Monday, February 24, 2014

"Ya can't sling a dead cat and not hit a Mormon!"

Dear Family,

This week has been pretty good! We've had some awesome lessons and some great support from our ward members here! This past week we were able to go and teach this lady named Brianne. She was a referral that we had received from a member in another ward. We set up a time to go and meet with her and everything. When we went there, she was there and there was also this man there. We didn't think too much of it, just asked his name and figured he could join in the lesson too! When we sat down, we started asking about their previous religious background and ask if they had any questions to start out. The guy, Nathan, immediately brought up "magic underwear". Surprisingly, we were able to control that one pretty well and we just mentioned how we make promises, or covenants with God and it is a way for us to remember those covenants. He seemed to accept that and then asked another one about priesthood authority.... a perfect Segway into our first discussion.... Message of the Restoration. Throughout the entire lesson, Brianne was very engaged and agreed with just about everything that we said, and Nathan agreed whole heartedly with everything we said was a bit reserved in the lesson. Anyway, at the end of the lesson, after we introduced the Book of Mormon, we invited Brianne to be baptized and she accepted! It was awesome! Then, we turned to Nathan, he was looking at something on his phone and just kept saying, hold on one second, I am trying to find a certain scripture. We waited a second for him and offered to help him the scripture. He pulled up a scripture in the Book of Mormon and starts talking about the whole chapter. As it turns out, "Nathan" was the member from a different ward who had given us the referral for Brianne. It was pretty great, especially considering that we were about to ask him to be baptized.

 We went to visit Janet again this week. (She was the one who last week her power went out in the middle of the lesson). This lesson was again interesting. We finished introducing the Book of Mormon and were starting to talk about priesthood authority and eternal families. To relate it to her, we asked her how she felt on her wedding day to her husband. She looks at us, and then says "Oh, I'm not married to him.... we've just been together for 28 years!" and then she proceeds to tell us how she fell in love with the guy she is with and that only after three weeks, they moved in together because they were so much in love. It caught me and my companions off guard because we had just assumed that they were married. We didn't know quite what to say. We managed though, and the rest of the lesson went fairly smoothly!

People in Tennessee love dogs. Especially dogs that have some sort of cool story behind them. A few of the members we visit have too many dogs. One member this past week that had us over for dinner had 11 dogs running around her house. About 5 of those dogs, had some special story behind them about either being saved from a house fire, being abused and the family rescued it, or was just stranded and the family picked it up. It was a bit crazy. At the end of dinner, we were sharing a message with a visual for the little kids. Part of the visual that I was sharing, required a bowl of water. We went into the living room, I sat the bowl of water on the ground, and the little 4 year old boy, comes up and starts to try to drink out of the bowl of water like a dog. I'm still not quite sure what he was doing, but I have definitely decided that there is a limit to how many dogs a family can have. I do not want my children thinking they are dogs and trying to drink out of a bowl of water on the ground.

One story that has particularly stood out to me this week has been the story of the Two Thousand Stripling warriors. When it describes them, it says: "Now they never had fought yet they did not fear death; and they did think more upon the liberty of their fathers than they did upon their lives; yea, they had been taught be their mothers, that if they did not doubt, God would deliver them" ... and then after the battle, it says: "there had not one soul of them fallen to the earth; yea, and they had fought as if with the strength of God; yea, never were men known to have fought with such miraculous strength; and with such might power..." Their faith has really stuck out to me this past week. I am so grateful to have been raised in a home with loving parents that have taught me the gospel, but I am also grateful that I get to show my faith on a daily basis and help others to strengthen their faith. This work truly is amazing!!

I love ya'll so very much!!! Thanks for everything you do for me!!! Have a great week. I am praying for ya'll!! 

Love, 
Sister Spencer 
P.S. title to this email was just something someone said to us this week. Thought ya'll might enjoy it.

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