Baptism & Calling Home Soon!!

Dear Family and Friends!,

I hope that you have all had a wonderful week!! For me, my week was amazing!! Here is how it looked!!

Week April 25-May 1 2016

Monday:

Wow today went by so fast! We were able to really clean our apartment before we got to into our day and then we went shopping with Elder Lakey and Escobar!! After our morning of shopping and looking through a sports store we went to the church were we were able to finish our emails for the day!! And I received a few unexpected emails! I love getting letters or emails! It is by far the best part of my Pday being able to email my family!! However, my parents scared me a lot when they said that in two weeks it was already time to talk to them on the phone again!! I kind of freaked out a little realizing how fast time is going!! So today we were able to play basketball and even volleyball, and it was a lot of fun!! After that fun time I realized that I have a major ingrown toenail on my right big toe and it hurts so bad! However, we went and taught a wonderful lesson this evening to the Barreras family that are more recently converts to the church, and we taught them about Family History!! It was a wonderful time visiting with them and getting to know them more! So not a lot happened, but tonight we are going to do surgery to my toe, so hopeful everything goes well!!

Tuesday:

What a crazy day I have had today!! So where do you even begin when you have such a wonderful day!? Today I was able to have an exchange with the Zone Leaders and while Elder Wardle stayed in our area with Elder Bird, Elder Farr and I went back to the Denton YSA ward and had so much fun!! To start off our exchange we went and passed out free taco flyers for their taco Tuesday party that they have! Ever Tuesday they have free tacos to have people come over and talk to Mormons and eat as well for free. No broke college student would say no! So after opening up and realizing I have nothing to lose, I went with Elder Farr and we just walked around campus on UNT and we just had a blast talking to people and had close to 3 really good contacts with return appointments and were able to give out 2 book of Mormons!! It was amazing!! I came away from that time feeling super good about the myself and just contacting people and being myself!! So we were able to teach two people tonight and just had a wonderful time teaching a man about the restoration and he was just amaze by what truly happened and he said he was going to read and find out!! It was wonderful! Around 6 we had an exchange inside of an exchange where I exchanged with Elder Truchard!! And we had a wonderful time at a ASL club night where we taught a small lesson and then were able to eat with everyone!! Then we had a crazy night planned where we were going to go to a Baptist Service and were going to just listen to what they had, but all of that was canceled with the crazy storm and so we went to give a blessing to a missionary and headed home when we were driving by a building and watched a building get struck by lighting and catch fire, and within a few minutes the fire trucks were there and the rain just began to pound. Then we got a text from the APS to stay inside and to read over the tornado safety paper we all have! So we went home and now we are just sitting in the apartment watching the crazy weather as it just downpours and seeing that the storm is just beginning!!!

Wednesday:

Wow, the week gets going so fast that I forget to take lots of pictures and even forget what day is what!! So today we had our district meeting start at 10 o'clock so that we could have a Language Study as a District, and it was worth every bit of effort and time to do it, because we were able to learn a lot of good things! And I love my district so much and would do anything for them!! This evening we ate dinner with Hno. Saldaña at Rosas Cafe and I was a blast just being with him!! He drives his old car that had been wrecked so many times and he just pounds out the dents and it just looks like a tin can driving around, but we just love his attitude about everything! So today we had a lot of planes that kind of fell through, but as we decided to go out and find people, we were blessed by just going out and opening out mouth, and were able to hand out another 3 Books of Mormon to these wonderful people and it was just wonderful. Every book we handed out, we were able to also teach a small lesson, and it was amazing to see a small light turn on in their eyes as they realized that the truth was restored once more. Maybe they won't act on what they felt, but I know that each of them felt a sort of truth in what we said!! So this evening we got to talk to a lady named Lourdes Fuentes who has had a baptismal date easier and she was so nice to just talk with us and as we were teaching a small lesson, she said I needed to go home because I looked tired, and as we left she couldn't stop telling me I knew a lot of Spanish, however, I don't feel like I know a lot, but I guess I really do, I am just used to it! So this evening we sent in our baptismal program for Kevin Garcia and we are super excited for what is to come!! Today has just been a wonderful day! And I love having my companion back once more!! We left a funny voicemail in perfect intonation and after just laughed forever, because we have been together for so long that we think to much alike!!

Thursday:

The Temple is Beautifully Simple and Simply Beautiful!  I keep saying what a crazy day, when really I should just sum it up in one day saying, What a crazy week it has been! So today I was able to sit down with Elder Wardle and have our studies and weekly planning and it was so amazing!! I was thinking about it today, and it amazes me how I made it before my mission with the little amount of planning that I did do!! If I didn't have a weekly planning our whole week would be so pointless and worthless!! The prophets and apostles have given us an allotted time of 3 hours to plan each week, so I believe it is probably super important for us!! But I would say it is important for everyone, because God plans!! It would say that means we should be working on our planning skills a little bit more! So after a wonderful weekly planning we went with Hno. Hildreth and helped him teach a lesson to Hna. Flores, a lady he visits monthly!! She is so sweet and we were able to really talk and become good friends with Hno. Hildreth!! All I know is that he gave us permission to come over on Mother's Day to use his wifi to FaceTime home!! And he was super excited for us to be over there! Hno. Hildreth is such an example even if at times I can hardly stand him because he is always on us about the little things, but in the long run he is reminding us about the important things!

So today we were able to go and visit with a lot of people, but teach the Cuevas kids with their friends about the sabbath day and what we should and shouldn't do!! They loved it and it was a better lesson that I have ever had with them!! Then we went with Hno. Strasser for the last lesson with Kevin Garcia before his Baptism on Saturday, and it was a wonderful lesson!! We fitted Kevin into a jump suit and then even had a lesson on temples and how he will be able to go in soon!! We set a time to go and work on finding him some names and I am just so pumped to be able to go with Kevin and just see the progress he is taking on just trying his best and knowing God will help him through anything! Today was a wonderful day and I can't wait to see what tomorrow brings! 

Friday:

Texas storms are the craziest things I have ever witnessed! So today we went outside for our morning workout to humidity as bad a probably Hawaii or worse! We felt like we were chocking on air and it was just a cool slash warm mix, but it was nice!! As the day go going and we went and did some service for the Parry couple, we felt a little rain, but not much. We had the chance to build a small garden box for them in their far corner, and then we had a wonderful lunch with them where I played their piano, and the Hna. Parry told me she was going to make me play in church if I kept it up! I love that couple and I feel like they are like my grandparents! So after the wonderful service we went and tried to contact a few people without any answers and some even looked through their blinds and pretended that we couldn't see them. It makes me feel bad when people are that far from God, or won't even just be honest with you from the beginning. I have so much more respect for those that just say they have no interest right from the beginning! So we were able to go and make a small email from the ward and we are just working on and idea we had to help the missionaries connect better with the ward council and ward in general, so we hope that this idea actually will work and help them. We plan on just putting the upcoming events on the email along with baptismal dates and a scripture with a missionaries testimony!! It will be a huge success! This is when the crazy weather kicked in! We were walking out of the Library when the rain just began to come down so hard!! We ran to our car and by the time we got in, we were soaked completely!! Then as we sat there trying to wipe ourselves off a bit and figure out where we needed to drive next, the hail came out of no where and began to pelt the car!! They only stayed the size of a marble, but they hit super hard!! We headed for home to avoid damage to the car, when we began sliding over all of the hail on the street and we almost missed our turn for our apartment!! 

So this evening the storm calmed down and it was raining while the sun was shining!! We were able to go over and have small lesson with Osirus, a son of Janet, who wants nothing to do with God, but come to find out, he does believe in him, Just needs motivation! To end the night, we went by Hildreths house and had a wonderful visit with him in his nice house. He had us stay for a bit and then we took a program home us to take by Kevin's house to give to his parents! Today was a wonderful day!

Saturday:

What an amazing day we had today!! It is amazing how a baptism can change a persons life forever!! So today we had a huge day were we went and helped with a Family History Fair that went on all morning, and we were in charge of showing people who the were related too, and it was a huge success! I sat down with one lady, who was not a member of the church, but had a family search account that wasn't filled in, and we were able to find a lot of her information in the computer and put it all on her tree!! She got super excited and decided to go home to put in all of her information onto the tree!! Afterwards a lady came up to  me and thanked me for helping her, because she caught the genealogy fire and wants to learn more about her family! So after this fair, we went up to Gainesville long enough to contact a few referrals and they were a huge success!!! We really just got one guy that was pretty interested and were able to give him a Book of Mormon, and he told us he wanted us to come back in this week! We set a return appointment and can not wait to get to know his family better! So as we got home, we changed and went to set up for Kevin's baptism! The whole relief Society room was full of people and Kevin was so surprised and happy! As we sang in that baptismal ceremony, to me it sounded like more than just 48 people were there, but people singing praises on the other side of the Veil for his decision to finally be made after 3 years! His baptism was done by Hno. Tryon and he seemed to be so happy afterward with a smile stuck on his face!! We left that Baptism with so much love, happiness, and energy to find more people, but filled the most with gratitude to God for giving us the opportunity to teach him and help him get to that point. God truly does know where we need to serve and which people we need to touch, and I can say I know that Kevin needed to hear something I said or see something I did to finally decided. Also to be able to get his dad to agree it had to take a lot of love, patience and dedication. I testify that God works miracles in our lives constantly and this was one of them!! I love this work!!

Sunday:

What a wonderful day!! So today was such a cool day where I was able to see Kevin Garcia get the Holy Ghost! Also it really made me happy when we were sustaining people for advancements and callings and he looked at us and said, "I can do this now right?" Haha it was such a blessing to see him just seem so excited to know that he was just getting more opportunities!! Also Bishop Meza had a wonderful interview with Kevin and come to find out, he will be getting the Priesthood within the next few weeks and he is pumped about that as well!! I haven't seen him like this ever, but I am so glad to see the change! So today for Sunday School we went into the Family History Center and helped Kevin find a few of his ancestors, but really just got him excited to go to the temple with his family members! Today was just amazing when we got done with church! We went to a park across the street from our house and were able to draw with chalk in many different spots, the plan of Salvation and the many questions of the soul! We did it in both Spanish and English and just hope we can find a few people to be able to teach off of it!! All together I think we drew 3 giant Plan of Salvations, and wrote many many questions of the soul with Mormon.org information all over the place!! As we were in the middle a drawing, we had the Hnas, Sperry and Eyestone call us and ask if we could go and help them move a sister out of her house into her parents house, so we went and had a great time!! To finish off the night, I always spend Sunday nights calling in for numbers!! I really do love it, but it is such a tiring job!! I can only imagine how the Zone Leaders feel sometimes!! But I have a quote for those who get tired, You can sleep when your dead. Until then, don't stop! I love this Gospel So much and the fact that God gives us Second Chances, and thirds!!

I love you all and I hope that y'all have a wonderful week!!

Con Amor,

Elder Spendlove