THE LORD DID BLESS US AGAIN WITH FOOD!

Dated: 5/27/13

Hola' Family,

So this week was a good week. There were good and bad things that happened. Ill start with the good. So last week for P-Day, Elder O and I went fishing. I caught 3 fish, each about 10-12 inches long. Cool things about it, I was getting bored with fishing, cuz nothing was happening, so I said a prayer that I could catch a fish. Well, after I said amen, I caught a fish, then I cast again and caught another fish. Coincidence? I think NOT!  PRAYER WORKS!!! So that was fun. Also, 2 weeks ago, we went to the Smoot's for dinner. We had Beef Ribs on the bone. YUM YUM YUM! It was so good, and it was actually from a cow that the Smoot's owned and had processed. We made a Roast this week again. O man, it was so good! But, enough about food, well, maybe not, I love food. In fact, I found a scripture that proves that the Lord blesses people with food.

1 Nephi 16:39 And it came to pass that the Lord was with us, yea, even the voice of the Lord came and did speak many words unto them, and did chasten them exceedingly; and after they were chastened by the voice of the Lord they did turn away their anger, and did repent of their sins, insomuch that the Lord did bless us again with food, that we did not perish.

So on a sad note, that great guy, Brian, that I talked about last week, he got antied. (meaning someone gave him anit-mormon stuff) so he isn’t interested in us anymore. But on the good note, the area of Gretna is starting to pick up. Elder O and I are working hard to build it up to its full potential. Missionary work is WORK. :D But I Love it!

Love you all, and I hope Rachel had a great birthday! Everyone who reads this tell my sister Rachel Happy Birthday for me. :D

Love,

Elder Spencer

HAPPY DAY!


Dated: 5/20/13

Hello Hello!

This week has been great. Elder O and I are going around and inviting all the members in the branch down here in Gretna to pray that we can find a family that will join the church and be baptized. The Gretna Branch needs this, and so we are going to pray down a miracle. It is cool because the branch seems to be getting excited about the idea. It will be cool to see God answer our prayers.

So about a week ago, Elder Shepard (While we were on transfers) ran into a guy named Brian. We gave him a Book of Mormon. Elder Ochsenbein and I went the other day to follow up with him. Now, let me tell you about this cool experience. So we had our day planned where we would go and follow up with Brian about 3:00. Our appointment at 2:00 fell through though so we tracted a little bit and we both had the thought to go and visit some less-active members named the Tuttles. We went over to their house and shared a message with them. After we both felt like we didn't accomplish much while being there and were wondering why the Lord sent us there. I remember telling Elder O, "The Lord is probably placing us where he wants us so we can find someone later tonight."  While we were traveling back, we had a thought to go and contact a referral we had received. So we did that to. By this time it was 5:00 and time for dinner. We went back to the house and ate dinner and then went to another less-active member and shared a message with her. After that we decided to head to the trailer park. So we went there and tried to follow up with 2 potential investigators, and they didn't answer. We went to try Brian. When we went up to his door he said that they had just finished a baby shower so he didn't know if he had time to talk. We offered to help him clean up, but he said he didn't need it. He went in and talked to his wife and asked if he could talk to us for a bit. He came back out and said we could talk on the porch. So we started talking to him about his faith in Christ and how that has helped him in his life and we started to get into the Restoration lesson, and it started to rain... UGG. He had us come inside though. So we taught him about the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith and all that fantastically true doctrine and then invited him to read the Book of Mormon. He said that he is really excited to do so. He says that everything we have shared goes along with his beliefs but seems to add more to it. So we invited him to be baptized and he said that he had already been baptized in a christian church. So we asked him what he remembers about his baptism and he said, "I don't really remember it at all." Then he said, that he will get baptized again if he finds out it is true because he feels like he would understand it a lot better and feels like it will be his decision. That made me so happy. The spirit was working through us and it was working on him to help him resolve his own concern. He is very prepared and elect and I am excited to teach him. I realize that God led us to him. If we had tried to go and contact him at 3:00, we wouldn't have been able to because of the baby shower, and we got to his door just 5 minutes after the last person left from the shower. MIRACLE? I THINK YES!

So that is what happened this week. It was great. I love being a missionary of the Lord, Jesus Christ. I love the Book of Mormon. Read it as always. I found a favorite story, Mosiah 24. :D

Love you all!

Love,

Elder Joshua R. Spencer

Look at our new mission vehicle!


 A pizza we made.  Yum!


I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!

Dated:  5/13/13

WAHOOO!!!

I love being a missionary. It is the greatest thing in the whole wide world. Now with that introduction I'll keep on writing.

I loved talking with you guys on Sunday. That was fun. I hope you guys keep the new fridge clean enough so it still looks new in 2 years. That is my challenge to you. :D It was also a lot of fun to see Bro. and Sis. Jones. That was cool. Daniel, be safe with the shotgun, and Rachel, make sure you don't paint on the walls with all your new painting stuff. Mom and Dad wouldn't like that.

So, Not much happened this week except for Zone Conference, which was absolutely fantastic. Also, I went on exchanges with a new missionary, Elder Shepherd (made me think of Colonel Shepherd from Stargate) and he has been out for about 3 weeks. I am getting close to the end of my 12 week training. It will be interesting what happens after that. Elder O thinks he is going to get transferred. And I am going to stay. I would be OK with that. There are some things that I love about Gretna. I would be OK with moving too because I just love being a missionary and wherever the Lord sends me I am just going to love it.

I am going to go on a rant about the Book of Mormon again. I love that book and I am going to study the living daylights out of it. Inside are precious and beautiful truths that can be revealed by the Holy Ghost. I know that to be true because I have been experiencing it. I know that the Book of Mormon is true and that it shows us how to be happy, and how to have everlasting joy. Drink from its pages everyday. Elder O and I were talking and we find it interesting that when life gets busy, often, the first thing that we neglect is scripture study, then maybe church and prayer because we "don't have the time, and its not convenient for us." The Atonement surely wasn't convenient for the Savior. It certainly isn't convenient that all God has to work with is "the imperfect being that we are." Callings aren't convenient, service isn't convenient. All in all, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is not a church that is there to be convenient for us. It is something we do because we know it is true and God has asked us to do it. Keeping to the basics even in the hard times is what God has asked us to do. So, I am going to do it. Make the decision now that you are going to go to the Celestial Kingdom, then base all you do off that decision. It will be easier to stay on the path because you already the the decision to do so.

I love you all. I am glad to have seen all of your beautiful faces. Remember to read. :D

Love,

Elder Spencer

SKYPING WITH ELDER JOSH


5/12/13

We were able to Skype with Josh today, for a whole hour.  It was so awesome to see his happy face and interact with him.  We had a blast.  He loves being a missionary!  He showed off his do-it-yourself haircut.  (Looks pretty good!)  When he complained about having to pay to do laundry at the laundry mat, Jed pointed out that we have to pay to do laundry here at our house too.  Josh thought for a minute and then pointed to Rachel and Daniel and told them they needed to appreciate living at home. =)    Josh said that his clothes and everything he purchased for his mission are working out great.  He also told us about a couple of investigators they are working with.  And, of course, he reminded us to keep reading the Book of Mormon, every day!  He appears to be doing great!



THE BOOK OF MORMON IS THE MOST AMAZING THING ON EARTH RIGHT NOW!


Dated:  5/6/13

HOWDY EVERYBODY!

This week has been a good week. We weren't able to find any new investigators, but we did teach like 9 less-active members. Not much happened. While we were tracting one day, we tracted into a Jehovah's Witness. Now, most of the time, JW and LDS Missionarys don't get along. We usually get in arguments. But this time we didn't. We just asked her questions on what she believed, I asked if they gave out their bibles (I have heArd crazy things about their bibles). I asked her if i could have one and she gave me one. We had a very good conversation with her about JW beliefs. She didn't care to hear ours, but now we understand JW's a little better. Their bible is very weird. They have taken the bible, and put it in modern language. It totally changes the meaning of scriptures and the true meaning of the scriptures.

So, I also had to run from a lady trying to give me a hug this week. We went (on Saturday) to do service at the Volunteer fire department. They do fundraisers because they are trying to buy a new fire truck. So we went and helped set up for it and everything. There was this lady that was in charge of this whole thing. She was wanting us to stay for the actual fundraiser, but we both felt we needed to go out and work. So we told her we couldn't. She tried to convince us to stay, but we said we had to go and do missionary work. She said "Do your missionary work right here, Witness to me, go ahead." It was funny. She would be a very fun lady to teach the gospel to. Maybe we will be able to sometime. But anyway, she gave us all this food, and let us leave, but as we were leaving she put her arms out wide and started to walk towards me. I just stuck my had out straight offering to shake her hand and backed away as she advanced at me. It was FREAKY! She backed off and everything. She was laughing about it. Haha, well hopefully that is a fun story for y'all for this week.

Just so you all know, the Book of Mormon is the most amazing thing on the earth right now. It teaches all of the doctrine of Christ and the Doctrine that we live in a such simple way. We were challenged to answer every question that an investigator asked with the Book of Mormon. Elder O and I have been trying to answer peoples questions with the Bible, and that doesn't work because the bible, as great as it is, contradicts itself. But when you teach true doctrine out of the Book of Mormon, it shows us the way that Christ really intended his church to be established. We had a question asked to us the other day that was something like this, "How do we know Christ established a church." Well, 3 Nephi 11 answers that question perfectly. I have been noticing so many things that answer questions that investigators have about doctrine and truth in the Book of Mormon. It's cool, we have an hour every day for person study, and that's not enough time. You think it would be, but it isn't. So at night, if I have extra time between planning and Time to go to bed, I will read the Book of Mormon. The free time I have I choose to do that because I am starting to see the beauty and truth and power conveyed by the Book of Mormon. It's cool and that is putting it very lightly. So all of you, read the Book of Mormon. I Started reading it over again starting on March 14th, and I am now on Mosiah 8. I challenge you to read it from the beginning and mark every time Christ is referred to. Either by it saying his name, or referring to him speaking or something he said. It is amazing and I promise that as you do it, your love for the Book of Mormon will grow and increase.

I love you all, I look forward to talking with you. I also have another surprise that I am going to send you this week ;D

Love,

Elder Spencer