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!!!

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