the hard part of missionary work. Teaching is easy, it’s the walking miles and miles and miles when appointments fall through that does it. Luckily, Elder Vidal and I have a good time together and we think up games to make the traveling fun. Sometimes we pretend to speak German as we walk past people, leaving them super confused since they’re used to gringos speaking English. Anyway, even though it was a difficult week, we made it fun, worked our tails off, and had a decent turnout at church anyway. I found out something super interesting this week, however. We were visiting a member one day asking for referrals when they began to tell us a little about their history in the church. Turns out they were baptized by D. Todd Christofferson! Talk about big shoes to fill! That really gave me some perspective about how big a responsibility I have, how big of a stewardship I need to watch over.
Anyway, time's short, church's true. Love you guys!
-Elder Spencer
This week went pretty well. Everybody is still crazy as ever over here about the world cup, and since they’ve won two games already the people are just getting crazier and crazier. This coming week Elder Vidal and I are planning to do a ward activity on the theme of the soccer tournament. So far it’s gonna be pretty sweet, I’ll let you know how it goes. Because of the craziness we had a ton of appointments fall through and we walked a ton more than usual, which is the hard part of missionary work. Teaching is easy, it’s the walking miles and miles and miles when appointments fall through that does it. Luckily, Elder Vidal and I have a good time together and we think up games to make the traveling fun. Sometimes we pretend to speak German as we walk past people, leaving them super confused since they’re used to gringos speaking English. Anyway, even though it was a difficult week, we made it fun, worked our tails off, and had a decent turnout at church anyway. I found out something super interesting this week, however. We were visiting a member one day asking for referrals when they began to tell us a little about their history in the church. Turns out they were baptized by D. Todd Christofferson! Talk about big shoes to fill! That really gave me some perspective about how big a responsibility I have, how big of a stewardship I need to watch over.
Anyway, time's short, church's true. Love you guys!
-Elder Spencer
June 14, 2010
This week was great! Out here everybody is super excited and energetic over the world cup soccer tournament. Out here, soccer is everything. They have a 2 hour game, and then spend the next four days on every single channel analyzing what happened and figuring out ways to say how awesome their team is. Everybody watches it, all the time. Seriously, every house we go into to teach a lesson they either have the game on or sports commentators talking about it. They’re fanatics. And if Argentina wins a game, they light off a ton of fireworks and all get drunk that night. It’s kinda like the superbowl but 5 times bigger.
Anyway, because of the world cup, this week was a little slow; we had lots of appointments fall through, but we still worked our tails off and our district met all the mission goals. The ward out here isn’t very big and doesn’t put on many activities, so as missionaries we are looking for opportunities to unite members with investigators. Our Mission President told us we should do an activity at least once a week. It gets hard to be creative after a few months in the same place but we still managed to keep things interesting. This week we put on a special refreshment: "Panqueqes gringos" which are just normal pancakes, but they have never tried them out here. It turned out great, but we spent the three hours of study time taking turns studying and making pancakes one at a time because we don’t have a griddle, just a fry pan. It turned out great and we got a ton of members, less-actives, and investigators to come and mingle. Our investigators are doing great, and we should have 2 baptisms in the coming week. We have another investigator who is super great, comes to church, reads the Book of Mormon (he started from the beginning a few weeks ago and is already in Mosiah!), but has a huge smoking problem. He smokes roughly 30 cigarrettes a day. We’ve tried a lot of things with him, having him read and pray when he feels the desire to smoke, but he’s super addicted. Any suggestions?
Anyway, all is well in the field. Sounds like you guys are having a blast out there! I should get the package from Bro. Calley this week at district meeting. Have fun, work hard, don’t forget to read your scriptures every day. It’s important stuff.
Love,
Elder Spencer
Anyway, because of the world cup, this week was a little slow; we had lots of appointments fall through, but we still worked our tails off and our district met all the mission goals. The ward out here isn’t very big and doesn’t put on many activities, so as missionaries we are looking for opportunities to unite members with investigators. Our Mission President told us we should do an activity at least once a week. It gets hard to be creative after a few months in the same place but we still managed to keep things interesting. This week we put on a special refreshment: "Panqueqes gringos" which are just normal pancakes, but they have never tried them out here. It turned out great, but we spent the three hours of study time taking turns studying and making pancakes one at a time because we don’t have a griddle, just a fry pan. It turned out great and we got a ton of members, less-actives, and investigators to come and mingle. Our investigators are doing great, and we should have 2 baptisms in the coming week. We have another investigator who is super great, comes to church, reads the Book of Mormon (he started from the beginning a few weeks ago and is already in Mosiah!), but has a huge smoking problem. He smokes roughly 30 cigarrettes a day. We’ve tried a lot of things with him, having him read and pray when he feels the desire to smoke, but he’s super addicted. Any suggestions?
Anyway, all is well in the field. Sounds like you guys are having a blast out there! I should get the package from Bro. Calley this week at district meeting. Have fun, work hard, don’t forget to read your scriptures every day. It’s important stuff.
Love,
Elder Spencer
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