CHI CHI CHI LE LE LE! VIVA CHILE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So Chile won the COPA AMERICA or the American Cup yesterday versus Argentina and it came down to penalty kicks!! And no I didn't watch the game. I could just hear people screaming and saw the highlights today. Man people here are crazy about soccer. They were out all night long screaming and yelling and honking their horns. It was great, and also me and Elder Thomas bought a really cool Chile scarf haha!!! My week was good. We had Carlos at church. :) It's just hard to meet with people here 'cause they all leave during the week for work to other cities... But in church I taught the gospel principles class in Spanish!! It was way hard but I think that it went OK and that the investigators in the class understood me enough. Also Elder Thomas helped me out a little too so that was good.:)

Yes I received the package!!! Thank you so much for that, it was all much needed hahaha, and thank you Nonnie for the Bueno Bars as well. You really didn't lie about Christmas coming holy cow. And your packing skills came in handy!!!;) Thank you so much for the package but really all you do. Thanks Momma!

I can get peanut butter here and some cereal but it is muy carro "very expensive" haha but I kinda fit it in the budget.;) Yeah they have milk here. It actually is pretty good. It's all whole milk but it's definitely not as bad as CJ's Bulgarian.... hahaha.

I'm glad that you were able to go to the temple and be happy. Continue going (for me too haha cause I can't go for a bit...) and doing the work of the Lord. Just like it says in Mosiah 2:17 when you are doing work for others you are doing the work of God and receiving many blessings.:)

That sounds so cool!!:) [speaking about my new job]. I think that job will be really good for you and that is so awesome you had faith and stayed happy during this time.:) It will be a great change I feel like. For my thought this week it is about "missionary work and the atonement" by Elder Holland. In this he says: Why is life not always easy? Why don't people just line up to be baptized? Why is missionary work hard? It's an amazing reply and I feel it works for all of our lives. "Life is not easy because salvation is not easy." Through Christ, salvation is possible but it is still going to be hard. But because God loves us, we have him to help us the whole way back to him. Jesus knows all the things we have gone through and he knows how we feel. So trust in the Lord and all things will come.:)

Love you mom and don't worry, I will keep tyring to listen to the spirit and perform mighty works as an instrument in the Lord's hands!!!. Thank you for the email and I'll talk to you next week.:)

Love, Elder Spencer

(Here are some pictures I got from Shawn's Branch mission leader, Max)

 

Cold Weather, New Investigators and My First Blessing in the Field

As far as the package goes, it is sitting at my zone leaders house right now so I will get it on Wednesday. Thank you so much!! Thank you so much for all the time and money you are spending on me.

My companion is doing good and he feels a lot better now haha. I'll try and send some pics but I don't have a ton yet because it's hard to take pictures on these cramped buses.... haha. It's been a good week and it is pretty dang cold! We have no fire wood for our stove but we did just get a little gas heater today so that is good.:) We have two new really good investigators!! We taught them a lesson yesterday and they really liked it and really seem to have a desire to learn more so I'm excited to keep teaching them. Also I gave my first blessing in the mission field to a member we visited. And right in the middle of the blessing Elder Thomas had our phone and it went off with the song "The lion sleeps tonight"... IN THE MIDDLE OF THE DANG BLESSING. Then Joaquin (a member here) was giggling and so that kinda killed the blessing but I still feel I said all that I needed to.. haha and yes it was in English. I don't know Spanish well enough to give blessings in it yet at least.;) 

I'm glad you liked the talk and it sounds like you guys are all going crazy there!! Keep up the good work and just remember who can help you out whenever you feel down or behind!!! That looks like a way fun time fixing CJ's car. I miss that!!! haha. That's crazy that's where Megan and Ben are moving. Hopefully they love it!!!

That sounds like some really good talks!! (I shared one with him entitled The Oath and Covenant of the Priesthood by Carlos E. Asay). I'm going to write that down to see if I can find that!!:) For my thought this week it is on the Prophet Joseph Smith. Look on YouTube for a BYU Devotional "Profile of a Prophet" by Hugh B. Brown. Tell me if you think Joseph Smith meets the profile of a prophet that they did. It is really amazing and I know that it is through prophets that we receive revelation for the church who know what God has in store for us. Love you and hope you like this talk as much as I did.:)

Love you and talk to you next week!!

Elder Spencer :)

P.S. HAPPY FATHER'S DAY DAD!!!

One of my favorite pictures so far!!

Busy week of meetings and an emergency trip to the hospital...

I am doing awesome! but my companion not so much... haha but I’ll get to that in a minute. But yes in this area I’m in now we have a "papito" but he just cooks lunch for us and a member here does our laundry... haha so that is pretty sweet. But this last week was kind of crazy. We usually go out proselyting and just knock doors for like an hour every day but this last week we traveled to Panguipulli almost every day. My companion is the district leader so we had to go to a lot of meetings, but we still managed to get in some meetings. It is a little rough with the people here because usually like a month or two after they are baptized, they stop going. But I think as long as we teach them right and with the spirit hopefully they will want to continue to follow Christ. :) But on Friday this week my companion was having really bad pains in his side so long story short we went to the emergency room here Friday night then they sent us to the clinic in Valdivia Saturday morning. So after a full day of sitting in a hospital and going back again on Sunday, they ran every test they could and they found out he has an infection in his intestines. So they gave him some meds and he is doing better now so no need to worry.:) Oh and we stayed with the zone leaders in Valdivia and now we are back here.:)

Also thank you so much for the thought it is so true we need to look for the little things in life. My thought this week is actually on something very similar. My thought is on happiness and remembering. I can’t remember how many times but the phrase "remember" is the most repeated word in the Book of Mormon. Why do you think that is? Well in a talk from Oct. 1986 called "Joy Cometh in the Morning" by Russel M. Neilson he talks about the things we need to be happy. :) I love this talk because it talks about being happy and that is so important for us to be happy because that is what comes from the gospel of Christ. I know that if we can talk of Christ, rejoice in Christ and preach of Christ we can be happy no matter what. :) Love you guys and it sounds like you are having an awesome time. Keep up the good work and remember why we are able to be happy always. Don’t worry you got this mom!! (speaking of my attempt to continue to train for a 5K). Es muy facil si usted practicar!!!:) (translation: It is very easy if you practice). That’s all for this week. Talk next week and hopefully no more hospital visits haha. Also I'm sorry but this cyber I'm at doesn't have the ability to send pictures... so I will send some next week.

Con Amor Elder Spencer:)

First Week En El Campo!!

So actually the struggles with the traveling did not stop with the things before, but they continued because like I told you a little bit on the phone, we had to land in Valdivia and take a 2 hour bus ride that was provided by the airport to get to Osorno. But besides that, it was great!! haha. After we arrived I said goodbye to Hermana Stone for a while (her area is Valdivia) and met my new companion/trainer Elder Thomas, I'll try to send pics, but he is really cool. He has 11 months left and he is from Mesa Arizona. He is a really cool missionary and we actually get along pretty well so that is good :). And this area is beautiful. I haven't gotten many pictures yet but I will try to get more next week.

The first day we were in Villarrica and we went to go teach a lesson to Filipe. He actually spoke English so it was really cool. But when we were teaching him he was saying he thought that the Book of Mormon was just a really cool made up fantasy book, so I was really confused. Then I figured out that "Filipe" is actually Max and is our mission leader.... haha so that was a fun first day. Then for our first fast Sunday here we forgot it was fast Sunday untill we were at church at 10.. but its ok cause we are gonna fast next week. But I got up and introduced myself in our branch and it was really cool. There isn't a big amount of active members but all their spirits are so strong. 

That looks like it is such a cool hike we will have to go when I get back!!! Also I'm glad you were all able to go to the temple and do work for our family, that is so cool. My thought today is on temples. They are such an amazing place and so important for our salvation. Down here there are a ton of members... but they are mostly inactive. It's because the missionaries before were just converting them to baptism. Which isn't bad, it's just the first step to our salvation. The temple is our end goal, then after that persevering to the end. I love temples and I'm glad they give us the opportunity to live with our families for eternity.

I really liked that though thank you so much for sharing. I'll definitely remember that and keep that in my mind. Every soul is great in the eyes of God. I love it here and they do speak really fast but I can actually undertand more than I thought, but I have a long way to go. Especially in speaking but I know it is getting better everyday.:) Also I traded one of the Latinos in my room for the jerky and he gave me some Philippine money, but he seriously LOVED the jerky it was funny. Also there is a few things I need if you can help...:) the steak jerky from Costco, Tide stain pens, sd to usb converter, 64 gig thumb drive, Advil, NyQuil and medicine for cold and sore throat, mints from CJ, multi vitamins, and music. There is no specific need for everything but all of this is expensive here and if I can get them from you it's better. For the music we can listen to whatever for workouts, then for pdays we can listen to whatever as long as it brings the spirit and doesn't talk about drugs, sex, or bad stuff haha. So can you send some music whether on an iPod or just on the thumb drive you send?:) Thank you for everything and I'll talk more next week. Love you!!!!

Your son,

Elder Spencer

Safe Arrival In the Mission

Spencer Family,

We want to confirm your sons safe arrival to the mission. He ran into another change of flights and landed in Valdivia. About 2 hours north of Osorno, he came down in a bus and we went right over to the mission home. He is currently eating dinner in the mission home with the mission President and relaxing for a moment. He will come by the mission office soon and we will let him call you. It’s been a long trip with a lot of detours but he has made it safely here.

Cheers,
Elder Haddad