Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Deep Doctrine 101 and other Fun

Dear Family!!

Well this past week has been really great. Definitely ups and downs, but for the most part, it has been all good. For Valentine's Day we did not really do anything exciting. We picked people to go and see that we knew we would not be celebrating or doing anything too crazy. One of the people that we went and saw was Janet. We were going through the introduction of the Book of Mormon with her and what exactly reading the Book of Mormon and finding out that it was true meant when all of the sudden the power just went out in the home. It was night time so the only light in the room was coming from a small candle that she had lit a few hours earlier. Janet was pretty upset about the lights going out and she was letting a few colorful words slip out. After each one, she profusely apologized and then kept right on going. It was definitely interesting. Trying to cheer her up, I started talking to her about how when she was a little kid, she always wanted an adventure of some sort, and now, even though it took a while, she got one! I don't think that she quite saw things the way I did, but it did help to cheer her up a little bit. About 5 minutes after the power went out, Janet's elderly neighbor, Georgia, came on over. Now, let me describe Georgia a little bit. Georgia is about one of the nicest sweetest ladies you could have ever met. She is 80 years old and is hard of hearing, just smiles and laughs at everything, and seems very innocent. When she came in, the first thing she said was "There's nothing like being caught with your drawers down when the power goes out." It was so out of her character and pretty funny. We left not too long after the power went out, so I really don't know what ended up happening in the end. We'll find out in a few days when we go back to her house.

People in Tennessee definitely tend to be a bit more dramatic about snow than people in Colorado. This past week there was a weather report that we were supposed to get about 2-5 inches of snow. The report had not been confirmed, it was just a possibility. So, the day before we were supposed to get snow, the superintendent cancelled school for all of the schools in the area. As luck would have it, the next day there was absolutely no sign of snow until about 6 o'clock at night. So basically, the kids here just got a day off of school to do whatever they wanted. I wish this guy would have been my superintendent when I was back home in High School! 
However, the very next day, we did get snow. We had a bunch of set appointments that we were going to go to, but we had received a text message from the mission office saying that we could not drive our car. Well, since we couldn't drive, we had no way to get to the appointments so we cancelled them and re-planned are day with finding activities that were close to our apartment. Around 12 o'clock, we got another text from the mission office saying that we could now drive. We tried to get back some of our set appointments, but unfortunately most of them we were unable to. ....Sometimes we really do wish that some people could make up their minds. It would make life just a tad bit easier. It all turned out good in the end though. We had a productive day. 

Our Gospel Principles class in church has turned into Deep Doctrine 101. This past Sunday, the lesson was on Sabbath Day Observance. Seems like a pretty harmless and self-explanatory topic right? Oh no.... oh no.... Our "Gospel Principles" class took it 12 levels higher than any living man has ever taken it before. They started talking about how God created the Earth and how the Earth needed to observe the Sabbath Day and then how ALL of God's creatures needed to observe the Sabbath Day. I don't really know how to describe it. It was deep, confusing, and I really wish they would keep it simple. Thank goodness for the power of prayer and that we tell everyone to ask God if what we say is true! 

Samantha is doing so great! There was one time when we had to cancel our appointment with her and reschedule. When we came over at the time that we had rescheduled, she had made us some delicious chocolate mint cupcakes! My companions and I were talking about it and figured that she made cupcakes for us to try and bribe us to come over more. We figure that people just love us so much that they try and bribe us with food to come over! JK, but it was still really nice of her to make us some cupcakes!! 

One family that we are slowly but surely working with are the Rosasco's. They have a 15 year old handicap daughter. When we went over there the first time, the parents mentioned how they were trying to find a youth group for their daughter to attend. We talked to the Young Women's leaders in our ward and they were super psyched about going over to meet her. I am really excited to see how things work out and to start teaching them the Restored Gospel alter this week! :) 

As I have been doing my studies this past week, one of the main things that has stood out to me is the power of prayer. One scripture that I read that really stuck out to me was Alma 43: 49-50. It says "And it came to pass that they turned upon the Lamanties, and they cried with one voice unto the Lord their God, for their liberty and their freedom from bondage. And they began to stand against the Lamanites with power; and in that selfsame hour that they cried unto the Lord for their freedom, the Lamanties began to flee before them; and they fled even to the waters of Sidon." What really stuck out to was the power and emotion behind the prayer that they offered and then how quick God answered their prayers. I know that God does answer our prayers, sometimes it may not be right away or when we want to receive the answer, but I know that God is always there and is always helping us through our trials whether or not we recognize it.

Much love, 

Sister Spencer

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