WEEK TWELVE

Hello once again Family and Friends! Time is flying by so fast and I

just can't believe it! So yes this week we did get a lot of rain, and

it was amazing! All week Elder Lickiss and I were making jokes that we

needed to start building an ark and tell people it is time to get on!

This morning I told him we should change the name of our house from la

Caja (the box) to la arcita (little ark) because our house is upstairs

and away from the water!

No the rain has been nice, and now that it has stopped raining the

weather has flip flopped! We usually have our AC units pumping, but

while our member was out of town we had to find the little space

heaters for the night to keep up warm! Now we are just as warm as can

be in our little arcita! Ha

I hope that everyone is having an amazing week and that this email can

help you out in some way or another! Thank you for your love and

support and I hope all the pictures get sent right as well!! Here is

my for y'all!

Week of October 19-25 2015

Monday:

Wow today was such a fast day I don't even know what happened!!! Well

today we were able to really get things done while we were in the

house, but we went with Elder Taylor and Elder Paxton, who are English

elders, to help the ASL Elders with their car. They hit a curb and

ripped the side wall off the tire completely! After that we hurry and

went shopping, but as we began shopping my companion realized that he

completely lost his wallet, so I had to pay for his stuff this week,

and I hope that next week he will be able to pay me back a little bit,

because mission money is very precious stuff! We just hope we can find

his wallet!

So we went to the church to have a missionary activity and we were

able to play lots of basketball! For some reason the missionaries

don't like soccer, but I am dying to play it!!! Also I was really

wanting to send a lot more emails out to everyone who emailed me, but

sadly the wifi at the church wouldn't work, and I haven't even got my

letter sent to president yet, so I am working on that still!! Wow the

work is tiring, but the spiritual feelings give me energy to never

quite! I have realized that the body and the spirit definitely have

different times of being tired! When my body is physically gone God

helps me to have the spiritual energy I need to keep going because I

want to share what I know with others!! So we went and did SMC

reports, also known as a report with all our investigators and recent

converts info on it! It didn't take to long, but we had to try

different places to use computers because we can't fix them on our

iPads! We had to go to our church and use the clerks office to do it

and by that time we didn't have time to do anything else!! I love and

sometimes get tired of Pdays! I love them, because I can talk with my

family, but I don't like them because we never get anything done

after!! Haha what a good day tho! And wow within a few days I bet the

leaves will be changing here! It is getting chilly at night!! Oh and

tomorrow we have a exchange with the north elders! I will be the

senior companion with a missionary who has been our for a week in my

area and I am both nervous and excited! It is going to be a lot of

fun!!

Tuesday:

Wow today was a really big switch up for me! so today we went and gave

service at the food bank, and had so much fun!! I love service so

much. It makes time fly and you get to know so many amazing people!

After our 3 hours of service today we began our exchanges! Elder

Lickiss went with Elder Cevantes to north-side and I went back to my

area with Elder Ravelli! He has been out in Texas for a Week and so I

am the senior companion having to take charge of the lessons! It was

amazing talking to the people we did today. However most of our

talking was to some cool, but crazy Texas talkers on the buses! So we

were biking tonight and we passed this guy spraying his mailbox with

something and all we said was good evening. As I got passed him I just

said, "we have to go back!" We turned around and I just asked if I

could give him a card and he answered me in a surprising way. He said,

"I don't want to be converted to your Mormon religion, but I do want

to thank you for your dedication to your beliefs and for helping those

who are less fortunate, I tell my kids every time I see you

missionaries to watch you carefully. You set an amazing example for my

family!" We were able to give him a Book of Mormon and talk to him

about God and his beliefs and bare our testimonies of God in our lives

and he seem pretty effected by it! He gave us awesome tips on helping

us know how to create conversation with the Latino culture and how to

get around Catholic teaching road blocks! All I can say is that the

secret to teaching is your Example. Do what you teach so that others

can see you believe it. He may not want to change, but he is setting

up success for his children to except the gospel and I love it!!

Wednesday:

Wow it is crazy how you can plan a day out and try to stick to it, but

somehow the plans always get moved around and make your days crazy out

here! So today Elder Revelli and I did so,e awesome studies of the

scriptures and of the language, and I learned so much by teaching the

language to him! After, we went to the church to have our district

meeting with my companion, Elder Lickiss with his first district

meeting in Fort Worth. He did such a great job, and I was able to role

play with a sister missionary, Hna. Mangleson. From her I learned that

the sister missionaries really have the love for the people. They

sister missionaries are really so amazing, and every time I see hem I

learn something knew that I can work on as well!

So after dinner we went to Erica Leyva's house to teach her and her

family! Well they were supposed to teach us, but they forgot so we let

them suffer a little through it so they would understand the

importance of studying! I love going to their house, because I feel at

home and they are really funny, but I feel like they just don't get

what I am trying to help them do. I testify so much, but they aren't

listening!? However, I am not giving up on them! They have improved so

much and they need this gospel as much as any investigator.

As we got home tonight we got a call from Hermana Peña. She told us

that she was going to Utah this week and wanted to know if our parents

lived close! So we had an amazing visit with her and she told us how

much she loved us. I really love her and her husband Hno. Peña! They

treat us so good and they are the nicest people out here! I hope that

my family has a chance to meet them after my mission!

What an amazing day!!

Thursday:

Today was an amazing day! I am trying to be more focused in the work

and I have really felt a difference in how fast the days really go! So

this morning we had a quick hour long lesson planned for two Spanish

ladies down our street, but when we went to look for them they were

not home. It was just like a normal day when people don't answer, but

however, God always has us go somewhere to help someone. As we were

walking away from the houses two younger Latinos walked by and we just

said hi to them and asked if they knew the two ladies who lived here

and they said yes. Well of course our conversation turned to the

gospel and they were very interested! We taught them a quick lesson

and at the end I found out that they play soccer almost everyday with

a group of friends that live close by, so we gave them our number and

they are going to text us on Mondays to see if we are available to

play with them! I pray we can get in their lives enough to help them

see how the gospel can help them!So today we had our weekly planning

that drained me, but then I practiced the piano while my companion

made phone calls! I had the opportunity to practice because this

Sunday I will be playing the piano again in the sacrament meeting for

the primary! I am really excited, because I actually do enjoy playing

for them, it just takes some getting used to.

So we were going to go to the House of the Garcia family tonight for

dinner, but it was raining to hard that they called us and said they

would bring the food to the church! Hno. Garcia came and we had an

amazing talk about the missionary work and member work and how we can

improve. It was nice hearing what he had to say and my relationship

with him has grown a lot!

We had the opportunity to be at the church while a lot of members

showed up for an activity and we go to know a lot of members to show

them what we are like and what we would like to do! However it was

rainy and dark, so our lessons got flooded out!

So tonight we got a phone call after planning from our amazing friend

Sunny! Both elder Lickiss and I are his two favorite elders, and I

still don't know why other than we just show our love for him! Crazy

thing about him is he is a dialysis patient and has to go through

treatments a lot! Most people don't live very long with this issue,

however he is still kicking with 10 years in! However he is using the

use of his legs and eyes, but that is why I love him. His attitude is

so positive and goofy and he could tell you every missionary by

nickname! If anyone is a member missionary it is him for showing his

love for the missionaries and sharing the gospel the best he can with

the issues he has! What an amazing day!

Friday:

Wow last night was an amazing night! All night I was able to hear the

rain just pound on our roof and it was just a good feeling, because I

love the rain! Also this morning we got to go and exercise in it, so

it was an even better morning in the perfect weather!

It really just rained the whole day with amazing thunder as well, so

it was an amazing day! We were able to get off our bikes for awhile

and just walk around with our umbrellas all day in the rain! We found

a lot of people outside and were able to give out a lot of Book of

Mormons! Also as we were getting ready to go to a doctors appointment

for Elder Lickiss, he realized he scheduled it wrong and we missed e

appointment, so he will have to wait to get his stitches out! Because

we missed the appointment we had more time and decided to call members

and future investigators standing by a gas station where we were

taking a break! It was my turn to call a future investigator named

Nuna. As I called a man answered and was not very nice at asking who

it was. I asked if Nuna was there and he told me I couldn't talk to

her and had to talk through him. So I testified of our church and

invited them to learn more and he said, "okay we will come, but I have

one question, what denominations go to your church?" I wanted to make

sure I was answering correctly so I asked for more info on what he

meant and he told me, "you don't even know what a denomination is?"

And he hung up. After that call I just couldn't feel love for the

people at all. I was talking with my companion about it just after and

he said something that changed my mind for me rest of my life. He

said, "remember that when you are serving others you are serving God.

If you are a missionary you are always serving God, and the mean

things people say to you are also being said to God." It helped me

realize that my Heavenly Father knows what I am feeling, but somehow I

felt that he still loves the man so I might as well!

Also tonight after planning we received a phone call from a more

recent convert named Sunny. He calls us about everyday and it can be

hard at times to take time and listen, but after my talk with him

today my whole thought process of talking to him changed. He told me

that his dialysis went good and he was exhausted. He also said that

the missionaries in his area are telling him they don't want to come

back until he fixes his language. His language consists of joking with

us missionaries saying, Where's the tequila? What are you doing?

Smokin pot? And just goofy things like that. However, when he is very

respectful and good with the people in the ward and says nothing bad.

He also informed us that he has only on friend in our ward and that is

Hno. Ashton our ward mission leader! He wants to say we are his

friends, but we leave as much as his dialysis friends. We love him and

just pray he will understand the importance of going to church because

it is for his salvation! He needs lots of prayers!

Saturday:

Wow today was a very wet day for us!! However, I know that the lord is

watching over us bike missionaries all the time, because it seemed

like every time we were getting ready to bike somewhere it would stop

raining and just sprinkle! So today we went contacting referrals

contacting people on Avenue J! There was a lot of people that were not

interested, but we found one lady named Consuelo who it first did not

want to talk until we started talking about the Book of Mormon more!

We had an amazing lesson with her and hope to return! As we were

leaving this contact lesson we were walking by a tall fence covered in

vines so you couldn't see through. As we walked past we heard a small

Spanish voice call out of the house asking us if we were missionaries

of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. We were looking

around for a person, as we responded yes and finally a small older

lady came out of the house smiling so big saying she was looking for

us! Come to find out she has been a member of the church for 25 years,

but got inactive when she moved and lost her books of her

missionaries. She also has got some addictions that she doesn't want

now and she wants us to come back as much as we can! It was such a

miracle that we found her and we know we were where God need us at the

right time! Come to find out she also has kids that are members, but

their spouses are not, so we are going to work with them! We also had

an amazing dinner at a small restaurant of a member named Hna.

Samaniego! And her food is so amazing! I learned today that it is best

to do the work that God wants you to do. As you do what the lord wants

you get what you want in the end!

This was what the members house looked like! You can't see the door,

so I don't know how she saw us!? God works miracles and that I know!!

Sunday:

Today was such a beautiful day! It didn't actually rain at all, but

the clouds just made the whole day feel so amazing! It was actually

really cold even in our suit coats as we were walking to the church

today, but I am so ready for a change in the weather! So today we had

a short missionary meeting, because our ward mission leader was out of

town. It went really well today as we were sitting the chapel we

looked back and noticed that the Rosita Brice that we invited

yesterday came! We went and sat by her and she was dressed as if she

was the relief society president! She was so happy and so attentive

and we even had the opportunity to hear her opinions in the gospel

principles class, because she is not afraid to talk and it is

something this ward needs. Someone who is firm in belief and not

afraid to state it! So something I noticed today in church was, we

focused our week on the members this week. We want to strengthen them

and help them realize that we need their help! Yes, our numbers were a

little lower on lessons, but it was amazing to see the difference in

the attitude of the members towards us and our investigators and less

active members coming to church. The love is growing and the hearts

of the members and non members are growing softer! I feel like all we

have to do is keep showing our love and everything will just keep

growing like crazy! So tonight we had another dinner with the family

Delgado and we had a form or Spanish Chilie dogs! The difference was

that you put mayonnaise on the bun first and top it with tomatoes and

jalapeños after to give it a little kick! They were amazing and I love

the flavor with the jalapenos!

We were going to teach a recent convert to do some family history, but

as he came to pick us up his hoses for his antifreeze broke and so Hno

Delgado took us home and took our recent convert to get some parts so

he would have a car to get to work tomorrow! So we decided we had 45

min and we were going to get two more lessons! So we started knocking

doors and we were able to get two firm lessons with return dates too!

What a day and it is amazing to see how the lord will bless you as you

do his work. At times you may feel what you are trying to do will be

impossible, but I promise you that the lord will provide! Never lose

faith in the Savior and creator of the world! One more thing I want to

say is I feel my journals are getting worse in grammar and wording,

because my Spanish brain is taking over the placing of words! As I

read over some of these I am finding things a little backwards from

how I originally said them! But all is well! The language is still

rough, but no one ever said it would be easy, they only said it would

be worth it! And I can see the blessings of the language already!!!

Thank you for your love and support in this great work!!! Know that I

pray for all of you and am grateful to know you are always there for

me as much as I am there for you! My life is changing out here because

of the people here, but also all of you for,your prayers emails, and

even letters! I know this gospel is true and hope you will all try

this week to share it with someone who is less fortunate than you all!

I love you and have a great week!

"With men it is impossible, but with God all things are possible!"

(Mark 10:27)

Con Amor,

Elder Spendlove