December 17, 2012

Holy Cow, it has already been another week, and it was a slow one.  Being in the campus area, everyone is out of town so we have not been able to find anyone, we have one investigator, and we are teaching him tonight, so hopefully we can schedule a baptism date with him.  We had our Mission Christmas party on Thursday, and it was sooo good, you aren't gonna believe this, but I did sing in the choir, and it was alright, my companion said I should probably never sing again, but hey he has focused his life on music his whole life, and me in sports..... yeah we all know I made the right choice. ;)  Anyways, it was a blast catching up with Elder Ales, Largo and Belliston.  I asked them if they were ready to train in January and they all said no.   I felt bad that I was the only one who is confident enough to train.  Like I told you mom, I am senior companion this week.  Since it is week 11, the trainee has to take the lead in ALL activities, which I have been doing the entire time because my companion has no motivation.  But Since I took the lead this week, I made him get up and go for a run this morning, it was the first time he has done that since my 3rd week out. Usually I just lift my 25lb weight while he sleeps.  But he worked out this morning, and said it was the best morning he has had in a while.

Anyways, on Tuesday we had to set up all the Christmas lights in the church for the ward party.  It took us 3 hours so our Tuesday went down the drain.  On Wednesday our 1st counselor in the Bishopric decided to take down all the lights to play basketball and called us at 8 on Thursday to go set them back up.  We were pretty mad because we had to get to Jacksonville that day too.  So we got them up and everything was good, but boy were we mad.

About Donovan, I was on a tradeoff when they went and saw him, and he now has 50-50 custody of his daughter, and he is working towards full in the next 6 months.  He didn’t come to church and his phone is disconnected, so we are gonna have to go see him this week.  We have not started to teach his mom yet :/  Our relief society president is a returned missionary, so she does missionary work like crazy.  She introduced us to 4 families, who I think can be baptized within the next month.  So there is a lot of hope for this area.  Our Ward party was catered, and I ate so much, I am at a solid 189, and most of it is because I work out every day.  you should see my shoulders, they are huge, and I don't care if Grant is a solid 200, he knows just as well as I do that I can take him any day, and he is still scared of me. ;)  But I love how motivated he is to work out, I wish I would have been more dedicated to it.  Has he gotten anymore recruiting calls?

As for my Christmas gifts, I loved them soo much, I think I love the picture from McCall the most.  I hang all of them up above my study desk.  The GPS works great, the only thing is that it didn’t save the address in the favorites, so it wouldn’t mark them on the map.  So I still had to manually do them all.  But it was not that bad.  Thank you so much for the Ipod and sound case, I cannot wait to use it.  There is just one thing.  I need a cord to charge the Ipod with, because I don’t have one here at the apartment, so I don’t have a way to listen to the music.  I got a package from Grandma Mann, and it was full of delicious candy and it makes me feel more at home, thank you so much Grandma :)

I am so excited to hear about all these friends leaving and what not, I am so glad that Brandon and I were the first to go, because now I get to see them home and be that first person that every ones mom goes off of, kinda like how Kwenton comes home and the Tyler, I am gonna be that first one, as well as the one to set the example, just like my patriarchal blessing says.

Well I know for Christmas, I am going to the Mechams for lunch and skyping around 2, then at 4 I am going to an investigators house for dinner.  So I am excited for that.  GEEEZe, like I said this mission is going by so fast, If I train come January, in like 2 weeks by the end of that I will already have a 1/4 of my mission gone.  That’s CRAZY.  I know it is gonnna fly by for yall because you have a lot to keep you busy, as do I.  I love this work, and I am glad to be a servant in the Lords hands.

Oh one more thing, I has given a challenge by president Barry, he said to get a new Book of Mormon and then mark every time is says or refers to Jesus Christ, and in a different color highlight all of his spoken or quoted words, and then in another color highlight the attributes of being Christ like, and finally in one other color highlight all the doctrine of Christ.  I had already started to highlight all the DoC in my leather Book of Mormon, and now starting this other challenge has helped me to see and more fully understand the Book of Mormon.

I love you all so much, and I hope you have a wonderful Christmas and do well in school.  Please look for opportunities to serve, share the gospel and share your testimony.  I know that it will not only help and strengthen you, but it will help bring others unto Christ.  It is so easy this time of year.  I challenge each of you, from today until the end of the year to share your testimony with 4 people, or 4 families.  I promise the Lord will bless you.  Ohh and I will be following up on this with yall.

Love you lots,

Spencer

December 10, 2012

Well it was an awesome week.  It went by so fast getting Donovan prepared for his baptism and just trying to find new people to teach and stuff.  Yes Donovan was baptized on Saturday, and I got to perform the Ordination.  It was the most spiritual experience that I have had on my mission this far.  He was so ready to be baptized, and I feel so honored that he wanted me to do it for him.  His knee came up the first time, so we had to do it twice, but it went well.  It is awesome to see what the gospel can do for someone, and how it can change people’s lives so much.  Not only has it changed his life, but it has started to change the life of his family as well.  His mom said that she would like to start coming to church as well as start listening to the lessons from us as well.  She wants her other son to start listening to us as well because she wants the same changes that occurred in Donovan's life to happen in her family’s as well.  So hopefully we can have a white Christmas and have a few more baptisms here in the last bit of this year.  Oh Donovan is also getting the priesthood next Sunday, and it would be so awesome to see him baptize his family before I leave this area, I would feel so accomplished and blessed to be a part of that.
This week we were also able to start the reactivation process with a less active sister in our ward.  She has not been to church since 1987, and we have been working with her and trying to get her back to church since before I got here, and I called her up a few days ago, and asked if we could stop by and she said yes.  When we got there she was like I totally forgot what I had agreed to do when you called, and she said she thought she had agreed to going to church or something, but she said that she thought about it and decided she wanted to just come to sacrament.  Oh and she has two service dogs that she takes everywhere with her.  So we found her a ride to church, and after sacrament, she said that she wanted to start coming to all 3 hours next week, so we are so grateful to see her starting to come back to church, and I love to see our hard work, finally coming through and working out.
Dad, thank you so much for sharing all of that with me.  I love to hear your testimony, because it strengthens mine, and helps me to try and be the best son and example to everyone I come in contact with.   Whenever we meet with people and they say that it is easy for me to believe all the stuff we teach because I have been taught it my whole life, I have the ability to tell them yes I have been raised in the gospel my whole life, but it wasn't always my main focus.  I tell them that I learned a lot from my parents, but it wasn't until my senior year, and about the end of it that I really decided that I wanted to serve a mission, and that I prayerfully sought out the gospel to know for myself that it is true.  I love having an anchored family in the church.  I have seen how it has blessed me so much, and how other families are struggling, but not knowing where to find peace and joy.  It breaks my heart, and almost brings me to tears to see families looking so hard, but rejecting what we teach and continue to suffer.
I have learned so much this week, and I have grown up a lot too.  President Barry pulled me aside during Zone Meeting this week, and just wanted to talk about how I was doing after the whole Denise situation, and I told him that I had a rough week, and it was hard to go through, and I noticed that it was super unproductive.  I know that he is an inspired man, and he sees a lot of potential and hard work in me, and he helped me out so much, and just helped me to be a better missionary.  I know that the knowledge will come, and that it is going to come in time, but what I do know is that I have been called of God to serve a mission, and to teach what I do know, and that is the truth and fullness of the gospel.
I love the examples that all of you have set for me, and I have loved how I have always been held to a higher level of accountability by everyone.  I guess it used to bother me, and I would just wonder why everyone expected so much from me, but I have finally realized that it is because I can achieve a lot more than I give myself.  I thank everyone who has held me to this higher standard.  I love the example of Taylor, and just how much he has helped me and how close I have grown to him.  We have been so far away for so long, and it is going to be even longer, but I have felt the closest to him then I ever have in my life.  Thanks for all you have shown and done for me Taylor, I really do love you and look up to you in so many ways.
I love each and every one of my siblings so so much, and in a different way.  I have had so many experience and memories with each one of you that has shaped me into the loving, careful, and honorable missionary that I am today.  I hope that yall can forgive me for anything that I have done to hurt or offend you, because I love yall so much, and I hope that we can have lots of more memories over the years.  Thank you so much for being such a wonderful family to me.

Love yall lots,

Spencer

December 3, 2012

Well, like Taylor, I had a pretty rough week too.  We only have one solid investigator and that is Donovan.  He is still getting baptized this Saturday, but it almost didn't work out.  He wasn't at church yesterday because his house flooded in sewage.  So we had to get special permission to still be able to baptize him this up coming week.  He is so strong and Satan is working so hard on him.  He can feel it too.  His mom is now taking Sundays off so she can start coming to church, so we might have another investigator after he gets baptized.  We were able to get another media referral this week and we are going to see him tonight.  All our media referrals have not been too promising, so we are hoping that this one turns out good.  Like you Taylor, I have been looking over the last little bit of my mission, and pondering on what I have done, and to me it has felt like not much.  Something that came to mind when I was pondering was, We see tons of people every day, and the Lord has prepared them to hear what we have to tell them.  Now he might not have prepared them to be taught everything we have to offer, or to be baptized on our watch, but they have been prepared to meet us. They now have a portion of our spirit with them, and the seed has been planted.  It might take them until the spirit world to act upon it, but they will act upon it.  I also have been thinking about my testimony, and Donovan said something really interesting last week.  He wanted to bear his testimony this week, and we told him if he came to church he could.  Then he said he didn't want to.  When I asked him why he said he wanted to earn his testimony.  He wants to know without a doubt that it is true.  This has made me question all week if I have earned my testimony.  After testimony meeting, and not getting up to share mine, I came to the conclusion that I have earned mine, but I need to share it to confirm what I believe.  It is one thing to just say it, but by earning it we need to act upon what we believe and live it to the fullest.  I am so grateful for you mom and dad.  I love you so much, and it is your love and support that keep me going each week.  I’m guessing that you got my letter about Mike and Megan.  It has really pulled Elder Lisonbee and I down this week.  I came to the conclusion that it has pulled me down so much because I loved them, and I cared for them, and wanted to see them grow.  Now we are at nothing with them.  They deleted Elder Lisonbee off of Facebook, and they won't answer the door when we come.  It has been a hard experience for me.  On a brighter note, our Stake had a nativity display Fri. Sat. and Sun.  It is so awesome seeing all the depictions of the Nativities, and then to hear the First Presidency Christmas Devotional last night.  I love our Prophets and Apostles.  They are definitely inspired men, and they are all there for a reason.  I hope that his week can turn around and become better, but I know that it is not the people on the area that can decide how my week will turn out, it is me.  My mission is what I make of it, and if I let people get me down, then I am going to have a terrible mission, so I have decided to love everyone I see, but if they don't accept what we have, and know is true, then I need to be positive in knowing that I am glad I know that it is true.

I love yall so much, I pray for you everyday and night, and seek inspiration on your behalf.  I hope yall had a good week and that this week is even better.  It's now December, the Christmas season, let us not forget our Savior and the TRUE meaning of Christmas, look for opportunities to serve others, especially our Savior.  In my letter from President Barry this morning he said, "Have you thought of what gifts you might give the Savior or your Father in Heaven this Christmas? The best gift and ultimately the only gift we can give to God and His Son this Christmas or any Christmas is, OUR WILL. God has given us our agency to choose our own course in this life. He allows us to be enticed by the one or the other, the Holy Ghost or Satan but it is our choice, our decisions, that places us either in the liberty and eternal life side or the misery and death side. You cannot, as much as we try, live in Zion and vacation in Babylon. “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon”."  

This is so true, and I love this season, and my Savior Jesus Christ.  Love yall!

Love,

Spencer