MORE FRIED CHICKEN!

DATED:  September 22, 2014

Last p-day we went to a members house for dinner and to do FHE, and guess what? She fed us fried chicken! YUM. That makes like 4 Fried Chicken dinners in a 2 week period.

Elder Blaine and I started a Book of Mormon study class this week. We are going to be teaching about 1 Nephi 1-5 this Tuesday. It has been fun to prepare for. There is so much in 1 Nephi.

We were able to meet with a bunch of people this week. We gave a church tour to a neat couple. They had a bunch of really good questions about the church.

Yesterday in church, one of the people that spoke talked about how the Odgen temple was being dedicated, and how all the saints in Utah were attending that instead of sacrament meeting. It really made me ponder about the temple. I love the temple. It is such an amazing place. There is power that comes from the temple. There is much peace that comes as well. In the temple we learn, and gain knowledge and come to more fully understand the purpose of life, and what we need to do. It's a blessing in Utah to have temples so close all the time. People out here travel 2-3+ hours to get to the temple. Going to the temple is a weekend trip for others. They will often spend all day doing all that they can in the temple. Other parts of the world, people save up everything they have to go to the temple once. There are many sacrifices made to go to the temple. Why? Because it is the House of the Lord. It is where Heaven becomes reality, and where we can be with our families forever. I love the temple. I miss the temple. Go as often as you can! :D

I love you all! Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Spencer


Elders Erickson, Moses, Spencer and Blaine

We made a book wall.  :D

I HAVE A GRANDSON!

DATED:  September 15, 2014

My new companion is Elder Eli Blaine from Herriman Utah. I am pretty sure I made the street sign on the street his lives on. :D He is 18 years old and just graduated from Herriman High (I also made signs for his high school). He is awesome and a powerful missionary. He is learning fast and he just jumps right on in to try new things. Also his Uncle is David Blaine!

This was a good week though. We had to drive up to Beckly (about 200 miles) to drop Elder Baty off and there I met Elder Blaine. We then drove to Bluefield and had dinner at Ryan's (It's a Chuck-a-Rama equivalent, but not as good) with all the other missionaries transferring. Then we drove back and met with some people. It was a good first day. The next day we were able to find a new investigator and teach 3 lessons to people.

We have been knocking lots of doors. I have just been trying to show Elder Blaine the ropes of missionary work. It is interesting to see where I am compared to where I was when I first came out on my mission. This training experience is much different than last time. I have a lot more know how then last time. O, on another note, Elder Snow is also training, so I have a Grandson! :D

Elder Blaine and I are going to be starting a Book of Mormon Study class on Tuesday. It is going to be fun. Our Branch President ordered us some institute manuals and we are going to use those to teach the class.

So I would like to just share something I learned this week.

Genesis 1:26-27 "And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them."

I was thinking this week how one of the titles God has is Creator. Often, when I think of God as the Creator I think of what he already has Created. But his name isn't the "Created" its "Creator". I realized that God still creates. That is what he does. What is he creating? Well, I think he is working on creating what means the most to him. US! God is the Creator and the thing he is Creating is US. He is making us into something more. He is striving to make us into Gods. In the scripture above it says that he made man in his image, to look like him, and after his likeness, to be like him. I really just feel that God is creating us by giving us experience and opportunities to learn every day. We are a growing and a becoming people. We strive to learn and grow because it brings us joy. If you look at what God has created you are able to see the greatness of his creations. As it says in the scriptures "the heaves and earth." He has created huge things and small things. Look at the detail in a bug or flower or plant, or look at the beauty of seeing a large mass like the horizon, the mountains, or the ocean. This world is a beautiful place that God Created. If he can do that, imagine what he can create you into. WOW! Just remember your importance to God. Everyone you see has divine potential. Everyone has their own challenges and concerns and God is aware of them all. He asks us to be his hands in bringing peace and salvation to His children.

Isn't the Gospel just awesome!!! I love it. I love all of you. Keep on pressing forward. Remember who you are and how important you are. You can do hard things!

Love,

Elder Josh Spencer

THIS HAS BEEN A HAPPY WEEK FOR MY TUMMY

DATED:   September 10, 2014

I am staying in Richlands. Elder Baty is going to White Sulfer Springs, WV. I am not yet sure who my new companion is going to be. I am going to be training. I am pretty excited for it.

This week was a lot of fun. So first off, these are the dinners we had this week. We had a fried chicken dinner with mashed potatoes, corn, green beans and fried apple pie and ice cream for dessert. We also had a steak dinner with macaroni salad and chocolate cake for dessert. Then, yesterday, a member took us to a really good pizza place, and bought us each our own large pizza. Tonight we are having a fried chicken dinner again. O boy, this has been a happy week for my tummy. :D

We taught some of our investigators this week. One of our young couples we are teaching want to quit smoking, so last night we went and did the stop smoking workshop with them. It went so great! They are so pumped to quit smoking. They are pretty bummed that Elder Baty is leaving. So are our other investigators.

This next transfer will bring many adventures. I don’t have much more to report about the week. It was a fun week. We also had a zone meeting in Bluefield. Off the top of my head I can’t remember what they talked about.

For my thought I wanted to share a quote from a talk I found.
"Instead of asking “What do you want out of life?” I would like to ask “What do you bring to life?” What you get depends upon what you give. Life brings to us only what it finds in us. Our job is to discover what life has given us, enlarge upon it, make the most of it, and distribute it wisely that others may profit by our experience. Life will respond to any attempt at self-improvement provided it is not prompted by selfishness."-Hugh B. Brown "What Do You Want Out of Life?

I have just been thinking about the question this week "what do you want." It is something we are asking people we are teaching. We all have desires and wants. What do you really want? And what are you willing to do to get it? Then ask yourself, What does God want? and What am I willing to give? As our Heart does what God wants, we will find what we really want. God wants the best for us. That is true. If we follow him and become like Christ, we have unlimited potential.

I love you all. Take care. Keep going!

Love,

Elder Spencer

Dog bowls are good for eating out of.  TRUE STORY!

We had a corn feast.  Each of us ate like
four ears.  YUM!

The "mountains" of Virginia and
West Virginia

I don't know if any of your desks look like this,
but to me, this is a typical missionary desk.



P.S.  So we were tracting and this guy had these old cars, so we went to knock on his house and talk to him about them. He came out when we knocked and immediately told us he wasn't interested in what we had and he had his own church and he is comfortable with where he is at. So we just asked if we could see his cars. He said, "sure!" he took us in his garage and talked to us for like an hour and a half! At the end he talked about how some sister missionaries from our church came by his home long ago and stayed up with them all night when one of their children were really sick. They helped out this guy a lot. Then he said that the sister missionaries taught them about Family Home Evening, and the family started doing it. He said that a few years later, he had a son tell him he was contemplating suicide. He was able to help his son through that hard time, and he said he felt that because they did FHE their family was more open to talking to each other. He gives FHE credit for his son not committing suicide.  He also has read much of the BofM. He still wasn't interested, but he offered us a ride whenever we want one in his cars. It was a neat experiences. (Dad, thank you for helping me grow an appreciation for old cars, it helps me talk to lots of people out here.) 














KICKBALL!

DATED:  September 2, 2014

Yesterday, for zone pday, we went to Bluefield and had a BBQ and played kickball. It was lots of fun. It was great to see many of the missionaries that I have become friends with. That is one thing I have decided is great about life. Getting to know people. People are everywhere! Each person has a story. Everyone has their own interests, talents, fears, struggles, etc... and we are all just trying to figure out life on this big rock. It's great to be able to figure it out with such awesome people though.

We have seen some neat miracles this week. We are trying to find new investigators, and we are going through the formers to find. Last Friday, we saw one former, we asked if she was interested. She said no, so we asked her if she knew anyone who could use a message about Christ. She told us there was a couple behind her trailer that she didn't think went to church. So we decided to go and knock on it. The person came out and he told us he wasn't interested. As we were walking away our attention was drawn to another door that looked pretty shady on a shady building. It had a house number on it, so we decided to knock on it. A lady answered the door, and at the same time a guy came from around the corner of the building, and he yelled over to us asking us what we were doing. We weren't sure who to talk to at first.  It turned out that it was his house and the lady that answered the door was his wife. We told them who we were and they invited us in. We went up and they asked us TONS of questions about the church. We told them we would love to teach them more about the church and gave them the Book of Mormon. They took it and said they would read. We are going back on Wednesday to teach them. It was great. We are also starting to teach another young couple. We left some pamphlets with them and a BofM. They read both pamphlets when we left and seem pretty interesting in learning more. We are just hoping and praying that we can really help them.

My thought this week will be a little different. I'm just going to share some things to ponder about.

The Priesthood is given to man to give them power to care for God’s children the way Christ would. How do you use the Priesthood in your callings?

This is a gospel and church of Happiness. Everything about it is there to help us receive a fullness of Joy. (2 Ne 2:25)

We don't need to face eternity alone. We will have our families (brothers, sisters, spouses, aunts, uncles Etc...), and our Father in Heaven, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost to help us.

We Call Our Father in Heaven Father. What does that tell you about Him? What does he call us? What does that tell you about us?

Patience shouldn't be measured in an amount, because then you'll eventually run out. (Example "I've run out of patience with you.)

We are all family striving to live with Heavenly Father again. Families gather at the dinner table for many different things. At Heavenly Father’s Dinner table, he doesn't want anyone missing.

Murmuring, complaining, fighting, finding fault with others, arguing, and all things like it cause unhappiness. Don't do them.

You have a Father in Heaven who will HEAR and ANSWER your prayers!

Every soul is special to God, and he wants us to take care of and love each of our Brothers and Sisters.

We need to stay strong because we are building the Kingdom of God.

Being converted to the gospel is worth any sacrifice we are asked to make.

Don’t Love for popularity.

The Truth is you can come unto Christ and become holy, without spot.

Christ-like love and service leads to happiness.

I love you all!

Love,

Elder Josh Spencer

GIVE THIS TO HIM

DATED:  August 25, 2014

We went up to Welch for a district meeting on Tuesday. I stayed up there for an exchange. I went with Elder Boyd, the DL's comp. On our way back the next day, we drove through Coalwood. That is where The Rocket boys are from. We took a little detour and  saw some memorials they had for it. We saw a road that said the launch sight was up it, so we drove on it and tried to find it but had no luck. I’ll send some pictures.

We had a few lessons with people. We have some potentials that we are hopefully going to teach this next week. We were meeting with a member that is not active yesterday, and she had ordered pizza, and so the pizza guy came and her 15 year old daughter goes and answers it and gets the pizza. The member then handed her daughter a check and said "give this to him." As she walked by me I pulled out a Pass-along card and handed it to her and said "give this to him." She saw what it was and was like, "no! I am not going to do your bidding." Then she opened the door and handed the guy the check and then asked him "do you want this?" holding out the pass along card. I heard him say "sure" and he took it. It was so funny. Haha.

I don’t have too much to say this week.  Just be faithful, and have courage. Keep doubt and Fear behind you. Lead with your faith. Pray to find answers. Stick to your covenants, they give you power to return to Heavenly Father. I love you all.

Love,

Elder Josh Spencer