New Transfer and with Elder Kochan!

Dear Family and Friends,

This new Change has been so great for me! I am so grateful for my new companion Elder Kochan, and is Transfer is already flying by! Every chance I think I can take a break we seem to get another call and be assigned with something me to do! I love it! 

I hope everyone had a great birthday as well!:)

Week of April 17th - 23rd 2017

 Monday:

Well today was a really weird day to think and know that tomorrow starts the last transfer for me and that everything it happening so quickly! It is crazy to have the time be so full with things! We were so packed and we both had to get by and say some goodbyes to different people that we truly are going to miss a lot! I a, grateful for my wonderful Transfer with Elder Hooper! He has taught me a lot and one thing he has really taught me is to follow the spirit on teaching and also on the way I live my life! As I went through and worked on my plan I realized that I have a lot of work to do to plan my life when I come home, and I got signed up for some institute classes that start the day I get home! However, I will just go in the following week. I am super pumped. They will be help both Tuesday and Wednesday nights from7-830. I am excited for them, because they will keep me going throughout the week and then I will have Sundays to really get me and keep me on my feet! There are so many things to plan for, and I am not Trunky, but preparing! There is a huge difference. So today I said goodbye to a lot of really good missionaries! And I know I will see them again! This evening we taught Gabby wit Eve, and it was really amazing! Eve is an awesome member and just a really good girl! She knows the gospel and loves and lives it! I love that! Also tonight I saw some really sad stuff. There is a guy that loves the missionaries, but he is going through lots of depression because he feels that he has no one. He has no wife, no family, nothing. And it kills him! However, we decided he just needed to get out and have some Ice cream. So we are trying to help him, however, His Stake President would know how to and be a better help than we will be!

Tuesday: Transfer Day! How Crazy!

Well today I said goodbye to Elder Hooper and awaited my new companion, Elder Kochan. It wasn't a very long wait and he was at the door and I am so excited to be able to be with him! I actually was with him when he entered the mission and he is a really good missionary! I am super happy to know that he will be with me until I go home. He has been already today a missionary who pushes me to be the best I can be and not to waist even a moment of my time! Today was very much focused on helping Elder Harding and Law take over and know their new 6th Ward area and investigators. I am very grateful for the things I am already learning about Elder Kochan. We are very similar in our thoughts and actions and we have a lot of similarities and I am grateful that we get to work together! He and I work together well and it seems like we are just very happy and positive about everything. I think a cool experience we had is that we were trying to think of how to help some of our missionaries to wake up on time and we had the thought to go to Walmart and to buy a soccer ball and invite them to come out and wake up to play with us. We struggled to go and buy something not on a Pday, but we then decided it was for a good purpose. As we walked in it was crazy how so,done was prepared there and talked to us! God sent us there with not the intention of buying a ball, but finding someone! And we never bought the ball! God works in Mysterious ways.

Wednesday:

Our first whole day together and it was amazing!

So for both of us today we decided to plan in time to go and see what the campus at TCC (Tarrant County College) was like and to see the rules for contacting on their campus. As we went there and walked around campus we found these cool libraries outside where anyone can share their books, so we put in some Books of Mormon for different people, with out testimonies! Also we went in and found the Student Activities department and became really good friends with Carla Hernandez and Amy Stehli, workers there who speak Spanish. As we visited with them I was so impressed that as we talked about what we wanted to do they gave us full reign of the campus! It is an open campus and they told us they could even get booths set up for us if needed. We were very impressed and are excited to know that they where and will be so kind to us! As we walked around we talked to a few people, but then had to leave, because Aaron Cole called and wanted to meet up. As we got to the Stake Center to teach Aaron he told us that his mom was against all of this and that he was nervous on what to do. We had a really good lesson with him and seemed to help him. He is still on for his baptism and is super excited to be able to make more covenants in the temple. It is funny, because he won't say it, but he seems to want to serve a mission! We will see how that turns out for him! I hope that he will! Today turned out to be a great one!

Thursday:

Cool Scripture reference for you today! 1 Samuel 17. Have this quote in your mind. "If you want to see someone's heart. Throw truth in front of them and see how they react." Then refer that story and quote to 1 Nephi 16:2. Today was such a good but long day! Let me explain! Today was weekly planning for us, and we are both learning about each other, trying to figure out and focus on just our area now and also everyone kept calling us and interrupting our planning! So we had studies all morning and then something that happens when it is your first transfer together as a companionship you set goals and learn the area and it really just took us a really big amount of time to plan fully that by the time we got out of the house we were going to teach Gabby at the Stake Center at 6:15! That sounds crazy, and it was! That I why I am glad it is done and over with. So we shared a small message with her, and it was refreshing to hear how she really desired to be baptized still. She stayed to institute, and so did we, and I learned a ton! I love Brother Richins and the way he teaches us! He is very simple and tries to relate it to us, and it works super well! We know she received more answers to her questions as she attended and it was so amazing to see how she connected with Eve and Ethan as she went. This evening was quick and the day went by so fast! That is how our day was!

Friday:

Literally I can not express my feelings for my area and my new companion and how much Hod has blessed us today! I had doubts and fear when I found out we were just going to be over the YSA Ward and I thought for the first half of the Transfer was going to be very much just finding, but what I am finding out is that God revealed to President Whitney the need for this and by doing so God has been providing people for us to teach all week! We have found 4 new investigators today and have just really seen Gods hand in our work! I love Elder Kochan, because everyone and everywhere we went today he seemed to be so caring, and he also seemed to want to pray in every situation! It was really inspiring! So I wanted to share a few quick experiences! Our first one was with a sister in law of a member named Sarah. She wanted to learn more, so we taught her the full restoration of the gospel and she was so amazed and shocked about everything that we taught her! She even said, "wow, y'all taught that so well!"

Then we had a wonderful experience where we were going home because it was time and I was on my iPad putting in a lesson and Elder Kochan randomly stopped the truck and said, "I had a prompting to go and talk to those people outside, and I can't go another time without stopping." So we stopped and i was able to talk to them in Spanish and they all wanted us to return and 2 of them were YSA age!

Saturday:

Today was a wonderful Saturday and we were so crazy busy! I never thought that my Saturday in a YSA wars could be so good! However, I would like to just talk about our wonderful evening with Aaron Williams, a member in our ward! We were blessed with two wonderful lessons. Both Shuman and Gabby! We were able to go and teach Shuman, and as we asked her and followed up with her about prayer she was so excited when she told us that she felt something! She cried! However, crying was super hard for her, because coming from China they don't have much of a belief in God. So we had to explain that God actually helps us to feel his love and power through the Holy Ghost and sometimes those are his spirit testifying to us that he really is there! So that was super powerful, and then we made pizzas with Gabby and taught her the Law of Chastity and the Word of Wisdom! It was really powerful to see her so accepting and willing!! 

Sunday:

Today was so great to be able to have Aaron Cole, Gabby Macintosh, Jason Hammond and Shuman Zhang come to church and love it! Also it was cool to have a wonderful gospel Principles class on the Scriptures and then from there we were able to see that all of them are finally making really close friends! Gabby was invited to go and sing in the Stake choir with a new friend and she went and we went by to see her there and she was so happy and singing! That night we asked her how she felt and she said that she was so happy and glad she went, She felt the spirit! In the evening we received a phone call from the assistants Broberg and Flake asking us if we would please prepare he elders of our zone in singing The Iron Rod as Elder Lawrence comes to our mission on a tour. President asked them to ask us, and we accepted, and so now we are also working on making a pretty piano part and marking sure the elders know how to sing and what parts to sing. It was such a wonderful evening! My companion and I have so much in common and I love it! We talk openly to each other and it is super easy to get along because of that! He told me that he planned on helping me both enjoy, and finish my mission strong while preparing good for the transition. He prays for me everyday in our companion prayers and it really has inspired and lifted me! Some info on him! He is 24 years old. He is from Minnesota. Loves everything I do, including soccer. Is very smart in music. And works super hard! He has been out for about 1 year coming up this week!

I love all of you! Hope that you enjoy you week and remember CPR!
Con Amor,

Elder Spendlove

De la Misión de Texas Fort Worth

Transfers are Here! Elder Kochan come on Down!

Dear Family and Friends,

What a crazy week it has been! And even crazier knowing that transfers are here tomorrow instead of Wednesday! This is my last Transfer in the mission and Elder Hooper is heading out to Hurst with Elder Lakey in my old area! His is going to love it! My new companion will be Elder Kochan who I know pretty well and am excited to serve with!!

Also before I forget, I want to wish Skyler, Carolee and Aunt Jackie a Happy Birthday this week!! I love you!!

Here is how my week went!

Week of April 10th - 16th 2017

Monday:

Today was quite the busy day for us! I feel like a lot of the time we make ourselves so busy with things when we should just relax. Some of the things I needed to get done was emails, clean the apartment, My Plan and Also Shopping, but we had a few change of plans! We were asked if we wanted to go Mountain biking on some really pretty trails, and we could not pass up the offer! So we went and Mountain biked many trails and on our way back through I was so very impressed with how gorgeous the trails were. We were all the sudden in a jungle looking area and switched to a forest look and then to a tree filled grassland! I wish I would have take my iPad to be able to take some good pictures! So as we finished there we literally had to go and eat dinner and head out for the night! We got so busy we even went on Splits and I went and taught a lesson after FHE with Theren Boster. We were able to teach the nephew of Hna. Zuniga! He is so awesome and I hope that we can get him back to church soon! And on the way home I loved talking with Theren and learning new teqniques of teaching and having him want to role play with me while driving home! It is amazing how he loves his mission!

Tuesday: 

I have been struggling to know how to best write the experiences that I have had in my everyday missionary life. I don't want to write my schedule and my hour to hour events, but he things that bring back memories and experiences. I hope I can do that in today's thoughts! This area recently has just explored and we have been going like crazy from 11 am to 9:30 pm without being able to even go home for a second! It has been something very good for both of us! However, I want to share how two of our lessons went. We were able to have dinner with Victoria Bernard and her member husband and we had a good visit and then shared a really simple message about faith by watching a video. As we did so Victoria opened up with her "Feelings", something she had never done before! She asked, "do you believe in coincidences?" We said no, and she replied, "Since Sunday I have read 3 chapters and have found every single thing you taught me in my last lesson in those verses and I feel Someone is trying to connect with me."(Last lesson she prayed and Asked God if he would let her know by her feelings that what we are teaching is true. She is receiving an answer, she just has to see that!) It was so amazing to see her feel and to want to keep reading and progressing. As we finished there her husband was so pleased and grateful for us and what we were doing, but It isn't us. We also had a lesson with Aaron Cole, and he is pushing his date back enough to get his parents to be there and his family. He knows he needs to be baptized and that is the blessing. He knows! He is going to be such a powerful member! He makes me super happy to know how much he can become.

Wednesday:

I love so much being able to be with my Zone, and today was a blessing, because we were able to have a Zone Training Meeting together! I was able to give a training on Asking Inspired Questions, and it was a real help for me to study on that and try to learn more. I feel my questions have really been progressing a lot! And today I feel that I was able to put many of those questions to test. Today I wanted to tell of two experiences. The first one was with Emily Walton, an investigator we hadn't seen for 2 weeks. She struggles with some habits and was not super interested at first. Mostly attending to be with her young boy. Until tonight I feel! As we went in she seemed to be different. As we talked with her she said she had been reading and looking at LDS.org and had read about prayer and it scared her thinking we are excited and praying for the second coming. She said she didn't feel ready and that lead to our lesson of preparing using Alma 34 (Don't procrastinate the day of your Repentance). 

She decided from that to completely quit her addictions and it was powerful! However, that is a very hard process! Also this evening I had an amazing experience going with Brother Niell and having a man that we contacted who spoke really well in spanish. We received his info from Salt Lake as he visited the Temple, and he seemed to really like it. So I was able to share everything in Spanish, something I miss a lot! However, I get my fair share of speaking a lot still! I love my mission and that experience just magnified my love and emotions for it!

Thursday:

What is so special to me about Thursday's? Well they have become a sacred time and day where I can focus on those whom I love and how I want and can help them. At the beginning of my mission, planning was hard, tiring and just boring. I never would have said I loved it or hat I wanted to plan after my mission. But now I say, "where would I be without planing weekly, and how did I do it before he mission!?" It was a good last weekly planning for the Transfer and I now only have 6 left..... it is crazy! It was a fun day being able to teach Karly Beel, a non member grand daughter of a returning less active. We taught her he first part of the Restoration and she really loved it! She read the scriptures for us and even prayed! She was super open and a little nervous through the whole thing, but it really seemed to work out well! She is a very happy girl and we know she wants this! She will be to church and she is even going to girls camp this summer and can not wait for that! Soman experience I had after that was going to institute and learning from Brother Richins. We talked about 1 Samuel and my favorite verse in here is in Chapter 15 where it says, "It is better to obey Han to sacrifice." We also talked about families and young single mothers, and then about following he Spirit of the Law when told to. Gabby was there the whole lesson and as we talked afterwards she expressed that the lesson was meant just for her! She had questions answered and even felt more Peace. And best of all is she set up a time to visit with Bishop Kokenes!! She is doing so well! I am grateful for the growth I have seen in his ward and area!

Friday:

Today was just a full and packed day for me! I was blessed with the opportunity to be on exchange with Elder Turley, a younger missionary who I watched come into he field, and it is amazing to just see his progress and see where he is at now! He is a very good missionary, but struggles a bit with his obedience and a few other things, but I don't judge him for that, but we had a full day to work through the different things and to try and be the best representatives of God that we could be! It was a very successful day being able to go and teach a few different people. As I have pondered over how the day went, I thought I would share a few simple thoughts from today. I have found that literally every question can be answered by just reading and understanding the Book of Mormon. When we understand we can receive promptings. So today we had a lesson with a less active lady named Katrina, and her father who is not a member. He has read the Book of Mormon and didn't think it was true. However, as he read with us and we gave me background he began to see where and why everything happened the way it did! He had so many questions we couldn't answer, but as we read he understood and decided to come to church with us Sunday! We are so excited for him! We also had a wonderful chance to have dinner with two college girls from China! Wendy Li, and Shuman Shang. We had Ethan Starkweather there with us and they made us some really good Chinease food where we then share a message about Jesus Christ. What truly caught my attention is that Shuman literally has no knowledge nor belief in Jesus. Not because she doesn't want one, but because they is the way things are in China. She is very open and we are now going to begin teaching her! You teach when you find and you must find when you teach!(Preach My Gospel). As President Whitney has taught, "as we become Escalator missionaries, we will have success continually!" I know that to be true! God blesses us when we try to teach every person that we can! Elder Turley really is a good teacher and has great questions! I am grateful I have been able to serve along side him!

Saturday:

Today was quite the day! We were so exhausted from having such a wonderful day yesterday on exchange, and we were trying all day to just keep our eyes open! How blessed we are in this area! We today were able to have a wonderful coordination meeting with Brother JD Saxon, whom I have come to love dearly. He is kind, caring and always willing to sacrifice to help us! He is a huge help for me! However, he is used to so much change that he rarely gets to know missionaries well! I a, grateful he has chosen to become a Friend and truly get to know us! Our meeting went well, and then we had a fun Service with Matt Clark, a member in our ward who hasn't been to church for a long time. We are really trying to get to know him and then begin to slowly talk to him about the Gospel and see what really happened. He doesn't make sense. He would do anything for us, yet he won't come to church and even talk to us much about it. So for our service today we were cleaning up some piles of branches, and he found a copper head snake, which are pretty deadly. You have about 45 minutes to get medical attention! He luckily killed it and another one pretty quickly. You can imagine I was pretty grossed and creeped out and was really checking where I stepped and everything for the rest of the service. If there is anything I truly can not do, it would be snakes! The creep me out! So tonight we were able to visit Jesus Rubio's cousin who referred him to us, and got to share a message! Jose (Paco) is pretty cool and really helped us understand life more. We are all human and we all sin, we all need to stop judging and love and lastly, be joyous! Also, what do we do after we pray? These things really helped me! Also he has crazy energy! The night was coming to an end when God placed us in the path of a man named Jery who is 27 and looking for a church. He called out to us and so we got to know him and shared a message. It was really quite amazing and we even set a return appointment! God is so amazing how he works and shows his love!

Sunday:

"And the Angel answered and said unto the women, Fear not ye: for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified. He is not here: for He is Risen, as he said."(Matt 28:5-6) Today was such a wonderful day! And I am so very grateful for the resurrection of our Savior Jesus Christ that also gives us the opportunity to rise again! Today was such a wonderful experience to be able to attend church and see those show up that I wasn't really expecting. I was blessed to attend the 6th Ward where Katrina Morgan, a recent move in from California, came with her dad who is not a member, and he really enjoyed it! He even gave us a shout out in Elder Quorum when he said how we had been coming over a lot to help him in his yard and to read with him. He was very grateful! So today we had a wonderful lesson with Victoria and Jared Bernard, and Victoria is doing amazing! She is studying ahead and is always saying she knows what we are teaching is true now. She is so close, but just takes those baby steps for the moment! We also were surprised when we showed up for dinner at the Stewart- Johnson home to find that they had invited their grandma over, Sister Wynn, so we had dinner with them and it was a wonderful Easter Dinner! 

As the evening went on we had a few other people we visited, but tonight we got Transfer Doctrine, and come to find out, I Will Be Staying!!! This is my last area!! However, they are taking away our 6th ward along with all our amazing investigators!! Victoria, Emily, Karly and Cindy. That makes me so very sad, but I know that the YSA is starting to pick up and it will be very successful as we just focus on them! So Elder Hooper is heading out to my old area in Hurst!!! I am so excited for him and his new experiences he will have with all of my recent converts and people I taught, and he is going to be companions with Elder Lakey!! Also my new companions name is Elder Kochan! He is a very solid missionary who I watched start his mission as I was a Zone Leader in Fort Worth, and I am so pumped to be able to work with him!! He is a huge example to me! I am going to miss Elder Hooper so much tho! He really has become my best friend and hero as I have learned to love him and learn from him!

I love all of you and am grateful for you and pray for you daily. Please have a safe week and never forget who gives you the strength to keep Going! Read, Pray and Attend Church!
Con Amor,

Elder Spendlove

De la Misión de Texas Fort Worth

The Power of Prayer and Goal setting!

Dear Family and Friends,

I am so grateful for this week! I hope you are all safe and please know I love you! Have a great week!

Week of April 3rd - 9th 2017

Monday:

Well today was a wonderful day and at the same time it was a super quick Pday! I was very happy with our choice today to just relax for the morning and do some emailing and cleaning before we got to crazy into our day! I was so stunned to begin what is called My Plan, because I always associated that program to the older missionaries, and then it hit me that I really am getting close and that I need to cherish every moment even more. It amazed me how focus driven the program was and I am excited to keep planing and setting goals as I move closer. This evening I had the privilege of beginning an exchange with Elder Broberg and going to his area while Elder Hooper had Elder Flake stayed in the area! I was so impressed with the magnificent things that I learned just by driving Back. I love being with Elder Broberg and being lifted by him and just laughing and feeling loved! Great Exchange! Today I didn't have much to say!

Tuesday:

Today however I have plenty of thoughts! Oh how grateful I am for Elder Broberg and his simple teaching by his example to me. Everything that he did was trying to follow and teach as if Following the exact steps and phases that he would say to my questions and actions. Today I felt so strongly the spirit of the Lord as I served and worked as hard as I could! Today Elder Broberg and I were able to hold, throughout he whole day, a gospel based conversation about Doctrine and about the Zone. As we talked and studied he taught me amazing truths about how leading is really lifting, motivating, inspiring, and blessing all by my actions and what I say to build them up. We were very busy and as we went to TCC campus we were able to go and contact people and we talked to 19 people in an hours time and placed 4 Book of Mormon and got 4 numbers and a few set lessons! It was really an interesting time to see how we could boost our investigators in the YSA area! I was very impressed that before every lesson he did a quick overview of the lesson and then we prayed very specifically on what should be taught and receiving guidance. As we did this, every lesson we focused on following our first prompting and being first prompting spiritual responders and I was amazed and blown away by how the lessons went and how the Holy Ghost gave us both very inspired questions and ideas. Elder Broberg and I would then leave and evaluate the lesson and it felt even better when we both saw those same promptings influence our lesson. What I learned is that doing the basics correctly and even over and beyond, such as praying very specifically, that God truly guides and gives us Miracles! I am so grateful that I was able to serve around Elder Broberg my whole mission and for his love and kindness and example now as an Assistant. He truly is one of my best friends! 

Wednesday:

This morning for both Elder Hooper and I was a rough start to our day, both being super tired, however, it was an amazing day by the time we ended the day! We had a few really good lessons and they really got us pumped for the next couple of lessons! I think one that I loved was the one we had with Gabby Macintosh. She is a 21 year old and the one we found this past week! She has been progressing like crazy and today we talked to her about Baptism. She then looked at us and said, "how long do I have to wait to be baptized?" We both more than stunned responded and said that she could decided her date and decided that the 6th of May would be a good date for her! She seemed so excited and also really enjoyed the tour of the institute building that we gave her. As the day went one we had a few dropped lessons and had the chance to contact a few different people. As we were out and about, we met and had a good visit with a Less active lady named Katrina, along with her parents. As we visited we got laughing and having a good time and were able to connect well with all of them. Katrina is the only member, and so we shared a small video with them on Gratitude, and even the parents really enjoyed it and began to ask questions about how our church is different from their church. To end the evening off strong we had a really good visit with Cindy Spahr about Joseph Smith and the restoration with a very amazing member named Brother Bacon. As we taught he shared his conversion and it really was a sweet experience and Cindy did open up more! She even kneeled with us and prayed specifically saying she wanted an answer from him if she was learning the truth. It was a really wonderful experience. Just the past few days have been so tiring for me, but I am grateful for every last bit of energy that I have put into the people here!

Thursday:

Today I was very impressed and happy with how our weekly planning turned out! I feel like some weeks we are so worn down that we almost can't attempt a 3 hour planning session. However, I was so impressed as I just remembered how Jesus was always tired, but he still made the best out of every moment. Every time those thoughts come across my mind I can't help but just smack myself for saying I can't do it, when Jesus Christ did it! I am not saying I am even close to him, but I am trying to be like him! So as I was stating, our planning today was probably one of the better ones of my mission, where we were very focused and pushed to plan for our investigators in mind and really have been happy to see as our area has been changing. As we finished with our planning we just had some cool experiences happen where we went with a less active lady to tour the church and our bishop and wife were there along with another sweet family, the Peal family! It was a wonderful experience and we also were able to find a new investigator out of it! The granddaughter who is 13! So something else really amazing and a miracle to me is that as we ate with a YSA member and his family we were able to teach a small lesson to his nonmember family, and the sister in law was somewhat interested and so we are going to begin teaching her as well! Jeremy Hernandez and his family are really awesome! I am grateful for the opportunities I have to meet these wonderful families and people! To end the evening I was blessed to be able to attend Institute with Jesus Rubio and then share a lesson with him, with a Steven Jordan. Our institute class was on Judges and Ruth, and it was a very positive class and lesson! I am grateful for the Gospel and what it has done for me!

Friday: 

Today was a crazy feeling realizing that I only can attend one more MLC like I did today on my mission before I arrive home. I feel I didn't only receive revelation to help the missionaries in my zone, but today I also heard the Lord teach me things I need to apply as I prepare to go home! It was very powerful to think those thoughts. I love so much the training and revelation that I receive while at the feet of President and Elder Broberg and Flake. They truly are wonderful teachers and examples! One of the major things we talked about today was the importance of doing things that truly fulfill our purpose and Asking Inspired Questions. As I went through the meeting I was very impressed by how my personal questions that I thought began to change. I asked questions that made me think, soul search and then commit myself. These simple questions helped me have a desire to change, to become a better missionary and person! I am grateful for a perfect man, even Jesus Christ, who can show me his example as I study and read his words as he asked questions throughout all of the scriptures! Today as we finished our meeting we went and met a guy named Paul, who seemed to want to discuss and argue points, but we asked inspired questions and told him he would receive his answers through the simple lessons we have. He, however, is very knowledgeable about the Bible, and doesn't quite understand what prophets have. (Power, or Priesthood) and because of that he questions why a prophet is needed in today's world when it doesn't mention it in the Bible. It was hard to truly answer his question. As I tried he just seemed to disagree with my testimony. It didn't hurt my testimony, but I wish he would be open to our message. To end the Evening we taught both Gabby and Aaron! They are doing amazing and progressing very well! Gabby is still set for her date, but Aaron will have to push his back just a bit so that his Father can attend! We hope it doesn't get pushed back to far! All in all it was a great day's and Aaron ask me if I would baptize him!

Saturday:

Well today I finally had the time to open up my St. Patrick's Day package that I got from the Elders Graham and Lakey. So it has been siting for just a few minutes, however, it made my day! My parents are the best! So today was a pretty packed day of both giving service and teaching, along with finding time for two Coordination meetings. Both turned out really good, however, by he end of the day we were both Zombies! One of the lessons we taught after giving service and racking the leaves for a less active member, was to an investigator who lives in quite a dirty and smelly apartment with her boyfriend and roommate. They didn't really have furniture so we sat on the floor and that messed me up! However, they were very polite and kind. I think one of the things I enjoyed was our dinner with Alexis and Brittany Selvera, where we ate at Niza Pizza, a really good pizza joint. As we ate we talked about their conversion process and the Book of Mormon and then showed them the prince of Peace video and they loved it! As we headed out they asked, wat are the numbers to your parents!? We would like to send them a message and thank them for sending heir sons out to serve. That made us feel good and we were happy to give those to them! What I learned today was the importance of relating to and teaching to the needs of the investigators! Elder Hooper is always so good at that and it really impresses me!

Sunday:

Sundays come and go, and after meeting a return missionary of a week in church today in the YSA Ward I learned a vital lesson. Life gets crazy and I need to enjoy every moment. He also said, "when you are a missionary, Sundays are never a day of rest! They are in a sense, but we are busiest on Sundays! So today was wonderful because Matt Gilstrap, who has been home for a week from Gilbert Arizona, is now home and he was my companion while alone at the Institute building for church today. None of our original investigators came to church today, but a roommate of a recent convert came to church today and was more than open about learning more and seemed to love church and want to come back next week. That was a pretty amazing experience. I also wanted to express my feelings about our lesson and the progress of Victoria Bernard, another investigator we are teaching. We had a wonderful lesson and talked about the plan of Salvation with her. She seemed to believe or feel it all made sense, and we just had a powerful time teaching out of the scriptures the Plan of Salvation and Adam and Eve. She was touched I know and we invited her to pray to close the meeting and also to pray through the week and she agreed to both. During her second prayer ever said she asked God to help her know that what we are teaching is true and to have a desire and feelings of the spirit. She asked with a sincerity that truly brought me joy. I may never have the chance to see her I the waters of baptism or even in the sacred temple, but I will do all I can to get her closer than before! Also tonight we were asked by a girlfriend of a member this question. "Do you know that the church is true?" And we responded yes. Then she said, "then why do you have to continue to seek more answers through prayer to know again? Is that a form of doubting your belief?" I ask you the same question! Why do we doubt what we know is true? This truly made me think! I loved today so much! 

Con Amor,

Elder Spendlove

De la Misión de Texas Fort Worth

I can see the Miracles!

Dear Family and Friends,

It amazes me how fast time is going! I am loving so much my mission and this wee I really was able to see some amazing blessings and Miracles! I hope that your week was good! Here is how my week went!

Week of March 27th - April 2nd 2017

Monday:

Well today went a lot fast than expected and also I had a few things happen that were not all that exciting, but through it all I am grateful that the Lord gives me patience and also protects me! Some of the things were not I guess things to be happy about, but ever since I have found joy in my service I have a hard time not just pushing off he hard stuff and smiling! So today after cleaning the apartment good and emailing, we went shopping and as we were coming back we were all talking and I guess I just zoned out for a second and I ran a major red light! I immediately was pulled over and ticketed for $238. It was a shocker to me, but for me I was just so grateful that no one got hurt! God was protecting us so much, because literally, everyone was stopped and there should have been some cars crossing the lane, but nothing. It was a huge blessing. I took the ticket and just decided I would be happy knowing I lived and that no one is suffering. So the rest of the day we were blessed to go and have dinner with Sister Selvera, and it was so fun to go to Brahms and just see her talking with the manager and getting us free food left and right! She got us extra fries and so much! Haha she is a very crazy and fun lady! We then were able to meet up with Oskar and Cynthia, family of the Zuniga's from Hurst area, and the are so awesome! As we were there we talked about why they are not going to church and there was a lot of reasons, but they decided they could do more than what they were doing, so they committed to watching General Conference! We really hope they will! My favorite part was going outside and running into a Hispanic and having him invite us back to have a party with him because he was so impressed we could speak Spanish with him! Today was a good day! 

Tuesday:

Today I had the chance to stay in my area for the first time on Exchange and to be with Elder Hulse, a new missionary, who is super bold and sometime maybe a tad to bold. It was a super full day and the lessons we had were really good. This morning we were able to go by and teach a less active lady named Reba, and she is so awesome. What really touched me was Sister Afungia, a Tongan lady who has 2 serving missions right now and she was so sweet and perfect for Reba. She was all about hugs and it was just so wonderful! As we left there we were able to go and have a wonderful lesson with Aaron Cole, one of our investigators, and today he showed up with pen and paper to take notes on things that impressed him and questions. As we taught him we set a date or goal for baptism on the 15th of April! It will be so amazing! We then had a wonderful Institute class with Brother Richins, who I found out moved recently from St. George to work here. He was the director for institute there I believe!? All I know is he said he knew David Hirschi and love him! That was a pretty neat connection. So he taught about the organization of the church and explained using just 4 verses that Jesus Christ called 12 apostles and they did go through and receive every ordinance thAt we know receive in the temple today. The reason being is that if the church is restored today then It had to be something that was taught then on a restoration. It is hard to explain, but it was super powerful! We had a few other lessons, but one I really loved was our dinner appointment where we ate with the Stewart Johnson family, and the 3 kids were super funny he whole time! I felt so comfortable with them and we had a very simple and fun lesson about inviting a friend to come watch General Conference with you. They loved the idea and are working on it now! Elder Hulse and I had a wonderful day, but he was a tad to goofy and bold with one of our investigators, and now she doesn't want us to come back now. She didn't feel Gods love through his actions. It isn't that he is a bad missionary, but more that I should have tried to explain their attitude and help him focus and be serious. We try to be happy, but some can't take the happiness we have. That is alright. It they were ready they would have let that slide!

Wednesday:

This morning we woke up to find out that our power had been out all night from a major rain storm! So we went to the gym and worked out in the dark and then we came home and made breakfast and showered in the light a of flashlight! It was super fun! It has been so long since this has happened to me and it really made me happy! However, we hope the power goes on shortly, because we don't want our food to go bad! So I thought it would only be a simple problem with the power, but as we walked in the house this evening at 9:15 we realized, The Power is still out from the wind storm that we slept through last night! It has almost been 24 hours and we had to take our food to the church fridge to stay cold. So we have no food here in our apartment and no light but a flashlight and sunlight in the mid day! I imagine this is similar to many missionaries in other missions and it humbles me. I am grateful for the experience the Lord has given me! So today we have had such a long, but amazing day! We had a good district meeting and even were able to be apart of a Language Study and oh how I miss my native tongue, Spanish! I will go every week if I can! This afternoon we had quite a few lessons, but this evening we got a new investigator for the YSA and had such a wonderful lesson with her. Her name is Gabby and Ethan Starkweather was such a wonderful help to teach her! She is super prepared and going into the Marines. She is such an amazing lady and we hope she reads and prays! As we went out with Brother Peterson, a professional painter, this evening, we went and had such a wonderful opportunity to teach Cindy Spahr, and she loved so much the Women's Conference! It was so powerful!

Thursday:

So today we were supposed to have weekly planning, but by the time we had our day planned out and we're ready for what was going on, we didn't even have close to enough time to start planning, so our Thursday was quite different! So,today we were able to have a lesson for the first time with a referral named Devon'dre and he was super open and happy about what we taught, and I can see him progressing well. He just got out of jail and doesn't want to even think about going there again! Also we had a great lesson with Sam, a recent convert who has the coolest story about the Book of Mormon. He told us that he was catholic and that he would always here that we as Mormons didn't believe in Christ and that we were horrible people and one day as he was on line he saw that he could order a Book of Mormon for free and so he did so. As he read and e missionaries came by he found out the truth and that almost every page talks about Christ and he came to know that the Book of Mormon was a True Book! It was a very cool story! Then something that I really enjoyed was being able to go out with Hiva Afungia, a young man in our ward that really loves to serve and his brother and sister are serving missions right now. He is a Tongan and is super cool. Also he is getting ready to send in his paperwork and I am super excited for him! I am grateful I had the time to get to know him! 

Friday:

Today I have had the chance to go with Elder Cardona on an Exchange. He is from Frisco Texas and loves serving where he is! So today I learned a lot from this exchange, because he is just a more relaxed but hard working missionary. Something I really liked about what he does is how he connects with and puts himself in the shoes of those we were teaching. He tried to know them before teaching them or inviting them to act, and that was powerful! So many of our lessons canceled for today and rescheduled throughout the upcoming week and days, and I thought I would stress about it, but instead I just made the best out of what I could. Today we met up with Aaron Cole, and taught him and he is set for the 15th of April, because he has already told family members and is super pumped about it! He is so amazing and will be coming to General Conference this weekend. We also had a cool experience getting to know the Morris Family. Brother Morris is a professional artist and sketches amazing are and also paints amazingly. He told us next time we go by he will sketch our funny pictures! They are a different but cool family! I think one girl we taught named Nikki just needs to act. She knows everything that we teach and she has read and knows the Book of Mormon and she is just scared to act. I told her now that she has a truthful knowledge she must act. It was super powerful! She is a crazy girl and rarely sleeps and is a talker! Haha it was quite the lesson! To end the night, Cameron Anderson, an awesome younger member, helped us exchange back by taking us all the way to the edge of Mansfield and back by 10 o'clock! He is so awesome!

Saturday:

All I can say is WOW! I can hardly believe that General Conference can be as good as it was! Before my mission I don't know why this stuff didn't hit me like it does now! What an amazing day we had just being able to sit at the feet of loving Prophets and Apostles of the Lord! I felt the Spirit so strongly today in so many different moments to teach me the simple little things I must do to make a huge difference in my life! I think to make Conference even more special, we had a girl named Gabby, that we contacted this week, come to conference. As we got to the final conference message for the afternoon session, I believe Elder Ballard, she wrote on a 3/5 card a small message to us on how she had committed a sin and how the action was something that changed her life forever and made herself not feel worthy or feel like she could ever be clean and in the presence of God again. In that moment we stepped out and into another open room and began to visit with her. We taught the power of Jesus Christ and how he can cleanse and heal us. As we did, she began to cry. We shared scriptures and helped her see her potential and it made me feel so so grateful for the Spirit which directed our every word. We were patient and listened closely and were careful for the wording we used and the spirit truly guided our words. We do believe that she will progress and act now that she has felt the Love of God in her life. We then met up with Aaron Cole, another progressing investigator who has a date for the 15th and were super happy to go and eat dinner with the Gorbenko Family and Aaron. As we ate we talked and enjoyed a great conversation about each of their conversions. As we got talking Brother Gorbenko is from Ukraine and speaks Russian and he actually played the Accordion for us! We then attended Priesthood session with Aaron and it was amazing. Aaron said he had to leave and so after 30 minutes we went to check on him and he fell asleep in his car just being to exhausted from everything! It was an amazing day of Learning and Repentance! 

Sunday:

I have so many thoughts and things I want to say about this past weekend, but I just don't know where to begin! So for now I just want to share 2 experience other than Conference that mean a lot to me right now. Today after listening to and having a great time with General Conference we were able to teach Aaron Cole who is pretty determined for baptism on the 15th. I would like to explain how that is a miracle in my eyes and then share another miracle that I saw today! At the beginning of this Transfer we both had he impression and vision come to us to have members in our ward get fired up by setting their own baptismal dates or dates to have their friends of family take the lessons by prayer and revelation. As we began to do this we then thought, "how is it that we can invite others and not do the same?" So then we decided and set a date that we both felt comfortable with, April 15th. We had no one specific that was even close to be ready for baptism, but decided to try and have and use that same faith that we invited our members to use. That very next week Aaron fell into the picture from a YSA member and it was so amazing to just see him progress and become apart of the ward and want to take lessons! And now I can see as he works for that same date, that Goals/Visions and then plans truly do bring blessings and Miracles. And we will be getting him to that date by Inviting and Helping. That was one of the miracles I have seen today. The next one was following the spirit in a lesson where we had hit a dead end and seeing a GIANT miracle. We had arrived to the Bernard home to teach Victoria, the non member wife, when we realized that Sister Greenwood and her had a conversation and that she had been crying because of some past issues. As we began to talk she told us and began crying, because she felt at the point that she could not do it. As we talked with her we said, "we know you can not do it, and neither can we, at least not alone." We then showed the new #Prince of Peace video on Mormon.org and talked to her about how Jesus Christ is there with open arms for all of us. We asked her how she felt about prayer, and amazingly she said, "I would like to learn how to pray." His was the first time she desired to know. As we taught her we then invited her to pray for us, and as she did we felt so much peace and joy! She Felt peace. For the time we have been teaching her, this is the very first time she has felt a feeling!! It truly made her radiate and feel the energy that yes she could get through and overcome anything with the help and power of prayer! Today was powerful! Here are a few things I learned!

• Saturday Morning Session:

• Families are the Heart of God's Plan.
• Even the best technology can't beat Revelation.
• When Jesus called to his Apostles and said Come Follow Me, does that mean they were baptized?
• The Atonement is the great and Vicarious gift to us!
• We cannot be part-time Disciple.
• Give me you all. Every part of you!
• Our Savior atoned for the sins of the World because he said he would!

So many others that I would love to share, but not enough time!

Con Amor,

Elder Spendlove

De la Misión de Texas Fort Worth