Catching Fish and Transfers, July 27, 2021

Hello everyone! I hope you are all doing well! 

So I'll get transfer news outta the way quick. No changes. Elder Storment and I are staying together another transfer here in Webster Groves! I'm pretty excited! 

This week was pretty great! We did a ton of service this week which was nice, it was great to be out riding around and getting to serve people in our ward and in the community! 

We had a few great lessons this week with our friends as well. We met once with Michelle who committed to read from the Book of Mormon each day which is awesome! 

We had an interesting lesson with our friend Ken. Ken's got some different ideas about God and the afterlife and such, and not just different from what we believe but kinda straight up out there. But we love him and are doing our best to teach him while not getting frustrated at his beliefs which  honestly contradict themselves and seem to be slightly different every lesson. Anyways, he's great and has actually progressed a bit since I've been here which is great to see!! We had a wonderful lesson with our neighbor Pat. We were going into the lesson a little apprehensive because she was our neighbor and someone we see quite often, but we swallowed those feelings and went for it and it turned out great! Pat was quite interested in learning about what we had to say. We taught her about the Book of Mormon and taught a little of the Restoration and it went really well. She accepted a Book of Mormon and told us that her neighbor (John) wants to hear from us as well!! So that is really exciting!  

As I mentioned above, we did lots of service this week. Part of that included helping out at a community fishing derby that one of the members in our ward runs. I was excited to help out and was ready to help. When we got there however my excitement levels dropped a bit when I found out what we would be doing. Our job was to take the fish off of peoples poles and then to measure and weigh them! First off before this I have maybe touched like 2-3 other fish in my life and I did not enjoy it. I was kinda nervous, I just don't like it! However after handling a few and just doing it trying not to show my fear it became easier, and honestly a little enjoyable. I was amazed that in the matter of 2 hours or so I went from being completely nervous and grossed out about something to kind of enjoying it. This experience got me thinking about life and the things we are asked to do. Although we may not enjoy doing things,or life is hard, a little confidence, practice and not giving up help us grow and do things we thought we would never be able to do! Afterwards we got to do a little fishing and I caught a fish which was great! Super fun service project! 

Here's a spiritual thought to end off this email! 

In my personal study this morning I was reading in Alma 22. This chapter is when Aaron ( a Nephite missionary) is going to teach a Lamanite King (King Lamoni's father). A phrase in verse 18 really stuck out to me.  

It was this: "I will give away all my sins to know thee" I thought this was pretty powerful. The King had a change of heart and desired to do no more evil. He not only desired to do no more sin but we desired to know Christ and Heavenly Father! It was a good reminder to me that yes we can turn away from sin. But if we don't turn to Christ then it is kinda pointless. Sure we will feel better because we are trying to not sin anymore but we are missing out on a whole lot more joy and blessings that could be ours if we just turn to Christ and let Him in!

Anyways a bit of a ramble but I know that Christ can heal us and turn us into a person we never thought we could become! 

Love, Elder Spencer 

Our mini fridge is stocked full of gatorade, perfect after a long bike ride :) 

Fuzzy's Taco shop, soo good! 

Fishing

                                                                                The fish I caught

A Week to Remember, July 19, 2021

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 

Lightning Storms, July 12, 2021

Hi everyone! This week went by pretty quick! 

On Monday after P-Day we had a lesson with a lady named Brenda over the phone. It was our first lesson with her and it went pretty well! She had met with some missionaries in the past but then dropped out of contact for awhile and it was no one could get in contact with her. Then we were able to set up a lesson with her and begin to teach her more! What was really cool was that she wanted to meet everyone Monday night, she said "I'll set that time aside for me, you two and the Lord." It was great!! So we are getting ready for a lesson tonight with her! 

We had a few other lessons this week along with some service, same stuff as in the past but it was still pretty fun. Elder Storment and I are getting more and more united as we are learning more about each other each day. I'm getting more and more comfortable with this new ward as well. Sunday was pretty good, greeting the members as they came in and being able to laugh and smile with them is pretty fun. 

We had some crazy lightning storms this past week, there were thousands of people who went without power for almost 10 hours. Our power went out a couple times, each for about a few seconds so nothing drastic. Apparently these massive rainstorms are a common occurrence out here in the midwest. 

Spiritual Thought For The Week: 

This comes from a talk by President Russell M. Nelson given in April 2021 titled "What We Are Learning and Will Never Forget" 

"I know the Lord has great and marvelous plans for us-individually and collectively. With compassion and patience, He says: "Ye are little children, and ye have not as yet understood how great blessings the Father hath ... prepared for you; And ye cannot bear all things now; nevertheless, be of good cheer, for I will lead you along."" 

This quote stood out to me first of all because of the words "compassion and patience". Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ are on our team. They reach out to us in a loving manner. I have been kinda pondering the nature of Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ lately and it amazes me at how loving They are. They just want us all to be happy and to feel their love. I hope you can all strive to feel Their love for you this week. I know it is there, it just takes some reaching from our end!! 

Love you all! Elder Spencer 

(PS- I'd love to hear how you all are doing!!) 

July 4th and More! July 5, 2021

Hello everyone! 

Happy Independence Day to my American family and friends, Happy Canada Day to my Canadian family and friends! This week went by very quickly! It was a little on the slow side teaching wise but it was still a pretty good week. 

We did some service for one of the friends we are teaching which involved cutting down vines and mowing his lawn. Another one of our friends Ashley invited us to go and get snow cones with her. That was pretty fun! We then had a lesson with her later in the week, the next day actually which went well! We taught her how the Book of Mormon and the Bible go together and teach of the same truths. 

Sunday was a pretty eventful day. We had church which was pretty nice and then went back to our apartment and did some studying and such. We were invited to go to a members home for some 4th of July celebrations. Which turned out to be a giant Roman Candle war! We as missionaries could only watch. It was pretty intense stuff but cool nonetheless! 

After that we had a lesson we went to and as we were biking home, this was around 8:45pm, it sounded like we were in a war zone. There were fireworks going off all over the place, and ever so often a big one would go off in the sky. That was a pretty fun experience.

That's about it! 

Service at Chuck's 

 At the firework battle 

                                                                    Snow Cones with Ashley 

Rain and an Apostle, June 28, 2021

Hello everyone! Hope all is well.

This week was pretty good. I went on an exchange right after P-day ended with one of my Zone-Leaders. We had served around each other in my last zone, so that was kind of cool. It was a good exchange, we had a pretty good lesson with a sweet old lady named Josie. She is kind of forgetful and is trying to give up smoking but we fear that she sometimes may forget that she is trying to give it up! :) 

Elder Storment and I were assigned to be our Facebook pages Admins. Some of our responsibilities include attending a mission wide technology meeting, learning there and then spreading out information to the rest of our zone in a weekly meeting. We are also in charge of running the page, making sure we get enough material (posts, stories and such) out. At first we were not very excited to be Admins, but after the first week and experiencing running our first page meeting it hasn't been too bad! 

We struggled to have lessons this week, most of our friends were busy or cancelled on us, some want a break from us. It is hard when no one really wants to meet or things get cancelled last minute. 

Now for a happier story. So we are on bikes in this area, and this past week was super rainy, we had thunderstorms pretty much on and off for most of the week. Sunday rolls around and the weather is not looking great. We woke up in the morning to it just dumping buckets and we were like "dang, this ride is gonna stink". But as we were leaving to bike the 30mins to church it stopped raining! We enjoyed a dry ride there. Then once we got to church, I kid you not right when we stepped in the building it started raining again! Then it stopped during church, allowing us to get home dry, and once again as soon as we got inside our apartment it started to pour! In our Sunday school lesson we had just talked about miracles, well that was one right there! :) :)

Sunday evening our mission was blessed to have Elder D. Todd Christofferson and his wife speak to us in a Zoom devotional. What a unique opportunity! It was very cool to have such a small audience to be in with an Apostle even if it was over Zoom. He spoke to us for a bit and answered some pre-prepared questions. He then left us with some cool blessings to help us in our missionary work. One thing he said though about those blessings is that they would come IF we desired them. That really stood out to me. Desire and the "why" behind things is something I have been trying to figure out lately and this spoke to me. Our part is to desire to do good, desire to have blessings and to find joy or peace or forgiveness or whatever it may be, IF we desire we can get those things. Of course it will take much more work then just to have a desire but it's a great place to start! 

Alma 32:27 reads: "But behold, if ye will awake and arouse your faculties, even to an experiment upon my words, and exercise a particle of faith, yea, even if ye can no more than desire to believe, let this desire work in you, even until ye believe in a manner that ye can give place for a portion of my words." 

I like this verse quite a bit! It has a lot of meaning. Even though I may not know everything, or feel completely at peace with things at times, I know that a desire to do good and to love and serve IF acted upon diligently and patiently over time will lead to a greater faith and desire. I know this can be true for each of you in whatever you may be facing! 

Love you all and hope you are staying safe! 

                                                                                     Rain Storm

Transfers, June 14, 2021

Hello everyone

Transfer news came in last night. Before I get to that however. This week was pretty good. We had lots of service and lessons with members. 

The weather is really starting to warm up. It's around 20°C when we wake up in the morning! 

Now, for transfer news. I am getting transferred! I'm not sure where I'm going or who my new companion is but I'm kinda excited. I've enjoyed the time I've been here in Parkway 2 but I am ready for a change. 

Sorry this email is so short! Elder Spencer 

                                                                Last activity with this Zone! 

Then There Were Three, June 7, 2021

Hello everyone! 

Hope you all are doing well and staying happy! 

I am back in a trio, it has been pretty fun. We have combined with another area, so we are covering two teaching areas which makes things busy! The Elder who joined us is named Elder Jensen, He came out with Elder Winn, so they are both pretty new. It's fun to have three of us working together, reminds me of my first three weeks in the field. 

We had a pretty busy week, service and teaching between both of our areas was pretty fun. It has been neat to work with one person in particular from Elder Jensen's area. We call him Brother Campana, although he isn't a member of our church, he has just been meeting with missionaries and coming to church for so long that's what we call him! :) He is pretty awesome, he's got one leg and is about 82 years old so he needs help sometimes. We go over and serve him and teach him as well and it's pretty fun. He calls me "Wayne Gretzky Jr." because he found out I'm from Edmonton (edmonton area at least :)  ) 

One guy we went and did service for had a motorbike that we were helping him to load into a moving truck, so naturally we had to take a pic while sitting on it! :) That was pretty neat. 

It has been pretty nice weather this week which is pretty nice. 

Hope you are all doing well! 

Elder Spencer

                                                                        on the motorbike :)

                                                                                     the trio!