FAITH IS HUGE

Dated: August 19, 2013

Just Keep Swimming

So we had a great Zone Conference about faith this week. Faith unto repentance leads to Faith unto Power. In D&C 121:36-37 it tells us about the priesthood and what can disqualify someone who holds the priesthood from being able to use the priesthood. Well that applies to faith also. When we are clean we can exercise faith unto power. Faith is huge. And my mind was blown with the awesomeness of it on Thursday. That is what President Pitt will do to you, blow your mind with rich doctrine.

We were able to have 3 investigators come to church this week. It was great. I haven't had that many at church the whole mission yet. Our investigator, Stephanie, came to church. She is the one I gave the special Book of Mormon from the ward. I didn’t get the chance to talk to her about it though, but we have a lesson with her tonight. I am looking forward to that.

Transfers are next week so I won’t email till Thursday. There are 30 more missionaries coming in. President said that about half the mission will be under 6 months old after this next transfer. After this transfer I'll have been out for 6 months. A quarter of the way. :( It has been too fast.

We had a dinner appointment almost every night last week, that is rare also. The members have been feeding us well. It has been a good week.

At a District meeting a Sister, Sister Colman told us something.  She is leaving this next transfer, so she was giving us some of her missionary knowledge, she said "If you are ever struggling, work on developing a Christlike attribute." That is true. I have been trying to do that and it has helped me. Also, in Church the topic this month is gratitude. I add to what Sister Colman said, If you are struggling, be more grateful also. Gratitude is the attitude that will put everything back into perspective.

I love you all, thank you for everything you are all doing, whether it be serving missions, working, going to school, serving in the church or just doing anything that is good. Keep it up!

Love,

Elder Joshua R. Spencer

THANKS TO MEMBER MISSIONARY WORK

Dated:  8/12/13

"I'm Woody, Howdy Howdy Howdy"

I don't know why but that quote just popped into my head, so I decided to make that the subject. This week we had a Zone Meeting. It was really good. The spirit was very strong and I received much revelation for myself and for my area. We talked about "TAP". That probably doesn't make any sense to you, but it stands for Testify, Ask Inspired Direct Question, and Promise Blessings. It is what we do to try to help people correctly use their agency. How agency works, is people have a thought, that thought leads to a feeling, and that feeling leads to an action, and that action leads to result, which then brings another thought (Thought>feeling>action>result>thought). When we knock on a door the person on the other side decides to use their agency. If the persons thoughts are negative, that leads to a result of a door being slammed, or something like that. But the use of TAP can TAP into their thoughts and feelings and change the result. It can help them feel the spirit and help them exercise their agency properly and "choose liberty and eternal life... or to choose captivity and death." It is an interesting principle, but it does work. I don't know if that makes much sense, but that is about a 2 hour Zone Meeting slammed into a few sentences. If it doesn't just pretend like you never heard it. We can use TAP on ourselves too. When we have negative thoughts or don't want to do something we know is right, we can think of our testimony and what we know to be right. We can ask ourselves an inspired question, and we can search the scriptures and find the Lords promised blessings for us doing what we know is right.

We were able to find 3 new investigators this week thanks to Member Missionary Work. A member invited 3 people over to her home for dinner and a lesson about the restored gospel. We taught them and they all seemed interested. One of them is very prepared and already refers to our church as "our church" as if she was already a member, when she was talking to the other 2 about it. It is great. We are excited to teach her.

SO last night we came home, and a bird flew in behind us into the apartment! It took us 10 minutes to catch it and release it outside. In the midst of all the commotion our DL called and got our numbers for the week. It was so funny! Our tools for extracting this bird out of the house were a Priority-Mail Box (thanks for sending it mom), A Screen for a window, and A Nerf Sword. Don't worry, we filmed the whole thing. So I will send that home sometime. I think you will enjoy it :D

The Church is true! I have started reading "Jesus The Christ" and using it as a reference when I study, and I have been learning so much! It is great. I have started the Book of Mormon over again, so if anyone wants to race, start now. :D Love you all. Keep up enduring to the end. Feast upon the words every day. Mormon saw our day (Mormon 8:35) and He knew what we needed to know. He knew that there would be so much sin and wickedness. He knew that it would be hard to know what was truth and what was not. The Book of Mormon can help us stay safe from the evil of the adversary. And we can know the truth by putting Moroni's promise to the test. I know that to be true. God loves us so he gave us the Book of Mormon.

Love

Elder Joshua R. Spencer

This is a Victorian home.  In Cantham there are a ton of homes like this.
We knocked on this door and gave the guy a B of M.  He is reading it
and really liking it. He let us in his home and it is amazing.
You would love it Mom.  It is really neat.



LET US HELP THOSE WHO HAVE NO HOPE

Dated:  August 5, 2013

So Elder Snow and I had a decent week. We haven't been able to find any new investigators, even though we did a ton of tracting. We did run into an Apostolic Minister this week. He was very quick to let us know that we are false, teaching false doctrine, and deceiving people, and the Book of Mormon is a false book, and that we are not Christian. But he said that we don't know any better so we will be OK. He was clearly not interested. We didn't bash or anything, we just calmly told him that what he was saying wasn't true and he could learn more at mormon.org.  After we walked away, we said a prayer for him (it seemed like the right thing to do and the only way to cool off after it, because it was rather frustrating. I am sure some people can relate).  I hope to see him in the Celestial kingdom someday. I think I kind of understand to a degree what the sons of Mosiah felt like or Alma felt like when they were getting rejected and they felt sorrow for the people because their hearts were hard. The people around here are great, and so kind. There are just so many good, good people. It is kind of sad when even very kind people don’t want to learn about the gospel. There is just so much blindness and hard hardheartedness, but the elect are out there somewhere, we just need to find them.

I finished the Book of Mormon this week. Man, That book is SOOOO TRUE! I dont get how anyone could read it and deny it. Moroni's last words in chapter 10 are soo powerful. I really like the verse that says "And if ye have no hope ye must needs be in despair; and despair cometh because of iniquity." Hope has been something that has stuck out to me this week. We all should hope to be able to return to God, to have Eternal Life. If we don't have that hope, we don't have faith, and if we don’t have faith, we don’t have charity. We need all 3. Faith, hope and charity. If we feel we have no hope, then it means we probably need to repent. "Wherefore, there must be faith; and if there must be faith there must also be hope; and if there must be hope there must also be charity. And except ye have charity ye can in nowise be saved in the kingdom of God; neither can ye be saved in the kingdom of God if ye have not faith; neither can ye if ye have no hope." (All in chapter 10 of Moroni)

SO let us hope for eternal life, and help those who have no hope, or for some reason have lost hope. I love the gospel of Jesus Christ. I love the Book of Mormon. I love my Savior. He is the way. He will and can help us though all things, because he has overcome all things. I know this to be true.

I love you all, I hope you are all doing well. The mission is the best thing ever. There is truly no place, or any other thing I would rather be doing than this. There is Joy surrounding and within everything, even the hard and sad times.

Love,

Elder Joshua R. Spencer


O ya, I forgot to tell you all, we went to Bible study with one of our Investigators as an effort to fellowship him and get to know more people at his church, because we run into a lot of them. It was great, everyone loved us being there. (It was a black church bible study) They sing very well. It was a unique experience. The pastor taught on Acts 15. It was interesting. He related it to how we shouldn't let little arguments keep us from coming to church. (In that story, Peter and Paul get into an argument over Mark). Our investigator now committed to come to our church one week. Yay, it worked. We also got to know a bunch of the people there, so now when we knock on their doors, they will probably let us in.

THE WORLD THAT GOD CREATED IS GREAT

Dated:  7/29/13

What a Wonderful World!

That seemed like a good title, don't know why, but isn't the world that God created just great! The people in it need some improving, but the world it's self is just so beautiful, epically here in Gretna.

We did a good amount of service this week. We helped some members with their yard, and then we helped at a Food Give away. Bingo was fun this week. There is this one resident at the nursing home, whenever we call out a number, he repeats the number in a very slow deep voice, and he is always inviting us to his room to drink a cold doctor pepper. He is awesome, anyway at the end of our last bingo I said "That's all folks" and he repeated what I said, only by doing the whole Looney Toons thing. It was super funny! There are some really great people there.

We had Interviews with President this week. Man, I love that man. He is so great! The missionaries I am serving around are great too. I saw Elder Jullian and Elder Theuson. I came out with both of them (Elder Theuson was my MTC Comp) and they are doing great. I was also able to learn from them about the other Elders I came out with and they are all doing very well. That made me happy.

God had blessed me so much. It is a blessing to be able to serve a mission. My family is a HUGE blessing to me and also my friends. Man, those are some of the best blessings I think anyone can have, a great family and great friends. Heaven is going to be awesome!

I love you all, You are in my prayers. Keep up the fantastically good things that you are doing. And read every day!

Love,

Elder Joshua R. Spencer


So Sister Stephanie Cannon sent me this bear.  For those who know what it is, I hope you enjoy. I am training him to become a missionary... :D

Helping him understand his purpose.
He got hungry so he was checking out our fridge.
I let him eat some of my pie.

I made him do his own dishes.  I am not going to
clean up after him.

He went tracting - in our house.  Man, this bear has a long way
to go, but he is great!

He slept in.  He does not like the morning routine.

Studying the scriptures.




THANKS FOR ALL THE BIRTHDAY WISHES!

Dated:  July 22, 2013

So first off, thanks for all the birthday wishes. That huge card was awesome! Thanks to everyone who signed it. I love all the stuff you all sent me. The coconut pie is good too. Thanks for sending us stuff to make that. So on my birthday, we did a lot of tracting, but we were able to talk to a lot of people so it was fun. We then went to a members home for dinner and he gave me an ice cream cone with a candle in it. That was pretty awesome. On Sunday, we went to the Covingintons for dinner, and they gave me a Twinkie coated in frosting. I’ll send a picture. It was a great birthday. I'd say one of my favorites. I don't know why, but every birthday is the best birthday.

O, I ate four slaw dogs. O man, those things are just so good!

We were able to teach a few of our investigators. None of them are progressing though. They aren't keeping their commitments and it has been really difficult for them to come to church, because they all think they need to go to their church so they are all busy on Sundays.  We are trying to find the Elect, they are out there somewhere.

I am glad to still be in Gretna, I think this is going to be a great transfer, well I am going to make it that way. The Church is TRUE, the Book of Mormon is the word of God. Everything points us to Jesus Christ, and he is the way. We will all be together in Heaven someday with our Father and Jesus Christ.  Our joy will be full, and we will be with all those whom we love. Lets all stay on the path back to our Father in Heaven, and follow his son Jesus Christ who He sent to show us the way. I know that this is all true. All of my joy has come from the Gospel, and there are so many amazing people I know that are examples of righteous disciples of Jesus Christ. That is one of the greatest blessings God has given me. He has put amazing people, I consider them angels, in my path, in my life, and what a blessing that has been. In turn, I want to be a blessing to everyone that God puts me in the path of. I love this Gospel, I love this church, and I love Jesus Christ. The last 20 years have been the best years of my life! I look forward to the next 20. Lets live the GOSPEL!

Hope you all have a great week! Thanks again for all the Birthday Stuff.

Love,

Elder Joshua R. Spencer

This is the Twinkie covered in frosting - with the
only candle they had in the house.

Birthday stuff!  I forgot to put in the Hi-Chews.


Elder Snow's family sent me a gift - a tie clip.
They are so nice!

This is the pie you sent me.  YUM!

This is at a member's home on my birthday.

Thanks for the Birthday Card!