Moving and Members! Feb 7, 2022

Hello everyone! I hope you had a great week!

This week was awesome! Filled with miracles and tender mercies from the Lord. 

On Tuesday Elder Rivera and I were doing companion study and we got a call an unknown number. We picked up and the guy on the other end introduced himself as James and told us he needed help moving! He, his sister and his mom just moved to Mena from Missouri! We were pumped!! A miracle! We eagerly went over and helped them unload the trucks. We called some members and they came and helped too! They came in clutch! Definitely a huge help. Couldn't have done it without them. We worked through the rain and were able to help them a lot. I asked James how he got our number. He said when they were getting ready to come down they asked people in Mena via Facebook if there was anyone who could help with moving. Some people gave them the missionaries number! They had a really positive experience with previous missionaries that they trusted that we could do good job! You never know the difference you are making! You are planting seeds you don't even know about! Keep helping people and serving! 

We had another miracle when we were driving home from our ward mission leaders house. We saw a lady on the side of the road trying to clear her windshield. We pulled over and offered to help her! With some deicing spray and a scraper the window was clear in no time! Right before we left we asked her if she would like to here the message of the Restored Gospel! She said she did!! It was amazing. We set up an appointment but she had to cancel because she had a migraine.... hopefully she is doing better and we can meet this week! 

Love you all! Jesus does too!

Elder Spencer 

Ice storm!

A Fight of Faith Jan 31, 2022

Hello! Hope you all had a good week!

This week was a test of my faith and diligence. I felt like we worked hard but not a lot came from it. I have to practice patience and trust in the Lords timing. Faith proceeds the miracle.

The highlight of my week was being able to attend the baptism of my friend Katie! She is a girl the Lord guided me to while serving in Alma. She has changed a lot from when I first met her. She has made many sacrifices for the Lord. She knows He loves her and supports her. That is what is most important.

A scripture that stood out to me this week was:

11 ¶ For thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I, even I, will both search my sheep, and seek them out. (Ezk. 34:11)

The Lord can do His own work. We have the special opportunity to recieve joy when we choose to help Him in His work.

Love you all so much!

Elder Spencer 

•Robbers cave!

•At Katie's baptism

Exposed to Covid Jan 24, 2022

Hello everyone!

This week was great for the most part. We had a great lesson with our friend John, who we found at the laundry mat! We did a Bible study with him and talked about a variety of gospel subjects. We were supposed to meet with him again but we were exposed to Covid. That was the rough part.

We also found Shelia this week! She is pretty cool! The missionaries had done service for Sheila in the past so we went over to ask her if she needed any more help. She didn't but started talking about family history and how she had done some work but had lost all her progress... we told her we could help her recover what she lost with the help of some friends in our ward! (Family History Consultants!) She was excited and we were excited and the helpers were excited and than exposed to Covid.

The plans we made got wiped out. It was rough. The most frustrating part was we couldn't meet with our friends. But if you don't have hard times you can't become better. So this week we did a lot of walking around to find people and visiting people who previous missionaries have met with.

One of my favorite scriptures that I wanted to share this week is: "1 But now thus saith the Lord that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel, Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine." (Isaiah 43:1) No matter what trials you are having the Lord knows you. He knows what your name is. He has redeemed you. In other words He has saved you. He loves you so much and wants you to be happy. He can help you be happy if you turn to HIm and repent. If you change.

Love you all!

Elder Spencer

PS: Here is my new address: 508 Cherry St. South #3A Mena, AR 71953

55°F in our apartment

A yummy Bacon, Asparagus noodle dish we made!

A lake be the church! 

Crazy Food Jan 17, 2022

Hello everyone!! I hope you all had a good one!

Said goodbye to Alma this week. I love that area. The miracle area. I said goodbye to Elder Peterson. He is a good missionary and will do good things.

My new companion is Elder Rivera! He is fantastic! I love him so much! He is excited to work and we have hit the ground running here in Mena. He was driving all day on the transfer loop and we drove together for 3hrs to Mena. We had a pleasant conversation and met some elders at McDonalds. They took us to our ward mission leaders at 8:30pm at night and we didn't know what was going to happen.

Our ward mission leader is Brother Elder and we call him Abear. He told us he has been doing "a challenge" with missionaries for 8 years and he was going to do it with us. I was like, oh frick. What the challenge is is we close our eyes and he just puts a mystery food into our mouth and we have to eat it! I was so nervous. A random man I don't know shoving random mystery food into my mouth that I have to eat! Crazy! We ate pigs hoofs, a lemon, a jalapeno pepper and apple cider vinegar. Straight nasty. The pigs hoof were pickled so it was basically vinegar. The apple cider vinegar was soooo grosss. Never again. By far the worst food I have had on the mission. 

Speaking of nasty food, I will send pictures of the 4 week old food we found in our fridge. If the apple cider and pigs hoofs didn't make you gag these pictures will. 

It's been great to shotgun an area. I am enjoying this experience of being new again. It reminds me of my shotgun days in Clarksville. Ignorance is bliss haha. We are working and plan to work hard this week. Gonna find those who are prepared to receive the gospel and meet with some members. 

The landscape of Mena is beautiful. We are in a valley with mountains around us. There is a national forest close by. Highly recommend you visit.

Love you lots!!

Elder Spencer

Arguably the Best Week of the Mission! January 10, 2022

Hey y'all! I hope y'all had a fantastic week! I cannot begin to count the tender mercies and miracles of the Lord this week. They were so plentiful and exceeded anything I could have imagined. 

First of all, our dear friend Kris was baptized. I love him so much and he is full of the light of Christ. I know this because he serves other people. The baptismal service was so special. Even though the font temperature was 120°F (I definitely wasn't the one who did that 🙂😃😲😁😂) the Spirit was still there enough to make me feel nice and warm. Kris was confirmed yesterday as a member of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints and recieved the Holy Ghost. He told me with excitement that he is looking forward to the day when he can serve a mission too!! So exciting!

Another miracle was Hunter. He is the boyfriend of a young woman in the ward. We had two lessons with him the week and he is on date to be baptized on February 5, 2022! It is so incredible. The member family is so loving and supporting of him. Members really do make the work go. It can't be done by just the missionaries.

Katie is the other miracle for this week. I thought she was slowing down and losing steam for learning the Gospel until we met with her and Kris this week! She just put her heart on the table and got really vulnerable with us. That is a good sign that she trusts us. Because of the feelings she shared with us we were better able to help her feel God's love for her which is something she needs so desperately and has been needing for 18 years of her life. I love her so much. She is a beloved daughter of God. 

Transfer news. Both Elder Peterson and I are leaving. BIG RIP. I thought for sure at least one of us would stay. Two other Elders will be absorbing our area because of the lack of missionaries. Many are leaving to their original assignments. I am sad to leave. I love the people here so much! I can't believe my time here is done. I am going to miss this area a lot. I am going to call Alma the miracle area because I have seen so many in my time here. I am going to Mena, AR. Still in the same zone just 1hr and 30 minutes south of Alma. 

I love you all! Elder Spencer 1z

Kris, January 3, 2022

Hello Everyone!

I hope you are all doing well. Your Father In Heaven loves you. He really does.

Our friend Kris is preparing to be baptized this week. He is awesome. I love him. 

The Lord knows each of us. I testify He sends small tender mercies each day to lift us up. 

I saw a dog get hit by a car this week. It is still alive, don't worry. It was kinda intense. 

Get your winter coats out and stay warm!

Love you all!

Elder Spencer 

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Dec 27, 2021

Hello everyone! I hope you had a Merry Christmas on Saturday! 

This week before Christmas we had a Zone Conference on the 22nd. That was amazing. They always are. I am so grateful for time to be instructed by my leaders and the spirit. It truly is a time I have come to love. I love President and Sister Collins. They are wonderful. 

We brought some brownies to friends who are living by themselves on Christmas. I hope it was able to help them a little bit. I was able to talk to my family afterwards as well as attend a baptism! Technology is so wonderful and I am grateful it allows me to talk to my family. I love my family. Seeing a baptism on Christmas was neat! A day never to be forgotten by the one getting baptized. 

On Christmas Eve we visited a family with a little boy named Christen. We watched the Christ Child video with him (I will provide a link below) and he loved it so much! He couldn't take his eyes off the screen. He smiled and cheered as he watched the story unfold. I hope everyone can feel this was about Christ, happy and cheerful. 

Jesus Christ was born so you can return to live in heaven with your Father. He suffered for your sins so you can make the joyful decision to change. He was resurrected so you can have a body that is perfect, without deformity. He heals. He publishes peace. He can fill you with pure joy!

I love you and Jesus loves you!

Elder Spencer