WEEK THREE (CCM)

Dear family and friends,

Thank you so much for all of your love and support, along with mail. This week flew by so fast that I am having a hard time believing it. So this week we had the opportunity to welcome new elders and hermanas into the CCM and it was a really neat experience to see that so many have chosen to come and serve the lord. Tomorrow we are welcoming over one hundred new missionaries into the CCM and it is going to start getting packed!

So Elder Lakey and I got to teach 2 investigators this week and they have finally both committed to baptism and following the commandments. We still have a lot of things we need to help them with, but it is so cool to see how the lord is blessing their lives through us.

This week we have also had some amazing thunder and lightening storms roll through about once a night. The weather is so amazing and I am finally getting used to the food and the culture. I am loving the Latinos so much and they have so much respect for us as we try our hardest to learn the language.

My sundays are so amazing here in the CCM! I had the opportunity to give my first talk in spanish and I also blessed the sacrament in spanish. With my new calling as Zone leader I also had the opportunity to conduct priesthood meeting and the spirit this week has been amazing.

Some of the quotes I got this past week that I love so much are...

I know what pleasure is, for I have done good works. - Robert Louis Stevenson.

Every morning we need to wake up and promise Heavenly Father that we will do better that we did the day before. -Hermana Child

Love is the language of the gospel. When we teach with love, they will feel the spirit.

When your possessions are possessing you, it is time to let them go.

We can not go back, we have left our nets. We much go and feed his sheep forever.

I love these quotes and they are helping me everyday. 

I love all of you and hope you all have a wonderful week.

The gospel is true and I love it with all my heart!

If you don't know that for yourself please read the Book of Mormon and find out for yourself.

I promise you will feel a prompting of peace, love, happiness, or a warm feeling inside.

Con Amor,

Elder Spendlove

My comp (on the right) & two other missionaries in my district

Soccer day!!

A wild bird landed in our classroom today and let us hold it! I think it could feel the spirit! haha

Sewing my pants

Beach volleyball day 

My daily planner!

WEEK TWO (CCM)

Week 2                                                                                                                         

Hey Family, It was so good to open my email this morning and receive so many emails. I have such a hard time reading them all in 1 hour. So this week has been so amazing and full of the spirit. Our investigators are our teachers and we have committed all of them to be baptized in the first lessons and all but one of them has said that they would be baptized. The feeling of speaking the Spanish language is still really weird, but I am loving the language a lot. Most of my days are so packed with study and lessons of the language and the BOM that I barely have time to think about anything else, and I love that. P-Days are full of laundry, emails, soccer, and pictures so we stay very busy. My companion is from Hawaii and played football. When he gets home from his mission he is going to be playing football at Utah State University. Hopefully we will see each other! He is the oldest in his family and was a video gamer, but he is such a hard worker and good example for me and everyone around him. I just found out the Ryan is going to Independence Missouri, and I am so happy for you Ry!!! Kelci and Ryan, there have been hard days for me already when I thought, man it would be so nice to go home. I promise if you find a way to turn outward like the Savior does and find someone to serve, like your companion, you will be okay and will gain such a testimony from the hard times. 

Sounds like Skyler needs some more lessons from me on how to keep your hands away from a moving prop, but I am so glad he is okay.

Ryan and Jaden, Thank you so much for always keeping my mom’s spirits up and being there for her. I look up to you two so much out here and love both of you so much. Every night I look at my family pictures and then I sit and look at the picture of us three from soccer and I am so glad I had your guys example in my life.

Dear Dad, Happy Father’s Day! Sorry my card did not make it to you in time. I could not get stamps until this morning so I sent it this morning with a few others letters inside of it. Thank you for your amazing example to me and for always teaching me to work hard. Sorry I could not call but please know I pray for you each and every day. Hope you have an amazing day.

I am loving the new culture and cannot believe I only have 4 weeks left here. It flies by so fast. 

The picture I sent last week from  the airport that has the 2 hermanas we talked to in it. The one by Elder Falk is the one I sat by and visited with on my flight from SLC to Mexico. 

Oh, also Elder Lakey and I got made Zone Leaders this week and we are in charge of 3 districts! It is a great experience to serve the lord. Cannot wait for more chances every day.

Thank you all for your support and prays. I love you all so much and can feel your prayers in my behalf.

yo se que la iglesia es verdad, y yo se que jesucristo es mi salvador. Estoy muy agradacido por mi beniciones. en el nombre de jesucristo, Amen.

Con Amor,

Elder Spendlove

This picture is supposedly how it feels learning Spanish.

WEEK ONE (CCM)

Hello everyone, 

To start off I want to say how blessed I am to be a missionary of the Lord. I feel your prayers everyday through the love of my CCM family. 

So the plane flight was way different then I was expecting it to be but I loved it so much. Sorry to say, I did not read your letters on the flight because I had the awesome blessing of sitting by a older women who only spoke Spanish. I got to talk to her for 4 hours all the way to Mexico city. 

So for those of you who do not know. CCM stand for Centro capatación misioneros. or in other words MTC. So the CCM is very pretty and green. About8 pm every night it rains and it feels so amazing. Also, if you want to see a big city you need to look up videos of a flight over Mexico city. It is huge and super noisy for the fact we are in the middle of it all. At night time it is hard to sleep because of the noise of the traffic. But what an amazing experience.

My companions name is Elder Lakey. He lived in Hawaii and is huge! He is so much taller and built bigger than me, but I love him so much. Also, we get along so well. He does not have a lot of support from his parents by mail but he got a few emails today so he is doing good. He knows Spanish pretty well and has been helping me all along the way. 

In my district there is 4 elders and 2 sisters. They are like family already and I spend all my time with them so I love them. So far Me and Elder Lakey, along with Hermana Odell, one of the sisters in my district are the only ones going to Fort Worth Texas.

By the way mom and dad thank you so much for the package. My whole casa of elders had a shoe shining party today and loved the cookies and milk!

The most surprising thing that has happened so far is the fact that we have already taught an investigator named Jósue. We have taught him 3 times this week in complete spanish and both Elder Lakey and I bore our testimonies and asked if he would be baptized and he said yes!!! Please pray for him. I believe he has felt the spirit and wants so much more in his life.

The food here is so amazing and fattening, but I just try to watch what I eat. Also, Elder Lakey and I used to have to find places to sit so we could be by the Latinos, but now they all try to find us because we teach them english while they teach us spanish. 

I am sorry to all of you that have written me letters and I have not written back. The problem is I barely have time to think of sleeping or home. I am loving the letters tho, and I have letters coming home soon. I will not send a lot by mail because the stamps are 13 pesos a stamp and we only get 100 pesos a week for necessary supplies en la Tienda.

Same with E-mails. I just do not have a lot of time while in the CCM, but once I get out I will have a little more time. 

I am sorry for the shorter letter and for not sharing a lot, if you want to know anything else please email me and let me know. I love all of you so much and am praying for your safety. Please keep me and my companion in your prayers as we continue to study the hard but fun language of Spanish. Please remember how much our heavenly father loves you and always pray to him for strength in your hard times. Until next week...

Con Amar,

Sincerely, 

Elder Spendlove

Also, I forgot to mention. There is 46 missionaries in our Generation. ( what we say for our group that we flew out with.)

wow I keep forgetting, but I do have to tell you that I am known for my soccer skills by the latinos. Today we are going to play with them and all of them want me on there team. I love you all.

 And I love wearing my name tag because not only does it have my name that I need to live up too, but it has the lords name that I get to live up to share with people all the time.

My first companion!