Elder Kyson Spendlove: ¡Feliz Año Nuevo!

Dear Family and Friends,

How is 2017 already here! It is crazy to think I have been on my mission this whole year, and yes I was able to accomplish many wonderful goals, but this years goals are ones I need to accomplish badly! I hope everyone had a wonderful celebration but still focused on the Savior. My studies this morning were focused on the Atonement of Jesus Christ and how when we have a change of heart we become not different people, but we become what God wants us to be, Kings and Queens in His Kingdom! (Romans 8:16-17)

Here is how my week went!

Week December 26th 2016 - January 1st 2017

Monday:

My Pdays seem to be getting more and more busy as my mission goes on, however, today was a wonderful day! So we were cleaning the house this morning and getting ready to go out and go shopping and all and Elder Graham decided he was tired of squinting at every little thing, so we decided to call and make an eye appointment today in the mid day to be able to get some glasses, so he did! So that appointment was added to the schedule, and I am glad he was able to have the appointment, and now he is so excited that he only has to wait about a week to get them ordered in and then he will finally be able to see with no problems! So today we were able to go and play volleyball with the Gonzalez and Noyola family and it was really fun for me, because we were only speaking in Spanish! I learned how to communicate better in Spanish while playing a sport, and it helped me a lot! So this evening as Pday came to an end at 6, we went and taught the mom of Hna. Lebron, a lady who cuts our hair, who is from Puerto Rico. She is a sweet lady and we were able to teach her part of the restoration with the Benitez family! She see,ed to understand really well and had a lot of questions, and we pray she will read and pray on her own. We were also blessed with the opportunity to go and have a wonderful lesson with Pablo and his family with the Benitez as well, and we just talked about his commitment and that the reason he must pray for an answer is for a more deeper commitment to act. As we did so Hno. Benitez bore a strong testimony of his conversion as was able to help him see the need to pray specifically. So we know he is trying to be more ready for his answer, because he already knows it's true. And he has a lot of support! Today was just a wonderful day!

Tuesday:

God never planned on us failing, so why do we give up when he hasn't given up on us?

I feel like this simple phrase says it all for today. I have had many of days where I have wanted to give up and just go home, or go back to the apartment because no one wants to listen or I am way tired, but when I realize the blessings in the scriptures I can't help but want to put my heart in the work to reap the reward! So today my companion had a small visit in Carrollton, out of our mission, with a doctor to help him a little bit, and it went great, but for me I was just sitting and waiting for him, so I decided to study, and got on a study tangent about the Law of Moses and the Law of Christ and what the differences were and how they were similar! We also had the chance to go by and have another good lesson with Mario Bencomo and only have one more visit before his baptism, and he just keeps progressing more every single week and is finally warmed up to us! Today we taught him about temples and the word of wisdom and taught that we have to be clean to enter and like the temple our bodies are temples and to feel of the spirit we have to be clean. As we taught we put water in a bowl and poured pepper in it. As we told him more about baptism and the Holy Ghost we touched the water with soap and the pepper scattered super fast and he was amazed and said, "that is what the spirit will to our bad things we have done after we are baptized and try to be better?" It was so perfect and Hno. Giles helped us out a lot! We then went and had a wonderful lesson with Elders Lakey and Hanks and Eyestone and Clark, in the church for a dinner, and we taught the Reina family about Our Focus, and the had wonderful testimonies of why came here and how the have a great focus which is God. Then to end the night we went and had a wonderful walk in lesson with the Moreno family, a family working hard to get back to church. As we taught, the boyfriend showed up and we had his baptismal letter from our mission president from two years ago, and he was so excited to see it, and we think that letter will help him come back to church! I think we might have finally connected with them enough to make progress. Nothing to new is happening, but our finding was not a huge success and we are really in need of new investigators, but we need to do the work to get them! Here we go!

Wednesday:

What a fun day! I was able to go on an exchange with Elder Paxton in his area and it was amazing! Their area has been struggling a little bit and it was fun to be able to go and see how to make it better. As we went through the day and even got to go to a Coordination meeting with one of there two wards and it was really good! So I think I may have helped them solve how to not only get their lesson goal of 20 but also to have more success in their area as we were talking about what they do. Come to find out the only time they visit members is when they eat dinner, and I talked with Elder Paxton and they are going to begin to visit members every time they have no investigators or less actives to visit! I have gained a huge testimony of how we have to work more with members to have success. We haven't been as good as we could, but it has been a huge help and without doing this there is no way we could have had the baptisms that we have had! So today was just a wonderful time for me to be able to see how I can lead by example! I love so much being able to try and share things I have learned to help the younger missionaries have more success!

Thursday:

Well, today was really crazy! So I have to say that last night was the first time in a long time that I have been able to remember my dreams! I just have to share them for the memory. So my first dream was I was on the fired department with my dad, brother and Uncle Chad and all I remember is going on fire call after fire call and just being so tired! Then all the sudden the dream changed and I was a missionary knocking doors and I ran into a Chinese couple when I knocked at a house and they began to speak Spanish to me and I was so surprised. As we kept teaching they wanted to be baptized, and that is when the alarm went off! I know, super random, but they were both really weird dreams for me to be able to remember. So today we were able to end the exchange with Elder Paxton and Peck and go to the church for our interviews with President Whitney. My interview was wonderful and we even had the chance to talk about my family and how much I loved them. As I was waiting for Elder Graham to come out of his interview, sister Whitney was visiting with me and said, "wow Elder Spendlove, you are almost done! When you get home I will make sure to send one of my granddaughters over to say hi to you!" I was weirded out! Not because I don't love her, but because I am not even close to ready for that dating life! Girls are ewe! So today after our weekly planning we were able to go and do a small exchange where I stayed with Elder Hanks and we went and made a visit to the Lugo family in our ward while Elder Graham took Elder Lakey to have the baptismal interview with Mario. Mario passed and even tried on his baptismal clothing and he is super excited for Saturday! Then to end e night we went and had a really good lesson with Samira and AG! The reason I say that is because they were both just in a happy mood and I was able to ask Samira why she folded the corner of the page over on the chapter 33 of 2 Nephi. She responded because she wanted to study it with the Bible as well, and it was so cool to see that question open her up! We are going to now begin teaching her more about the Book of Mormon with the Bible as well! Today was a wonderful blessing from God!

Friday:

So today we literally had every lesson cancel on us during our studies, but had a lot of people to go and find and contact, and so even though we were a little worried about having a good day, we went anyways and tried our hardest with a prayer in our hearts that we would find some people interested in our message. We started off the day going and serving an older couple in our ward by raking their leaves and helping them, and they were so grateful that they took us out to lunch! So as we finished up there, we went by and grabbed Elder Grahams new glasses and headed off finding! It was amazing how as we went and just did what the lord always asks of us, go to work, we were blessed with the opportunity to teach the Tirado family, who is a sweet family who live on a humble budget, but try their hardest to make us comfortable. They made us dinner and it was so sweet of them! Then as we finished the our visit we asked if there was anyone they new that we could go and share a message with. They gave us an address and said that they had been sharing videos with her and so we went by and the lady was super sweet. She had to leave at the moment, but we shared a small door lesson and gave her a pamphlet and we are praying that we can go back by and share another message with her sometime soon! Then to end the night we were looking for an investigator that we had just received as a referral. So we knocked on his door and someone else answered and said he wasn't home, so we called the number on his record and went back and he came out. As we got to know Miguel Tome we came to find that he is a member that had moved 5 months ago from Honduras! He is only 20 years old, and has been a member for 2 years! He is super solid in the gospel but just needs some help here in this country! It was super amazing and we are so excited to see how he does as we keep going by to visit with him!

Saturday:

What a crazy day it has been for us! For some reason my companion doesn't stress over anything and I am just going crazy pacing when there is a chance that things don't get taken care of! So today was a wonderful day where yes, the baptism of Mario was a huge success! There was a wonderful turnout and Mario was super Happy! Even President and Sister Whitney were there and supportive! Sister Whitney said to me, "we seem to be here quite often Elder Spendlove!?" And I couldn't help but say, "I wish I could tell you why! The Lord is just blessing us!!" It was a good experience and Marios mom and Sister were both there and were crying! It was a spiritual baptism and he was very happy and smiling leaving the water! It was amazing! So the rest of the day went flying by, but we had the chance to go and eat with our Bishop and then we got busy going and teaching lessons. We visited with Pablo and Hna. Soto and then we also went and had a great lesson the Benitez Family and Rey Castillo! As we were teaching him he got super excited to go to he Temple again and the Benitez helped us teach a Rey and they were able to help him feel comfortable and understand even better our lesson! It amazes me how much work he has right now and how he still just goes! I am so amazed by just what someone can do for his family! To end the night we had two more lessons with returning less active members! It has been just wonderful reflecting on my mission this evening and just reflecting on goals I have had. As I look forward I realize more fully my purpose in this life and am so ready for what this new year brings. One thing I have learned is "Don't look back!" What a wonderful year of 2016!

Sunday:

It is so amazing to see the change and beginning process of a new member! Even if he is only 9 years old! I have seen the biggest change in Mario that it is just the weirdest thing to see him now and just see how calm he is and how he is listening so much better! The Gospel can change attitudes as we study the doctrine, faster than the study of Attitudes can change an attitude! So being able to go to sacrament meeting today was amazing to be apart of the confirmation of Mario, bless the sacrament and the just be able to think clearly about how amazing our Heavenly Father really is! As we finished church, we went and were able to get rides to eat dinner with our bishop! As we were driving I had to go with Hno. Merlos, because there was no space for both me and my companion, and he went with the other elders. As we were driving we found the sign, Mormon Tr., so we had to take a picture there on our way to dinner! During dinner I just sat and pondered about how much my mission has helped me grow and really how my savior has helped me, and then as I looked at the Ward family there eating with us I was even more overwhelmed by how amazing my ward is! I feel so at home, even if it isn't the perfect ward with perfect people, but we all are trying!

To end our day because our ward started at 1, we went and gave a blessing to Hno. Nickel and Hna. Nickel, who have been sick with Head Colds! They didn't look or sound good at all, and I was so grateful for the opportunity to go and give them service by helping them! I love the feeling of giving a blessing to those in need and hope that I can work this year to strive and be as worthy as possible to give blessings and listen for the spirit! So this year I feel like I have set a few goals, but not super focused ones yet and every time I get ready too time just runs out and I can't think about me! But I know that by focusing on others I grow and change as well!

My pictures will be in the next few emails I send!

Thank your all for your love, prayers and support!

I love you all and I do pray for you!:)

Con Amor,

Elder Spendlove

De la Misión de Texas Fort Worth