Mortal Life is Fragile, So don't let it break!

Dear Family and Friends,

This week I have learned a few vital lessons. I have learned just how fragile a human life can be and how much we really depend on the Lord. I have also realized how much our Heavenly Father loves his Children. As I go around visiting and teaching those I love I just can't help be grateful for my mission and for my family who always has shown me how to truly love others! I love this Gospel so much!

I hope your week was well, and here is how my week went!

Week November 21st - 27th 2016

Monday:

I love so much having one partial day to prepare myself and my things for the rest of the week. I have come to recognize the need for rest and realize that God as he created the earth definitely did what was necessary giving us a day of rest from our main focuses and going to the house of the Lord! So today was super fun being able to go and get the necessary things taken care of by shopping and getting the truck washed, and then we were able to go and get emails taken care of. At around 3 we were able to go and play volleyball with 2 families in our ward, and it was super fun! It makes me miss the old times together as an Executive council or group of friends playing Volleyball at Addie Edwards house, however, I love making new friends and I wouldn't change it for anything! So this evening we had plans to go and visit Hna. Parrajon who is living with another family right now with her family because they got kicked out of their house, and as we showed up the wife of the other family was so upset and frustrated. She asked for help from Bishop, and the relief society, but they both turned them down. She talked to us and said, every time i get upset about someone with the church you all show up and calm me down. For me I don't understand why a ward won't support 2 families in need who can't support their kids right now. They barely have enough money to pay payments and keep food on the table. And they get more help from a catholic charity. So we shared that Jesus knows how she feels and that we will always be there as missionaries to help them in whatever way we can! She was relieved a little bit and we set time to go back tomorrow to see how we can serve them! Then in he NIGHT we went by and had a great lesson with Manuel, and his wife invited us over for our third dinner for that day! It is going to be amazing! I love that family!

Tuesday:

Every once in a while I look back at times in my mission and it is hard for me to believe that I am where I am at. It almost feels like a dream at times, because I have had many dreams of knocking doors and finding Gods children, however, when I have a day like I had today I realize that my dreams come true and that we as missionaries can have busy and eventful lives if we choose too! So today I had the wonderful blessing of going on an exchange in my area with Elder Turley. He is a new missionary who has been in Texas for about 4 weeks before his arrival from the Mexico MTC. He is from Wyoming/Utah and loves the outdoors so much. It has been a lot of fun to be able to get to know him, and for only 4 weeks in the mission I am super impressed with his desire to work and his Spanish understanding! So today we had so many blessings as we were able to get into double the houses we planned on getting into and were able to teach like crazy! When we got home I was amazed to know we had taught close to 6 lessons that were solid lessons and some solid commitments were left. I thank God all the time because he truly has made our area amazing and blesses us on our exchanges, because we always find people to teach and receive even more blessings as we keep exchanging! I was so grateful for this day so much!

Wednesday: 

Well today we were able to exchange back in time to go to the first part of our District meeting in the Hurst Stake Center, and then we had to dismiss ourselves and go and begin our exchange with Elder Reveli and Parkin in Fort Worth North. We arrived in the middle of the day and I am so grateful to a God for the blessing he gave me to be able to have the experience I am about to talk about! So as we, Elder Reveli and I got going, we went and were able to give a blessing to a lady in the hospital from Mexico. We got lost quite a few times there in the Harris Hospital, but it was a wonderful experience! As we found the family we were able to get to know the situation, and this poor lady had a stroke while visiting from Mexico, and she was only in her mid 30s. The Doctors had to relieve pressure off of her Brain, so they had to go and cut out her bone plate on her right side of her head, and she had staples in her scalp to keep the skin in place. And through it all the lady was in a coma. As we went to give her a blessing we had to explain to the nurse what we were going to do and she showed us where the bone was that we were aloud to touch as we gave her a blessing. I was the first to lay my hands on this precious ladies lifeless body who seemed to be alive because of the air machine. She helped me realize how life can be so fragile. As I began the anointing she began to move her feet around and to lift her hands a little. She was not awake, but knew, even whiteout being a member of the church, what we were doing and that it was the truth. Then Elder Reveli came in and we gave her the blessing and as we did so I felt the spirit so strongly! We could barley touch or put pressure on this lady, but I know that the Healing Power of God was felt this evening! As we stepped back after the blessing the sister went up and had to hold the Her sisters hand to be able to console her. All she wanted to do was shake our hands even being out of it. She was trying her hardest, and I just knew she felt Gods power and love and that he is helping her through this trial in her life. So the rest of the day we were able to do a bit of contacting, and I had served in this area just before my area in Hurst, and I was amazed by the amount of success that I saw today! We knocked on a few doors in a smaller street looking for a specific family, but instead of finding a specific family we found a specific street full of Hispanic people and out of the 3 we talked to, 2 wanted us to come back and 1 had an uncle who is a member of our church and she knows a lot! Today was just a blessing straight from God!

Thursday: ¡Feliz Día de Acción de Gracias!

What an amazing day we were able to have today! So to start off the morning we finished an exchange in just enough time to be able to go home, take a quick halt and get over and pick up the bike Elders and go to our ThanksGiving Lunch. So we went and ate as a district at our Bishops house and as we were there he asked us what we were thankful other than the Gospel. As it came to my turn I said, "I am Grateful for my parents who taught me to work hard and to love the Lord, and because of them I am where I am today!" Everyone thought that was so amazing and then Obispo Olvera taught us a wonderful lesson. He said, "as you get home your life is going to be hard. Why? Because your sacred missionary mantle will be gone and you will be left to fight against Satan with only the testimony you gained and the spirit to help you. Rely on your family and stay strong for those you came to love. You will be a great leader and help if you do. Also use your talents!" The experience was priceless and yet it meant the world to me! So as we finished there we drove over and had a more Americanized thanksgiving with the Stafford family where all of Hno. Stafford's side of the family came, meaning the ones that only speak English, but it was so much fun to get to know his parents and brother and sister! We thought we would only have to eat one more time, but we got a call mid meal saying hat Maria and Johana wanted us to come over and eat some food, and so we went over and ate a little and just had a good visit with them and shared a small message about the importance of how we are in the Christmas Season! As we left there our last meal we were stuffed from the first meal still and so we were able to just visit with Manuel and his wife and family and then share a similar message about the reason for the season. Hna. Valdez was ready eyed the whole time thinking about past Christmases and she was so excited to be better!

Today we were over fed, both physically and Spiritually!

Friday:

Exchanges never get old, but they can be some of the most tiring things to do! So today we were able to start early this morning and drive to Denton for our last super important exchange before Board Day, and I was blessed to stay in my area and bring Elder Banks, a brand new missionary back with me. He is a shy guy and definitely a little different, but then I look at myself and I am just the same! He is a guy that gets a long with everyone, and our whole Day was just amazing! Elder Banks is from Idaho and his dad is an Institute director, so he is really doctrinally smart and I loved being able to discuss the gospel with him! So today we were able to teach a lot of good lessons and contact people, however, it seemed like no one wanted to hear a message about Jesus Christ. So instead, we went and visited a few members and less actives and were able to teach Alex Salazar, Hna. De la Cruz, la familia Márquez, Roger Saliezar and Mariela Contreras. As we taught all of these lessons our main focus was on a new video that just recently came out his morning called #LighttheWorld for Christmas time! It is a very spiritual and exciting video about how Jesus is the light and then how he tells us to be the light of the world. It was amazing to me how it touched so many of the people we taught and Elder Banks did a great job for only having 6 weeks in the mission field. He got very distracted easily, however he did a great job baring testimony even if he couldn't understand all that was being said. I think he other thing that I really enjoyed was being able to sit and enjoy a good visit with Hno. Roger. We talked about his home country, Honduras and what it was like, and I think the part I like most was the pictures he showed of the beautiful scenery and sites to see. Today was a wonderful day!

Saturday:

Everyday I hit a tired wall, and today like everyday I say, "wow, why am I always so tired?" Haha it's funny because my response still hasn't changed. It is because I am a missionary! Haha I have realized that since the day I because a missionary to now, I haven't had a day where when I get done I don't just pass out. For me it is a blessing and hard to because I sometimes am tired mid day. However, it has been nice to be able to come home and be ready to just pass out. So today we had a wonderful opportunity to teach Hector a little bit more on not just reading, but we received promptings to teach him how to read and write by memorizing scriptures and memorizing them by reading them and writing them down a lot of times. It sounds crazy, but as we have done it we have see some amazing success just in today! So as we were finishing up there we received a call from a less active member, Hno. Sanchez where we went and gave him a blessing of health, because he has been sick for so long and it was cool to have him search us our instead of us searching for him. We were also able to go and have a really spiritual experience with the Nickel family. I love them so much and am grateful to be able to know them. We taught them about the Atonement and the Enabling power and it was so amazing just to see as we talked with them how they opened up. They both have a specific person the feel they can't forgive, and as my companion Elder Graham testified I left them a commitment I wasn't ready for. God put the words right into my mouth. I was going to say pray for strength, but the words came out, pray for your enemies, and the were a little shocked but agreed to do it! I love God and is son Jesus Christ! They mean the world to me!

Sunday:

I think I have found a wonderful way to spend a Sunday!

So today as we went to church no one showed up, however, I feel like Sacrament, once it starts is my time, so I don't worry about those who showed up or not. And then as church is over, then we start to worry and focus on finding those that didn't show up. So today we were able to teach Gospel Principles, and to our surprise it was only us missionaries, so 8 missionaries and no investigators or anything. However, the lesson was super powerful on Our Eternal Family. As church got out we were able to get really busy and find a few people to teach. We went and found a friend of our member that had been coming, but her marriage isn't to great, so she was struggling, so we passed by and she was so very happy to see us! We didn't have a chance to teach Ana anything, but you could tell she was very happy and we set a return appointment! Then we went and we able to visit with Isaac Sanchez, and Juan Rudolf from Peru, and they were both wonderful visits! What I learned from today was just the importance of getting to know all the less active members and the importance of also just visiting those we couldn't get to in the week without setting up an appointment! It was a huge success! We spent the rest of the evening praying and planning for Board day coming up and where the missionaries should be placed for the new transfer. We planned and struggled for about an hour, and decided to just pray and leave it for the night. We will see how tomorrow goes!

I love all y'all so much and I hope and pray that you will keep being grateful and loving to all those you come in contact with! Have a great week!

Con Amor,

Elder Spendlove

De la Misión de Texas Fort Worth