Feeding Deer 🦌 and Lots of Lessons! August 23, 2021

How are you all? I hope things are going well! This week flew by again! Literally I can't believe it is P-day again....This week was packed full of lessons, awesome experiences and some great studies! 

Some highlights included a great lesson with our friend Ashley. She is the one who fasted from YouTube for a whole week. We were talking to her about blessings she saw that came out of her fast and there was a pretty significant one. So Ashley has had some struggles in the past, one of those being that she is unemployed and can't find work anywhere. She has had multiple job interviews especially these past few weeks. Well Ashley was very happy to tell us that she got a job!! We were so excited. now I'm not sure if Ashley would've gotten the job without the fast. But I know it helped her get the job. She showed God she was willing to sacrifice something to receive a blessing. I know that is the same in all our lives if we sacrifice things to come closer to God the blessings will heavily outweigh the loss. 

We had a great lesson with Brenda as well this week. We taught her more of the Restoration. Brenda doesn't live in our area so we brought that up and told her that in the future we would need to pass her off to the missionaries that live closer to her. She seemed to understand but just this morning she texted us and was quite upset that we were "dropping her". So please keep her in your prayers, pray that we will be able to continue to be her friend and that she will be understanding to the situation. 

We had a great lesson as well this week with Jermazio. He is a great guy, he hadn't returned our calls and texts on Sunday morning  so we decided to stop by his house after church in hopes to catch him. Lo and behold he was home and we taught a powerful lesson out of 2 Nephi ch. 31 about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Right now we are helping Jermazio build his faith by doing the "small and simple" things that "bring great things to pass" Things like daily prayer and scripture study quite often get overlooked but they are super important for us all to do!! 

Speaking of personal studies. I have had so many awesome ones this week. I feel like I have a new favorite scriptures after every personal study! The Spirit is definitely the best teacher!

A couple scriptures that have really struck me this week are: Alma 33:11, Alma 34:9-17. They are super awesome scriptures that touch on Christ's Atonement, Charity and Mercy! 

I also started reading the New Testament and have so far read through the first 3 chapters of Matthew. I have already learned so much and it has been awesome. For example Matthew 3:9-10 talk about how nobody is better than another and that it is by our works rather than our heritage that we are saved! 

We had interviews with President Bell and we also had a district council that our technology elders came to! I loved my interview with President, he is very spiritual and always has an answer to my questions. I got to see Elder Winn as well, he is a tech (TTT) Elder, that was another highlight of my day!! 

The ward is great, we had many member lessons/meals this week and I feel like I learn just as much as the members in those lessons. 

After one of those member meals/lessons. They took us to feed the deer at the Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery. The cemetery is massive and so pretty. I loved all the white headstones in their perfect row. You could tell it was well respected and maintained. I wish all cemeteries were that well maintained. It was super cool to drive through there and to listen to the members telling us all about the history of the place. Definitely a must see if you ever come through St. Louis!

Anyways, hope all is well with you all! I'd love to hear from you all!!

Love,  Elder Spencer 

Fasting, August 16, 2021

 Hello everyone! 

Can't believe it is P-day again! This week flew by! This week nothing too crazy happened. We had some great days full of teaching, finding and other missionary activities. 

We have been changing up what we call daily-contact and it seems to be working well. Daily-contact is exactly what it sounds like it is getting in contact with those we are teaching daily. Usually we do that in the form of text but this week we felt inspired after a challenge by our AP's to change up how we do it. 

We sent some people a scripture first, some others we sent a fun little video. Others we sent vocie recordings! We got more response and were able to have better conversations with people it was awesome!! Changing it up worked wonders. 

We had a pretty awesome lesson with our friend Ashley this week. We taught her about fasting. She told us that she couldn't fast from food because of health reasons so we challenged her to pick something else to fast from. She decided upon TV. We told her we usually fast for only about 24hrs so we were surprised when she said she wanted to give up TV for one whole week!! However the greater surprise came about a day later. She texted us saying that she really doesn't watch that much TV and that she wanted to Fast from YouTube instead!! That was really awesome, she decided to do something that would be a greater sacrifice and I know she will be blessed for choosing to do the harder thing! 

I don't have a ton of time but a couple of scriptures that really stood out to me this week were 1 Nephi 19:9 and Alma 7:11-13. They talk all about Christ's love for us. Charity is something I have been studying lately. It is truly a great thing!! When you have a couple spare minutes give those scriptures a read and let me know what you learned or felt! I'd love to hear from you!!

Well sorry again for the shorter email but I gotta run, email me back, I'd love any updates from y'all!! 

Love, Elder Spencer

Below Average is A-Ok, August 9, 2021

Hey everyone! This week flew by!! We had lots of awesome things happen this week including zone conference, multiple service opportunities and a decent amount of teaching and finding!

For service this week we went to the Greenwood Cemetery as a zone and helped do yard work there again. It was a really good bonding experience I think I had a good one-on-one conversation with pretty much everyone in my zone! I absolutely love the missionaries in this zone!!

Other service we did was for Kelly, a lady who responded to our FB service page ad we made a month or so ago. We have served her multiple times but are still hoping for that normal and natural way to bring the gospel up. She is a super awesome lady, has some pretty crazy life experiences! 

We went and had a workout with our friend Jermazio at a park on Saturday. That was pretty fun, he worked us pretty hard and we were pretty sore the next day. We are hoping this will turn into a regular thing! 

As mentioned above we had a Zone Conference this week as well. I got to see some of my favourite missionaries Elder Winn and Elder Kimball who were both past companions. I wish I got some pics with them but it was still soo good to see them and many others who I've served around in the past. 

This zone conference was all about repentance. One thing that someone from our staff said really stood out to me. She said something along these lines: 

"Give Christ our change and keep the change" 

The gist of that is when we repent we give Christ change, we tell him we will change. However once that happens we can't stop the growth we've started we can't fall back on old habits after awhile we need to keep the change! Powerful to keep in mind! 

We had a really interesting interaction with a man named Brian in our apartment complex. He doesn't completely abandon the idea of there being a God but he doesn't accept it either. A huge part of that is he has experienced some pretty rough stuff in his life and he wonders why it happened to him being the good person he is. He is also super huge on evidence, hard core, feel with your hands evidence. It is hard to see and there were many times I felt kinda sad and a little upset that he wanted a sign. He literally said during our lesson that if we could call God down into our presence he would believe. 

It made me think. What I feel it comes down to- now I'm not trying to be mean about Brian he is a great guy- but ultimately he doesn't want to put in the work to find God and find truth. He wants it to just be given to him straight up. 

This reminded me of a quote by Jeffery R. Holland which says: "Salvation is not a cheap experience" 

It made me reflect on my past few months of being on my mission. I went through a real rough time and I feel like in a way I was like Brian, I wanted a sign. I wanted God to just tell me what to do. But as I realized some things and talked to the right people things got better. However it took WORK and still does every single day! 

This week had it's better days and not so good days and I was going through a not so good day. We were started a companion study and I was just not really having it, I was feeling frustrated with myself over a couple things. But we were reading out of "Adjusting to Missionary Life" great resource by the way for you missionaries out there. Anyways we were reading in the section which talks about being self-critical. 

This point really struck my this time through: "Realize that everything you do can't be above average. You still want to work hard to improve, but no matter how good you become at something, you will preform below your personal average some of the time. This is not a cause for alarm." 

I was having one of those below average days and this just hit me. I made the connection to professional athletes who spend countless hours training and practicing but yet still have off games or who make mistakes. Elder Storment and I got talking, well if professional sports players make mistakes, it is 100 percent ok that two very much beginner missionaries can make mistakes and perform under average days. It was a great realization to have right when I needed it the most. 

Well if you've read all this thank you, pat yourself on the back, sorry it was super long! Anyways, I'd love to hear from y'all!! Elder Spencer 

                                                    Sweet Corvette that pulled up at our complex

New Sisters and Service, August 2, 2021

Hello all! Hope everyone is doing well! This week was great! It had its ups and downs but overall was pretty good! 

Some of the downs were that we weren't able to have as many lessons with our friends as we had hoped for! We only had about 2-3 lessons with friends this week which was too bad! This week we are praying and hoping for more to work out! 

Some ups! We have two new Sisters in our district, they are fresh into the field and that brings our district size up to 8 now (6 sisters and 2 elders). It has been fun getting to know each new missionary. We had an awesome practice in our district council this week. Elder Storment and I made up 8 different bios (that was really fun). We then split off into 1 on 1 groups and practiced some teaching principles "How to begin teaching" and "Adjusting teaching to meet needs". It was a really fun activity!

We also got to go to the temple and do service! It was really fun! We found out afterwards that we were the last group of missionaries that they would have come and do service there for. Kinda a bitter-sweet moment. It was great to be back on the temple grounds and to do some work there. 

We had a couple pretty amazing lessons with members in our ward. One of my favourite parts of member lessons is getting to know the family and just talking with them! Our ward is pretty awesome and loves the missionaries so it is great! 

We also did some other service this week. The sisters joined us and we helped our friend Chuck clean his house out a bit. Later in the week, we helped a family in our ward move. Sad to see them go, but I was grateful for the chance to help them out. 

Just before this email, Elder Storment and I went to Fitz's again and we both got ice cream floats and they are massive! Soo good! If any of you ever come through St.Louis it is a must stop at! 

Spiritual thought for the week:

I bore my testimony in sacrament meeting yesterday on this scripture and just wanted to share some of my thoughts about it. 

The scripture is Alma 26:12. It reads: "Yea, I know that I am nothing; as to my strength I am weak; therefore I will not boast of my God, for in his strength I can do all things; yea, behold, many might miracles we have wrought in this land, for which we will praise his name forever." 

Some context behind the scripture, this is when Ammon and his brethren have re-united after teaching and preaching to the Lamanites and they are in awe of the many souls they had brought to Christ, they had much success. 

What I got out of this scripture were three main points. 

First, we as human beings are nothing. We are as the dust off the earth, we can't do anything on our own. 

Second, we can do all things through Christ. The air we breathe, the bodies we have. The talents, and gifts, and skills we have all come from God. They give us power, They give us strength. As a missionary I need to constantly remind myself of this, it helps to humble me honestly. When I get prideful and think I am so great because I did this great thing I in reality need to remember where my talents and skills came from. Which leads to the third point. 

Third, after we remember it is Heavenly Father and Christ that give us everything we need to be grateful for the things we have received. We can thank them through prayer, or by serving others with the things we have been blessed with. When we thank them and remember where we have received all these great things, more joy and peace will be poured out among us! 

Well that is about it for me! I'd love to hear from you all! 

Love, Elder Spencer 

Meal with brother Chau at Fuzzy's taco shop! 

Service at Chuck's 

Ice Cream floats at Fitz's and standing outside at Fitz's

giant pancake I made

                                                                                biking!!

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!!)