Dear Family and Friends,
I am so very grateful for this time of year and especially for the start of such a wonderful Christmas season! I am really happy and joyful for the chance I have to share the new Christmas Video and try and light the world in my actions all through the month. What I am learning through this is that by serving I understand my savior more and I feel his love more too! So while I help others feel it, I feel it stronger in my life as well!
Well here is how my week went!
Week November 28th - December 4th 2016
Monday:
Today was such a fun Monday for the both of us! As we woke up this morning we went outside where we usually walk to our gym, and it was sprinkling and felt so nice outside! As we got to the gym it began to down pour like cats and dogs, and we couldn't get back to the apartment without getting really soaked, so we went and just ran through the pouring rain all the way back to the apartment and it was so much fun! When we got there we had to take our shoes, socks and jackets off and leave them at the front door because of how wet they were! But it made a great start for a wonderful day! So today we had the blessing of preparing a little bit, and we were able to do another deep cleaning of our apartment. I would say it is one of the cleanest apartments in the mission, because when we clean it then we are gone all day and don't have a chance to get it dirty! And we have one of the nicer apartments. So today after getting all prepared we got to go to the church and play some sports to get out some stress and energy and while there we also had the chance to go and write in a book that we are making into a Christmas gift for President and Sister Whitney. I was able to write my favorite experiences and testimony for them and I am excited for them to get it this year! So as we finished p-day we went straight to a dinner/ lesson with the Ramos Family. We had a great soup full of giant veggies. Like carrots, potatoes, celery, onions and much more plus a dices meat that made it delicious with a filling rice. As we finished eating we taught about the importance of Christmas with them and then the hermano just got on a tangent about helping us with an investigator that won't take a Baptismal date. So he taught us what he thought we should do and we are going to come over and teach him and practice with him to see if it will work. Then we went and had the chance to sit and visit with Samira and AG Ybarra. They are super funny and Samira is about to pop with number two any day. As we taught them about the refiners fire and about trials God gives us we invited them to not only pray but read on their own for strength, and AG was so surprised that he could read the scriptures to find ways to cut out anger. It was funny. However, a cool experience we had was this evening when we got home we had to finish our planning for Board day and so we decided to start with a prayer and as we did, we finished it in like 15 minutes! We were both in shock on how God helped us this time around! We were lost for a few days on it. Today was a wonderful day!
Tuesday:
Oh how I am grateful for a Mission President who tries his hardest to not only follow the scriptures and manuals but who tries his hardest to follow the revelation he receives from God. Today he sat down with Elder Graham and I alone in a small meeting before Board Day and was able to let us know of some major changes coming to the mission. It will be a blessing and I am very excited for the upcoming transfer. He loves us as missionaries and is just looking for the best way to help us to grow in leadership and in spirituality. Something that I admire about him is his honesty and how he doesn't hesitate to correct or change things that are not working. So today was a fantastic day of teaching. I feel like every day that I go out and teach people my relationship doubles with them and my desire for them to keep commitments grows immensely. I hope that they feel the same when we come by their home. So today we were able to go by and visit with Rey Castillo, our Recent Convert, and he is just on fire. He is working hard and opening up like crazy! He used to be super shy, but now he is very welcoming and opens the door just very talkative! He is reading like crazy in the Book of Mormon and is always full of profound questions on many topics. He is also super excited for the temple and just being able to go to church every week. And the part I love most is when he, like all Hispanics, make us apart of the culture where you give them a hug heart to heart after the lesson! He is an awesome example of change and dedication and I know many blessings will come his way because instead of bothering members to go to the church he pays taxis because he says, "I can't miss this event!" We love him a lot! So also we were out contacting and met this sweet lady named Juana. As we taught her about the new Christmas Video she gained interest, and the part I loved most about our visit was being able to explain to her in a different way the Book of Mormon. I explained it as another sacred book like the Bible that talks about Jesus Christ and his teachings on every page. With that she was caught and interested in us returning! Then we had a wonderful time with the Pablo Martinez family. They are a fun family and I have seen a great change in them from the first time we began to really visit them heavily. They are finally close as a family and praying, and now we are just working on the husband to want to be baptized. The last thing was how much I love to be at a Family home evening at the church with our ward. They are so sweet and feed us so much, especially the wife of Manuel Valdez! I love this Ward!
Wednesday:
I love when I am able to just sit in a lesson and learn from a member that comes with us. Today we had a great day really full of studies and planning! Plus a wonderful district meeting, and last district meeting of the Transfer. It is so crazy to think that It is the last meeting of the Transfer, however, it is and we will just be flying on by to the next Transfer! So this evening we were able to have a really good lesson with the Barraza family, who are members, and as we left they thanked us so much for helping their who was struggling, come back to church! Micheal is a wonderful guy and easy to get a long with and we even set that we want to go back and paint with the Hermana Barraza who is super talented! We also helped her fix her tree as the star was falling off! Then we went and had a wonderful time contacting some different families in the southern part of our area and ended our night with Manuel and Tania Valdez. Hno. Giles was able to accompany us to the lesson and we taught the second half of he first lesson and it was super powerful! I think the part I am most grateful for is when Hno. Giles taught to his needs by asking him his conversion to the gospel and then tied the life of Joseph Smith into it perfectly. And as he did that I realized how easy it was going to be to teach the rest to his needs. Joseph just prepared himself in the gospel and went from baptism to Holy Ghost and then to the Priesthood when he then was able to translate the Book of Mormon with the Priesthood power! It was an eyeopener for me and I am so grateful that God put that lesson and exact setting into my life!
Thursday: World Wide Day of Service
I have had just the greatest day today! We had the chance to go to the Mission office today to work on new maps and areas that will be in affect the beginning of this next transfer because of the new Stake that was just created! And now for the rest of this transfer we will be under remodel of the areas! We also had the wonderful opportunity to go and give service at a local food pantry for our Worldwide da of service and it was super fun! We were able to help a lot of people and it was a great kick off with almost our whole district! So today I have two different wonderful stories to share. So today we had the chance to go by and teach Mario Bencomo, a 9 year old for like the 8th time. So we have been teaching him for about 4 weeks or so, however, every time we pass by we invite him to pray and he always says no because he is shy or embarrassed with us. We tried the first few times to just force him into it and he wouldn't. He kind of rather pushed himself further from us when we would do that. However, we decided it would be best to just have the patients and let him do it when he is ready. Well today as we passed by he didn't want to do the opening prayer, but as we finished our lesson on the first 2 steps of the plan of salvation and were wrapping the lesson up we just said, "well we better say a prayer to end." Right as we did that we just bowed our heads with hope that he would do it, and he did!! We said a wonderful prayer and we were so happy for him! We have seen wonderful progress in the whole family and we are working on a baptismal date for the 31st of this month and his mom said that would talk about the date as a family and see what they decide! It was such a great lesson! Then we had another lesson that was set with a new investigator, and the Noyola family came and the lad, Ana felt so very at home! She shared her sweet bread and milk and we taught her the very first part of the Restoration. I was so amazed at how well she understood the lesson. And when we started she was saying she was attending another Christian church until we began to teach her about the apostasy and she began to have really good questions like how a prophet is called. As that question came up she found the answer on her own with a scripture that came to mind, and all the sudden she was like, "well I am excited to see y'all Sunday to learn more!" She just understood and the Noyola family were a huge help with the lesson! Today we just saw miracle after miracle in the lessons we taught and the things we did!
Friday: Jesus Honored his parents and so can you!
Today I spent a little bit of time learning about my ancestors and putting some pictures up for my parents in Family Tree. And as I did all of that I had such feelings of love for them for the way they have been raising me by example and by letting me use my agency and choose for myself and to make decisions. I have realized just how lucky I am and I feel super blessed! I don't know what I did before this life to deserve them, or what I didn't do and so i am with them to keep me going in the straight and narrow, but I would be so far down the bad path without them! They are my heroes and have given me the strength to endure through the good and the bad! So today we had a wonderful chance to go and learn from our Leaders in MLC and I learn so many amazing things from the Assistants and President Whitney! I think the two biggest things that I learned were that the mission simulates the church structure completely. We need to do as he church would do. Meaning that a Stake president/Zone Leader doesn't go to every Ward Council, actually he rarely goes. So why do Zone Leaders go to district meetings? Then the other one I learned is that most missionaries that don't act on the mission or are struggling do it because the are hurt or wounded spiritually, not because they don't want to obey and so they act bad. I have learned just how to better help those with whom I serve. So today we had the blessing of going and teaching Pablo Martinez, whom we have taught for all of my transfers here and has been taught for close to 10 years. So tonight we figured out a few things. First off he knows that God wants him to be baptized, and secondly he has a few things to give up that he can't give up on his own. As we visited with him he finally agreed to talk with someone like our bishop for help! I am so grateful for him and for being open and letting the spirit touch his heart! It was a great day!
Saturday: Jesus helped others to see and so can you!
What is better or necessary to live with God again, fear or Love? Today was such a wonderful day where we were blessed immensely! So today we had the wonderful chance to go to the Mission Office and draw out new areas for some changes coming up this next transfer and it was a very long process. We had 3 zones that he to be messed with, and each zone took roughly one hour to accomplish. However, it was fun just us two in the office because the office staff was out for their P-Day! So today we had many set lessons and again many blessing happen where we were able to have miracle lessons occur. So we were able to have about two lessons when we got back into our warm truck and began to drive down the road in the crazy rain and mist storms we have had for awhile. We were were driving we passed the Fossil Ridge elders and slammed on our brakes to take them to their next lesson to get them out of the rain. They thanked us and we dropped them off and they were telling us hey didn't know how to repay us. All I know is they can't do even close to what God did to repay us this evening. God helped us get into 2 investigators with whom we had been struggling to see. We were blessed to be able to go and have a wonderful lesson with Miguel Gonzalez and his parents really want him baptized badly, so we will be going over 2 times a week. Then we called and surprise attacked Jose and Gabriela Valencia. As we went by and visited them Jose seemed very different. He was open, lots of questions and thinking a lot more than usual. Then he said, "I am really feeling like I need to try going to church... I always put it off, but I think I will go tomorrow." It filled my soul with so much Joy to see his change and I know God was blessing us for always looking for more opportunities to serve. God helped me to see today. He helped me see how many blessings he really gives up!
Sunday: Jesus Worshipped his father and so can you!
Today was such an amazing day for me! Many of Sunday's I am super talkative and this Sunday I was just quiet. Observing everyone and just so happy to know that even though I can not be with my actual family this Christmas, I have a ward family here who loves me and wants me to be happy and have a wonderful Christmas as well. We had an amazing testimony meeting today where I have never seen the building so packed. Our ward was struggling to find more seats to sit in in he chapel and we were about to open the curtains! It was a miracle and happy for us we had Miguel Gonzalez and his family at church along with Ana and Arturo Avalos and Pablo Martinez show up with his family. They were all so happy and It shocked me to see them all show up along with a less active man named Ulysses Ramos! I was the happiest missionary in the world, because all of them showed up. However, to add on top of all of that, Ray Castillo was able to come, and then Manuel Valdez just received the Aaronic Priesthood today as well, and I was so amazed at how happy he is! He even stood up after his ordination as a priest and said he wanted to bare his testimony and did so powerfully! I am grateful for change and how it can create a new creature out of all of us! So for us we ended the night going on splits with Hno. Giles and Hno. Brown to help them with here visits, and it was so amazing to be able to just go and do some good old Home Teaching visits, however, I feel more prepared than when I went with my dad, because I know know how to leave invitations and actually teach the doctrine! As we finished our day, Elder Graham and I called in numbers and finished this week with 25 other lessons and had 5 amazing member present lessons with investigators! I am so grateful for my mission!
I know this Gospel is true and that it is the only way to a "Happily Ever After"!
And when I say that I mean with your family and God forever!
This is The Church of Jesus Christ, and I am proud to stand next to the Prophets as I say I know this church is the way. I am one of his Representatives!
I love y'all so much and hope that this week is a week focused on the Savior!
Con Amor,
Elder Spendlove
De la Misión de Texas Fort Worth
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