It was another really fast week. I blinked and I only have about 4 weeks left. But a lot happened so I actually have interesting stories to write about. It's kinda long but worthwhile if you decide to stick around.
Tuesday highlights
🌿- went to a lesson with our boy Richard who lives out in the countryside on the side of a hill. And we arrived, he let us in and proceeded to show us his harvest. He pulled out a plastic bag with some crushed up green leaves, pulled out a piece of paper and rolled up some of his Mary Jane and asked if I wanted a puff. I politely declined to which he asked if I wanted to try some of this other plant that he had growing with the promise that I'd feel out of this world. Then he cautioned me that it was strong and that even he was hesitant to try it haha. I also declined, shared a scripture and left. I don't think we will return to visit Richard anytime soon.
🌊- then we visited Amanda and her family, I asked if she'd be at all interested in baptism or her children and she said yes! But that she knows she has to get married first, but that her children can get baptized if they want to!
👨🏻🍳- then we had and awesome family home evening with my boy Anthony, his family, and the hermanas. We ate Venezuelan arepas😋 and chicha, a drink made out of noodles.
Wednesday
🚎- in the morning we did the bus strat, and ended up going over a bridge and into a town we never encountered before. Only one person of the bajillion houses we knocked was interested.
👥️- then in the afternoon we went around visiting members with the misioneras to get to know them more and boost the member-missionary relation.
Thursday
🍕- it was a disheartening day. No one wanted to listen. But then I said a prayer in my heart and we found three people, then we went and had a couple fuego lessons, finally were able to contact a friend that had been really sick, and then went and ordered pizza with a member named Memo.
Friday
😇- this was my last zone conference of my mission, still doesn't feel real. But it was a banger. Top 3 zone conferences I've been to for sure. Why was it so good you may ask? Because it was very spiritually uplifting. Beautiful messages, wonderful analogies, a lovely musical number, watched a clip from Kung Fu Panda 1, the food was alright, I got to see some missionary friends, I received lots of personal revelation, and I felt the spirit strongly. The main focus was on Chapter 6 of Preach My Gospel: Seek Christlike attributes. It was great! This will be the focus of the mission for my last transfer. I feel like it is perfect for me to have me fully thinking in Christ and how I can become more like Him right before I go home, that way I have a focus for my return.
🥳- to get to and from zone conferences we have to take a 2 hour van ride through the mountains/countryside/valleys. On the way there we normally sleep as it is very early in the morning, and on the way back we talk and socialize and read scriptures. It's great. There are usually about 10 of us missionaries. But on our way home, literally at the halfway point, our van broke down. Ceased to work. It was pretty much dark ya, and there was about 0 cell signal, except for one hermana that was doing duolingo, in hindsight I don't know why we didn't ask to use her phone to call someone. But luckily there was another van carrying 8 other missionaries that passed by us and stopped. After about 20min of trying to fix the van on the side of the highway, they decided to put all 18 of us missionaries, 10 Elderes y 8 Hermanas, into one van that had 11 seats including the driver. On top of that each of us had our bags and stuff from the zone conference. It was two big messy dog pile, actually the hermanas were well ordered but us elderes.. we were all over the place. So we drove like that for an hour before we started dropping everyone of. We had the whole zone there except for 2 Elders, whom we FaceTimed to include them. Since we joined the other van, everybody in there got dropped off first, so that meant that instead of it being a 2 hour drive in total, it turned into a 3 ½ hour drive. But eh, what a great memory haha.
🎤- then me my comp and the hnas went to the ward activity, which just so happened to be karaoke and completos. W for the completos and I guess karaoke was fun, but I already had a headache from the van ride, even though I took an ibuprofen it didn't help much. I guess what an old Chilean lady once told me is true, ibuprofen is not for headaches, even if it says they are on the packaging jaha. But we sang a couple songs, out of tune from how tired we were but fun nonetheless. My comp, Elder Cruz, absolutely loved it and pulled out energy from who knows where.
Saturday
🥄- we started off the day with weekly planning as a normal Saturday goes. Then we went and visited some people before lunch with the bishop and his wife. They are a hilarious old couple that both speak really quietly but can hear each other, yet when we talk to then we have to raise our voices. And bishop always eats his chicken with a spoon #legend.
😇- after that we booked it to Putaendo, the little town up north to find and teach some lessons. First we passed by a lovely old lady named Rosa, only had 5min to teach her, so we started teaching about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and about prayer. It ended up beeing a really spiritual 5min. It's a powerful yet very humbling feeling as a missionary when you open your mouth and speak by the power of the Holy Ghost.
🔥- after Rosa we went to visit an inactive family that me and Elder Luna found way back when. We pull up and the dad (whom we've never met) is chilling in front of a fire, he immediately sees us and welcomes us in. We meet the rest of the family. And it turns out that only 2 children of the family of 6 had gotten baptized years and years ago.
🥺- then we went to a visit with a recent convert and her husband. We only had 20 minutes of time with them before we had to dash back to San felipe for a noche de hogar with Memo our neighbour to make empanadas. But that lesson ended up being an hour. I felt bad for arriving late to Memos but I know God needed me to be with Mercedes and Claudio. Claudio told us his story, and it left me feeling depressed, tears were running down his and my faces. I didn't have any words to say so I just mourned with him that mourned. Normally when someone tells me about their problems and stories, I try to block out the sadness and keep a steady mind to try and be a rock for them. But the spirit whispered to me to let his anguish affect me, that I didn't need to say anything, that it is ok to cry with him. I said a shaky prayer at the end, gave him a big hug, told him that yes God loves him, that I love him, then we left. I can recognize now that I felt the pure love of Christ for him.
🧀- then we came back to San Felipe, apologized to Memo and the hermanas for being an hour late (oops) and grubbed some delicious cheese empanadas
Sunday
🗣- We had stake conference yesterday, it was really good, we had 3 friends watch it and a lot of our recent converts. My mission president and his wife spoke, fire talks. And then the area 70 spoke and wanted to thank all the full time missionaries, so he had us all stand up. Then he told everyone to sit back down but for an Elder Spencer to stay standing and come up to the pulpit as he is finishing his mission. So I started the walk, I choose to sit in like the triple overflow so it was a rather long walk. I kept walking and finally arrived and bore my testimony and went down. Then the 70 started to talk about me and my future haha. Here is a translation: "Elder Spencer has had a joyful mission but the joy won't stop here, he will go home and get married (paused to look up at me) you got a girlfriend? He says no! You'll just have to find someone then. But before you know it you'll have one kid, then 2 kids, then 3 kids, and you'll be studying, then 4 kids and more till 7 kids and you'll be working then you'll have grandchildren. There is still a lot more joy to come!" He said some more but that's the just of it. And literally every single person that talked to me after either brought up that the 70 said I'd have 7 kids or that I'm going home. Oof.
🍩- after that we met up as all the missionaries to take a photo with Pres and his wife, then ate donuts. Then some hermanas in my district had a baptism, and we left. The afternoon consisted of lunch, contacts and then we had asado.
Today
😴- had to wake up at 3:30am to drop my comp off at the airport as he is going to argentina for the day, I'm sending the day in a dif área with a couple Elders.
Spiritual thought: 1 Nephi 17:50
"50 And I said unto them: If God had commanded me to do all things I could do them. If he should command me that I should say unto this water, be thou earth, it should be earth; and if I should say it, it would be done."
An hermana shared this with me in district council on Tuesday and it hit different. Whatever God commands us to do we can have full confidence that we can complete it.
Challenge of the week: How can serve someone this week?
Love you all!!
Elder Spencer
- stake conference
- bus stop 24, lit place
- horses
- arepas
- the first part of the bus journey before the 18 missionaries in one, the second van was much smallest
- with Elder Cruz
- with memo
