Dear Family!
Thank you so much for all of your letters this week! It has been awesome!
This week has definitely been full of ups and downs. Few highlights from the week:
This week we went and visited a recent convert who
doesn't have a car. His name is Michael DeLane. We discussed with him
how to have faith and understand that the church is perfect and the
people aren't with an emphasis on forgiveness. I made a comment to him
about how living the gospel can be hard at times but it is definitely
rewarding and that living the gospel this way is a lot easier than
living in sin. After I said this, he started clapping and gave me a
thumbs-up. Man, if everyone does that after I finish speaking, I should
consider being a motivational speaker!!! ... JK, I'm really not that
great, I just thought it was funny how after I talk, people always feel
the need to tell me that my comment was good. haha! :)
This week we went to visit a lady in our ward named
Sister Larson. She broke her right hip and strained her left hip so she
is pretty much immovable. We went over there and had a really awesome
gospel lesson with her. Right as we were leaving we asked her if she
knew of anyone who would enjoy to hear an uplifting message or who was
going through a hard time. She thought for a minute and then told us
that her neighbor had been asking about the church. So, tomorrow
we are going over there to teach her! I feel like this is such an
answer to prayers! I am so excited!!! We've been asking for referrals
from everyone but most people just tell us that oh, you know, we are too
busy to talk to people... I don't know my neighbor. I guess I just
thought it was interesting who a lady who can't go out of her house or
even off of her couch has someone for us. Well, we are still working on
gaining the trust of the members. I feel that as we do this that we will
be able to get more referrals and people to teach!
Olga and Jennifer dropped us... they were two of
what we considered "golden investigators." I think they got a hold of
some anti-Mormon material and then that was the end for them.... too
sad. She sent us a text the other day saying that she didn't want to
know anymore of that "Mormon stuff" and that she was firm in her
decision. We politely responded that there were a lot of misconceptions
about our religion and that we would invite her to read the Book of
Mormon and find out the truth for herself from the very source but that
we would respect her decision. It's sort of discouraging, but my
companions and I are doing our best to work hard and not get
discouraged.
This week in my scripture reading I read a lot about
Nephi. One thing that I thought was super interesting is that no matter
where Nephi is, he is able to keep an eternal perspective about what
things truly matter and turning his will over to the Lords. For example,
when Nephi was commanded to build a boat. I'm sure that wasn't his #1
priority, but he did it nonetheless and he didn't complain about it.
Also, with that, something that I noticed is that he didn't doubt that
he couldn't do it. He just trusted in the Lord that he could do it. I
have been trying my hardest to do the same thing. I know that as I put
my trust in the Lord that he will lead me to success!
One of the families that we are teaching is the
Woottens. They are a Less active/part member family. From working with
them a little bit, one of the things that I am concerned about is that
both of them have a very limited perspective. The wife, the Less-active
one, has mentioned to us multiple times that she needs to start going
back to church but she just won't go because she is afraid that people
will judge her. With her, I think it is so sad that she is letting
someone else affect her eternal salvation. It's SO worth it. Yeesh. With
the husband, he's had missionaries many times before. He said he has
prayed about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon and the answer that he
got was that he needed to remain a Baptist. So now, when we are trying
to teach him, he immediately says to us that he has already gotten his
answer. It's sort of frustrating, but we are doing our best to be
patient and explain the importance of everything.
There is an Elderly couple that we try to go and
visit. I've talked about them in the past... the Amoses. They are super
nice. We went up and saw them this week. She asked us to sing the song
Amazing Grace for her. We did and then she gave us another one to learn.
We told her that we would work on learning it for her. After that, she
told us that she wanted all of us to sing at her funeral. None of us
really knew what to say since we wouldn't really be here when she died.
It was sort of awkward but we told her that if we could be there, we
would be. Oh also, good news though, Sister Amos is feeling much better.
The doctors have switched around her medication so now she can sit
through a full lesson! We are very happy about that!
I love you all very much and you are in my prayers! Keep the faith, stay strong, tell everyone about the gospel!!
Much love,
Sister Spencer
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