"Why should I worry? Let Satan worry; he's gonna pay for it later on." - Paul Dunn

ear Family and Friends,

How crazy to think that another week has passed! Why does it seem to go so fast when I enjoy it!? I hope that you had an amazing week and that you enjoy the experiences I have had this week! I invite each of you to listen to or watch the General Conference talk by Paul H. Dunn in April of 1972 in the Priesthood Session. It is very powerful! 

Here is how my week went!

Week March 20th - 26th 2017

Monday:

Wow, this week has already been so busy that I am writing what happened today Wednesday night. So I will make it sound like I was doing all those things Monday in the present time. So today was a wonderful Pday. My thoughts recently have been on how I can help my Zone and stay focused as much as possible, and today was a wonderful day for that! After a good morning going to a doctors appointment for Elder Arndt, we went and played Kickball at a park near our home as a zone, and it was such a fun thing for us to connect and work together! There was of course a bit of smack talk, but all in all it went good! Also I surprised myself and kicked the ball so far it almost went into a road and by the time an elder ran and actually had the ball in his hands I was already on home plate! It was pretty great! Also today was probably one of the hottest days of the year so far! It was super amazing to be with the Zone and see their fun attitudes! So this evening we were going to have people show up to our family home evening and no one could, so we just went and had a few contacts and had a good time! I think the part I liked the most is that we are trying a new thing now where we start our exchanges at night around 9:30 and then go until the next night so we had a real full day. It worked really well and I was able to have a good visit with Elder Bolduc, a new missionary, as I served with him on the exchange!

Tuesday: 

Today was such a wonderful day! Today Elder Bolduc, a newer missionary, and I went out and biked around all day searching for people to teach and it was just wonderful! We had such a good time talking to everyone and I realized something. I am very awkward talking to people in English about the gospel, but you can't stop me in English. It is really sad, and pretty funny! I struggle handing out cards in English but talk with everyone I see in spanish. So today we had a lot of good contacts and biked roughly 20 miles as we traveled to different locations! Sadly no one was available to let's us truly teach them b we had wonderful door contacts and something that really stuck out to me was when we were biking home and we had been biking for about 30 minutes and the wind was against us, Elder Bolduc was a bit mad about it and just focused and I was just a smiling and cheering we were almost home and for some reason that touched him and made him get excited again! I love so much just being positive! So this evening we went out with Hno. Guzmán and taught a lady from Puerto Rico named Pilar. She pretty much knows the truth and is fighting it just a little bit. She has been going back to her old church and says she feels comfortable, but as we talked we found out she hadn't been reading and for us that was a huge sign she hadn't received an answer. So we were able to invite her again! It was super powerful! Hno. Guzmán was a huge help for her! I am grateful for Elder Bolduc for his example and fire for this great work of Salvation!

Wednesday:

I love the wonderful Zone Conferences that I have with President Whitney! He is such a humble and spiritual man. I realize that he isn't a great teacher, because that is not what he did a lot in his work, but what I do know is he knows how to learn to be one. He is getting so good and has really made me feel the spirit! We were able to give another training, this time on revelation through church attendance, and it see,ed to turn out alright. President said he learned from it, so it had to have been something different from the others he had heard. Today I realized something about my mission. Every time I feel I will get a break I realize that I won't, that the mission life, the people and the trainings I have to give keep coming. As I was struggling through my week and especially my day after having a good exchange I was so tired.... I thought I wouldn't make it through my day. But let me tell you something. I know that throughout my mission my energy and strength has not been my own, but God has given me all that I have needed as I have done what he wanted done. Today I finally realized that for myself, because i found that when it gets hardest, he, through his power made it possible. He paid the price of sin, pain, weakness and struggles to carry that heavy cross. He then left this world and did not stop, but kept teaching and opening the way for all of us to return. I know that because of that, he give us the means whereby we can achieve the hints of God. Today in the Zone Conference, I learned simple things. The Atonement is not a thing we use, but something that already happened with Christ. However, as we accept the atonement we truly accept Jesus Christ fully into our lives. It was a very powerful thought and I invite all of you to watch the face to face with Elder Holland and President Eyring. As we finished the day off we were able to go and visit a few different people with the Spiers family, a sweet couple who are very missionary minded and have been looking for people for us to teach. We went and visited a less active lady in the ward named Reba, and then after that sweet visit we went and contacted a less active family with the nonmember wife and the non members wife was so nice, however doesn't want anything to do with the church. It is kind of sad. All day i felt the need to change, to be better, and i am going to change daily until the day I die. "Every day is a day of Change."

Thursday: 

Thursday's for me can be some really stressful days. Not because they are jam packed with stuff, but because we sit for 4 extra hours than normal to plan specifically for each and every investigator and how we are going to teach them and get them to church. I love, however, the new way we plan. We have a Vision(Goal) for every person or thing we would like to do. Then we write down the necessary plans or steps to accomplish that (including members who will come to lessons). And then we end by scheduling it in and later in the day and week we set up the necessary lessons and visits! This way of planning truly has changed my Mission! So today was a wonderful day where Elder Hooper and I went on two different exchanges! I went with Brother Saxon and we visited Cindy Spahr and it was a powerful, and simple lesson! We had sister Greenwood go with us and invite her to the women's conference on Saturday and she was super excited for it! I love Sister Greenwood! She is a super great member to take on exchange for good lessons! As we finished up there we headed directly over to Veronica as Weylan's hotel room and at first Veronica was in bad pain and was screaming at us telling us to let her be. As we left I sent her a sweet text to tell her we passed by to check on her, and she responded, "I'm sorry, come back by." So we did, and we had a powerful lesson where she was super excited saying, "This has to be the correct church of Christ!" And you could see that because of their reading and praying together, they are becoming a happier couple. When before we started coming they had major issues and fought. I can see the change and it brings me great joy! To end the evening it was time for another Exchange with Elders Bibaeu and Andreasen, from the Arlington 5 Ward. It was super awesome to see them and switch this evening, and tomorrow I am so excited to work with Elder Andreasen!

Friday:

It was quite the day today. At 9 o'clock we were out biking to give a Bible to a man, and as we knocked the door he immediately let us in. He was from Nigeria and was super open. We talked about the Book of Mormon and he humbly asked, "May I have a copy of that Book?" We answered assuredly that of course he could! He was so excited! As we left that house we had a determination to make the rest of the day like that lesson. Simple and full of spiritual promptings. As we reached our bikes it began to rain and pour, and we just decided, we can either enjoy this, or we can pretend we are going to melt. As we enjoyed the weather, everyone gave us the weirdest looks and we just smiled knowing we were doing all we could! We found a few people and came back to the apartment for lunch and studies with our white shirts super spotted and black and yellow. So we decided to wash and dry them quickly to be ready for the rest of he evening. I was very impressed by Elder Andreasen's desire and interest as we studied together and I loved the things we talked about together. And our evening was super eventful and powerful as well. We had a great dinner with the Edwards family from Tremonton Utah and then had a wonderful member come with us to find a few part member families. As we went out and contacted a few different families I was blown away by the potencial they have in their area! They have roughly 4 spouses who are not members and who are super sweet and spoke with us. I fully believe that with a little work they will have success in helping these people come unto the Fold! It was a powerful day to he able to work with Elder Andreasen. 

Saturday:

Well today do I have a story to tell! This will be the first time in all of my mission that I can say I have played basketball with an investigator and young men to get him connected and excited for Church the next day. He was super pumped and excited! So today we had plenty of opportunities for service with less actives working on mowing, and funny story is that both Elder Hooper and I worked on the Yard Care before the missions and we knocked those out super fast! He was mowing one side while I mowed the other and then we both stoped when we found a giant Salamander! It was nasty! We also had a good time teaching Emily Walton, an investigator who is so close, just has to get over a few addictions. She still doesn't have the best desire, but doesn't miss a Sunday because she wants to be with her son. However, she gains more interest every lesson! So this evening all the young men met at the California Building and we got Ainye and two less actives in and we played Basketball with them and the best part was Ainye inviting the less actives to be to church and he isn't even a member! I hope and pray he comes tomorrow to see what we are about! To end e night we went and checked in on Veronica and Weylan, and it seems like every other day is like night and day with them. We just don't know what to do with them right now. I just wish they would decided to be serious or not. However, no complaints!

Sunday:

Oh did we have an amazing Sunday! Today I attended the Family ward in Forrest Hill and we had a miracle occur! We had both Cindy and Ainye come to church along with 2 others!! It was super amazing and they seemed to love it! Also Ainye has good friendships with the young men now and loves it! As church ended there Brother Saxon and I headed straight over to the institute building and dropped me off. It was amazing to hear that Jesus made it for his confirmation and Aaron Cole, our investigator whom we have only taught once, came to church for the 3rd time and we have only taught him once. He is so amazing! We tried setting a date and he said he wanted to pray about it! So we had a powerful lesson tonight with Victoria Bernard on the Holy Ghost and it was so cool to see her just start to understand, however, I learned that the questions I ask are very bad! I need to study more! I really loved teaching with Elder Hooper and Sister Matthews. We also went to have dinner with Brother and sister Butler, councilor and wife in the YSA bishopric. They are super sweet and smart in the gospel. He brought up the point of how do we give "All" our heart to God. He stated, "you can not until to hit some sort of wall where you realize you can not make it without Christ. At that point you begin giving that All."

To end the night we had a wonderful time in Mission Prep and I learned the need I have to Study Preach my Gospel more. And then we contacted into 2 drunk men in the dark! They are nice, until they figured out who we are. I was a little creeped out when I heard the one yell at us saying, "My money is my God. You can't tell me there is a God. I'm God!" That freaked me out and I wanted to yell, "Get thee Hence Satan", but instead we tried to connect with them and then we just left, because when people drink here they drink a lot..... Today was a very Spiritual day!

I love each of you so much and hope you have a wonderful week! Thanks for your love and support through prayers and letters! Know I love you!
Con Amor,

Elder Spendlove

De la Misión de Texas Fort Worth