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