My Last Week in the Promised Land!

Dear Family and Friends,

How crazy to think that there are only a few days left..... I still feel like it is not real yet..... I'm nervous and excited and Sad all at the same time and can't wait to see everyone! Have a great few days and see you soon!

Week May 22nd - 28th 2017

Monday:

It just seems to be one of those days. What I mean by that is recently as I have been preparing to come home, my anxiety has picked up a bit. Not that I am not excited, but just as I onces left home and had a bit of anxiety, I am now preparing to return home without the knowledge of what life will be like after the mission... I have been packing all day with those different thoughts in my mind, and it is really crazy to think about. I got a good amount of packing done, and in the whole process we had a lot of fun!! We went with the Dad of Ethan Starkweather, and we played Racket Ball, which was such a blast! He was going super easy on the both of us, and still just kicking our butts. He was a good coach and tried helping us to be better at just hitting the ball! Then he let us go one on one against companion, and may I be very humble as I say I played and beat my companion 2 times! Haha he is a good sport and was actually really good at it himself! I think I must have been getting really lucky! We also decided to go and play Frisbee Golf just before the end of the Pday, and went and ran the whole course in just a little over 30 minutes. I was exhausted and sweaty coming back and getting ready for our lessons this evening, but it was worth every moment with my companions for the last time in this transfer... To end the evening we got word from president that we had permission to go to Tyler Texas, 2 hours outside of our mission for some clean up efforts of a Major F4 Tornado, which is a point smaller that the biggest ones possible. It was on the ground for over 40 miles and they are allowing us to go and work on a project for a full day this Saturday wearing the Mormon helping hands vests! Tonight we taught Aaron Cole, and then he helped us teach Shuman, which was pretty good, because some of her questions for baptism were kind of taken care of! He is shy when teaching, even though he knows the doctrine well. We know he will gain confidence as he continually learns. I love this area so much. I don't want to leave.

Tuesday:

"Minnesota eh?, Eh Pacha, Not the Gumdrop Dutton! The Muffin Man!!"- Elder Kochan. He cracks me up! I am so grateful I get to serve with him!! We have been able to connect with each other super well which in turn has made this transfer just the best of all my mission! I do have to admit that I have had many great transfers, but this one has been so Natural for the both of us! Today we were able to go to District Meeting for my very last time as a missionary, and that was a really weird feeling! We sang God be with you till we meet again, and I was pretty much in tears at the end... We then took some pictures that we call our going home pictures, where the one heading out has to lay on a table and pretend to be dead, and everyone acts out a sad family! Haha it is super funny to see, because it portrays the whole district really well! It is weird to think I am the one on the table though! I love my district! They are super funny and have helped us a lot with being able to get and keep so many good people and even helping them get to baptism. It is all about a good council and asking them questions! As we finished up, I was pretty worried for the lesson with Jason, because this was the one we were going to go into depth about his baptism, and I was afraid he was going to post pone or try to change it again, but instead he said, "My family doesn't want me too, but I am ready and know it is right! I will be at church this week and then I will be baptized!" That was a huge thing for us to hear, because ongoing the past few weeks he would never say that he was for sure attending, but that he should be there, and now he is solid and serious! The best art of the evening was just going with Elder Kochan and finding! It is hard to do in a YSA area, but we made the best of it! What a great Tuesday!

Wednesday:

When you feel you can do better, even though you get home exhausted. Today after all was said and done I came Home just a little saddened, because my companion is almost in a quiet and down mood. I feel as though my thinking about home is getting on his nerves. I know it is hard for him, and it is hard for me! It is crazy to think about the fact my mission is at its end! However, I felt I accomplished my purpose through the many things we did today! So we had a wonderful time studying where we then attended the District Meeting of Elder Adams, where we gave a training on Obedience, and I was very grateful how much I learned from giving the training! Elder Kochan taught me so much from his questions he asked and I could tell every elder was thinking, reflecting and trying to think of how to make changes in their lives as missionaries. It was a wonderful training and I am grateful for the Covenants we have made that keep me going to the end! Today we were able to teach Olivia. She see,s to be a little on the edge of being serious. Right now she doesn't seem to ask questions and or answer many things to well, kind of like she is expecting things to come without putting herself all the way in. We are trying to get her to want to active more, but as of now, she doesn't want to be pushed, but wants to read the whole Book of Mormon, and she is only in 2 Nephi 10. We are afraid it may take a while. So the rest of the day was focused on finding and then attending a YSA/Senior BBQ where nicer YSA nor Seniors really attended, so we felt a little out of place and like we were not fulfilling our purpose, but we enjoyed learning and getting to know the youth and having Gabby attend it with us! Tonight really was a great night!

Thursday:

My Final Interview already came and My Last Weekly Planning Session has come and gone... Today has really set me low... I mean it in a good term, but I am really struggling to focus now. And I blame it all on President Whitney! Haha Today I was able to start my day off with a little bit of planning and studying, after which I went and had my Final Interview with President Whitney. At this point I now can say that I officially feel like I will actually be going home! I still feel like it is a dream, but it feels a little bit more real. He have me some really good advice for how I can keep the spirit in my life as I return home. He also talked to me about Marriage. He explained his story and how much his marriage has effected him and asked me about potentials to go back too. I was kind of shocked and so we talked and he just told me there is no need to wait and that I need to just start my life. I know God will provide as I just do what is right! The rest of my interview went so well and then Elder Kochan and I went and had a wonderful 4 hour planning session for the last time of my mission! It was crazy thinking that will never happen again with a name tag on, but I was able to keep somewhat of a focus as we planned! The rest of the day went really well and we were able to teach Wendy Lee, a recent convert, and then we had the chance to visit with Bishop and go contacting, where I go shut down by a full group of people! I was pretty bummed none of them would even take a card of Jesus Christ. But we enjoyed our evening. Oh and another great feeling was getting dropped by Oliva Williams tonight... she decided the Mormon was not right or her. She, however, is going to let us stop by and talk about what happened. We hope all will go well!

Friday:

Simply today I will say a few things! We had a packed day for lessons, and it was like my last full day to teach lessons, and I loved it! We taught Jason, and he is ready for his baptism this next week! We cant wait for him to be baptized, but he is a little sad I will not be there... It made him happy knowing I would be his friend on Facebook! So today we had a chance to go and find on TCC, but school is over and TCC was empty... We decided still to try and we met a girl named Lauren on her way out the the school. I didnt thing she seemed very interested, and she said she would let us know when she can meet. We thought, well everyone tells us that... that will never happen and just went on with our day for teaching. Our final lesson for the day was with Allen Low! It was a great lesson and super powerful about the blessing of the Atonement for us. I am grateful for the Atonement in my Life. How I can have Jesus Christ clean me as I try my hardest to follow him!

Saturday:

A true miracle has occurred today! Throughout my whole mission I have truly desired to be able to put on a yellow Mormon Helping Hands Vest and go out and be able to give service to thought who had been apart of a traumatic experience with a Natural Disaster. Well today we the day to make that Dream become a reality! We woke up at 4:45 AM and showered and got ready for the day and then quickly drove and met up with our ward at the Stake Center. We were able to get a good chance to know our members as we were waiting and as we got ready to leave. We had Sister Quinn, a wife from the YSA High-counselor, make us our lunches from the day and we headed off where I went with Elder Kochan and Thomas Daniel, our Elders Quorum President. We had a great ride and conversation while driving for 2 hours to the middle of nowhere, and way out of our mission. It is a really small town and farming community called Canton. It was super fun to be out of the Metroplex, because it has been about 2 years since I have really been away from lots of homes! So as we were driving Thomas was telling us that when we see the damage we would be shocked, because the storm was so major it would blow our mind. It was funny, because as we were diving the GPS told us we would have to pull over and walk, and I was laughing, because there was not a tree down or any Debris anywhere. Until all of the sudden we rounded on a turn, and there was a huge Tornado path that was roughly a Football Field wide!! It was absolutely crazy! I have never seen anything like it! There were downed trees and trailer wheels with no mobile homes left, along with trucks that once were in good condition, that were worthless at that point, Fence lines gone and so forth. As we got there we decided to work on some downed trees on the back fence line, and we worked for about an hour waiting for the owner to come out. Then as the owner showed up we were able to know what was needed exactly. We got the fence line back in use and Elder Kochan and I were able to work with Charles, the friend of the owner, as we built a chicken coop for their chickens. It was fun being with him and seeing him happy to have us there and also joking with us in his super thick east Texan accent. The time there went by fast and the change we saw while working was amazing. We made a huge difference in that place! As we were leaving we decided to take a picture with the owner we had come to love. She was in tears that we would come to help her. Also while driving back Thomas took us to go and see a gas station called Buckees. It is like a Walmart mixed with gas pumps and so forth. Except ginormous! There we found some amazing Texas Souvenirs. The rest of the day we went and taught a guy named Siggy at his work and think he might actually have more potencial that we thought! Also Lauren that we met yesterday text us first to set up an appointment.... what! That was the first and possibly last time that will ever happen for me! What a tiring and good day! I am ready to pass out!

Sunday:

My last Sunday in the field..... Today I woke up in shock as I realized it would be my last Sunday wearing a full time missionary name tag. It is exciting and saddening at the same time. Not because I am not ready to see my family, but because I am also going to miss my Texas family so much! Today we had ward conference and Bishop Kokenes called me out and said he wanted me to go up and bare my final testimony... So I went up in front of The whole Stake Presidency and the whole ward that was a full room, and I bore my testimony of how my mission has changed me. I used the scripture on my mission plaque and am grateful that I the scripture I chose, because it describes my mission very very well! "As of my strength I am weak, but I am strong through Christ who strengthens me!" My whole mission including that past week I have been so very busy and exhausted. As I did what was right  and prayed for extra strength I was blessed with energy and strength to fulfill my calling! I was grateful for the things they said to me and for thanking me, and Sister Kokenes, the Bishops wife, gave me a gift from them that was a sweet thank you card and a very nice watch to always remember them by! It was a sweet memory and I am going to miss them so dearly! They have because apart of me, or me apart of them, and I hope to always stay in their loop!! What a crazy week as we got home tonight and had to go searching for 2 missionaries that were not answering their phone for numbers! Come to find out they just forgot and had their phone on silent!

Con Amor,

Elder Spendlove

De la Misión de Texas Fort Worth

I love to see the Temple!

Dear family and friends,

What an amazing week it has been! It has flown by and today has been crazy! That is why it took so long to email!

Here is how it went!

Last week next week!:) CRAZY

Week May 15th - 21st 2017

Monday:

Well today was an amazing day to be able to again communicate with my family! Two days in a row is my record and I love it! So today to start off our Pday we decided it has almost been two full weeks without a real Pday and that we needed to get out and enjoy the morning, so at 9 am we went and picked up the Spanish Elders, Elder Ardnt and Elder Bolduc, and headed straight to Veterans Park where we played 18 Holes of Frisbee Golf by running to the next tee and finishing in roughly 2 hours! It was a blast and not a single person was playing ahead of us, so we were able to play through pretty fast! We always start off with a struggle, but as we kept going I was amazed by how good we got! I have come to really enjoy Frisbee Golf! So the rest of the day may seem pretty boring for everyone else, but Elder Kochan was emailing for a while, so when I finished my emails I got busy getting everything that I don't need packed up and weighed! Then as we got done with that I had to clean off my iPad and that was a trick in itself! So by the time we got done with that we were in perfect time for the FHE Activity that they had at the church playing dodge ball! There were a few less active members that showed up and even a non member, so we really enjoyed being with them and are hoping to begin teaching the man named William Cortez shortly! To end the evening off we went and planned for my last training in the mission field and also headed over and began an exchange with The Spanish Elders! What a great day!

Tuesday:

What a crazy day as It was my last full Exchange in my mission.... It was a wonderful way to end for exchanges as I was able to go with Elder Arndt into the Spanish Area to be able to feel back at home! The work, I realized, was very different, but there are many people who are opened up more to the message right now in Spanish! So most of the morning we had the wonderful studies,of a Spanish missionary where we even had time to study Spanish! That for me was what I was missing! I was able to make a Spanish Study plan for coming home and it made me feel even more calm realizing I can do it as I come home! Then most of the afternoon was spent biking long distances with little response from those we looked for. We talked to a few, but not a person had super good interest in our contacts. However, we didn't let hat get us down. We went to their Ward mission leaders house for dinner and then he decided to accompany us to the two lessons we had set for the evening. So we had two amazing lessons this evening where I was able to meet a 15 year old girl named Stacy who also wanted to be baptized and her mom was okay with it being a member herself, but her dad said she would not bare able to until she turned 18 and could choose for herself!

Wednesday:

Today for me seemed like a very busy and hectic day for a few reasons! We had interviews today and a training that we were in charge of. Even though it was a stressful day we were very happy about the amazing things we had learned from both President and Sister Whitney! They are literally the greatest people in the whole world and make me so happy with every little thing that they say! Sister Whitney shared an inspiring story/Eye Opening Story of how when we don't do what is right somehow satan traps us and drags us where we truly don't desire to be.  She shared, "When I was a little girl at the age of 2 living in Virgin Utah I had a crazy traumatic experience happen to me! I was told never to play in the front yard by my mom, because of a fast moving ditch of irrigation water that lead swiftly past the old white school to the fast moving virgin river down the street. One day I disobeyed and thought it would be okay and fun to go and play along the banks of the ditch and throw stuff in it! It was fun until I fell in an was swept down stream. My brother ran in the house crying and screaming and my mother, who was pregnant, began running down the street after me also screaming. While chasing me I had gone under a few underpasses where the roads go over and had been knocked unconscious. And there was a man that saw my mom running and saw me floating and bent down and got me out and got me awake and breathing again. That man was Eugene Spendlove, a relative of Elder Spendlove. I am so grateful for that man and for the lesson I learned." For me I was grateful for my Ancestor, but even more grateful for the insight I received. I learned that Sin, no matter how simple, gets us in a trap we can't get out of by ourselves. Our parents (God) are always running after us trying to help us. And we many times are spiritually drowning... finally if we choose to let, there is a man(the Savior) who can and will swoop down and pick us out of the water and bring us back to our awareness. What i realized is he was ready all along and we just never even realized it! It was a wonderful story! I also got a final interview set up for next week and I bore my final testimony today in our mini zone conference.... it was a crazy feeling!  

Thursday:

Weekly plannings always seem to go very well, and today was my last full weekly planning of my mission, and that was a weird feeling for me! Yes, I do have one more, but I will be planning for days I wont even be apart of! So today as we finished planning we were able to find out that our plans of the day were going to be a little different than what we had planned for and I am grateful for hourly planning which has helped me to always have something important to do every hour of every day! So we had the chance to sit Down with Aaron Cole and have a small message with him at the stake center where we were able to finish talking about the restoration for the first time after baptism and also help him feel comfortable for the temple trip with him tomorrow! As we went out searching for a referral we had received it was super random that when we called the number it was a Romanian guy that answered the phone. We tried to communicate with him in English with little understanding on both sides, and so I just tried to ask if they Spoke Spanish for fun, and turns out they do speak a good amount. I began speaking to them in spanish and they were not interested in the church for the doctrine, but for money to help support them right now. They were very kind, but all we could do was refer them to our bishop to take care of and fill up their gas tank with gas and get on our way. That even took us more than an hour to sort through! Haha. Then we went and were able to search out a few different less active members from our ward and we also had a cool experience to end the night with. We called Maurice and he was in the area and wanted to meet up, so we were able to meet up and visit with him at a McDonalds and he is doing tons better and planning on coming to church soon!

Friday:

What an amazing Temple Day! Who would have ever thought that Aaron and Gabby would be found in the temple of God only 2 weeks after their Baptisms! So today in total we have had many miracles happen and I hope to be able to express myself openly and well with each thing that has happened! So this morning we met up at 8 am to carpool to the temple with Bishop as our driver. There was a total of 7 of us. Elder Kochan and I, Aaron Cole, Gabby McIntosh and Ethan Starkweather, Bishop Kokenes along with Meagan Fairchild. It was a wonderful trip there where Aaron and Gabby were both a tad nervous an the temple is so pretty this time of year with all the flowers! As we got there we entered and they were so amazed by the spirit and the beautiful details on the inside. We also were able to be witnesses while they were baptized and even be the recorder, and then Elder Kochan was able to baptize me after which we did a font side confirmation for a few names. It was a very special experience.  Also I was able to baptize Ethan for a few names, and that was my first time ever!!! It was amazing! Then as we finished the Baptism we were able to be in charge of confirmations as well! It was a very sacred memory that i never want to forget! Having the chance to go to the temple with Recent Converts is so special! As we left the temple we were al hungry, but had no time to stop and eat at a fancy place, so we stopped at McDonalds. As we ordered the lady taking our orders was super kind and said, "What are y'all coming from?" We explained the temple and she asked how to learn more, so it was a neat experience to share with Aaron and Gabby as they saw missionary work in action! As we got home the day kept improving! We taught an investigator that was kind of burnt out and this time she had a complete different love and desire to learn. She set that she wanted to come to church and it was amazing to see her say that she felt peace every time she read in the Book of Mormon. As the lesson finished our member, Roman, said his friend texted who was not a member and wanted to come to church with him, and we then received a new person to teach! The whole day just went so well as we finished by teaching both Olivia and Shuman again and they are progressing so well!! I love this ara and a My investigators and members!

Saturday:

Today was a trial of our faith for sure! We had a lot of plans that seemed to fall through and when things like that happen we truly seem to get a little grumpy with each other. It is very sad because all afternoon was just finding and not a soul was interested and or they didnt answer their doors. Also Tracking is a super hard thing to do as a YSA missionary, because YSA aged people seem to hide from us! However, today was a wonderful day because we both learned that through hard trials comes the great blessings! Today was proof of that! We set a baptismal date with Shuman Zhang for the 24th of June! We asked her to be baptized on a date in July and she surprised us by saying, "no.... I think that I will be ready by June 24th!" She is awesome! That was a huge blessing for us today!

Sunday:

Today I learned so much in church as we had the Stake Patriarch speak on what exactly he does and the importance of Patriarcal blessings. It was a very powerful talk and make me want to read my blessing over and over again to see what I can pull out of it! We also had Jason, Shuman and a new guy named Jordan show up! They seemed to love it and Jordan was a really surprised man when we went through our whole service without asking for Tithes. His old church he went focused on collecting tithes like crazy and that is one of the major reasons he wanted to come with his friend Roman to church today! Our evening was a very special one as well, because we went and talked with a less active and returned missionary. He has been going through a lot and come to find out he is not just working and that is the reason he is not attending church, but as we just became his friends and asked simple questions, we came to find out that he has been addicted to a few things for over 9 years and every time he goes for help he doesn't really get the help he needs and he is just a very soft sweet 30 year old because of the different things going on in his life.... we were able to just be loving to him and it was a good way to end the evening trying to tell him he is needed in church!

Con Amor,

Elder Spendlove

De la Misión de Texas Fort Worth

Happy Mother's Day #2!

Dear Family and Friends,

I am so glad and grateful for this wonderful weekend and week which I have had! I know my weeklies are slowly going down hill, but it can't be hard to keep writing every single night! So sometimes I get behind! I love y'all and hope you have a wonderful week!:)

Week of May 8th - 14th 2017

Monday: 

I can already tell this week is going to be crazy! So today was a major miracle being able to spend it with Elder Lawrence form the General Authority of the Seventies. It was much better than a Pday to be able to serve and council with him and President Whitney at the head. We went to MLC with intentions of a lot of different trainings, and got there to find out that we would only Council on one point for 3 hours because of the details and concerns we had as a mission. As a result we also were able to see and be apart of a mission Wide change in how we set our goals for baptisms. It was the most wonderful revelation we could ever receive, because it was something we were able to be apart of and know that it would effect our mission as a whole. The change was to set goals for every three months instead of every month. So we have a goal of 100 for the next 3 months combined and I know we can do it! Also while there I found out from Elder graham that Derek Lugo (I can't remember his last name), one of our investigators who was the husband of a member, got married and baptized after we had set a date with him and I had left! So I have to include his wedding and baptism pictures! It was an amazing day and to be able to come home and have a quick song Practice with our Zone was also amazing and they are super ready to sing at the conference of Elder Lawrence! So this evening we picked up the Elders Dyer and Hulse to spend the night with us and go to the conference early tomorrow, and Elder Dyers ear infection got worse and we had to take shifts all night with him so that he could sleep and we could make sure he was taken care of. We made him a makeshift bed that was propped up and then we tried to make sure he was comfortable. He definitely was in more pain than I thought possible, moaning all through the night and screaming as well! His ear was completely swollen and full of infection!

Tuesday: 

This morning was quite the challenge for us all! We had taken turns and were up all night more than sleeping to help Elder Dyer who was in so much pain he asked every 15 minutes what time it was. He was screaming and Whimpering. I do write this to embarrass him, but to write the amount of pain he had. As we got up and ready for our Mission Wide Conference for the South Zones with Elder Lawrence we had two things we needed to do. 1 was to get to the conference early to practice our song with the rest of the elders in our zone and then number 2 we had to think of Elder Dyer first and get him to an ER immediately. So we were a little stressed out trying to make sure everything worked out. We went with Elder Dyer to the Er and then headed out while he was being check up to practice our song. Then we went back to pick him up, get his meds and take him home, and we headed all the way back another 30 minutes to the conference so that we could participate in the song. So by the time we showed up to the Lawrence conference we had missed a very understanding and Doctrine based talk from Sister Lawrence and President allowed us to come back tomorrow for the other half even though it is our pday. So we finished the meeting and I loved the simple teaching from Elder Lawrence about Joseph Smith and who he was! I love Joseph Smith and have decided to study his life more fully! As the day went on I stayed with Elder Dyer and tended for him while elder Hulse and Kochan got our for a bit! Then I took the full night shift of taking care of Elder Dyer to see if I could help everyone else sleep. It was hard. We were up at 11 and not back to sleep until after 3 because of his pain, fever and so much more. He was screaming all night asking for the time every few minutes and I gave him as much medicine as possible. That was a long night for the both of us. As I stayed up and watched him suffer and be in so much pain, I imagined him being my own son and I felt so sorry for him as if I wanted to take all the pain from him, and I truly did! I felt horrible and tried to help him the best that I possibly could! I was a wonderful time to learn!

Wednesday:

So Today I woke up super tired but ready for the day! As I arose, Elder Dyer was sleeping peacefully and so we left him with some other Elders for the morning so that elder Hulse, his companion would be able to meet Elder Lawrence. It was a wonderful morning meeting and we came home early while Elder Hulse stayed to enjoy the rest of the meeting. We went home and started our somewhat unreal pday because it was so short, however we did the basic necessities and then went with Elder Dyer, who was feeling better at the time, to the mall for Elder Kochan to get a gift for his mom! The Wednesday Pday was pretty cool! So today both Elder Dyer and Hulse finally went back to their apartment to stay and Elder Dyer was feeling much better. I had cleaned out his ear for him and he was looking much better. So we spent the evening working out and about! We had a few people to go and visit, but they all canceled on us as we got,there, so we were able to contact for a good amount of time and that was super nice, because it felt nice to just try to find people to teach. The evening was short because we had just barely helped the Elders to leave, and get home safely and that was okay. We were able to accomplish our purpose that evening as we knocked some doors and visited with some people!

Thursday:

Weekly planning days always seem to be some of the hardest days of the week to keep our actual time for planning in place! Everyone from the week that cancels on us seems to ask to meet with us during that time and so we have to re-arrange our time and planning so we can help them the best that we can! Today we had a wonderful lesson with Jason Hammon who actually contacted us and so we met up! He is pushing strong towards his baptismal date and seems to know that what he is doing is the truth! That for me was such a blessing. The one thing he is struggling with doing right now is contacting and visiting with his mom about his baptism, because he wasn't her support and she doesn't like us.... yet. We hope to be able to work with him and her more and at least get her okay to accept him and his decision to be baptized. So today as we finished that lesson and are pretty much done teaching Jason for baptism we went to the campus of UT Arlington where we ate our goodbye dinner with Patrick Piercy, one of the awesome members in our ward that is moving home to southern Texas for the Summer. It was a good dinner and I was sad to say goodbye... Then this evening we had invited Olivia to attend Institute class at the Stake Center with us and she actually showed up! Also by surprise a returning less active and recent convert sister also showed up! It was by complete choice on her own! We were so happy to see them attend and the lesson was a good one, however the deep doctrine was a little scary for us to have them listen too. It was not to deep, just something you don't hear to much anymore. We read in John 5 and focused on 2 verses that are truly amazing! Verses 19 and 20 state: "

Friday:

I know that this week I have not seemed to write to in depth on how my week has been, but I have further been very focused on the most basic and important things that I feel I need to share with you! So today we had 3 amazing lessons! One with Olivia Williams and The others with Gabby and Aaron, our most recent Converts, and they seem to be so darn happy! They are super busy and having a hard time meeting as regularly, but we hope and pray to keep contact as we plan our temple Trip with the, for this next week! We are also super happy,with Olivia for her progression in the lessons! We have taught her 2 times now and she is already on the 4th lesson! She understands it so well and gets her questions answered right away! It amazes me her dedication to learning about the truth and she can definitely feel it as well! I can't wait to see her accept a date! Much of our time today was also focused on Planning, but if you don't plan you don't succeed, so it was definitely be good to get finished for the full week we have coming up!

Saturday:

Today I got a little upset with a lady as we went to the Family History Center. I didn't say anything, just held it in, but I didn't feel good he rest of the day. I have learned to just relax about things. So the story is we went with Aaron Cole to do Family History, and he went in early and was being helped by a nonmember that just couldn't understand nor cared about familysearch.org and so we had to pry her off of Aaron to get him more focused on finding names to take to the Temple! We hope he can get some! So we are super happy though, because we are able to go to the temple this week on Friday and I can not wait to see them in white in the temple! Also we had a great lesson with Shuman and finally got her Book of Mormon in Chinese and she was so excited! We are teaching her slowly, but she is progressing and just super busy with her Final Project in Electrical Engineering!

Sunday: Happy Mothers Day!!

How has it come and gone again already! Every time I think I have a second it slides by! I am amazed that it is already this time again and just how fast the call went! So today was a wonderful Sunday service as the main focus was on mother's! It made me really reflect on how amazing my mother is to me! The amazing things she has done for me and just how much I owe to her and my father! Today was so amazing to be able to call from Bishop Kokenes's house and see my family! I think the best thing to think is that I don't have to wait forever to talk to them again! What a blessing that I can say goodbye to say hello very shortly! This week was amazing and I can't wait to continue strong to the very last hour and minute of my mission!:)

Con Amor,

Elder Spendlove

De la Misión de Texas Fort Worth

What! Why Wednesday!!

Why not!

Hey Family and Friends! 

The reason for a Wednesday Pday is because of a Member of the Seventy, Elder Lawrence who came out our mission! It was so amazing!

This week has been super crazy! I love y'all 

 Week May 1st - 7th 2017

Monday:

Today kind of hit me hard as I began to truly plan out what I needed to get rid of and what stuff I truly would need to send home or take home with me! Goo thing It was a PDay, because it truly was something that I needed. I know that I never get a break as a representative of the Lord Jesus Christ, because people are always watching us, but today was a good rest from our normal actions as we were able to go as a zone and play some more kickball! However, this morning I was able to get through some more of MY PLAN where I learned about Dating and Temple Marriage, but they are actually closer that I was thinking that they are, and I am grateful that they give us the chance to kind of think more and plan out what we want that to truly look like! So today we were able to also practice our song as the Elders in our Zone for the Elder Lawrence Conference, and it was super amazing! We are singing "The Iron Rod", and I think they are finally realizing that they can actually sing and do a good job. At first they thought it was a joke and that either way they were going to look like goofs on the stand because they couldn't sing, but now they sound pretty good! I am grateful for my whole zone and the love and connection that we have. I feel as though sometimes I become the grumpy of the zone being the oldest, but then I realize and my companion helps me to realize I am not being grumpy, but I just see so much potential from each missionary! So now I am working on being more happy and trying my hardest to make the missionaries smile more often! After our amazing FHE activity as a YSA ward, playing Human Hungry Hippos, We went and began an exchange with Elders Hulse and Dyer. It was super amazing to be able to go with them, but let me share a simple detailed story that I don't want to forget! So as we drove into their complex to start our exchange we realized they lived in a very scary part of town, kind of like many parts of Texas that to us are good places. As we knocked on their door they opened it and we walked into their dim moist apartment to begin our exchange. As we sat for a moment we could feel the humidity as if we were outside. It was making us sweat and feel like we were sophacating and so we asked why they dont turn on their AC, and they said they do and it just doesnt work and the mangagement doenst do anything to fix it. The funny part was that I was the one who stayed the night and slept drenched in sweat all night sleeping on a mattress on the floor, because they didnt like their box springs. I am not complaining, because I know I am better off than most foreign missionaries, but more detailing my experience! And for exercises the next morning we did some crunches because their Gym was locked up until around 9am.

Tuesday:

I really enjoyed my exchange with Elder Hulse today! It was an amazing time to learn from him and the good and bad things that he did! One of my favorite things I have learned from my very many exchanges is that every missionary has something amazing that I always struggle with, and usually something that I don't want to do as well. Gladly I learned a few amazing things from Elder Hulse and one of those was the need I have to study and understand the Bible better! I thought I knew it alright until I started the Exchange and then he started asking me questions I couldn't answer, and her helped me see that I could find them as I study on my own. Even as a leader I feel I have the Privilege of learning the most! So today we were able to bike a lot and to knock a lot of doors! However, it was something I truly had needed after being in such a wonderful area. Not that their area isn't good, but it was very humbling to see that they were still in a slum and trying to get out! During the evening we had a cool experience happen as we went by to talk to 3 Golden Investigators named Fancy, Winter and T-Bone. As we were talking with them I began to see how difficult of a life they were truly living. Living in a Motel, being abused by Their father who now is out of the picture. Their mother Fancy has cancer and also has major bone deterioration. They get bullied at school and Winter the girl got attacked by a dog the day before and was torn up on the back of her legs. And through all of these things they were smiling, looking upward and outward and even studying the Book of Mormon and wanting to learn more. We gave Fancy a blessing that changed how she looked at the church. She was going through some major pain and sickness and began to have symptoms act up in front of us and was passing out when we gave her the blessing. As we did so I remember her just go calm and as we finished the blessing, she was in tears and as we asked her how she felt she said she instantly felt a change in her and a peace come over her. It was a miracle to see and be apart of such an event! There is no thing in the world that can overcome 

Wednesday:

Today was a powerful day where we focused heavily on the importance of finding people to teach and Enduring to the End! Today was a wonderful day to learn from that! I would like to share 2 amazing experiences that really hit me from today! One was with Jason Hammon, an investigator who really has interest. He had a date, and his date wasn't going to work for him, so we reset it and talked about what Baptism means for him, and it became even more important and meaningful all of the sudden and his new date is for the 3 of June! He truly has a testimony of the truthfulness of these things and I love that about him! Hen we had a very amazing experience at TCC! We had an amazing time there where we set up a table and had it for 2 hours with literally now success. As we kept going we saw interest and then rejection one after another. Literally everyone walked by. There was about 10 minutes left and I said, "Let's finish up early, no one is coming and we can go sign up for more days." How dumb of me! Elder Kochan corrected me and said, "No, we will endure to the end and see miracles." And as we did, we saw one! A young man walked up with questions, his name is Thierry Ngang and he told us he wanted to meet with us again soon! Well we set up a lesson with him for tomorrow and it was a huge miracle and blessing as we endured fully! Today I saw the truth of the gospel applied and taught to me by my companion and it all happened for me to see and understand!

Thursday:

One good weekly planning! The time is slowly closing in and weekly planning are slowly becoming more and more of a focus struggle for me! It has been amazing though to be able to plan long and hard for the baptisms of Aaron and Gabby! There is so much to go into one baptism and to make sure that they attend along with the whole programs! Having two was super crazy! We had an amazing time and I am so grateful for my companion Elder Kochan who is so willing and kind as we talk openly and with the spirit about each person and their needs. The past few weeks together in one area has really opened our eyes Spiritually to how much God really cares for us and his children. We went from nothing to talk about to not being able to stop talking about these people! God has helped us find a few new investigators, and we have a goal of seven and only have 3. As we ended our planning we prayed that God would help us to reach that Goal and went forward! We taught Gabby and feel a little bit of pressure finishing all of the Lesson 5 wit her by Saturday, but are going by faith! we also had a good lesson with a new investigator that the Sisters referred to us named Olivia! She is so amazing and Sweet and has lots of potential! I hope and pray she continues to come! She will be so much happier as she is here! We shared with her the plan of Salvation in our new found style and it really Intrigued her! And the sisters also were amazed! That isn't the purpose, but the fact the scriptures taught everything for us! To end the night off we went with Gabby to Institute and just sat in the back, because she has her friends! And it was another amazing lesson on John and how Jesus Christ changed Water to Wine! He truly loved and cared for his mother! I love being able to be in this position of view! Life is viewed at a new light here!

Friday: 

Today I was blessed with the opportunity to go on An exchange with Elder Flake, an assistant, while Elder Kochan stayed with Elder Broberg! So as I was with Elder Flake I was just so impressed with how simple and focused our day was! We studied in the Library of TCC where I really enjoyed it and we were able to teach quite a few people! We had set a goal of finding and getting 5 phone numbers while finding today and getting 2 return appointments and it was not to easy. We had everyone we needed but a phone number. And we both felt we wouldn't reach it, until we were able to go and knock a less actives door when a Spanish man from El Salvador opened his door. He was super kind and never heard of our church, but he was interested in learning more! So we got his NUMBER and a return appointment for the Spanish sisters and it was so cool to see God answer our prayers and the desires of our hearts! While going through the day I got a call from our second councilor of the mission Presidency, President Koufmen, who talked to me about my plans to go home. There aren't much, and so he told me to email home and get things set up. It was a bit frightening for me, but I know I have to prepare! I loved it a lot! Our day was so amazing and I just loved being with Elder Flake and learning from him and the power and understanding he has from the knowledge of the gospel and the Scriptures! We ended our exchange and it took a bit of time to do, because we were laughing so hard, but we learned a whole deal about setting goals as the desires of our hearts and how God will bless us with the completion or over achievement of them!

Saturday: 

Today is the day! And it was a wonderful day! We were able Finish teaching Gabby lesson 5 this morning and I want to focus on their baptism. So both Aaron and Gabby were baptized at 7 pm this evening. Aaron by Elder Kochan and Gabby by Bishop Kokenes. As the event began the Relief Society room was full of members both of the ward and of their families. They had major support! And they were both so happy as they came out of the Water! I was blessed to be able to speak to them simply on baptism and they both understood it well! It was a very powerful baptism and as it was closing Gabby got a call and was dumped by her boyfriend. However, she had hope and knew that as she did what was right she would be okay! As the baptism came to an end Gabby and Aaron both went to dinner together with the members in the ward, and both called us later that evening thanking us for the wonderful event. It was super kind of them and we are so grateful God gave us a chance to be a small pat in helping them be converted! 

Sunday:

What a great day to be a missionary. In all my mission, today was a day I felt full support from the members of our ward as Gabby and Aaron came and were confirmed members of the church and had full love and happiness, and also the other members struggling were taken in! We had a new investigator there who was full fellowshipped and so happy as she finished the church she had a huge smile on and had so many rallied around her happy to see her. We know she feels loved and happy and hope to be able to help her continue onward with that in mind of the love she has here. The rest of the day was full of good studies and then a wonderful dinner with Elan and Miranda. It was interesting trying to teach Elan, because he is Jewish and super kind, and has no belief that Jesus was the son of God. So we focused on getting to know his beliefs more. It was very different, but interesting to try and understand. He is a very kind guy! Also we had a wonderful stop by lesson with Gricelda and Kenneth, a couple getting married this Tuesday! They are happy for that and it is funny knowing she already knows these things are true because of dreams about the Golden plates before coming to know he Gospel, and she just has to act! It is crazy she just doesn't want to act without her family even knowing it is the truth! What a crazy week!

Con Amor,

Elder Spendlove

De la Misión de Texas Fort Worth

New Transfer and with Elder Kochan!

Dear Family and Friends,

This new Change has been so great for me! I am so grateful for my new companion Elder Kochan, and is Transfer is already flying by! Every chance I think I can take a break we seem to get another call and be assigned with something me to do! I love it! 

I hope everyone had a great birthday as well!:)

Week of April 17th - 23rd 2017

 Monday:

Well today was a really weird day to think and know that tomorrow starts the last transfer for me and that everything it happening so quickly! It is crazy to have the time be so full with things! We were so packed and we both had to get by and say some goodbyes to different people that we truly are going to miss a lot! I a, grateful for my wonderful Transfer with Elder Hooper! He has taught me a lot and one thing he has really taught me is to follow the spirit on teaching and also on the way I live my life! As I went through and worked on my plan I realized that I have a lot of work to do to plan my life when I come home, and I got signed up for some institute classes that start the day I get home! However, I will just go in the following week. I am super pumped. They will be help both Tuesday and Wednesday nights from7-830. I am excited for them, because they will keep me going throughout the week and then I will have Sundays to really get me and keep me on my feet! There are so many things to plan for, and I am not Trunky, but preparing! There is a huge difference. So today I said goodbye to a lot of really good missionaries! And I know I will see them again! This evening we taught Gabby wit Eve, and it was really amazing! Eve is an awesome member and just a really good girl! She knows the gospel and loves and lives it! I love that! Also tonight I saw some really sad stuff. There is a guy that loves the missionaries, but he is going through lots of depression because he feels that he has no one. He has no wife, no family, nothing. And it kills him! However, we decided he just needed to get out and have some Ice cream. So we are trying to help him, however, His Stake President would know how to and be a better help than we will be!

Tuesday: Transfer Day! How Crazy!

Well today I said goodbye to Elder Hooper and awaited my new companion, Elder Kochan. It wasn't a very long wait and he was at the door and I am so excited to be able to be with him! I actually was with him when he entered the mission and he is a really good missionary! I am super happy to know that he will be with me until I go home. He has been already today a missionary who pushes me to be the best I can be and not to waist even a moment of my time! Today was very much focused on helping Elder Harding and Law take over and know their new 6th Ward area and investigators. I am very grateful for the things I am already learning about Elder Kochan. We are very similar in our thoughts and actions and we have a lot of similarities and I am grateful that we get to work together! He and I work together well and it seems like we are just very happy and positive about everything. I think a cool experience we had is that we were trying to think of how to help some of our missionaries to wake up on time and we had the thought to go to Walmart and to buy a soccer ball and invite them to come out and wake up to play with us. We struggled to go and buy something not on a Pday, but we then decided it was for a good purpose. As we walked in it was crazy how so,done was prepared there and talked to us! God sent us there with not the intention of buying a ball, but finding someone! And we never bought the ball! God works in Mysterious ways.

Wednesday:

Our first whole day together and it was amazing!

So for both of us today we decided to plan in time to go and see what the campus at TCC (Tarrant County College) was like and to see the rules for contacting on their campus. As we went there and walked around campus we found these cool libraries outside where anyone can share their books, so we put in some Books of Mormon for different people, with out testimonies! Also we went in and found the Student Activities department and became really good friends with Carla Hernandez and Amy Stehli, workers there who speak Spanish. As we visited with them I was so impressed that as we talked about what we wanted to do they gave us full reign of the campus! It is an open campus and they told us they could even get booths set up for us if needed. We were very impressed and are excited to know that they where and will be so kind to us! As we walked around we talked to a few people, but then had to leave, because Aaron Cole called and wanted to meet up. As we got to the Stake Center to teach Aaron he told us that his mom was against all of this and that he was nervous on what to do. We had a really good lesson with him and seemed to help him. He is still on for his baptism and is super excited to be able to make more covenants in the temple. It is funny, because he won't say it, but he seems to want to serve a mission! We will see how that turns out for him! I hope that he will! Today turned out to be a great one!

Thursday:

Cool Scripture reference for you today! 1 Samuel 17. Have this quote in your mind. "If you want to see someone's heart. Throw truth in front of them and see how they react." Then refer that story and quote to 1 Nephi 16:2. Today was such a good but long day! Let me explain! Today was weekly planning for us, and we are both learning about each other, trying to figure out and focus on just our area now and also everyone kept calling us and interrupting our planning! So we had studies all morning and then something that happens when it is your first transfer together as a companionship you set goals and learn the area and it really just took us a really big amount of time to plan fully that by the time we got out of the house we were going to teach Gabby at the Stake Center at 6:15! That sounds crazy, and it was! That I why I am glad it is done and over with. So we shared a small message with her, and it was refreshing to hear how she really desired to be baptized still. She stayed to institute, and so did we, and I learned a ton! I love Brother Richins and the way he teaches us! He is very simple and tries to relate it to us, and it works super well! We know she received more answers to her questions as she attended and it was so amazing to see how she connected with Eve and Ethan as she went. This evening was quick and the day went by so fast! That is how our day was!

Friday:

Literally I can not express my feelings for my area and my new companion and how much Hod has blessed us today! I had doubts and fear when I found out we were just going to be over the YSA Ward and I thought for the first half of the Transfer was going to be very much just finding, but what I am finding out is that God revealed to President Whitney the need for this and by doing so God has been providing people for us to teach all week! We have found 4 new investigators today and have just really seen Gods hand in our work! I love Elder Kochan, because everyone and everywhere we went today he seemed to be so caring, and he also seemed to want to pray in every situation! It was really inspiring! So I wanted to share a few quick experiences! Our first one was with a sister in law of a member named Sarah. She wanted to learn more, so we taught her the full restoration of the gospel and she was so amazed and shocked about everything that we taught her! She even said, "wow, y'all taught that so well!"

Then we had a wonderful experience where we were going home because it was time and I was on my iPad putting in a lesson and Elder Kochan randomly stopped the truck and said, "I had a prompting to go and talk to those people outside, and I can't go another time without stopping." So we stopped and i was able to talk to them in Spanish and they all wanted us to return and 2 of them were YSA age!

Saturday:

Today was a wonderful Saturday and we were so crazy busy! I never thought that my Saturday in a YSA wars could be so good! However, I would like to just talk about our wonderful evening with Aaron Williams, a member in our ward! We were blessed with two wonderful lessons. Both Shuman and Gabby! We were able to go and teach Shuman, and as we asked her and followed up with her about prayer she was so excited when she told us that she felt something! She cried! However, crying was super hard for her, because coming from China they don't have much of a belief in God. So we had to explain that God actually helps us to feel his love and power through the Holy Ghost and sometimes those are his spirit testifying to us that he really is there! So that was super powerful, and then we made pizzas with Gabby and taught her the Law of Chastity and the Word of Wisdom! It was really powerful to see her so accepting and willing!! 

Sunday:

Today was so great to be able to have Aaron Cole, Gabby Macintosh, Jason Hammond and Shuman Zhang come to church and love it! Also it was cool to have a wonderful gospel Principles class on the Scriptures and then from there we were able to see that all of them are finally making really close friends! Gabby was invited to go and sing in the Stake choir with a new friend and she went and we went by to see her there and she was so happy and singing! That night we asked her how she felt and she said that she was so happy and glad she went, She felt the spirit! In the evening we received a phone call from the assistants Broberg and Flake asking us if we would please prepare he elders of our zone in singing The Iron Rod as Elder Lawrence comes to our mission on a tour. President asked them to ask us, and we accepted, and so now we are also working on making a pretty piano part and marking sure the elders know how to sing and what parts to sing. It was such a wonderful evening! My companion and I have so much in common and I love it! We talk openly to each other and it is super easy to get along because of that! He told me that he planned on helping me both enjoy, and finish my mission strong while preparing good for the transition. He prays for me everyday in our companion prayers and it really has inspired and lifted me! Some info on him! He is 24 years old. He is from Minnesota. Loves everything I do, including soccer. Is very smart in music. And works super hard! He has been out for about 1 year coming up this week!

I love all of you! Hope that you enjoy you week and remember CPR!
Con Amor,

Elder Spendlove

De la Misión de Texas Fort Worth