Dear Family,
What a week... again.
Week 3 Miracle: Ok, so Gisela was doing pretty solid this week. We taught her everything she was missing and prepared her for her baptismal interview. However, as it turned out, she had had some somewhat serious things in her past and needed to be interviewed by the stake president. No problem. We scheduled the appointment for Friday night. Then came the opposition. Friday night comes and she was suddenly super nervous and didn’t feel ready at all. The night before she had had a small argument with her husband and wasn’t feeling good. She went into the interview and we prayed a lot while she was in there and she came out great, feeling awesome and ready for her baptism. We tell her everything she needs for the next day and then leave. Saturday, baptism day. She shows up alone 10 minutes before her baptism. We ask her what happened. Background: Sunday is their 3-year old son’s birthday. Here, birthdays are a huge deal where they invite the whole fam and go all out. Anyway, apparently the whole birthday preparation had been a big source of stress and they had another argument that night. She had asked her mom and husband to come, but they said they weren’t going to. We told her to go change and then ran to a telephone booth to call her mom and husband and tell them to come, praying for a miraculous change of heart. Well, it happened. Husband and her mom came. I have to really compliment the ward here, because it was probably one of the best attended baptisms I’ve seen in my mission. The entire ward council and their families showed up. It was super awesome and the spirit was amazing. Her mom was crying pretty much the whole time and afterward she thanked us for what we were doing to help her daughter. We told her that she was next ;) The next day was ward conference and it was excellent. The confirmation went great. I think one of the best parts of it all were Gisela’s descriptions of how she felt. When she was baptized she said that she felt like she was bursting with happiness, and when she was confirmed she said she felt like she was being filled with something wonderful. Sounds a bit like the fruit Lehi tasted in 1 Nephi 8.
The gospel is completely true. This week we get to listen to a prophet of God. Pay close attention. I love you all!
-Elder Spencer
Monday, September 26, 2011
Monday, September 19, 2011
September 19, 2011
Dear Family,
Well, another crazy week, but down I’ve got a little more time to write. So the motto for this transfer with Elder Petersen has been and will be *Miracles*. Did I tell you about the awesome training meeting by Elder Aidukaitis? I think so. In it, he talked about miracles (see Mormon 9:11-25, James 2:14-19, Ether 12:12-18) and was super inspiring. Then, he made a promise. He said that there is not one area in this mission that cannot have a baptism every single week. Wow. I was pretty shocked. I consider myself a person who has a decent amount of faith, and I work really hard, but up to that point I considered an option like that beyond the realm of possibility. Something that happens in other places, but not here. However, just as Naaman trusted in Elisha (2 Kings 5), the Israelites trusted in Moses (Alma 33:19-22), and Nephi trusted in the Lord (1 Nephi 3:7), Elder Petersen and I decided to trust in the promise given us by a servant of the Lord.
Wk 1 - Our baptism with Monica was a huge miracle. She told us on Tuesday that she didn’t think she would be able to get baptized because she had lawyers coming that week to work out problems with a house she had in another province. We told her to pray for a miracle and trust that on Saturday she would be baptized. Things went well. Friday night, she told us, again, she wouldn’t be able to this week because her husband’s work schedule wouldn’t let him be there and she wanted him to be there. Another miracle: the work schedules got worked out and she got baptized.
Wk 2 (last week) - I think this week we would have had the miracle sooner if we had exercised our faith sooner. Gisela, a super awesome investigator, was progressing well for her baptism for the 24th. Sunday night, we challenged her to get baptized a week earlier (17th) and she got a little shaken up with the idea (didn’t feel ready) and wanted it instead for early October. We kinda lost faith and lived with the fact that we wouldn’t have a baptism this week. Then on Thursday we had zone conference, where President Levrino (super stud) gave us the same promise. With our faith pumped up again, we challenged Gisela to pray to know if she should get baptized on Saturday. Then we started praying with lots and lots and lots of faith that the Lord would respond. Friday, however, Gisela told us that she didn’t think she had prayed with very much faith, but just felt like should do it in October. Saturday. Miracle, out of the blue, an inactive family baptized their 8 year old. I know it doesn’t count for us as a baptism, but here’s why it’s a miracle. Gisela came to the baptism. She loved it again (she had gone to Mónica’s too). After the baptism we sat down and had a talk with her. She told us (Miracle) that Friday night after her appointment she started praying and she woke up three times that night and prayed and all three times she felt like she saw bright white words saying "Yes! Yes! Yes!" Wow! what a miraculous answer to prayer. If we had continued exercising our faith and passed by Saturday morning, she probably would have been baptized that day. Oh well. After telling us that, though, we challenged her to follow that response and get baptized this Saturday. She accepted with a great big smile. Her husband came to church with her on Sunday and liked it a lot. He’s progressing great and on October 8th he’s getting baptized.
We need a miracle for October 1st. Gabriela needs her paperwork to come together so she can get married in time for her baptism. Please pray hard for that to work out.
I love you all so much. The church is true and God is still a God of miracles. Look for them in your lives and you will find them!
-Elder Spencer
Well, another crazy week, but down I’ve got a little more time to write. So the motto for this transfer with Elder Petersen has been and will be *Miracles*. Did I tell you about the awesome training meeting by Elder Aidukaitis? I think so. In it, he talked about miracles (see Mormon 9:11-25, James 2:14-19, Ether 12:12-18) and was super inspiring. Then, he made a promise. He said that there is not one area in this mission that cannot have a baptism every single week. Wow. I was pretty shocked. I consider myself a person who has a decent amount of faith, and I work really hard, but up to that point I considered an option like that beyond the realm of possibility. Something that happens in other places, but not here. However, just as Naaman trusted in Elisha (2 Kings 5), the Israelites trusted in Moses (Alma 33:19-22), and Nephi trusted in the Lord (1 Nephi 3:7), Elder Petersen and I decided to trust in the promise given us by a servant of the Lord.
Wk 1 - Our baptism with Monica was a huge miracle. She told us on Tuesday that she didn’t think she would be able to get baptized because she had lawyers coming that week to work out problems with a house she had in another province. We told her to pray for a miracle and trust that on Saturday she would be baptized. Things went well. Friday night, she told us, again, she wouldn’t be able to this week because her husband’s work schedule wouldn’t let him be there and she wanted him to be there. Another miracle: the work schedules got worked out and she got baptized.
Wk 2 (last week) - I think this week we would have had the miracle sooner if we had exercised our faith sooner. Gisela, a super awesome investigator, was progressing well for her baptism for the 24th. Sunday night, we challenged her to get baptized a week earlier (17th) and she got a little shaken up with the idea (didn’t feel ready) and wanted it instead for early October. We kinda lost faith and lived with the fact that we wouldn’t have a baptism this week. Then on Thursday we had zone conference, where President Levrino (super stud) gave us the same promise. With our faith pumped up again, we challenged Gisela to pray to know if she should get baptized on Saturday. Then we started praying with lots and lots and lots of faith that the Lord would respond. Friday, however, Gisela told us that she didn’t think she had prayed with very much faith, but just felt like should do it in October. Saturday. Miracle, out of the blue, an inactive family baptized their 8 year old. I know it doesn’t count for us as a baptism, but here’s why it’s a miracle. Gisela came to the baptism. She loved it again (she had gone to Mónica’s too). After the baptism we sat down and had a talk with her. She told us (Miracle) that Friday night after her appointment she started praying and she woke up three times that night and prayed and all three times she felt like she saw bright white words saying "Yes! Yes! Yes!" Wow! what a miraculous answer to prayer. If we had continued exercising our faith and passed by Saturday morning, she probably would have been baptized that day. Oh well. After telling us that, though, we challenged her to follow that response and get baptized this Saturday. She accepted with a great big smile. Her husband came to church with her on Sunday and liked it a lot. He’s progressing great and on October 8th he’s getting baptized.
We need a miracle for October 1st. Gabriela needs her paperwork to come together so she can get married in time for her baptism. Please pray hard for that to work out.
I love you all so much. The church is true and God is still a God of miracles. Look for them in your lives and you will find them!
-Elder Spencer
Monday, September 12, 2011
September 12, 2011
Dear Family,
Well, This week has been super crazy for two reasons. Monica got baptized. That required lots of miracles because she was going to have to postpone it for problems with work and her husband’s work and such, but after lots of fervent prayers, she got baptized! Also, we moved this week, which entailed having to buy new stuff (fridge, washing machine (don’t get any illusions, it’s a stick with paddles basically), and ... everything) which pretty much killed P-day and lots of the week. Still though, we were blessed with lots of miracles.
Pray for us. Gisela is preparing to get baptized.
Anyway, thanks for everything. I have noooo time to write. I love you all. The church is true!
-Elder Spencer
Well, This week has been super crazy for two reasons. Monica got baptized. That required lots of miracles because she was going to have to postpone it for problems with work and her husband’s work and such, but after lots of fervent prayers, she got baptized! Also, we moved this week, which entailed having to buy new stuff (fridge, washing machine (don’t get any illusions, it’s a stick with paddles basically), and ... everything) which pretty much killed P-day and lots of the week. Still though, we were blessed with lots of miracles.
Pray for us. Gisela is preparing to get baptized.
Anyway, thanks for everything. I have noooo time to write. I love you all. The church is true!
-Elder Spencer
Monday, September 5, 2011
September 5, 2011
Dear Family,
So I have very little time to write today, but I have some crazy news. So this week was transfers, which was sad, because I didn’t want to leave Villa Alem. I totally love that ward. Well anyway, you will *never* guess what happened. We got the phone call for transfers and the district leader said: Well I think there’s been a mistake because it says here that you are going to Jujuy (who-whoey) to be with Elder Petersen!!! I was pretty excited, but since it wasn’t for sure, I kept my cool. That night in the apartment, we called up the mission president to see if he had everything worked out and our district leader asked the mission president if he was aware of what had happened with my transfers. The mission president said yes, and told him to ask me if I believed in revelation. I told him of course, and the president replied with a chuckle, well then, no problem. Everything will stay the same. I went pretty much nuts at that point and now I’m up in Jujuy with Elder Petersen and we’re just kinda in euphoria.
Anyway, not much time to write because of the 6-hour trip that took up most of the P-day, but we have baptisms planned for every week this month. It’ll be difficult, and we will need miracles, so please pray for us to see miracles here and help these people to come unto the waters of baptism.
Elder Petersen wrote up a brief about each one. Please pray for them.
Monica - Sept 10 - Wife of a member, they have one daughter who was baptized a year ago. She is totally ready to be baptized except there are some legal problems the family has in selling a property in Buenos Aires. She as the legal owner might not be able to be baptized this week if the final meetings/legal papers/signatures get scheduled for this week.
Gabriela - Sept 17 - "Spouse" of an inactive member. She was 7th day Adventist and was baptized there with much faith and desire. She is reading the Book of Mormon and believes it is true, and that Joseph Smith was a prophet - but she hasn’t recognized her answer from the Spirit. She will also have to get legally married before this date. She wants to be certain before she makes a drastic change, but she likes the church meetings and prays amazingly.
Gisela - Sept 24 - She is ready for baptism. She has already received and recognized her answer from God. The only thing that stands in her way is she needs to be legally married to her spouse and understand the rest of the doctrine/commandments.
Graciela - Oct 1 - She has also received and recognized her answer from God that Joseph Smith was a prophet who restored the priesthood and that the church is true. The problem we have is that she is very hard to find. She is a single mom who works and has a very sick daughter (and thus is always going to doctors’ appointments.) We only need to set fixed times to teach and help her understand the rest of the doctrines/commandments.
I’ll fill y’all in more next week. I love you all so much. The church is true!!!
-Elder Spencer
So I have very little time to write today, but I have some crazy news. So this week was transfers, which was sad, because I didn’t want to leave Villa Alem. I totally love that ward. Well anyway, you will *never* guess what happened. We got the phone call for transfers and the district leader said: Well I think there’s been a mistake because it says here that you are going to Jujuy (who-whoey) to be with Elder Petersen!!! I was pretty excited, but since it wasn’t for sure, I kept my cool. That night in the apartment, we called up the mission president to see if he had everything worked out and our district leader asked the mission president if he was aware of what had happened with my transfers. The mission president said yes, and told him to ask me if I believed in revelation. I told him of course, and the president replied with a chuckle, well then, no problem. Everything will stay the same. I went pretty much nuts at that point and now I’m up in Jujuy with Elder Petersen and we’re just kinda in euphoria.
Anyway, not much time to write because of the 6-hour trip that took up most of the P-day, but we have baptisms planned for every week this month. It’ll be difficult, and we will need miracles, so please pray for us to see miracles here and help these people to come unto the waters of baptism.
Elder Petersen wrote up a brief about each one. Please pray for them.
Monica - Sept 10 - Wife of a member, they have one daughter who was baptized a year ago. She is totally ready to be baptized except there are some legal problems the family has in selling a property in Buenos Aires. She as the legal owner might not be able to be baptized this week if the final meetings/legal papers/signatures get scheduled for this week.
Gabriela - Sept 17 - "Spouse" of an inactive member. She was 7th day Adventist and was baptized there with much faith and desire. She is reading the Book of Mormon and believes it is true, and that Joseph Smith was a prophet - but she hasn’t recognized her answer from the Spirit. She will also have to get legally married before this date. She wants to be certain before she makes a drastic change, but she likes the church meetings and prays amazingly.
Gisela - Sept 24 - She is ready for baptism. She has already received and recognized her answer from God. The only thing that stands in her way is she needs to be legally married to her spouse and understand the rest of the doctrine/commandments.
Graciela - Oct 1 - She has also received and recognized her answer from God that Joseph Smith was a prophet who restored the priesthood and that the church is true. The problem we have is that she is very hard to find. She is a single mom who works and has a very sick daughter (and thus is always going to doctors’ appointments.) We only need to set fixed times to teach and help her understand the rest of the doctrines/commandments.
I’ll fill y’all in more next week. I love you all so much. The church is true!!!
-Elder Spencer
Monday, August 29, 2011
August 29, 2011
Dear Family,
This week was pretty excellent. It started off with a service project helping the 1st counselor in our stake presidency with the chicken coop in his backyard. It was pretty small and the chickens were always escaping, so we helped him take out some super heavy concrete posts and put them in new holes to enlarge it. He is a super cool guy named Miguel Conde. Alan’s dad probably knows him from when he served here in Tucumán because his family is the oldest family here (they’ve been here since it was one branch to the two stakes it is now). His dad (also Miguel Conde) is the stake patriarch and lives in our ward too. They remember giving lunch to Elder Christofferson when he was a missionary here. The service was really fun and it made me think about all the chicks back home (pun intended... don’t go on thinking I’m trunky).
Well, after the baptisms we had the last few weeks, we didn’t have really anyone in our teaching pool, but this week we found a couple cool families we’re going to start working with. I’ll let you know more about them as they progress.
The best part of the week was an awesome leadership meeting we had on Friday. So apparently the North of Argentina (basically all the area of our mission) is the weakest part of the Area (South America South), so one of the Area presidency come to give a special leadership meeting to all the priesthood leadership in the two stakes here in the city and the missionaries. We got to hear from Elder Aidukaitis (counselor in the presidency) and an Area Seventy. Elder Aidukaitis is such a stud. He has so much charisma and spirit, it was amazing. They talked about the area goals, especially that of how we need to work more together, unified in our plan and purpose. They kinda came down pretty hard (in a loving way, of course) on how the city is not doing the things that the Prophet asked them to do (there is a project of teaching 15 inactive/part-member families the missionary lessons again) and how they have so much potential and that if they follow the prophet’s counsel they can double or triple church attendance.
Then he said, there are probably some of you who are thinking "Elder Aidukaitis doesn’t know how things are here. It isn’t really possible to have that kind of results". He responded to that thought by finishing his talk talking about Miracles. He read from Ether 12, Mormon 9, and James 2 and talked about how we can achieve miracles by having complete faith in Christ, and how we demonstrate complete faith in Christ by works: obeying the prophet’s and church leaders’ direction. Not just praying and fasting, works.
Anyway, it was pretty stinkin’ awesome and now our bishop is all pumped up to get to work, which is great. It’s totally the key, working together. Everybody with the same goal and same focus. I know lots of you have callings, and like all of us, need miracles. Read those chapters. We need miracles in our callings. Seek them.
Well, that’s about it for this week. General conference is coming up! If you start reading (or watching or listening to) a talk a day from the last one you’ll be finishing up right around the time of the next one. I love you all so much! The church is true!
-Elder Spencer
PS - cool treat, I got to see the bishop and a few members from my first ward, Villa Muñecas, at the training. Here’s a picture I took with them. The bishop is the guy on the right.
PPS - Word on the street is that Elder Christofferson is coming to visit us in October. :D
Members and bishop from Villa Muñecas
This week was pretty excellent. It started off with a service project helping the 1st counselor in our stake presidency with the chicken coop in his backyard. It was pretty small and the chickens were always escaping, so we helped him take out some super heavy concrete posts and put them in new holes to enlarge it. He is a super cool guy named Miguel Conde. Alan’s dad probably knows him from when he served here in Tucumán because his family is the oldest family here (they’ve been here since it was one branch to the two stakes it is now). His dad (also Miguel Conde) is the stake patriarch and lives in our ward too. They remember giving lunch to Elder Christofferson when he was a missionary here. The service was really fun and it made me think about all the chicks back home (pun intended... don’t go on thinking I’m trunky).
Well, after the baptisms we had the last few weeks, we didn’t have really anyone in our teaching pool, but this week we found a couple cool families we’re going to start working with. I’ll let you know more about them as they progress.
The best part of the week was an awesome leadership meeting we had on Friday. So apparently the North of Argentina (basically all the area of our mission) is the weakest part of the Area (South America South), so one of the Area presidency come to give a special leadership meeting to all the priesthood leadership in the two stakes here in the city and the missionaries. We got to hear from Elder Aidukaitis (counselor in the presidency) and an Area Seventy. Elder Aidukaitis is such a stud. He has so much charisma and spirit, it was amazing. They talked about the area goals, especially that of how we need to work more together, unified in our plan and purpose. They kinda came down pretty hard (in a loving way, of course) on how the city is not doing the things that the Prophet asked them to do (there is a project of teaching 15 inactive/part-member families the missionary lessons again) and how they have so much potential and that if they follow the prophet’s counsel they can double or triple church attendance.
Then he said, there are probably some of you who are thinking "Elder Aidukaitis doesn’t know how things are here. It isn’t really possible to have that kind of results". He responded to that thought by finishing his talk talking about Miracles. He read from Ether 12, Mormon 9, and James 2 and talked about how we can achieve miracles by having complete faith in Christ, and how we demonstrate complete faith in Christ by works: obeying the prophet’s and church leaders’ direction. Not just praying and fasting, works.
Anyway, it was pretty stinkin’ awesome and now our bishop is all pumped up to get to work, which is great. It’s totally the key, working together. Everybody with the same goal and same focus. I know lots of you have callings, and like all of us, need miracles. Read those chapters. We need miracles in our callings. Seek them.
Well, that’s about it for this week. General conference is coming up! If you start reading (or watching or listening to) a talk a day from the last one you’ll be finishing up right around the time of the next one. I love you all so much! The church is true!
-Elder Spencer
PS - cool treat, I got to see the bishop and a few members from my first ward, Villa Muñecas, at the training. Here’s a picture I took with them. The bishop is the guy on the right.
PPS - Word on the street is that Elder Christofferson is coming to visit us in October. :D
Members and bishop from Villa Muñecas
Monday, August 22, 2011
August 22, 2011
Dear Family,
Well this week pretty much rocked. We had two baptisms, and three confirmations. Our first baptism is a little boy whose name is Luis (9 yrs old). Luis is pretty awesome. His uncle, brother, and grandma are members. We’ve been teaching him off and on for a while, but we were a little concerned about baptizing him because he’s so young and we didn’t want to baptize him if he didn’t have a testimony. We had been constantly challenging him to pray and ask God if the things we were teaching him were true. A few weeks before his baptism he told us that he had prayed and had a wonderful feeling as he prayed and told us that he really wanted to be baptized.
Our other baptism, Ana (20 yrs old) was a similar experience. Her boyfriend is a member and we were a little worried that she was getting baptized for him because they were planning on getting married pretty soon too. We started teaching her and from the start we challenged her to ask God if the things we were teaching her were true. After several weeks she was kind of frustrated because we kept on describing to her what she might be feeling, but she hadn’t felt a response yet. About a week before her baptism we asked her how she was doing with her prayers and she said "great!!!" She described about how that week she had prayed on her knees about if the things we were teaching her were true and she said she felt a wonderful indescribable feeling that just made her feel really really good. After that she was so excited for her baptism. After she got baptized and after she got confirmed she was crying with tears of happiness.
Anyway, that’s all the time for today, but...
The church is true!! I love you all!!
-Elder Spencer
Ramon and his mom Dolores and his dad Fermin
Luis was baptized by his uncle who is a member. He's a stud!
His uncle looks kinda weird in this one, but Luis had a great smile (right after I told a joke)
Ana, a golden investigator we taught, was baptized by her boyfriend Jorge. They are planning on getting married in a few months and sealed in a year :)
Today we made wild and wackys mmmmmmm
Well this week pretty much rocked. We had two baptisms, and three confirmations. Our first baptism is a little boy whose name is Luis (9 yrs old). Luis is pretty awesome. His uncle, brother, and grandma are members. We’ve been teaching him off and on for a while, but we were a little concerned about baptizing him because he’s so young and we didn’t want to baptize him if he didn’t have a testimony. We had been constantly challenging him to pray and ask God if the things we were teaching him were true. A few weeks before his baptism he told us that he had prayed and had a wonderful feeling as he prayed and told us that he really wanted to be baptized.
Our other baptism, Ana (20 yrs old) was a similar experience. Her boyfriend is a member and we were a little worried that she was getting baptized for him because they were planning on getting married pretty soon too. We started teaching her and from the start we challenged her to ask God if the things we were teaching her were true. After several weeks she was kind of frustrated because we kept on describing to her what she might be feeling, but she hadn’t felt a response yet. About a week before her baptism we asked her how she was doing with her prayers and she said "great!!!" She described about how that week she had prayed on her knees about if the things we were teaching her were true and she said she felt a wonderful indescribable feeling that just made her feel really really good. After that she was so excited for her baptism. After she got baptized and after she got confirmed she was crying with tears of happiness.
Anyway, that’s all the time for today, but...
The church is true!! I love you all!!
-Elder Spencer
Ramon and his mom Dolores and his dad Fermin
Luis was baptized by his uncle who is a member. He's a stud!
His uncle looks kinda weird in this one, but Luis had a great smile (right after I told a joke)
Ana, a golden investigator we taught, was baptized by her boyfriend Jorge. They are planning on getting married in a few months and sealed in a year :)
Today we made wild and wackys mmmmmmm
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
August 15, 2011
Dear family,
A good crazy week. The big push of this week were the two baptisms we had scheduled for Saturday. They were both doing great until we got to Thursday morning for the baptismal interview, and out of the blue, one of them was extremely sick (he’s better now). One down. The other one, Ramon (55 years old) was doing great though. Early he had had a hard time praying, but this last week he’s been reading and praying every day. Friday we passed by to make sure he had everything in order and as it turns out he even had his own pair of white pants. (Oh yeah, here they don’t have those nice baptism clothes that they do in the states, it’s pretty much fend for yourself.) We were happy because then we didn’t have to go asking around for a pair his size so we told him to bring them the next day. We also had a member lined up to baptize him, so we were pretty excited to just show up and see him get baptized. The baptism was for 7, and we got to church at 6:50 and there was.... nobody there. Just the ward mission leader (20 years old) outside playing soccer with a couple of kids from the church. Then we started to worry a bit. Ramon and his parents (his mom is a recent convert of 2 months ago, dad has Alzheimers) showed up and Ramon only had the white pants (his mom, bless her heart, thought that he was going to wear a white robe like when she got baptized, so she told him not to bring a change). On top of that, we called up the member who was supposed to baptize him, and he was sick in bed. So, we grabbed a taxi with Ramon, went to our house to get clothes for my companion, went to his house to get clothes for him, and went back to church. The good news is, he got baptized. He said he just felt wonderful.
The story doesn’t end there! As it turns out, Sunday was the voting day in Argentina, and all the politicians hired the taxis to take people to and from the voting booths. Therefore, it was pretty hard to get a taxi on Sunday to get anywhere else. Therefore, Ramon got to church right as we were singing the sacrament hymn :/ so he couldn’t get confirmed. He didn’t mind though, and we’ll confirm him next week.
Also, José gave his first talk! It was on honesty and it was great. An inactive sister that we are working with to reactivate also gave a talk and it was also great. Seeing those two talk really made my day.
Oh, and good news about Elder Angel, they found out that what he has isn’t a tumor (I don’t remember what it really is), so it won’t kill him. He’ll have to go home to get operated, but he won’t die.
Well, that’s about it for this week. We also had interviews with our mission president and it was great. He’s soooo awesome.
I hope you all have a wonderful week. A quick quote from President Hinckley to the members of the church:
“We are here to assist our Father in His work and His glory, ‘to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man’ (Moses 1:39). Your obligation is as serious in your sphere of responsibility as is my obligation in my sphere.” (Preach My Gospel 13)
The church is true! Magnify your callings and assist our Father in His work and His glory. I love you all!
-Elder Spencer
A good crazy week. The big push of this week were the two baptisms we had scheduled for Saturday. They were both doing great until we got to Thursday morning for the baptismal interview, and out of the blue, one of them was extremely sick (he’s better now). One down. The other one, Ramon (55 years old) was doing great though. Early he had had a hard time praying, but this last week he’s been reading and praying every day. Friday we passed by to make sure he had everything in order and as it turns out he even had his own pair of white pants. (Oh yeah, here they don’t have those nice baptism clothes that they do in the states, it’s pretty much fend for yourself.) We were happy because then we didn’t have to go asking around for a pair his size so we told him to bring them the next day. We also had a member lined up to baptize him, so we were pretty excited to just show up and see him get baptized. The baptism was for 7, and we got to church at 6:50 and there was.... nobody there. Just the ward mission leader (20 years old) outside playing soccer with a couple of kids from the church. Then we started to worry a bit. Ramon and his parents (his mom is a recent convert of 2 months ago, dad has Alzheimers) showed up and Ramon only had the white pants (his mom, bless her heart, thought that he was going to wear a white robe like when she got baptized, so she told him not to bring a change). On top of that, we called up the member who was supposed to baptize him, and he was sick in bed. So, we grabbed a taxi with Ramon, went to our house to get clothes for my companion, went to his house to get clothes for him, and went back to church. The good news is, he got baptized. He said he just felt wonderful.
The story doesn’t end there! As it turns out, Sunday was the voting day in Argentina, and all the politicians hired the taxis to take people to and from the voting booths. Therefore, it was pretty hard to get a taxi on Sunday to get anywhere else. Therefore, Ramon got to church right as we were singing the sacrament hymn :/ so he couldn’t get confirmed. He didn’t mind though, and we’ll confirm him next week.
Also, José gave his first talk! It was on honesty and it was great. An inactive sister that we are working with to reactivate also gave a talk and it was also great. Seeing those two talk really made my day.
Oh, and good news about Elder Angel, they found out that what he has isn’t a tumor (I don’t remember what it really is), so it won’t kill him. He’ll have to go home to get operated, but he won’t die.
Well, that’s about it for this week. We also had interviews with our mission president and it was great. He’s soooo awesome.
I hope you all have a wonderful week. A quick quote from President Hinckley to the members of the church:
“We are here to assist our Father in His work and His glory, ‘to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man’ (Moses 1:39). Your obligation is as serious in your sphere of responsibility as is my obligation in my sphere.” (Preach My Gospel 13)
The church is true! Magnify your callings and assist our Father in His work and His glory. I love you all!
-Elder Spencer
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