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
Monday, January 26, 2009
Friday, January 16, 2009
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
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
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Flood Waters
We spent are week dealing with the flood waters that plaqued our area. We are so blessed to not be in an area where they had to evacuate, but we sure bail water at our place. Under our house it always floods. Yes, we must deal with that on a more permanent basis! But we have a pump under the house and 3 times in the night Darwin had to get up and make sure it was doing it's job. We run drain tubes out over the driveway and pump it out, so during preschool drop off and pick-up he had to come home and reroute the process. The mobile home garage flooded but we had everything up on pallets, all around the preschool was a problem so Darwin and Carl bailed water with buckets constantly. School was cancelled for Carl one day because of all the flooding. Now we are to have a week of bright sunshine. What a blessing it will be!
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!!!
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!!!
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Sunday, January 4, 2009
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
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
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
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