April 7, 2014 – Orland

Hello Mom and family!

Happy Monday everyone! Wasn’t general conference just absolutely wonderful? I loved it so much. Simply being able to participate in that marvelous event strengthened my testimony of living prophets and apostles. I felt like most every talk was speaking directly to me! One of the best things about conference this weekend was that A watched it with us at the church for both sessions on Sunday! He was baptized about three years ago, but he didn’t even really know about living prophets and apostles until just recently, so it was awesome to be able to invite him to come and truly listen to a prophet’s voice.

M and J also watched conference yesterday! The W family invited them over to watch them at their house, and they came to both sessions! They are just an awesome family who have really been hastening the work here. On top of all the service the provide to the branch and others, they even find the time to feed us every week (or, in the case of this week, three times in a week!) Brother W is a returned missionary from Mexico and Sister W is from Mexico, so they are immensely helpful and one of my favorite families in this branch.

On top of watching conference, M and J came to the church in between sessions to have a lesson with us. We taught about the Ten Commandments and the Sabbath Day again and went over the baptismal questions to prepare them for their interviews on Tuesday! They have decided to be baptized this Saturday! We are so happy for them! We have seen them progress so much, and they are already active in the church, and it has been truly inspiring to see their new and faithful presence lift the spirits of the branch and get them excited about missionary work in this area!

An update on E: She will be confirmed this coming Sunday, and she is so ready! We talked with her about callings and things like visiting teaching this week, and on the topic of the latter she asked, “So I have to make visits to other people?… When would I have to do that?… Because I am usually always free during the school day!” She had the same positive response to church callings as well. We are so happy for her!

Well, time for some conference thoughts. I think it is only fitting that I share some of my favorites and such, since I know that’s what you’re all doing with one another.

So I first off felt like an overarching theme of the conference was confidence and strength in the face of trials. I seriously get the feeling that we are headed out of peaceful waters and into stormy seas. I think that one of the reasons that our leaders are focusing so much on preparing the rising generation is because there are some serious storms on the way, trials that will indeed dwarf those faced in the past. And I thought this conference was aimed towards, among other things, preparing us all for those times to come.

I loved how many people, such as Sister Reeves, President Eyring, Elder Scott and others talked about daily scripture study and powerful personal prayer. The basics, the “Sunday School Answers” are indeed the principles that bring peace and happiness. I always loved the emphasis that Elder Anderson, Elder Zwick, President Monson and others put on kindness and compassion. Truly I believe that showing kindness, pure Christlike love, is the greatest kind of missionary work that any of us can do.

I think my favorite talk overall was probably President Uchtdorf’s talk from Priesthood session about sleeping through the Restoration. I think it was a wake-up call in a way (no pun intended) to the hastening of the work. I know that it is hastening all around us, and we are so fortunate to be a part of it! 🙂

(Here is a link to General Conference that leads to the talks that Spencer is referring to)

I love you all so much! Congratulations Amanda and David! I can’t wait to meet (insert baby girl name of your choosing here) when I get back! And Jake, I know finals are coming up. Study hard! and say hi to Mikela for me! (She’s in your ward, ps).

Love,

Spencer

March 31, 2014 – Orland

Hello Mom and family!

E was baptized yesterday! We are so happy for her! In her baptismal interview on Friday, she told Elder H that that Gospel has filled a hole that has been in her life for 10 years. She was probably the only person more excited than us today! We are so grateful to have been able to work with her and are looking forward to continuing to help them grow and progress in the gospel. Next we want to help their daughters, who are 11 and 14. We are really praying that a temple sealing will be in their near (at least one year) future! That is definitely something I would come back for after my mission. I know helping them get their is a goal the Ws (a senior missionary married couple) have for their mission. Elder W actually baptized her, which we thought was wonderful since he has done so much to care for their little boy, G. He is 8 or so and is profoundly autistic, so much so that he can’t be in Sacrament meeting, and so to let E and her family attend Elder W volunteered himself to remain out in the halls with G for the first hour of church. He would do that for the whole block of meetings except he has to teach 2nd-hour youth Sunday School. It touched my heart to see that they really appreciate what he has done for their family by E asking for him to baptize her.

Though the baptism was the highlight of the week, there were many wonderful things that happened out here, not the least of which is how much M and J are accepting the Gospel and the Church. On Tuesday we had a lesson with them and asked them about their thoughts on baptism, and J said, “Yes, I want to be baptized, not this week, but maybe the week after…” How great is that! M says she wants to be baptized too, but in a conversation with a member this week she said she wants to make sure that this is the true church before she joins. Fortunately the member she was speaking with is an awesome member missionary and said in return, “Well have you read the Book of Mormon?” And so ensued a wonderful member-to-investigator conversation about the Book of Mormon and how its truthfulness testifies to the truthfulness of the Church and the Gospel. I don’t think it will be very long before they are baptized. In some ways they are basically members already! M made this incredible gelatin dessert for E’s baptism (picture included) and afterwards it was M that embraced E in congratulations and in welcoming! Needless to say it has been a delight working with this wonderful couple as well.

Crazy random happen stance this week – tornadoes! We had several National Weather Service tornado warnings come to our phone over the course of the week. It didn’t end up affecting us directly, but there were tornadoes that actually touched down! There was one that hit just four miles away from the Ms, one of our senior couples! Mostly they just ripped out trees from orchards and tore down a few barns – they didn’t come close to any high population areas. The hailstorm on the other hand, that went everywhere. There were as many as 3 to 4 inches if hail in some of the fields by the time it let up! The storm had passed over where we were by the time it started hailing, but I guess it was pretty crazy as far as hailstorms go for these parts!

Well that’s about it for this week, as far as email time goes. I love you all! I love being a missionary! You should all do it too – it definitely brings blessings!

Love,

Spencer

March 24, 2014 – Orland

Hello Mom and Family!

Holy smokes! March is nearly over! It’s like I blink and the week is gone, just like that. It makes me want to work harder so I can make full use of my time as a missionary – I want to make every minute count!

This week was wonderful! It was a service-filled week, with projects ranging from loading 3 1/2 years worth of junk into trailers to volunteering at the local emergency  food pantry to helping a senior member with her estate sale so that she can go on a mission! She is literally selling her home, ranch and everything she owns (minus the essentials, of course) so that she can go wherever The Lord calls her to go. If that isn’t following Christ’s admonition from Matthew 19:21, I don’t know what is!

On a miraculous note, E is getting baptized! She will be baptized next Sunday after church, since her husband has to work on Saturday. It has been a blessing, truly a miracle, to be able to work with her and Gustavo and the rest of their family over the last few weeks. I know that prayers are being answered, prayers both for her and for this branch. I’m sure I’ll be transferred fairly soon, but part of me just wants to stay here so I can what other miracles come from all the work and faith that missionaries and members alike are putting into this phase of the hastening of the work. But it isn’t just our work – it’s the Lord’s work. Working with E has reminded me of what the Savior said in D&C 84:88 when He promised, “I will go before your face. I will be on your right hand and on your left, and my Spirit shall be in your hearts, and mine angels round about you, to bear you up.” I know that we have been led by Christ through the Holy Ghost and that angels have indeed supported us and those we have taught through the trials we have faced. I am so grateful for how good our Father in Heaven has been to me, and I look forward to all the opportunities I will yet have to serve Him.

I just want to take a minute and share my testimony with you. More than anything else, I want you to know that I know that our Heavenly Father answers prayers. I have prayed a lot more on my mission than ever before in my life, though I wish I didn’t have to say that. Prayer is so vitally important because it helps us to stay connected with He on whom we are completely dependent. God wants to bless us and He wants us to be happy, and He knows exactly what we need before we ever ask, “but [we] are commanded in all things to ask of God, who giveth liberally.”(D&C 46:7) Even though He already know what we will ask for, we need to ask as an exercise of our agency and our faith in Him. Then, when we have prayed,  we must go forth and do, so that in fulfilling the will of our Father in Heaven we can see the fulfillment of our prayers. I have the seen that process repeated over and over again here in the mission field. I know by faith and by experience that prayers are answered, that blessings sought by faith are indeed received, and that a testimony of the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and it’s restoration upon the earth in these latter days can be gained, by the power of the Holy Ghost, through sincere, purposeful, faithful prayer.

Anyway, I just thought a letter would be a good opportunity to bear my testimony. It’s great to hear all the wonderful things that are going on back at home. Maybe I forgot to mention it in last weeks letter, but I did indeed get Amanda and David and Joey’s announcement. So clever! Oh I was just giddy with smiles for the rest of the night!

Dad: So in your letter you mentioned that you don’t think you’ve helped anyone accept the Gospel since your mission. I know that’s not true regarding at least six individuals of which I know. I made mistakes when I was younger, and I had to repent. My repentance wasn’t started by some grand spiritual experience, or a powerful sacrament meeting or conference talk. It wasn’t a scripture or a saying or even a song that led me to know I must repent. It was your example and your teaching and your love for me, more than anything else in the world. Yes, I was baptized at 8 and can safely say it was my decision. I grew in the gospel and I had a testimony, even a strong one, but my conversion came a little later on. I can’t say exactly when – mostly because it didn’t happen all at once – but I can say that I am where I am because of what you and Mom did for me and taught me. So don’t give up with your missionary efforts. Joseph Fielding Smith didn’t have a single convert on his mission, but I know his example helped many. Maybe you don’t think you are finding success now, but I know you are. After all, Harold B. Lee said that “the most important of the Lord’s work you will ever do will be within the walls of your own homes.” I know your work has indeed borne marvelous fruits, of which I am grateful to be one.

As far as some of the details of the week, like I said earlier, we did a lot of service this week. 4 hours on Wednesday, 6 on Friday, 6 on Saturday. Lots and lots of service. We also kept very busy this week making lots of visits to both members and investigators alike. One thing our mission wants us to be doing right now is teaching a lesson every day. If we don’t have any investigators to teach, we visit a less-active. If we don’t have a less-active to teach, we visit an active family, starting with the members of the ward council. And so that’s what we have been doing! Fortunately we were able to see nearly everyone in our teaching pool this week.

On Tuesday we had an especially noteworthy lesson with the R family. We had previously invited them to be baptized on March 29, but they didn’t really feel comfortable accepting that baptismal date. So on Tuesday we taught them the Gospel of Jesus Christ, lesson 3 out of Preach My Gospel. We talked a lot about baptism and it’s purpose and the blessings we receive from it, not the least of which is receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost. It was a wonderful lesson and we felt the Spirit bearing witness of of the truths that we taught. By the end they had made up their minds that they wanted to be baptized! We challenged them to pray about a baptismal date to week, which challenge they accepted. On top of that M came to the Relief Society activity on Thursday and brought her two little kids to the movie night on Friday. Then they all came to church on Sunday! They are progressing wonderfully, and we are looking forward to the opportunities we have to continue working with them.

I love hearing from you. I love being a missionary. I love you all! Have a great week!

Love,

Spencer

March 17, 2014 – Orland

What a busy week! I love busy weeks! We visited a lot of people this week, the majority of which were less-active members of the branch. Normally we do the majority of our visits with investigators, so things went a little differently. We were saddened when the L family didn’t make it to church yesterday too, but were so happy that E and G came, along with J and M.

E has her baptism coming up next weekend, so this week we will be finishing up our teaching and helping her prepare for the service next weekend. I think one of the great miracles that I have seen in working with her has been the progress that her husband G has made. He was baptized with his mother and all 8 or 9 of his siblings down in Mexico a long time ago and I guess his family is still active in the church down there. He has done baptisms in the Mexico City temple and has gone on splits with missionaries so he really has a gospel foundation, he has just fallen off the path is all. But that’s what missionary work is all about, right? Helping people come to the knowledge of the truth – whether for the first or second or hundredth time!

Tuesday was pretty normal, teaching people and tracting and missionary work all around. We had a great lesson and are hoping to invite them to have a baptismal date this week! On Wednesday we had a zone meeting, and we talked a lot about the effective use of iPads and the internet in missionary work. One function that we are going to try out will be using the area email address that we now have. We are pretty excited about getting the work going in this area. In fact, not this week but next week we will be trying to start a weekly activity for members and nonmembers to attend, just something to try and get people to feel the Spirit.  Feeling the Spirit is what it is all about – if they feel the Spirit then they will know what the need to do. It doesn’t mean they’ll always do it, but at least they will know.

I love you all! I know this church is true!

Love,

Spencer 🙂

March 10, 2014 – Orland

Dear Mom and Family,

Well this week was one of those hard weeks. It was very rewarding, but very difficult. We had to drop a lot of our investigators because of lack of interest and/or lack of progress, which is always a hard thing for me to do. We also had a lot of lessons fall through, more so than usual, which is always hard. Yet we were able to find some new people to teach and to see some incredible families progress towards baptism. And so even though this week was hard and even somewhat discouraging, I am really looking forward to next week. I know things can and will improve.

One bright spot this week was definitely the progress of the L family. When we went over to visit them this week, they were the ones asking us the questions about qualification for baptism! What an incredible experience! On top of that, church was absolutely fantastic! The R’s, the L’s, and the M’s came to all of church! I didn’t get to go to Gospel Principles though because I had to teach in primary, again. It is actually something I really love doing. It’s pretty neat because I teach in both languages, since there is one boy that only speaks English and one that mostly speaks Spanish and the rest are bilingual. I got to teach some of the children of our investigators too, which was great. I taught about prayer, and every child in the class committed to pray to Heavenly Father every day this week. I love the faith of little children. Anyway, we have a baptism in the branch this Saturday, from out in Chico. We are excited to be able to invite our investigators to witness a baptism and let that nourish their own desires to come unto Christ and be baptized. We also have a baptism in two weeks for our investigator E. We have very little left to teach her and are so excited about her progress. Yesterday Elder T and I got to know her daughters a little bit better.  At first neither of them were very interested in the gospel or church – they were just coming because their parents came. Elder and Sister W were able to talk to them a bit yesterday and now they are enjoying Young Women’s more than before. I am sure that they will progress – just like their mom – but in their own time. I love working with entire families, and am excited to be able to work here in Orland and Willows.

So Dad, this paragraph is for you. And I guess Mom too but mostly for you, Dad. I realized (and still realize) while out here in the mission field that there are a lot of things I don’t know. Many of those things reside in the “standard car care/home repairs” category. I know there were some things you taught me that I just didn’t appreciate when I was a teenager but that I know see are important to know. So if you will accept it I’d like to give you a challenge. Over the next year, every time you make a home repair or car tuneup or yard repair, write down what you did – not detailed instructions or anything like that, just a note saying “replaced air filter” or whatever it might be (that’s one thing I can do). I know I have a lot to learn from you, and when I get back next year we will have somewhere to start. I love you Dad, and am grateful for the many lessons you have taught me over the years. I just want you to know that even though I may have slipped out of the house without learning some of those little things, you taught me the most important things first, and that’s what I took with me. You taught me how to work, even when you may not want to, simply because it has to get done. You taught me to be a good participant and how to serve others. You taught me how to keep the Sabbath Day holy. You taught me how to study the scriptures. You taught me how to honor the priesthood and magnify my callings. Most of all you taught me and are still teaching how to love God. I am so grateful for all that I have learned from you and look forward to learning more and more in the future.

As a missionary, I have come in contact with a lot of people, all of which have lots of problems. I’ve been through what I might call some fairly hard trials, but now I see people living in the hardest of situations, pushed to their limits by economic, family, social and spiritual trials, and I am just so grateful for how good the Lord has been to me and to our family. I know that Heavenly Father blesses us when we keep His commandments – there is no doubt in my mind about that. It just pains me to see people reject the teachings of prophets and apostles and even Christ himself. It makes me so grateful when I do get to work with people like E who are making such wonderful growth in the gospel and who are truly seeking to come unto Christ. I love this message that we share and I know with all my heart that it is true. I know the Church is true and I love being a missionary – it’s something I plan of doing for the rest of my life!

Love,

Spencer

March 3, 2014 – Orland

Hello everyone! Hi Mom!

I’m happy to hear that you all had a great week! I know I did too! I think I did more in-area traveling this week than any other. We picked up an investigator last week in Willows named M. She is a really friendly elderly lady who invited us to visit her in her home in Butte City, another 20 miles or so from Willows going away from Orland, all in all about 40 minutes from Orland. We invited her to church, but she couldn’t make it out. We even set up a ride, but she wasn’t around. We had five members of the one family come to church though, which was a blessing indeed!

There was another special miracle that happened this week – E accepted a baptismal date for the last weekend in March! We are so excited for her! Ever since we met her we knew she had been prepared to accept the gospel in her life. Her progression has been a testimony builder for me. She didn’t come to church on Sunday, and we don’t know why, but we are still looking forward to her progression!

Transfer calls came in last night and I’ll be staying in this branch for another six weeks.  I am so grateful that I get to stay because it means that I can be here for the baptism of E and (hopefully!!) another family as well!  I know I’ve probably said this a million times, but I love how in Helaman 3 it says, “And so great was the prosperity of the church, and so many the blessings which were poured out upon the people, that even the high priests and the teachers were themselves astonished beyond measure. And it came to pass that the work of the Lord did prosper unto the baptizing and uniting to the church of God, many souls, yea, even tens of thousands.” (Helaman 3:25-26) As a full-missionary I am learning more and more about miracles, and I am praying that miracles will happen for those wonderful members of this branch.

Well that about sums up the week! I love you all and hope you have a great cruise! and a great normal week for the rest of you! 🙂

Love,

Spencer

February 24, 2014 – Orland

Hello Mom! Hi everyone!

Sorry I’m on a little later than usual. Today we went to tour the Berberian Nut Factory (owned by Deseret Farms) in the time frame in which we usually email. Combine that with a couple hours of outdoor soccer and here I finally am at a computer. I had pictures to send but I left my camera back at the apartment, so I guess you’ll have to wait until next week, sorry!

It has been another wonderful week out here in Orland. One thing in particular that made it so great was being able to talk to so many people, definitely more so than usual. We were just out there working all the time, and even though not everyone said yes to our message, we are happy just to be doing it.

We started working with one investigator a couple weeks ago, and she is progressing wonderfully! Her husband is a member of the church who was baptized down in Mexico some 15 years ago as a teen. We first met with him and he said he wants to get back into the church and have that in his life. Now his wife wants to be baptized! And their whole family came to church yesterday too! We are so excited for them, and so happy and grateful to be able to work with them.

Another person we’ve been working with lately is a less-active young man who really needs the direction of the Gospel in his life. We have been reteaching him the missionary lessons lately, and last week he introduced us to his mom and stepdad. On Saturday we taught them the Restoration and invited them to be baptized, and they accepted the invitation! We also invited them to church and they came!  Not only did they come, but they took good notes and were great participants in Sunday School and Elder’s Quorum/Relief Society. They are seriously just golden investigators so far, and I love being able to work with them.

We have a goal in our mission right now to baptize weekly in each area. It is a high mark, and what it means is that we need to do a lot more finding and teaching in order to reach it. We had an experience last night that showed to me that the Lord really is blessing us in our work. It was after dinner, and we had exhausted most of our plans. We ended up walking around an apartment complex, looking for a couple of people that had been referred to us. Before we could even find the apartment we started talking with an older lady standing outside an apartment. After a few minutes her son came up and started talking to us as well. After a while we started a lesson with them. When we began to talk about the Book of Mormon, we pulled out a copy to show them and this man got really excited. It turns our that he had just gotten out of jail (where he had been for a few months) and there had been a copy of the Book of Mormon there, and he had been reading it but he didn’t know what it was until we taught him about it. He promised that he would keep reading it and we’ll be going back next week to meet with him again! I know the Lord guides us to the people who He needs us to see, and that He is indeed working with us here.

I love you all! I know this church is true and that this is truly the Lord’s work!

Love,

Spencer

February 17, 2014 – Orland

Dear Mom and Family,

Hello everyone! It’s great to hear from you!

Well this week was another pretty great one. We had five members of an investigating family come to church yesterday, and between us and the Chico Spanish Elders we had 11 investigators come to Sacrament meeting, and three come later on! It was pretty exciting and such a joyful experience. I know that it is one of the many ways The Lord is blessing this branch, and I am just grateful to be a part of it.

On Thursday of this week I went on exchanges in Chico with Elder P and we went to the Chico State campus and tried to contact people there. Now that was an experience. We got to talk to a lot of people, and I mean a lot. Not too much came out of it, but we were able to have a lot of Gospel conversations and I was able to bear my testimony on such things as the Book of Mormon and the Restoration over and over again. Even if people don’t accept our message, just being able to share it is a huge blessing for me. I am so grateful for this time that I have to be a missionary here in California and. I look forward to being a missionary for the rest of my life! 🙂

Transfers are coming up pretty soon (two weeks) and odds are pretty good that I won’t be in this area come March. I just wants to give you and anyone else who would want to know fair warning for purposes like sending letters and such.

I really don’t have tons of time, sorry about that. I have been having such a great time here in Orland, and I really am going to miss it when I go. I think the saddest thing is that I’ll be leaving all the wonderful people that I get to work with, like the family that we are going to invite to be baptized this week! But the important thing is that we help them receive the ordinances of the temple, no matter who the missionaries are.

I love you all so much and love hearing from you each week! Thank you for the wonderful Valentine’s candy (and the letter too Emma)! Keep doing the little things and the Lord will bless you, I know that for certain.

Love,

Spencer

February 10, 2014 – Orland

Hello Mom! Happy Valentine’s Day everyone!

I sometimes wonder if my subject lines are too boring, but I figure I’ll just be consistent. 🙂

It was so great to hear from you this week! I’m so glad to hear that Rootstech was so fun! I definitely know that family history is a big part of Hastening the Work. I really wish I could do more of it out here in the mission field, but I know that as I full-time missionary my work is to bring families together on this side of the veil.  I do however want to share a really interesting account from the life of President Wilford Woodruff that I’m sure you have heard before: “In the night vision I saw [Joseph Smith] at the door of the temple in heaven. He came and spoke to me. He said he could not stop to talk with me because he was in a hurry. The next man I met was Father Smith (Joseph Smith Sr); he could not talk with me because he was in a hurry. I met half a dozen brethren who had held high positions on earth, and none of them could stop to talk with me because they were in a hurry. I was much astonished. By and by I saw the Prophet again, and I got the privilege to ask him a question. “Now,” said I, “I want to know why you are in a hurry. I have been in a hurry all through my life; but I expected my hurry would be over when I got into the kingdom of heaven, if I ever did.” Joseph said: “I will tell you, Brother Woodruff. Every dispensation that has had the priesthood on the earth and has gone into the celestial kingdom, has had a certain amount of work to do to prepare to go to the earth with the Savior when He goes to reign on the earth. Each dispensation has had ample time to do this work. We have not. We are the last dispensation, and so much work has to be done, and we need to be in a hurry in order to accomplish it.” (http://www.lds.org/manual/teachings-wilford-woodruff/chapter-3?lang=eng)

If all the great leaders of the church from our dispensation were in a hurry then, I would imagine they are in a hurry now, and we are hastening the work of salvation here just as they are there.  I know the work is being hastened, and I am happy to be a part of it!

This week we were so blessed when 5 investigators came to Sacrament meeting, including 4 people from a family that we are teaching! I was just ecstatic! And on top of that, we had 4 less-actives come, including one that hadn’t been to church in months! What a blessing to have him there with us!

We were able to teach a lot of people this week too, which is an indescribable blessing in this area where people seem to be so closed off sometimes. We have been praying fervently and frequently for opportunities to teach this week and I can say for certain that I know the Lord answers prayers.

The Whitings are going home tomorrow. They have been such a blessing to this branch and to all the missionaries that have served here. I know they will be dearly missed. They are driving from here all the way to their new home in Herriman. I actually told them that they should get in touch with you, and I gave them our address and your phone number Mom. They were quite interested in square foot gardening, and since you and Dad are resident experts I told them they should come see you sometime.

That’s about it for this week. Sorry I didn’t write too much, time thing, remember. Just know that I love you all and am so grateful to be a missionary at this exciting time! Love you guys! Talk to you next week!

Love,

Spencer

February 3, 2014 – Orland

Hello Mom and Family!

Well, it is finally February. I don’t know why, but February is like a fresh of breath air to me, and it always has been. We have all these holidays for weeks and the year changes and everyone has to get used to writing 2014 instead of 2013 and both December and January have 31 days so it just feels long, and so when February comes I feel like the new year really begins. I just like February I think.

Anyway, this week was both hard and wonderful. It was really hard because we had several of our investigators tell us that they just weren’t interested in what we teach. In one case, we went with a member to visit a wonderful family that Elder C and I found back in November but were busy all through the holidays. We finally got a lesson scheduled and went to see them on Thursday. It was pretty interesting because when we asked to begin our lesson with a prayer the dad told us no.  It was pretty unusual actually to have someone say that we couldn’t pray, but we just said a prayer in our hearts and kept going. In the end we taught all of the Restoration and bore as powerful of a testimony as we could, but they were not interested in learning anything beyond that or in accepting any of the invitations we extended. It was very hard to see them simply not open their hearts to this message. Near the end, Elder T was bearing his testimony and the Spirit was so strong and I was just looking at the father and I could see in his eyes that he could feel the Spirit, but he still chose not to open his heart. It makes me think of a scripture found in Matthew 11:15 that reads “He that hath ears to ear, let him hear.” Sometimes we spread the word of God, but people don’t open their ears to hear it. It reminds me of what some of the disciples said to Jesus in John 6:60, “This is an hard saying; who can hear it?” Sometimes these people that we teach see the hardness of the word and not the blessings. I know I’m just being random now but it reminds of something I heard out of a talk for youth in which the speaker explains that the armor of God can’t be comfortable. Armor isn’t made to lounge around in; it is made to protect you. So it is with the Gospel sometimes – it can be hard, at least from a temporal perspective, but it is worth it, I can promise that.

Anyway, one of the wonderful things that happened this week was that we had interviews with President Weston. I love meeting with him; I can always feel the Spirit so strongly and I feel my own spirits bolstered when he helps us out. I want to be like him someday – obedient, humble, faithful and with a powerful testimony.

Sorry about the shortness of the letter this week too. I really try to make these longer, since I want you to hear about everything that’s going on, but time just runs out quickly. Just know that I know this church is true and I love it so much. I love that I am a missionary here in California.

I love you all!

Love,

Spencer

Pictures from service this week!