IT CHANGES LIVES! IT WORKS!

Dated: October 14, 2013

This was transfers week. It was a good week. Our Ward had a Baptism from the other elders in our ward. She has a great conversion. I had the blessing of being able to confirm her yesterday at church. It was neat. She asked me to do it. I am not sure why.

My new companion is Elder Jordan MacPherson. He is from Mt. Green Utah and has been out for 16 months.  He and I are connecting really well.  I think he is going to be a big help to me.

On Friday and Saturday, we had a festival called the Jenny Willey days. We had a booth for family history and about our church. We got about 12 referrals which was really sweet! We got a bunch of free stuff too. They had a coal company there and they had a simulation of how they mine coal. So we saw that so that we could better understand the people out here and their lifestyle.

We have a less-active member that we have been working with very closely. He used to drink very heavily. 10 weeks ago he was probably drinking about 6-8 12oz beers a day. We have been working with him and last week he set the goal to only drink 1 a day. Wow that is a lot of progression. Well Elder Staveley and I were praying that he would lose the desire to drink. On Wednesday he went to he ER because his leg has been hurting him for a few days and the pain was getting worse. He called us and told us that they found a HUGE blood clot in his leg. It was about the length of his leg. Both of the doctors said that they had never seen a blood clot that big. So he was in the hospital for 5 days. I guess that since alcohol had been such a part of his system, that cutting down on it thickened his blood. So now he is home, he was released yesterday, and we went over and saw him. We asked him if he is going to drink again and he said no. He can’t. They have him on some medicine that thins his blood, and if he drinks any alcohol, it will probably kill him. So he said he is done with it. That makes me very happy. I was very worried while he was in the hospital because I love him very much. He is so amazing. He is reading and praying and coming to church, and really trying to put himself back on the path. There is a whole different spirit about him. This is what the gospel does. IT CHANGES LIVES. IT WORKS. IT IS THE TRUTH.

On Wednesday this member, before he went to the ER, took us fishing. We went to a lake and fished. I caught a 3 inch fish and then a 9 inch fish. The hook came out by the eye on both of them. I don't know why I am telling you that. I felt bad for the fish. I was thinking of using the 3 inch fish as bait and just throwing it back in on the hook and trying to catch a bigger fish with it, but I was told that I probably shouldn't do that. So I didn't. We had fun fishing though.

The work is hastening, will you hasten with it?

I love you all. Keep up the good things you are doing. Remember that God loves you no matter what.

Love,

Elder Spencer