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
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