October 29, 2012

Well, over all I have decided that this week was a pretty amazing week.  There is alot that happened and it all starts with Monday.

MONDAY
Monday, after my P-day was pretty terrible.  I got my sunglasses stolen from me and my bike broke, so I was pretty much ready to throw it all in.  I felt like there was nothing that could help me to be able to teach and have confidence in what I was doing.  So I went home and just started to read.  I read all of 2nd Nephi and then had the feeling that I should pray.  So I got ready for bed and started to pray.  I prayed for about 30min. and still felt pretty bad, so I went to bed and tried to sleep it off.  When I woke up the next day I tried to forget about it, but I just couldn't.  I kept reading out of the Book of Mormon and had a strong impression to read my patriarchal blessing, so I did.  Let me tell you, the things that were spoken on that day could not have helped me anymore then they did on Monday.  After I read it I prayed for like 10min and was so overcome by the spirit.  I do not think I have felt the spirit so strong in my life.  I had to humble myself and just ask.  I asked for so much help, which you know is something I don't do.  But I did and I received so much comfort.
TUESDAY
So Tuesday I went on my first trade off.  I went to the 2nd ward's area with a kid who is a transfer ahead of me, so he is still training as well so he doesn't know much more than me.  It was such a great experience for me because it gave me the opportunity to actually teach, since my companion has not given me the opportunity to do so yet.  I found 2 new investigators for their area and gt a a less active family to commit to coming to church that next week.  I was able to teach lesson 1 and lesson3 that day and it was awesome.

WEDNESDAY
Wednesday we had another district meeting and I learned so much.  So like I said about how many more new missionaries we are going to be getting in the next three months, we are going to have to train so much harder and learn so much more because I am most likely going to have to train someone in January after my training is over.  Exact obedience is something that was stressed a lot as well.  So it is safe to say that I had been able to forget what had happened at the beginning of the week.  So I had not been able to ride my back thus far in the week.  So I was planning on going down and getting it worked on, but somehow my bike was able to function the rest of the week, I don't know how, but it was not broken nor needed fixing.  I still don't know how that happened.

THURSDAY
On Thursday all of our appointments and backups fell through, but we were able to get some questions from some of our investigators that we studied so we could explain to them on our follow up appointments.  So this gave me a lot of time to ponder the scriptures and teach to the needs of our investigators.  But there was a fact that I heard in conference last Sunday that really applied this week.  If you were not to go on a mission, it would take you 50 years to learn what you do in the 2 years that you serve a mission, considering that you stayed faithful in the church.  This means that what I learn in one day, it would take about 25 days to learn if i weren't serving.  I found this to be true this week cause I learned so much.

FRIDAY
Friday we had weekly planning and this usually is really boring cause it takes up so much time, but it was a really effective weekly planning.  It was so effective because we now have 7 new investigators, and they all want to learn so much, and I believe that they will all be baptized by the end of the year, or before I leave this area.  I am so excited.  So in the morning we went and visited with a recent convert, Sister Trench, and we got 2 referrals that I think will become new investigators.  But as we were leaving her neighborhood, I stopped to write down the address of the referral that she gave us and Elder Lisonbee rode right into me and he hit me like a brick wall and he ate it hard.  He tried to blame it on me, but he knows he wasn't paying attention.  So this must mean that I am getting bigger, because I didn't really feel a thing and he hit pretty hard HAHAHA!!!   

SATURDAY
Saturday we met with Donavon, who said he was going to come to church on Sunday, and never showed up.  But he is a single dad with three young kids.  I think he will be a good investigator, because he has two full on sleeve tattoos and already has surgery scheduled to get them removed.  He is pretty elect.  We also had the ward trunk-or-treat and we just stayed for dinner because we had an appointment with Mike and Meagan.  Ohh and everyone is pretty depressed because Florida lost, which means that MY DUCKS are probably gonna be in the NATTY!!!! :)  Anyways, Mike and Meagan left a note on a set of elders cars and pretty much referred themselves to us.  Meagan grew up in Orem and attended seminary, but was never a member of the church.  She has like all the scripture mastery memorized and everything.  Her boyfriend, Michael has no religious background, so we are at square one with him.  But we taught them on Saturday about the Plan of Salvation, and they took to it very well and had lots of questions.  I even got Mike to pray, which he has never done before.  Elder Lisonbee still would not give me the opportunity to teach, so after we left I was bold and confronted him.  I said, “look you need to trust me when we are teaching, I know I have only been out here for two weeks, but I know this stuff too and I want to teach.”  He explained to me that his trainer did the same thing to him, but he would try and let me teach in the following lessons.

SUNDAY
Sunday we had no investigators at church, but we had the opportunity to teach David and Vivian and her kids.  David and Vivian are not married, and the kids are all baptismal age.  Elder Lisonbee let me teach them the Plan of Salvation, and it went awesome.  We extended the invitation to be baptized, and the kids are SOOO ready, but the parents still want to know more.  Talia is 13 and loves to answer all the questions.  Liam is 12 and he is a little shy towards answering, and Aleyna is 14 and is the same as Liam.  But I know this family will be baptized, we just have to get them married first.  Same with mike and Meagan.

So we have a lot to do this week and it's gonna be super busy.  But I am now starting to enjoy it all.  I just have to forget the other stuff that has happened. Thank you so much for all you do for me.  I am very grateful and love you all so much.  Keep doing well back home and study hard and play hard.  Oh and one more thing.  Did McCall get my card I sent her? Please let me know.

Love you lots,

Spencer