"The Son of Man hath descended below them all. Art thou greater than he?" D&C 122:8

Dear Family and Friends,

I feel privileged to be a missionary of the Lord Jesus Christ and to be able to wear his name on over my heart for 2 years, but may I add, I feel loved, special, in debt, and grateful that I can choose for myself through God given Agency to have the name of Christ burned in my heart forever! 

Today I feel like sharing a little bit more about the language and how it was to learn to start off, and then I will let you know how my week went!

So to start off my mission I had feelings of anxiety and unworthiness as I tried to learn Spanish, and I even felt angry at those who didn't speak Spanish because I was so focused on myself. I always thought, "they are in America, they should speak English!" And then I began to understand where I was so mistaken... I realized that it was me that was self centered and I wasn't think of them as children of God. However as I began to understand the gift of tongues and also the culture of the Hispanic people more I began to look outward instead of in. I struggled with the language and didn't have confidence for about 6 months or so, until one day I just began to read the scriptures and learn so much, as I went to write some notes down in my study journal and suddenly I realized I was writing in Spanish and then I looked quickly to my Book of Mormon to realized I had been reading it in Spanish for my whole personal study! I was shocked, and realized that I did know the language, and I just had to act and talk to everyone!

Now and then I have struggles on talking about other things outside of mission setting, but am working on it!

I love Spanish so much! And actually would say I am Hispanic now!;)

Here is how my week went!

Week September 19 - 25 2016

Monday:

So today was a very wonderful day where we were able to have fun at Pday, and I was able to get me some really nice dress shoes and a belt to go with it thank you to my wonderful family and friends who sent me a little bit of money! Also today was a really cool experience to be able to see how family home evenings can be a blessing in the lives of others! We went with the Benitez family and were able to teach a family home evening lesson to Karla Hernandez and her son Erik. They seemed to love the lesson on a family unity, and then the fun activity we had at the end where we wrote the names of all our family hat we wanted to live together forever with and we put them together to make long chains and we taught by Hna. Benitez that by being sealed into the temple these links will never break and that we will be able to live with all our family members again! It was a very good family home evening and Karla feels so comfortable with us!

Tuesday:

Well this week is just flying by, and it has been just super busy! So today we had he blessing to eat breakfast as a district before Hna. Whimple leaves, and it was just a wonderful experience, and we also had a wonderful opportunity to be apart of the new missionaries coming into the mission. They all arrived around 12:30 and we welcomed them to the mission and had wonderful trainings from 12:30 to 5:30 pm, where we then sent them off for dinner to presidents house! However, during this time we were able to do some wonderful role plays with the new missionaries where they teaches us, and I was so impressed with how much the 6 missionaries knew their Spanish and how well the other 13 new their doctrine! I am super excited to get to work with them a little bit more with all of the upcoming  exchanges we will get to go on! So after our time in the amazing office we went to a dinner with Isaac and Ana Sanchez and had the sweetest surprise as we finished dinner and they pulled out a professionally made cake that was decorated and said, "Feliz Cumpleaños Elderes!" It literally made me feel so loved and wonderful knowing they cared about us that much! So of course Spanish tradition is smashing my face in the cake, and all I can say is it was so much fun and made me feel at home being with them, even if all I can smell is cake! Somthis evening we got back just in time to see Sergio and to teach him with Elder Wolfert, my district leader, as Elder Lopez went and finished off the transfer ride notes, and all together it was just a huge success and we may be having 3 baptisms on the 8th of October! Sergio Hernández, Karla Hernandez and Karen Hernandez, non of which are family members! Today was just so fast, and now we are just sitting trying to make sure we are ready for tomorrow!

Wednesday:

“If you’re not a full-time missionary with a missionary badge pinned on your coat, now is the time to paint one on your heart—painted, as Paul said, 'not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God.' ...

“Our desire to share the gospel takes all of us to our knees, and it should, because we need the Lord’s help.” - Elder Neal L. Anderson

Today was such a busy day! To start off, today was Transfer day and what does that mean. That means we were there at 8 helping members find the missionaries going with them and missionaries finding their rides! Even though I am exhausted when I finish, I love it so much, because we are always going and for some reason I just love that feeling of being busy, but not overwhelmed! So today I was in charge of collecting information for those missionaries going home, along with collecting their Tiwi driving cards and IPads, and it was a lot of extra work, but still a blast getting to see the excitement and nervousness that they have! And tomorrow they will be home with their family, that is the weirdest thought for me, because I just feels like it will never come, but ever Transfer I realize it is closer and closer! So today after transfers we went and had a wonderful dinner with the Carreon family and I was able to help them understand how I feel having to learn Spanish and how it would help not only me, but everyone if they helped us by teaching us the culture, and they agreed and now we are just going to plan a day out for it! They are a wonderful family! Also the other family we went by and taught as the Nickels. A return missionary couple that met on their mission and have a little girl that is only 3 months old. We actually did a question and answer with them about their missions and how they worked with members, and it worked out really well and we came home with great ideas! Today was just a wonderful day, but I felt a little bit on the quiet side and I think it is because our lack of planning for lessons, and I need to put my part in more to planning! 

Thursday:

Weeks feel like days and Days feel like weeks..... it is crazy to think today was already Thursday and that tomorrow is Friday! And to make the time fly by even fast we were super busy and just had no time to think of anything but Preach the Gospel, and that is exactly what we did! So today after some really good studies where I actually was able to learn a lot about not only Doctrine, but also about the language. We are planning a district language study and culture study, and it is going to be a great class where we are going to learn the cultures of all the Spanish speaking places and find how to love them even more! So as we finished there and finished our weekly planning we went straight to work. We went to have lunch with the Galaso family that I actually came to know from Fort Worth 7 Spanish ward. The Hno. Is from Argentina and the Hna. Is from Colombia! They both have a crazy accent and they were a little harder to understand, but I noticed as I was visiting with her my accent also because to change a little, and it made me laugh. What I hear I seem to follow because I don't have a basic accent on any given state in Mexico!? After the wonderful lunch and lesson about the work of salvation in the ward we went to visit Rey Castillo. As we walked in the fancy office of his complex we saw him with his big smile and just so happy! He bought us orange juice because it seems to be a tradition we have. He had some wonderful questions in the Book of Mormon, and the best one was that he found that one of his favorite chapters right now is 2 Nephi 9, which is very much the words of Isaiah! As we teach him what it is saying, I also have been learning so much! As we left him we went and drove out of our giant area to teach member, but as we got there after 35 minutes of driving in bad traffic, we found out they had to leave on an emergency run! So we decided to go back and visit Samira and AG, some other investigators we couldn't get into yesterday. And it was amazing to find out that a God wanted us there today, because today both Samira and AG found our that both of their parents don't have much time to live. Samiras mom is full of cancer and they don't give her much time to live, and AGs dad has Heart failure. So we shared the plan of salvation and then AG asked if we could talk about priesthood blessings. We did and then Samira asked if she could have one of comfort, and so we did and she loved it and thanked us so much! She also told us that she knew we came at the exact necessary time! We feel so bad for their situation, but know it is for their growth. Our last lesson was with AGs mom and step dad, the Zuniga's. We had a family home evening and they fed us dinner, and it was just a wonderful day!! I wish every day was this packed with things to do and such wonderful lessons!

Friday:

Recently my thoughts have been turned towards how to stand tall through troubling times. It seems like every person we are teaching and my friends and family are all struggling with staying on the straight and narrow and Satan's is trying harder than he ever has before, because he knows that the coming of our lord is nigh! So I haven't done to much studying per say on just how to be strong, yet, I feel like God has been helping me study for it! So this week I have realized that instead of teaching the restoration 100 times we have actually been teaching lesson 4 with all of our investigators and recent converts. I just thought it was luck, but then realized as I began to study more that no, it was god helping me see that through obedience, reading, praying, going to church and following the prophet are what truly keep us safe and strong with the armor of God when Satan tries to shoot his darts of temptation our way. So today... today we had a wonderful planning session with the assistants for our exchanges we will be going on in his transfer, and then we did our own personal planning session to finish up from yesterday's planning! As we got done we also receive 2 more people that are interested in being baptized that are friends of members! God is really trusting us right now! So today was just full of lessons and was a very spiritually draining day, but always worth it! So as we taught today I was so happy to make it to the house of Karla Hernandez and find that Hna. Benitez, her mother and her little girl were already inside just visiting and having a great time! Karla feels at home, because she now has a family! And I am so excited to see just how far she goes! Also she said a wonderful prayer and asked the lord to bless her as she becomes committed and also asked for us to be safe and teach everyone how to feel what she feels! Really we had a similar experience with Sergio Hernandez! Something about the last name just makes them solid!;)

Saturday:

I believe today was probably one of the busiest Saturdays I had had so far I the mission, and was also on of the most successful Saturdays! So all in all we had an amazing missionary correlation meeting and were able to take care of a lot of needs, and then we had 5 lessons that were a huge success throughout the day! So we taught the Benitez family, Mariela Contreras (active member with lots of questions), Denise Vasquez (single mom who is lost), Miguel Gonzales ( 9 year old boy who's parents want hi to get baptized) and AG Ybarra ( less active member who is always wanting us to go by, because he loves the feeling we bring). So in the whole day of teaching I feel like there was one major concern that was hard for both me and my companion to concern. We always teach that the Gospel blesses individuals, but I don't know how to show that unless I bring up families, and some of these people don't have spouses and feel like the church makes them upset instead of happy. Another main thing I learned is that you may have seen gods hand in your life, but you still have to choose whether or not you want to be happy and follow Him.life is really what you make it, and sadly a poor return missionary has lost her faith as she has been divorced and feels like she will never find an eternal companion. However, I know that a God has a plan for each of his children and I never want to loose that hope that yes I can be eternal whether I find my companion in this life or not! I know that this Gospel is real and I will never go or stop going to church because of other people. I go for me and God!

Sunday:

Today was such a wonderful Sunday! I feel so at home as I walk in the chapel and the first thing I hear is "Que Honda Elder!?" And right away I see Ana and Isaac right there smiling, and we visit for a second and he same way was with the other members as I kept going in. I just feel so comfortable with this ward and everyone just is so sweet and real with us! Something I have learned today is I still have a lot of things I do not know and I need to become a better studier of the Book of Mormon and Gospel in General! I learned a whole lot about the gathering of Israel and then I learned so much more about the importance of Agency. I think we sometimes forget how important it is in our lives of progress and I think we forget even more about the importance of opposition in all things! I learned today something I have never truly understood. In both life and church lessons opposition is necessary, that is why we ask questions and have different answers from others, because the question can bring up something opposite of the answer and they can see the better choice. I love how just simple things can make a huge difference in my teaching! Also today was fast Sunday, and I had a wonderful experience where a was able to pray and ask for help, and received my answer, even though hey skipped giving me the bread... haha, but a lady in the ward was really struggling with understanding Agency, and during church she received her answer and felt Gods love! Also as we listened to the testimonies we heard the last testimony of a Hno. That we invited him and his wife to go to the temple together for the first time in about 13 years, and as he got up, he expressed his feelings of how it felt, and then he said, "i made a promise I would go back soon, and I want to keep that promise, because my wife and I feel so happy!" It made me so happy to see a promise we gave them come to pass! Then as we finished church today we began putting in all those who were at church and we were only expecting to have around 3 there, but we had 8!!!! I was blown away and I feel so grateful that my Heavenly Father is giving me these people to work with! We stay so busy, and today at a family search ward fireside I was able to have some what of a break! Today was a wonderful day!

I love all of you so much and pray for your success in all that you do! Have a great week and oh ya. Happy Birthday to a great example of mine! Uncle Lane!! Also Brooklyn!:)

Con Amor,

Elder Spendlove

De la Misión de Texas Fort Worth