Happy Independence Day! July 4, 2022

Happy 4th Everyone!!!

This week flew by and we saw miracles.

We got a decent amount of finding in this week, talked with lots of people on campus and found a few apartment complex's to walk around when campus is slower. 

We ran into a lot of FSY campers on campus throughout the week. It was fun because they would yell out "it's the missionaries!!" all the time and come give us high fives and stuff haha. It was cool! 

We had a few lessons with our friend Davonte this week, he progressed lots and we are working through some concerns he has. He truly has a desire to come unto Christ and it is very cool to see. He came to church this Sunday and everyone made him feel welcome! 

Big news, our mission has a new Mission President and companion. President and Sister McKay. I got to meet them on Friday. When they walked into the room I felt much love for them. They carry the Spirit very powerfully. President McKay is about my height and is a very hard worker. 

Sister McKay is a ray of light and is apparently very good at pickleball. They are both older than President and Sister Bell but they aren't skipping a beat. They are full of energy and I am so excited to continue to work with them both!! 

We had our last Zoom Zone Conference on Wednesday with the Bells, they gave some parting council and expressed their love for the MSLM, they will be missed! 

I've been thinking a little recently about just how much Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father love us. They are full of justice and mercy. I felt Their love for those around me as I taught this week and that is one of the greatest feelings ever! I invite each of you to pray for the eyes to see someone the way God does and you will experience that and it will blow you away!! 

Elder Spencer 

Working Hard and Seeing Blessings, June 27, 2022

Hello everyone! 

This week was a good one, got lots of things done! 

Elder Hurst and I worked our tails off this week, got out and talked with everyone we could. We walked around a ton because we are almost out of miles for the month, it was great exercise and felt great to be outside! 

We had some really cool lessons this week. We had two first lessons with guys named Jesus and Cody. Both on different occasions but these two are awesome! They are both open to learning which makes all the difference, we taught them about truth and how to learn it. Amazing how the Lord placed them in our paths. 

We had a scare with our friend Davonte this week. He texted us out of the blue and said he didn't want to meet with us anymore which broke our hearts. We didn't want to give up on him over a text so we set up a time to meet in-person one last time. 

We went over and found out he had a concern about one of the commandments and he just didn't feel like he could live it. We had a very powerful, real conversation about the commandment and God's love! It was one of the coolest moments on my mission. I just felt so much love for Davonte and wanted nothing more than for him to come to Christ. 

We ended up mostly solving his concern and got him back on his feet and he is down to keep meeting which is great! Keep him in your prayers please! 

Church was crazy this week. So the building we meet in isn't very big and we have maybe 20 people at church every week. However this week we had nearly 60 people there! There is a FSY (For Strength of Youth) Conference being hosted on Mizzou Campus so a bunch of instructors came to our building for church! It was cool! We also had 4 friends come to church: Davonte, a girl who's been taught in the past named Whitley, some guy from Elder Hurst and I invited the day before and a girl who just walked right in and wanted to check it out! 

I was thinking this week about what really converts people, it's nothing we do as missionaries. It's what we bring. We strive to bring the Spirit into our lessons. That comes as we live righteously day to day and do the small and simple things. It also comes from speaking truth and reading it from the scriptures, especially the Book of Mormon. We had lessons where we just simply read 3 verses from the Book of Mormon and then expounded them slightly and taught by the Spirit, those were my most powerful lessons this week! 

Any how hope you all have a great week! 

Happy Canada Day on Friday!! 

Elder Spencer 

Pics--

They have what's called the Parley P. Pratt run here in Columbia, Parley P. Pratt is an important person in our church history. Apparently he escaped a jail here in Columbia and ran a few miles to get away, we are gonna be volunteering at the event on the 4th of July! It'll be great! 

Road Trips and Preaching the Gospel, June 21, 2022

This week was a good one, another Tuesday P-day because this week is transfers!

I'll start off with transfer news this time. I am staying in Columbia with Elder Hurst. In fact there are no missionaries leaving our zone, we are getting three more but aren't losing any. Elder Furniss is getting a new companion so we will not be in a trio anymore. It makes me kinda sad but at the same time it will be nice to focus our efforts on just our area. 

This week we had two longer road trips, the first one was driving up to Macon, MO for a baptismal interview. I enjoy road trips so it was a blast. The guy being interviewed for baptism is also super cool! 

Next road trip was driving once again to St.Louis to bring a missionary to the mission home to go home because his mission is over. It was lots of driving! 

We taught quite a few lessons this week. Despite campus being slow we have still been able to find people and teach them. We taught someone without much of a Christian background. It made it a bit of a challenge because we had to teach very simply! 

We had one really cool miracle yesterday. It was about 8pm so we had one hour left. We decided to go to campus for one last hurrah for the day. We had already been there earlier and found some success. We start going out and Elder Hurst feels that we should go to the volleyball courts. On our way there we talk to multiple people no of who are interested. We get to the court area talk to a few more, still not interested. 

Then we see a girl crossing the street so we start talking to her and she isn't to interestedm then we ask her where she is from and she says "Canada"! It blew me away, there are very few Canadians down here and it was awesome. She is from out east but it was cool to talk to a fellow Canadian. Ultimately we got her number and are going to be meeting with her, so that was cool! 

Recently I read through the lyrics of a hymn in our hymn book number 270 "I'll Go Where You Want Me To Go" verses 2 and 3 stuck out to me I never really took time to think about what those verses were teaching, I encourage you to read them and think about how you can apply them into your life. 

It got me thinking about the power of words and actions and how what we do and say really does affect those around us! 

- Elder Spencer 

Three Exchanges and Crazy Humidity! June 14, 2022

Hello everyone! What a week this was, it was a great one for sure! 

Started off the week with an exchange, I went to Moberly and Macon Missouri which are smaller towns in our zone and it was super fun! 

We talked with lots of people and got out and about, we had a humbling experience with a man named Sam who we ran into on the street. He really opened up about some difficult things he was going through and we were able to talk to him and help him feel God's love. 

Wednesday and Thursday flew by, we had lots of lessons and had some chances to go find on campus. Campus has been picking up a little bit more with the summer classes starting so its been nice to have more people to talk to! 

We had another exchange Friday to Saturday, faced some rejection on that exchange some people not to happy to talk to us but hey you are gonna see that! We had some good on the spot lessons we taught to people we ran into on the streets so that was nice. 

Church was great, we had two friends attend, Davonte and Dan! We had a linger longer where we had some food and the branch just swarmed Davonte and Dan. Lots of people introduced themselves and made them feel welcome! It was really cool. 

Then we had exchanges yesterday. I went to the other area, just right by in Columbia and it is a biking area. It was very hot and humid outside. I drank tons of water but it all just sweated right out. We biked quite a lot and I had a little bought of heat exhaustion but I felt loads better after we made it to a members home where they fed us some food and I could just rest for a minute. 

Neat story about the family that had us over for dinner yesterday, they know some of my family in Magrath, Alberta so that was super cool!! It was really cool to run into someone who knew people from back home. 

I've come to know and felt this last week of just how real Jesus Christ is. He lives and knows each and everyone of us! 

Elder Spencer 

Davonte! June 6, 2022

Hey all, this week again flew by! 

Tuesday we had our Zone Council, it was very powerful. We have an awesome zone and we really bonded especially when we had a little testimony meeting. It was President and Sister Bell's last in-person Zone Council so they opened up some time for a question and answer portion which was really awesome! 

They gave us all some great life advice and encouraged us to stay faithful and love God. I will truly miss the Bells they have become great friend to me.

Wednesday we had MLC down in St.Louis, that was probably the best MLC I've ever been in and I truly enjoyed it. We had a great council about how we can help the mission move forward especially since we are getting a new mission president in a few weeks, we talked about making the transition smooth. 

Thursday and Friday flew by we had district council, weekly planning. We helped a member move her couch, loading it into the back of our Tacoma. That was quite the experience! 

A huge highlight was when our friend Davonte came to church Sunday! He walked over, he lives right down the road. He loved it. He was following along in our lesson, participated a bit in Sunday School. He was happy to be there! 

We got some decent street contacting in this week, had some cool conversations with people on campus and downtown! You run into all sorts of people and I love them all! 

Hope you all are doing well, 

Elder Spencer 

Busy, Busy, Busy! May 30, 2022

This week was non-stop! It was great to be going all the time but I'll tell ya it is quite tiring. 

We are getting better and better at teaching together in this trio. I felt the spirit working through us as we testified of the truth of the gospel! 

We had Zone Conference this week. It was President and Sister Bell's last in-person one. That is so crazy to me. They spent the last 30-40 mins giving us life advice which was really cool. 

Some things that stuck out to me were to always set goals and make plans in life. They will help move you forward and grow. I've definitely felt that as I've been on my mission. It is easy to not set goals but it takes work to set and then achieve them.

Another thing that stuck out to me was that if it matters to us it matters to God. He won't give us things against His will but He does care about what we enjoy and like to do. 

Being in the YSA has been a blast it's fun to talk with them and learn from them. We had a missionary focused Sunday School and it was neat to hear from quite a few YSA who have been home from their missions and to get a glimpse of life after the mission. I enjoy helping them come closer to Christ there is nothing better! 

Hope you are all doing well! 

Elder Spencer

From Corner to Corner! May 23, 2022

Hey everyone! This week was insane! Lots happened. 

First of all I said goodbye to the people of Champaign-Urbana, that was hard. There are so many people I will miss and that impacted my life. Serving missions is hard that way you get close to someone and then have to leave. 

We got to the transfer meeting quite early so we sat there for a couple hours and I was nervous the whole time, but then the Assistants came out and informed us where we are going. I was told I was being transferred to Columbia, Missouri which is pretty awesome! 

Champaign is in the very north-east corner of my mission and Columbia is in the north-west corner so that was kinda funny going to the opposite side of the mission. 

My new companion's name is Elder Hurst he is from West Jordan, Utah and is super fun to serve around!  We are serving in the YSA branch out in Columbia so again no ties!! 

I'm excited to work in a YSA and teach people my own age. It has been a little weird so far but I like it. 

There are 12 companionships in this zone so it's a bit bigger than Champaign there will be lots more to do. We have some Elders who live right behind us so we hang out with them every night. 

However yesterday we received some sad news that one of those Elders is headed home so we are being put temporarily in a trio, the other Elder we will be with is Elder Furniss, he is from Pleasant Grove, Utah. 

We will be running two areas it'll be lots of fun! 

I've been thinking a bit about knowledge and how important it is to gain all types of knowledge of spiritual and temporal things. I have lots of decisions to make about what I want to study and where I'll go to school and it makes me nervous but I know it is something God wants and expects of me! 

Have a great week everyone! 

Elder Spencer 

So sorry there is only one pic, I'll try to get more for next week!