President and Sister Collins, July 19, 2021

This week I met President and Sister Collins in an interview this week! It was wonderful. It was only supposed to be 40 minutes total but we talked for 2 hours. That was amazing. I am so grateful I could be with these two amazing people. We talked about many things but our main focus was Jesus Christ. He has been with me as I have been on my mission and it is awesome to look back to see how He has been involved in my life. 

I went on an exchange with Elder Nash! What a great guy. I love him and he is a wonderful person.

A verse that has struck me this week in the Book Of Mormon is about the Book of Mormon. "Harken unto these words and believe in Christ. And if ye believe not these words believe in Christ. And if ye believe in Christ ye will believe these words, for they are the words of Christ." (2 Nephi 33: 10-15) I believe these words are true. The Book Of Mormon is another testament of Jesus Christ. We can learn more of Him and what He invites us to do through its words. Come unto Him and repent. He can bring you peace and hope.

Love you all! Love, Elder Spencer

Oreos or Not? July 12, 2021

Hello all! Did anyone else have oreos this week? Cause I did. Let me tell you about it:

Elder Hatch and I did an object lesson with oreos and agency (the ability to make a choice.) We did it with a friend named Joe and his two kids Rocko and Ruby! They have some good friends who are in our ward. So it is a member referral essentially. With some of the oreos we scraped out some of the cream and filled it in with toothpaste. When we got to their house we arranged the oreos on two plates. We planned out specific spots to put the toothpaste oreos and the regular oreos. We talked about choosing good things and bad. Some choices are better than others. We had the kids choose a random oreo and eat it. After a couple more oreos they both got a toothpaste one 😀 we taught them how they can make better choices by asking their parents, praying and reading the scriptures. It was great!

We did service for a lady named Kym this week who is an amputee. She couldn't work on her yard because of it. She was really stressed about it and prayed to God to help her. The next day she saw an add for free service by the missionaries. We contacted her soon after that. Her prayer was answered. I am so grateful we could be right where He wanted us and that He gave us the help we needed from the ward to clean her yard up. We were blessed.

Sorry this is so late. I sometimes get carried away with other missionary activities on PDay. Stay safe out there!

Love you all, Elder Spencer

Construction on the church building

                                                    Our zone with President and Sister Collins!

In and Out, July 5, 2021

Hello everyone! Hope you all had a great weekend!

This week President and Sister Strong left. They are back in Utah right now. Fantastic couple. Did a great job leading this mission and they will be missed. President and Sister Collins are here! A mission wide zoom meeting was held and they introduced themselves to us. I love them! Very loving people. I will get to meet them tomorrow in person. I am looking forward to that. 

Our friend Neil came to church! This made me really happy! We haven't been able to help Neil come to church in a couple months so this was great! We also had a lesson with Neil. That was nice to see where he is at with everything and from what he said it sounds like he is going to commit to meeting with us once a week. Fingers crossed.

We had a second P day last Tuesday because our mission reached our goal for our Find Him and Be One Facebook pages! That was exciting. We got together with our zone and played pool, ping-pong, corn hole and darts! We had pizza and ice cream and all of this was provided by a really kind member! Such a fun day. 

Elder Hatch and I have been studying D&C 121-123. Those are the sections that Joseph Smith received in Liberty Jail. He and his friends endured a lot of really hard things while there. It was winter, they had no blankets, the food was poisonous, the guards were cruel and they got sick. It was hellish for them. In desperation the prophet calls out to God and receives the previously mentioned sections. One verse that really stood out to me was in section 122:8 "The Son of Man hath descended below them all. Art thou greater than he?" So even though Joseph and his friends were going through some really hard things they were still not as low as Christ was. He descended lower. He can succur you because He has felt it. Turn to His outstretched hand and you can feel peace. Love you all! Elder Spencer

Tired, June 28, 2021

Hello everyone! Is everyone getting ready for Canada Day this week?! July 1st baby! Woohoo! Also, a little Independence day action on the 4th! Fireworks and hopefully parades galore! 🇨🇦🇨🇦🇺🇸🇺🇸

President and Sister Strong leave this week. They will be missed. I am grateful I could learn from them in zone conferences and interviews. I am gonna miss them. A time of change and growth for everyone involved. The missionaries, the Strongs, the office staff and of course the new president: President and Sister Collins. 

This week I just got tired. Physically, I had to take a couple power naps so I could keep my head from bobbing the rest of the day. Intellectually, Spanish was hard on my brain. Socially, I didn't feel like talking to anyone. Spiritually, I did not have a plan for my personal studies so they were all over the place; not very effective. Today I have been a missionary for 8 months. Maybe that is part of it, or at least that is what Elder Hatch said. I got so tired that he noticed. He said when he hit his 8-10 month mark span he just hit a wall. It is a time where you have been a missionary for a while but you still have over half of your mission left, which is a lot. Staying motivated and energetic is hard sometimes. You can't feel motivated if you've never felt lazy and you can't be energetic if you've never been tired. So that is where I am at. The principle of enduring to the end is coming in handy right about now. 

On a more happy note, Elder Hatch and I caught a ton of fireflies in a jar and put it beside our bed for a nightlight! That was pretty cool. Have a great week! Love ya! Elder Spencer

Fireflies: