Awesome Lesson, Dec 20, 2021

Hey everyone!! Hope you all are happy and getting ready for Christmas! It's cray it is in 5 days!! 

This week flew by, it started with us going down to St.Louis again to drop off Elder McKenna as he is headed off to Chile. We did exchanges with the Assistants, that was a lot of fun. We got to go into downtown St.Louis and talk to lots of people it was so fun!

Then we drove back home and I did an exchange with elder Baker in Effingham, that was also really fun. They have train tracks right behind their apartment so there were lots of trains going by which was pretty awesome! That exchange was great we taught lots of lessons and had some cool miricles come out of it! 

We did some good finding and teaching and it was great. One lesson in particular stuck out to me. 

We were going over to visit Elizabeth and her sons Angel and Eduardo. Edauardo didn't sit in so it was just us four. Elizabeth only speaks Spanish, Angel does both. At the beginning of the lesson Angel was translating for me but he isn't fluent in Spanish so he could't translate it all. So a couple minutes in I just began to teach Angel in english. We had two lessons going on at one time but it worked out great. I taught him the plan of salvation and he understood it really well!! That was definently a highlight of the week! 

That was about all! 

A little spiritual thought. I'm learning how to pray in Spanish and it is really neat. I am realizing how important it is to be thoughtful about what we are saying in those prayers. I'm limited in Spanish so I have to say what I think is really important. It made me think about how important it is to think when we pray and use only the most respectful words and express what is truly in our heart! 

Elder Spencer 

Christmas Party and Exchanges, Dec 13, 2021

Hello everyone! Hope all is going well! This week was awesome! It again flew by. 

To start off the week we had exchanges from Tuesday to Wednesday. I went to an area centered in the town of Tuscola, about 20 mins south of Champaign. I was with Elder Phillips and we had a great time! 

Tuscola is a tiny little farming town and everybody seems to know everyone which sometimes bodes well for missionaries. We met some cool people had a couple lessons and even went to another church's worship service which was very interesting to say the least. 

In our area we had quite a few awesome lessons! Elizabeth and Eduardo are progressing quite well and it is so awesome to see their excitement about the Book of Mormon grow! I love meeting with them even though I don't understand pretty much anything that is going on.. :) 

We had our ward Christmas party this past Saturday. It was super fun. When we saw the tables the story of choice that our ward was focusing on was the story of my Great-Grandpa the Candy Bomber that was so neat to see that some little no-where town in central Illinois appreciated what he did!! 

Our companionship along with two other companionships of Elders performed a Christmas song "Mele Kalikimaka" (I'm positive I spelled that wrong) It is Merry Christmas in Hawaiian. We sang and danced to it that was super fun! 

On Sunday I met our wards Elders Quorum president turns out he served in the Edmonton Alberta mission. That was fun, we talked a bit about the places he served in.

This week was super great but we had our sad moments. For example we were super excited because we had 8 of our friends lined up ready to come to church and in the span of 2 hours they all cancelled on us! Ugh, that was tough. But it was a good experience to have, helped me to remain humble and to learn to rely on the Lord more by accepting His will. 

Little spiritual thought. Bearing personal testimony is powerful. It can be scary, I've been scared tons of times to bear my testimony in lessons or just in contacting people. However the times that I did bear testimony have been some of the most spiritually powerful times of my mission. 

So if you are ever prompted to bear your testimony, do it! You will feel your faith in Christ grow and you will be happy! 

Love y'all! Elder Spencer 

 

9 Hours in a Car and a Trio! Dec 6, 2021

 Hello everyone! Wow what a week this as been, it has felt like a month and a day combined into one of how fast it has been! 

So to start off Tuesday I packed up and got ready to go to my new area. It was sad to leave Meramec River, I loved that area so much!! So Wednesday we go up to Frontenac for transfer news. 

We pulled up and I was told I was going up to Champaign, Illinois!! I am in a tri with Elders McKenna and Davis. Elder McKenna is from Santa Clara, Utah. Basically St. George. Elder Davis is from Rigby, Idaho! We have all been out for about the same amount of time so that is really fun. We will only be in a tri for 2 weeks because on the 16th Elder McKenna is going to his original assignment in Chile, so then it will just be Elder Davis and I.  

I already love both these Elders so much. We laugh lots but work super hard! They are great examples to me of what good leaders should be doing. In our apartment we also live with two other Elders so we are in a 5 man apartment. One of these Elders, Elder Jensen who lives here. I lived with back when I was in Parkway 2 for my last 3 weeks there, so that has been fun rejoining! Missions are weird like that. 

We are also in a Zebra area which is a missionary term for half English half Spanish. Elder Davis and McKenna both speak Spanish and we are teaching a few people who only speak Spanish so I will be learning some Spanish we will see how that goes! So since I am in a Spanish area that means I can wear blue shirts and I don't have to wear a tie. That has been kinda nice not gonna lie! :) 

So Champaign is 3 hours north of St.Louis. So after transfers we drove the 3 hours home. Then later in the week we got to drive back to St.Louis for an MLC (Mission Leadership Council) So that was another 6 hours in a car! MLC started at 9am so we woke up at 4:45 to have enough time to get ready and drive up there. MLC was super awesome! We have a great group of missionaries helping to lead this mission and it is neat to see how it all works! 

We are working with quite a few awesome people! The Spanish friends we are working with are Elizabeth, her sons Eduardo and Angel. Gerardo and Israel. So during those conversations I'm pretty lost but I pick up a few words here and there (thanks Duolingo!) 

Our english friends are Vernon, John, Rena, Denise and a couple recent converts Amy and Andrew that we work with! 

Everyday this first week was absolutely go go go. We hardly had time to eat we were running around so much, I love it though! It has been so fun!!! 

Love y'all so much!! God is good!  Elder Spencer

PS- my new address is: 1620 Valley Rd 

Champaign, IL 61821 

Bye Meramec River and Elder Johnson!

An Alberta road sign!! (no tie 🙃)

 

Thanksgiving, Transfers, and Exchanges, Nov 30, 2021

 Hey everyone!! What a week this was!!! 

I'll start off with some of the missionary work highlights. We had a few good lessons this week, but the one that I enjoyed the most was a lesson we had with a lady in our ward named Sister Lloyd. What was so good about it was she brought her neighbor over to join us for the lesson. His name was Bob. We had a good conversation. He just asked some questions about what we do as missionaries. The thing that struck me the most was as I testified to him why I was out here on a mission. He said he could tell I was being very sincere and meant what I said! That made me really happy because I did mean it, I know that was the Spirit working through me to touch that man! 

Other than that the work was kinda slow, being Thanksgiving this week lots of people were busy.... oh well. 

Thanksgiving was awesome!!! In the morning we played some football with a few members and other missionaries. Then we went to one members home for lunch and another for dinner!! Then the next day another family invited is for a dinner so three dinners! I was stuffed! 

Also the day before Thanksgiving our ward and a Pie night where everyone brought a pie to share it was lots but sooo good! 

We got to go on exchanges with the AP's (Assistants to the President) and our ZL's (Zone Leaders) this week. I got to go with one AP and one ZL to Lindell. Lindell is straight downtown St.Louis. that was really fun! We talked to lots of people, they are so open to talking about Christ. We had a great lesson on that exchange and we all taught well together despite only being together for like 6 hours. 

Lastly Transfer news! So earlier yesterday I was asked to call President Bell. During that phone call he asked me if I would be willing to be a Zone Leader. To be honest I was a little shocked and nervous but I said I would do it! After giving it more thought and prayer I felt a confirmation that this is what I am meant to be doing at this time! I am super excited to help lead a zone and work a lot closer with other missionaries! So that means that I'll be leaving Meramec River, that makes me pretty sad. I absolutley love this area and the people here but at the same time I feel peaceful about it. I feel like I have done all that was needed of me here and I know the next Elders will do a great job!! 

Sorry this is so long!! Love, Elder Spencer 

General Authority and a Sunrise, Nov 22, 2021

 This week was great!! It went by super quick! We didn't have too many lessons this week so that was a little sad but hey, sometimes we have those weeks right?

We had an amazing mission tour that lasted 3 days. Elder William K. Jackson of the Seventy and his wife came and visited our mission. We had three conferences with them one that you would attend in person and the other two we watched on Zoom when others were in person. 

It was really cool. They also wanted to meet every missionary and shake their hands so I got to shake the hand of a General Authority! That was pretty cool. 

I learned lots but I'll save a highlight for my spiritual thought. 

We had a cool miracle that happened yesterday, we were going to visit a member. Turns out she moved out of that house we had on our records about a year and a half ago. However the man who answered the door, Todd, said we was looking for a church to worship at. Well that is music to any missionaries ears. He is pretty busy this week with Thanksgiving and all but he said he was interested in learning more!! That was so cool!! 

Ok now for the spiritual thought: Elder Jackson talked about what he calls a missionaries "Expanded Purpose" it includes 4 different groups of people that we can and should have a major impact on during our mission besides the friends we teach. Those 4 groups are the members of our wards that we serve in, our companion, family and friends back home, and ourselves! He gave brief powerful thoughts about each on it was amazing!! 

Happy Thanksgiving to all my American family and friends this week!! I'm grateful to be a missionary at this time! 

Love,  Elder Spencer  

Lessons and Walks in the Park, Nov 15, 2021

 The weeks keep flying by! It is already halfway through November, wild!! This week was super awesome! Last P-day we went to the Science Center which was a blast and we also went to the Zoo! 

This week we also had a few awesome lessons with people we are teaching. 

We had a great lesson with Ken. We invited him to our ward Thanksgiving party next week so we hope he comes to that, pray for him please! 

We also had a great lesson with a Baptist preacher named Tommy. He is a super nice guy and is curois about what we believe. We expected to have some conflict in beleif and we do. But we taught him about Covenants this week and that was something he didn't know much about so he is gonna do more research about them from our Church's website. He is super nice and cool. Fun to be here in bible belt! 

Last but not least on notable lessons we met with Alex and Alexis. They were found by us in late September and we just had our second lesson with them. It was my first time meeting them in-person. They are so awesome!! They have a strong desire to come to Christ. As they have met with us things have been happening in their life, good things that they attribute to God and meeting with us. That is so cool to see that Heavenly Father blesses people when they seek Him, how true that is!! 

Elder Johnson and I went to a couple different parks this past week to try to find people to teach, including a cool sculpture park! The weather is starting to cool down but still no snow and it hasn't gotten below 32F (0C) so haven't frosted over yet! 

Spiritual thought of the day comes from 3 Nephi 26:9-11 in the Book of Mormon:

"9 And when they shall have received this, which is expedient that they should have first, to try their faith, and if it shall so be that they shall believe these things then shall the greater things be made manifest unto them.

10 And if it so be that they will not believe these things, then shall the greater things be withheld from them, unto their condemnation.

11 Behold, I was about to write them, all which were engraven upon the plates of Nephi, but the Lord forbade it, saying: I will try the faith of my people."

This scripture is talking about keeping records, but I looked at it a different way. We are all getting promptings from the Holy Ghost almost constantly, we need to learn to recognize and then follow those promptings. Sometimes we don't follow them even when we know they are promptings. That happened to me a few times this week. So according to this scripture. At times we don't follow promptings and when that happens we don't get further light, knowledge, understanding etc. However when we follow promptings which takes faith and courage, we gain light, understanding, knowledge, etc. Following promptings is a trial of our faith, are we truly willing to do what Christ asks of us?? 

Anyways, love you all!! Elder Spencer 

Good saying on a bench!

Brownie, ice cream milkshake-- Very Tasty!!! 

Member Panel, Nov 8, 2021

 Hello everyone!! Hope all is going well with you! 

This week flew by!! We didn't have a ton of lessons this week but we did drive around and visit a lot of people who are less-active in our church. We got to know quite a few people! 

This week we had president interviews and a zone council! They were really good! President Bell is super awesome and I really liked my interview with him. 

Zone council was awesome as well. We invited a bunch of members from the various wards in our stake to come be on a "member panel" It was really great! I learned lots about how to work better with members it was cool! 

We had a great lesson with our friend Michael this week as well. We haven't been able to meet with him for the past month or so. But we met on Friday. He is super awesome. We gave him a Book of Mormon and taught the restoration. He soaked it all up. He has a great desire to come closer to Christ. We also told him we want to help him get baptized, he wants to but he said it'll take awhile, but hey! He desires it! I'm excited to keep working with him. 

We also had a great lesson with Ken this week. We brought a member with us and they connected really well. We know that Ken was touched in that lesson. Hopefully he can become good friends with the member we brought! 

A quick thought for the week: Patience is very important. It is something I am constantly trying to improve upon. Elder Johnson is great at helping me to be more patient. I have found that as I am more patient I am able to better focus and feel the Holy Ghost! 

Well that's all for this week! 

Love, Elder Spencer