Dear Family and Friends!
I have to say that this week has been an amazing one! I feel I say it every week, but why complain when blessings are falling all around! All you have to do is open your spiritual eyes, sometimes just your physical ones!
To start off for this week, I want to wish my Brother, Skyler, Happy Birthday!! (Wow, you are getting old!!! 28! That means your hair is definitely receding fastly!:))
Also Happy Birthday to one of my little princesses, Carolee!! Already 2! Wow! Also Aunt Jackie and Trasen!!
I hope all of you have a wonderful week and know that I love you!!
So this is how my week went!
Week April 11-17 2016
Monday:
Wow it is crazy to think about how fast not only the days go out here, but the weeks as well! I am slowly starting to realize that I am not a young missionary that I used to be, still young, but finally getting older and not sure what I think about that!
So today was a wonderful and tiring day for both Elder Wardle and I! We of course had a wonderful time going shopping and then had the wonderful opportunity to go to the church and finish most of our emails when a lot more missionaries showed up to play Soccer and Basketball! We had a wonderful time and even the Zone Leaders showed up! So as we were finishing our p day, we started to hear something hitting the roof super hard in the gym, so we went to the Kitchen door to see it hailing super hard and raining mixed with it! The hail was the size of a golf ball more or less, and it was crazy. Then as we sat there a little longer the Tornado Sirens went off and we realized that we probably needed to close the door and stay inside! So we stayed for a little bit longer and it took us a while to get going home, because the rain was coming down so hard that it was literally a wall of water and you could not even see our cars just outside the doors! So after 15 minutes we went back to see if we could leave and it was sunny again and just super wet! The Texas weather is so drastic and very bipolar! Kind of reminds me of Hurricane at times! So this evening we had the chance to go and get to know the Islas family more and have dinner with them! They are super sweet, and you could feel that they were good people in their wonderful home! They are spiritual Giants and are also missionaries to the max! We had a wonderful time with them, and i feel I am slowly getting my "Me" back, if that makes sense. What a such needed day we had!!
Wow today was a crazy day, but worth every second! So to start off the day we had the wonderful opportunity to go and give service to Hno and Hna Parry. We were able to clean out their front flower garden and it was super relaxing for me, and then we went and had a wonderful lunch with them! As we finished there, we went and started an exchange with Elder Lakey and Elder Escobar. Elder Escobar is with me today and tomorrow and Elder Wardle is with Elder Lakey are in their area! So today Elder Escobar had the chance to go and contact quite a lot of people and with all the houses we knocked, we found one family, and so it was well worth our time! I have to write this sad, but funny experience that happened to us as well. So while knocking these doors, we saw this Hispanic couple talking and sitting with some yard tools, so we started walking towards them and they saw us. As we walked towards them they began to make a move! The wife ran in the house and closed the garage door as fast as she could, and her husband grabbed the wheel barrow and pushed super fast to his back yard and then slammed the back gate before we could even get close. It was super sad to see them so scared, and also super funny because they really didn't want to talk to us, and my response was, "they probably thought we were Jehovahs Witnesses, we better leave them a card!" So we left them a card and went on our way! Also while walking back to our apartment, we had a guy stop us and ask a lot of questions and so we taught him a wonderful short lesson and get his address, so we can refer him to other missionaries soon! This evening we went by our investigator, Janet Ibarra, and we had a super powerful lesson with her! So when we taught her, she just seemed to open up so much and finally tell us that she needs to start with her. So our next lesson we are going to help her understand that they way to start with herself is through baptism and it will be so wonderful! I am having such a wonderful time on my exchange!
Wednesday:
Wow what a fast and wonderful day we both had today! Something I for sure learned today is that we all have our own talents and gifts and that is what truly makes us unique from one another, but if we get down to the basics, we are all children of God, and that means everything! If we want to be better, our father is here to help us! So today we had an awesome district meeting focused on staying and being consecrated missionaries and how that can help us find more people, and then I gave a training and a role play on how we can be ourselves in our contacts! It was very good to get everyone's ideas and input on the many things we could do to be unique, and then to put them to the test with our role plays. After District Meeting we exchanged back and elder Wardle and I went to our ward mission leader, Hno. Hildreth's house to grab a few stacks of cards that he had for us. As we pulled up to his yard for the first time, we were both in shock by what we saw. He lives on 50 acres of green grass, Forrest, river, and ponds and he has the rights to hunt right from his back porch, and to make everything even more in awe, his house was a giant! We had to call in to have the gate open and he had everything you could imagine, even a man cave with a view of all of his hunting grounds! He loved giving us a tour and he is just a wonderful man. One day I hope to be able to just afford a nice house, but his house would be a dream for sure, more for the property! We left after about a good 40 minute visit about our ward, and went to dinner with a sweet lady named Hna. Chavez. She works translating for people and loves her job and is a spiritual giant as well. She loves the missionaries and we had a wonderful time at Rosas cafe for our dinner. As we went to our main lesson with the Monzon family, we arrived to Hno. Monzon all dressed up in his church close thing he was going with us on and exchange. So we told him we could only teach his family and we would have to go on an exchange next week, it was good to see his enthusiasm and energy to want to go out with us! So we taught their family about charity and the importance of being humble, and they all had many things they could do to change, so we set some goals with them and set some of our own, and it was wonderful! So we were heading to Sanger to go on exchange when we arrived at the house of the member who when arriving told us that he was having to go and get another members car fixed that just broke down. So we tried a few doors before we had to head home for the night! Today was a wonderful and needed day for sure! Also it drizzled rain all day which made it super perfect!
The busier the day, the faster the day! So today we had just that happen to us! So to start the day off we biked to the church to try and make some copies that come to find out we saved wrong, so we had to bike all the way back with no success and begin our weekly planning, but it was very nice to go for a nice bike ride again after not riding for a while! So we had a wonderful planning session and then began our day of craziness! We had 4 planned lessons and at the last second one canceled on us, so we were able to pass by and check up on Janet Ibarra and see if we could still come by and serve her tomorrow, and then check on her reading as well! She was very happy to see us and she was even able to meet our exchange for the night, Hno. Ornelas! So we went just down the road after our small talk and taught a sweet and shy lady named Marta, some English! She is very appreciative of us passing to teach her and doesn't want to come to our church yet, but is okay with reading the Book of Mormon for the purposes of learning English, it is a bit weird! After our lesson with her we were able to go and teach A sweet lady, Alicia Castor/Moratalla. As I was there, I realized that I was one of the first missionaries to come and knock on her door after being so inactive, and she and I have a wonderful connection with one another. We taught her about decisions we make and how they determine our future, from the talk given by Thomas S. Monson, and she just loved it! She knows that she needs to get back to church and is just trying to find out how she can do that with her job and still make the needed money she needs! As we were wrapping up the lesson, I began to ask who she wanted to say the closing prayer, and before I could finished she smiled and said, "You Elder Spendlove!" It was a great feeling to know that she is super energetic about us coming over and is always super willing to let us come and teach her what God wants her to do! To end the night we went by the house of the Pumphreys to teach a work of salvation lesson on being the best leader by first following and then helping others to follow as well! They loved it and we challenged them to give out 3 pass along cards by next Sunday and they are very excited to do that! Really the day was super fast because of us keeping it packed with lessons! It was a crazy and fast day for the both of us!
Friday:
As a missionary you dedicate your life for 18 months or 2 years to the Lord. Leaving behind everything you have to serve him. However, one of the best ways to serve him is by serving his children, and today we did just that! So today we literally didn't even put our white shirts or ties on! We started our day by going to Our Daily Bread, because they texted us and asked if we could come in and help today, and I was stuck cleaning out a walk in freezer again, and it was Sooooo cold I was just in pain, however, we are so happy that we did it, because we saved another man from having to do it by himself! As we finished there, we went and helped set up some tables and chairs at the church for a stake relief society night that they will be having tomorrow. So after that bit of service we had our investigator, Kevin, call us wanting to play a little soccer, so we made the deal that if we could teach him we could play for about an hour with him! He accepted and we had fun playing and he is super excited for his baptism that is coming up in 2 weeks! As we were at a small field in a park area a little black boy, named Malcolm, around 9 years old came up to us to see if he could play. We let him play and we were just having a blast, when he asked who were were. We told him we were missionaries and that we taught people about Jesus Christ, and he looked at us and said, "is that why y'all so nice to me?" With all sincerity he thought we were being nice only for that reason. Then we explained that we always try to be nice because Jesus was nice, and he just could stop smiling! It was a lot of fun! As we left there we went over to our other investigator, Janet Ibarra's house, to help her clean up around her trailer, because she had a lot of leaves and a little bit of trash to be thrown away! It was a great service and it was good to be able to get to know her and her son more! We are super excited to keep teaching them and this next week we are going to invite them to be baptized! They have accepted a date before, like 3 years ago, and it never happened, so we are ready to make sure it happens!! We make that house look super good, and we left definitely making a difference in the way they were acting and talking! We even got her son to say the pray for us to leave! Service really does touch the heart of the people!
Saturday:
Well today was a little bit of a struggle for us, but it was very necessary I feel! I have started to realize as I have been studying about the opposition, that when times in the mission get hard, it is for my own benefit and strength! And so I try to enjoy even the hardest times! So today we had nothing but pure finding time, so we decided we were going to start trying to find people a little differently! We decided to go to the library and to type some scriptures on some papers and then put them on some water bottles to give out! Then we are going to go to a corner that is always covered with Hispanics waiting for work, and we will be handing out Books of Mormon and water bottles to everyone! However, today, we went around to a few potential investigators and had no luck, but as we started to walk around a neighborhood a little later, that is when we had a cool experience! We we went passed this older guy playing with his grandkids at the end of a street while knocking some doors and he was super nice and said hi, but we didn't think to try and talk to him. So we walked around and around and no one wanted to listen to us, so we then asked ourselves, "why don't we just talk to him?" So we walked up to him and had a wonderful talk with him! He told us about a friend he had that was from our church and then we shared a wonderful video about our true identity and he really loved it! We told him that we knew God loved him and cared about him and we walking back to the car when we felt we needed to give him a Book of Mormon, so we hurried back, gave him a Book of Mormon, and it sparked a whole new conversation! He wanted to know what the book was and how it could happen and where our church was, because the other churches he was going to just wanted his money! It was such a testimony to me to realize that God really does put right in front of you, the people he wants you to talk too, so talk with everyone! It was a super fun and enjoyable day looking for those ready souls!
Sunday:
The Sunday's are definitely the best days of the week for me, because of the chance to recharge myself of spiritually being drained, but somehow every week I hear something that gives me the strength to keep trying, to keep knocking, to keep teaching people, because sooner or later someone will be ready! So today we had really good meetings on how we could help our investigators and members and then we had a wonderful church service hearing from a brother from the Stake High Council! Also I had the chance to go and sing in the choir and had such a wonderful time singing, Cuan Dulce La Ley de Dios. I miss the choir back home and am glad I am able to help out here in this small ward! Also we were able to have a lesson in Elders Quorum that gave me the energy I needed to finish the day off strong! It was focused on Missionary Work and how we all should take part in it! Then we also had a wonderful brother stand and say, "Brethren, Never think that going out with the missionaries is a waste of your gas, time or energy, because in reality, it isn't your gas, time or energy, but the Lords, and this is what he wants you to do!" Then he bore his testimony on how much going out with the missionaries has helped him and how much he loves being able to just be around the missionaries! It was a wonderful, powerful lesson that gave me just the energy necessary to love love the time I had ahead to find people who were interested! So today we had the chance to go by Hna. Strasser's house just to take a picture of our meal calendar when she asked us if we had eaten. We responded yes, and she said, then you have to come in and have a piece of birthday pie with me and my family! Come to find out, they had the whole family over and we're celebrating her birthday and her moms birthday! So we stayed for long enough to eat and share a few fun stories and then we had to head out! We went straight over to a house we felt impressed to go and visit, and as we walked up a boy was out front, so we became his friend and asked if he could get his mom!! He did and she came out and cooked Taquitos while we were talking to her and her boys, and she let us teach her a small lesson! We asked her if we could return to share a small message another day and she said she was too busy, but she gave us 3 Taquitos each and sent us on our way! We were a little confused, but accepted it and left! And they were the best Taquitos I have ever eaten!!! It wasn't much, but I believe we touched the younger boys lives and gave them a chance to feel the spirit! We hope somehow they will want to hear more! What a wonderful day! And to end the day I was able to call for my districts numbers and then call the Zone Leaders!! This is one of my favorite parts of the whole week, because I get to talk to my district and help them in the best way I can, LOVE! And then I get to receive help and ideas from the Zone Leaders on how to improve! Today was great!
Have a wonderful week!
Con Amor,
Elder Spendlove
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