Dear Family and Friends,
I hope that y'all have had a wonderful week! I can't tell you that I truly have!
As I sit here and email this morning, it is beginning to rain and thunder like crazy and we are really just enjoying it so much! The rain is coming down so hard and it is just a lovely feeling of Spring. Also if you think it rains hard in Utah, just come and check out the rain here!! The storm drains are big enough you can jump down in them and run around!
So this week we have had a wonderful week and just in our district have set 3 baptismal dates! Kevin Garcia on the 30 of April, and Julio and Carina Gomez for the 21 of May!! We now just need to help them get completely ready for that date!
Here is how my week went!
Week April 4-10 2016
Monday:
Wow today was a very tiring day for the both of us! So today we had the wonderful opportunity to finally get our haircuts again! It seems like every week we have to get them, and our hair just never stops or slows from growing! So after our haircuts and shopping we went to the park and played ultimate frisbee with our whole zone, and it was a huge success and a blast! I am very burnt on my face, but am just loving the perfect temperature at about 80 degrees and sunny! So after a bit of playing we headed back to the church and began our Family Home Evening and had a wonderful time! We made Get Well Cards for Hna. Meza, the bishops wife, who was in the hospital, and we are going to take them by her house with a picture we took of all of us gathered making cards! It was a wonderful scene seeing all of the kids and even members getting involved in helping brighten her trial with the best thing, Love. The kids put their hearts into the cards and letters and I am sure she will just love them so much. So as we got home this evening, a newer investigator called us and asked if we could help her. She was saying that her son is super lost and is just not wanting to listen to anything that she has to say and she feels that we could help. We were glad to hear she was asking for our advice. I sat with her on the phone for about 15 minutes and just told her my testimony of the Book of Mormon and how it can help any situation, and invited her to read it. Also I challenged her to pray tonight for the help of the Lord and we would be doing the same to go and visit them tomorrow at 6. She was so grateful for the idea and the love we showed as she seemed so sad and hopeless on the other side of the Phone. I know God will help her if she has that real intent!
Tuesday:
Wow today was a crazy tiring day for the both of us! So today after we finished all of our studying for our lessons, we got texts from two of our investigators saying that they would have to change their lessons to another day or until next week and so we were a little frustrated that had studied all morning for canceled appointments, but we learned a lot and won't have to plan their lessons again!
So to start off the afternoon we went by the sweet Hna. Meza's house to visit her and to see how she was feeling after being in the hospital with pneumonia, and she is just as energized as can be and is so ready to just be done with the sicknesses she has. However, her cancer has gotten her to the point that she really has no say of getting much healthier. So she is just so positive and focused on others when she is the one that is so sick! So before we left she made sure we got our picture with our companions and then she had to make sure she sent them to our moms right away!!
So today we went and had a little service finding and it was super fun! After the which we went and had a wonderful lesson with a sweet lady, named Marta, that is mostly focused on learning about English and being able to speak clearly in English, but our whole English lesson is based out of the Book of Mormon and our pamphlets, and she loves it a lot!! Also we met her husband for the first time and he is super nice as well! But both of them are just super shy and hard to get talking! So after their lesson we went just down the street the the trailer of Janet Ibarra where we were able to meet with her and her son and teach them about the importance of families and parents and how much they truly can teach us if we let them. Janet asked multiple times how she can let God take over of her family and life and we were able to testify that Baptism and the simple things are the ways to do it! She was super interested and we hope to invite her for a specific date to come to church and to accept to be baptized. Also we thought of a wonderful member who could really help her so much if she was teaching her with us!
I just love my mission and the lessons I learn as I teach and get asked questions I have never been asked before! I will be forever indebted to my Heavenly Father for this mission and the experiences I have had!
Wednesday:
What a weird feeling knowing that today Elder Wardle and I have been companions for 7 weeks, a full transfer, and only have 6 more weeks together before something happens with one of us! It makes me nervous, because I am not ready to leave at all!!
So today we had almost 5 hours of just finding time and we were very busy the whole time. As we started it was amazing how we just started to do simple things and things started to just fall into place so perfectly for us!! We started off by going to our Bishop's house while the whole family was away from the house and decided we would cut their grass and wash their windows for them, because bishops wife has been in the hospital with a few problems stemming from her cancer. So we were able to leave before any of them saw us, but somehow when we saw bishop at the church he thanked us, even though he never saw us! So after that, we went and welcomed some newer missionaries into their new house and gave them some Peanut butter Cookies and had a good visit with the both of them. As we were leaving they said they would be looking for investigators for us in their area, and we were very grateful for that! So we decided to go and check a few restaurants around Denton that are Hispanic ones, and we were able to put about 6 Books of Mormon out to replace the ones that we had put out that someone had taken, and we put out over 20 cards and pamphlets that we pray someone who is ready with find and call! So as we finished there we decided to go back to the church and do a half and hour planning for the next few days and it was a huge success. This evening we were able to meet and eat as a district with the new Hermana, Hna. Eyestone. She is super fun, outgoing, and not afraid of doing anything. She is going to be a wonderful asset and missionary not only in our ward, but in our mission in general! So we meet with the Relief Society tonight in their presidency meeting as a new push we have work on with our bishop.
Our bishop has called us as the 3rd counsellors of the presidencies to just be able to be in the meetings and give our advice and even talk about our investigators and how they may need help or even how we can help the presidency with the sisters or the people covered by the group, and was a huge success as well. The Relief Society presidency is going to go and visit with our investigator one day coming up, and we both have been praying that we would be able to find a sister who could help Janet, and we think we found the ones! So coolest thing happened tonight. We rearranged to have one of the young men pick up the son of Janet, to come to the Young men's activity, and he came and had a wonderful time, telling us he can't wait to come next week! So we are going to keep inviting him and making sure he has a ride every week along with getting him and his family to church! We went out, before heading home, to check on him with all the young men, and they were all racing each other, so of course I had to show them I could beat them all, and I did! It was super fun to get to know all the young men better by hanging out for a few minutes before heading home! Also we were able to take the bikes of the Hermanas to their house for them, because their car is in the shop for a week and they biked 5 miles to the church and we're going to get a ride home. So I told them they better let us know if they ever need anything and we can try to help them, but they try to do everything without making us get stressed. They are to sweet!
Today was just a wonderful day!
Thursday:
I have started to notice that my Journals are getting long and I don't want to bore anyone who reads this, but for me, the things I write are the things I feel were blessings or things that happened in the day that were a miracle in the end! I will try not to just write how everyday went from hour to hour, but more about what I learned from every experience! So today was a wonderful, but somewhat longer day! We were able to start off our day with a DLC meeting with all of the District Leaders and their companions to talk about our districts and about what president taught the Zone Leaders in their Mission Leadership Coordination meeting. Something that caught my attention the most in this whole meeting was the thoughts that follow. Moses 6:63 states that all things bear witness of Christ. And so we need to be looking at everything seeing how the things around us testify of Christ. Also a few Quotes, "Leadership is a choice, not a position." And lastly, "An excess of Pride puts a burden on you and others around you, so don't think you are better by lifting the couch higher."
I loved the meeting, however was ready to get out to work when I realized today was our weekly planning day! But I do have to say, I am one who gets super excited about weekly planning!! I love the feeling of calling and setting up appointments and just having the energy to do it! As we finished our weekly planning we had a full day of things to do, but focused on teaching the Cuevas family tonight about the importance of serving each other to have more love for one another. The lesson was based off a thing my mom taught me and my brothers and sisters when we began to fight. She got a wooden heart on a stick and told us if we found it on any of our things that were put away or cleaned then we needed to go and find a way of serving our family members without being seen. The family seemed to love the idea, but it was super hard to teach them, because the kids have no respect of their mom or of anyone else and had their phones out and would stop talking. However, we got in and little by little they will improve! As we were heading home for the night we decided to go and just check on Janet Ibarra, our investigator, and she was super happy to see us. We talked to her about her scripture study and encouraged her to make sure and read what we left her, and she couldn't stop talking about the experience her son came home and told her about as he went to young men's. We testified to her of the power of God and reminded her of our lesson this Saturday with her and her husband! It was worth it to go and check on her!
Friday:
Wow today was a wonderful day for me! So today we had the chance to go to our zone Council. And to be honest, I wasn't to excited for it because of certain missionaries who were just not real with everything and it really made it hard for me to open myself up and to put forth the energy of actually trying. However, today as we showed up to the Zone Council and began, the who meeting changed. Elder Bird and Elder Farr have changed the whole zone and especially me! They showed us that they truly love us and that they are here for us in whatever thing! Something I also realized is that I really missed just being my funny self. Sometimes I feel that I get so lost in being a robot missionary that I forget that God created me to be me! One of Hnas stated something that hit me so hard I just had to sit and think about how it would change my mission. She said, "Many people say forget yourself and go to work, however, I would like to rephrase that sentence, Be Yourself and Go to Work!" It is so true! Sometimes I catch myself in the mode of saying, Hi we are missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints...., When really I know better than that, and I am not that person. I should be happy to see them, make friends with them and share a simple truth with them! Also I was amazed with a few ideas that I received. They follow like this,
"It is not a matter of do's and don't's, but a matter of Love."
"Stay in the Circle, But get Out of the Square!"
So today after the wonderful meeting, we were taking the others elders back to their house on a less traveled road, and we watched one, of the many thousands of squirrels get ran over by a car. As I slowed down because of the car in front of me that hit the squirrel, Elder Wardle yelled, while jumping out of the moving vehicle, "Stop the Car!!" So as I stopped the car and he already being in front of me he ran, picked up the squirrel by his tail and through him in our trunk! He jumped in the car and said, "we have to skin this one! He is just there going to rot if not!" So we kept it there till the end of the day, in a box, so we could skin it at the end of the day!
So this evening we had 2 wonderful lessons. We taught Sifrid again, and he seems to be progressing, but ever so slowly! He is trying to get his work off to come to church and he is trying to understand and pray fully to be able to understand! The part he struggles with is baptisms for the dead. He feels we should not baptize them without them giving us permission to do so. And then as we were driving home my companion had the impression to go by an investigator who recently moved into the area from the other elders. It was a wonderful idea and we went with Kevin to play some soccer, and as we took a break we were able to teach him a small lesson and help him realize he needs to be baptized and it was just wonderful! It really was a wonderful day!
Saturday:
"Just like Faith without Works is Dead, Love without Expression is Dead." If you are feeling love and not expressing it, you are wasting your precious time. The truest statement was made today and it is that the mission time, or even life time is short, so don't ruin it! I would say that one way of ruining it is not expressing your feelings.
So today was a wonderful day where we felt earlier throughout the week that we needed to go over to the bishops house to help them clean up their yard, because of how sick the Hna. has been. So today we went over with the Hnas. Eyestone and Sperry and were able to clean their flowerbeds and just visit with the Hna who was in tears with how we wanted to help. We had lunch with her and after headed off our separate ways when the sisters called us and said that their bikes were not working right and they needed our help. (Their car is in the shop getting fixed) So we went and picked up their bikes and they went with a sister that they live with, back to their house, and it was just a funny moment! So we had the chance to go to find a few people, but no one seemed to be interested or home, except for an inactive member. As we knocked his door he opened it and let us in quickly. We became his and his wife's friends fast and taught them a wonderful lesson about the importance of the church and he said he is just lazy and needs motivation to go, so we are going to try and be more motivating for him. Crazy thing is that he was in the Bishopric and then got taken out and just stopped coming to church. However, he listened to all of the conference and loved it! After our wonderful lesson with them, we went to the house of the Torres Family, members in our ward, Who both served missions and can speak pretty much fluent in Spanish and English! We had a wonderful time with them and their two sons, and then had a wonderful lesson on the Gift of Tongues and they both were full of emotions! I know that they are going to find someone for us to teach because of how they felt tonight! We just need to follow up! It really was such a wonderful day! "It is not a challenge of learning a language, but a journey of loving the people!"
Sunday:
Today was a wonderful day! Both me and My companion woke up and were so confused at how it could already be 6:30, but that is kind of how the mission goes, and we both just laughed about it! So today we had a wonderful meeting as a district in our Coordination Meeting with Hno. Hildreth, our Ward Mission Leader. We were able to get a lot of things across, and I really feel like Hno. Hildreth is on board with every idea that we have now! So we had a wonderful testimony meeting today where we had Hna. Meza, the bishops wife, stand up and bare her testimony the best she could about counting every blessing and how she knows and feels like the trials God has given her were blessings in the long run, and it just showed me how I can become better and be more grateful for what I do have and just the service that I give! However, after her testimony she had to be taken out by bishop to help her get feeling better and when bishop came back in he was crying through the rest of the closing song. He is going through so much, but still always focused on those people around him! So after a wonderful day at church, we went to a planned lesson a ways away in a city called Krum, and our investigator would not open his door. We were a little frustrated the whole night and were not able to find anyone who was interested, so we came home and called a lot of people for lessons throughout the week, and we are so excited for a literally packed week! As we drove through Krum, it was so much fun to see the fun houses all surrounded by farm land and animals and to drive through the old downtown that was similar to the Denton Square, but just less fancy! Really even though we had no lesson, we did have a wonderful day!! I love this Gospel, because perfectly trying is good enough! And we are always worthy to become better. Never Give Up, because God Never Gave Up on You! (Romans 5:8)
Thank you for your love and support!! It means the world to me! I pray for you all everyday, and I hope that y'all have a wonderful week!! Never forget, Every member a Missionary!
I love you all!!
Con Amor,
Elder Spendlove
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