Crazy week!

Week December 5th - 11th 2016

Monday: Jesus healed the sick and so can you!

So today was a wonderful p-day. Sadly we didn't have any chances to find really sick people today to pray for, but as we were finishing our Pday a homeless man came to us asking for help. He was spiritually beat up and starving. We shared our food with him and told him after trying to call everyone we could that we had to go and he would have to look for more help. We helped in the ways we could and he was very grateful. His name was David and I am grateful that God put him in our path and that we were able to help him. As we left he church we headed and had a wonderful lesson with Pablo Martinez and his family about the Word of Wisdom using the idea behind 2 Kings 5 where the captain of Syria is healed from his sickness of being a leopard by bathing in the river of Jordan 7 times. He doubted the power of God, but his servant helped him and he was healed! Pablo loved it and understood that he still knows God wants him to do these things. And not to look for a great big sign. But that he should look for he small things! He says he feels the spirit in all our lessons and so we committed him that if he would quite his habits he would feel the spirit even stronger! 

Then we went by and had a wonderful lesson with AG Ybarra and his wife Samira. AG It the member and his wife Samira wasn't interested, but as we keep going by and reading parts of the Book of Mormon she keeps getting caught on stuff! We taught them about Samuel the Laminate and the prophesying of Christ. As we were talking I had a prompting to read the scripture 2 Nephi 33:10-11 where it says, "if you don't believe in these words (the Book of Mormon) believe in Christ. But if you believe in Christ, believe in these words because they are the words of Christ!" As it was read and we kept talking, she kept skimming over it and then I watched her fold the corner of that page down and close the book slowly and keep listening. I know that she is being converted a little every time we go and I hope and pray we will get to her heart and see her change as she decides to act! Today was such a blessing!

Tuesday: Jesus read the scriptures and so can you!

It is amazing to me how after the tenth exchange in this transfer I still am just in love with having exchanges to get to learn and grow outside of my comfort zone! So today I went on the last exchange with Elder Taylor before he goes home next week, and it was so amazing! I was able to start my mission with him, and now I am able to watch him go home! He is a super wonderful Zone Leader and has taught me a lot! So today we focused on the reading of the scriptures, and for me it isn't hard to do at all! Every chance I get I am trying to read the scriptures and it is amazing to me how much they help me every day! So today we had some lessons fall through, which is called a Exchange day, meaning that every time we have exchanges somehow our schedule either gets super packed and is amazing or we get left with nothing but finding! So today what I wanted to talk about was a service we went and did. We were able to pass by and visit Hna. Alvarado and her husband Hno. Lopez where we helped Hno. hang his lights on his house outside in the freezing cold, while the Hna.s were inside scaling a popcorn ceiling off the dealing of a room and decorating the house for Christmas. It was a wonderful feeling to see how we were able to help them and it made me so much more ready and in the mind set of the Christmas! As we were eating withnthem we had a wonderful lesson and Hna. Alvarado was able to tell us very spiritual stories about dreams she has had and how she met President Bensen in a dream and that is why she got baptized! She is a wonderful woman and her husband is so pacient with her and so sweet! So in the evening we were able to have a few lessons, but what I learned from Elder Taylor the most is the importance of praying sincerely and fervently for my companion and for those around me. He prays so powerfully!

Wednesday: Jesus fed the hungry and so can you!

Today was such an amazing da for me, being able to be apart of the Zone Council and give a training to the zone about a different topic, but the importance of not flirting. Many were kind of not sure on this topic, but I decided to just be bold with it! As I taught I decided not to focus on just don't flirt, but the Why behind it all. I talked about how we made Covenants in the temple and how when Jesus Christ came he gave us a higher law to follow. As I trained the insights I got were amazing! And the rest of the thoughts were amazing during the whole meeting. One of my favorite was a quote that says, "If your focus is on reaching goals then you will hit your goals, but if your focus is on your missionary purpose you will hit your goals focused on the people and not the number." It's something that to me is so important, and I loved it! So today we were able to get a hold of a few members who are less active, and even found a few houses where the members changed homes and so we taught a door lesson at a few homes! The feeling of contacting, or having the time to contact was amazing! However, the lesson that I loved most was with Erika Dominguez and her husband who is a member. We were planning on just reading 1 Nephi 1 but as we read she was very lost on prophets, so we were able to teach her focused on Prophets and teaching doctrine, ad she began to understand. At the end of the lesson we showed her a conference talk of Thomas S. Monson, and she loved it! They both said they would be to church this Week for sure! Today was a blessing!

Thursday: Jesus prayed for others and so can you!

Today I took it seriously like I do everyday and I focused on praying for others with them and when I was alone! However, something I realized is that I wasn't praying for my own companion like I should be, and now that is something that I will begin to do! So today we had the chance to do some really good weekly planning and it seemed to just fly by! It is crazy to me how just time never takes a halt. So today the weather just went way south! It was in the 35 degree mark and windy and just horrible, so I was glad we got to stay inside for a good portion of the day! So they are saying tomorrow will freeze and be in the 26 degree area! So today we were able to go and teach Ana Avalos, a new investigator and Friends of Magali Gonzalez of our ward, and she is doing amazing. Sadly it wasn't our best lessons and were kind of scatter brained, but she seemed to understand pretty well what we were teaching her and her understanding of what we taught before was amazing because she was reading the pamphlets! I pray she gets an answer! And to our happiness, Hno. Giles spent all night with us and we ended by going over to the home of Manuel Valdez and we were able to read through his letter from President Whitney that he writes to every convert as they get baptized. And then he puts with it a picture of the Dallas Temple that no one else has! It is amazing to me how it gets the converts excited for the experience of going to the temple! Today was a wonderful day!

Friday: Jesus visited the lonely and so ca you!

I would say today I was very pleased with the fact that we were able to serve and visit the lonely a lot, because we seem to do that about everyday as we go and find less actives to teach! So today the wife of Manuel Valdez made us dinner again for like the 20th time after the baptism of Manuel, and she was telling us that Manuel was bringing us more Chick-Fil-A cards with money so we always have dinner! She is so sweet and has kind of taken the mom role here in our ward! We were able to teach both of our closer to baptism 9 year olds today and both of them are doing great! Their parents still haven't discussed a date, so we will be sending reminder texts to them to get them on it and get a date for these young boys! We also had the amazing opportunities to go and teach The Nickel family, a young family I have talked about before, and we talked about forgiveness and how it is required that we forgive all men. I know that it was a wonderful topic for them, because of how it made them think! They tell us that we need to come back more often, because it helps them a lot in their marriage! To end the night, I was thinking about my simple yet powerful gifts I am receiving that I open after a tiring day, with wonderful ties and even stronger testimonies! That idea was inspired and lifts me up so much when I am struggling! I am so grateful for those who have given me a copy of their testimony, because I realize that I am never a lone in this gospel! Today was a wonderful day!

Saturday: Jesus helped people to walk and so can you!

¡¡18 Month Mark!!

Today was a turning point for me in a few things, and from today onward I have a desire to find every scripture possible to be able to share with someone to make them interested or know what I am sharing is the truth. So today as we finished with our correlation meeting with Mario Santiesteban, we went and had a good by lunch with Elder Williams at Olive Garden with a gift card we were given and then Elder Graham and I went to a set lesson we had with a lady and her husband that we had contacted te week before. As we knocked the lady opened and let us right in. It felt weird that they were letting us in so easily... as we sat down it got out of hand right at the beginning. They started questioning us and as we would teach something the would say, "I want to see that in the Bible, we don't believe in prophets or your Joseph Smith." It just turn into a bash and did no good for us, and I did not feel the spirit at all. As they said things to us we just stood up for our beliefs and testified and they tried to tell us our testimonies were false and that we needed to beware of another book and only read the Bible and pray and ask God forgiveness. What I learned from the whole experience is that it is easier to get up and leave and not say anything. I also learned that I am very much rusty on my bible scriptures that make me know that the restoration would be necessary. So I have set myself the goal of studying even more in the Bible and referencing over to the Book of Mormon! The rest of the day we struggled to get into people to teach, but we had a great rest of the day that included going to a baptism for the Hna.s in our ward! And Elder Graham was able to baptize the sweet lady who got baptized who had searched for our church for 16 years! Today was a great day!

Sunday: Jesus Ministered to the Children and so can you!

Today was such a spiritual Sunday for me! Also I would have to say a moment to humble myself... So today we had a missionary meeting with our bishop and he pulled us aside and talked to us about how important we were, but how we needed to have patience and enjoy our missions and let no one drag us down. He looked at me and said, "Elder Spendlove, you need to relax and not stress. You worry to much." It struck me that he would say something like that in front of everyone, but I decided to just take it and learn from it. I don't feel like I stress about members or very much, but that I worry about their well being and if someone says that they and their kids are freezing I think of my hélices and nephews freezing trying to get warm and I can't stop trying to find ways to help them. But I am working on patience and letting God be in charge more. So today was a wonderful Sacrament Meeting and we had Jose and Gabriela there for the first time that I have ever been here! It was so amazing! He thought he wanted to go home after the first hour until he enjoyed the first hour and the second hour. As Jose got into the 3rd hour I could tell he was in love with it! He was ready to get out of there, but he definitely felt love and he Spirit there! Also Mario Bencomo and his sister and mom decided that if his dad wasn't going to come, they were! They snuck in and I was so happy to see them! It was a great church meeting where we heard from the Stake Patriarch, Kelly Schofield, in Spanish! Because he served his mission 50 some odd years ago in Peru! To end the night we went to a performance called Sing Noel where we were able to listen to 3 different Stake perform in Choirs and orchestras! It was so amazing! I wish we did that in our Stake back home!

It was one of he most spiritual feelings outside of the temple to hear those kids sing and the wonderful angelic choirs!:) 

I love y'all so much!:):)

Con Amor,

Elder Spendlove