Week One: Fort Worth Texas

¡Hola mí familia! ¿Cómo estan sus días sin me? Por favor saben que

estoy feliz y que mí padre en el cielo me ama mucho. Aveces la obra es

dificil, Pero yo se que yo puedo ser más cerca de Dios mediante

serviendo las personas en esta ciudad. Tambien yo tengo amor por la

gente de esta ciudad. Aveces Ellos no entienden porque somos aqui,

Pero nosotros obtengamos un amor por ellos.

Yo se que esta obra es verdadero y mediante leyendo el libro de mormón

podemos recibir muchas benediciones y ser más cerca con Dios

Put this into google translate to see what it says!

Hola family and friends, it feels so good to be able to finally email

again! It has been a little while because of traveling to the field

and missing p-day and all, but I am so glad to be Out in the field and

have already had some amazing experiences.

So I arrived around 11:30 on Tuesday and had the opportunity to go to

the mission home and have dinner with Presidente Ames and Hermana

Ames. They are so sweet and I am so amazed by the words they speak.

They speak so simple, but get such an amazing message acrossed to me

individually.

I am living in an apartment made of brick and plaster that has a

little ad unit in the window. So as you can imagine the bricks heat up

and the temperature in our apartment is about 90 degrees ever day. We

live next to a members house. Brother and sister Peña are so sweet and

always give us rides and watermelon to cool us down. My address for

now is 2745 S. Adams St. Forth Worth, Texas 76110.

The next day I had the opportunity to meet my companion Elder

Schuhmacher! He is from California and has been out for 13 months!! He

is an amazing Missionary that is so hard working and dedicated. For

instance the first day i arrived in the field we got on our bikes and

headed straight out to work. We do not have a car in our area and ride

buses and bikes everywhere we go. Some days reach 100 plus more

humidity than I am used to, but the work is fun.

I met my first so called "Texas talker" which means a drunk person who

just talks and talks about the bible and things he thinks are corrupt

about the Book of Mormon. This man asked me a question that hit me

hard, do you really believe that Smith boy was a prophet who talked to

god?. And I was so proud to be able to say with my whole heart that I

did believe through Joseph Smith and the power of God that we have

this gospel today.

We found a man named Francisco and taught him the first lesson in

preach my gospel and all he could say was, wow I want to change my

life and I know I can. So we are going to keep working with him and

see where he goes!

Finally I am am learning to understand how to speak this language, but

at times I can not understand a word that is said your investigators

and members.

So we're waiting at a bus stop the other day and an African American

man walked up to us and asked if we had a few dollars he could have.

He had not eaten in 2 days and was starving and he needed a bus ticket

that was about 2 dollars. So we gave his a few dollars and talked to

him about the gospel and had a prayer with him and it just felt so

good to serve with a full purpose of heart. After the prayer he looked

at use and said, you two must be my angels today, I have been praying

for someone to help me and you two did, thank you. The feeling of love

ran through my body and made me realize what I am doing out in Fort

Worth Texas.

So Saturday me and my companion had our first baptism with a sweet

Latino woman named Guadalupe. She was baptized by a member, but wanted

a picture with us so we would never forget us. I will send a few

pictures to you at the end.

And yesterday was my first time in full meeting in Spanish. Wow did my

head hurt when church was over, but I did learn a lot about how the

language is used and I am learning more vocab for sure.

Thank you for all the emails that have been sent. I love hearing from

all of you. I pray for all of you everyday, multiple times. And right

now I am especially praying you Grandma and Jody.

Please keep me updated on how grandma does. Tell her how much I love her!

I know this is where I am supposed to be and I am loving it!

This church is true and I know that with all of my heart!!

Please go and read the lessons in preach my gospel and see how they

apply to you, and also please go and read through Alma 1-2 and tell me

your thoughts of it when looking at it with spiritual eyes.

I love you all!!

Con Amor,

Elder Spendlove