Angelo, February 24th, 2025

Hola a todos!!

Some quick updates

- Our 15 year old friend Angelo got baptized this week!! It was a very special service! Missionaries have been visiting him and his family for years now, and he is the first to be baptized. Since December Angelo has been thinking about baptism and if it is right for him. He had many ups and downs with his own feelings, with his family and with friends. But in the end he chose to follow the feelings of the love of God that he has felt. Being a part of his process made his baptism very special. 

- We had zone conference this week, with a special guest from the quorum of the 70s. Eduardo Guerrero. Really awesome man. He taught us how to teach more like Christ. 

Those were the highlights of the week!

Spiritual thought: 3 Nephi 18:24

"24 Therefore, hold up your light that it may shine unto the world. Behold I am the light which ye shall hold up—that which ye have seen me do. Behold ye see that I have prayed unto the Father, and ye all have witnessed."

Jesus Christs invites us to hold up our lights that it can shine to all the world. And guess what, as the scripture says, Jesus is our light! We are invited to be examples of Christ and to show His love through us to all of the world. As we have seen Him do! We must study His life and learn from it! Learn to shine the light of Christ the way Christ shone His!

Question of the week: How can you share the light if Christ this week?

Elder Spencer

                                                

                                            

February 17th, 2025

Hey everyone! How are you doing? I had a great week this week!

This will be a short one.

Here are some highlights:

- It is starting to get cooler at night which is really nice after being in the sun all day.

- The youth had a Completada (completo party selling completos) and Ricardo and Camila (a couple we are teaching) wanted to pull up! Then the next day they came to church!

- Lots of lessons fell, but on the brightside it allowed us to find some people that are interested!

- Today we grilled some meat and chicken as a district, that was pretty fun!

Spiritual thought: Mosiah 2:17

"17 And behold, I tell you these things that ye may learn wisdom; that ye may learn that when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God."

How can you serve someone this week?

Love you all!

Elder Spencer

Nico, February 10th, 2025

This was another week that flew by!

Spiritual thought: Helaman 14:8,13

"8 And it shall come to pass that whosoever shall believe on the Son of God, the same shall have everlasting life.

13 And if ye believe on his name ye will repent of all your sins, that thereby ye may have a remission of them through his merits." 

Come unto Christ and be perfected in Him! His is the only name in which we can receive ever lasting life! 

The highlight was that we found a guy named Nicolas. He was a wife and three little boys. He is really cool and receptive and has lots of questions! On Sunday he came to church with us and loved it!! Saying that he could feel the good energy and wants to go back each week. His littlest boy was crying and had to be taken out, but Nico said that after the 4th or 5th time of going to church he will get used to it! On our visit with him on Tuesday we taught him how to pray. And on Friday he excitedly told us that they had been praying as a family every meal! And in church when he told his little boys that it was prayer time, they were very reverent. Confirming that indeed Nico has been praying as a family! 

Question of the week: who can you reach out to this week to brighten up their day?

Love you all! 

Elder Spencer

We played fútbol with a bunch of our friends!

Honeydew with pineapple ice cream

We had a BBQ Sunday evening!

Sunny Sunday afternoon

One of my friends took a photo of me and used the fancy technology of the AI going around to create this

                                                                            Me and my comp walking 

Exchange with Elder Vidal, we invited his friend Rene to be baptized and he accepted! 

La Familia Guevara Flores, February 3rd, 2025

Hey everybody, it was another fantastic week! I hope everyone in Canada is surviving with the temperature!! Stay warm!

On Tuesday for our district council we didn't end up having access to the church, so instead I asked the secretary in our building if there was an office room in the building, which there was! And it had a large square table. Normally in my district councils I'll stand by a white board in the front well everyone else is sitting in the pews of the chapel. But this time we all sat around the table and it felt like a legit council. Like the "Knights of the Round Table" except it was the Missionaries of the Square Table. We shared our goals for the week and then counciled on how we could improve. It was awesome.

A miracle I saw this week was with the family Guevara Flores from Venezuela. Missioneros have been teaching them for over 2 years on and off. When I first got to this area in October, I got to know them. A father (Pedro), mother(Angelis) and 2 sons (Angelo and Fabian). We had many conversations and lessons with them. Many shared meals. We invited one of the sons to be baptized and he accepted but didnt end up getting baptized when we had planned. The mother is of a different denomination and was baptized there. On Dec. 31st the brother of Angelis died. And our discussions were focused on that. She found a lot of peace in Alma 40 and the Plan of Salvation. We continued to work with them, and a couple days ago we had a miraculous lesson. We went to make perro calientes with them and afterwards we taught about the gospel of Jesus Christ which includes faith, repentance, baptism, the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. And at the end we asked where each of them were in this path. And Angelis said "I have a lot of faith in God, I'm trying so hard each day to be better, I was already baptized *pauses* can I be baptized again? I feel like that's what I need to do. Alongside my family." Fue un milagro no más! We were so excited! And then yesterday their whole family came to church and they loved it!! This week we are going to try setting a date with them. 

We found a bunch of other blest people this week. We think in the next month or two we are going to have 5-8 baptisms. That is if we keep grinding diligently. I love how the mission helps us learn to set achievable goals, plan, prioritize, and conquer. All focused on our purpose as missionaries. 

I went on exchanges with my zone lider in his area, we found a couple people and put a guy that we met on baptismal date. A member of their congregation took us out to papa John's for lunch, it was lit! 

One of my favourite parts of being a missionary is that I get to share my testimony all day everyday!

Spiritual thought: I'd like to bare my testimony that I know that the Book of Mormon is given to us by God, that Joseph Smith was a servant and prophet of the Lord, I know that the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is the true church of Christ. I testify that Jesus Christ is the son of God, our Lord, our Saviour, our Redeemer, the Life and the Light. I testify of these things in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Question of the week: with whom can you share your testimony this week? And will you? If you feel you don't have a testimony or you don't know how to obtain one, feel free to talk to me about it!

I love you all!!

I never thought I'd see this word in Chile

La Familia Guevara Flores

a fruit called "Tuna"

made some bagels

A Bolivian family in the ward

I'll never get tired of this view

exchange with my zone leader

district council around the Square Table

Santiago Norte lo mejor misión

Superman

Cambios, January 27th, 2025

Hey everyone!

Updates

- Geraldine got baptized, the 9 year old sister of Anette who got baptized in Dec. 

- My 2nd son in the mission has left to do great things, he got transferred out and is now way out in the campo or country side. I feel bad because it was way hotter out there then in the city.

- my new comp is from Argentina, Elder Roblez. He's the absolute goat! Love him. 

- We had lots of ward activities and bbqs 

- some service projects

- we have a lot of people progressing which is awesome!

Spiritual thought: It is a bit long but read these verses and change the word "charity" with "Jesus Christ" and pay attention to how you feel. 

44 If so, his faith and hope is vain, for none is acceptable before God, save the meek and lowly in heart; and if a man be meek and lowly in heart, and confesses by the power of the Holy Ghost that Jesus is the Christ, he must needs have charity; for if he have not charity he is nothing; wherefore he must needs have charity. 

45 And charity suffereth long, and is kind, and envieth not, and is not puffed up, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil, and rejoiceth not in iniquity but rejoiceth in the truth, beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. 

46 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, if ye have not charity, ye are nothing, for charity never faileth. Wherefore, cleave unto charity, which is the greatest of all, for all things must fail— 

47 But charity is the pure love of Christ, and it endureth forever; and whoso is found possessed of it at the last day, it shall be well with him.

Question of the week: How can you obtain more of charity or come closer to Christ this week?

Love you all,

Elder Spencer

Haircut Mishap, January 13th, 2025

It was a productive week this week.

On Tuesday we has a special meeting as a zone with our mission president. On Monday at 10:40pm I was called and asked to give a training for 20min. My assigned topic was "How can asking inspired questions help someone fulfill a promise." I was pretty nervous because I also had to finish up another training I gave in our district council. My district is 6 missionaries and my zone is 20 missionaries. I was a lot more nervous for the zone training. But both ended up going super well. And I learned a lot of things from my mission president.

One of the main things I learned from president Gutiérrez was about Christ like attributes. If you want to study those, the Preach My Gospel has it it in chapter 6. My president taught that if we have faith in Christ, we will be naturally motivated to be 1. obedient and 2. diligent. And if we are obedient and diligent we will have integrity. He then mentioned 3 things on both obedience and diligence that we are struggling with as a mission. One of those things is problems with technology. This was a problem in my district. But this week I had the chance to minister to the missionaries in my district and help us to refocus on our purpose. And I saw the blessings come from it in their goals that they set. 

Now, one more thing I should mention, last week I needed to get a hair cut, so I planned on doing it. Then one of the sister missionaries was like "I cut hair" and I thought, oh sweet, free haircut, I can eat this week! So it turns out she was just kidding, and told me that this was legit her first time cutting hair... aand she had already started. She had seen 1 or 2 videos haha and full sent it. She did an alright job, for her first time. But here is the funny part, I didn't have any time to get it fixed up for when I had to do a training in front of the zone and president! So I went up there, with my hair all uneven, patchy and partially bald in some parts, looked a bit shaggy and messy. I got some comments, some weird looks and went and got it recut afterwards. I should've learned from the past 2 times a missionary cut my hair haha. The first time was a buzz cut over a year ago and the second time my ear got cut. 

I got to give two baptismal interviews this week. Which is my favourite part of being a district leader. It helps me connect with the person, I am given an opportunity to see how effectively my missionaries teach. I get the opportunity to bare my testimony and hear their testimony and how they have come to know Christ and the miracles they've seen. It is really special. 

On our volleyball night we normally have 15 people show up. But this time we had over 40!!!! It was insane! And a lot of fun!! I'm surprised at how well it went.

Spiritual thought: A quote by Elder Kyle S. McKay

"I have learned that Jesus Christ truly is “of a forgiving disposition.” It is neither His mission nor His nature to condemn. He came to save."

This is so true. Many people I've met are to afraid to repent, thinking it's a punishment. Or the God doesn't love them because of the things they've done. But really that's all a lie thay Satan tells us. Because in reality God sent His son Jesus Christ to die for us. To save us from our condemnation! Not the opposite.

Question of the week: How have you shown your love to God this week?

Love you all!!

Elder Spencer

volleyball (lots of people went home before the picture was taken)

the moon over Santiago

this mornings hike

dug a grave for a cat

snowman vibes

the training with the zone

                                                                                        sunset photos