Monday, April 13, 2009
Pictures of Dean
When I get someone to post his past two week pictures, you'll get the just of his comments on them. Hopefully it will be this week.
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
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
Elder Spencer
Hello once again!
This will have to be a shorter email...because with Conference being today we were rushed and the library is closing soon! But, I will try to fit in as much as I can. It was another great week here in the Midwest!
Conference: Isn't it great?! The sessions were great and conference takes on such a new excitement since I am on a mission. We were really blessed with the two sessions that have just happened today we had three investigators come. Some weeks it is hit and miss and this week it is great to see them come. It's so excitiing to hear these men and women speak about life. Life isn't easy, but with boosts like these we can see that trials are about of life and we can get through them with eachother and the support of our Heavenly Father. He is always there!
The work: It was a great week with some great lessons. It's exciting because I am starting to see my growth in how I can go out and talk to people on campus. One of the days we went out and I had some great conversations with people. They came from very different ways of life and had their own personalities, but we always found soemthing in common or were able to spend tmie talking about life or faith or anything adn then they would listen to things about the gospel. Of course not all of them accepted to learn more or even agreed with what I was saying, but I was excited to see how I got to talk with them and ahve good conversations. And it is fun to see how much I've grown int he 2 months or so I've been on campus.We are still teaching some great people. One of them brought a friend along to meet us and nwo we are teaching both of them. We had some good lessons. One guy is progressing well and he reads alot of the Book of Mormon and is really intellectual. I love seeing how he grasps some of the principles of the gospel and hwo they just make sense. The spirit is a big part of it and that is his next big step. To move from intellectual to spiritual learning. It's coming great!We are still teaching some great Chinese people too. Had a funny experience with one. We asked him if he missed China. He said yes, and he misses his girlfriends. We weren't sure how to react to that and my companion just straight up asked, well how many do you have? he quickly responded I only have one! and we explained what he had said and he laughed at his mistake. It made me appreciate serving state side and not having those funny little language mistakes. I was also glad that our investigator was not a player.
Institute: We have been trying lately to make the institute a good resource for members and students to feel welcome. We have decided to make better use of the ping pong table and make some standings for the institute. So during our lunch and dinner hour we eat as fast as we can and try to get competition going and help the institute seem like a fun place to be. It is modeled after what the institute at UW had and it has been working well. Alot of people are getting fired up about ping pong. Some are alos getting overly competitive, which is normal I suppose. It makes me think of Neil when I see people getting so into something like table tennis. I guess some people just have a competitve nature. But it is a fun way of working and interacting with members and students.
Pictures:-I have made it a tradition to make a dessert for the apartment every friday night. A couple weeks ago I made a banana cream pie and a chocolate pudding pie. I'm surprised at how much missionaries are willing to do dishes if you bribe them with dessert. So if you have any ideas of easy desserts that are tasty...I would love hearing about them!-Me and my companion ate jolly ranchers-The weather is slowly getting out of winter. And just when I think we are all the way out...it snows again. yay for the 11th day of spring...
I love you all very much and hope you have a wonderful week!Until next time...Love,Elder Spencer
This will have to be a shorter email...because with Conference being today we were rushed and the library is closing soon! But, I will try to fit in as much as I can. It was another great week here in the Midwest!
Conference: Isn't it great?! The sessions were great and conference takes on such a new excitement since I am on a mission. We were really blessed with the two sessions that have just happened today we had three investigators come. Some weeks it is hit and miss and this week it is great to see them come. It's so excitiing to hear these men and women speak about life. Life isn't easy, but with boosts like these we can see that trials are about of life and we can get through them with eachother and the support of our Heavenly Father. He is always there!
The work: It was a great week with some great lessons. It's exciting because I am starting to see my growth in how I can go out and talk to people on campus. One of the days we went out and I had some great conversations with people. They came from very different ways of life and had their own personalities, but we always found soemthing in common or were able to spend tmie talking about life or faith or anything adn then they would listen to things about the gospel. Of course not all of them accepted to learn more or even agreed with what I was saying, but I was excited to see how I got to talk with them and ahve good conversations. And it is fun to see how much I've grown int he 2 months or so I've been on campus.We are still teaching some great people. One of them brought a friend along to meet us and nwo we are teaching both of them. We had some good lessons. One guy is progressing well and he reads alot of the Book of Mormon and is really intellectual. I love seeing how he grasps some of the principles of the gospel and hwo they just make sense. The spirit is a big part of it and that is his next big step. To move from intellectual to spiritual learning. It's coming great!We are still teaching some great Chinese people too. Had a funny experience with one. We asked him if he missed China. He said yes, and he misses his girlfriends. We weren't sure how to react to that and my companion just straight up asked, well how many do you have? he quickly responded I only have one! and we explained what he had said and he laughed at his mistake. It made me appreciate serving state side and not having those funny little language mistakes. I was also glad that our investigator was not a player.
Institute: We have been trying lately to make the institute a good resource for members and students to feel welcome. We have decided to make better use of the ping pong table and make some standings for the institute. So during our lunch and dinner hour we eat as fast as we can and try to get competition going and help the institute seem like a fun place to be. It is modeled after what the institute at UW had and it has been working well. Alot of people are getting fired up about ping pong. Some are alos getting overly competitive, which is normal I suppose. It makes me think of Neil when I see people getting so into something like table tennis. I guess some people just have a competitve nature. But it is a fun way of working and interacting with members and students.
Pictures:-I have made it a tradition to make a dessert for the apartment every friday night. A couple weeks ago I made a banana cream pie and a chocolate pudding pie. I'm surprised at how much missionaries are willing to do dishes if you bribe them with dessert. So if you have any ideas of easy desserts that are tasty...I would love hearing about them!-Me and my companion ate jolly ranchers-The weather is slowly getting out of winter. And just when I think we are all the way out...it snows again. yay for the 11th day of spring...
I love you all very much and hope you have a wonderful week!Until next time...Love,Elder Spencer
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Elder Spencer 3-14-09
Mar 14
Dearest Family,
It has been an incredible week and it just keeps being a missionary just keeps getting better!
Weather: Today it is...get this...50 degrees! WHOO HOOOO! It is awesome because earlier this week it was about -25 with wind chill one day. So that is a 75 degree difference. :) Elder Gillespie (one of the other missionaries in our apartment) went running this morning and it was awesome. We ran across the Mississippi River and around the outskirts of Minneapolis. It was still dark when we started, but the sun started to come up during the run. Ahhhh I love being here!
The work: Well, the greatest thing of all my time here in Dinkytown happened today. Sarah was baptized! We had the baptism earlier today and it was glorious. She was so happy! The ward came out in full force to support her too, it was great. Elder Sorenson baptized her and he was way excited to do that. I will confirm her tomorrow on Sunday too! I sang a song from the Primary songbook "When I am baptized" and it was just realyl really good. Yay for Sarah!
Last week: Last week on Pday I did not mention an exciting activity I got to do. We got to go to the UofM basketball game! They played Michigan and it was their last home game of the season. It was so fun! The band was there and there were tons of people, but most excitingly I got to watch sports!!! It was a great game, but at the end Michigan pulled ahead and won. I did wear a pretty good UofM tie to show my support. This was just one of those blessings of being a missionary on the campus :)
Interesting news: So, I just got a phone call from my mission president about 2 hours ago and I have some exciting changes coming this week. My companion Elder Sorenson will no longer be my companion as of Wednesday. Yes, it is an interesting move, but I can assure you it is not considered an "emergency transfer!" haha. This is what I know so far. My new companion (who I will get on Wed.) was serving in Germany, but had some health problems so he had to come home. Now, he has been reassigned to Minnesota and will be coming out Wed. I hope he still remembers english...ha...but seriously that would be weird...Anyway, we were pretty shocked because it's really rare to have this stuff happen. I am sad to lose Elder Sorenson, because he has been great, but I am excited for this new thing. It's times like these that I can define a mission as: happiness and change. So there will be some more updates on this next week!
Eating experiences: I had a funny experience with dinner yesterday taht I have to tell you about. I will begin by saying that when I was called to Minnesota I did not think I would be eating any exotic or interesting foods as a missionary, but now serving in a college campus that thought has been challeneged...Yesterday we had dinner with 3 guys from the ward who live together. Now, kudos to 3 college guys accepting to feed the missionaries on a friday night, but the meal was pretty interesting. One of the guys is from China so he made a chinese dish of pork, peas, and some kind of noodles? One of the other guys brought salad. And the last one made scrambled eggs and potatoes. Also on the table was shredded cheese, tortillas and various condiments. I didn't know what to do...or how to put it all together and neither did anyone else. So, I ended up making a burrito with a chinese dish of meat and peas, with cheese, sour cream, and barbeque sauce on it. I thoguht the barbeque would give it a better flavor adn make it more delicious. But I was wrong. It was pretty funny and we all had a good time. This experience is almost as good as one of our dinners that a guy made us frozen burritos with a slice of kraft cheese on top. And unfortunately the cheese was burnt. haha. I love student wards! And they do a great job being involved and such so it is all good :)
Well I hope you all have a great week! I love you all very much. Also, we have a count down of 3 weeks until general conference!! Whoo hoo!
With love,
Elder Spencer
Dearest Family,
It has been an incredible week and it just keeps being a missionary just keeps getting better!
Weather: Today it is...get this...50 degrees! WHOO HOOOO! It is awesome because earlier this week it was about -25 with wind chill one day. So that is a 75 degree difference. :) Elder Gillespie (one of the other missionaries in our apartment) went running this morning and it was awesome. We ran across the Mississippi River and around the outskirts of Minneapolis. It was still dark when we started, but the sun started to come up during the run. Ahhhh I love being here!
The work: Well, the greatest thing of all my time here in Dinkytown happened today. Sarah was baptized! We had the baptism earlier today and it was glorious. She was so happy! The ward came out in full force to support her too, it was great. Elder Sorenson baptized her and he was way excited to do that. I will confirm her tomorrow on Sunday too! I sang a song from the Primary songbook "When I am baptized" and it was just realyl really good. Yay for Sarah!
Last week: Last week on Pday I did not mention an exciting activity I got to do. We got to go to the UofM basketball game! They played Michigan and it was their last home game of the season. It was so fun! The band was there and there were tons of people, but most excitingly I got to watch sports!!! It was a great game, but at the end Michigan pulled ahead and won. I did wear a pretty good UofM tie to show my support. This was just one of those blessings of being a missionary on the campus :)
Interesting news: So, I just got a phone call from my mission president about 2 hours ago and I have some exciting changes coming this week. My companion Elder Sorenson will no longer be my companion as of Wednesday. Yes, it is an interesting move, but I can assure you it is not considered an "emergency transfer!" haha. This is what I know so far. My new companion (who I will get on Wed.) was serving in Germany, but had some health problems so he had to come home. Now, he has been reassigned to Minnesota and will be coming out Wed. I hope he still remembers english...ha...but seriously that would be weird...Anyway, we were pretty shocked because it's really rare to have this stuff happen. I am sad to lose Elder Sorenson, because he has been great, but I am excited for this new thing. It's times like these that I can define a mission as: happiness and change. So there will be some more updates on this next week!
Eating experiences: I had a funny experience with dinner yesterday taht I have to tell you about. I will begin by saying that when I was called to Minnesota I did not think I would be eating any exotic or interesting foods as a missionary, but now serving in a college campus that thought has been challeneged...Yesterday we had dinner with 3 guys from the ward who live together. Now, kudos to 3 college guys accepting to feed the missionaries on a friday night, but the meal was pretty interesting. One of the guys is from China so he made a chinese dish of pork, peas, and some kind of noodles? One of the other guys brought salad. And the last one made scrambled eggs and potatoes. Also on the table was shredded cheese, tortillas and various condiments. I didn't know what to do...or how to put it all together and neither did anyone else. So, I ended up making a burrito with a chinese dish of meat and peas, with cheese, sour cream, and barbeque sauce on it. I thoguht the barbeque would give it a better flavor adn make it more delicious. But I was wrong. It was pretty funny and we all had a good time. This experience is almost as good as one of our dinners that a guy made us frozen burritos with a slice of kraft cheese on top. And unfortunately the cheese was burnt. haha. I love student wards! And they do a great job being involved and such so it is all good :)
Well I hope you all have a great week! I love you all very much. Also, we have a count down of 3 weeks until general conference!! Whoo hoo!
With love,
Elder Spencer
Friday, February 27, 2009
It's True
Sorry if any of you had to hear it through the grapevine, but it is true... Amber and I are engaged! It has been so wonder to be with her. We find it funny that two people can graduate high school together, go over 4 years without knowing about eachother's lives and then come together and fall in love! It has been a fairy tale like story. We are so excited for the other adventures life has in store for us and even better that we will be able to do it together.We want you all to know that we are so thankful for your love and support. Sorry that we don't get to post very much. We want everyone to know what is going on, but we are just learning how to balance our lives with everything that's going on. It's a lot harder than I thought. If there is anything you want to know about her or anything else, just ask.
We love you guys!
Thursday, February 19, 2009
We love Amber
This last week-end, Neil kind of surprised us (we found out the night before) and he and Amber drove home for the week-end. We went to the temple with her parents Saturday morning and then to lunch. They are great people and more importantly Amber is WONDERFUL and we all love her. She is perfect for Neil! We are excited to see and hear about their amazing life they will create over the years. We'll keep you all posted on the date.
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Bits of Elder Spencers letter 2-7-09
Hello my family! Feb. 7,2009
Zone conference: This week we had zone conference. We have that every 6 weeks, but since I am in the heart of the cities now we had zone conference with 2 other zones so there were alot of missionaries! It was very exciting to be around all of them and of course to hear from President Howell and his wife. They are so amazing to us missionaries!! They taught us so much………
You have questions, I have answers: Feel free to ask any questions you have about anything and I will do my best to answer them all for you! This week Mom had questions about dinners in a student ward. This week we have been really blessed and taken care of. The members here are really good about having us over for dinner. We had one almost every ngiht this week. Some of the dinners happen because we will approach them and ask when a good time is for us to have dinner together...which is easier to do because they are our age :) But there are many people who will volunteer on their own. AND for buying groceries we have a neat system. We kind of just all go in together and buy what we need for the week and then we split up the cost. So it's actually been the least expensive shopping trips I've had while I've been here at Dinkytown. Elder Brown (one of the missionaries I'm with) is a great cook and likes to make mexican dishes alot. It is pretty fun being in a 4 elder apartment and so we can usually cook a good meal together in half an hour and eat in a half hour if we need to!
Update on the work: Things are going great here. Our miracle investigator who walked into the institute is doing amazing. We meet with her twice a week and she has come to church and even an institute class! She loves reading and learning from the Book of Mormon and is making a lot of new friendships too. We invited her to be baptized in March and she accepted so we are moving towards that as a goal!!! Yay! Otherwise we are still working with trying to find new people who are interested on campus. We talk to alot of people and it isn't easy because they are busy students and getting into the middle of the semester, but the work is still moving along. The institute is just a great resource and blessing to have.
Weather: It has been a nice end of the week! It has warmed back up to around freezing!! It is great how that feels warm and some of the snow is even melting. So I guess I feel more like a true Minnesotan when I get excited about it warming up to "freezing”
**Minnesota Word of the Week**
Frogtown: Another weird name for a suburb here in the cities! With Dinkytown and now Frogtown I can't wait to learn of any more weird names they have! Frogtown is interesting because it is very diverse. It is about 10 minutes away and has a large hispanic, asian and hmong (pronounced with a silent "H") population. I'm not sure why it is named Frogtown...but the reason has got to be good.
Well, I love you all dearly and hope you have another spectacular week! Until we type again.... :)
Love,
Elder Spencer
Zone conference: This week we had zone conference. We have that every 6 weeks, but since I am in the heart of the cities now we had zone conference with 2 other zones so there were alot of missionaries! It was very exciting to be around all of them and of course to hear from President Howell and his wife. They are so amazing to us missionaries!! They taught us so much………
You have questions, I have answers: Feel free to ask any questions you have about anything and I will do my best to answer them all for you! This week Mom had questions about dinners in a student ward. This week we have been really blessed and taken care of. The members here are really good about having us over for dinner. We had one almost every ngiht this week. Some of the dinners happen because we will approach them and ask when a good time is for us to have dinner together...which is easier to do because they are our age :) But there are many people who will volunteer on their own. AND for buying groceries we have a neat system. We kind of just all go in together and buy what we need for the week and then we split up the cost. So it's actually been the least expensive shopping trips I've had while I've been here at Dinkytown. Elder Brown (one of the missionaries I'm with) is a great cook and likes to make mexican dishes alot. It is pretty fun being in a 4 elder apartment and so we can usually cook a good meal together in half an hour and eat in a half hour if we need to!
Update on the work: Things are going great here. Our miracle investigator who walked into the institute is doing amazing. We meet with her twice a week and she has come to church and even an institute class! She loves reading and learning from the Book of Mormon and is making a lot of new friendships too. We invited her to be baptized in March and she accepted so we are moving towards that as a goal!!! Yay! Otherwise we are still working with trying to find new people who are interested on campus. We talk to alot of people and it isn't easy because they are busy students and getting into the middle of the semester, but the work is still moving along. The institute is just a great resource and blessing to have.
Weather: It has been a nice end of the week! It has warmed back up to around freezing!! It is great how that feels warm and some of the snow is even melting. So I guess I feel more like a true Minnesotan when I get excited about it warming up to "freezing”
**Minnesota Word of the Week**
Frogtown: Another weird name for a suburb here in the cities! With Dinkytown and now Frogtown I can't wait to learn of any more weird names they have! Frogtown is interesting because it is very diverse. It is about 10 minutes away and has a large hispanic, asian and hmong (pronounced with a silent "H") population. I'm not sure why it is named Frogtown...but the reason has got to be good.
Well, I love you all dearly and hope you have another spectacular week! Until we type again.... :)
Love,
Elder Spencer
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)