Tough Week

This week has been a little tough. But it went by really fast. I can feel all your prayers and I just want to thank you for that. Well this week wasn't a super week. It was just normal. We taught and taught some more. But I had an experience last night that I will probably never forget and that really made me realize that I have a testimony of The Gospel. 

Well last night we went to go visit this man that we had contacted. So we went and knocked on his door. He came out and invited us in. We talked for a long time about Peru, and Machu Pichu. He is really smart and uses very scientific words. But I understood what he saying. After about 40 minutes of this. We actually started the lesson. The thing about this man is that he is Catholic. And we started to find that he was SUPER Catholic. Well we started to explain all of The Restoration. He was understanding and listened for the most part. But after we taught a principle he was just trying to find all the flaws in what we had said. Which was kind of frustrating. At that point we couldn't really do anything but just testify. We presented The First Vision to this guy. I started to feel warm and happy for this man. I started to feel like he was a Child of God. That we needed to just testify. Then we presented The Book Of Mormon. But he told us according to the RULES of his church that he couldn't read anything but the Bible. Which is the worst excuse I have ever heard someone give. We read the promise is Moroni 10:3-5. And we hit him with our testimonies. I testified with all my heart to this man hoping what I was saying would spark something. But nothing. But the funny part is that he believes that Joseph Smith was a prophet but won't read the Book of Mormon because "his religion" forbids it.... After all this he thanked us a he said that is was very interested what we had told him but he just tried to use logic to give us excuses. 

After that we left for another visit.

This experience I will never forget. For one the guy is crazy to say that Joseph Smith is a Prophet of God and then deny The Book Of Mormon..... But the other reason is that I felt a manly love for this man. Don't get me wrong when I say that. But I just felt like he really was Gods Child and as a representative of Christ I did my job to love and help him. I will never forget the Spirit that I felt when we were sharing the experience that Joseph Smith had. It was electric. 

Elder Spencer 

Random Pictures

Sol Del Pinar

Well this week went by really really fast! My area is good...but hard at the same time. The people here don't really want to listen to us. For example, yesterday we knocked a couple of doors on the way to our lesson because we had a little bit of time. We knocked on a door and out came a women. We presented ourselves and asked if you could share a message with here. She told us he was a little busy and didn't have time. (The typical response ) We asked her if we could come back and visit her this week and just like that she slammed the door. If was so funny for me and Elder Perez! We just started to laugh a little. But that is mainly how it is here in my area, The people yell, throw water sometimes, and call us mean names ;( But I have learned so much about the Gospel and myself here in Sol Del Pinar. 

After that we arrived to our lesson and began to talk with the boyfriend of a member and we started to talk about what we learned in church because he went this Sunday. I asked him how he felt and he told us that he felt peaceful. We then explained that God wants us to feel peace here in the world. And that we can feel it more when we do the little things like reading our scriptures, praying, going to church. And he agreed with us. We then started to share The Plan of Salvation. We started to talk about about how we could gain the peace and comfort here on earth. We mentioned that Christ taught 5 principles when we was here. Faith, Repentance, Baptism, Gift of The Holy Ghost, and Enduring to the End. And that Christ has put things principles in our lives because He knows that they can bring us happiness. We then explained that all of us are going to die one day. And that when Christ died he was also resurrected. And that also we are going to have the privilige too. He taught that yes... Christ died. But most importantly He conquered death. And that He lives just like we are living. When we taught him that I could see a glimpse of Hope and comfort in his eyes. I know that our words rung true to his ears. We invited him to pray and ask God directly and he said that he would. He lives outside our area but he gave us his phone number to call and see how his prayer went! That was pretty cool!

A little bit about the ward here. We don't attend in a normal chapel like in all the others. We basically have a house church is what they call it here. I haven't had the opportunity to take a picture because I am always forgetting my camera. But we have tons of members... not. we only have 50 people attending regularly. Which is terrible. We have like 18 families that are less active and sometimes attend. But the worst part is that the Relief Society Pres is inactive, Primary Pres, Young womens pres, Young mens pres. 

I don't have much to write but just wanted to let you all know that I can feel your prayers everyday. 

Elder Spencer 

Working

This week has gone by so fast! We have contacted and contacted so many people this past week. I want to share a few experiences with you. Well to start of we were contacting in a place that we normally don't go. We started to contact the street. And... nothing. I asked my companion if we were doing something wrong as missionaries and he told me, "No we just need to keep looking for the people that are ready." And so we continued and we found a family. This family is honestly the best! When we started to talk with the Mother of the family she told us that she had heard of the missionaries before and that she always wondered what they did. We explained our purpose as missionaries and talked a little bit about the Restoration of the Gospel. She asked us where we attend. After we invited her to attend with us. And she accepted. Yesterday she came and after she asked us when we could visit her and here family again to explain more. We are going to visit her this week. I am super excited!! 

Last week we visited a less active, Br***. She told us that she didn't have time to visit with us in that moment. But we saw that her neighbor was outside with with her family. We asked Br*** if she could introduce us to her. But she told us that her neighbor didn't want anything to do with the Mormons. But in the end she introduced us to her. And so we started to talk and I asked her if she knew that families could be together forever. She told us she didn't know that. And we asked her if she wanted to live with her family forever. And she said of course. After about 4 minutes of talking she invited us in to her house to talk a little bit more. But what surprised me that most was the father. He actually wanted to listen to us. The reason I say that is because what I have seen is that the Fathers here don't normally want to listen to things like that. Anyways we started to give a brief description of who we were and what we taught. We taught a little bit of the Plan Of Salvation to them and after they invited us back for another visit. This family is awesome! 

Now I want to share an experience that happened yesterday! We went to visit a less active member I don't remember her name. But she invited us to eat dinner with her and her cousin, Ab**. We started eating and started talking with them about random topics. But we soon started talking about family and how important it is in our lives. Through the conversation we learned that the mother of Ab** had passed away. In that moment I felt the need to talk about The Plan Of Salvation. I asked him if he thought he would see his mother again. And he told he had no idea. We began to teach. And share scripture that testified that he WOULD see if mother again. I taught most of the lesson because I felt obligated that something inside of me was telling me, " You need to say this, You need to say that." I don't remember well what I said to him. But after I asked him how he felt. He told me, " I feel more peace" And when he said that I told him that he was feeling the love of Christ that God is trying to tell you that these things are true. We invited him to pray to see the things we taught him are true and we accepted. In the end he gave me a big hug. 

I know that The Message of the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ can change that lives of many. We may not know them or their situations. But there is always a principle of the Gospel in the words of others. 

I want to share a quote from Jeffery R. Holland that I thought was cool he said:

 "Ningún hombre inicuo podría escribir un libro así y ningún hombre bueno lo escribiría, a menos que fuera verdad y que Dios le hubiera mandado." 

No wicked man could write a book like this and no good man would write is, unless that is were true and that God had commanded him. 

Elder Spencer 

San Felipe

Mother! 

Well I got transferred! It was pretty sad to leave my area and the members and my converts. But I know that God has bigger and brighter plans for me ahead, here in the zone San Felipe. I am in an area named Sol del Pinar! With my companion Elder Perez! He is from Mexico! And seriously is the chillest and coolest guy that I have met! He doesn't talk much. He is a man of few words but ya we talk! The ward he is really small. Only 55 people attend constantly. Here we have a lot of familias that are less active and need a little bit of help to remember certain things. But I just wanted to say that I am doing great! My Spanish is sooooo much better! I have learned lots of new words here already! I can tell I am going to grow spiritually here in my area with my companion! 

Well I just want to share an experience that I had yesterday with the Bishop of our ward. After ward council we had a talk with the Bishop. And he asked us if we could visit a couple of the less active families in the ward with him that day! And of course we said yes. We can't say no because we are missionaries ;) So around 5 we did divisions with the Bishop and his 1st counsellor. 

I went with the Bishop and we visited a house but no one was home. After we went to another house and there were two men outside the house. We asked them if they knew this family and they said they didn't. Another man left the house and asked us what we were looking for. We told him what we had told the other 2 and he told us that they weren't home. We were about to leave... when I felt that I need to talk with these 3 men. I asked them what there names where and then I started to testify. I don't remember what I said. 

There were to men to my right and one younger man to my left. The 2 to my right weren't paying attention I could tell. But the man to my left was listening. I was mainly talking to him anyways. But I asked if we could stop by his house and share a message about the Gospel. He told me, " Si, quiero conocerles un poco mas, vengan a mi casa." ( Yes, I want to get to know you a bit more, come to my house.") I asked him for his address and cell number but he couldn't remember because he told me he is just visiting for 2 months. I gave him a pamphlet of The Plan of Salvation with our names and our number. I told him to call me. 

So today I have very optimistic that he is going to call! I know he will call! I have been praying in my heart all morning that he will call! I know God can do many things and this is one of them! He told me he will call us in the afternoon! We are going to see! 

John 14:18 

" No os dejare huérfanos; vendré a vosotros." 

Elder Spencer