Elder Spencer's Chile Osorno Mission: ¿¿Que pasa, 10 meses ya??

Yeah that’s kind of insane that I’ve already been out for so long!! I feel like it was just yesterday that I was arriving here to the mission and couldn’t speak a lick of Spanish, and now I can at least speak a little!!;) haha. But this last week was really good. Life is good here. It's still a little hard to find people, especially right now because it's summer and lots are working and on vacations, but it's still really fun. It rained for basically this whole last week straight and now it's super sunny and hot today... I don't like it!!!;) haha. We had zone meeting this last week and talked about the capacitation (training) we got on the 25 of January. It was really cool. We talked about why we had these changes and how they can help us. It’s been really amazing to see so far the changes in the key indicators (the numbers we report) and how it has changed our focus to be more effective in helping people come unto Christ.:)

As far as investigators, Denise has been working like crazy because it’s summer here so we haven’t gotten to see her for a little while but hopefully we can find her soon!!:) The activities are really a key part of the work here I’ve realized because it helps all the members and investigators to know one another and become friends outside of only Sundays! So we are trying to do activities every other week. Jamie is doing good. We introduced him to family history and the temple. He loves it and wants to go and do this work for his ancestors!! Also Sergio and Araceli (long time investigators:) ) are doing really well. They decided that they want to get baptized when the renovation on our church building is done (which won’t be until around June). (I’ll try to send pics later today) but we are doing really well here and getting to know a lot of new people so it’s been really cool!:)

Me and Elder Gonzalez are doing great together so far!!:) haha we get along great because he is like a little kid at times and so am I :) so it works out pretty well!!:) From him, I’m learning a lot of Spanish - like things I can correct and say better. But also I’m learning a lot from him about like in the scriptures it says to become as a little child and come unto Christ. We both have like the little kid mentality inside our adult bodies, haha as in trying to be humble and be more like Christ ;).

Whoa it sounds like this last week was pretty "sweet" ;) with Valentine’s day! haha see what I did there!!;) haha oh man... but no really that sounds like a really cool Valentine’s day. I’m glad that you guys all had a fun night!!:)

Oh ok thank you for the info on the package. I’ll see if I can figure out any info from here but I’ll let you know if I find anything out!!:) Thank you for doing all that you do momma!!:) Also thank you for your scripture! (D&C 8:8). This last week I went to church and they were like, are you ready for your talk? (they forgot to tell me...) haha but I just went up and shared about new converts and how we can help them stay active.:) It was actually really good and I feel like this relates because I trusted in the scriptures and basically used the spirit to guide me and help me give my talk.:)

Thank you momma for the email and talking to me!!:) I hope your week goes great and that you can get feeling better!!:) Love you to eternity and beyond!!:) Keep doing work and stay safe!:)

Love,

Elder Shawners Spencer

Spiritual thought: In a book called "our search for happiness" by Elder M. Russell Ballard he talks about a story where he was sharing with a bunch of pastors from other religions and they said "if you could put the golden plates on the table, we could believe you." But if we can just have faith, God will open our eyes to have a better understanding!:)