Success and Anti-Doctrine

Dear Family and Friends,
What an emotional week this week has been for me.
I hope that y'all had a great week and that you were able to have success!
Here is how my week went!
Week July 11-17 2016
Monday:
Today was a day of teaching, every moment we were in I was teaching
something, and it was so wonderful! (At the store, getting my haircut,
and even at the church, then after at a few future investigators
houses as well!)
Like most Monday's, we were able to get a lot of cleaning and shopping
done before we went out for the day, and today was a really fun day!
We went to the Stake center where the 2 Zones met up and played all
different kinds of sports and just everyone really enjoyed themselves!
I was able to play basketball and frisbee and even volleyball, and
something I have realized is how big of a family I have here with he
mission, and how hard it would be to leave them! Everyone is so kind
and welcoming and it just makes me so happy! To know that one day I
will have to leave them is so hard to think about! And now as I sit
here I think about my parents telling me that one day this would
happen, and it has! What's new? They have always been right!
So today sadly after pday all of our plans fell through, so we went
out finding with some names we had, and we had some crazy experiences!
So we were looking for one lady and went to the wrong street on
accident, and actually found a guy that seemed interested! And then as
the day kept going by we started to have some even crazier
experiences, the lady that we were looking for first, we found her
house, but she wasn't home, so we went to talk to some neighbors that
we had records for, and found another guy who was interested in coming
to church and learning more, and in all we had 3 lessons that we all
very powerful! I can say that I love this work even tho it is so hard,
and I a grateful that God trusts me with his gospel, because I am not
perfect and don't understand it perfectly, but I sure know that God
doesn't expect perfectness, but perfect trying! What a wonderful
P-Day!

Tuesday:
"When you don't talk, you create your own learning barrier."
Today was such a wonderful day! And I learned a lot about making sure
and letting people know when we wont be able to pass by so they don't
wait for us....
So today we were able to go and give service at the food bank and go
through so much cabbage that was rotten that I don't ever want to eat
that stuff again in my life or even see it for that matter! But I can
tell you it was a lot of fun because everyone was pretty grossed out
about it the whole time! And as we finished up there we went and had
some business to take care of as we worked on some addresses for
potential housing for some of our missionaries who are being forced to
move. And as a zone leader it becomes our concern and duty to find
them a house that the mission will accept, so we began the process
today and will probably finish next week!
So the first lesson we had tonight was with Guadalupe Gonzalez and
Juan Luis in their home as we ate dinner. It was so nice to see them
in their home again, and it was even so sweet to see them finally
opening up and asking questions about hints they have wondered for
years. The first question I have ever hear Guadalupe ask was really
today when she asked, "who is Jehovah?" And so we were able to teach
her that he is Jesus Christ, just another name! It was super powerful!
However as we finished our lesson we realized we went a ways over and
missed the opportunity for our next appointment so we had to call and
set it up for another day sadly! Time just goes so fast you can not
fit everything in that you want to! But to end the night off we went
by a less active me,bears house for the first time and she let us in
to teach her, and said her and her husband we having problems and she
was ready for God to help. I think what touched me the most is as she
said, "How can I receive an answer from God, I feel he is quiet?" And
because she was willing to talk, she learned from the spirit as we
talked about how God helps us and answers our prayers in his own time!
I Know that God hears us and is always there in ever part of our life!!

Wednesday:
Exchanges are something that have made me a better missionary! Today I
have had the chance to have a wonderful Zone council and really learn
from my zone. I am so grateful for all of those in my zone that take
the time to care for one another and pray for all of our
investigators! As we have been focusing more as a group I have seen
true miracles in our Zone! Let me share a list of all the names we
have with Baptismal Dates right now!
Accountability:
     July Goal: 2.   Actual: 2. Spanish: 0
August Goal: 4.  Projected: 8.  Spanish: 3
September Goal:4+       Projected:2

July:
-16th Carolina Torres - Hnas. Whimple and Tibbits
-16th Tarryn Britt - Elders Adams and Pearce
August:
-6th Kameron Garcia - Elders Rarotoga and Kochan
-20th Luis Vargas - Elders Spendlove and Langi
-20th Christopher - Elders Spendlove and Langi
-20th Jose Chavez - Hnas. Odell and Farnes
-27th Alicia Whitehead - Elders Adams and Pearce
-27th Calvin Whitehead - Elders Adams and Pearce
-27th Evelyn Hinkle - Elders Adams and Pearce
-27th Averianna Coats - Elder Adams and Pearce
September:
-3rd Sammy Turner - Elders Rarotoga and Kochan
-10th Shantovia Smith - Elders Adams and Pearce

These are just the ones that are set right now, but as we keep working
throughout this month I know that God is going to help the others we
are working with Progress!
One of the ways that we talked about improving as missionaries was by
our Personal Study and Companionship Study, and in this week as I have
been working on improving I have seen a huge blessing in my life!!
So after our Zone Council we were able to go on Exchange with Elder
Adams and Elder Pearce, English Elders serving in a Bike area, and we
are hoping to learn a lot from them, because they are just setting
Baptismal Dates left and Right!
So today we were able to go and give a good amount of Service at
Bishop Rodriguez's house where we began to scrap off the paint on his
house panels to be able to repaint, but sadly we couldn't finish it as
fast as we wanted, because it was so thickly painted and just hard to
get off! I learned a lot of patience while there and had a blast as
they then thought that they had to feed us dinner! They are so sweet!
Then we really had a dinner appointment and an exchange with Jairo
Tapia, a young man in our ward who is a huge help to us as we go out
and work on teaching others. Sadly Elder Pearce doesn't know any
spanish, so I taught all of the lessons with Jairo, and they were
still super powerful! As we taught Hna. Vanessa De La Cruz we realized
just how much God loved her. We taught about the restoration and I had
the feeling to share a picture with her and ask her, How would you
feel to have right there in his arms? And with that Question she began
to sob. She told us how she would feel the love of God and she wants
that, but struggles with her faith, so we testified that she will feel
that if she returns to church and really focuses on being apart of the
fold once more, and she committed to coming to church this Week!
I had a cool experience as I was getting ready to drive back to the
church to drop Jairo off, a sister missionary from the Mexico City
call center called us and asked about one of our referrals and asked
if we had contacted her, and I was kind of in shock thinking, I am
talking to someone in Mexico and I can understand them perfectly! And
come to find out, the lady who only wanted a Bible, and read the Book
of Mormon, actually wants us to go back and teach her our lessons! So
we are going to make contact with her! Today was a wonderful day in
the service of the Lord, and I am so grateful I was able to learn from
Elder Pearce!

Thursday:
Today was one of the fastest days for me, but slow at the same time!
Wow do I have a lot of sweet and precious moments to share today! As a
missionary these moments come weekly and are ones that you can never
forget! So for us today we were finally able to get into the house of
some investigators named the Chavez Family, from Honduras, where we
shared a small message more strongly focused on the Book of Moms n
with just the mom, and she shared her beliefs a little stronger like
she didn't want anything to do with our church, and I just felt a warm
calm feeling come over me! And I just looked at her smiled and said,
"Hna. We are not telling you that you have to join our church or that
our church is right, we are telling you that this book can make you a
better person and help you have a stronger testimony of Jesus Christ."
And then I read the last 2 paragraphs of the into of the Book of
Mormon and helped her understand that she would have to let God tell
her what she should do. She was a little bit shocked in a way, but
took it well and we left her with a prayer and told her that when she
was ready to understand the Boom of Mormon more she could call us! It
was super powerful! Then we felt a little bit like Mexicans this
evening, so we made a wonderful Spanish dish all by ourselves!
(Tapatillos and arroz!)Then today as well we got the Vargas Family to
meet us at the church for a lesson after we gave them a tour of the
whole church building, and the whole time we had our members all over
with Mutual, so it was the perfect chance to have them there and have
the kids make friends and want to come back! One of the boys, named
Chris, made me a cute card thanking me for teaching them about God,
and it made me so happy, but what made my whole day was what followed.
We taught them a powerful lesson in the Chapel and just sat and
listened as the spirit touch Hno. Vargas more, and then we invited
them to be baptized again, and they agreed this time for the 20th of
August to for sure be ready, and they said they would be at church!
Then the little boy Chris with 10 years ended with a prayer. In the
prayer he thanks God for he missionaries and for their families, and
then he began to cry as he said, "thank you for my family and that we
can be happy here at church. Please help everyone who comes here to
listen to the missionaries so that they can feel happy too." He could
hardly finish the prayer as his tears ran down his face, and that made
me so emotional too! As he finished, his brother, little sister and
dad all gave him a big hug, and you could just see the family becoming
closer and more happy! I love this ward, this area and this Gospel so
much!!


Friday:
I feel have come to the complete conclusion that God really is in
charge! So today we were able to give some service to Hno. Carias at
his shop by working with Daniel, his worker who is not a member and
whom we got to know quite well! He said he was interested in listening
to our message this Monday, so we are going to hold him to it, and to
end our service off he even took us out to lunch and payed! He will be
a great member one day! Also as we got done there we got the news that
our plans were going to be all rearranged! We got a call that our car
appointment was canceled and changed to 3 which made our apartment
looking get all mixed up and almost impossible, but we did get into
one apartment where we were very impressed with what the apartment had
to offer for such a cheap price. So now we only have to go by and
check out 3 more so that Elder Jones has a good selection and lots of
Options to choose from! So we went in and had our car fixed, which
took about 2 hours again, when we got a call from the APs who said,
"Elders, you will be getting a brand new truck on Monday, so please
come and get it!" We were both kind of in shock, but said okay and we
are feeling very privileged to drive a new truck in this mission! Also
right after that call we got a text from our investigator Claudia De
la Rosa canceling the appointment we had for the evening that we had
planned so hard for, and it really made us sad and our plans had
really just been switched all day! But the good part about it all was
that we found a few extra people this evening! Sadly one of them we
talked to told us, "have you found Jesus, because everyone tells me I
need to find him and I still haven't seen him. Stick to the real
things in life!" Then he drove off speedily. And the best part about
it is we watched him come out of his house and drive to us, so we
decided to show him how he could know Christ. So we stuck a card of
Jesus Christ on his door and invited him to go to he website and to
pray and yes, he will know God!
Also this evening we had a finding family on our list of a less active
lady, and as we knocked on her door she let us in, her husband was
home named Noel, and they were wanting to come back to church, and we
set a date with her husband Noel right as we were finishing the
lesson! We invited him for the 10 of September, and his wife thought
it was wonderful, but he wasn't satisfied, he said, "I want to be
baptized on the 3 of September instead!" It was very powerful and
wonderful! God really does love us and there are always people ready
for the Gospel, the question is are we ready for Them!?

Saturday:
What a crazy day! I am just going to start saying, what a crazy
mission I have had! Everyday we experience crazy things and we
experience the most amazing miracles from God at the same time! So
today we had the chance to go and Give service by cutting the Lawn of
Sonny Moreno, which was more like a forest and full of Chiggers and
bugs. However, luckily the Chiggers didn't bother me and we were able
to finish completely pretty fast, and his nieces came over from across
the street with water and snacks to help us out, it was really sweet
of them! So today we had the chance to go and look at a few more
apartments for the elders, and it was fun, but a really stressful
process. They make it so hard to just look at an apartment, but gladly
we do it for the Lords servants! Today I learned something from my
dinner Appointment with the Martinez family. It is important to know
the positions of leadership their role in the church, so they can help
the work progress, so that is what i want to focus on more as I study
and as I go to meetings so I can make our meetings the best in the
church! The funniest thing happened to my companion while we were
eating dinner, when he finished eating what he had on his plate and
Hno. Martinez said super fast, "Don't worry if you don't have any more
meat, we have plenty of Raccoons out back", and my companion just said
okay thanks Hno. Haha he didn't even catch what Hno. Martinez said,
and that is what made me laugh so hard! It was a good joke and made me
laugh for a good while!Then this evening we had a wonderful lesson
with the De La Rosa family and we taught them about Revelation, and it
was a wonderful lesson full of the spirit and a little bit of talking
back and forth between beliefs, but the great thing was it that she is
doing it because she wants to follow God, and she doesn't know if she
is right or wrong, and that is why she is studying and praying! Also
she gave us permission to go ahead with her sons and teach them and
also work on Baptizing them, so we are hoping that we can focus on
them for their next step in their lives! We are expecting to see them
at church tomorrow, and we can not wait! Today was a wonderful day!

Sunday:
Today was the hardest day for me.... This morning as we woke up we
received a text from Claudia De La Rosa that said, "Buenos Dias!
Espero que se encuentren con bien. No he dormido, investigando acerca
del profeta Smith, es difícil lo que voy a comentar, pero estoy
sumamente triste para saber más. He decidido no asistir a iglesia.
GRACIAS por su tiempo, su interés, su amor con el que han compartido
con nosotros acerca de su doctrina." (Good morning! I hope that all is
found well with you. I have not slept, investigating about the prophet
Smith, it is difficult what I am going to say, but I am so sad about
learning more. I have decided to not attend church today. THANKS for
your time, interest, and his love you have shared with us about his
doctrine.) This was the sad message we received, and all morning that
is all I could think about, and I felt they were lost, but that is
when another sister named Hna. Tibbets really helped by saying,
"Elder, she is not lost, but just confused. Also if she found anti
doctrine on the Internet that means she has a testimony and was
looking for more information to back that up and just got confused on
what we believe!" So we really hope to be able to get her back!! Also
a blessing occurred this morning for me. Last night we had confirmed a
ride for Sonny to make it to church and then right before we went to
bed they canceled, and when we woke up this morning we knew that sonny
was getting ready to be able to go to church for the first time in a
few months and that he was so excited, so we didn't want to tell him
no one was coming for him. So we didn't got to our ward council so
that we could call around the ward all morning, but either people
wouldn't answer or they we busy, and so we prayed. We as missionaries
have a rule that we can only drive people teaching appointments,
however, it seemed like we were trying to think of all possible ways
to beat ourselves around the rules to justify taking him in our car to
church. In that moment I just said, "Elder, we can't do that. God
gives us these rules for a reason and I know if we follow them he will
bless us." So we decided to go by his house and explain to him what
was going on and that he had no ride. As we kneeled to say our prayers
to leave the phone rang and so we finished the prayer, answered the
phone and a lady picked it up and was willing to take him to church! I
know God answers our prayers as we are obedient to his ever command!
 Well today we had both Chris and Luis in church and their whole
family was there, even their mom who is not interested in really
learning more, but in Gospel Principles the mom began to cry about a
story and after class asked the teacher more information, and I could
see a light begin in her eyes! I think with time and love they will be
a happy family sealed for time and all eternity! So today while
teaching people we met a boy named Brandon who is a member but very
less active and he was in a a
Sad situation. His parents don't want him to much and he just kind of
walks back and forth to his families houses to stay. But we helped him
stay positive and keep pushing forward, and it was wonderful! We will
see him at church we hope really soon!! Today was a wonderful day!!!


I hope that there is something in this email that was able to help you
in this week and may I suggest that if you ask questions know that the
Internet is the worst place to get an answer. GO TO THE SOURCE!
I know that God loves us and can make our lives as happy as we are
willing to work! He truly cares for our every sadness and struggle and
is willing to pick us up in the hardest of times!
I love y'all and hope you have a great week of success and remember
God in all you do!
And if things get hard, remember that so it has been with every
successful person who has ever lived!

Con amor,
Elder Spendlove