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!

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.

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

Elder Spencer 1-31-09

Hello family!! JANUARY 31, 2009

Hope you all had a great week, it sounds like many of you did, and it looks like we are rounding the bend towards spring!! Maybe...but today it is about 45 degrees here!!! It feels soooo warm and it has been quite splendid to feel the sunshine. As we were driving to do our laundry there was a man jogging with his shirt off. It's pretty funny but compared to being -20 or so like last week...it is a 65 degree turn around! The snow is melting pretty good, but I think it will still be cold for another month, but I'm not sure what the forecast is!
Campus news: I totally love being here on campus. I get to see how busy everyone is with doing homework and going to classes and studying on their laptop at the library, and always talking and texting on cell phones and I remember how that feels!! And now I get to see how all that is on hold and the work I get to do is soooo much more rewarding and enjoyable! But, the campus is still great. The diversity is excellent here. I talk to many people from around the world all in one day. It makes it exciting and I learn a lot about different cultures and many different beliefs as well.
The ward: So we had church on Sunday and the ward is GREAT! It is full of fun, active students so it really is a great place. They are super involved in missionary work and supporting that. They are really friendly and have a lot of activities that go with the institute and ward. It's great to see how there are a lot of strong younger people in the church especially on such a big state university place. Again, it reminds me a lot of UW. It is just a great place.
Miracle on 12th St: This week we had an amazing miracle. We received a phone call from the people working at the institute that a young lady had walked in and said "I don't know really how to say this...but I'm not a member of this church and I would like to learn how I can become one." WHOA! It turns out she has a very good friend from Colorado that has been a good example and so she is now interested in learning more. We contacted her and taught her twice this week. She is doing so great and she has a very great spirit. She truly wants to learn more about Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and I can see and feel how much she is growing spiritually. It is an incredible miracle to have, especially when we are workING to open this area and I am so happy to see my new companion get to be a part of a miracle like this. There really are people out there searching for truth and for more meaning in life. It is such a blessing to be able to dedicate my life not only to trying to find those people, but get to help them learn line upon line and watch them grow. Yea! :)
My companion: Elder Sorenson is a great missionary! It is great to see how even though he is new he is already stronger than me in some areas of being a missionary. That part is great to see because we all have our talents and we put them together and things work well.
**Minnesota Word of the Week**
35W bridge: This is the bridge that collapsed in Minneapolis about a year ago. I remember seeing it all over the news and such and I'm sure you all remember it as well. The new bridge is right in my area and I see it everyday! It crosses the Mississippi River and it is a smaller bridge than I had imagined. But, it is pretty cool and it lights up blue at night on the sides. I'll try to get a picture soon.
I hope you all have a splendidly glorious week. Welcome to Febuary! :)
With love comparable to the size of Lake Superior
Elder Spencer

Everyone... Meet Amber!

So I know that you all haven't heard too much about what is going on this semester at school, so I first wanted to introduce you all to the most amazing person in the world. This is a picture of Amber and I. And yes I know, She is really good looking. I don't know how that all worked out, but I consider myself pretty lucky. We have been seeing eachother everyday for the last 3 weeks and 2 days. It has been awesome. I'm sure the questions and comments will come and that's ok, but I would ask that you save the stories that would make her ask herself, "what am I doing" for a little bit later so she does turn around and run. So to make the introduction short, here we are and she is amazing!

School is going well. Things are really busy, but it's been a great semester so far. I feel like I'm growing more and I have really enjoyed everything that I've been doing. My classes are more challenging this semester, but I have liked them more than any other semester. Work has been good as well. Being student body VP has required nmore time than I thought. I work with great people and it's been so fun working with such motivated people.

I love you all and hope you have enjoyed this post. I hope that I will have more in the near future too.

NEIL ROBERT

NEIL ROBERT ARE YOU OUT THERE????? What's going on with you?

Elder Spencers news 1-24-09

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