Monday, December 30, 2013

Christmas and New Years 2013

Hey Familia!!!
 
It was SO nice to talk to all of you this past week! I really loved it. All of you are awesome. Without a doubt, just plain awesome.
 
Well this past week has been really great. Besides talking to family, I would say that one of the best things about this week is that we got our one investigator, Samantha, to come to church! It was so great! I was SO happy to see her there! Church was definitely a bit interesting though. Samantha has expressed to us that one of her big concerns is about her having to give up tattoos. She says that she doesn't want to have to reject something that she feels is a part of her. Well, one of the speakers on Sunday started talking about how tattoos were graffiti on the body and how they were an abomination before God. Bold. Super bold. Then, he started to talk about the word of wisdom and how we can't have all these things. (We haven't even taught her about the Word of Wisdom yet....). Okay, phew. So Sacrament meeting was over. Onto Gospel Principles class. This class is normal very good about staying with the basics. Nothing to complicated. Yeah, well I guess today was the exception. They started talking about baptisms for the dead and the after life.... and woweee. Samantha was WAYYYY overwhelmed. I won't lie. I am a bit nervous with everything. We see Samantha again tonight and I am a little bit nervous about that.... I guess it all just boils down to having the faith that the Lord will help them to remember the spirit that they felt while they were at church, not necessarily everything that was said. :P

Our one investigator who also had a baptismal date, Janet, tried to drop us this week. Ugh. We went over and invited her to church. She told us that she was a Baptist and that she needed to try out her husband's church before ours.... Don't you worry though. We're not giving up on her! I know she can feel the spirit when we go over there, and the spirit is super powerful. I think that she got "anti-ed" a bit and is just doing things because her family tells her to. I'm not sure yet. We'll see though. Hopefully things will change for the better this next upcoming week and we will be able to solidify her baptismal date even further.
 
So, funny story for ya'll! We went to the Amos's house a while back and the mom started talking to us about how her dogs had puppies in her bed on her pillow one night. Personally I thought that was a bit of an interesting place to let your dog have puppies, but whatever. So on Christmas Eve, we went over to this Less-active's house. Their dog just had puppies so we told them about how the Amos's dog had puppies on her bed. Before we told her how we thought that was weird, the lady interrupted and mentioned how her dog had had puppies on her own bed several times before. Wowee, I guess people in Tennessee sure love their dogs a lot to let them have puppies on their bed.... I'm not sure if I would do that... yeah, I probably wouldn't let my dog on my bed period.
 
This week I have set a lot of goals--for language study, personal study, and just for this transfer. I find it interesting that when I write out my goals, I am way more likely to fulfill them because they are always in front of me and give me things to work forward to. I'm super excited to accomplish these goals!!

Well things are going great here. I love my companions. They seriously are the greatest. Sister Liebing is such a trooper since she always has a headache. Sister Wynn is so diligent and hard-working. Both of them are such great examples to me. I feel like I am learning a ton from both of them. We have transfers this week and I thought that I was going to get transferred, but nope! Looks like I'll be here for one more transfer. I like this area so I'm good with that!
 
I have been getting a bit anxious to go to Brazil. I think that is just because one Elder here, Elder Brinton, got his VISA and left for Brazil today. And then I've been doing quite a bit of work to get FBI clearance to get my VISA. I know am supposed to be here now and I am very, very grateful to be here. I just find it hard sometimes to not think about Brazil and want to be there... I think that one of my greatest worries is that I will get down to Brazil and not learn how to speak the language and communicate with people, and then I'll be sent home. I guess that again it just goes back to faith vs. fear. I am trying my hardest to put my faith in the Lord's timing and know that me being here is best for me and for the people in Brazil.
 
Ya'll are great! Thanks so much for all you do and for your support. I really enjoyed talking to all of you. Ya'll are in my prayers!! Love ya tons!!

Sister Spencer

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