From Our Missionary

Turkey time!: I am very excited for Thanksgiving. It feels weird because even though I am not going to be with you all for it, it still feels normal. Like this is just how it has always been. I don't know it's hard to explain but I think it is a great blessing to have. I am so very excited to play Turkey Bowl tomorrow morning. I went to a thrift store and bought cleats for $2.50 so I could be in the competition of the game. I wish I would have had you send me my football gloves, but I will have to do without those. Darn! But I am going up to Hudson WI to play with the zone leaders ward and I am pretty excited! Then we will go to a members home who is having a big feast. It will be splendid. Just so all of you know when you go around the table and say what you are thankful for...I am thankful for the restored gospel of Jesus Christ, for the opportunity we have to be a family forever, and for you all as my family. THe saying that you don't know what you have until you lose it is very true. Since I've been gone I have noticed alot of things that I hadn't fully understood when I was home and one of those is how wonderful my family is and how much I love you. So Happy Thanksgiving I hope you all have a glorious feast and that they guys have a blast playing football! Take some pictures for me! :)

Weather: Well, it is still cold, but the weather has been quite nice here the past week. I was dreaming of a white Thanksgiving but it appears that we will not be having snow on the ground for it! When it has snowed it goes away by the afternoon. So not too much to report for that. I did survive one night this week with a wind chill of about 13 degrees. So it's getting colder some nights!

Study: At the request of Neil I will include a brief note on what something I have studied recently. The past couple days I have been studying the Atonement of Jesus Christ. The Atonement is something that I can always grow in, because I know I will never fully realize and understand what the Savior went through for me. Today I studied specifically the resurrection. It is awesome to me to comprehend living for eternity with a perfected body. It is even more awesome to me to realize that that is possible only because of Jesus Christ. He literally died and overcame death for me. He didn't have to do it or go through the pain he did. He could have stopped it. The soldiers and people even mocked him that he couldn't "save himself." But, he even died for them too. It has been very special as I have tried to re-apply the Atonement on a personal level the past few days. Christ is the ultimate example of being unselfish and loving. He made the ultimate sacrifice...for all of us. But again, it is important to focus on the living Christ and the wonderful opportunity we will all have to live forever as resurrected beings. It talks about the resurrection repeatedly in the New Testament and the Book of Mormon because (I believe) it is a doctrine not many focus on. IT is an amazing even to look forward to and as I keep focused on that eternal goal, the choices I make everyday begin to reflect that focus. I am so thankful for that knowledge!

Pictures: One picture is of a yard we were able to rake the leaves in. It was a beastly chore but we go through it. There are numerous piles of leaves that we raked. IT was pretty fun though. The last picture is of an awesome night we had eating dinner. Guillermo (who was baptized about 3 weeks ago) grilled us up some fantastic T-bone steaks! Ooooohhh yeahh!!!And that is my companion Elder Hansen. We were pretty excited. Two thumbs up for that night!

**Minnesota Word of the Week**
Minnesota Nice: This defines probably 80% of the people here. It describes the politeness of people who will smile and be nice, but really aren't remotely interested in what we are sharing. It was a term that the people here use all the time. Even though it says "nice"...people generally use it to describe not so "nice" experiences. It's pretty interesting...at least I think so! ;)

I love you all and hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving! Until next week, God bless!
With love,
Elder Spencer