🎶 It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas 🎶 Dec 14, 2020

Hello everyone! 

This week went by very quickly! We were quite busy all week which was nice. It's that time of year when everyone is getting ready for Christmas! There are lots of amazing light displays on people's homes as I am sure there are else where. We out up our Christmas decorations and tree up this week as well in our apartment, I'll add pictures at the end! 

It was also very warm this week, it got up to 21°C (around 70°F!) That was only for one day however, the rest was decent weather.

Our ward, the church group in my area, put on a Drive-Thru Nativity on Saturday. That was quite amazing, people would pull in through one entrance and they would see different Nativity scenes and there was a narration to go along with each station. My companions and I were standing at the end by the wise man sign talking to everyone that came through and passing out pass along cards. It was a great activity. 

Later Saturday night we had a surprise call from our Mission President. Usually our Mission President won't call us directly so we knew something big was gonna happen. It turned out we were right. Elder Kimball, one of my companions, was told he needed to pack everything that night has we was being transferred to a new area the next day. We were a little shocked because we were sure that we would all be together for Christmas, that put a dampener on the week. However, Elder Hales and I are excited for the work to continue and Elder Kimball is excited to get to a new area. 

For those who don't understand what transfers are I'll quickly explain. Our mission is split into zones, zones are split into districts, districts are split into areas. Usually a missionary will be in one area for around 2-3 transfers (3-4 months). Then transfers happen and missionary's get switched around from zone to zone, area to area. 

Well I hope everyone had a wonderful week. I enjoy reading all the emails sent my way, keep them coming!! 

Love, Elder Spencer 

Christmas tree!! 

So warm out!! 

An amazing meal we made!

Drive thru Nativity!

Tornado Sirens and Rolling Hills! Dec 7, 2020

Happy Holidays everyone!! 

I hope you are all doing well, and enjoying this Christmas season. I really love Christmas time, everyone seems happier and more joyful which is helpful for missionary work! We have been getting our apartment ready for Christmas, we are working on setting up our tree. Yes working on it, it's been sitting half decorated in a back corner for about a week now. :) 

We were on bikes again this week and those rolling hills really take a toll on you, but I'm getting more and more used to it. Also, once every few months Tornado Sirens go off. They are just demos to prepare us for the real thing, ours just went off and it was pretty loud! I'm glad they have precautions for those sorts of things. 

We had a couple miracles happen this week! So facebook finding has been pretty tough and we haven't been having much success. Elder Kimball had been texting a guy, named Eric, for the past month or so. A couple days ago Eric asked a question that led to us scheduling a lesson with him over phone. We were able to teach him about the Restoration of the Church and about Joespeh Smith and The Book of Mormon. He was very open to all the things we taught him, and he actually agreed with what we were saying. It was very nice to teach someone who didn't disagree with everything that we said. 

Another miracle, we are teaching a man named Fabio and his family. (I can't remember if I've already told you about them) Anyways they are from Brazil. Fabio is very busy all the time as he works two jobs. Since he is so busy it is very hard to contact him and set something up. We had a thought to send him and his family a video of us teaching, just a short 3-5min clip. We then invited Fabio and his family to watch the video and ask any questions that they have about what we taught. Fabio and his family really liked that idea and they sent us a video!! It has been working well, they are able to watch it when they have time and it works better then trying to schedule a 20 min Zoom lesson or something. Technology is amazing!! 

I'm loving it here in Missouri, the people are wonderful and so is the food ;). May I just say, Chic-Fil-A is amazing! 

I was so happy to receive many emails during the week, keep them coming! I love to hear how you are doing!! 

Elder Spencer 

PS I don't have any pictures this week, so sorry, I will be better at taking some and adding them to these emails!! 

No Snow November! Nov 30, 2020

Hello everyone! I hope you are all well!!

This week has been great! To address the subject letter, it is weird having no snow on the ground in November, but I'm not complaining 😂 The weather here has felt like fall weather back in Alberta. :)

We had the car this week which was nice, it makes me appreciate the modern transportation that we have, I don't think I would've survived living back in the day when people had to walk everywhere, yeah, not fun. 😂 

Anyways, the missionary work is going well. We had some lessons fall through which wasn't super great, but we were able to have quite a few lessons with members and their families. Trying to find people to teach online is very challenging, we spend up to an hour each day just trying to find people to teach online, most of that time is spent waiting for people to respond. But missionaries have had success Facebook finding so I still have hope! 

We had a mini miracle occur this past week, yesterday actually. We are teaching a lady named Leslie, she is a stubborn Catholic lady, but very kind and open to learning from us. Anyways, she didn't want to come to church because she wanted to stay away from COVID, although she has come quite a few times since the pandemic has started... we were disappointed but told her we would send her the link to watch it at home. So we are sitting in church and then lo, and behold, Leslie walks in!! We were super excited! When we talked with her afterwards she said she wasn't able to get the link working so she decided to come to church! That was pretty awesome. 

Also, it was American Thanksgiving this past week! For Thanksgiving we met up with our district and had a potluck. My companions and I were in charge of making the turkey. Yes 18-20 year olds in charge of making the Thanksgiving Turkey. To say the least we were a little nervous about how it would turn out, none of us knew what we were doing. Thankfully one of the Elder's mothers came in clutch and gave us a step by step instructions on how to do it. It turned out great! We had a lot of good food and lots of leftovers! 

The members in our ward have been very great at bringing us food, especially during this Thanksgiving season. We had a total of 6 pies given to us! We are slowly working through them all. :) 

I hope you are all staying safe!! 

I'd love to hear from all of you! Let me know how you are doing and what's going on!! I'd love to be updated! No guarantees that I will have time to respond but I will read every single email!! 

With Love,  Elder Spencer 

Thanksgiving Pics!

Our dinner setup, it was a great time! 

My district!! 

The Sisters got a good one of all us Elders with our phones out😂

The Three Musketeers! Nov 23, 2020

Hello everyone!

I hope this email finds you all well! So as many of you know I am now out in the mission field! I got called to serve in the area of Ballwin, Missouri. It is a suburb of St.Louis. I like the feel to Ballwin, it reminds me of Sherwood Park (my hometown). But before I get into that I'll back up a little.

 My last few classes of online MTC went great, I was sad to say goodbye to my district but we've kept in contact. I flew out to St. Louis on Tuesday, I was nervous for the flight because I wouldn't have a phone, my mission phone was waiting for me in St.Louis, so it was a little stressful, but I made all my flights and made it through customs with no issues. I am grateful for that. I got picked up from the airport by the mission President's counselor and his wife, they are great people and are actually in the ward that I am serving in! 

I met my mission President and his wife (President and Sister Bell) they are great people, super energetic and happy. They made me feel at home right away. As a said earlier there were 26 other missionaries that came out with me, I met all of them and spent the first night with 7 of the other new elders. After that first night we went to a church building to meet our new trainers, trainers are missionaries assigned to train new missionaries and you usually only have one trainer. However I have two trainers!! Hence the title of the email. Elder Kimball and Elder Hales are my trainers! They are both from Utah and they are amazing, I have already gotten to be good friends both of them. 

We are in a car-share area which means we share a car so we get it for one week and then we give it to some other missionaries. When we don't have the car we ride bikes. Which isn't to bad except Ballwin has lots of hills in it which I learned the hard way, let's just say after the first day of biking my legs were jelly. :) The members in our ward are amazing, we've been fed by them a few times already, due to COVID they just drop it off at our apartment. 

So for those who don't know how the mission is structured I'll explain it a bit, each mission is split into zones, my mission has about 8. In each zone there are two zone leaders who lead the zone. In each zone there are about 5-7 districts. Each district has a district leader. So in my district there is me and my comps, a sister companionship and then the zone leaders are in our district, they are all awesome missionaries and I'm glad I get to serve with them.

One more thing, sorry this has been a long email. We had some lessons that we taught this week some went well and others not so well, I was surprised at how many people don't answer their phone or answer texts, I'm grateful for the lessons and service I have been able to do so far and look forward to helping others come closer to Christ.

If you have any questions email me! Mondays are the only days I can respond to emails but know that I will read everyone you send! 

Love, Elder Spencer 

Pictures: 

The building is the St.Louis Missouri Temple, we were able to do some service there last week. 

Second picture is of me and my companions. Elder Kimball is the one on the left, Elder Hales is on the right. 

St. Louis Missouri, Here I Come! Nov 14, 2020

Hello everyone! 

My time at the online MTC has almost come to an end. Elder Greenhalgh (my companion) and I fly out to St. Louis next Tuesday! Friday was our last class with everyone in the district. Three elders are leaving this Monday. :( It is sad to see them go and it will be sad saying goodbye to everyone in the district. I have grown so close to everyone in my district, although I know it won't be goodbye forever it is still sad. We promised to stay in touch and I am sure we will be a boost to each other throughout our missions.

I am so grateful for all my family and friends, all the support that you have given me over the years, and helped make me who I am today. We talked a lot about the Lord's timing and planning for each of us in the district. There are no coincidences, everything happens for a reason, and I know that everyone in my district was meant to be there at this time. We all learned so much from everybody, and lasting friendships were made. 

All the new missionaries going to St.Louis met our Mission President yesterday. There are 27 new missionaries going to St.Louis, that is a lot! We all learned that most of the missionary work is happening from our apartments because of the COVID-19 restrictions, that was a bummer to learn, but this is the new age of missionary work. Our President said that the numbers of people taking lessons and attending church and getting baptized have all gone up! It is crazy how impactful teaching through social media and other commutative technologies is! 

That is all, my next letter will be coming from Missouri!! 

Elder Spencer 

This is a drawing that Elder Waite (a Elder in my district) drew of each of us! He is super talented! 

This is what our online classes looked like, and this is everyone in our district! Everyone is so amazing!! 

The Dopest District Nov 7, 2020

For those wondering what "Dopest" means,I'll let you know. It's slang for the "the most awesome" and "district" is the 10 missionaries (11 including me) that I get to spend time with in class and learn with them. So pretty much it is saying that we have "the most awesome group". This week has flown by, the saying "days feel like weeks, and weeks feel like days" is truly how my online MTC experience is going! I love my district so much, I am so grateful that we all are in this together, there isn't any other group of missionaries I'd rather be trained with. Sister Walker, one of the missionaries in our district wrote an amazing poem about our district, I will attach it to this email, she is so talented and so kind. Everyone in my district has great qualities, and what Sister Walker says in the poem sums it up very well, so I'm not even going to try to introduce them! :) 

Our teachers, Sister DiReda and Brother DeAlba, have also been super great to work with. They are so kind and wonderful, they make me laugh and smile and I feel very comfortable talking with them, they are just so easy to get along with, and they show genuine interest in our lives! We have had many wonderful bonding experiences as a district, from chatting at night to testimony sharing, we have grown close this past week. A block of scripture that has really stood out to me this week is 2 Nephi 4:15-35. Nephi writes a very powerful testimony, and I just love these verses. I invite you all to read them as well! 

We have done a lot of practice teaching this week, and I have to say it was a lot harder than I thought it would be when I started, but with practice I am finding that I can do it! It takes preparation and lots of trust in myself and the Lord but I have seen myself and those in my district improving each day! It is crazy to think that we only have a week and a half left of MTC! Jesus Christ truly is the centre of all of our lives, His Atonement is so wonderful and amazing to me. The hymn "I Stand All Amazed" is truly how I feel. If you are ever in need of guidance or hope, just pray and God will answer, I know He will, He loves every single one of you so much! 

That's all for this week, I hope you all have a great week and if you have any questions email me! 

Love, Elder Spencer

Here is the poem Sister Walker wrote! The boys go by Elder and the girls by Sister, then our last names, for example, mine is Elder Spencer. 

Off to a "Zoom-ing" Start! Oct 31, 2020

Hello everyone, this is the first mission email that I am sending out, I hope that it works! 

On Wednesday this week William and I started our online MTC experience and it has been wonderful so far! As mentioned in the title above, MTC training started full blast. In the first class I got to meet my district. A group of 11 missionaries that will be moving through training together, they are all amazing people! We have 3 Sisters and 8 Elders in our district. We were all assigned companions, my comp's name is Elder Greenhalgh, he is from Pasco, Washington and he is a great guy! He has red hair, (just like George, my little brother!) and he worked for a farming company, swathing and baling hay before he came out on his mission! He is also going to the Missouri, St.Louis Mission, so hopefully I will get to see him in person in about 3 weeks! We have two, three hour classes a day with our district and I love that time. I have learned so much in the past three days and the Spirit is very strong. We also have 10 mandatory workshops that we sign up for outside of class time, these are about an hour long and focus on specific topics such as "People and Your Purpose". There are also around 8 optional workshops that you can choose from. Then there is the hour of personal study and hour of companionship study, they are sure keeping us busy! 

A four letter phrase that our teachers want us to always live by and has helped me better understand my role is that we "Teach people, not lessons". This is a great reminder to me that, although it may be easier to just spout off a lesson plan, it is more important to learn about and address the needs of the people we teach. That way we can develop a greater relationship with those we teach and we can have more meaningful lessons in the future!  Adjusting to the missionary lifestyle has been a little tough, waking up at 6:30am everyday is hard sometimes. Wearing dress clothes all day gets tiring but I know with patience and diligence the Lord will make my weakness into a strength. The Lord will truly answer our prayers when we ask with real intent! 

Well that's all for now, I hope you all have a great Sabbath Day tomorrow and a Happy Halloween today! 

I would love to hear from you as well, so if you have any questions or just want to talk, feel free to email me at : ryrie.spencer@missionary.org 

I will answer any emails when I have some spare time!

-Elder Spencer 

Pictures: 

1- Morning of first day of online MTC

2-Will and I just after we got set apart to be missionaries