Hump Day!! Whoot Whoot!! I can't believe it is already here! Inbox x

Dear Family and Friends,

I just got a knock on the door while starting this email and guess what came? My Hump Day package from my Family!! It was so wonderful!! I love them all so much!!

This week was such a wonderful week!! It was one of the craziest and most spiritual weeks, but I feel like next week will be just as crazy for me! So I hope that y'all with love some of the things I learned in this week!!

To start off I wanted to share a scriptures that I found while studying the Book of Mormon this morning! 1 Nephi 13:24, 26, 29, 32, 35, and 40! This is the reason we have the Book of Mormon, and i want to share it with everyone!! I know that the Book of Mormon is true with all my heart!

Here is how my week went!

Week May 30-June 5 2016

Monday:

Today was a wonderful day!

We were finally able to go and relax for pday at a nice fiesta at Hno. Carias' house where we had the most wonderful Tacos in the world!! I Have come to the conclusion that I am in love with Sausage tacos! After the fun fiesta we went to the church on 8 th Avenue and played ultimate frisbee for a while and then went inside to cool off and finish up some emails!! And then as we were sitting there, elder Broberg, the other zone leader, and one of my best of mission friends, asked if I wanted to go and play the piano and help him out. So we went in and made our own version of "Come to Zion" and the other song was Nearer my God to thee, and he we mixed them together, and made a beautiful song that still needs work, but sounds wonderful!! I had a wonderful time and then we were able to get back to work and find and teach a less active family tonight by the name of De la Cruz. They were vey sweet and they don't come to work, because the Hno. Works on Sundays. So we taught a small lesson and they are the driest mor,one ever. They do everything by come to church!! And I really love them!! He wife cried as we taught and she bore her testimony and said she wants to come back, just with a little time!! Then as we went home we got home and Facetimed the other Zone Leaders in Fort Worth North and planned a few things coming up, and it was amazing to know we could do it over FaceTime!! What a blessing we have!! Today was wonderful!!

Tuesday:

What a wonderful and wet day it has been today!! So today we went for a run for our workout and it was wonderful being in the fresh air and feeling the humidity kick in!! I wasn't even running and I was already just wet and sweaty feeling!! But the crazy thing is right when we got inside, a huge storm hit and there was crazy lightning and thunder and a lot of rain!! It lasted most of the day and I was the designated driver for the day, and I love driving in the rain! So today after our studies, we were able to go and give service at the Tarrant County Food Bank again and today we were sorting cans and grocery items that were donated and it was a never ending process, but lots of fun!! Come to find out, they have enough donated to stuff to sort through for at least 4 months and so that is what we will be doing for a while! After Service we headed to the house to change where I got my package from my parents and I am so grateful for the things they sent and for them just caring for me!! As we got dressed we went and had dinner at the Viera families home and just had the original Pizza from Little Caesars and then went to another home where we taught the recently converted Trujillo family and they also fed us Tostadas! I was so stuffed and our lessons was so wonderful! We talked about the Priesthood and Hermilo Trujillo just looked at us and said, "nothing you say to me that is from the scriptures will I deny, because I have a testimony of them, so I am ready to learn as much as I can and then to act." When he said that, I knew he was converted!! And he is so ready to be sealed to his wife Bianca!! Also when we left his house we realized that he is a big hugger and won't let you leave without a hug!! So this evening has been very crazy. Usually we just plan, but tonight we are collecting SMC reports for the zone and collecting Monthly mile reports and a few other things and the rest of the week will be just as packed!! I love it so much!

Wednesday:

Holy cow it has been a very crazy day for us! So today we had a huge amount of things to do! We had to go to the church and send our monthly zone miles to the mission office, and we had District Meeting along with our SMC reports (Stake Missionary Coordination Report) and then we had a wonderful night finding people and teaching people! Today with all this stuff going on I could not keep myself awake and kept falling asleep, and there was a really sad thing that happened to us today while typing our report!! We were about 2 hours into our report when the computer shut down and when it came back up, everything didn't save and was lost!! So we were starting from scratch and now have to plan time out of our day tomorrow to finish it!! Then to add onto that, we were checking our car when we found a nail sticking out of the tire, so that is one more thing to put on our schedule for the next few days!! Really it was a wonderful day and we actually were eating dinner tonight when we were at a members house and we found a new investigator!! It was the members son in law, and he had so many questions and wanted to know what we believed and why!! It was a crazy cool experience!! I hope that we get some sleep to be able to go about our even crazier week tomorrow!! And I never said, but this week is called Spirit Week because of how many meeting and busy things we have going on!!

Thursday:

Well today was quite the rough day for us! I feel like we didn't get a lot done, because as missionaries you always measure success on the people you find and teach or the Books of Mormon that you hand out, but sadly today we didn't get any handed out and no one wanted to listen to us? 

Today we went to the church after our studies to really finish up the SMC report and it took us roughly 3 hours to complete, but we did it!! And it looked really good!! As we were doing it, the other zone leaders from the north zone came in and talked with us about making a different report that doesn't take as long, and it was a brilliant idea and it would be something that the stake could use to the best of their ability instead  of just looking at these and throwing them away! However, after finishing that we had dinner and started our weekly planning for about an hour, but had to stop to go and get our tire fixed as well and it was a long process!! But as we finished we went out for the evening to find people to teach and no one was interested in listening, so it was a huge struggle, but we won't give up!!!

Friday:

Wow today was an amazingly powerful day! We started off our day in Hurst at 9 o'clock at MLC with President Ames, which is the mission leadership Council, where we talked about the needs of the mission, how we could better ourselves and those around us, and I would say it was one of the most uplifting and most exhausting days in the mission, because it was so spiritual! I can say it was just below being in the temple, because you could just feel God helping you with the plans of ye mission and he things that he wanted you to do to better those in your stewardship!! These were just a few notes from a early meeting!

Zone Leadership Training:

Fake Work:

There is an administrative side in the church and a ministering side.

Never focusing on administering.

* Looking busy and not getting anything done. Fake work.

This is destructive!

Administration:

- Collecting Numbers

- Have numbers in at 9 o'clock from district leaders and 10 for the Zone leaders.

- Call district leaders Sunday Morning to remind them about numbers. Don't let them fail.

- Name Sheet needs to be neat and clean.

- Use the numbers to be a minister. (Discuss it often with your companion.)

* Loose yourselves in the service of others and it will come back to you!

Exchanges:

- They go best when you set expectations and then goals at the end! Have a full purpose day!

How to be a good leaders:

- train your leaders, especially district leaders! Help them catch your vision!

- We need to make our area like Camelot! So that everyone can want that same area!

My calling and how it came about:

He reason that you are a zone leaders is because you are ready. There is not a ladder in the mission! President felt, was inspired and was impressed that I be a leader. And I am here for God to develop me! 

- You don't have to be a zone leader to have an experiences. We are inspired by our covenants, not our leaders!

Leadership in the church:

Why do we do it to ourselves by letting us think we might be a leader!? 

- the spirit is telling us we could

- We think that the calling we have makes us good with God!

- remember how Satan wanted to rule! One step at a time!!

Parables of the lost sheep:

- I wish I would lost so he would come for me too!

If you have that thought, you are not one of the 99, because they would shout with the angels of Heaven!

We are establishing a foundation to help president Whitney!!

- show the Whitneys what a glorious place this is!

Love God and do all, not parts , because that is fake work!

 Best way of Setting Goals:

- Share everything with our wards so that they become connected to our goals.

- set goals in the apartment and then in zone councils discuss how you are going to achieve that!

How to go about correcting:

- be careful that you don't correct someone because you are irritated. (Not feeling love joy and peace)

- Don't correct them until you have a relationship with them. (5 positive experiences before you correct them!) 

- Build trust through love.

- Be clear and direct with them, honest. So that they know you believe.

- Show forth an increase of love

Being the one with less experience,

- be bold

- It is okay to correct

- Be careful, because they are the senior.

A lot of random, but it really touched me!! And the MLC lasted all day with a lunch I between!! Also something I love that our mission does is that after someone brings in food from a ward for the missionaries, because we have the relief societies that make us food for our meetings, we sing them 2 songs!! The first on is, Because I have been given much and lead right into Called to serve and switching out the second to last sentence of the song to say, "Forward, Texas Fort Worth, as the triumph song we sing!" And it brings so much tears to my eyes and makes me want to shout Hurrah for Israel!!! I love the mission!! And our meetings didn't get out until around 4! They we amazing!!!

Saturday:

I learned something very profound today! A hard heart is not easily softened! So today was a very crazy and wonderful day for us! We had our first DLC together, where we as zone leaders teach the district leaders, in a meeting, what president Ames taught us!! It was a lot longer than expected, but very necessary to make they share they understood exactly what president Ames had received from the leaders over him and also what the lord said to him through the Holy Ghost! So one of the things that I loved the most about what we were teaching was a topic called the tree. This is how we taught it. "Draw a tree please." Then everyone draws their trees, and then we said, " now show us your trees, why are they all different!??" Because there was no detail given or questions asked!! And that really helped me and the missionaries understand how important a leader is in this mission and how important it is that they relay the message perfectly from President all the way down!! I love my District leaders and I love my Zone!! Also this evening I received an email from my mom telling me that my good cousin Jaden Stone just opened his mission call and is going to Honduras on August 24th!!! I am so excited and emotional for him and the journey he will have in learning Spanish and going foreign!! I already have planned to go visit his mission with him after his mission because we will both speak Spanish!!!! I love him and so grateful for the example he is to me!! And really just all my cousins have been for me, no matter where they are at right now in their lives!!

Sunday:

Today was such a wonderful day for the both of us!! It has just been wonderful to work with my companion and I have just felt so blessed to have him as my companion! So today we had wonderful meetings at church and then I was really able to get to know the members a lot more and really understand them better as I listened to their testimonies!! We have wonderful members and I love all of them so much!! Today we also had a lot of the unsustainable less active members show up and it was such a wonderful time to have them come!! So about half way through church we had to leave to go to our SMC meeting in the stake center, and it was so wonderful to be in a meeting with the Stake President Rhodes and also his leaders and President Petersen!! I felt like I was very blessed to be apart and be able to serve my missionaries even more by discussing their needs in this meeting!! After church we went to a few people to visit them and we actually got into a man we have been trying with for a long time, and he finally let us in and we shared the Book of Mormon and also found out that he has liver cancer and is sick, but it was amazing that as we were telling him we had to leave he looked at us and said, "when are you coming back? And I don't have your number!!" It was a wonderful feeling!! Really I am so grateful to be in Texico!! I love it with all my heart even when it is hard!

Con Amor,

Elder Spendlove

No Wicked Man Could Write Such a Book!

Dear Family and Friends,
What a hectic week it has been for me and how amazing it has been as
well! Everyday serving the Lord is a blessing from God.
I just want to thank all of you for your love and support and
prayers!! It is felt!
And congrats to all those who graduated!! I don't feel like I have
been out of School for a year, but I guess I have!!
So this week as I was thinking and pondering about what happened, I
thought of a quote that Jeffrey R. Holland Stated in a conference.
This week we were very focused in giving out Books of Mormon and were
able to give out about 4 a day and invite people to read them! And the
quote hit me!

"No Wicked man could write such a Book, and no Good man would write
it. Unless it were true and he were commanded by God to do so!"
-Jeffrey R. Holland

I know that God commanded men to write his Commandments knowing that
these men wouldn't be perfect, but the doctrine and the teachings that
are found are perfect!! As I thought about this, the thought came to
mind, "the Book of Mormon has been torn apart and inspected for over
200 years and it still can't be proven wrong. And that in and of
itself is a testimony of the Truthfulness that is found inside of it!

So here is how my week went!
Week 23-29 2016
Monday:
Every Monday always seem so similar, except for this one!! So our
apartment was a very dirty apartment coming into it, so we spent all
morning cleaning it really good so that the small bugs would leave us
alone! Also we have no washer or dryer, so we had to go shopping and
wash our close at a members house so that took a lot of time as well!!
So as we finished there we decided to take a small break and go and do
some mountain biking and I am not going to lie, I loved it!! It was
super pretty in some parts and was very similar to a rainforest down
under the tree canopy near a lake that has amazing trails!! We biked
for about and hour and then came back in time to just go home. Poor
Elder Lewis sadly had a rough go today and flipped over his handle
bars and had his bike land on him!! Luckily he is okay and just has
some small scraps!! So when we came home and cleaned up we went
straight to our dinner appointment and had a wonder time learning new
things from Hna. Viera, like how to say steroid compared to Asteroid!!
They are very similar!! Then we went out to find people, but with no
success tonight!! However, it was a wonderful day!!

Tuesday:
Wow today was a very wonderful day!! Today I was privileged to go on
my fist exchange as a zone leaders in the area of our Fort Worth 3
ward missionaries! I was able to go in the first normal English area
and work with a wonderful missionary that I came out with named Elder
Adams from Lindon Utah!! We instantly have been good friends! We have
completely different interests but we get a long so well, and today we
had so many blessings!! As we were walking to an appointment we walked
past a lady named Shay Smith, who was trimming her tree and asked if
we could help. She was very hesitant at first, but it was awesome to
help her and as we finished up she looked at us and began to cry, and
then she said, you were both an answer to my prayers! Thank you for
following the spirit to come here to help me and God bless you!! That
is such a big reason I am here, because I know how much I can be anN
answer to The prayers of the people around me! Then we gave out about
4 book of Mormons and it was just a wonderful experience!! Many of
these people where it interested I setting a return appointment but
still took a Book of Mormon, and we were okay with that! And we even
had some really good contact lessons! One of the crazy things that
happened to us was when we began to talk too lady that converted to
Muslum, she was a ver sweet older lady, and just was a little lost, it
she was happy. So we shared more about what she believed and what we
believed over a glass of juice and then had to head out! As we walked
pasta house we noticed a Kitten who was practicing climbing, had
fallen and caught it's leg in the fence and the rest of his body had
hooked him tight in tweet fence boards! He seemed to have been there
for a while and I knew it waspainfu, so we tried to help him!  Put my
fingers around his neck so that if he tried to turn and bite, he
wouldn't be ale to get his head turned to hurt us, and yen Elder Adams
helped un hook his leg which was now of no use to the kitten! We got
it out and e first thing it did was go to attack us! And it bit my
finger! Luckily it didn't break the skin and we were a cat rescuing
crew!!! Now we are just relaxing getting to know each other and I am
just loving the things I am learning from him!!

Wednesday:
What a fun day we have had today!! We had the chance to go and
exchange back for District meeting and we had a wonderful meeting!
Then we were able to exchange again with the Sptls and I left again to
go to the area of the Sptls in hurst with Elder Lopez! So today I had
to drive the nice truck around, because elder Lopez can't, and we were
in Haltom city and Hurst! We had the chance to teach a family at
dinner and find a few different people, but I just had the hardest
time keeping my eyes open and I am so tired!! But we had wonderful
lessons and are so glad to be together! Elder Lopez has taught me a
lot!! Also tonight we were heading home when he showed me a water
tower and asked, what if I told you that was a fire-station!?? And I
just said, you're funny! And we drove by it, and it was a
fire-station!! So we talked to some people and had a cool tour and it
was so cool! It is the only one in the nation!! So we took some
pictures with the fire fighters that were on call doing their 48 hour
shift on call!! It was a really amazing day, especially being able to
ask him so many questions about being a zone leader and how I can be
better!!

Thursday:
Wow it was so nice to be able to come back from my two exchanges and
just feeling at home in my apartment and with my companion! I have
been gone for two days now and coming back to my temporary apartment
was the best feeling!! So today we had a wonderful planning! We
planned for the whole week and had a wonderful time doing it! Then we
had the chance to go and have dinner with the Johnson's, and head to
an exchange wit Hno. Ashton! We had a wonderful time going around
talking to people and actually found one guy named Juan, no surprise,
but a wonderful guy! We were just talking to him at first about what
he loved and where he was from. He shared a few experiences and then
decided to let us come in and share the gospel that we had! So we
shared the Book of Mormon with him and I was so glad to have Hno.
Ashton there with us! It truly was an Alma and Amulek Experience where
our member is the one who connected so well with Juan and He even
shared his strong testimony about it. Juan was very excited to read it
and said he would start it! I really hope that he does!  So when we
got home Hno. Ashton told us how he met his wife from Costa Rica and
him being from Utah, and it was a wonderful story about how they were
both serving missions in Costa Rica when they saw each other, and then
by coincidence they met in California after the mission at a dance!
And now he is pretty much a Costa Rican!! It was so good and we had a
wonderful night!

Friday:
Today was a really wonderful day for me!! I feel like every day is
wonderful for me, but there really isn't bad days serving the lord! So
today we had wonderful studies and then we went to the church with the
North Fort Worth Zone Leaders and planned out our training we will be
doing in the Zone Conference coming up. So during our studies we had
planned for the Zone Conference Training we were going to give so that
as we came together with the other Zone Leaders we would kind of have
an idea of what we wanted to do. As we got there and began to talk the
spirit was so strong and really helped us to find the best way to
teach our zone and ourselves how to improve! Every few seconds we were
getting revelation and taking out parts and adding other parts and it
was wonderful! Here is what we came up with!
Ephesians 4:13
- Till we all come to the unity of he faith....

Mountain biking, or in other words, Hill biking!!

On Exchange with Elder Adams, an English Elder who is in my Zone and came out with me!

Inside the Water Tower fire station with the Crew!! And 2 million gallons hanging over head!

After the SpTL exchange with Elder Lopez and Elder Parkin!

Language study when you have 3 DVD players and all the DVDs go in Spanish!! Haha

Con Amor, Elder Spendlove

First Week back in Fort Worth and As a Zone Leader for the Fort Worth South Zone!

Dear Family and Friends!
I am so grateful this week for the opportunity and blessing I have to serve a mission speaking Spanish is Texas Fort Worth! Time is flying by and I am staying very busy!! I just want to thank y'all for the support and love that you show to me and hope that y'all have a wonderful week!! Know that I love y'all as well!!
So this week I got put with Elder Lewis from Grantsville, Utah! He is a wonderful missionary and works so hard!! He is not afraid of talking to everyone and he goes home at Christmas time of this year!! We are getting along very well and come to find out, He worked as a Wildland Firefighter before his mission and loves it!! So why wouldn't we get along!?

Week 16-22 2015
Monday:
So today was one crazy day for us!! Not only did we have to go shopping, but we had to clean, pack and get some things sent home that were not needed out here!! It was a wonderful day however to be able to email home and see how the family is, and everyone seems to be doing so amazing! So today as our last zone activity before separations, we played soccer and football at a park and had so much fun! Everyone really enjoyed it and then I was able to write in a few peoples transfer journals. Transfer journals are like yearbooks for the transfer where you just write the things you learned from someone or how the have helped you!! It was wonderful!! And this evening we were able to go to the Parrys house to eat dinner and then not only share a few scriptures, but also share a few songs and sing hymns with them!! They are so sweet and they will definitely be people I will miss!! They were like grandparents to me out here and hope that hey are both there when I return!!!
And the rest of the evening was a last minute packing so that tomorrow we can get a lot of work done!! We hope a tomorrow will work out well and that we can get the things done for the following crazy day to come!!



Tuesday:
First off, what a hard day it has been!! My least favorite days are the days I have to leave all my friends I have made after the past 6 months!! However, it is that time and I am super nervous!! Not sure what to expect in Fort Worth as a Zone Leader or even what that means. I missed the training, so President Ames said I would be good and just go to the following training pretty much once my first transfer as a Zone Leader is over! Okay, so today we were able to wake up and go to help Hno. Hildreth put up a nice wooden fence and gate for the Hna. Guerrero who is a single older lady who is letting her kids and 6 other people live with her and she is the only one bringing a big income! So she is super giving herself and needed a nice fence!! I am going to miss Hno. Hildreth and his funny jokes and things he says! He reminds me of my goofy Dad! So after our service we went to the church for a district meeting where we had a spiritual meeting and then had a going away party for Hna. Sperry, who goes home on Thursday!! We each wrote her a Eulogy and read it, and then she came up and bore her testimony of the mission and how much it changed her life!! She was and always will be such a wonderful disciple of Jesus Christ!! Then we made her a wonderful piñata hat to wear and took some pictures with her!! After our fun time together we headed to dinner at the Saldañas house where we had wonderful Fajitas!! Then went straight to work going to teach a small lesson to Janet Ibarra where I said my goodbye and bore her my testimony!! The best news I could hear from her was that she talked with her husband in Mexico and he agreed to the divorce and so she only has to get the Judge to say yes and she can be baptized!! I pray that everything falls into place for her and that it will actually happen!
The rest of the evening I packed and just thought how I didn't want to leave Elder Wardle yet, but we will see each other again!! I really love him and all he has taught me and will always be in debt to him!




 Wednesday:
Well today ended up being a wonderful day even though it started out very rough!! So we woke up in just enough time to get dressed and leave to the house of the other elders to be picked up by our ward mission leader, Hno. Hildreth. Then I finally had to say goodbye to my son, Elder Wardle!! It was super hard and I didn't want to leave yet and I am nervous for him, but I know that everything will work out really well for him!! So we left and I was picked up by Hno. Beltran again and taken to Fort Worth with Elder Lewis and I am so excited to work with him!! He is from Grantsville, Utah and is a wonderful missionary who finishes his mission this Christmas! Also before his mission he was a wild land firefighter and loved it and will return to do the same most likely!! He is very focused on the work and loves the people so much!! And today we had the chance to go and give service at a school today full of Spanish people where we gave food away and I loved it so much!! I am so glad to be back and be with so much Spanish people again!! So today we taught one actual lesson and then we also had a lot of fun just together!! It is a short day, because we are getting busy, but it was a wonderful day!!

Thursday:
I have never been so exhausted and tired in my whole life as I am right now!! Today was a wonderful day full of planning for the week that is coming up and when I say full of it, I mean it!! We combined areas with the others elders that left, and so we had to plan pretty much for two areas and I am so worn out!! And then we still went out until 930 knocking doors and calling people!! It was wonderful!! I think the other thing that make me so tired was receiving texts from the APS and having to relay the messages back and forth!! That took a lot of time, but I am really enjoying the time I have to counsel with those in the zone!! We have already had some wonderful chances for that!! Sorry I am falling asleep writing , so just know that tonight we were able to find a less active family and teach them and it was wonderful!! I was amazed with how run Down and humble of a home they lived in. It is super sad to see, but they are so happy with what they have!! My new thing is to be happy for what I have!!!

Friday:
Wow I feel like time is flying so fast being in this position, because I literally wake up and everything just gets thrown at me, and then it keeps going until about 10:30 at night and it is getting so harder to write in my journal because of the many things running through my head and also getting to bed a little late!! However, I love it so much and love my zone!! So today we had some shaky plans and were able to go and find a lot of people on our bikes today and it was so much fun!! We biked all day and found 4 people and had wonderful lessons with them!! I am finally to the point of just not being afraid to talk to anyone about the gospel!! The reason being is that if they are ready they will listen, if not, they will reject us how they please and we will still have our testimonies!! That is something I have learned with Elder Lewis and his testimony is wonderful!! We also had a chance to draw with chalk today and it was super fun!! A few people stopped and looked at it and it turned out so nice!! So as we got home tonight a neighbor wanted to know what we did, so we taught him fast and he wanted a Book of Mormon and bible to read, so we are working on getting him both with marked places to read!! And then we went inside and planned for tomorrow and had 3 emails from the APS to take care of and a few phone calls, so I would say the day has been so amazing and very eventful!! Now I pray I can remember to keep going strong on writing!!



Saturday:
What a day we have had today!! We were very blessed with the many things that happened and the chance we had to talk to President Ames. So today we started the day off by giving a little bit of service to the young women of our ward by going and helping them with the car wash they put on, and come to find out, they made more money than they ever had and we washed some monster trucks as well!! The rest of the day we had a few meeting that happened and also a few lessons that took place!! We were able to have a FaceTime video call with all of the Fort Worth mission Zone LEaders and the APS with PResident Ames! It was a wonderful meeting and we were able to be in the presence of President Ames in the comfort of our Church building!! We had a wonderful meeting focused on our up coming Zone Conference and then also had our missionary Coralaiton meeting that followed!! I can definitely say I am glad to be where I am and be doing what I am doing and now we are preparing for the Zone Council coming up!! So this evening we had a wonderful lesson with some recent converts and.  They are ready to go to the temple!! So we are helping them!!
This eveing I sit on my bed writing this and feel like I am in Mexico with the people outside my window speaking in Spanish and me being able to understand them!! It is wonderful!! I love my life right now and love God for he chance he has given me!!

Sunday:
Today was such a wonderful day!! So today we woke up and were getting ready today when we got a phone call from Hno. Delgado asking us to teach the Elders quorum today because he was hurting in his back! So we had to plan a lesson and get to church fast with church starting at 9 and it was so wonderful to be albe to see Hna. Fuentes and so many members and also to see Hna. Peña today with Hno. Peña!! They are doing to good!! Also as I was walking around the church I saw Hna. Guadalupe Gonzalez who I helped get baptized and before I could say anything she gave me a hug and was just so happy thanking me for everything I had done for her!! She was doing wonderful and so was her husband Juan!! So after church today we went to teach a guy who wasn't home, so we were walking around an apartment complex when we had the most amazing experience! We came up on a guy who was smoking and kind of trying to hid his face from us like he was ashamed. So we stopped to talk to him. Come to find out he was a member of the English ward and was baptized a little under a year ago, and had gone and met President Ames and loves the ward he is in, but he has had a lot going on!! His mom is getting worse and is in the hospital and he lost his job and home. We talked to him about all of the feelings he had when he was baptized and how we wanted to see him at church again, so he said he would go. He was so sad at first until I think we highered his vision that we had for him!! It was such a blessing from God and we were meant to meet Hno. Norwood!! So today we went looking for some people after the Peña birthday party that we went to and we contacted into an older lady with her daughter and husband on their porch and she only spoke Spanish!! So as we spoke to her she told us how we were wrong and just bashed us and didn't even know what a Mormon was, so we became a little bolder and stood up for what we knew to be true!! We invited her to come and see what we believe before she just says what she wants and she said we had to go to her church first, and so she was yelling at us so we walked away and just said, "once you come and knock on our door and invite us to church we will go!" And we walked away!! It was super sad that the lady was so set in her ways, but it was such a testimony builder to me knowing that I stood up for what I believed and my Companion was right there with me!

Con Amor,

Elder Spendlove