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