Today, I was going to the library to work on a research project and stopped by the football stadium. A full contact intramural game was going on, so I decided to do some reading as I watched a little bit of the game. Usually when his happens, I get wrapped up in the game and miss playing so much; however, this time it felt different. I was more excited about my project I was working on than the game! I saw 3 players get hurts and was thankful that I never have to worry about that again. I thought back to how it felt to feel the pain of running into another person at full speed and realized I don't want to do that again.
I am accepting that my body can't do what it was able to 5 or even 2 years ago. But I am realizing that I can now do things I couldn't do then. I feel that I can think in new ways and solve problems that I didn't even care about 5 years ago. I can now go on a walk and have a long conversation with my wife and talk about anything. Life is so much better!
This last week, I wanted to learn more about what to do in an interview. I talked to a few friends and got an email address of a member of the church that directs HR for a Fortune 500 company in Texas. He said he would give me some help and pointers for free. We talked for 40 minutes about how to act, think, and respond in an interview. It was a great learning experience. He offers the same free service to anyone, so if you know anyone that is looking for advice on resumes or interviews, have them check out this website http://www.helpmyresume.com/.
I love you all!
Saturday, October 17, 2009
Monday, September 28, 2009
Elder spencer Sept. 28, 2009
Dear family! Sept. 28, 2009
I'm 21 now! And...to be honest I still feel the exact same. Hm...I'm still trying to sort that one out...Is it always like that???
This week was a great one. Things are still going well, and we are always busy. The weather was perfect and it is starting to get a little bit chilly. Which is sad because it really isn't chilly it just feels like it. It is still like upper 50s but my ears get cold. This transition to winter is not going to be exciting.......
But on the bright side there were a lot of great things that happened!
"A honkin' marvy good time": This week a great highlight came in remembrance of mother and all of her fine vocabulary sayings. Including, but not limited to the words mentioned in the title of this paragraph. A lady was on her porch picking green beans. We talked to her and commented on the large size of the beans she was picking (because they really were big!) She replied "Yes! They are some honkin' big ones!" I didn't really believe what I had just heard. I wanted to ask her, "Did you really just say 'honkin?'" But I didn't. I also did a good job supressing the laughter I had thinking about Mom saying that exact thing becuase I didn't want this nice lady to think I was laughing at her. Good times. Thanks for the good source of humor Mom. Love you! :)
Teaching isn't all peaches and cream: This week we had some nice experiences I felt were significant. They both involve my companion and his greatness. We were sahring a spiritual thought after dinner and my companion decided to share a personal spiritual experience he had from the beginning of his mission. It is a pretty powerful experience and it helped him grow alot so it is realyl special to him. Right when he was talking about the most spiritual part of it we heard a big THUMP on the window. We all jumped and looked over and a humming bird had slammed into the window! It was hovering there looking a little dazed and then zoomed off. We kept composure pretty well, and my companioin didn't even turn around. He went right through and finished his thought like nothing had happened. He is very focused! A great example of not being distracted by other influences that come during teaching. I was distracted enough taht I even remembered to write in my email home like 5 days later...so I'm still working on that part....
-Another experience came while we were in another area with some other missionaries. I got to interview a man who is preparing for baptism. He had a friend there at the time so when we went out on the porch for the interview, she and my companion and the two other missionaries were sitting in the living room. They talked a little bit, but the missionaries told me later that a pretty akward silence of definetely more than a minute fell over them. Then, my companion said to her, "So....have you ever heard of Joseph Smith??" to break the long awkward pause. It definetely is not the smoothest way to introduce the gospel and we laughed about it after the interview alot, but she answered the question and they ended up teaching her a lesson during the interview. So sometimes in missionary work it isn't as much about how the initial invitation is delivered as long as it is delivered. Also, I guess sometimes the best way to break awkward silences is with awkward questions. Who knows!
The work: Things are still going realyl well. Winifred is still doing great, but she will be baptized next weekend on Sunday, instead of Yesterday. Her husband has agreed to come to her baptism, but he was working yesterday so we moved the baptism so he could be included. We felt taht was really important because after all, the gospel is all about families. But Winifred is super excited for her baptism. She has called many of her friends and is throwing a post baptism party at her house next week. She will be a great missionary!
A grand birthday week: Ok, maybe it was more than grand, it was glorious! I opened the great package on my birthday and tahnk you for that! It was a great treat. (Mom, the cookies were still good and not crushed!) Thank you for your thoughtfulness! Also, the members we lived with made Elder Green and I homemade apple crisp for a birthday treat. (His bday was yesterday!) So that was amazing. Also, on my birthday I made a delicious dessert to share with other missionaries whose district meeting we were going to. I made brownies with a layer of melted marshmallows followed witha thick layer of chocolate frosting. I don't mess around with my desserts. Also, for lunch we went to a burger place called Fuddruckers. It was delicious. Yay for birthdays!
Kids are krazy: The bishop's six year old shared the following joke during the middle of dinner.
Q: Why did Piglet look in the toilet?
A: He was looking for Pooh!
The bishops wife tried to tell the child that the joke was not appropriate for the dinner table, or for when missionaries were present, but it wasn't very effective because she was laughing too. The joke was then retold and retold again by the 3 year old sitting next to me until he was threatened to not get any dessert! haha. It reminded me of those great dinners we had when the missionaries were over. We would argue about who got to sit by the missionaries and I remember we even had to have talks about proper conduct when missionaries were over. So mom, don't worry, we weren't the only kids like taht! And as a missionary, you think it is awesome! :)
Transfers this week: This weeks is transfers again. Who knows what will happen!! So stay tuned for next week.
Pictures
1). Lunch at Fuddruckers. So delicious. The missionary I am next to is my companion. The one next to him is from Olympia.
2). This place is bound to be a success. The name is golden. I am so happy I found it. It is outside of my area though :(
3). I am a wrestling champion. Carl and Neil, you are going down when I get home. be intimidated.
I hope you all have a wonderful week! Thank you for all of your love and support.
With oodles of love,
Elder Spencer
I'm 21 now! And...to be honest I still feel the exact same. Hm...I'm still trying to sort that one out...Is it always like that???
This week was a great one. Things are still going well, and we are always busy. The weather was perfect and it is starting to get a little bit chilly. Which is sad because it really isn't chilly it just feels like it. It is still like upper 50s but my ears get cold. This transition to winter is not going to be exciting.......
But on the bright side there were a lot of great things that happened!
"A honkin' marvy good time": This week a great highlight came in remembrance of mother and all of her fine vocabulary sayings. Including, but not limited to the words mentioned in the title of this paragraph. A lady was on her porch picking green beans. We talked to her and commented on the large size of the beans she was picking (because they really were big!) She replied "Yes! They are some honkin' big ones!" I didn't really believe what I had just heard. I wanted to ask her, "Did you really just say 'honkin?'" But I didn't. I also did a good job supressing the laughter I had thinking about Mom saying that exact thing becuase I didn't want this nice lady to think I was laughing at her. Good times. Thanks for the good source of humor Mom. Love you! :)
Teaching isn't all peaches and cream: This week we had some nice experiences I felt were significant. They both involve my companion and his greatness. We were sahring a spiritual thought after dinner and my companion decided to share a personal spiritual experience he had from the beginning of his mission. It is a pretty powerful experience and it helped him grow alot so it is realyl special to him. Right when he was talking about the most spiritual part of it we heard a big THUMP on the window. We all jumped and looked over and a humming bird had slammed into the window! It was hovering there looking a little dazed and then zoomed off. We kept composure pretty well, and my companioin didn't even turn around. He went right through and finished his thought like nothing had happened. He is very focused! A great example of not being distracted by other influences that come during teaching. I was distracted enough taht I even remembered to write in my email home like 5 days later...so I'm still working on that part....
-Another experience came while we were in another area with some other missionaries. I got to interview a man who is preparing for baptism. He had a friend there at the time so when we went out on the porch for the interview, she and my companion and the two other missionaries were sitting in the living room. They talked a little bit, but the missionaries told me later that a pretty akward silence of definetely more than a minute fell over them. Then, my companion said to her, "So....have you ever heard of Joseph Smith??" to break the long awkward pause. It definetely is not the smoothest way to introduce the gospel and we laughed about it after the interview alot, but she answered the question and they ended up teaching her a lesson during the interview. So sometimes in missionary work it isn't as much about how the initial invitation is delivered as long as it is delivered. Also, I guess sometimes the best way to break awkward silences is with awkward questions. Who knows!
The work: Things are still going realyl well. Winifred is still doing great, but she will be baptized next weekend on Sunday, instead of Yesterday. Her husband has agreed to come to her baptism, but he was working yesterday so we moved the baptism so he could be included. We felt taht was really important because after all, the gospel is all about families. But Winifred is super excited for her baptism. She has called many of her friends and is throwing a post baptism party at her house next week. She will be a great missionary!
A grand birthday week: Ok, maybe it was more than grand, it was glorious! I opened the great package on my birthday and tahnk you for that! It was a great treat. (Mom, the cookies were still good and not crushed!) Thank you for your thoughtfulness! Also, the members we lived with made Elder Green and I homemade apple crisp for a birthday treat. (His bday was yesterday!) So that was amazing. Also, on my birthday I made a delicious dessert to share with other missionaries whose district meeting we were going to. I made brownies with a layer of melted marshmallows followed witha thick layer of chocolate frosting. I don't mess around with my desserts. Also, for lunch we went to a burger place called Fuddruckers. It was delicious. Yay for birthdays!
Kids are krazy: The bishop's six year old shared the following joke during the middle of dinner.
Q: Why did Piglet look in the toilet?
A: He was looking for Pooh!
The bishops wife tried to tell the child that the joke was not appropriate for the dinner table, or for when missionaries were present, but it wasn't very effective because she was laughing too. The joke was then retold and retold again by the 3 year old sitting next to me until he was threatened to not get any dessert! haha. It reminded me of those great dinners we had when the missionaries were over. We would argue about who got to sit by the missionaries and I remember we even had to have talks about proper conduct when missionaries were over. So mom, don't worry, we weren't the only kids like taht! And as a missionary, you think it is awesome! :)
Transfers this week: This weeks is transfers again. Who knows what will happen!! So stay tuned for next week.
Pictures
1). Lunch at Fuddruckers. So delicious. The missionary I am next to is my companion. The one next to him is from Olympia.
2). This place is bound to be a success. The name is golden. I am so happy I found it. It is outside of my area though :(
3). I am a wrestling champion. Carl and Neil, you are going down when I get home. be intimidated.
I hope you all have a wonderful week! Thank you for all of your love and support.
With oodles of love,
Elder Spencer
Friday, September 25, 2009
Elder Spencer Sept. 21, 2009
Hello family! Sept. 21, 2009
Thank you all for the emails, updates and birthday wishes today! I loved it! You are all such great family. I can feel your love even across lakes, mountains, plains, corn fields, and apple orchards! This week was another superb week full of busy missionary life.
Has the time of miracles ceased?: I say unto you, NAY! (Which means no in Book of Mormon language...some of our investigators have trouble with the language in it.) Winifred is doing absolutely incredible. She is going to be baptized next week. She is excited, is reading, gaining a testimony and even better, sharing it with others she knows. It is powerful to see her excitement for the gospel because she is truly converted. She had more great experiences with reading the Book of Mormon this week. In our lessons she always amazes me at how open she is and how much she understands. The spirit is always strong over there. She invited us to go to a friends wedding, done African style. So we got permission to go and to the reception and it was SOO fun! They are such a great group of people. We were two of 5 white people there with hundreds of people from Africa. The food was good and a lot of it was pretty similar to an American wedding except how much they danced. All of the bridal party had their own entrance music and danced down the reception hall to the head table. It took a while, but everyone was so into. Even the four year old flower girl and ring bearer had good style. I was impressed! Also, we took Winifred to the mission president's fireside last night. There was a great spirit there and the speakers were Joe and Anna, recent converts from my last area. I was there when Joe was just baptized in August, so it was amazing to hear him speak and see how his testimony has grown from us working on him praying about the Book of Mormon to hear him talk about honoring his priesthood and looking forward to b being sealed in the temple. It's amazing! But anyway, after it was over Winifred was like, that was a fireside? I thought we were going to be outside around a fire! Guess we didn't clarify the Mormon language....
Loving the crazies: Since we are out in the cities most of the day we see a lot of people. Along with the normal people comes a fair amount of crazy people. We were knocking on a door and across the street an older man walked out of his house with a button up shirt on and socks. That was it. He went out to turn off the water in the yard. I couldn't help but laugh and wonder why he wasn't wearing any pants. I guess some questions just have to go unanswered. It was nice to have a laugh though. Another time we parked in an apartment’s parking lot and it was in the evening so the sun was just going down. About four cars over there was an old man standing with his driver door open. IT looked like he was dancing but I wasn't sure. I looked closer as we walked by and saw that he was wearing a grass skirt, with no shirt and he was doing the hula dance to some Hawaiian music playing from his car stereo. He had the biggest smile on his face too and it was apparent he wasn't all there. He was so happy! I guess I was happy for him that he was just out enjoying himself so much and not really caring what other people thought. It was good to see though! Being on a mission is priceless.
Bday plans: So tomorrow we have a district meeting with some other missionaries and I am planning on making a nice dessert. Also, Elder Greens bday is on the 27th so I think we might just go do a dinner during the week to celebrate both of our births together. How exciting! I am so happy to be 21. It is a great milestone in my life. I would like to thank my mother and the others who have helped me come this far. Also, our mission has a tradition that the mission office calls and sings to us. So I am looking forward to being serenaded by the office staff of sisters who are almost all over 65. haha. But they do it because they love us, so it is very nice!
Mission blog: Our mission president and his wife have taken time to make a mission blog!! It is fully intended for our families so here is the link.
http://mmmmiracles.blogspot.com/
I haven't seen it, and actually we can't go to it, but I hope you enjoy it. They said they are going to be putting up pictures from around the mission and also explain some of the traditions we have in the Minnesota Minneapolis Mission. I think it's a great idea, especially since many of you are avid bloggers! But I will still send you pictures from my own adventures.
Pictures:
1). the beautiful sunsets of Minnesota from a lake side. Gotta love September!
2). Elder Green and I got to go to the early morning seminary class to play Nephi and King Laban. I was King Laban. Ooo Rah.
3). Elder Green and I at the African wedding reception! Winifred is on the left. She is awesome!
I hope you all have a wonderful week. Thanks again for all the updates. Hurrah for Israel!
Oh, and a special shout out for UW beating USC! Word to your mother, USC! Thanks for the updates. Love you all!
With all the love that a soon to be 21 year old can possess,
Me
Thank you all for the emails, updates and birthday wishes today! I loved it! You are all such great family. I can feel your love even across lakes, mountains, plains, corn fields, and apple orchards! This week was another superb week full of busy missionary life.
Has the time of miracles ceased?: I say unto you, NAY! (Which means no in Book of Mormon language...some of our investigators have trouble with the language in it.) Winifred is doing absolutely incredible. She is going to be baptized next week. She is excited, is reading, gaining a testimony and even better, sharing it with others she knows. It is powerful to see her excitement for the gospel because she is truly converted. She had more great experiences with reading the Book of Mormon this week. In our lessons she always amazes me at how open she is and how much she understands. The spirit is always strong over there. She invited us to go to a friends wedding, done African style. So we got permission to go and to the reception and it was SOO fun! They are such a great group of people. We were two of 5 white people there with hundreds of people from Africa. The food was good and a lot of it was pretty similar to an American wedding except how much they danced. All of the bridal party had their own entrance music and danced down the reception hall to the head table. It took a while, but everyone was so into. Even the four year old flower girl and ring bearer had good style. I was impressed! Also, we took Winifred to the mission president's fireside last night. There was a great spirit there and the speakers were Joe and Anna, recent converts from my last area. I was there when Joe was just baptized in August, so it was amazing to hear him speak and see how his testimony has grown from us working on him praying about the Book of Mormon to hear him talk about honoring his priesthood and looking forward to b being sealed in the temple. It's amazing! But anyway, after it was over Winifred was like, that was a fireside? I thought we were going to be outside around a fire! Guess we didn't clarify the Mormon language....
Loving the crazies: Since we are out in the cities most of the day we see a lot of people. Along with the normal people comes a fair amount of crazy people. We were knocking on a door and across the street an older man walked out of his house with a button up shirt on and socks. That was it. He went out to turn off the water in the yard. I couldn't help but laugh and wonder why he wasn't wearing any pants. I guess some questions just have to go unanswered. It was nice to have a laugh though. Another time we parked in an apartment’s parking lot and it was in the evening so the sun was just going down. About four cars over there was an old man standing with his driver door open. IT looked like he was dancing but I wasn't sure. I looked closer as we walked by and saw that he was wearing a grass skirt, with no shirt and he was doing the hula dance to some Hawaiian music playing from his car stereo. He had the biggest smile on his face too and it was apparent he wasn't all there. He was so happy! I guess I was happy for him that he was just out enjoying himself so much and not really caring what other people thought. It was good to see though! Being on a mission is priceless.
Bday plans: So tomorrow we have a district meeting with some other missionaries and I am planning on making a nice dessert. Also, Elder Greens bday is on the 27th so I think we might just go do a dinner during the week to celebrate both of our births together. How exciting! I am so happy to be 21. It is a great milestone in my life. I would like to thank my mother and the others who have helped me come this far. Also, our mission has a tradition that the mission office calls and sings to us. So I am looking forward to being serenaded by the office staff of sisters who are almost all over 65. haha. But they do it because they love us, so it is very nice!
Mission blog: Our mission president and his wife have taken time to make a mission blog!! It is fully intended for our families so here is the link.
http://mmmmiracles.blogspot.com/
I haven't seen it, and actually we can't go to it, but I hope you enjoy it. They said they are going to be putting up pictures from around the mission and also explain some of the traditions we have in the Minnesota Minneapolis Mission. I think it's a great idea, especially since many of you are avid bloggers! But I will still send you pictures from my own adventures.
Pictures:
1). the beautiful sunsets of Minnesota from a lake side. Gotta love September!
2). Elder Green and I got to go to the early morning seminary class to play Nephi and King Laban. I was King Laban. Ooo Rah.
3). Elder Green and I at the African wedding reception! Winifred is on the left. She is awesome!
I hope you all have a wonderful week. Thanks again for all the updates. Hurrah for Israel!
Oh, and a special shout out for UW beating USC! Word to your mother, USC! Thanks for the updates. Love you all!
With all the love that a soon to be 21 year old can possess,
Me
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Elder Spencer Sept. 14, 2009
Hello from Minnesota! Sept. 14, 2009
It was another great week here in the Midwest. Acorns are falling, leaves are turning, and people are being baptized. What more could I ask for?! Except maybe for the weather not to turn colder...?
Glorious members: This week we received two bags (pronounce it like "begs" for a true Minnesotan accent) of amazing cookies and goodies. I don't know what it was this week, but just having home made things tatstes so good! Just this morning a member invited us over for breakfast and gave us a homemade loaf of bread. Mmm! I can't wait to go eat it for lunch. So they take care of us here! It is awesome. Now, I will put my thoughts about food away. I don't know why I like food so much...
Stories from the week: We taught a wonderful lady named Patti. She was baptized a few months ago and is the sweetest lady ever. She is really funny too. She has alot of health problems so she lives in an apartment building where they cook for them and they have meals, but she is still on her own. We went over tehre with a member and the members wife is a great cook. Patti was complaining a bit about the food and so the member said whenever his wife cooks a noteworthy meal he would call her and bring it over. She said she would love taht. The next day he called her and wanted to bring a fresh cooked delicious meal over. She said It was ok because the complex was cooking wall-eye which is the best meal they have. She went to the dining hall and they really weren't having wall-eye, they were having ham balls...Yes, ham balls...She was so sad and couldn't eat it becuse it was disgusting. haha, poor Patti! She went back to her room and called a friend and was talkinga botu how she never should have turned down the members food, and she didn't have his number so she couldn't call him back. Then, she heard a knock and who was it? It was the member with the meal in his hand saying his wife insisted that he bring it over anyway. And now Patti tells this story and calls it "How I was saved from the Ham Balls..." Isn't taht great!
-We tracted into a man this week and had a great conversation with him. He is 64 and from Liberia. He was wearing a cut off shirt and I noticed how physically fit he was for being a little older. And he was pretty cut if you can imagine that. We mentioned how fit he looked for being 64 and he said taht he had been an Olympic sprinter for Liberia and ran in the 1972 Olympics in Germany. He also said "Yes, I am a solid man" in thick Liberian accent. It was sweet and I meet an Olympian. :)
More kids stories: A member told a funny story this week about his son. They were playing at the park and his 4 year old was playing with another 4 year old. They were about to leave and one of the parents was saying how they were going to go over to the coffee house. The 4 year old looked at them and in all seriousness said "Oh, you really shouldn't drink coffee!" The other person was a little taken aback. Another one of the members kids who is 6 wanted to explain further what the 4 year old meant so the person would understand so he explained,"What he really means is that we don't drink drugs in our church!" It was pretty funny, and don't worry, the person took it well. And then the member was able to explain a little bit more what the kids were saying. In the end, the other person said it was a good thing that the kids kenw what they believed and that they would actually live by it. haha. Sometimes children are the best example of being a witness at all times and all places, even when they are a little bit blunt!
Baptism: Steve was baptized this week and it was a great experience for him. He was just happy. He was baptized on Saturday and he said that night he woke up in the early morning hours and the Spirit was really strong. he said for about an hour he was up and he didn't know why he was feeling that way but it was one of the most powerful experiences he has had. He said the Holy Ghost even told him things about his life taht were important for him to hear. Wow! Steve had beena member of other churches before so this was a great tmie to explain the difference of the power that ordinances had when they were done by proper priesthood authority. That is one of the hardest things to explain to people because they don't really know what we mean until they feel it themselves. Either way Steve is great, and I am so impressed with the faith of these new members. They have some incredible spiritual experiences!
All in all things are going great here! I am just loving it and I wish I had time to tell you all of the amazing experiences I get to have, because these are just a small part of them! IT was another week with meetings and lessons and busyness. I am having a great time with my companion too. We have tons of fun! Also, with school starting I am impressed at the members and hwo faithful they are and how much time they give to serving, personal studies, callings, and family with all of the many things they have giong on. It reminds me of hearing about all that you are doing. Each of you is a great example to me of having a life full of tasks, trials, and work while still giving time to serve others, be with family and increase your testimonies. Keep it up, you all are wonderful! I am blessed to have such a great family!
I hope you all have a wonderful week. I love you very much!
With love,
It was another great week here in the Midwest. Acorns are falling, leaves are turning, and people are being baptized. What more could I ask for?! Except maybe for the weather not to turn colder...?
Glorious members: This week we received two bags (pronounce it like "begs" for a true Minnesotan accent) of amazing cookies and goodies. I don't know what it was this week, but just having home made things tatstes so good! Just this morning a member invited us over for breakfast and gave us a homemade loaf of bread. Mmm! I can't wait to go eat it for lunch. So they take care of us here! It is awesome. Now, I will put my thoughts about food away. I don't know why I like food so much...
Stories from the week: We taught a wonderful lady named Patti. She was baptized a few months ago and is the sweetest lady ever. She is really funny too. She has alot of health problems so she lives in an apartment building where they cook for them and they have meals, but she is still on her own. We went over tehre with a member and the members wife is a great cook. Patti was complaining a bit about the food and so the member said whenever his wife cooks a noteworthy meal he would call her and bring it over. She said she would love taht. The next day he called her and wanted to bring a fresh cooked delicious meal over. She said It was ok because the complex was cooking wall-eye which is the best meal they have. She went to the dining hall and they really weren't having wall-eye, they were having ham balls...Yes, ham balls...She was so sad and couldn't eat it becuse it was disgusting. haha, poor Patti! She went back to her room and called a friend and was talkinga botu how she never should have turned down the members food, and she didn't have his number so she couldn't call him back. Then, she heard a knock and who was it? It was the member with the meal in his hand saying his wife insisted that he bring it over anyway. And now Patti tells this story and calls it "How I was saved from the Ham Balls..." Isn't taht great!
-We tracted into a man this week and had a great conversation with him. He is 64 and from Liberia. He was wearing a cut off shirt and I noticed how physically fit he was for being a little older. And he was pretty cut if you can imagine that. We mentioned how fit he looked for being 64 and he said taht he had been an Olympic sprinter for Liberia and ran in the 1972 Olympics in Germany. He also said "Yes, I am a solid man" in thick Liberian accent. It was sweet and I meet an Olympian. :)
More kids stories: A member told a funny story this week about his son. They were playing at the park and his 4 year old was playing with another 4 year old. They were about to leave and one of the parents was saying how they were going to go over to the coffee house. The 4 year old looked at them and in all seriousness said "Oh, you really shouldn't drink coffee!" The other person was a little taken aback. Another one of the members kids who is 6 wanted to explain further what the 4 year old meant so the person would understand so he explained,"What he really means is that we don't drink drugs in our church!" It was pretty funny, and don't worry, the person took it well. And then the member was able to explain a little bit more what the kids were saying. In the end, the other person said it was a good thing that the kids kenw what they believed and that they would actually live by it. haha. Sometimes children are the best example of being a witness at all times and all places, even when they are a little bit blunt!
Baptism: Steve was baptized this week and it was a great experience for him. He was just happy. He was baptized on Saturday and he said that night he woke up in the early morning hours and the Spirit was really strong. he said for about an hour he was up and he didn't know why he was feeling that way but it was one of the most powerful experiences he has had. He said the Holy Ghost even told him things about his life taht were important for him to hear. Wow! Steve had beena member of other churches before so this was a great tmie to explain the difference of the power that ordinances had when they were done by proper priesthood authority. That is one of the hardest things to explain to people because they don't really know what we mean until they feel it themselves. Either way Steve is great, and I am so impressed with the faith of these new members. They have some incredible spiritual experiences!
All in all things are going great here! I am just loving it and I wish I had time to tell you all of the amazing experiences I get to have, because these are just a small part of them! IT was another week with meetings and lessons and busyness. I am having a great time with my companion too. We have tons of fun! Also, with school starting I am impressed at the members and hwo faithful they are and how much time they give to serving, personal studies, callings, and family with all of the many things they have giong on. It reminds me of hearing about all that you are doing. Each of you is a great example to me of having a life full of tasks, trials, and work while still giving time to serve others, be with family and increase your testimonies. Keep it up, you all are wonderful! I am blessed to have such a great family!
I hope you all have a wonderful week. I love you very much!
With love,
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Hello dearest family! August 24, 2009
Wow, this week has been jam packed full of things. I don't even know where to start! So I guess I'll just jump in.
One Year: So yes, this week I will hit my one year mark. It's pretty weird. It's kind of the same as when I left where you feel a lot of different emotions. Why do missions always make me feel like that?! But I love being able to look back and see how much I have grown and how much I have learned. In fact, Today last year, at even about this time, I was just being set apart as a full-time missionary by President McCombs. Wow! So I am excited about it, but even more excited about still having a full year to do even more things for the kingdom of God.
Transfers: So this has a lot to do with the crazy week this week...I got transferred. I was really really surprised, pretty disappointed too, but I've been dealing with it. I was only in my last area for 2 transfers, this is my 5th area in a year. So I wasn't too excited to leave. So I'll be honest it has been tough to maintain a good attitude through all of this and understand that I am in my new area for a reason. I loved my last area so much, it was amazing. That is probably why it was hard to leave. I loved my companion too and we were even going to celebrate our one year marks together with a massive ice cream cake! haha. Anyways, my new area is still good so I'll tell you about that next.
New Area: It is the Crystal Ward. It is barely north of Minneapolis and so it is still considered in "the cities." There are alot of great things about it here. The ward is much smaller, but the members are still great and very involved in things. The work has been really good here lately. I am replacing an Elder who served here for 10 1/2 months, so it is tought to step in and fill his shoes and the relationships he had with the ward, but I am trying my best. The area is much more diverse from my last one. There are some areas like North Minneapolis that are a little rough around the edges and you won't see a white person for a while. It makes it pretty fun! I love seeing junky cars with realyl huge and expensive rims. My companion and I laugh everytime we see one and we point it out to each other. I am still a Zone Leader in the Anoka Zone so we have been busy with learning all the ropes in our area and zone. My companion has only been in the area for one transfer when I got here.
Members: We live with some wonderful members named the Cooks. They are so fun and it is awesome living with them. Also, they lived in Lakewood for about twelve years! They were so excited that I was from Puyallup. We talk all the time about Washington, and guess what Mom, they were good friends with the Browers too! Their kids all sang in the choirs at Lakes High School which has a really good singing program like Rogers. But anyway. They are tons of fun and they are the nicest people ever. One of the hardest things about transfers is packing all of your stuff, and leaving a place where you had just lived and loved and knew the people and going to a completely new place, not knowing you companion, anyone in the ward, or anyone else in the entire city. So ti was cool having a connection right away with this family.
My new companion: I am now with Elder Green. He is a great missionary and we have had a lot of fun already. He has been out about a year and a half. He is from Sacramento California. He even has a blackbelt. He is what I would call a poster child of hard work and missionary diligence and being organized. So it is great to be with him, I will learn alot! he is humble too and keeps telling me what he is learning by watching me, but I don't believe him. Either way it will be good and I am blessed to have another great companion! (YES!)
The work: The work is so good. Back in Lakeville it was really booming. Rick is still progressing amazingly and has a date set for Saturday, August 29th. He still needs to get through an interview, so we hope it will still happen that day. I will be going back to be at his baptism if it happens that day! He is still doing really well and I can't believe how genuine and excited he is about the gospel.
The work here is also booming. They just had two baptisms the last two weeks before I got here! Unfortunately those people are moving to different wards, so I won't get to work with them at all. We have another man we are working with who is preparing to be baptized in September. I will tell you more about his story next week because it is amazing! And we have some families we are working with in the ward. The people are alot more open and humble here in this area, so that is kind of nice. We went knocking the first night here and got like 5 people to say we could come back. That rarely happened in my last area because everyone had a chruch and was content with their "American dream" life. So every area has its pro's and con's! So I am excited to see things continue to take off. I pray I won't mess things up here! :)
ALERT: Pday next week will happen on Thursday. That will be September 3rd. Next week we have our Zone Conference one Monday so we are changin our Pday to Thursday and I will write then. I don't care if you still want to write Monday morning, the emails will still be watigin for me. I just wanted to let you know I will be writing all of you on a different day.
Love, Elder Spencer
Wow, this week has been jam packed full of things. I don't even know where to start! So I guess I'll just jump in.
One Year: So yes, this week I will hit my one year mark. It's pretty weird. It's kind of the same as when I left where you feel a lot of different emotions. Why do missions always make me feel like that?! But I love being able to look back and see how much I have grown and how much I have learned. In fact, Today last year, at even about this time, I was just being set apart as a full-time missionary by President McCombs. Wow! So I am excited about it, but even more excited about still having a full year to do even more things for the kingdom of God.
Transfers: So this has a lot to do with the crazy week this week...I got transferred. I was really really surprised, pretty disappointed too, but I've been dealing with it. I was only in my last area for 2 transfers, this is my 5th area in a year. So I wasn't too excited to leave. So I'll be honest it has been tough to maintain a good attitude through all of this and understand that I am in my new area for a reason. I loved my last area so much, it was amazing. That is probably why it was hard to leave. I loved my companion too and we were even going to celebrate our one year marks together with a massive ice cream cake! haha. Anyways, my new area is still good so I'll tell you about that next.
New Area: It is the Crystal Ward. It is barely north of Minneapolis and so it is still considered in "the cities." There are alot of great things about it here. The ward is much smaller, but the members are still great and very involved in things. The work has been really good here lately. I am replacing an Elder who served here for 10 1/2 months, so it is tought to step in and fill his shoes and the relationships he had with the ward, but I am trying my best. The area is much more diverse from my last one. There are some areas like North Minneapolis that are a little rough around the edges and you won't see a white person for a while. It makes it pretty fun! I love seeing junky cars with realyl huge and expensive rims. My companion and I laugh everytime we see one and we point it out to each other. I am still a Zone Leader in the Anoka Zone so we have been busy with learning all the ropes in our area and zone. My companion has only been in the area for one transfer when I got here.
Members: We live with some wonderful members named the Cooks. They are so fun and it is awesome living with them. Also, they lived in Lakewood for about twelve years! They were so excited that I was from Puyallup. We talk all the time about Washington, and guess what Mom, they were good friends with the Browers too! Their kids all sang in the choirs at Lakes High School which has a really good singing program like Rogers. But anyway. They are tons of fun and they are the nicest people ever. One of the hardest things about transfers is packing all of your stuff, and leaving a place where you had just lived and loved and knew the people and going to a completely new place, not knowing you companion, anyone in the ward, or anyone else in the entire city. So ti was cool having a connection right away with this family.
My new companion: I am now with Elder Green. He is a great missionary and we have had a lot of fun already. He has been out about a year and a half. He is from Sacramento California. He even has a blackbelt. He is what I would call a poster child of hard work and missionary diligence and being organized. So it is great to be with him, I will learn alot! he is humble too and keeps telling me what he is learning by watching me, but I don't believe him. Either way it will be good and I am blessed to have another great companion! (YES!)
The work: The work is so good. Back in Lakeville it was really booming. Rick is still progressing amazingly and has a date set for Saturday, August 29th. He still needs to get through an interview, so we hope it will still happen that day. I will be going back to be at his baptism if it happens that day! He is still doing really well and I can't believe how genuine and excited he is about the gospel.
The work here is also booming. They just had two baptisms the last two weeks before I got here! Unfortunately those people are moving to different wards, so I won't get to work with them at all. We have another man we are working with who is preparing to be baptized in September. I will tell you more about his story next week because it is amazing! And we have some families we are working with in the ward. The people are alot more open and humble here in this area, so that is kind of nice. We went knocking the first night here and got like 5 people to say we could come back. That rarely happened in my last area because everyone had a chruch and was content with their "American dream" life. So every area has its pro's and con's! So I am excited to see things continue to take off. I pray I won't mess things up here! :)
ALERT: Pday next week will happen on Thursday. That will be September 3rd. Next week we have our Zone Conference one Monday so we are changin our Pday to Thursday and I will write then. I don't care if you still want to write Monday morning, the emails will still be watigin for me. I just wanted to let you know I will be writing all of you on a different day.
Love, Elder Spencer
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
" Oh, you go to BYU-Idaho"
I realize it has been a long time since I have written on the family blog. I see that most of the posts are of Dean and his mission, so I felt I needed to put in a line. Today was a great day for me and I wish to share with all the blessing it is to be a student at BYU-Idaho.
I am in my last year at BYU-Idaho. I have had many opportunities to talk to people about the wonderful aspects of this university. I love to share about how the school is growing and changing. I love to share with others about the honor code, the student living model, the Integrated Business Core, the growing alumni network, and the learning model (my personal favorite). These things are impressive to some; however, many people still seem to see BYU-I as the school that gives students a second chance if they didn't get into BYU. I have felt this a number of times while talking to friends and family. After I tell a story of an achievement or accomplishment that happened at BYU-I, it is not uncommon to hear a response like, "Oh, you go to BYU-Idaho." This also happens while trying to network with other members of the church. I tell them that I am interested in their field of work, I ask how they got into the industry, and if they have any pointers for someone that is where they were a few years ago. They ask to hear more about what I'm doing now. I tell them about leadership experiences, internships, and related classes I have taken, but when I say something about BYU-Idaho they react a little different. I just think that people don't understand all that goes on at BYU-Idaho.
I wish everyone would try to understand what President Kim B. Clark (former Dean of Harvard Business School) and other administrators are doing with this school. They are changing the way that learning happens.
Today, Forbes released their rank of universities in the country. BYU-Idaho was ranked #116. http://www.forbes.com/lists/2009/94/colleges-09_Americas-Best-Colleges_Name_2.html
I know that is not the most important thing, but I feel the school is beginning to receive some more of the recognition it deserves. I hope this starts to change the tone people use when they say, "Oh, you go to BYU-Idaho?" I love this school and know that The Lord wanted me to go here, even though I did have opportunities to go to other schools. It is a blessing to be a part of the building of Zion. We all have different places The Lord wants us to be. The important part is that we are of one heart, mind, and purpose.
I love you all.
I am in my last year at BYU-Idaho. I have had many opportunities to talk to people about the wonderful aspects of this university. I love to share about how the school is growing and changing. I love to share with others about the honor code, the student living model, the Integrated Business Core, the growing alumni network, and the learning model (my personal favorite). These things are impressive to some; however, many people still seem to see BYU-I as the school that gives students a second chance if they didn't get into BYU. I have felt this a number of times while talking to friends and family. After I tell a story of an achievement or accomplishment that happened at BYU-I, it is not uncommon to hear a response like, "Oh, you go to BYU-Idaho." This also happens while trying to network with other members of the church. I tell them that I am interested in their field of work, I ask how they got into the industry, and if they have any pointers for someone that is where they were a few years ago. They ask to hear more about what I'm doing now. I tell them about leadership experiences, internships, and related classes I have taken, but when I say something about BYU-Idaho they react a little different. I just think that people don't understand all that goes on at BYU-Idaho.
I wish everyone would try to understand what President Kim B. Clark (former Dean of Harvard Business School) and other administrators are doing with this school. They are changing the way that learning happens.
Today, Forbes released their rank of universities in the country. BYU-Idaho was ranked #116. http://www.forbes.com/lists/2009/94/colleges-09_Americas-Best-Colleges_Name_2.html
I know that is not the most important thing, but I feel the school is beginning to receive some more of the recognition it deserves. I hope this starts to change the tone people use when they say, "Oh, you go to BYU-Idaho?" I love this school and know that The Lord wanted me to go here, even though I did have opportunities to go to other schools. It is a blessing to be a part of the building of Zion. We all have different places The Lord wants us to be. The important part is that we are of one heart, mind, and purpose.
I love you all.
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Elder Spencer 8-10-09
Hello family. I had another exciting week full of eventfulness and busy-ness. It flew by and it was great! I love being a missionary.Weather: It was a crazy week here for this. Tornado warnings, lightning and thunder storms, many inches of rain for flash floods, and high heat and humidity that feels like a sauna. Minnesota is so weird.
The secret to missionary work is work: Things are going really well. We are seeing alot of blessings and it is SO exciting!! Joe was confirmed on Sunday and it went really well. Now he has tons of questions on what is the next step and how he can help out in the church. It is so awesome! It is interesting to see how excited the ward gets about missionary work when they get to see a confirmation too. All the people were congratulating Joe and talking to him. It is fun to be apart of that!We are working with a guy named Rick. he came to church for the first time this week. He is excited to learn and to "try out the Mormon thing." He has had a rough past and is ready for a change in his life. I don't remember if I told you at all about him last time, but he called yesterday (sunday) the beginning of his new life! He is giving up smoking, chewing, drinking, coffee and a lot of "junk" as he calls it in his life that he has been doing for along time and has only brought him down. Nothing good ever came from that stuff he says. Anyway, we are realyl excited for him. he is really funny too. At church he loved all three hours and signed up for helping a family move in Elders quorum and asked our Bishop about an addiction recovery class he saw int he b ulletin. He is a great guy and we are excited for him! It has been a miracle so far to see his progress. The church is true!
Road trip!: This week we spent about three days and 2 nights going to do exchanges with other missionaries. We went to Mankato and Fairmont. It was a lot of fun and there were some highlights of the trip. Mankota is home of Minnesota State University and that is where the Minnesota Vikings are having their training camp! So we drove by and got to see the Vikings practicing. There were tons of people all around just to watch practice! It made me laugh, but I don't judge because if I wasn't on a mission I would be doing the same thing! haha. Fairmont is a tiny little town. I had a good experience there I'll share. We went to see a man who was asked to give a talk in sacrament meeting. He has only been a member for two years so it was going to be his first talk. We went over to give him some sources and help him out a little bit. He is an older man and his wife had just passed away a month before. He is working through that and he likes to jsut spend time with people. He invited us to stay for dinner, and we played a game called dice during our dinner time. It was pretty fun! It reminded me of playing chinese chekcers with Grandma! haha. We had sucha good time together and he is a really neat man. It is intersting to think about how even a little tiny town can have such great people with a life full of stories, hardships, and kindness like he has. Sot aht was just a good part of my adventure this week. All it takes is a little time on our part to talk to the wonderful people likethsi man who live in our own neighborhoods, and I promise, you will make someone feel better and feel better yourself by going to visit someone!Also on the trip we got to see Fairmont's really big attraction. A prairie dog exhibit and a water fountain for a horse. The prairie dog exhibit had like 20 prairie dogs with little holes and they just stood around. And the funny thing is taht people would travel all the way from Iowa just to check it out. I love little towns!
More kids stories: This week I will tell you of an encounter I got to see between two boys who were 5 and 8. The eight year old just started tackle football this week so we were talking to him about that.My companion: So did you smash some people this week during practice?Eight year old: Yes.Five yaer old: How do you smash someone?Eight year old: You tackle them!Five year old: Oh. Well what is a tackle?Eight year old: You go like this!**he gets up and straight up tackels the five year old!**Five year old: **Laughing** That is cool!
It was priceless!
Pictures: I can't remember which order these are in...but here are three.1.) The Iowa border. I am doing a quadricep stretch and my companion is showing some affection. Gotta love the border.2.) St. Peter's Pearly Gates are in Mankato. A must see for the person traveling through. I guess it is not my time yet, because I was knocking and no one ever answered.3.) This is Tate and Bennet. The two culprits from my stories last week. They started posing during a lesson just randomly. I don't know what is in the water here in Minnesota.
**Minnesota Word of the Week**Vegetarian: An ancient Indian word meaning Bad Hunter-I saw that on someones shirt this week and it made me laugh, so I thought I would share! :)
Well, I hope you have a wonderful week this week! Summer is almost over?!?! I know I shouldn't say that, but I did :( I love you all and you are always in my thoguths and prayers. Thank you for being the best family in the whole world. Me = blessed. :)Love,Elder Spencer
Monday, April 13, 2009
Pictures of Dean
When I get someone to post his past two week pictures, you'll get the just of his comments on them. Hopefully it will be this week.
Dean 4-11-09
ello Family!4-11-09
Mis-leading title for the email I know, but it's me. And it was a GLORIOUS week here in Minnesota. So I will tell you about it...
Conference: I am sure this glorious week had to do with the big boost from general conference. It has been great getting out on cam pus and it seems to take more meaning when I tell others there REALLy is a prophet today! Also, in a 4 elder apartment it has been good to talk alot about it and what we liked and about the things taht were shared. I think that might be my favorite part about being in an apartment with 2 sets of missionaries...we get to talk alot and ask questions and hear what we are studying and we have some pretty intense conversations. It's the best! But back to conference, basically it was a great boost for me and I hope it was to you as well.
Campus occurences:
**We had a missionary booth set up in the student union building this week and my companion and I went to replace the other elders who were working at it. They were excited because they had meet a really awesome guy from Germany and they wanted him to meet my companion who speaks german. So my companion was excited to hear about that, and we just set up as usual tot alk to people. Then a member of the ward who had served his mission in Germany came to help us out at the booth a bit. And then, this man who the other missionaries had contacted showed up again, so there were two German speakers to talk to him! They talked in German for a while and they were all pretty excited about it, and they ended up talking for an hour! It was really neat to see how that had all lined up and all those Germans got to be together!
**We are teaching a student named Brandon and he is awesome. He is really interested in learning and he is really intellectual so our lessons are always really fun and deep. This week we were talking and HE got up to the white board and started explaining and writing things so he could understand them better. And he was showing what he beleived too to explain it to us and he got pretty into it. So it was like he was teaching us! It was great because he really enjoyed it and it was such a good discussion. When we said bye at the end of the lesson he was talking about how good that was and how much he is learning! We are very excited to continue teaching him.
**There is a big Christian student campus group on campus called Cru. This week they put on an activity with the slogan "I will listen." It was an activity where they set up couches on campus and wanted to promote students just having someone to talk to and speak their mind. They were especially aiming to break downt he stereotype that Christians are forceful and preachy when talking about religion. So when I was out talking to people on campus and one of the Cru students approached me and invited my companion and I to sit on the couch and talk. We accepted. It turned out to be a really good conversation and we talked about God and our lives and how he fit in. They also asked about our church and our beliefs so we got to teach soem good principles. It was a great idea that they had to reach out to the campus. And, I liked it because we got to teach some of them! It also was pleasant to be 50 degrees and sunny outside. :)
Transfers this week: Once again it is transfers coming up this week. And once again I have no idea what will happen. So, it is possible that my Pday will change back to Thursday if I get transferred. Just to let you know. If I don't email Thursday, then you will know that I stayed in Dinkytown!
Pictures:
-Elder Gillespie (middle) and Elder Glenn (right) and I modeling our sweaters that we wore for "Sweater Monday!" Thank you to those who provided the wonderful sweaters for this winter :)
-A day on campus. The interesting questions of evolution vs. creationsim. A popular topic discussed on a campus like UofM that is very devoted to this kind of research...as you can tell...
-Me outside of the molecular science building. They have a really cool structure of atoms there and its huge! They have so many neat things on campus.
Well family, I hope you have a great week! I love you all and think of you often. You are in my t houghts and prayers. Best of luck with all of your activities, work and service this week. Love you!
Forever,
Elder Spencer
Mis-leading title for the email I know, but it's me. And it was a GLORIOUS week here in Minnesota. So I will tell you about it...
Conference: I am sure this glorious week had to do with the big boost from general conference. It has been great getting out on cam pus and it seems to take more meaning when I tell others there REALLy is a prophet today! Also, in a 4 elder apartment it has been good to talk alot about it and what we liked and about the things taht were shared. I think that might be my favorite part about being in an apartment with 2 sets of missionaries...we get to talk alot and ask questions and hear what we are studying and we have some pretty intense conversations. It's the best! But back to conference, basically it was a great boost for me and I hope it was to you as well.
Campus occurences:
**We had a missionary booth set up in the student union building this week and my companion and I went to replace the other elders who were working at it. They were excited because they had meet a really awesome guy from Germany and they wanted him to meet my companion who speaks german. So my companion was excited to hear about that, and we just set up as usual tot alk to people. Then a member of the ward who had served his mission in Germany came to help us out at the booth a bit. And then, this man who the other missionaries had contacted showed up again, so there were two German speakers to talk to him! They talked in German for a while and they were all pretty excited about it, and they ended up talking for an hour! It was really neat to see how that had all lined up and all those Germans got to be together!
**We are teaching a student named Brandon and he is awesome. He is really interested in learning and he is really intellectual so our lessons are always really fun and deep. This week we were talking and HE got up to the white board and started explaining and writing things so he could understand them better. And he was showing what he beleived too to explain it to us and he got pretty into it. So it was like he was teaching us! It was great because he really enjoyed it and it was such a good discussion. When we said bye at the end of the lesson he was talking about how good that was and how much he is learning! We are very excited to continue teaching him.
**There is a big Christian student campus group on campus called Cru. This week they put on an activity with the slogan "I will listen." It was an activity where they set up couches on campus and wanted to promote students just having someone to talk to and speak their mind. They were especially aiming to break downt he stereotype that Christians are forceful and preachy when talking about religion. So when I was out talking to people on campus and one of the Cru students approached me and invited my companion and I to sit on the couch and talk. We accepted. It turned out to be a really good conversation and we talked about God and our lives and how he fit in. They also asked about our church and our beliefs so we got to teach soem good principles. It was a great idea that they had to reach out to the campus. And, I liked it because we got to teach some of them! It also was pleasant to be 50 degrees and sunny outside. :)
Transfers this week: Once again it is transfers coming up this week. And once again I have no idea what will happen. So, it is possible that my Pday will change back to Thursday if I get transferred. Just to let you know. If I don't email Thursday, then you will know that I stayed in Dinkytown!
Pictures:
-Elder Gillespie (middle) and Elder Glenn (right) and I modeling our sweaters that we wore for "Sweater Monday!" Thank you to those who provided the wonderful sweaters for this winter :)
-A day on campus. The interesting questions of evolution vs. creationsim. A popular topic discussed on a campus like UofM that is very devoted to this kind of research...as you can tell...
-Me outside of the molecular science building. They have a really cool structure of atoms there and its huge! They have so many neat things on campus.
Well family, I hope you have a great week! I love you all and think of you often. You are in my t houghts and prayers. Best of luck with all of your activities, work and service this week. Love you!
Forever,
Elder Spencer
Elder Spencer
Hello once again!
This will have to be a shorter email...because with Conference being today we were rushed and the library is closing soon! But, I will try to fit in as much as I can. It was another great week here in the Midwest!
Conference: Isn't it great?! The sessions were great and conference takes on such a new excitement since I am on a mission. We were really blessed with the two sessions that have just happened today we had three investigators come. Some weeks it is hit and miss and this week it is great to see them come. It's so excitiing to hear these men and women speak about life. Life isn't easy, but with boosts like these we can see that trials are about of life and we can get through them with eachother and the support of our Heavenly Father. He is always there!
The work: It was a great week with some great lessons. It's exciting because I am starting to see my growth in how I can go out and talk to people on campus. One of the days we went out and I had some great conversations with people. They came from very different ways of life and had their own personalities, but we always found soemthing in common or were able to spend tmie talking about life or faith or anything adn then they would listen to things about the gospel. Of course not all of them accepted to learn more or even agreed with what I was saying, but I was excited to see how I got to talk with them and ahve good conversations. And it is fun to see how much I've grown int he 2 months or so I've been on campus.We are still teaching some great people. One of them brought a friend along to meet us and nwo we are teaching both of them. We had some good lessons. One guy is progressing well and he reads alot of the Book of Mormon and is really intellectual. I love seeing how he grasps some of the principles of the gospel and hwo they just make sense. The spirit is a big part of it and that is his next big step. To move from intellectual to spiritual learning. It's coming great!We are still teaching some great Chinese people too. Had a funny experience with one. We asked him if he missed China. He said yes, and he misses his girlfriends. We weren't sure how to react to that and my companion just straight up asked, well how many do you have? he quickly responded I only have one! and we explained what he had said and he laughed at his mistake. It made me appreciate serving state side and not having those funny little language mistakes. I was also glad that our investigator was not a player.
Institute: We have been trying lately to make the institute a good resource for members and students to feel welcome. We have decided to make better use of the ping pong table and make some standings for the institute. So during our lunch and dinner hour we eat as fast as we can and try to get competition going and help the institute seem like a fun place to be. It is modeled after what the institute at UW had and it has been working well. Alot of people are getting fired up about ping pong. Some are alos getting overly competitive, which is normal I suppose. It makes me think of Neil when I see people getting so into something like table tennis. I guess some people just have a competitve nature. But it is a fun way of working and interacting with members and students.
Pictures:-I have made it a tradition to make a dessert for the apartment every friday night. A couple weeks ago I made a banana cream pie and a chocolate pudding pie. I'm surprised at how much missionaries are willing to do dishes if you bribe them with dessert. So if you have any ideas of easy desserts that are tasty...I would love hearing about them!-Me and my companion ate jolly ranchers-The weather is slowly getting out of winter. And just when I think we are all the way out...it snows again. yay for the 11th day of spring...
I love you all very much and hope you have a wonderful week!Until next time...Love,Elder Spencer
This will have to be a shorter email...because with Conference being today we were rushed and the library is closing soon! But, I will try to fit in as much as I can. It was another great week here in the Midwest!
Conference: Isn't it great?! The sessions were great and conference takes on such a new excitement since I am on a mission. We were really blessed with the two sessions that have just happened today we had three investigators come. Some weeks it is hit and miss and this week it is great to see them come. It's so excitiing to hear these men and women speak about life. Life isn't easy, but with boosts like these we can see that trials are about of life and we can get through them with eachother and the support of our Heavenly Father. He is always there!
The work: It was a great week with some great lessons. It's exciting because I am starting to see my growth in how I can go out and talk to people on campus. One of the days we went out and I had some great conversations with people. They came from very different ways of life and had their own personalities, but we always found soemthing in common or were able to spend tmie talking about life or faith or anything adn then they would listen to things about the gospel. Of course not all of them accepted to learn more or even agreed with what I was saying, but I was excited to see how I got to talk with them and ahve good conversations. And it is fun to see how much I've grown int he 2 months or so I've been on campus.We are still teaching some great people. One of them brought a friend along to meet us and nwo we are teaching both of them. We had some good lessons. One guy is progressing well and he reads alot of the Book of Mormon and is really intellectual. I love seeing how he grasps some of the principles of the gospel and hwo they just make sense. The spirit is a big part of it and that is his next big step. To move from intellectual to spiritual learning. It's coming great!We are still teaching some great Chinese people too. Had a funny experience with one. We asked him if he missed China. He said yes, and he misses his girlfriends. We weren't sure how to react to that and my companion just straight up asked, well how many do you have? he quickly responded I only have one! and we explained what he had said and he laughed at his mistake. It made me appreciate serving state side and not having those funny little language mistakes. I was also glad that our investigator was not a player.
Institute: We have been trying lately to make the institute a good resource for members and students to feel welcome. We have decided to make better use of the ping pong table and make some standings for the institute. So during our lunch and dinner hour we eat as fast as we can and try to get competition going and help the institute seem like a fun place to be. It is modeled after what the institute at UW had and it has been working well. Alot of people are getting fired up about ping pong. Some are alos getting overly competitive, which is normal I suppose. It makes me think of Neil when I see people getting so into something like table tennis. I guess some people just have a competitve nature. But it is a fun way of working and interacting with members and students.
Pictures:-I have made it a tradition to make a dessert for the apartment every friday night. A couple weeks ago I made a banana cream pie and a chocolate pudding pie. I'm surprised at how much missionaries are willing to do dishes if you bribe them with dessert. So if you have any ideas of easy desserts that are tasty...I would love hearing about them!-Me and my companion ate jolly ranchers-The weather is slowly getting out of winter. And just when I think we are all the way out...it snows again. yay for the 11th day of spring...
I love you all very much and hope you have a wonderful week!Until next time...Love,Elder Spencer
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Elder Spencer 3-14-09
Mar 14
Dearest Family,
It has been an incredible week and it just keeps being a missionary just keeps getting better!
Weather: Today it is...get this...50 degrees! WHOO HOOOO! It is awesome because earlier this week it was about -25 with wind chill one day. So that is a 75 degree difference. :) Elder Gillespie (one of the other missionaries in our apartment) went running this morning and it was awesome. We ran across the Mississippi River and around the outskirts of Minneapolis. It was still dark when we started, but the sun started to come up during the run. Ahhhh I love being here!
The work: Well, the greatest thing of all my time here in Dinkytown happened today. Sarah was baptized! We had the baptism earlier today and it was glorious. She was so happy! The ward came out in full force to support her too, it was great. Elder Sorenson baptized her and he was way excited to do that. I will confirm her tomorrow on Sunday too! I sang a song from the Primary songbook "When I am baptized" and it was just realyl really good. Yay for Sarah!
Last week: Last week on Pday I did not mention an exciting activity I got to do. We got to go to the UofM basketball game! They played Michigan and it was their last home game of the season. It was so fun! The band was there and there were tons of people, but most excitingly I got to watch sports!!! It was a great game, but at the end Michigan pulled ahead and won. I did wear a pretty good UofM tie to show my support. This was just one of those blessings of being a missionary on the campus :)
Interesting news: So, I just got a phone call from my mission president about 2 hours ago and I have some exciting changes coming this week. My companion Elder Sorenson will no longer be my companion as of Wednesday. Yes, it is an interesting move, but I can assure you it is not considered an "emergency transfer!" haha. This is what I know so far. My new companion (who I will get on Wed.) was serving in Germany, but had some health problems so he had to come home. Now, he has been reassigned to Minnesota and will be coming out Wed. I hope he still remembers english...ha...but seriously that would be weird...Anyway, we were pretty shocked because it's really rare to have this stuff happen. I am sad to lose Elder Sorenson, because he has been great, but I am excited for this new thing. It's times like these that I can define a mission as: happiness and change. So there will be some more updates on this next week!
Eating experiences: I had a funny experience with dinner yesterday taht I have to tell you about. I will begin by saying that when I was called to Minnesota I did not think I would be eating any exotic or interesting foods as a missionary, but now serving in a college campus that thought has been challeneged...Yesterday we had dinner with 3 guys from the ward who live together. Now, kudos to 3 college guys accepting to feed the missionaries on a friday night, but the meal was pretty interesting. One of the guys is from China so he made a chinese dish of pork, peas, and some kind of noodles? One of the other guys brought salad. And the last one made scrambled eggs and potatoes. Also on the table was shredded cheese, tortillas and various condiments. I didn't know what to do...or how to put it all together and neither did anyone else. So, I ended up making a burrito with a chinese dish of meat and peas, with cheese, sour cream, and barbeque sauce on it. I thoguht the barbeque would give it a better flavor adn make it more delicious. But I was wrong. It was pretty funny and we all had a good time. This experience is almost as good as one of our dinners that a guy made us frozen burritos with a slice of kraft cheese on top. And unfortunately the cheese was burnt. haha. I love student wards! And they do a great job being involved and such so it is all good :)
Well I hope you all have a great week! I love you all very much. Also, we have a count down of 3 weeks until general conference!! Whoo hoo!
With love,
Elder Spencer
Dearest Family,
It has been an incredible week and it just keeps being a missionary just keeps getting better!
Weather: Today it is...get this...50 degrees! WHOO HOOOO! It is awesome because earlier this week it was about -25 with wind chill one day. So that is a 75 degree difference. :) Elder Gillespie (one of the other missionaries in our apartment) went running this morning and it was awesome. We ran across the Mississippi River and around the outskirts of Minneapolis. It was still dark when we started, but the sun started to come up during the run. Ahhhh I love being here!
The work: Well, the greatest thing of all my time here in Dinkytown happened today. Sarah was baptized! We had the baptism earlier today and it was glorious. She was so happy! The ward came out in full force to support her too, it was great. Elder Sorenson baptized her and he was way excited to do that. I will confirm her tomorrow on Sunday too! I sang a song from the Primary songbook "When I am baptized" and it was just realyl really good. Yay for Sarah!
Last week: Last week on Pday I did not mention an exciting activity I got to do. We got to go to the UofM basketball game! They played Michigan and it was their last home game of the season. It was so fun! The band was there and there were tons of people, but most excitingly I got to watch sports!!! It was a great game, but at the end Michigan pulled ahead and won. I did wear a pretty good UofM tie to show my support. This was just one of those blessings of being a missionary on the campus :)
Interesting news: So, I just got a phone call from my mission president about 2 hours ago and I have some exciting changes coming this week. My companion Elder Sorenson will no longer be my companion as of Wednesday. Yes, it is an interesting move, but I can assure you it is not considered an "emergency transfer!" haha. This is what I know so far. My new companion (who I will get on Wed.) was serving in Germany, but had some health problems so he had to come home. Now, he has been reassigned to Minnesota and will be coming out Wed. I hope he still remembers english...ha...but seriously that would be weird...Anyway, we were pretty shocked because it's really rare to have this stuff happen. I am sad to lose Elder Sorenson, because he has been great, but I am excited for this new thing. It's times like these that I can define a mission as: happiness and change. So there will be some more updates on this next week!
Eating experiences: I had a funny experience with dinner yesterday taht I have to tell you about. I will begin by saying that when I was called to Minnesota I did not think I would be eating any exotic or interesting foods as a missionary, but now serving in a college campus that thought has been challeneged...Yesterday we had dinner with 3 guys from the ward who live together. Now, kudos to 3 college guys accepting to feed the missionaries on a friday night, but the meal was pretty interesting. One of the guys is from China so he made a chinese dish of pork, peas, and some kind of noodles? One of the other guys brought salad. And the last one made scrambled eggs and potatoes. Also on the table was shredded cheese, tortillas and various condiments. I didn't know what to do...or how to put it all together and neither did anyone else. So, I ended up making a burrito with a chinese dish of meat and peas, with cheese, sour cream, and barbeque sauce on it. I thoguht the barbeque would give it a better flavor adn make it more delicious. But I was wrong. It was pretty funny and we all had a good time. This experience is almost as good as one of our dinners that a guy made us frozen burritos with a slice of kraft cheese on top. And unfortunately the cheese was burnt. haha. I love student wards! And they do a great job being involved and such so it is all good :)
Well I hope you all have a great week! I love you all very much. Also, we have a count down of 3 weeks until general conference!! Whoo hoo!
With love,
Elder Spencer
Friday, February 27, 2009
It's True
Sorry if any of you had to hear it through the grapevine, but it is true... Amber and I are engaged! It has been so wonder to be with her. We find it funny that two people can graduate high school together, go over 4 years without knowing about eachother's lives and then come together and fall in love! It has been a fairy tale like story. We are so excited for the other adventures life has in store for us and even better that we will be able to do it together.We want you all to know that we are so thankful for your love and support. Sorry that we don't get to post very much. We want everyone to know what is going on, but we are just learning how to balance our lives with everything that's going on. It's a lot harder than I thought. If there is anything you want to know about her or anything else, just ask.
We love you guys!
Thursday, February 19, 2009
We love Amber
This last week-end, Neil kind of surprised us (we found out the night before) and he and Amber drove home for the week-end. We went to the temple with her parents Saturday morning and then to lunch. They are great people and more importantly Amber is WONDERFUL and we all love her. She is perfect for Neil! We are excited to see and hear about their amazing life they will create over the years. We'll keep you all posted on the date.
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Bits of Elder Spencers letter 2-7-09
Hello my family! Feb. 7,2009
Zone conference: This week we had zone conference. We have that every 6 weeks, but since I am in the heart of the cities now we had zone conference with 2 other zones so there were alot of missionaries! It was very exciting to be around all of them and of course to hear from President Howell and his wife. They are so amazing to us missionaries!! They taught us so much………
You have questions, I have answers: Feel free to ask any questions you have about anything and I will do my best to answer them all for you! This week Mom had questions about dinners in a student ward. This week we have been really blessed and taken care of. The members here are really good about having us over for dinner. We had one almost every ngiht this week. Some of the dinners happen because we will approach them and ask when a good time is for us to have dinner together...which is easier to do because they are our age :) But there are many people who will volunteer on their own. AND for buying groceries we have a neat system. We kind of just all go in together and buy what we need for the week and then we split up the cost. So it's actually been the least expensive shopping trips I've had while I've been here at Dinkytown. Elder Brown (one of the missionaries I'm with) is a great cook and likes to make mexican dishes alot. It is pretty fun being in a 4 elder apartment and so we can usually cook a good meal together in half an hour and eat in a half hour if we need to!
Update on the work: Things are going great here. Our miracle investigator who walked into the institute is doing amazing. We meet with her twice a week and she has come to church and even an institute class! She loves reading and learning from the Book of Mormon and is making a lot of new friendships too. We invited her to be baptized in March and she accepted so we are moving towards that as a goal!!! Yay! Otherwise we are still working with trying to find new people who are interested on campus. We talk to alot of people and it isn't easy because they are busy students and getting into the middle of the semester, but the work is still moving along. The institute is just a great resource and blessing to have.
Weather: It has been a nice end of the week! It has warmed back up to around freezing!! It is great how that feels warm and some of the snow is even melting. So I guess I feel more like a true Minnesotan when I get excited about it warming up to "freezing”
**Minnesota Word of the Week**
Frogtown: Another weird name for a suburb here in the cities! With Dinkytown and now Frogtown I can't wait to learn of any more weird names they have! Frogtown is interesting because it is very diverse. It is about 10 minutes away and has a large hispanic, asian and hmong (pronounced with a silent "H") population. I'm not sure why it is named Frogtown...but the reason has got to be good.
Well, I love you all dearly and hope you have another spectacular week! Until we type again.... :)
Love,
Elder Spencer
Zone conference: This week we had zone conference. We have that every 6 weeks, but since I am in the heart of the cities now we had zone conference with 2 other zones so there were alot of missionaries! It was very exciting to be around all of them and of course to hear from President Howell and his wife. They are so amazing to us missionaries!! They taught us so much………
You have questions, I have answers: Feel free to ask any questions you have about anything and I will do my best to answer them all for you! This week Mom had questions about dinners in a student ward. This week we have been really blessed and taken care of. The members here are really good about having us over for dinner. We had one almost every ngiht this week. Some of the dinners happen because we will approach them and ask when a good time is for us to have dinner together...which is easier to do because they are our age :) But there are many people who will volunteer on their own. AND for buying groceries we have a neat system. We kind of just all go in together and buy what we need for the week and then we split up the cost. So it's actually been the least expensive shopping trips I've had while I've been here at Dinkytown. Elder Brown (one of the missionaries I'm with) is a great cook and likes to make mexican dishes alot. It is pretty fun being in a 4 elder apartment and so we can usually cook a good meal together in half an hour and eat in a half hour if we need to!
Update on the work: Things are going great here. Our miracle investigator who walked into the institute is doing amazing. We meet with her twice a week and she has come to church and even an institute class! She loves reading and learning from the Book of Mormon and is making a lot of new friendships too. We invited her to be baptized in March and she accepted so we are moving towards that as a goal!!! Yay! Otherwise we are still working with trying to find new people who are interested on campus. We talk to alot of people and it isn't easy because they are busy students and getting into the middle of the semester, but the work is still moving along. The institute is just a great resource and blessing to have.
Weather: It has been a nice end of the week! It has warmed back up to around freezing!! It is great how that feels warm and some of the snow is even melting. So I guess I feel more like a true Minnesotan when I get excited about it warming up to "freezing”
**Minnesota Word of the Week**
Frogtown: Another weird name for a suburb here in the cities! With Dinkytown and now Frogtown I can't wait to learn of any more weird names they have! Frogtown is interesting because it is very diverse. It is about 10 minutes away and has a large hispanic, asian and hmong (pronounced with a silent "H") population. I'm not sure why it is named Frogtown...but the reason has got to be good.
Well, I love you all dearly and hope you have another spectacular week! Until we type again.... :)
Love,
Elder Spencer
Monday, February 2, 2009
Elder Spencer 1-31-09
Hello family!! JANUARY 31, 2009
Hope you all had a great week, it sounds like many of you did, and it looks like we are rounding the bend towards spring!! Maybe...but today it is about 45 degrees here!!! It feels soooo warm and it has been quite splendid to feel the sunshine. As we were driving to do our laundry there was a man jogging with his shirt off. It's pretty funny but compared to being -20 or so like last week...it is a 65 degree turn around! The snow is melting pretty good, but I think it will still be cold for another month, but I'm not sure what the forecast is!
Campus news: I totally love being here on campus. I get to see how busy everyone is with doing homework and going to classes and studying on their laptop at the library, and always talking and texting on cell phones and I remember how that feels!! And now I get to see how all that is on hold and the work I get to do is soooo much more rewarding and enjoyable! But, the campus is still great. The diversity is excellent here. I talk to many people from around the world all in one day. It makes it exciting and I learn a lot about different cultures and many different beliefs as well.
The ward: So we had church on Sunday and the ward is GREAT! It is full of fun, active students so it really is a great place. They are super involved in missionary work and supporting that. They are really friendly and have a lot of activities that go with the institute and ward. It's great to see how there are a lot of strong younger people in the church especially on such a big state university place. Again, it reminds me a lot of UW. It is just a great place.
Miracle on 12th St: This week we had an amazing miracle. We received a phone call from the people working at the institute that a young lady had walked in and said "I don't know really how to say this...but I'm not a member of this church and I would like to learn how I can become one." WHOA! It turns out she has a very good friend from Colorado that has been a good example and so she is now interested in learning more. We contacted her and taught her twice this week. She is doing so great and she has a very great spirit. She truly wants to learn more about Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and I can see and feel how much she is growing spiritually. It is an incredible miracle to have, especially when we are workING to open this area and I am so happy to see my new companion get to be a part of a miracle like this. There really are people out there searching for truth and for more meaning in life. It is such a blessing to be able to dedicate my life not only to trying to find those people, but get to help them learn line upon line and watch them grow. Yea! :)
My companion: Elder Sorenson is a great missionary! It is great to see how even though he is new he is already stronger than me in some areas of being a missionary. That part is great to see because we all have our talents and we put them together and things work well.
**Minnesota Word of the Week**
35W bridge: This is the bridge that collapsed in Minneapolis about a year ago. I remember seeing it all over the news and such and I'm sure you all remember it as well. The new bridge is right in my area and I see it everyday! It crosses the Mississippi River and it is a smaller bridge than I had imagined. But, it is pretty cool and it lights up blue at night on the sides. I'll try to get a picture soon.
I hope you all have a splendidly glorious week. Welcome to Febuary! :)
With love comparable to the size of Lake Superior
Elder Spencer
Hope you all had a great week, it sounds like many of you did, and it looks like we are rounding the bend towards spring!! Maybe...but today it is about 45 degrees here!!! It feels soooo warm and it has been quite splendid to feel the sunshine. As we were driving to do our laundry there was a man jogging with his shirt off. It's pretty funny but compared to being -20 or so like last week...it is a 65 degree turn around! The snow is melting pretty good, but I think it will still be cold for another month, but I'm not sure what the forecast is!
Campus news: I totally love being here on campus. I get to see how busy everyone is with doing homework and going to classes and studying on their laptop at the library, and always talking and texting on cell phones and I remember how that feels!! And now I get to see how all that is on hold and the work I get to do is soooo much more rewarding and enjoyable! But, the campus is still great. The diversity is excellent here. I talk to many people from around the world all in one day. It makes it exciting and I learn a lot about different cultures and many different beliefs as well.
The ward: So we had church on Sunday and the ward is GREAT! It is full of fun, active students so it really is a great place. They are super involved in missionary work and supporting that. They are really friendly and have a lot of activities that go with the institute and ward. It's great to see how there are a lot of strong younger people in the church especially on such a big state university place. Again, it reminds me a lot of UW. It is just a great place.
Miracle on 12th St: This week we had an amazing miracle. We received a phone call from the people working at the institute that a young lady had walked in and said "I don't know really how to say this...but I'm not a member of this church and I would like to learn how I can become one." WHOA! It turns out she has a very good friend from Colorado that has been a good example and so she is now interested in learning more. We contacted her and taught her twice this week. She is doing so great and she has a very great spirit. She truly wants to learn more about Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and I can see and feel how much she is growing spiritually. It is an incredible miracle to have, especially when we are workING to open this area and I am so happy to see my new companion get to be a part of a miracle like this. There really are people out there searching for truth and for more meaning in life. It is such a blessing to be able to dedicate my life not only to trying to find those people, but get to help them learn line upon line and watch them grow. Yea! :)
My companion: Elder Sorenson is a great missionary! It is great to see how even though he is new he is already stronger than me in some areas of being a missionary. That part is great to see because we all have our talents and we put them together and things work well.
**Minnesota Word of the Week**
35W bridge: This is the bridge that collapsed in Minneapolis about a year ago. I remember seeing it all over the news and such and I'm sure you all remember it as well. The new bridge is right in my area and I see it everyday! It crosses the Mississippi River and it is a smaller bridge than I had imagined. But, it is pretty cool and it lights up blue at night on the sides. I'll try to get a picture soon.
I hope you all have a splendidly glorious week. Welcome to Febuary! :)
With love comparable to the size of Lake Superior
Elder Spencer
Sunday, February 1, 2009
Everyone... Meet Amber!
So I know that you all haven't heard too much about what is going on this semester at school, so I first wanted to introduce you all to the most amazing person in the world. This is a picture of Amber and I. And yes I know, She is really good looking. I don't know how that all worked out, but I consider myself pretty lucky. We have been seeing eachother everyday for the last 3 weeks and 2 days. It has been awesome. I'm sure the questions and comments will come and that's ok, but I would ask that you save the stories that would make her ask herself, "what am I doing" for a little bit later so she does turn around and run. So to make the introduction short, here we are and she is amazing!
School is going well. Things are really busy, but it's been a great semester so far. I feel like I'm growing more and I have really enjoyed everything that I've been doing. My classes are more challenging this semester, but I have liked them more than any other semester. Work has been good as well. Being student body VP has required nmore time than I thought. I work with great people and it's been so fun working with such motivated people.
I love you all and hope you have enjoyed this post. I hope that I will have more in the near future too.
Monday, January 26, 2009
Elder Spencers news 1-24-09
Sorry this is long, but I couldn't figure out what to edit. Margaret
Hello family! Hope you have had a great week! It is different getting to email on Saturday, but that is my P-day now since I am serving on a college campus. So let me tell you all about the new things!
Changes: There are some pretty crazy things that happened with this transfer.
#1. My companion and I are re-opening an area here on campus. Usually there are 2 sets of missionaries serving on campus, but during the Christmas season they took it down to only 1 set and now we are back up to 2 sets. So we are starting from scratch trying to find new people and beginning to work with the ward. It is pretty intense!
#2. My new companion is Elder Sorenson from Highland, Utah. He is straight from the MTC so I am training him. He is really awesome and already is great at talking to everyone and loves to work hard. He is really humble too so it will be a great transfer, I can already tell!
#3. We live in an apartment with the other set of missionaries. They are the zone leaders for the area and so are older and more experienced so that is nice to be with them. One of them, named Elder Brown is 7 feet tall. It's quite impressive!
#4. I was also asked to be a district leader this transfer. There are 3 sets of missionaries in our district and the other sets serve in what is called North St. Paul.
**It is a lot of change, especially coming after being up in my last area only for 6 weeks! But, I know that the Lord is going to help me through it because I need all the help I can get. I feel pretty inadequate sometimes, but I have felt that way with most changes that come in life and things always work out if I give my best effort!
Dinkytown/UofM campus: The campus is MASSIVE!!! There are about 55,000 students enrolled and it is one of the bigger universities in the United States. The buildings are mostly brick and are really big. It reminds me SO much of UW when I walk around it's pretty weird sometimes when I get flashbacks or memories of there! But, it is a great place and I am trying to get the campus down with all the weird names and buildings that universities like to have. It's going to be fun!
Singles Ward/Institute: There is a great institute building and program here. There is only one student ward so there are considerably less members of the church here than there were @ UW (UW had 3 student wards). Tomorrow at church I will get to meet everyone and see what it is like. It was the first week of the new semester so institute hasn't gotten into to full of a swing. We did have a dinner appointment already with a girl in the ward. She had 4 other people over and us 4 missionaries so it was like having a big get together. She made taco soup and it was really fun. It is ALOT different not being with a regular family ward but there are a lot of good things that come with being with students, too!
The work: The work is very different as well. We spend most of our time out on campus talking to people. It's an open campus so we can go anywhere. We are on our feet or our bike, but so far we have only walked places. It's also different finding places to meet and teach. Since my companion and I are both new to the area we generally invite people to meet at the institute, but I think they do teach in some of the student union buildings too. It is exciting to get to talk to people my own age and see what people are studying here and things like that. WE get to have some pretty good and intelligent conversations with people when they are interested so that is great too!
Last week in my old area: Last week was a good week in my last area. We had a really great lesson with a 12 year old girl and her less active mother. We took them on a tour of the church and had the YW president and someone from Relief Society to help us and get to know them better. It went really well and we ended at the baptismal font and showed them that. The spirit was really strong and even the 12 year old girl could only say "I don't know it just feels different...I can't really explain it." We then ended with a short 5 minute video that had the first presidency and the 12 apostles standing in the visitors center under the statue of Jesus Christ. It was really amazing! Things will be going well for that fmaily up in Virginia!
End of transfer tradition: My old district in the Virginia area has a long standing tradition that on the last district meeting of the transfer we go out to get Lalapalooza's. A Lalapalooza (yes, a capital "L") is a gigantic ice cream dessert that has 8 scoops of ice cream and tons of toppings and it is full of deliciousness! I got pictures on my companions camera so maybe I can get them when I see him again. But, I did finish the entire thing! It was glorious and the restaurant even gave us pins because we each finished ours. MmmmMmmm! :)
**Minnesota Word of the Week**
Mission addition: A term missionaries use in regards to gaining weight while serving a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I think this topic came up while we were eating our Lalapalooza's but I thought it was a pretty funny term. Do not worry, I have stayed away from this so called "mission addition." I guess it's because I already had enough experience with he Freshman 15 at college ;)
It was great hearing from all of you this week and I hope you have a wonderful weekend. Don't forget to email on Friday or Saturday morning! I love you all very much. In fact, I love you more than Laman and Lemuel love murmuring! :) Thank you for your thoughts and prayers.
Lovingly,
Elder Spencer
Hello family! Hope you have had a great week! It is different getting to email on Saturday, but that is my P-day now since I am serving on a college campus. So let me tell you all about the new things!
Changes: There are some pretty crazy things that happened with this transfer.
#1. My companion and I are re-opening an area here on campus. Usually there are 2 sets of missionaries serving on campus, but during the Christmas season they took it down to only 1 set and now we are back up to 2 sets. So we are starting from scratch trying to find new people and beginning to work with the ward. It is pretty intense!
#2. My new companion is Elder Sorenson from Highland, Utah. He is straight from the MTC so I am training him. He is really awesome and already is great at talking to everyone and loves to work hard. He is really humble too so it will be a great transfer, I can already tell!
#3. We live in an apartment with the other set of missionaries. They are the zone leaders for the area and so are older and more experienced so that is nice to be with them. One of them, named Elder Brown is 7 feet tall. It's quite impressive!
#4. I was also asked to be a district leader this transfer. There are 3 sets of missionaries in our district and the other sets serve in what is called North St. Paul.
**It is a lot of change, especially coming after being up in my last area only for 6 weeks! But, I know that the Lord is going to help me through it because I need all the help I can get. I feel pretty inadequate sometimes, but I have felt that way with most changes that come in life and things always work out if I give my best effort!
Dinkytown/UofM campus: The campus is MASSIVE!!! There are about 55,000 students enrolled and it is one of the bigger universities in the United States. The buildings are mostly brick and are really big. It reminds me SO much of UW when I walk around it's pretty weird sometimes when I get flashbacks or memories of there! But, it is a great place and I am trying to get the campus down with all the weird names and buildings that universities like to have. It's going to be fun!
Singles Ward/Institute: There is a great institute building and program here. There is only one student ward so there are considerably less members of the church here than there were @ UW (UW had 3 student wards). Tomorrow at church I will get to meet everyone and see what it is like. It was the first week of the new semester so institute hasn't gotten into to full of a swing. We did have a dinner appointment already with a girl in the ward. She had 4 other people over and us 4 missionaries so it was like having a big get together. She made taco soup and it was really fun. It is ALOT different not being with a regular family ward but there are a lot of good things that come with being with students, too!
The work: The work is very different as well. We spend most of our time out on campus talking to people. It's an open campus so we can go anywhere. We are on our feet or our bike, but so far we have only walked places. It's also different finding places to meet and teach. Since my companion and I are both new to the area we generally invite people to meet at the institute, but I think they do teach in some of the student union buildings too. It is exciting to get to talk to people my own age and see what people are studying here and things like that. WE get to have some pretty good and intelligent conversations with people when they are interested so that is great too!
Last week in my old area: Last week was a good week in my last area. We had a really great lesson with a 12 year old girl and her less active mother. We took them on a tour of the church and had the YW president and someone from Relief Society to help us and get to know them better. It went really well and we ended at the baptismal font and showed them that. The spirit was really strong and even the 12 year old girl could only say "I don't know it just feels different...I can't really explain it." We then ended with a short 5 minute video that had the first presidency and the 12 apostles standing in the visitors center under the statue of Jesus Christ. It was really amazing! Things will be going well for that fmaily up in Virginia!
End of transfer tradition: My old district in the Virginia area has a long standing tradition that on the last district meeting of the transfer we go out to get Lalapalooza's. A Lalapalooza (yes, a capital "L") is a gigantic ice cream dessert that has 8 scoops of ice cream and tons of toppings and it is full of deliciousness! I got pictures on my companions camera so maybe I can get them when I see him again. But, I did finish the entire thing! It was glorious and the restaurant even gave us pins because we each finished ours. MmmmMmmm! :)
**Minnesota Word of the Week**
Mission addition: A term missionaries use in regards to gaining weight while serving a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I think this topic came up while we were eating our Lalapalooza's but I thought it was a pretty funny term. Do not worry, I have stayed away from this so called "mission addition." I guess it's because I already had enough experience with he Freshman 15 at college ;)
It was great hearing from all of you this week and I hope you have a wonderful weekend. Don't forget to email on Friday or Saturday morning! I love you all very much. In fact, I love you more than Laman and Lemuel love murmuring! :) Thank you for your thoughts and prayers.
Lovingly,
Elder Spencer
Friday, January 16, 2009
Elder Spencers news 1-15-09
Dearest Family, 1-15-09
Hello this week from Minnesota. Things are going great here! It is now the middle of January and I am experiencing what cold really is. The mission president's wife often encourages us by saying "Many are cold, but few are frozen!!" So I love that!
News: It is nice to hear we are making the news with our cold blast we are having. I heard alot about Washington being in the news lately so I hope that is past now. But the cold here is getting pretty exciting! I have some good stories about that. #1. We were out walking around the downtown street talking to people and it was pretty nippy. My companion has a digital watch and he looked at it and it had just totally shut down because of the cold! Everything was blank. When we got back in for lunch after a while it warmed up and it turned back on. It was awesome! #2. I don't know exactly how cold it is today but they cancelled school today for the kids because of how cold it is supposed to be! Maybe they call it a "cold day" but I thought it was pretty crazy that they cancelled school. I am also pretty sure it didn't reach as cold as they thought it was going to be, but I guess I will find that out later. I do know however that I have not been in temperatures above zero for the last couple days!! Usually I don't get to be out in the extremes of the cold though. By the time we are done with study and such in the mornings it has warmed up from the morning coldness. And usually in the evening we are teaching in someones home. But if it gets too cold we are told to be smart about it and go in to warm up at times...so don't worry! Also the hand warmers I get to use work wonders for the fingers and keeping me nice and warm :)
Greatness of missionary work: A couple weeks ago a man had come to church with his less active girlfriend and said he felt a void in his life and felt that this church was a good way for him to try to fill that. We were of course ecstatic about hearing that and having someone just show up at church! But he is a trucker and is out of town ALOT so we haven't got to sit down and teach him yet. But we have kept in contact with him and the last time we called him he told us more amazing news! He said that he had been the owner of a bar in the town he lived for a long time. It had been a business project and a dream of his to own his own bar and build it up. But, he told us he felt impressed that he needed to get rid of that kind of influence in his life. He wanted to truly change his old ways that had not brought happiness and meaning to his life. We hadn't even known he owned a bar!! Talk about the Spirit working to prepare someone for the gospel. We can't wait to sit down with him and talk more. It is so true that people even in good 'ol Virginia Minnesota are being prepared to receive the restored gospel!
The gloriousness of Bro. Alger: Brother Alger is an amazing man in this ward. He is the High Priest's group leader and is SUPER involved in missionary work. He is a normal man in the sense that he has a working job during the week and has a calling in the ward already and things like that, but he goes the extra mile for missionary work too. Every Sunday night at 6 o’clock he picks us up and will drive us anywhere we need to go and help us teach, and every Monday he has us over for dinner. Last Sunday we were driving back from a great lesson we had with a family of 7 (hopefully you will be hearing more about that family in the future!) and he felt impressed to stop at an elderly members home who had not been at church that day...just to stop in to see how they were doing and let them know someone noticed their absence at church. We went there and the lady let us in. We talked for a bit and then we shared a short thought out of the Book of Mormon that talked about trials and overcoming them with the help of the Lord. She started talking more and basically opened up and started to cry because she had been going through some really hard times lately. She asked for a blessing and we were able to give her one. As we left she thanked us so much and was offering food and other things for us to take because she was so grateful and wanted to give anything as a token of appreciation. She also told us that she knew we were meant to stop by that night. It was a sweet experience! So I just wanted to share with you one of the great people we are blessed to work with in the Virginia Ward!
**Minnesota Word of the Week**
blizzard: Does anyone know the definition of a blizzard?? Well I was taught it this last week from Bro. Alger. The true definition of a blizzard is to have snow falling at such a rate that visibility is limited to 1/4 mile or less. And it has to be snow, not rain because my companion and I argued that we had been in rain blizzards in the Northwest and we were refuted for our incorrect interpretation of the true definition of a blizzard. So now you know!
I hope that you ALL have a wonderful week full of happiness and timeless memories. Thank you for all of your love and support! I love you!!
With a warm heart,
Elder Spencer
Hello this week from Minnesota. Things are going great here! It is now the middle of January and I am experiencing what cold really is. The mission president's wife often encourages us by saying "Many are cold, but few are frozen!!" So I love that!
News: It is nice to hear we are making the news with our cold blast we are having. I heard alot about Washington being in the news lately so I hope that is past now. But the cold here is getting pretty exciting! I have some good stories about that. #1. We were out walking around the downtown street talking to people and it was pretty nippy. My companion has a digital watch and he looked at it and it had just totally shut down because of the cold! Everything was blank. When we got back in for lunch after a while it warmed up and it turned back on. It was awesome! #2. I don't know exactly how cold it is today but they cancelled school today for the kids because of how cold it is supposed to be! Maybe they call it a "cold day" but I thought it was pretty crazy that they cancelled school. I am also pretty sure it didn't reach as cold as they thought it was going to be, but I guess I will find that out later. I do know however that I have not been in temperatures above zero for the last couple days!! Usually I don't get to be out in the extremes of the cold though. By the time we are done with study and such in the mornings it has warmed up from the morning coldness. And usually in the evening we are teaching in someones home. But if it gets too cold we are told to be smart about it and go in to warm up at times...so don't worry! Also the hand warmers I get to use work wonders for the fingers and keeping me nice and warm :)
Greatness of missionary work: A couple weeks ago a man had come to church with his less active girlfriend and said he felt a void in his life and felt that this church was a good way for him to try to fill that. We were of course ecstatic about hearing that and having someone just show up at church! But he is a trucker and is out of town ALOT so we haven't got to sit down and teach him yet. But we have kept in contact with him and the last time we called him he told us more amazing news! He said that he had been the owner of a bar in the town he lived for a long time. It had been a business project and a dream of his to own his own bar and build it up. But, he told us he felt impressed that he needed to get rid of that kind of influence in his life. He wanted to truly change his old ways that had not brought happiness and meaning to his life. We hadn't even known he owned a bar!! Talk about the Spirit working to prepare someone for the gospel. We can't wait to sit down with him and talk more. It is so true that people even in good 'ol Virginia Minnesota are being prepared to receive the restored gospel!
The gloriousness of Bro. Alger: Brother Alger is an amazing man in this ward. He is the High Priest's group leader and is SUPER involved in missionary work. He is a normal man in the sense that he has a working job during the week and has a calling in the ward already and things like that, but he goes the extra mile for missionary work too. Every Sunday night at 6 o’clock he picks us up and will drive us anywhere we need to go and help us teach, and every Monday he has us over for dinner. Last Sunday we were driving back from a great lesson we had with a family of 7 (hopefully you will be hearing more about that family in the future!) and he felt impressed to stop at an elderly members home who had not been at church that day...just to stop in to see how they were doing and let them know someone noticed their absence at church. We went there and the lady let us in. We talked for a bit and then we shared a short thought out of the Book of Mormon that talked about trials and overcoming them with the help of the Lord. She started talking more and basically opened up and started to cry because she had been going through some really hard times lately. She asked for a blessing and we were able to give her one. As we left she thanked us so much and was offering food and other things for us to take because she was so grateful and wanted to give anything as a token of appreciation. She also told us that she knew we were meant to stop by that night. It was a sweet experience! So I just wanted to share with you one of the great people we are blessed to work with in the Virginia Ward!
**Minnesota Word of the Week**
blizzard: Does anyone know the definition of a blizzard?? Well I was taught it this last week from Bro. Alger. The true definition of a blizzard is to have snow falling at such a rate that visibility is limited to 1/4 mile or less. And it has to be snow, not rain because my companion and I argued that we had been in rain blizzards in the Northwest and we were refuted for our incorrect interpretation of the true definition of a blizzard. So now you know!
I hope that you ALL have a wonderful week full of happiness and timeless memories. Thank you for all of your love and support! I love you!!
With a warm heart,
Elder Spencer
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Flood Waters
We spent are week dealing with the flood waters that plaqued our area. We are so blessed to not be in an area where they had to evacuate, but we sure bail water at our place. Under our house it always floods. Yes, we must deal with that on a more permanent basis! But we have a pump under the house and 3 times in the night Darwin had to get up and make sure it was doing it's job. We run drain tubes out over the driveway and pump it out, so during preschool drop off and pick-up he had to come home and reroute the process. The mobile home garage flooded but we had everything up on pallets, all around the preschool was a problem so Darwin and Carl bailed water with buckets constantly. School was cancelled for Carl one day because of all the flooding. Now we are to have a week of bright sunshine. What a blessing it will be!
Elder Spencers news
Lovingly,
Hellooooooooo! JAN 8, 2009
To my dearest family,
Well another glorious week has gone by and it looks as if 2009 will be the best year of my life so far! Things are going really great and I have been blessed to have some spectacular adventures. So here are some of them...
Pigeons...: This story is dedicated to Delee and I hope she makes it through reading it. We were knocking on doors the other day and went into someones breezeway/porch to knock on their real door. We waited for a while and discovered that pigeons had gotten in through some broken out windows and were roosting in the eaves. Well, no big deal. But, as we continued to knock we noticed more pigeons. There were 5 total. No one answered the door and so before we left my companion decided to throw some snow up in the air to try to get them to move. And it came to pass, that he did that, and it worked...I know...you are thinking of how we are dorks, but oh well. One of the pigeons tried to fly out of a window that still was intact and so he hit the glass pretty hard and turned around and flew straight at us and hit my companions leg. Then, it was flopping around in a plastic bag while it tried to take off again. I was totally shocked and I felt alot like Delee at the moment with a huge fear of birds getting caught in my hair or something. But, when we got out of there it was really funny and we were laughing really hard. Good thing nobody was home!!
Service: On Monday we got to have a great day full of service. There was a woman moving out of her place because it was being foreclosed and she called the ward for help. She had to get the stuff out in one day before she lost it, so we went with some other leaders of the church and loaded up some vehicles with her stuff and took it to her new place. It was almost an hour drive there and back plus the work time so it took a while, but she was sooo appreciative! It made me feel really good to be able to help someone in need, and to see other people in the church use their time and gas to help her out. She was not active in church or anything, but that didn't matter to them. I could feel something inside me though and I realized that is what life is all about! Also, that afternoon we got to help the ward serve dinner at the Salvation Army. That was another great experience of not only getting to help people myself but seeing the ward and even the workers at Salvation Army who just give and give. There really are a lot of opportunities out there and I was the one who felt blessed to be able to help out.
Overall things are going really great. Everyday we are being blessed in small and simple ways, but they really do make the difference. I am getting more and more familiar with the ward and the area and it is really growing on me. I really feel like this is where I need to be and I am TRULY loving it here! Thank you for all of your prayers on my behalf, because I can feel them working!!
I hope you all have a wonderful week. You are all in my thoughts and prayers. The Lord will bless you all for the service you give and kindness you spread to those you come in contact with throughout the day. I have the best family EVER!!!
Hellooooooooo! JAN 8, 2009
To my dearest family,
Well another glorious week has gone by and it looks as if 2009 will be the best year of my life so far! Things are going really great and I have been blessed to have some spectacular adventures. So here are some of them...
Pigeons...: This story is dedicated to Delee and I hope she makes it through reading it. We were knocking on doors the other day and went into someones breezeway/porch to knock on their real door. We waited for a while and discovered that pigeons had gotten in through some broken out windows and were roosting in the eaves. Well, no big deal. But, as we continued to knock we noticed more pigeons. There were 5 total. No one answered the door and so before we left my companion decided to throw some snow up in the air to try to get them to move. And it came to pass, that he did that, and it worked...I know...you are thinking of how we are dorks, but oh well. One of the pigeons tried to fly out of a window that still was intact and so he hit the glass pretty hard and turned around and flew straight at us and hit my companions leg. Then, it was flopping around in a plastic bag while it tried to take off again. I was totally shocked and I felt alot like Delee at the moment with a huge fear of birds getting caught in my hair or something. But, when we got out of there it was really funny and we were laughing really hard. Good thing nobody was home!!
Service: On Monday we got to have a great day full of service. There was a woman moving out of her place because it was being foreclosed and she called the ward for help. She had to get the stuff out in one day before she lost it, so we went with some other leaders of the church and loaded up some vehicles with her stuff and took it to her new place. It was almost an hour drive there and back plus the work time so it took a while, but she was sooo appreciative! It made me feel really good to be able to help someone in need, and to see other people in the church use their time and gas to help her out. She was not active in church or anything, but that didn't matter to them. I could feel something inside me though and I realized that is what life is all about! Also, that afternoon we got to help the ward serve dinner at the Salvation Army. That was another great experience of not only getting to help people myself but seeing the ward and even the workers at Salvation Army who just give and give. There really are a lot of opportunities out there and I was the one who felt blessed to be able to help out.
Overall things are going really great. Everyday we are being blessed in small and simple ways, but they really do make the difference. I am getting more and more familiar with the ward and the area and it is really growing on me. I really feel like this is where I need to be and I am TRULY loving it here! Thank you for all of your prayers on my behalf, because I can feel them working!!
I hope you all have a wonderful week. You are all in my thoughts and prayers. The Lord will bless you all for the service you give and kindness you spread to those you come in contact with throughout the day. I have the best family EVER!!!
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Sunday, January 4, 2009
Christmas At Our House
We had a great holiday! I had a bad cold for the day and many after, but everything else was great. It seemed more relaxed and was great having Delee and family close by to enjoy the day with. The best was our phone call with Dean. We three wayed with Ter and Jer and everyone got on our phones. It was a wonderful 45 minutes to hear his voice. And yes, he really sounds good and happy!Christmas is so much more fun with kids! Terra and family arrived on Sunday afternoon after it taking them 3 days to get here because of the roads. We had a wonderful time and enjoyed Sam and Paul so much. They are at great ages and were a lot of fun in every way. On Tuesday we went up over the pass to "Happy Trails" and went on a sleigh ride. They created a hill for sleding with 8 large white canvas tents on the ridge that had wood burning stoves in them, table and chairs. So it was the best, sledding outside your door, come in and dry your stuff, eat and visit and go back out. Jaxson and El by then had my cold so they were miserable but good troopers. We had a great time and recommend the place to all if you like a bit of redneck.
So Happy New Year to you all. One of my new goals is to update this with especially Deans info every week. Margaret
So Happy New Year to you all. One of my new goals is to update this with especially Deans info every week. Margaret
Elder Spencers news
Hello family!!
Hooray for the first email of 2009 that you will get from Minnesota. What an epic event! Things are going great here and I'm still loving it here in Virginia.
New Years: For new years it was really low key. We had dinner at a member's home and then spent the rest of the night in our apartment. I think it was the first time I remember not staying up till midnight but it wasn't a big deal for me at all. It was funny because I thought I would just celebrate New York's New Year but realized that with the time zone here it is only one hour ahead...so I even was asleep before that! Elder Birkel and I still had a great toast with some pleasant tasting Italian soda drinks we got and we did some other fun guy stuff that is not worth typing out :) And I woke up in the morning and thought, sweet it's 2009. It's weird how when you get older holidays sometimes seem more like just another day.
Virginia Blitz: This week we had what is called a Blitz. It is where we have two sets of missionaries in one area at the same time. So, the other Elders from our district came up for the day and we had exchanges but we all stayed in our area. I was with my district leader and it was good. He is a good leader and taught me some good stuff. Then, they slept over at our apartment and left the next morning. Yay for missionary sleep overs!!
Road trip: This week we got the chance to go on a road trip. Okay, not really, but we went to do some work in a little town that is about an hour away. It is called Ely (pronounced like Delee but don't say the D). It was a nice little town and we spent an afternoon there. One of the cool things about the town is that it has an Internaitional wolf exhibit! I only saw it on the map, but I think it was almost the only thing to do there in the town! haha. But the people there were really nice...it will be hard to do much there becuase it is so far away but we will see.
The work: Things are going well and I am getting more acclamated to the area and the ward each week. We are starting to get more teaching appointments lined up for the week which is great!
**MINNESOTA WORD OF THE WEEK**
Laurentian divide: a geographical landmark that is in my area where at a certain spot, water flows away from it in all directions. It would be like if you would pour water on top of a mountain and it would just flow straight down. It has to do with the magnetic poles of the earthe or something along those lines. Unfortunately I can't go look at it because it is a sacred spot to the Native Americans because it is such a glorious natural phenomena. But, it's a pretty cool thing to my area!
I hope you all have a wonderful New Year. I love you all and appreciate all the support!
With love,
Elder Spencer
Hooray for the first email of 2009 that you will get from Minnesota. What an epic event! Things are going great here and I'm still loving it here in Virginia.
New Years: For new years it was really low key. We had dinner at a member's home and then spent the rest of the night in our apartment. I think it was the first time I remember not staying up till midnight but it wasn't a big deal for me at all. It was funny because I thought I would just celebrate New York's New Year but realized that with the time zone here it is only one hour ahead...so I even was asleep before that! Elder Birkel and I still had a great toast with some pleasant tasting Italian soda drinks we got and we did some other fun guy stuff that is not worth typing out :) And I woke up in the morning and thought, sweet it's 2009. It's weird how when you get older holidays sometimes seem more like just another day.
Virginia Blitz: This week we had what is called a Blitz. It is where we have two sets of missionaries in one area at the same time. So, the other Elders from our district came up for the day and we had exchanges but we all stayed in our area. I was with my district leader and it was good. He is a good leader and taught me some good stuff. Then, they slept over at our apartment and left the next morning. Yay for missionary sleep overs!!
Road trip: This week we got the chance to go on a road trip. Okay, not really, but we went to do some work in a little town that is about an hour away. It is called Ely (pronounced like Delee but don't say the D). It was a nice little town and we spent an afternoon there. One of the cool things about the town is that it has an Internaitional wolf exhibit! I only saw it on the map, but I think it was almost the only thing to do there in the town! haha. But the people there were really nice...it will be hard to do much there becuase it is so far away but we will see.
The work: Things are going well and I am getting more acclamated to the area and the ward each week. We are starting to get more teaching appointments lined up for the week which is great!
**MINNESOTA WORD OF THE WEEK**
Laurentian divide: a geographical landmark that is in my area where at a certain spot, water flows away from it in all directions. It would be like if you would pour water on top of a mountain and it would just flow straight down. It has to do with the magnetic poles of the earthe or something along those lines. Unfortunately I can't go look at it because it is a sacred spot to the Native Americans because it is such a glorious natural phenomena. But, it's a pretty cool thing to my area!
I hope you all have a wonderful New Year. I love you all and appreciate all the support!
With love,
Elder Spencer
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