Only Two weeks left of this transfer!! Time flies!

Dear Family and Friends,

Oh how time flies when you truly are in he service of your God! I just realized this morning that there is only 2 weeks left in this transfer, and then I only will have 6 more weeks with Elder Wardle, and I am not ready for the change yet!

I hope y'all had a great week and were able to see the hand of God in it! For me I can say I saw it multiple times! I can say with out a doubt that I know God loves me and really does want the best for me and for his other children! 

Here is how my week went!

Week March 14-20 2016

Monday:

So today was a super fun Pday for us! And the best part was is that we planned it out well enough that we were able to not waste any time!

So today we were able to go to Walmart and even go to the mall, and it was a lot of fun just walking around and looking some of the sports stores that I haven't seen in a long time! Also we had a Chipotle card card given to us a while back that we went and used today, and it was so good! As we were finishing ordering, Hermana Saldaña walked in and waved at us and we went and just visited with her for a good while! She is so sweet! As we got done at the stores and stuff we headed to the church to finish off some emails, and then began our Zone Activity! We played Steal the Duster, with huge teams, and it was so much fun!! After we played steal the flag for a good amount of time we switched and played Speed, and everyone was in playing! It was so much fun! I love my Zone! After our pday we decided to quickly go and hand out a few primary Easter activity invitations to some investigators and their kids, and both the Sanbrano family, and the Lopez family were home and we were able to set appointments with them for this week and we can't wait! So tonight in Family Home Evening we taught about Prophets and the importance of them in every situation and showed the kids a video of youth getting lost because they lost a map, then explained to them that is what happens when we stop listening to the Prophet! As we finished it all in English, an Hermana that only speaks Spanish, rose her hand and gave amazing insight into the lesson and so after the lesson I asked, "Hna, how did you know what we were saying!?" And she just said, "I could just feel it I guess? I felt that I needed to say it and caught simple phrases!" I know God works through feelings of the spirit and that was a huge example of that! Today was such a wonderful day, and the rest of the week is only going to get better!!

Tuesday:

Today was a bit of a slow start, but by the end of the day I was so tired! So today we were able to go and give service out at the community garden, called Shiloh Fields, for about 4 hours, and as we got out there, there was a old lady, named Peggy, out weeding a huge plot that was full of grass and it was super muddy and hard for her to bend over, so we went out and helped her finish the whole plot and ending up being really muddy in the process. As we fewer visiting with her she asked about our mission and came to know who we were and what we did! She loved to hear we were doing something so good, and as we finished the plot she began to cry and say thank you to us. As we began to leave she stopped us and asked, " do you mind if we pray together?" Of course we were excited to pray and she offered the prayer. She blessed us on our missions and even began to cry as she thanked God for sending us to her aid in her time of tiredness and weakness. As we left we went to an appointment with our investigator Sigrid, with a member named Hno. Perry. We taught a powerful lesson about how the prophets were and are important today and even how the Book of Mormon came to be through the bible. At first he had a hard time understanding it, until our wonderful member really testified of the Book of Mormon and how it came to be using the point of Prophets and revelation, and he began to just agree with everything we said. He finally has come to an understanding of the need of both another book and prophet! Also as we were leaving, his wife, whom we had never met, came in and really became our friend as well! We are going back Friday for so,e home made pupusas with the family!! After our great lesson we were picked up by Bishop Meza and taken to the house of David and Veronica Lopez. We had a wonderful dinner with them, where Veronica made us Tostadas that were to die for and we shared a wonderful message about the need to go to church! Both of them I feel had that thought of why they weren't going, and they both agreed to go the following Sunday with us! Sadly, I noticed that David, the Member, was and is holding back his wife, Veronica, from being a member of the church! However, we know that God has his own time for everything, and all we can do is be preparing them for their return to church! Today was a super busy, but wonderful day!

Wednesday:

Today has kind of been a very crazy day for the both of us, and just to make it even harder, I got hit with some emotions in the middle of the day to see how strong I really was! So today we had the wonderful chance to have a district meeting and to be able to focus our trainings and attention of the finding aspect of the missionary work. We focused on 3 main points, Talking with Everyone, Going Around Doing Good, and working with Members. So this week we are going to focus our efforts on finding those who really are interested, also known as sifting the wheat! So after our District meeting we had a small lunch party for the St. Patrick's day tomorrow and for Easter, and we had our green jello with Pizza! After our lunch party with the whole district, we worked on a small play that the members want us to put on for Easter, after which I was told some really hard news. We had been teaching a man by the name of Jesus Vera, before he got super sick and had to go to a hospital setting in Decatur, out of our reach, and then we passed him off to the Hermanas. However, we still had constant contact with him every week and his health just seemed to be doing so great! We called him last week and he just seemed so happy and he just thanked us for literally being his best of friends to the point of being his literal family! I signed his Do Not Resuscitate order if something went wrong! He told us how badly he wanted to be baptized, but his injuries didn't allow him to do so. He was such a huge example to me of someone who has done so bad, but changed so much to someone who is so good! Well the Hnas took me aside today and told me that he had passed away from health purposes and that it came out of the blue. I didn't know how to take it, I was in shock. I had put my heart into studying for him, into loving him, and he was gone! I still don't know what to think! All I do is just keep thinking back to the things I taught him, the times he told us he just wanted to die, but we kept him going, we told him God loved him. And he trusted us, he found God in his life so much stronger. Now all I can do is just be happy that he is healthy and out of pain, with the one who gave him life! So after that news I had a hard to e getting going again, but we had 3 really good lessons with Sergio, a less active member, Hna. Evans, a sweet old lady in our ward, and Alicia Moratalla, a less active member as well! Tonight at our dinner with Hna Evans, as we shared a scripture a lady was listening in and leaned over at the end and thanked us for our lesson, so we gave her a card and hope she visits the website, and then as we went up to pay, they told us that someone else had paid for our meal! It was such a day of Miracles!

 

 

(Our district pre-Patrick party!! Eating our green Jello and Peeps!!)

Thursday: Happy St. Patrick's Day!

What a day I have had today! So today we had the opportunity to have our studies for a good amount of time and then we got picked up by Hno. Hildreth to go with him to visit an Hna that lives outside of the mission. We went and visited with the Hna. Flores about the message for the month by President Thomas S. Monson, and the lesson was so good! One of the the main points that caught m attention is that we can follow the example of Jesus Christ and help others through love, and service! After we got back from that short and sweet lesson we met up with the Spanish Training Leaders, Elder Lickiss and Elder Sinascachi, to have an exchange. This time it was my turn to leave, and it was such a good chance to be with Elder Lickiss again and to learn how I can better myself! We had two lessons this evening and one of them was with a family from Spain, and at first their accent was killing me and I couldn't understand a thing that they were saying, but by the end I could understand how they spoke and I was kind of wishing I had an accent like it! However, it felt a lot better to go back and speak with some Hispanics again and see that I still can speak Spanish! For dinner we were given by a member some of his fathers food from his restaurant, San Luis, from Fort Worth, and it really made me miss my first area a lot! After dinner we went to one last appointment where we taught two members about the plan of salvation and how it is like a map, and they loved the message and we were able to just get to know them and laugh back and forth with them! It was super fun, and I love the area that the Spanish Training Leaders cover. I would say that I have learned so much from being here in just this evening to go and teach my district how to be better! It really was a great day! 

 

(Really in the St. Patrick mood!)

Friday:

Today for me seemed to be such a fast day! So today I woke up speaking Spanish with Elder Lickiss, and it just felt so good to be able to speak Spanish! It also was nice to get out and exercise really good before our good studies that we had! We were able to have all of our studies and actually learn a lot! I was able to get a lot of ideas on how to help my District to be able to get some better people to teach and work on actually setting a goal! So my goal for this week is to reach and also to achieve the ideas I got! So for today after our switch back, Elder Wardle and I went with Hno. Parry to the house of Sifrid Aparicio, and he seems to be progressing super well. He felt like he knew about the things we were talking about and so we explained what a veil was and he loved it. He is still very protective, but is trying his hardest to get a Sunday off to come to church! We are definitely praying for him to get Sunday's off and also to actually have a desire to not only learn more, but to be baptized. After our lesson with him, his wife made is Pupusas and we had a great time visiting more with them and eating! The rest of the night we went around contacting in a few areas and then finished our weekly planning, and both of us are so exhausted tonight that we barely have energy to write in our journals! Today was a super good day and it was even best to come back to Elder Wardle! It made me feel good when he said he finally realized how much I do and he said he wanted to help in anyway possible! So I am excited to give him a little bit more of a load to get the area moving forward more!

(Us after our amazing Exchange!)

 

Saturday:

Today was such a fun day! This morning we had the opportunity to be picked up by Hno. Arias and go to his house to help him clean up his yard. We were expecting it to be a lot of work, and when we got there all that we had to clean was a small flower bed in their front yard, and also some leaves and bushes he had. After we helped him, him and his wife made breakfast for us and it was so good! He has 3 young sons and they are super sweet and goofy! After our service we went home and had some really good studies, but the both of us were so ready to get out of that house after our 4 hours of studies, so we went and got the mail, because we had our dinner coming a half an hour later. After we ate dinner we were able to go out to a few houses in the middle of no where and to knock their doors and see if we could find anyone. We did find a few people, but most of them just brushed us off. However, we had two fun experiences! As we knocked on one door a lady came out and told us that she thought we were "Beautiful", but she had a church she attended, as I walked away I said to Elder Wardle, "did she just tell us we were beautiful?" Haha and she did. It probably was our man purses that we Cary our bags in!;) And the other experience we had is that we saw a house literally out in the middle of no where, and we decided that we were going to go and knock the door. As we knocked on it, we fully expected to have Hispanics Coke to the door, but an older lady by the name of Sister Skinner opened the door and tried to invite us in. We had to tell her we couldn't because there was no other man, but come to find out she was a member of the church and that the sisters visited her very often! She was very sweet, and it was a very cool experience to see her out there! As we walked away though we were so confused on how she could live out there in the midst of only Spanish speakers! Today was a huge finding day for us, but it was a lot of fun to get to know more people!!

(Me with our investigator Sifrid Aparicio, and his wife, who made us those Pupusas!)

 

Sunday:

It is amazing to me how God can help you achieve goals as you prayerfully set them with Gods help. So today we had an amazing time at church, and throughout this week I have been counseling with Hno. Hildreth, our ward mission leader, to help him see from a missionary perspective on a few changes that we felt were necessary in our meetings to find true success, and today, he finally came through and did exactly what the whole district felt was perfect!! We focused on our investigators first and then matched members to those investigators, and it changed the whole day! Our meetings afterwards were so much more helpful for us as missionaries and all the members as well!! So today after church we were invited to go and eat a lunch with a more less active family, but as we got there we realized that it was a party! A good kind of party, because they invited other members over for this lunch to have a good time together! We got to know the members better and it was super fun learning what Pozole was! It is a Spanish soup that has pork and Omani pieces in it and it was super good!! After which we went and knocked a few doors, found a super sweet lady that her and her boy friend both want to learn more, and we hit it off so well with her! After that great lesson with her, we went and had a wonderful lesson with a man that told us he wanted us to return, that lived on that same street. So we passed by this man, named Isaias, and taught him lesson 1 about the restoration, and he loved it, but I feel he didn't understand it all, but it is amazing how much love I had for this man after that simple contact lesson and one full lesson. I feel like every once in a while I catch a glimpse of what kind of Love God has for each of us! 

It really was a great week, and I hope you all liked it!! 

Love you all and I hope you all have a great week!!

 

Con Amor,

Elder Spendlove

9 Months, 5 Companions and 2 Areas Later!

Hola Mi Familia y Amigos!

I am so grateful for this chance that I have to email home and tell you how my week was! I hope that you were all able to have a good week like I did. 

First off before I get into my weekly letter I have to say Happy Birthday to one of my many Beautiful Sisters! I hope that you had the best birthday!!!

 

So this is how my week went!!

 

Week March 7-13 2016

Monday:

So today was a little bit of a different day for us, because as we started the day our plans changed super fast! We had planned to have a Zone Activity, but is morning we had the Zone Leaders text and say we were not going to have one. As we planned what we were going to do we decided to just go shopping, and then go back to the church and email, after which we played Uno and other card games to relax ourselves! It was a lot of fun, and at about 5 we had Hna Baltazar Coke to the church with food to feed us, and she was telling us all these people that we could meet! It was super cool to see the powerful testimony she had of God directing her life! Also this evening we were able to have the Family Home Evening, and tonight, along with many nights, I felt was for me! We just talked about how the Atonement was made possible and what it really means! It was super amazing to see how everyone was able to add something different to the lesson by their comments to make sense of the whole thing! So as we were in the Family Home Evening it began to rain crazily, and we had to drop off the other elder across town in this awesome weather, and driving in the rain was a blast! Also the Thunder is so amazing here!! What a great day it was! Also now that the chest congestion is going away my cough is coming out..

Tuesday:

What a day!

So today we had the wonderful opportunity to wake up to some amazing rain that didn't stop until around 2! It rained so hard that the storm drains were full and flooding over, but not bad enough to harm anyone if that is even possible, but it,is the hardest rainstorm I have seen in my mission so far! So today he were able to go and give service at Our Daily Bread in place of the Community Garden, because of the crazy rain! We made some amazing food today and all the people loved it!!

After our service we went and began a exchange with Elder Lakey and Elder Escobar, and it was so cool to have because I was able to conduct it and then my MTC companion, Elder Lakey, got to exchange with me! So today until tomorrow we will be companions!! So this evening we had 2 appointments and we were all studies up for them and so ready to go and teach them, but last second all of them cancelled on us and we were waiting for the Lord to tell us what to do! We prayed a lot tonight, and then we finally headed home with no luck on lessons, but we were able to get a hold of people on the phone and plan out the rest of the week a little bit better, so it was all worth it! I am so happy I can still work with my MTC comp in the mission field! He is such a huge blessing to help me through this leadership experience! I thing Leaders are put in the position they are to have a chance to see things at a different perspective, and to truly learn!

 

Wednesday:

Today was an incredible day for me! So to start off the day we were able to have a missionary Couple in our homes, named the Bonds, to check our home and make sure it was clean, safe and livable! Luckily it passed with flying colors, except for one or two small dots on out bathroom mirror! So we were able to exchange back to our companionships this morning on our way to the church for our Zone Council and had the most wonderful meeting ever! Today in our meeting we talked a lot about how to become better missionaries, and I think our Heavenly Father really opened my eyes on ways that we can better serve the people here in Denton and how I can help my district to have success! So today I received great revelation on how to help us to connect and make our meetings more like a council, and I hope it really helps! Also I learned so much more about he Atonement of Jesus Christ and I know that he truly loves me with all his heart! I know this, because not only did he bleed from every pore for me, but he even hung on a cross and died for me, but I think the reason I know he cares for me is that he raised the 3 day and taught more people his doctrine! 

So this evening we had a few plans cancel, but we were able to go over to find a ice cream man, that we contacted earlier on in the week, in his house, and we were shocked when we searched and found out he is a member, but super less active! So we hit it really well with him, and he invited us to go back tomorrow to teach him about the Book of Mormon and Jesus Christ, but he says he has read the Book of Mormon enough that he knows it like the back of his hand! Also as we left, we went and taught a wonderful Work of Salvation lesson to some active members in our ward, named the Gonzalez family, to get them excited about missionary work, and we got both of them crying as we showed them a new video called Hallelujah from follow him.mormon.org. They both have people that they would like us to start meeting with and we can not wait to begin meeting with them when they make the first contact! Today was such an inspiring day!!  

 

Thursday:

Wow, it seems like everyday just gets going fast and that people keep on canceling on us more and more, but that doesn't stop us from sharing the message of the Lord today! So today after our wonderful planning I was able to receive my St. Patrick's Day / Easter Package from Home, and it was so much fun! Both me and my companion were so excited with the fun glasses and the little treats that we got!! So after that we went to the house of an older member who lost his wife a year back, Hno Coronado, and just talked to him about life, because he is super depressed and just wants to die or move back where people care about him in Mexico. He can't drive and has no friends, so he sits in his house everyday while his family all works and he hates it! So we had a great discussion with him and shared a new video with him about the resurrection of Jesus Christ. He felt so much love toward God and Jesus Christ and he was just so happy we would come and visit him! It is amazing how the simplest of things make the biggest difference! After our fun time with him we went to the church and had a quick dinner and then headed over to the house of a ice cream man that we found named Sergio! He told us we could come back tonight, and so we went by and helped him unload his ice cream cart and en we taught him a small lesson! He kept saying to us, " God wants me to read and believe." But we helped him realize that God wants him to go to church, and so we are going to help him get to church and see if he can catch that fire that comes from going to church again! Today was a day of disappointment with at least 3 other lessons that cancelled, but a day of success in the end!! Also I got an email today showing that my mom and dad went and met the parents of my companion, Elder Wardle! It was super awesome! I hope that they become great friends!

Friday:

So today was such a great day for us! We had an awesome opportunity to go and give service at the Our Daily Bread today, but we were able to change what we did this time! We went up stairs to a room and took apart boxes and sorted all the food products in different boxes, and it was super fun! So all day it has been raining and it has been just so peaceful and I just feel great knowing I have a car to protect me!  So after the really fun service we headed out and got some packing done and even a little studying before we had a relief society meeting at 4 and we had a member order us pizza from a J and J's pizza on the Square that was so delicious! After the wonderful dinner we had we went to our first appointment with a man named Sigfrid, who lives in the area of the Hnas, but doesn't like to have the sisters over as much as the elders! He was super friendly to us, and right as we walked in he said to us, "Elders, I have a few questions that are holding me back from joining your church, but as soon as these are answered I will easily join your church." I loved that me! He was so open to talk and listen and to truly know! He asked many questions which we didn't have the answer too, but we told him we would come back and give him answers! It was a powerful lesson to teach and really we didn't get much across, but it was just nice to know he was willing to change  and be baptized if he knew from the bible that it was right! So after our wonderful lesson we headed straight up to the apart,net of the Elder in Gainesville so that we could teach some investigators up there and see if they would mind coming to church! It was a crazy drive in the rain, but it was also super fun and I am just loving every second I have with my Companion, Elder Wardle!

Saturday: 

Saturday's for me always seem to be long days, until I went through this Saturday and I am exhausted and already ready for bed thinking about how fast the day went! So today we spent all our time up in Gainesville where we hope we can one day start a small Spanish Group so that the investigators and members who all can't speak English can attend a Spanish group without having to drive 30 miles to church every Sunday! So to start off the day we got to go to the Frank Buck Zoo to give service, and today we got to clean around the Horned Owl Exhibit and trim some ornamental grass after which we went and attacked some super tall and hard to take out Cane Stocks that we covering an entire 2 floor Zoo Store and then haul them up a huge hill behind the scenes to get them put into a huge mulch pile! It was super fun and then we got to go on a quick behind the scenes tour of some of the fun animals! After our service we had the chance to go out and do some contacting, where we didn't have amazing success, because it was raining, but we got about 1 lesson today and quite a lot of contacts with people! For instance, when we were driving home from our contacting, we saw a Hispanic guy trying to get a dryer out of the back of the truck and put into his house by himself, so we hurry and pulled over and asked if we could help him, and he said sure! So we helped him and then gave him a Book of Mormon and set a return appointment, and the thing that made me feel the best was that he was interested in the message at that point, because of how we got to him, we were there to help him and then we asked if we could share the gospel! He told us which days he is off and then we set a return appointment for two weeks when we go back up! We can not wait to go back! So while in our dinner break I leaned against the wall at the Elders Apartment, and  slide my back across the wall, and a painted over, hidden nail caught my shirt and just ripped  a good size hole in it, and made me a little Sad, but that didn't stop me from going out and teaching an investigator! We had a great lesson with Martin Garcia, and he was so happy to have us there! We taught him about what Baptism means and how we have the authority again and no one else does, and he understood perfectly! Today has just been a wonderful day and I can't wait to see what this next week brings!

Sunday:

So today was a very surprising day for the both of us! Today we had the opportunity to go to church and pretty much spend all morning there learning! It was a great opportunity for the both of us to get to know the members a lot better and to even try to get investigators to church, but sadly no one was able to make it! So after our wonderful services we had the chance to get busy and do some finding and contacting and I mentioned to Elder Wardle how much my testimony has grown from when I left, but I think my testimony has grown a whole new branch where I have a super strong testimony that when you go somewhere and try to do the best you can, you always succeed! For example, this evening we were contacting some random potential investigators and as we went around we met one who the sisters had set a baptism date with earlier that failed to follow through, but she told us it was because she got super sick and that she would be to the Family Home Evening and set an appointment for Wednesday with us! Also we went and did some contacting in another area and had great success with giving out 2 Books of Mormon with one that wants us to come back!! Today was such a fast and good day for us!

 

Thank y'all for always praying for me and for all your thoughts! I am doing amazing and am so glad that I have had this chance to serve! I love you all and pray you have a wonderful week!

Con Amor,

Elder Spendlove

 

 

Already at 9 months!!

Dear Family and Friends! 

It is so good to be able to email today and let you all know how my week was! 

This week was a very long, but needed week and we had so much success! I hope that y'all had a wonderful week as well!

Week February 29-March 6 2016

Monday:

Wow,today was such a fast day for me and my companion, and it's a lot of fun too! So today for P-Day we had the chance to go together and get our haircuts from the store Great Clips, by the Walmart! And after we both got out haircuts we went shopping and got the things we were going to need in the week that is coming! Somehow with Elder Wardle we always spend a little bit of extra money, because when we eat we actually want to eat good and healthy food, and I really enjoy that!

So after our shopping we went to the square and just looked through 2 giant antique shops that were super packed with things and super cool! We had a good time together just exploring the Denton Square! After that we headed to the Institute building one more time to be able to go and play ping pong and pool! It was super enjoyable and quiet were we were just able to let out some stress and relax from a lot of built up stress! It is really fun being able to drive other missionaries around to hang out with you, and the best missionaries are the ones in your own district, elder Lakey and elder Escobar! They are super fun to hang out with! For dinner we dropped by our apartment and made chimichanga burritos, just like the ones my mom taught me how to make, and the elders were really complimenting me! I think they like my cooking!

We had a great time at Family Home Evening tonight! Elder Lakey and Escobar taught us about the importance of Keeping the Sabbath Day Holy, and it made me thing about how God doesn't give us the things to do and not to do, but only the way to make him happy and let's us choose! As I got home I even got a package from my grandma Spendlove that just added the icing on the wonderful day! Grandparents are so amazing! What a wonderful day of preparation and learning to help me go another week!

Tuesday:

So today was a really good day! We had the chance to go and Give Service at Our Daily again, and man today now that I am home I feel that I am a pro cook! I was complimented in the kitchen today by the chef on how I was cutting my melon and oranges, and then she yelled at everyone because they were being unsafe! I owe it to my mom for taking the time to teach me even if I didn't want to learn at first! So today after we went to the service we found out that for this month we will have 1240 miles for the month! Now that may sound like a lot, but that comes down to only 40 miles a day and it takes 30 miles to get to Gainesville in a day, so it adds up super fast! However, we are not worried, because we are good at keeping track of our miles and staying very close to even! Also today we had the great day being able to get some studies in and we had the chance to go and knock some doors! The investigator that opened the door for us was super sick clear from 2 weeks ago and is still not getting better! We are hoping she really is just super sick and doesn't want us to just leave her alone! However, we had the chance to go and eat dinner tonight with a less active member, Hno. Lopez, and his non member wife, Veronica! As we got there we found out that they invited the bishop, Obispo Mesa to come and eat with us! We talked to them about their life, and what they do, and by the way, this family is more than rich! Hno. Lopez has 4 dirt bikes that are special made ones that only 500 of the bikes get made! Also he has a full business that is for remodeling! He is super smart, and while he works, his wife takes care of the two kids that really are a handful! We had some amazing food for dinner and then taught them about baptism and the temple, and may I say, they were both super interested, but from what I could see the husband was harder hearted than his wife! She wants to come to church, but he seems to have something holding him back!

However, the day was great and I can not wait to go back!

 

Wednesday:

Holy cow it is crazy how fast time goes, but at the same time I love how time is going! I would say it goes super fast because of how busy we are! For instance, today we had the chance to do all of our studies and learn a lot from one another, and after that we went straight to the church for our District Meeting! The District got together a little late, but we were able to get started and have a great meeting focused on a Phrase that I love a lot! "People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care!" This phrase is very simple, but means so much to me! At the beginning of my mission I didn't fully understand what this phrase meant, but now I can see the importance of loving my investigators! So today we focused on Praying in ever moment, asking questions, and even listening, and how that can help investigators the most! I was able to give a really good training, or so I planned it, on how important Asking Good Questions is, and how we can receive more insight as we truly listen to our investigators with Love! We had the chance to role play so,e of these things as well, and I learned the importance of Testifying in everything that I do! After our good meeting we had the chance to go and teach a small but good lesson with a full family at the Sanbrano house hold and the husband pretty much told us all of his problems that he had!! So we are going to go back this Sunday to teach them even more! Members truly are the way to success as a missionary! So as I was making phone calls tonight to my district I called the Hermanas Sperry and Farnes, and they gave me the greatest news ever! They went by the house of Jose and Modesta Martinez with Hermano Torres and had a super powerful lesson. At the end of the lesson Hno. Torres invited Jose to prepare to Baptize his wife and invited her to be baptized, and they both agreed to pray and receive their answer tonight! To hear those words brought so much joy to my heart thinking of them being able to go to the temple as well! Hna. Martinez always new she was mission something, she just could understand what it was when we taught, so I am glad the sisters were able to help her out!!

Thursday: 

So today I would describe as an emotional roller coaster for the both of us! So we started off the morning with me feeling a cold/ flu symptoms but still going out and running two laps around the apartment complex with Elder Wardle and then coming back in and working out for around 15 more minutes with an app we were given to help us stay in shape! It worked super well, but I feel asleep waiting for my turn in the shower, and when my comp got out he said I looked like a zombie and that I looked super sick! So I showered and felt a little better and then we started our studies ready for a good day! As we got into Language Study, however, the phone started to ring and I looked at it and saw it was President Ames. Both of Our Hearts dropped not knowing why he was calling, and as I picked it up he asked if he could speak with my companion. As my companion got the phone we started talking and then went into the other room and locked the door. As I was sitting there my heart dropped, because I know what happened. My companion was getting a call because his sweet Grandmother passed away this week and President Ames was the one to tell him so that he would take it a little better. He sat in there for quite some time and all I wanted to do was just go and give him a hug and tell him I am sorry! So as he was in there I said a prayer to help me know how I could help him, and God gave me an idea! As my companion came out, I talked to him and told him I was super sorry and then said, "alright, grab your things! We are going for a ride!" I felt it would get his mind off things if we went to the Sonic close by and just drove and visited, and it worked perfectly! We had a great meal and I think it really helped with the stuff that was going on! So after our lunch we went to the church and began our weekly planning when we got a call from a member in our ward asking us to go immediately to another older members house to check on him, and as we arrived a old man was sitting in his garage just tears streaming down his face, and he just told us he was tired of being alive. His wife had passed away 5 months earlier and his health was just getting worse and he just wanted God to take him now before he got in more pain. So we sat with him and just let him talk, and then I began to think of things to ask him, we talked about his family and how his life went, and then we asked, "Jorge, why do you believe that God still has you here?" He replied for his family and it really helped him see that he is needed. However, we plan to go back so he doesn't sit alone everyday all day without company and support! As we got done there and finished our weekly planning we went home, had a good Halt and then headed to dinner at the Strasser's house! We had a great lesson with them on the importance of trials in our lives and how the strengthen us, and it was very well accepted! Also, I just feel so accepted in their home! After dinner we pretty much drove the rest of the evening up to Gainesville where we will stay the night and work our hearts out finding people here that need the Gospel!

Friday:

Wow today was a super amazing day for the both of us! We had the awesome chance to go up to Gainesville last night and really go out today and teach some people today! So this morning after some more really good studies and a new hour long study called 12 Week, for my trainee, we went and looked at the Oklahoma Boarder on our way to go and grab lunch from a members restaurant/ Donut Shop! The food was super good and after we went there we went straight to work trying to find our investigators from the week before! A few were not home and we didn't find a lot of new people, but we did go and find one of our new really interested investigators on his front porch with his father! They both listened to the great message and agreed with everything we taught, but when it came time to me asking them to be baptized they were back to not understanding anything we had just taught! So our next lesson we will teach Martin and his dad exactly what is the Apostasy and how that means that every church lost that priesthood power, and how baptism is essential to make it back to God! So after that lesson and not wanting to leave them, we went just down the street and knocked a guy we had taught the week before to find the dad of the investigator at the door and a bit interested in the message we had! We taught him what a Book of Mormon was and invited him to read it, and we plan on going back to meeting him again as well! I hope and pray we have success in this area! So we decided to go home early, because I am starting to get chest congestion bad and am coughing and my voice is going away! It is super hard, because we know there are more people up there to find! However, next week will work well too! 

 

Saturday:

So today I slept through the first alarm and woke up to no voice! I woke up to a super congested chest and not even my long hot shower or my hot chocolate got any mucus out of my chest! However, we had a great District Leadership Council meeting that was super helpful and very spiritual that was super worth going to! I was asked to say the prayer there, and I am pretty sure everyone thought I was speaking in the gift of tongues, because that is how bad my voice is! We learned a lot about how to help our goals go from low to super high and kind of see a reason the numbers are so low! Something I realized in that meeting is how much the simple things really do matter! The next District meeting I would like to focus on the Basics of the Gospel and the Basics of being a Missionary! Hopefully that can help our baptismal goal jump even higher and also help our members to be even more converted to the gospel! So after our meeting we canceled everything because of the way I feel and we are both just studying all day and resting! I tried to talk as much as I could in the meeting, but it took all my energy to be able to do even that! So I am trying to rest so that I can try to make it to all the meetings tomorrow before church and even make it through church in all Spanish being able to speak a little! So today was a little bit of a slow day and a bit of a less information day, but it was a good day! Wow this evening we were surprised as we had a member, Hno. Arteaga, call us and tell us he was bringing us a good dinner to make me feel better, and as he dropped it off he told me to get feeling better and my eyes were so wide! He brought so much it was like a feast! Then about 5 minutes after we got in the house, the relief society president, Hna. Saldaña, called me and said she was on her way with a few remedies in mind and she wanted to know if we needed or wanted something to eat! Then she showed up as we finished eating, with a grocery bag that had a thing of salt for gargling, cough drops, lemons, ginger and even a new bottle of Robitussin to help with my congestion! It made me want to cry with how many came to help me because they new I didn't feel good! I never want to leave this sweet ward! There are so many members that really do care about me, and I really care about them!

 

Saturday:

Wow today was such a crazy awesome day for us! So today we had the opportunity to go to our meeting a little early to discuss some problems with our ward mission leader, and we seemed to find a mutual agreement! However, as we started our meeting it seemed like we had never talked about that problem and our ward mission leader just went full fledged forward, but as the day went on and as I asked for advice from the Zone Leaders, I believe I was able to understand something. The problem was not one that he had, but we had as missionaries! So now that we can see that it was us I thing I can help my district to fix it and become better! Also today we noticed the bishop was gone and come to find out his wife was in the Hospital! So after church we decided to go by and visit her and see how she was doing! While there she told us her strong testimony on how she has always had struggles and how she was questioning god this past week as the doctors told her not more food and she would be that way for the rest of her life! As she was going through that struggle her sister sent her the song, Count Your Many Blessings. As she sat there crying she said, " I have so many things to thank God for! I have an eye I can still see out of, an ear I can still hear out of, I can be understood when I talk, and I have full function on my hands and legs! I have so much to be thankful for!" Her words hit me like a brick! She has gone through so much, and all of that she believes will make her stronger in the end, and I know it will! When you feel like you can do no more on your own, kneel and ask for the Lords Help! Maybe you feel you were doing it with the Lords help Already, but I can promise you that he always has more to give! He gives us life, he gives back life, he gives hope, love and challenges to grow! I know that through my challenges as a missionary I can become who I need to be!

There is a lot for this week, but I know that you should enjoy it!! 

I love and pray for you all!! Have a great week!

Con Amor,

Elder Spendlove

 

 

Loving the New Area!!

Dear Family and Friends! 

It has been such a great week! I hope that it has been a great week for y'all as well! So here was how my week went!

Week February 22-28 2015

Monday:

I feel like sometimes my Monday's can be very as they say, Mondaying, meaning that I say the same things over and over again every week and I need to repent of doing that and share the more amazing experiences that happen! So today was the first p-day in the last 3 months that I had real and good studies before P- Day started, and it made a huge difference in the whole day, and I definitely learned from my companion as we prepared to teach the family home evening tonight on Prayer and Scripture Study! So as we began P-Day we went and picked up Elder Escobar and Lakey and went to do some emailing so we could focusing on shopping and letting out some energy, and it was a huge success! As we went shopping, Elder Wardle and I were able to get everything that we really were in need of and even a little more, in a great budget price! We had a great time shopping and working together and were able to get to the church in time to have our zone activity!

So our zone activity we played a full gym game of Sorry that the sisters made, and it was so much fun!! After playing sorry we played some good games of basketball and strike out or speed that was really fun! And then we ended the night by an amazing family home evening where Elder Wardle and I taught a great lesson on Prayer and Scripture Study and how it can change their lives, and the kids loved it! For the snack afterwards the adults brought Tamales that were to die for and gave us the leftovers! What a great day it was, and I loved being able, to spend it with Elder Wardle and the Zone and district!

Tuesday:

I used to say only some days flew past fast, but now I am thinking I was all wrong! Everyday out here in the mission is just flying by faster than I really want it too! So this morning I was thinking a lot about my parents as I remembered it was there Anniversary and I am so grateful to have them as my parents! They have been together for 31 years now and I am just amazed at how loving they are to each other! Something that hit me as I asked my mom how she felt about being together for so long and just about working through even the hardest times together, and she told me, "when life is hard, that is the best time to work together, because then you build that love even stronger between one another." She also told me, "I still get that butterfly feeling in my stomach when I see your dad pull up out front from work and I feel so happy to be with him forever." My parents are a great example of how I would like my marriage to be one day and I am so grateful for them! So today we had the privilege of having Zone Conference with our Mission President and his wife, President And Sister Ames, all day. As I sat there I learned so many things to bless my life that I pretty much ran out of ink in my pen! A lot of questions I had been praying about were answered in the craziest ways of the scriptures mixed with other thoughts that came to my mind, and I am just so grateful for the Holy Ghost who can testify of the things that I can change! I would say that the focus of our Conference Today was Improving Teaching Skills and Helping others Keep Commitments, and here are a few things I learned!

"When you have Agency, you have a great Responsibility."

"Realize that asking Questions is used for Gauging your investigator, not to probe their life!"

"The Restoration only began with Joseph Smith, but really entails all of the teaching of Jesus Christ!"

These were just some of he many experiences that I had in this meeting and many things were simple feelings I felt that I need to change, and I expect fully to change them and see how I can be better! Today was a wonderful day and I can't wait to make the rest of the week just as good! 

Wednesday:

Wow today was a day that was very draining, but so worth it! So today we had the opportunity to go and give service at our daily bread again, and our job today was to clean out the Walk-in Fridge and Freezer that they have, and I can say I now feel sick from being in the cold weather for such a long period of time, but man do those ice boxes look clean! To go in an clean, the chef Liz, gave us some of her jackets to stay warm, but sadly they were not the warmest, but sure made us look funny! After our fun service project we headed home to change so that we could go and study while we got our Oil Changed in the Sears auto center! Usually we are supposed to change oil and rotate times on a Monday, but we are planning a trip to Gainesville on Friday night and Saturday morning and needed to have the car ready for that trip, so we made it happened, and then we did our language study and 12 Week Study during our wait in the food cafeteria. So today our car got finished just in time for us to go over to the church to eat with a sweet older sister in our ward at the family history center and it was such a good time getting to talk about family history and even teach her a lesson and studying the scriptures with her neighbors in mind, and also testifying in every moment that she gets. She is always open to do the will of the lord, and that is what makes Hna. Evans so powerful! So after dinner we went over to a trailer park on Stuart Road that we now cover and we knocked a few potentials and had quite the mixed of emotions! As we knocked the first door we didn't find the person we were looking for, but as we talked we shared a quick 5 minute message about our Heavenly Father, and Saul was open to learn. We set a return appointment with him and even gave him a Book of Mormon! As the door closed and we walked away, both of us were so happy that we just walked all the way back to the car hugging each other like we were best friends! I just love the Energy that Elder Wardle has for the Work! This work is not easy, but every time a new missionary comes in they have energy, because they have faith, not because they don't know it is hard! All we need is more faith! I testify that members are the way to have success this work! When Gordon B. Hinkley said, "Every member a missionary", he meant it and I know that God blesses us as we follow the prophets guidance and commandments as they are now! 

What a great day!

Thursday:

Wow today was quite the day for us! So today we started out by having some really good studies with each other and then heading over to the house of Hna. Chavez where we helped her for about 6 hours to move her house to an apartment across town. The moving was very tiring and was not the easiest thing to do, but it was a great opportunity to get to know Hna. Chavez better and to gain her trust in us as missionaries! To start out we only planned on being there for about 3 hours, but when we got there we pretty much had to pack and then stick the stuff we packed into the moving van, so it was quite the project! As we finished the project she made us street tacos and they were to die for!! As we got home we were a little late for an exchange that we set up, and we had to go and change super fast so that we could run to the front of our apartment complex to meet up with our amazing member, Hno. Tryon! We had plans to both teach Hno. Cajilema and Daniel Rodriguez, but both of them had plans come up last second making us go from a lot of things to completely nothing! So we decided to go and contact some different potentials that we had in a trailer park close by, and we were able mostly set return appointments for these people, and then we decided to go home a little early to be able to call some people to go to Gainesville this weekend! So we had out comp planning super fast and got straight to work at calling people, however, after calling around 40 people all we received was either rejection or bad phone numbers, and it was super hard for me. I keep thinking I am doing something wrong to not have people want to have lessons or have people who don't want us to ever call back. I feel so sad that they feel that they are okay in their sins, but I know that there agency is what is necessary to teach them! So for me, yes today was a very hard day and a bit of a struggling day for me towards the end, but everything that happened I know is for my profit and learning, and I am so glad I am a missionary of he true Church of Jesus Christ on the Earth today!

 

Friday:

Wow today was quite the day for us today!! We started out and had such a great time with our weekly planning and for the first time in a long time I really enjoyed my weekly planning! We took the full 3 hours and had such a spiritual time planning and asking all the right questions! So after our great time planning we headed over to the house of Hna. Baltazar in Pilot Point which is in the Dallas Mission and we taught one of her really good friends who wants to be baptized and had such a great lesson! As we finished the lesson we figured out he wants us to come back next week, so we are planning to go back to teach him! So we left Pilot Point and headed for Gainesville around an hour away, and it was such a beautiful ride through just reaches and fields of grass and trees! We plan on driving back and just videoing as much as we can. It was such a great time with Elder Wardle, and it was a lot better having him because we are so similar to each other!! So we arrived in Gainesville at about 6 and tried contacting some members with no luck, so we just began to plan for tomorrow! So this evening while we were planning I called over 40 people again with no success on having lessons, so tomorrow we will be going and contacting a lot of people to see if there is potential here in Gainesville! What a crazy day, and I hope that we can find some good people to teach tomorrow!! I know God will bless us!!

Saturday:

Today was such an eventful and successful day for us! So today we had the great opportunity to wake up and after some studies, go to the Gainesville Zoo, where we actually worked on the habitats of different animals and were able to really make a huge difference for the animals and save some time so the workers wouldn't have to do it later! Our main job today was working outside of the Sockey Monkey, Israel's cage, where there was some major flooding from all the rain. So to make it drain we made a French drain and ran it all the way around the exhibit to a storm drain in the ver back, and it was quite the project for the 4 of us! As we worked the monkey seemed to watch us so carefully like he was trying to learn, and we got to go in the back of this zoo and see all the animals from the side of a zoo keeper! We saw Giraffes, flexing Kangaroos, Pink Flamingos, Monkeys, Snakes, Birds, a Jeffries Cat and Leopards! It was pretty amazing and fun to get to be around the workers! As we finished our service the main worker told us that we had free admission anytime for all the hours we always put in, and she gave us awesome old fashion Zoo Hats! After our service we went and ate at the famous Texas fast food joint called, Brams. The Food there is pretty good, but nothing like a good old burger from Triple TJ's or a good sandwich from Dairy Queen! So as we got contacting we said a prayer and set down to knock some doors in some Spanish neighborhoods, we were not expecting what hit us tho! The first few houses were duds, but as we knocked the next houses they all answered and wanted to hear a message! We taught them and set return appointments and had such a great time! So we were getting closer to the end of our contacting and had about 10 minutes before we had to leave, so we decided to go and knock on 2 more houses to see if we could get something. As we knocked on e first house the people we not interested, and the second house we almost didn't contact. As we were getting ready to walk by it I said out loud, "everyone needs the gospel, what if they listen?" So we decided that we are going to go to this kind of creepy house and knock it. As we did, a Hispanic man opened the door with a huge grin on his face and welcomed us warmly. We did our whole "we are missionaries" spill and he immediately asked us some questions about our beliefs. We should him a video called Earthly Father, Heavenly Father, and then we asked him how he felt, and this part is what blew me away! He said, "It shows how God loves us. You know, I was praying this past week and a lot today, asking God if he really did love me or even hear me, and then I told him, "if you hear me let me know somehow and I will try to follow it," and you two just knocked my door asking if I needed Christ more in my life. I know this is my answer!" We testified to him that God did love him and have a plan for him, and we were able to set a return appointment and we are both just so happy for it! Going to Gainesville was a huge success, and I can't wait to go back!! Also the drive home with Elder Warlde was a super enjoyable time! We will be friends way past the mission from these amazing experiences!

Sunday:

Oh how I love my Sunday's! Today was such a good Sunday where we were able to learn from the Denton Stake Presidency and Stake Leaders! So for our ward council it was done a little differently where we had the help from the Stake Presidency to teach us how to better plan our meetings and our weeks so that we could really help other people instead of just talking about topics and never getting anything done! Also something that made the meetings weird for me was speaking English in all of our meetings and having translation into Spanish! I am starting to feel that my head begins to hurt when I hear to much of the gospel in English! However, the message I received today that hit me the most was something we as missionaries read every week in our weekly planning, but it hit me super hard today as I read these words and then pondered them! 

          "Elder D. Todd Christofferson has taught that, “the purpose of councils is to ask all the right questions and receive revelations and align our actions to it.” The perfect planning model is described in the creation of the earth. God created all things spiritually and then he created them temporally. Our planning should model this pattern. Before we set realistic goals that God will bless and sanction, we need to study it out in our minds and then ask God if it is right: “Behold, you have not understood; you have supposed that I would give it unto you, when you took no thought save it was to ask me. But, behold, I say unto you, that you must study it out in your mind; then you must ask me if it be right, and if it is right I will cause that your bosom shall burn within you; therefore, you shall feel that it is right. But if it be not right you shall have no such feelings, but you shall have a stupor of thought that shall  cause you to forget the thing which is wrong; therefore, you cannot write that which is sacred save it be given you from me.” (Doctrine and Covenants 9:7-9) "

I know that planning is so important and that is why we plan everything we do so that God can bless us! So this evening we had the chance to go on an exchange with Hno. Arias who went on a mission in The DF Mexico and is from Mexico! He married the woman he met from BYUI and loves the gospel! So we went by some houses of people we have contacted earlier on in the week, but the first 2 no one answered, but the last one we knocked was a huge success! We knocked the door of Filemon Sanbrono and his wife answered and seemed super sweet. However, something shocked me! Hno. Arias started the contact and next thing we knew we were in the house talking with their whole family! They have 5 kids and the oldest is 15 and the youngest is 2. They love there family and the wife during the lesson began to cry because her love of her family and her desire to have her husband go to church. The words she said were very powerful! She said, "I will go to any church my husband will go to, as long as he goes. I know that God is in every church, but so,e churches are better than others! Our member testified powerfully and helped us set a return appointment where he will bring his family to meet the Sanbrono family and we will have another lesson on Wednesday! Wow what a wonderful day where I know the God was helping us!

Well I hope that you enjoyed how my week went and know that I love y'all so much!!!! Thanks for all your support in everything that is going on!! 

I pray for y'all daily and am so grateful for this time I can just focus on the Lord and nothing else!!

Con Amor,

Elder Spendlove

 

 

 

A Trainee, A District and a Car later!

Dear Family and Friends,

What an amazing and experience filled week I have had! I hope that you all had a wonderful week and that you find joy in the week to Come!

My new Address is 

3232 N Locust #1114 Denton, Tx 76207

So here is how my week went!!!

Week February 15-21 2016

Monday:

Wow today was such a crazy and fast day! So today we had the amazing opportunity to have a really fun p day with the whole Zone for the last time, and it was hard to say the good byes to some of the amazing missionaries going home or even just leaving! 

So today I went with Elder Corrington and Elder Bowls to shop and do emails while Elder 'Otuafi and Elder Sikaleti and Elder Taylor made food for the Zone party! So the whole morning we spent together and had a blast! We even went and gave a sick man a blessing in he ICU, and it was such an amazing opportunity to be able to use the priesthood power to help someone else! Also today we had the chance to play volleyball and basketball and it was just really nice to be able to work out and get stress out that I really built up this week! As the week slowly pushes by again the stress and nervousness builds knowing what will be happening this Wednesday!

So after our really fun P day we had a blast at Family Home Evening and had even more people than Expected come out and join us for a great lesson on enduring to the end and also a great home made meal! So our new tradition is to have everyone bring a small dish of food and after the lesson we go and eat and just visit, and we actually have got a few new investigators out of it! So tonight as I was leaving Elder Parkin, the District Leader came to me and gave me the church keys and the District Leader Binder that made me get even more nervous and excited to start with my district and make it the best!!! A huge adventure is right around the corner!

Tuesday:

Wow what a tiring day we both had today!! So our plans started out that we were going to spend the morning at our daily bread and then cleaning our apartment, after which we would go and teach 2 lessons, but by the time we got our apartment spotless it was already 9 o'clock!! So today we had a great time at the Soup Kitchen making food and cleaning dishes for the last time together. We are sad to leave each other, but also excited to see what other treasures are in store for us! So when we got home we planned to spend some time cleaning and then we were going to go and teach Emanuel Guillen, but as we got cleaning we realized we would not finish cleaning out our apartment until later in the evening! It was crazy moving everything out and just realizing that we have nothing in our cupboards or anything. We are enjoying spending the night sleeping on the ground and having everything packed because tomorrow we are being picked up for transfers at 6:50! Only crazier times are about to hit and I am so excited! We it wasn't to long tonight, but hopefully they will get better as my energy comes back to me!! Also we partied all night on the Floor, because our apartment was being taken apart the next day and had to be ready!

Wednesday:

Well today was just a great day! So today we got going super early and were in the Hurst Stake Center by 8:15! Saying goodbye to elder O was super hard, because he had taught me so much in the time together and we hugged for a close 3 minutes just saying thanks for the times spent together. However, As we had breakfast I could already tell who my new companion would be because he was the only Spanish Speaking missionary coming out! So as the meeting started we were introduced as companions and I was so excited to have him as my new companion for 2 transfers!! So his name is Elder Wardle and he is a great missionary already! He is from North Ogden and is way into anything outdoors and just super awesome! I thought it was going to be hard to connect with my trainee until I meet him and we have so much in common! So after the meeting we went outside and we had our new Chevi Cruise waiting outside for us to drive home! I was awesome to try and fit Elder Wardle's new bike in the back of the car and all of his luggage as well in our huge trunk!! As we got going it felt so good to be able to drive again! As we got to the apartment we unpacked our bags and boxes from the other apartment and then we were able to get busy and go contact some investigators and set some appointments after we had a great dinner at Hna. Strassers house and taught a wonderful lesson on how the Book of Mormon blesses our lives. I am already loving Elder Wardle so much and just love how much he is willing to listen and learn! He is not way good with Spanish yet, but it willing to learn, so I know he will learn super fast!! So tonight I was able to call all my district and welcome to the best District Ever and tell them I love them! My goals are big for this district this transfer and for just my companionship, and I know it is possible as we work together as a ward family! I am so excited for this opportunity to serve the Lord!!

Thursday:

So today was a very tiring and stressful day for the both of us, but as we got closer to the end of the day it seemed to just get better! So today we started out by having studies until 12 because he is a new missionary and learning how to become better. So after our amazing studies we headed over to the library where we had 3 more hours of Weekly Planning where we finished and we're just burned out. Between all of the weekly planning I was receiving texts and calls from the sisters and elders in my district about our area books and things that were happening and it just added to my stress, but it was a good thing! So I had the chance to call and visit with the APS and hopefully have a solution to the problem and it was good to finish! Also we had the chance to go with Elder Escobar and his new comp, my MTC companion, Elder Lakey, to eat at Roosters! It is awesome to have him in my district!! After dinner we had the opportunity to teach Emanuel Guillen and also take a member to teach a less active man. At the end of this lesson the man thanked us for bringing him along us. He had really missed having him in his life and never had the chance to thank him for what he had done for him. It is such a blessing to have loving members who want what you want! What an a,axing work we have. And best of all, my companion even new is trying his hardest to share the gospel with all his might!!!

Friday:

Wow it is just so crazy how fast times gets going even though I am training! I thought time would slow down just a tad, but I was wrong! So today we had the opportunity to go and serve at the Our Daily Bread and I was fun to watch Elder Wardle at his first mission service project as he was interacting and just seeing how much fun it is to give service to all of the people here in Denton. Elder Wardle is really good at creating conversations with people and is working up to be such an amazing missionary, and I thing he really already is one! So we met a lady today who was from South Africa, knew 3 different languages and just loves to serve people. She was such a funny lady always joking with us because we were slow, and she brought up a huge point to me! She said, "I am glad God gives us the chance to make friends so far away from home so we feel at home." She looked at us as her true friends in just a few minutes and that made me look at my whole mission. These people are my friends and I am glad I feel so at home here in Denton!! So after our service we took a halt by having a power nap, and it was a really good thing we did, because Elder Wardle was so tired he slept the whole 1 hour! However after that we had some really good studies with Role plays and had dinner fast so that we could get through some iPad training before our lesson. A rule in our mission is we have to do so much training on the iPad before the trainers can give the trainees their iPads, and he was able to finish it! We had a wonderful lesson tonight with Alicia Castor Moratalla with her non me,ver husband, and it was so good! I started the lesson and the I tried to work Elder Wardle in when he felt comfortable. As I listened to his struggle and just his nervous expression with jumbled Spanish it made me look back and see where I started and how much God has blessed me! Now my desire and hope is to change his life by helping learn Spanish super fast!! I know he can do it, because he has a desire to learn and work hard! After our lesson we were able to finish his training so that he could receive his iPad and start using it, and it was a good feeling accomplishing it a little at a time!!! What a great day! I love my companion!

Saturday: 

Wow today was such a fun day for us!! So today I felt like we definitely bonded really well together! So today we were able to go to the community garden and do a little bit of service where my companion found a snake and had to take some pictures with it! Also we got the chance to just have a good time talking about the things we love and why we chose to serve missions! So as we finished we headed to the house of Elder Escobar and Lakey who made us lunch today and it was really good! After lunch we headed to the house and finished up some good companionship studies along with language studies where I feel not only Elder Wardle grew, but I grew as a missionary as well!! I was able to teach him secrets to Spanish and he was able to teach me his love the of the Gospel! I loved seeing how much energy he had even when he was nervous! So after our good studies we headed out to a dinner appointment with a member Caine Espinosa who has been inactive and is returning to activity! As we ate at his house I feel like our relationship grew and I actually found out he served his mission where the CCM is in Mexico! He loved it so much and loved sharing his experiences! As we taught him a lesson about baptism and how it is for everyone he decided to share his goal with us. He said, "my goal is to go back to Mexico and to baptize my wife and daughters. I can see myself in the font with them and at the temple and it makes me want to leave right now!" It made me so happy to hear him say that. He understands the importance and wants the best for them! As we taught I loved hearing Elder Wardle jump in and say what he felt was important, because he was right! The things he said helped Hno. Espinosa and it was fun to see him try his hardest to speak correctly! I know that in just a few weeks he will see a difference in his Spanish, and I can't wait for him to see his progress!! So after that dinner we headed straight to work making appointments with people and seeing when we could come back, but no one seemed to be home, and now that we have a giant area we realized that we spent a lot of time in the car, and that is when I felt we really bonded by visiting and just joking around with every one another! I can already say I don't want to say good bye to him any time soon!

Sunday:

Wow today was quite the energy draining day for me! So today we had our mission coordination meeting and ward council meeting in the morning, and I was really cool to see how my position opened up more ideas to help our district in these meetings, for instance, the presidencies wanted to know what I though about a lot more things, but I was also a little bit more nervous that I would say what I thought was good and not what was needed, so I was slow to speak and fast to think on what I should say! However, Elder Wardle was a champ in church for his first day, and he is able to understand a lot more Spanish than I was expecting and that was a really nice thing! However, now it is time to help him to be able to speak it! I feel he will pick it up really fast and be fine, it is just taking the time to struggle through it and not give up! So as church finished we had the chance to go home and take a halt by having a power nap because I was demolished after church and so was Elder Wardle from translating Spanish to English in his head! After we woke up we had a partial study time and then headed straight to work contacting some different houses for the first time in a referred area. As we contacted we only found one Hispanic lady out of like 15 houses, so we don't know why the street was referred to us, but we had a great time truly contacting for Elder Wardle's first time! Come to find out he is just like I was. He hates contacting and can't wait to use members to get people to teach! As I am sitting writing I am in the middle of collecting numbers from my district and calling the Zonle Leaders and I just feel like it is crazy how fast time flies and as I think about where I was to where I am at it blows my mind! God is changing me and I love it and I know that as I keep moving forward he will only help me in my life and my companions as well! I am so glad I have the opportunity to learn from Elder Wardle! He is a great missionary! 

Thank you for all your love and support for me!! I am sorry to those of you I haven't been able to write back to or email back! I promise I do love what you send and I have all intentions of writing back, I just never find the time to write back, so please be patient with me! 

I love and pray for you all daily!! Have a great week!!

Con Amor,

Elder Spendlove