Weekly Email Aug. 11

Dear Family!! 

Well another week has gone by now. Pretty crazy. Things have been going well here for Sister Linford and I. We are really enjoying being together and we are working hard. As of right now, our most promising investigator is Donna.This past week we taught her the gospel of Jesus Christ and asked her to pray about baptism on September 13th. She was a bit hesitant, but she said she would do that. The next day, we saw her and asked her if she had prayed about baptism at all. She said she had and felt like it was too soon for her. We could understand that because of her circumstances. The next day she was meeting with her realistate agent and they were talking about baptism and how she was meeting with us. He told her "If they are good, God-fearing people, what are you so worried about?" At that point, she was considering baptism again!! Next day we taught her the plan of salvation and talked about the celestial kingdoms and eternal families. That really hit home with her and so now she is seriously considering baptism again!  And, she has come to church twice!! We are super excited! One of the members of our congregation who is helping to fellowship Donna is Sister Manion. Yesterday we were talking to Sister Manion and she turned to me and said: "You know, I was thinking that maybe one of the reasons you don't have your VISA is because you needed to be here to teach Donna." :)

We got a referral this past week for some people named Carol and Dale. We called them up and set up a time to meet with them for Thursday. On Thursday when we met with them, we found out that they were currently Lutheran, but had always been interested in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and finally decided that they wanted to learn more themselves. We taught them the Restoration. There were some parts were I don't think that they fully grasped what we were saying, but we left a pamphlet with them and will be going back this coming Thursday. I am excited to see where things go with them!

Training has been going very well with Sister Linford. I am really enjoying being her companion. She has such a strong desire to work hard and to follow the spirit. I feel like it is helping me to be my best self and to constantly strive to do all of the small things that I know I need to be doing. We are seeing miracles happening here and we love it!!! 

This past week our District Meeting I felt like was directly related to me and what I needed to hear. I've been thinking a bit about why it has taken me so long to get my VISA. In one of the trainings, they talked a bit about the character of God. They shared a few different stories, but to summarize they talked about how God is always watching us to make sure we are safe, but soemtimes he will let us continue in our struggles for a bit so we can learn and to grow. they talked about how God knows exactly what we need and He will give that to us, but he won't always give us what we want. I feel like that has been a huge test for me on my mission. I want my Visa super bad, but I don't need it, and the Lord is teaching me a lesson. The last thing that they talked about was Doctrine and covenants 98:1-3--how all of our afflictions will eventually be for our good and for the glory of God. I don't know if I will get my VISA, but I know that this experience I am having will be for my good. 

I love you all so much!! Thanks for all of your prayers and all that you do for me! 

Much love, 

Sister Beth Spencer

I am a Trainer!

Dear Family!! 

Well, Sister Hamilton has officially left and secretly I am a bit glad. It was difficult to be with her, but we worked through our differences and made it work the best that we could. I am now training a new missionary, Sister Linford. She is from Kaysville Utah and is ubberrr nice. She has a great desire to work hard and we have had a lot of success this past week. I can tell that she is super great at following the spirit and at listening to the needs of our investigators. I'm hoping that before I leave this area that we will be able to get a baptism or something. We'll see what the Lord has in store for us. I think it's going to be a great transfer!!

Our investigators. Donna is doing just wonderfully!!! This past week, we have had a lot of contact with her and it has all been positive. We've taken her over to a member's house for dinner, had a lesson with her, did service, she came to church, and the addiction recovery program! She is just on fire. She loves feeling the spirit. She wants to come back to church next Sunday and is hooked on the addiction recovery meetings. We've talked to her quite a bit about how she feels the spirit and she has identified herself that she feels it when we come over to teach her a lesson, when she comes to church, and when she goes to the addiction recovery program. We told her that the next time that we go over we are going to talk to her about how she can have the spirit with her all of the time... aka Baptism!! We are super excited! She does have some friends who are extremely anti-mormon, but we feel like we have gotten her to the point where she knows what they say is not true and can feel the spirit between us and when other people are saying negative things about us.

The Bishop this past week had us over for dinner and even had a non-member named Jenny there! It was SO awesome. And that was even Sister Linford's first day here. I'm not quite sure if the lady is open to hearing us teach her, she is currently just looking for a job. Our ward mission leader has been trying to bring up church stuff with her (she went to him to apply for a job as well), but every time he tried, she just shot him down cold. We'll see where things go. 

Things are going well with Aaron. He's been a bit sporadic in conversations in the past, but the lesson that we had with him this past week was super legit. He said he was super tired so I'm not sure if that just meant that his brain was too tired to take tangents so he actually focused on what we said or what, but it was awesome. We taught about prayer and committed Aaron to start reading the scritpures and praying to know if the Book of Mormon is true. He knows that if he gets his answer that it is true, then he needs to be baptized. It was probably the best lesson that we have had with him thus far. We are still trying to get his mom to come. Apparently last week she gave us a "test" to see if we really were real missionaries by not letting him go to church and seeing how we responded. We passed the test apparently so he can now still meet with us. 

Got pretty sick this past week. I had the flu. I'm pretty sure that Sister Linford brought it with her from the MTC, and then I just got it when she came here. So we were both sick for a few days... talk about companionship unity I guess... :P. those were some rough days, but things are MUCH better now. I just look like Rudolph and sound like a frog. no big deal. Great to get new investigators. :P

I know this gospel is true and I am so glad that I have the chance to serve a mission. Each day I am clearly reminded of God's love for his children and how God has a plan for each of us and wants all of us to succeed. I'm grateful for the challenges that I have had so far on my mission and how they have helped me to grow and to rely more on the Savior. This gospel is amazing and even better than that, it is true!

Well, I love you all tons! thank you so much for all that you do for me and all of your prayers! Best of luck this week!

I'm becoming a Trainer!

Dear Family!! 

Well I guess the first and best news that I have for this week is that we have transfers coming up and that Sister Hamilton will be leaving and I will be getting a BRAND NEW missionary to train!!! I am super excited! Sister Hamilton has been a harder companion for me and it will be super nice to get a brand new missionary who is excited to work!  I feel like it will really help me to expand myself and rely even more on the Lord. Let's just say that I will be praying a ton more so that I can more fully rely on the Spirit! In the ward that I am currently serving in, the Farragut Ward, there are Elders and Sister missionaries. President Griffin has decided to take the Elders out of the area and just have us take over the whole area. We currently live outside of our ward boundaries, so we will be moving into the Elders apartment since they are leaving. Elders have always lived in that apartment so I won't lie and say that I'm not a bit nervous for what we might find in there.... :P. Other than that news, it's been a pretty normal week. Full of ups and downs. 

Sister Spencer helped in the Nursery and got her picture on the wall :)

We have one of our investigators, Donna, who is just on fire right now!! I'm not sure if I mentioned last week, but she has decided to study the Book of Mormon, Bible, and Addiction Recovery Program Booklet each and every morning for about an hour!! She is recognizing the spirit so much in her life and she says that she just absolutely loves it! We have been taking members over to go and see her. On Friday we had a lesson with her, but last minute she had to cancel. We had one of the ward members, Sister Manion, going with us (she had met Donna before) so we called and let her know the situation and cancelled. Well Sister Manion was a doll and went over and saw Donna herself just to make sure that she was alright. Talk about awesome fellowship will ya! I was super excited about it! Donna is a bit nervous to go to church with us, and she keeps saying that she is not ready quite yet, but yesterday when we went and saw her in the evening, she mentioned how she was thinking about us that morning when we were at church and part of her wishes that she was there! We are super hopeful that she will come next week! 

So I had to give a training this past week in District Meeting. I was pretty nervous for it considering that I've been super good at dodging the bullet all the other times and this was the very first one that I've ever had to give. I had to give it on the fall of Adam and Eve. I wasn't quite sure what I wanted to do and how I was going to make it creative, but I just studied it out a bunch. To make it creative and a bit interactive, i made normal cookies and then another cookie where I switched the salt and sugar amount. I did this to represent "opposition in all things" and how Adam and Eve didn't really comprehend just how good they had it in the garden because they had never experienced anything different. Anyways, not sure how good of a job I did at describing part of what I did, but hopefully you get an idea. 

We taught Aaron again this week. Man, Aaron sure helps Sister Hamilton and I to improve our teaching skills. We think he understands the message of the Restoration in his head, but not really how it pertains to him or anything... so maybe that really means that he does not truly understand it. We'll still be working with him and helping him understand more fully how he can benefit from it. We asked him to come to church on Sunday, but his mom said no becasue she didn't know who would be there. Hopefully we will be able to teach his mom soon too! We'll see what happens. 

Y'all are such great examples to me and I love you so much! Thanks for all that you do! I hope you have a wonderful week!!! 

ONE YEAR MARK!!

Dear Family!! 

Well this past week has been very good. I feel like I have been learning a lot. Annnnndddd guesss what!!!!! I have officially reached my ONE YEAR MARK on my mission!!!!!! Yeah!!!!! One thing that I did this past week that I was very happy about is that I finished the Book of Mormon in Portuguese. It's been my goal for a while, and on my year mark I finished it! It's so great to know that no matter what language it is, the Book of Mormon is still the word of God and you can feel of its truthfulness as you read. I'm so grateful for the chance that I have to learn a new language on my mission. It has taught me a lot about the spirit. 

One of my own personal goals that I have been working on is to have more structure to my personal study... saying the night before what I am going to study and taking the time to specifically study for our investigators. I feel that it has made such a huge difference to me. When we go into lessons, I feel more prepared and that I have the spirit even more. 

Our investigators have been really great this week.... they're all pretty much back in town!!! The most success that we have had this past week is with one of our investigators named Donna. She is going through a lot of life challenges right now. Her husband passed away 2 months ago, she may have cancer, she is trying to quit smoking, and she is 72 years old. Early in the week we went by and read Alma 32 with her. As we read, we stopped and explained some of the things and related them to her life. It was really touching to see her reaction. Her eyes would light up and you could just tell that she understood it. We left her with a few more chapters to read and then returned on Sunday evening to give her a church tour and take her to the Addiction Recovery Program. It was SOOO good! We brought a member with us on Sunday and Donna had such a great experience. She kept telling us that she didn't know what she was feeling, but that she knew she wanted to keep coming. Donna is keeping all of her commitments and she has such a sincere desire to learn and to grow. It is truly humbling to see!

Aaron Peeps is another one of our investigators. He has a bunch of anxiety, adhd, and some other thing that I can't spell correctly. He has really been helping Sister Hamilton and I to teach simply and creatively. He has a strong desire to strengthen his relationship with God, but it isn't the main priority in his life. I'm not quite sure where to go with him. Our goal for this next week with him is to teach him the restoration one point at a time and to help him get to the point where he understands it on his own. It might take a bit longer, but with Aaron, I do feel like once he understands something, he gets it. Also, Aaron is such a great guy! He has been inviting his mom to every lesson we have with him! She isn't open yet, but I am super hopeful that that will change!

Loretta is coming along very nicely. We haven't had a chance to have a sit down lesson with her in a while since things have been sooo crazy in her life. We did have a lesson this past week with her though and it was good! Her husband was there and he wasn't super open, so we just did the best and shared our testimony to him. He left again Sunday night so hopefully this next week we will be able to have a good lesson with Loretta. We are excited to teach her the Plan of Salvation and invite her to live the Word of Wisdom. Loretta's Sister is a member of the church and Loretta has been receiving a ton of fellowship which is just awesome. 

 President Griffin gave us a charge to give up our weapons of war--to prayerfully consider ways that we can be better and things that we need to give up and to do them. I'm super excited to uncover some more of my personal weapons of war and to give them up and give them over to the Lord. I know that at times I can be impatient, so that is something that I will be giving up and trying to turn my will more in line with God's will. (Ha, I guess that waiting for a VISA is great practice for patience haha!! :))  I'll be praying for more guidance as to things I can improve to be more of the person that God wants me to be and to become more fully converted to him! 

Well this week has been good. I am excited to see how things go this next week and to work super hard. Oh, also this week we weeded this lady's yard. It started to sprinkle and Sister Hamilton and I decided that we were tough so we were going to stick it out... next thing it was DOWN POURING. We got drenched. head and foot. not a dry spot on us. It was super fun! 

Well, I love you all so much!! Thanks for all that you do! 

Sister Spencer

Email from July 14!

Things are going well here! This past week has been a bit slower, but we have still been working hard. We have one investigator that we are working with who is progressing quite well. Her name is Donna. Just for a little bit about Donna, she is 72, her husband passed away a few weeks ago, she may have cancer, and she smokes. Needless to say, all of these things have helped her to humble herself and put her in a position where she wants to learn more and strengthen her relationship with Christ. We’ve taught her the Message of the Restoration and invited her to start reading out of the Book of Mormon, starting with the Introduction and Alma 32. She has made it all th way though the Introduction and is currently working her way through Alma 32. We invited her to the Addiction Recovery Program and she said that she is going to plan on coming! We are very excited to see where things go with her!

We also found another investigator this week named Aaron. We were driving past in our car and Sister Hamilton had the thought to stop and talk to him so we did. We got his information and invited him to learn more and he said yes! Aaron is 19 and has a bunch of health issues—aspbergers, anxiety, adhd, and a few other things. He is very open and receptive to our message though so we are super excited about that! We taught him about half of the Restoration this past week and he believed everything that we said. He is going to be praying daily.

We had to give Winter over to the other set of missionaries and this week we followed up with them on it. They had not done one thing with her, so we have made the executive decision that we are taking her back! One thing that I don’t quite know how to handle with Winter is that her head is very up in the clouds. She has the mentality that whatever happens, happens for a reason. I believe that, but I also believe that it doesn’t hurt to take some initiative ourselves…. We’ll continue working with her.

Loretta is also doing well. We are working to overcome some of her fears and concerns. Her main concern that we have discovered right now is that her 9 year old boy has severe anxiety and she is worried how he would react in a church setting. To counter that, we are working on getting the ward invovled the best that we can now.

One of the less-actives that we have been working with quite a bit is Ann Nelson. We have had some great success with her this past week. She brought up Family History to us and asked if we could teach her some more! We told her what we knew and then directed her to the Family History Center! She is going to go and is super excited about it! When we meet with her this upcoming week we are going to go with her!! 

Oh, also we had a ward activity this past week and my companion and I got assigned the nursery. Man oh man those little tikes are fast! We were only in charge of them for an hour, but every one of them had a goal to get out. We distracted them pretty well and it was fun. There was one little 3 year old who kept trying to kiss me. Don't worry though, I kept turning my head last minute so the only thing he got was my cheek. Sneaky little feller. 

I still have the decision of my VISA ahead of me and I’ve made a list of the pros and cons with it all. I don’t think that one way is more right over the other way which is making it super hard for me to decide. There are a few things that I know that I want to happen, but I’m not sure if it really matters where I go now. I’ll keep y’all updated on what I decide.

Love ya!

Sister Spencer

Fourth of July

Dear Family!! 

Well this past week has been much better than other weeks! Sister Hamilton and I have had a lot of success and it has been great!! 

Sister Hamilton and I have been talking quite a bit about our investigator Winter. She is 21 so she should be going to the YSA ward... which another set of Elders are in charge of. After going back and forth, we both agreed that it would be best if the other Elders took over teaching her since we haven't been able to start teaching her family, despite our efforts. Anyways we set up a lesson where we were going to hand her off and everything. We showed up on time and then next thing we know, Winter and her whole family are outside for the lesson! Never happened before. Well, then the other elders showed up with a member so basically it was a small crowd that was there. Anyways, long story short, we finally got an in with Winter's family and we got the mom's information to teach her, but the mom will only let us teach her when we teach Winter...but we just gave Winter away. So we are going to have to figure that out... :P 

There was one night this week were it was about 8:30 at night. Both Sister Hamilton and I were exhausted and all of our plans, and back-up plans had fallen through and we were out of miles to go drive somewhere. It was a bit discouraging. We decided that we were going to stay out for a half hour longer like we were supposed to and just knock doors. Most of the doors that we knocked nobody was interested. We did find one guy, Victor, who told us that we could come back though.Saturday, we went back and taught him a lesson. It was SUCH an awesome lesson. We gave him a Book of Mormon and he said that he would read it. We tried to just get him to read the intro and testimonies so that we could come back in a week, but he was pretty persistent saying that he wanted to read the whole thing before we came back. We are going to try him back in a few weeks to see where he is at. He had great questions though... like what is my purpose here on earth and what does God expect of me.... I am excited to see where things go with him!! 

We had a bike day this past week (which I love!!!) and we had some really great success with that. It was about 8:30 at night and we were biking home (with where we were at, it took about a half hour to get home). As we were biking past some houses, this guy yelled at us to stop and to help him wax his car (He had a legit 1958 ride.) So, we immediately hopped off our bikes just beaming that someone had stopped to talk to us instead of the other way around. The guy was super nice. His name was Daman and his wife's name was Mary. We talked to him for a bit and they invited us to come over the next day (fourth of July) to eat food and just hang out. We went over on the fourth and got them to come and watch fireworks with us at a members house. (there were a TON of members there). I'm not sure how interested they are in our message right now, but we definitely did put a good foot in the door with helping them feel comfortable around other members. I'd say it was pretty good! 

We have not set a date yet with Loretta because she has been out of town pretty much all week. But on the good side, she has been going camping with members and going over to their houses a bunch. Such great ward fellowship! We are super excited that she is making such good friends in the ward! 

This past week the power of prayer has really stuck out to me. I have been working on making my prayers more sincere and heart-felt. In an article that I read this week, it said: "Do we not marvel as we recognize that when we pray, our Father in Heaven is able to give us His full attention—without any other distractions? He sees us, listens, empathizes, and pours out His love and His Spirit upon us. We can communicate with our Father whether we are able to kneel before Him or speak to Him only through our hearts and minds. We can be assured that He is listening and can answer us through impressions from the Holy Ghost." It is so wonderful to know that God is anxious to support us and wants to hear from us. There have been countless times this past week where Sister Hamilton and I have prayed for something and we have been blessed with it. God is so good! 

I love you alll verrrryyyyy much!!! I can feel all of your prayers in my behalf and I am so grateful for them. Thank you so much! Hope y'all have a great week! 

Much love, 

Sister Beth Spencer

Quick Letter Week

Family!!!!! 

Man oh man it is so nice to get on and read all of your emails! I absolutely LOVE hearing from you! this past week has been a bit of a roller coaster, but I'll just focus on the positives here. 

Things are going super well with our one investigator Loretta. She is super open and accepts everything that we teach her. She has some trouble living the Word of Wisdom, but has expressed a desire to stop so we are going to help her with that. And, even better, the ward involvement is just phenomenal! One of the ward members invited her and her son to go camping for the 4th of July. Loretta has mentioned how she wants to be baptized sometime so we are teaching her and preparing her for baptism. Things are so good with her!  

Joseph Smith

This past week we dropped in on one of our promising investigators, Winter, with our ward missionary leader. Oh goodness it was such a good lesson. Our ward mission leader, Brother Pulver, shared his favorite scripture and then we went in and taught about the importance of prayer. Winter was able to open up with some of her concerns and worries that she has had. We were able to address her concerns and relate it all back to whether or not Joseph Smith is a prophet of God--which we can know through reading, studying, and praying about the Book of Mormon. 

I finished the Book of Mormon today. President Irion gave us a challenge to finish the Book of Mormon by June 30th, today. He goes home today and we get a new mission president. From reading through the Book of Mormon this last time, it has really stuck out to me that people choose to be righteous when they remember God and all that He has done for them, and how through keeping the commandments, we can have lasting peace and joy. Sometimes being obedient isn't the most fun thing in the world and there may be times when it is hard to do what you know you are supposed and no one else is doing it around you. But, by doing it and sticking up for what you know to be true, I know that that will bring the most self-confidence and personal conviction in our lives. I am so grateful for the Book of Mormon and for the chance that I have to teach other people about it and how they can have a remission of sins, receive the Gift of Holy Ghost and continue on their journey towards Christ through baptism. 

Well, I love you all sooo much and I am so thankful for you! Hope you have a great week!!! 

Sister Beth Spencer