For Papa

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

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

Hello Family!

The snow has begun! This week it snowed about 3 inches one night. And now, that snow will be here until March! The snow plows here are crème' de la crème'. I was amazed at how fast they plow EVERYTHING. Sidewalks, parking lots, streets of course, and everyone’s driveways. It's just so normal over here and everyone knows what to do. Over in Washington school would have been closed for a week at least! But that’s how it is and it is really pretty now with the snow. I must say I do enjoy the first "real" snow.

This week has been really busy. We are teaching quite a bit and have a lot of people who are close to progressing. Also, we have started trying to give more church tours (like the Elders do there in WA) and that has been good. There is such a great feeling in the church when you walk in and it's like you can leave all the world behind when you walk in. It is so great to be a missionary. I get to meet so many different kinds of people and serve them and help them feel God's love for them through the Holy Ghost more than they ever have felt it before. The power of the spirit is real and it truly changes people’s lives!

Last night I had two meetings for an hour each so we didn't get to teach much that day, but I learned some cool stuff. It was just meetings with the ward mission leader and then the bishop here but I learned something great. We talked a lot about home teaching and visiting teaching. Growing up in the church, I had never really understood the importance of these programs. But last night it just hit me about how important they were and waht they did for wards. I felt kind of bad about how I hadn't given it much priority before. But after talking about it, it really is amazing...these programs we have in the church are just to help each other stay connected, fellowshipped and in touch with each other so we can help out. I decided that even if I didn't know the church was true (which I do!) I would still be a part of this church because of the love and genuine care the people have for each other. Who wouldn't want to be a part of a group like that?? So that’s just what I learned last night in some meetings.

Pictures: (thanks to my companion!) #1. Karl's baptism! Bro. Johnson from the ward was a great fellowshipper in the ward and he baptized him. That is Karl's son (little Karl). He is 4 and he loves primary.
#2. This is the Pilipino lady who is wonderful! Her name is Gloria. She had tons of lights and we helped her set them up in her yard. And I mean alllll over her yard! It was awesome.
#3. The fist snowwww! We were in at night getting ready for bed and we just looked out and there was an inch or so out! So we went and played for a few minutes and I struck a pose. I hope Carl is proud of me for that pose, because I know he is the pro at it!

**Minnesota Word of the week**
Unfortunately I'm out of time to do a word of the week...but next week there will be one! Sorry, I do apologize for the inconvenience...

Hope you all have a splendid week! I love you all!
Love,
Elder Spencer

From Our Missionary

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

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

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

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

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

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

HOMECOMING

Moms time in Bubble Land

As Neil already posted about our time together in Rexburg I must add my two sense. I also had a great time being in his world. He's doing great with good room mates, nice friends, great job, good ward, very nice clean apartment for a group of men, and happy with life. I so enjoyed my time with him. I always refer to Rexburg as "Bubble Land" because what other campus in the world lets kids prop open buildings doors and play in them at 11 p.m. and beyond. Or leave their house doors open with no care and keys in plain site! There is no other place in the world!
I realized it was my 30 anniversary as when I was dropped off there. Oh how far I have come in my life. When I arrived I spent the first two weeks crying almost non stop. I even moved apartments because I couldn't cope living with strangers. I met a girl from my stake on the street, hung on to her and begged to live in her apartment who had one spot opened. I really had no coping skills but knew I couldn't go home so worked through it. The blessings it brought in my life by staying. Meeting Darwin from his sister who lived next door, a great room mate (Teresa Loveland) who was my maid of Honor at our wedding. By the way after 25 years of only Christmas cards, we met for lunch while I was there. It seemed we had never been apart and talked for hours vowing we would do better to stay in contact. She is a professor at the university herself for the past 2 years. What a great person she was for helping me grow up in many ways. I sat there at the Les Schwab, because my rental car had a flat, and reflected on the growth in my life. Thirty years ago, no skills to now when I booked my own air ticket, rented a car in Boise and went to see my sister Shirley, drove to Rexburg 5 hours away, entertained myself and made my way around with no worry of fear in any way! I stayed with Jeff and Debbie Hochstrasser. They are dear friends from many years past and he was in the stake presidency when I served for almost 7 years as stake primary president. He challenged me to grow in many ways with that calling. They are gracious, lovely people. I loved the Rexburg temple! What a great spirit I felt from my ancestors who settled that town.
Most of all I loved seeing how Neil is nothing like I was. That's how I really knew I had grown as I tried hard to push my children to be able more to stand on their own and boy can he. Good job son! What fond memeories playing silly games late at night with happy people and dancing at a concert. We also had Lisa (Joels daughter) and Shavonne (Susans daughter) over for dinner Sunday. It was good to see them.
Thanks for the great time son! MOM