Well Hello everyone!! Hope you have all had a great week!
This week was super amazing! Probably one of my favourite weeks on my mission. We saw so many miracles this week it was wonderful! So we had a pretty good start to the week, we did service and had a few pretty good lessons. The week was pretty normal.
Thursday was great! We had a mission wide conference over Zoom and we did something I've never done before. Usually during these conferences we sit for 3-5 hours and receive instruction and training but this time around President Bell had something else in mind. Instead of receiving instruction he told us we were going to "get to work".
The morning of the conference he asked the whole mission to fast (to go without food and water for 24 hours). So I began my fast. We had 1 hour of instruction and a small training and then our President told everyone that we would spend the next 4 hours (1pm-5pm) just finding people to teach. Usually in any given day we do about 3-5 hours of finding and rarely do we do it all straight.
Elder Storment and I prayed and talked about where we should go and we felt guided to go to a park about 15 mins away. So we did, no success. We again talked about where to go, we tried another park, again no luck. We tried again at one more park, nobody was there. We decided to look at our areabook to see if there was anyone who lived nearby this last park we were at and there were a couple potentials, we stopped by only to find out that one of the address didn't exist and the other person wasn't home. At this point it is 3pm. We have spent the last two hours biking around in 90 degree heat with a ton of humidity and I am tired, sweaty and so stinking thirsty. I was kinda upset at that we hadn't been able to find anyone to talk to.
We decided to head back to our apartment and do another form of finding, Facebook. When we got home I was still tired and not having it. I just wanted to be done. But I knew that we need to keep going until 5. Elder Storment suggested that we say a prayer, and let me tell you this is where I had a change of mind and heart. I offered the prayer and wow it was powerful. I poured out frustration, telling Heavenly Father that we were exhausted and tired and that we wanted to give up. But then I prayed trying to muster some faith I prayed and told Heavenly Father that I knew there were people we needed to find and that I wanted to find these people. As I prayed that I was filled with peace and love, my Spirit felt renewed, I received more energy and was able to re-focus.
After that prayer we grinded on Facebook and we had some success! We were able to get in contact with some people in our teaching pool we hadn't talked to in awhile. We posted a service ad that got some responses. God directly blessed us for trying to be diligent even when we were tired and ready to give up.
The miracles didn't end there, Friday and Saturday were awesome. We brought a Bible to a lady who requested one and when she found out what church we were from she asked if she could have a Book of Mormon and she said she was MORE EXCITED to read the Book of Mormon than the Bible that we had brought her!!
Then on Saturday we were able to have ice cream and a little lesson with Michelle, a lady we've been trying to meet with for over a month now! It was just such a good week! I want to include a quick spiritual thought, I promise this email is almost over! :)
Comes from more talks from President Nelson. One I reference last week "What we are learning and will never forget" and "We can do better and be better"
Basically the just of my thought is I was reading in that first talk and this quote stood out.
"As faith and holiness decrease in this fallen world, your need for holy places will increase."
It got me thinking about holy places and how I can create those in my own life.
An answer came later in the talk that we need to create time and space to be quiet and hear the still, small voice. I then looked at my life and the things I am doing to try and create more Holy places. One answer came to mind to do my best to put off the "natural man" more in my life. This is where the second talk comes in.
This quote struck me:
"Thus, when Jesus asks you and me to “repent,” He is inviting us to change our mind, our knowledge, our spirit—even the way we breathe. He is asking us to change the way we love, think, serve, spend our time, treat our wives, teach our children, and even care for our bodies."
So I decided to pick some things to go without, or to do less so I could focus more on the Spirit. It really helped! It made me realize that there is always something to improve, and picking some small things to sacrifice at a time end up making a huge difference. It helped me to stay more diligent and focused on my purpose.
Sorry for this long talk but basically, sacrificing "simple pleasures" things that we can go without help me to better hear the spirit.
I challenge you all to pick one thing to go without and try to not do it for one week, you will be blessed!!
Anyways gotta go! Love, Elder Spencer
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