Short and Sweet

Dear Mother! 

Not a lot has happened this week! We had baptisms on Saturday! Which was really awesome! We have been teaching a lot of lessons and finding a lot of new people to teach! I know God is looking out for the Missionaries! He really does care about His children here in the Earth! 

My companion... oh things are getting a little worse little by little but I am trying so hard to stand firm. But hey I know I can grow from this experience and as long as I am doing my best and keeping in line with Christ and what he wants his Missionaries to do! 

I will send pictures! You can count on that! 

Love you my dearest Mother! 

Elder Spencer 

A Missionary's Influence

Anyways I don't even know where to start! So at the start of the week we decided to visit this guy named Alfredo! We had visited him once before and he told that he wanted to change his life, because he had been drinking and all that good stuff. So we went to visit him. We arrived and we couldn't find him. We were going to leave when we heard him shout, "Brothers!" We turned around and he was sitting in a bus with his friends....who were drunk. He invited us in and we started to talk with all of them. We talked about how the Gospel can change your life and help you heal the wounds of drinking. Alfredo wasn't drunk only his 2 friends. One of them talked to me... and being drunk and speaking Spanish doesn't really help me... it is a double negative because I could not understand them when they talked. So we talked for a while and we asked if we could come back when they were sober. 

So we went back a couple days later to talk with them! But unfortunately the others weren't there... But Alfredo was! When we arrived he looked a little sad, so we asked him what was the matter. He told us that he went back to drinking again. We told him how sad we were with his decision. And started to talk about faith and repentance. That was the most spiritual conversation that I had had in a while. I got to teach him the principal of faith and why we need it. At the end he said the prayer. It was the most sincere prayer to Our Heavenly Father that I have heard. 

Yesterday was a little rough... because we watched conference in Spanish and I understood most of it but it still wasn't the same. But I want to share an experience that I had while I was going to bed yesterday. So Elder Ortiz and I arrived home and got ready for bed. We went over to our neighbors house to eat and came back and went straight to bed. I was almost asleep when Elder Ortiz shook we awake. I asked what was the problem and he told me, " Escucha" (Listen). I started to listen and didn't hear anything... but a couple seconds went by and I heard a shout of terror from the apartments in front of ours! I heard, " No me golpeo! " ( Don't hit me!) And heard the slap!! We looked at each other and I said, " ¿Que vamos hacer? Necesitamos hacer algo!" ( What are we going to do? We need to do something! While we were thinking the thought came to me that we need to pray. Before I could say it Elder Ortiz said, " Vamos a orar para ella" ( We are going to pray for her) So we knelt down together and Ortiz started to pray. During the prayer I felt something... I felt peace that she was going to be ok. 

Somethings in life are tough but I know and have seen many miracles here in Peru and all have come about through prayer! I hope we can all prayer to our Loving Father in Heaven and thank him for what we have! 

Elder Spencer 

Pictures from Facebook October 2014

Joseph Smith

Mother! 

This week has been pretty good! We have taught tons of people and we still have more we need to teach which is always good! My companion... he is good he just has a hard time following the mission rules. It is frustrating. But I stand my ground and say, " No podemos hacer ese." ( We can't do that ) Sometimes he realizes it and sometimes he doesn't.

Well this week we found this lady, her name is Viki. She is so genuine and kind. She has two kids a boy who is 3 years and a girl who is 7. We met her while walking to an appointment that we had. We were walking by her and she asked us if we were the Mormons. And we kindly said yes. She said that she had questions about the church and we asked her if we could come visit her one day. And she said yes. 

So the next day we went to visit her. I was expecting tons of questions about the Bible, the BOM, Marriage, etc. All that good stuff. We entered her house sat down and started to introduce ourselves. We had a prayer and we started the lesson. We asked her what her questions were and she said, " What do the Mormons believe? Because I have read a lot of things online of the Mormons and I want to know what you believe." So we taught her the first lesson. We taught and taught, and when we arrived at the section of Joseph Smith I knew I had to testify about this. So I started to explain the doubts that Joseph had, and that he wanted to know the truth. I related this story to her and said, " You have doubts correct? About the Mormons, well, Joseph had doubts to and he wanted to know the truth like yourself. So Joseph went to pray one day..." And then I described the First Vision. 

In this moment... I could feel something strange... an assurance that what I had said was true!  And I could tell in her expression that she felt it too. I paused for a couple seconds. And continued on. That moment I will never forget. It is glued into my brain into my memory! After we finished we invited her to baptism and before she said yes, I knew she was going to say yes. It is these moments that you really realize that you have a testimony of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I a'm glad that Joseph Smith restored the Fullness of the Gospel. I have an immovable testimony of this! And I cant wait to share it with the people of Peru! 

Glad to hear that your trip went well! Keep me updated on UVU and your lives. I love to hear about everything! 

With Love, 

Elder Spencer 

From Mom:  If you want to drop Nathan a line, his email is:

nathaniel.spencer@myldsmail.net

Mission World Cup

We are writing today because we have the World Cup for the Mission this Monday and we won’t have time to write Monday!!  I am so excited to play all day!! Everything here is good! This month we have baptisms! 

I went on divisions and that was way fun! I actually really like divisions. I get to play the role of senior companion for a night! My Spanish is so much better! I just need to learn as much as I can and have patience! 

Elder Nathaniel Spencer and Elder Spencer Bradford

Love you! 

Elder Spencer 

Have a great conference weekend! 

Questions Mom asked Nathan (and his answers)

Do you get hot water in your apartment for showers?

They have hot water installed... but sometimes is goes out...

Do you have a maid that cooks and cleans for you? How much does it cost?

We pay 350 for our apartment 

We don’t have a maid.. 

Where do you eat for dinner?

For dinner we buy food and cook it at a member’s house 

Do you get to play the piano much?

I play the piano sometimes they don’t really have piano here only in the stake centers

 Below are some pictures of stairs that people (and missionaries) have to climb to get to the areas where they work.

Adventures in Peru!

These weeks have been full of many adventures! First off last week we left our keys in our room! Ahh! We asked some workers near by if that had a ladder we could use! And Elder Ortiz climbed up to our room and got the keys! And now every time we leave the room I always ask him if he has the keys! Wow that was crazy! 

AMAMOS PERU (Love Peru)

My Spanish is so much better! Every day I learn something new about the language! I am trying to learn as fast as I can.

Our lessons have been great we have started to teach this family that their nephew is on a mission and that they want to be baptized! They are the coolest family ever! Also we are teaching this other family where the wife is a member but the husband is not! We talked about the importance of the Church is our lives and in our families. Also we talked about the importance of Family Night! That really hit home for me when we started to talk about these things. Because these three things really made me think. 

MI CUARTO (My room)

HOW I IRON MY SHIRTS EVERYDAY! 

Our pentionista is the coolest person ever! She isn't a member but every time we eat with her we try to bring up the church in some way or another! She cooks the best food and I think today was the last day she is going to pention for us! :( 

But yes everything is going well! I can speak English good with the gringos... ;) 

Nuestro proyecto servicio!! Tuvimos la oportunidad a tirar los ladrillos! 

( Our service project!! We had the opportunity to throw bricks! ) 

SERVICIO! 

Love you, 

Elder Spencer