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
No comments:
Post a Comment