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