Happy Mother's Day #2!

Dear Family and Friends,

I am so glad and grateful for this wonderful weekend and week which I have had! I know my weeklies are slowly going down hill, but it can't be hard to keep writing every single night! So sometimes I get behind! I love y'all and hope you have a wonderful week!:)

Week of May 8th - 14th 2017

Monday: 

I can already tell this week is going to be crazy! So today was a major miracle being able to spend it with Elder Lawrence form the General Authority of the Seventies. It was much better than a Pday to be able to serve and council with him and President Whitney at the head. We went to MLC with intentions of a lot of different trainings, and got there to find out that we would only Council on one point for 3 hours because of the details and concerns we had as a mission. As a result we also were able to see and be apart of a mission Wide change in how we set our goals for baptisms. It was the most wonderful revelation we could ever receive, because it was something we were able to be apart of and know that it would effect our mission as a whole. The change was to set goals for every three months instead of every month. So we have a goal of 100 for the next 3 months combined and I know we can do it! Also while there I found out from Elder graham that Derek Lugo (I can't remember his last name), one of our investigators who was the husband of a member, got married and baptized after we had set a date with him and I had left! So I have to include his wedding and baptism pictures! It was an amazing day and to be able to come home and have a quick song Practice with our Zone was also amazing and they are super ready to sing at the conference of Elder Lawrence! So this evening we picked up the Elders Dyer and Hulse to spend the night with us and go to the conference early tomorrow, and Elder Dyers ear infection got worse and we had to take shifts all night with him so that he could sleep and we could make sure he was taken care of. We made him a makeshift bed that was propped up and then we tried to make sure he was comfortable. He definitely was in more pain than I thought possible, moaning all through the night and screaming as well! His ear was completely swollen and full of infection!

Tuesday: 

This morning was quite the challenge for us all! We had taken turns and were up all night more than sleeping to help Elder Dyer who was in so much pain he asked every 15 minutes what time it was. He was screaming and Whimpering. I do write this to embarrass him, but to write the amount of pain he had. As we got up and ready for our Mission Wide Conference for the South Zones with Elder Lawrence we had two things we needed to do. 1 was to get to the conference early to practice our song with the rest of the elders in our zone and then number 2 we had to think of Elder Dyer first and get him to an ER immediately. So we were a little stressed out trying to make sure everything worked out. We went with Elder Dyer to the Er and then headed out while he was being check up to practice our song. Then we went back to pick him up, get his meds and take him home, and we headed all the way back another 30 minutes to the conference so that we could participate in the song. So by the time we showed up to the Lawrence conference we had missed a very understanding and Doctrine based talk from Sister Lawrence and President allowed us to come back tomorrow for the other half even though it is our pday. So we finished the meeting and I loved the simple teaching from Elder Lawrence about Joseph Smith and who he was! I love Joseph Smith and have decided to study his life more fully! As the day went on I stayed with Elder Dyer and tended for him while elder Hulse and Kochan got our for a bit! Then I took the full night shift of taking care of Elder Dyer to see if I could help everyone else sleep. It was hard. We were up at 11 and not back to sleep until after 3 because of his pain, fever and so much more. He was screaming all night asking for the time every few minutes and I gave him as much medicine as possible. That was a long night for the both of us. As I stayed up and watched him suffer and be in so much pain, I imagined him being my own son and I felt so sorry for him as if I wanted to take all the pain from him, and I truly did! I felt horrible and tried to help him the best that I possibly could! I was a wonderful time to learn!

Wednesday:

So Today I woke up super tired but ready for the day! As I arose, Elder Dyer was sleeping peacefully and so we left him with some other Elders for the morning so that elder Hulse, his companion would be able to meet Elder Lawrence. It was a wonderful morning meeting and we came home early while Elder Hulse stayed to enjoy the rest of the meeting. We went home and started our somewhat unreal pday because it was so short, however we did the basic necessities and then went with Elder Dyer, who was feeling better at the time, to the mall for Elder Kochan to get a gift for his mom! The Wednesday Pday was pretty cool! So today both Elder Dyer and Hulse finally went back to their apartment to stay and Elder Dyer was feeling much better. I had cleaned out his ear for him and he was looking much better. So we spent the evening working out and about! We had a few people to go and visit, but they all canceled on us as we got,there, so we were able to contact for a good amount of time and that was super nice, because it felt nice to just try to find people to teach. The evening was short because we had just barely helped the Elders to leave, and get home safely and that was okay. We were able to accomplish our purpose that evening as we knocked some doors and visited with some people!

Thursday:

Weekly planning days always seem to be some of the hardest days of the week to keep our actual time for planning in place! Everyone from the week that cancels on us seems to ask to meet with us during that time and so we have to re-arrange our time and planning so we can help them the best that we can! Today we had a wonderful lesson with Jason Hammon who actually contacted us and so we met up! He is pushing strong towards his baptismal date and seems to know that what he is doing is the truth! That for me was such a blessing. The one thing he is struggling with doing right now is contacting and visiting with his mom about his baptism, because he wasn't her support and she doesn't like us.... yet. We hope to be able to work with him and her more and at least get her okay to accept him and his decision to be baptized. So today as we finished that lesson and are pretty much done teaching Jason for baptism we went to the campus of UT Arlington where we ate our goodbye dinner with Patrick Piercy, one of the awesome members in our ward that is moving home to southern Texas for the Summer. It was a good dinner and I was sad to say goodbye... Then this evening we had invited Olivia to attend Institute class at the Stake Center with us and she actually showed up! Also by surprise a returning less active and recent convert sister also showed up! It was by complete choice on her own! We were so happy to see them attend and the lesson was a good one, however the deep doctrine was a little scary for us to have them listen too. It was not to deep, just something you don't hear to much anymore. We read in John 5 and focused on 2 verses that are truly amazing! Verses 19 and 20 state: "

Friday:

I know that this week I have not seemed to write to in depth on how my week has been, but I have further been very focused on the most basic and important things that I feel I need to share with you! So today we had 3 amazing lessons! One with Olivia Williams and The others with Gabby and Aaron, our most recent Converts, and they seem to be so darn happy! They are super busy and having a hard time meeting as regularly, but we hope and pray to keep contact as we plan our temple Trip with the, for this next week! We are also super happy,with Olivia for her progression in the lessons! We have taught her 2 times now and she is already on the 4th lesson! She understands it so well and gets her questions answered right away! It amazes me her dedication to learning about the truth and she can definitely feel it as well! I can't wait to see her accept a date! Much of our time today was also focused on Planning, but if you don't plan you don't succeed, so it was definitely be good to get finished for the full week we have coming up!

Saturday:

Today I got a little upset with a lady as we went to the Family History Center. I didn't say anything, just held it in, but I didn't feel good he rest of the day. I have learned to just relax about things. So the story is we went with Aaron Cole to do Family History, and he went in early and was being helped by a nonmember that just couldn't understand nor cared about familysearch.org and so we had to pry her off of Aaron to get him more focused on finding names to take to the Temple! We hope he can get some! So we are super happy though, because we are able to go to the temple this week on Friday and I can not wait to see them in white in the temple! Also we had a great lesson with Shuman and finally got her Book of Mormon in Chinese and she was so excited! We are teaching her slowly, but she is progressing and just super busy with her Final Project in Electrical Engineering!

Sunday: Happy Mothers Day!!

How has it come and gone again already! Every time I think I have a second it slides by! I am amazed that it is already this time again and just how fast the call went! So today was a wonderful Sunday service as the main focus was on mother's! It made me really reflect on how amazing my mother is to me! The amazing things she has done for me and just how much I owe to her and my father! Today was so amazing to be able to call from Bishop Kokenes's house and see my family! I think the best thing to think is that I don't have to wait forever to talk to them again! What a blessing that I can say goodbye to say hello very shortly! This week was amazing and I can't wait to continue strong to the very last hour and minute of my mission!:)

Con Amor,

Elder Spendlove

De la Misión de Texas Fort Worth