Ironing Board...bonk! September 30, 2024

Another week has flown by.

It started off with a sweet district council on Tuesday. Where we did some practices. It was a little strange because there are only 4 of us in our district. During my mission I've been in districts of 8 or 6. But of 4? It feels strange haha. 

My companion and I finally received our Sim card on Friday! It has been nice having it, definitely is a blessing to the work. But I will admit our time without the chip has been a lot of fun! We found 14 people this week to teach. We felt like our fathers, doing the work without a cellphone, it was awesome! We definitely saw the hand of the Lord each and everyday, working miracles in our lives. 

This week we had zone conference! It was fun seeing a lot of my missionary friends. Sadly I wasn't able to see any missionaries from my last sector, I was a little saddened by that. The messages were great! We talked a lot about doctrine and principles. We finally got an ironing board! Because this house didn't have one and we all definitely needed an ironing board. But then... on our way home in the metro, my comp lost it.. bonk. But I guess someone was blessed with an ironing board! 

My roommates found out that I had some calesthenics workouts and they dubbed me workout coach. We completed our first day today, I ain't gonna go easy on us haha. 

Some weird/funny/odd experiences I've had in the streets:

- a group of men chanted Satan and the devil at us as we passed them.

- there was a drunk lady that tried to hit on us.

- flew a kite, cut my fingers on the string, and found some new people to teach.

- my white shirt got splattered from a bunch of berries the fell from a tree.

- someone threw an apple at us.

When we introduce ourselves as missionaries to doors we knock, I like to ask people a specific question: if you could ask God one thing, could be about literally anything, what would you ask Him? I like this question because it actually makes them stop and think instead of slamming the door and rejecting us out of habit. I've heard a plethora of interesting questions.

There are two scriptures I like, both from the Book of Mormon. The first is in Mormón 9:21 and the second is in Moroni 10:5. And they read:

"21 Behold, I say unto you that whoso believeth in Christ, doubting nothing, whatsoever he shall ask the Father in the name of Christ it shall be granted him; and this promise is unto all, even unto the ends of the earth."

"5 And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things"

Anything we ask God, in faith in Christ and real intention, the knowledge or blessings will be bestowed upon us throw the power of the Holy Ghost. This is a powerful and wonderful promise! Doubt not our faith but doubt our doubts and ask God. 

I love you all and hope you've all had a wonderful week!

Elder Spencer

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cooked with Carlson

my mission parents

rip that van

alfahores with Carlson

massive lemons on a lemon tree

trip home from the zone conference... without our ironing board

Guess Who's Back? September 24, 2024

Wuena wuena! Como estamos??

I have left Compañía! It was pretty sad, I loved the members, the area and the missionaries. 

My last couple days were filled with packing, saying goodbye to members, making tacos with the district, and that's about it jaja. It was really hard saying goodbye to my companion, Elder Johnson. We had a great time together. He's become a real brother for sure. 

We got transfer news on Tuesday and I left Wednesday morning. Went to the chapel and found out I'm going to an area called Rosendes in the zone Zapadores. I've come to open an area. Basically Rosendes got split and me and my new comp are opening the new side. My new comp is named Elder Pierce. He's a great dude from Virginia and has about 6 months in the mission! 

We live in a four man with the other elders that are in Rosendes. One of them has been here for two transfers before, his name is Elder Harris. Actually Elder Pierce and Elder Harris were companions in the missionary training center at the start of their missions. And Elder Harris' new comp is the one and only.... Elder Carlson!!! Remember him?? We shared a ward and a house a year ago when we both came to Chile! He's a goat. Great Elder! He's an example to me and I'm very excited to work with him again!

The work here has been awesome! We don't have a chip for our phone, nor whatsapp to talk to anyone, nor a area book to know where anyone lives. So we've just been sending it to find people and pray they remember to let us in later. We started with 0 people to teach and 0 people with interest. And in this week we found 7 people to teach and 20 people with interest! We are making progress  from literally nothing. I feel happy and motivated in the work! We don't know when we will receive all the useful tools, so we will still be sending it until that point.

Spiritual thought: DyC 11:12-13

"12 And now, verily, verily, I say unto thee, put your trust in that Spirit which leadeth to do good—yea, to do justly, to walk humbly, to judge righteously; and this is my Spirit. 

13 Verily, verily, I say unto you, I will impart unto you of my Spirit, which shall enlighten your mind, which shall fill your soul with joy;"

These past couple days as I've relied on the Holy Spirit more and more. I've definitely received the blessings of having my soul filled with joy! I am grateful for the gift of the Holy Ghost and the many roles He plays in our life's. Look for the Spirit in your life and put your trust in Him.

Question of the week: Why is relying on the Holy Ghost important to you? 

Love you all!!

Elder Spencer

Orange Juice, September 16, 2024

This was an interesting week!

- We got a random call asking if we could go to a new glasses store that was opening and offer a prayer. So we went, gave the prayer, got free Ray Bands, went upstairs and toasted with orange juice well the rest had champagne, and ate some food!

- We saw a couple riots that got a little violent, we are safe. 

- On Saturday we had a ward party, celebrating Chile's national day! Lots if food, music, games, and traditional dances! 

- A guy with a saxophone laughed at us with his sax.

- I had the opportunity to give two baptismal interviews. They were both baptized on Sunday. 

Spiritual thought: "As we genuinely and continually strive to learn of the Savior and follow His example, I promise you, in His name, that His divine attributes will be written in our minds and hearts, that we will become more like Him, and that we will walk with Him." - By Elder Ulisses Soares (In Awe of Christ and His Gospel, April 2022)

Question of the week: How can you genuinely strive to learn of the Saviour?

Elder Spencer

The Famine, September 9, 2024

Holis! 

This week we had a famine in Compañía. We didn't have a single lunch this week. Usually we do just by members of our congregation, but this week, nothing. That's never happened in my year in Chile... one day we cooked, one day we had a little buy of food at interviews, another day the sister missionaries wanted to cook for us, 2 days we bought pizza, another day I was gone in another area and on Sunday we finally had a member meal and it was some amazing lasagna!

We had interviews on Wednesday with our mission president. It was very very good. I recommend that people read “Deny Yourselves of All Ungodliness” By Elder Neal A. Maxwell. We didn't talk about this in our interview but it talks a lot about what we talked about. 

This afternoon we had an interesting lesson with a man named Jorge. He wanted a Book of Mormon to read, because he's read the Bible, Quran, and other religious books. So now it is time to read ours. And we were happy to bring him one. We answered a lot of questions he threw at us. Aand he still has more, but he wants to wait to ask us so he has time to read and find out for himself. 

I went on two exchanges this week, both out of my area. It was nice leaving for a bit, to be outside in the fresh air. It has started feeling suffocating in the city. In the second exchange we were able to find three new people to teach, 2 with a very high chance of progressing, so that was great for the Elders there!

Spiritual thought: A quote from the talk afformentioned

"So it is that real, personal sacrifice never was placing an animal on the altar. Instead, it is a willingness to put the animal in us upon the altar and letting it be consumed! Such is the “sacrifice unto the Lord … of a broken heart and a contrite spirit,” (D&C 59:8)." This is an interesting image. In ancient biblical times they used to sacrifice live animals in a representation of Jesus Christ and His sacrifice. Now God still asks us to sacrifice, but now in a more personal way. To give up the natural man, the animal inside of us so to speak. Our natural tendencies as animals is to do as we see animals do. We need to put our natural tendencies on the alter and offer it to Christ. Whether that be offering up your anger, your hate, your lust, your hunger, your addictions, your slothfulness,  anything and everything that will and can distract you from God. Lay it upon the alter and offer Him a broken heart and a contrite spirit. 

Question of the week: What can you offer up to the Lord?

Love you all!! I'll be praying for you🙏

Elder Spencer

Pizza

On our hike we ran into a group doing a photo shoot, and they were with redbull and speaking English. So we went and talked with a lot of them and they were all break dancers on tour! A lot of them were actually in the Olympics and one was a Japanese woman that one gold! (I wasn't able to actually watch said Olympics this year but we found out after talking to them!) Most were from different parts of Europe including: England, Denmark, Switzerland. Then some from Japan, Korea and Chile. Anyways we got a picture with some of them.

                                                                Preparation day hill hike

18 de septiembre is coming up! (National day of chile)

Niche de hogar with la famila Rosas

Noche de hogar with Jorge, Marisol and their daughter Olivia

My good friend Daniel

                                        I don't know how who needed the hug more, me or the dog

Jesus art

Comp had one of those weeks

Mission Conference, September 2, 2024

Halo!

This week I had a special opportunity to have a baptismal interview with a friend of the sister missionaries. We had a wonderful conversation and interview. I could feel his excitement and desire to be baptized. He told me his life story, he shared his testimony, what he learned from the missionaries etc. And most importantly I felt the Holy Ghost present in our interview. And then later that week was his actual baptism and I felt very joyful for him! 

I want to testify about the power of priesthood blessings, this week I had numerous opportunities to give priesthood blessings. For each one I received unique and divine revelation by the power of the Holy Ghost. A priesthood blessings, for those that don't know, is a special blessing given by priesthood holders. It has different uses, blessings of health, blessings of strength and comfort, and some others. And it is done by the laying on of hands upon the head of the person. And the person giving the blessing says what he feels inspired to say. For me in spanish it is like perfect spanish phrases entering my mind. I can testify that it is divine power because many people have commented that my spanish is a lot better during the blessings then when I regularly speak. 

We also had a mission wide conference this week with our area 70 named Elder Costa and his wife. They talked about our missionary purpose and why it should always be the center of our attention in our day to day tasks. I also got to see a lot of my missionary friends and more importantly I saw my son! Elder Pereira from Guatemala who I just was with for 3 months! He is doing pretty good, is in a rough area but he's motivated! It was really good seeing him, I didn't realize how much I really missed him till I had to say goodbye again. Thats something I have a two way relationship with. I love meeting new people and making friends for life, but I don't like saying goodbye or even see you later. 

Spiritual thought: Matthew 5:14-16

"14 Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. 

15 Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. 

16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven."

I love this part of Jesus's sermon on the mount. His guidance on how we should share the light we have. Not under a bushel hidden away, but on a candlestick to shine unto all that we know. That all may come to know, through your good works, our Father which is in heaven. 

Questions of the week: How can you let your light so shine this week? And how have you seen the light from someone else this past week?

Love you all!

Elder Spencer

                                                            

                                                                        an alpaca with real alpaca fur

                                    we had lunch with a member in a retired chilean air force club restaurant 

 empanadas with our friend Naru

me and the latino boys

completo

Hill, Santa Lucia

me and Elder Pereira 

Skipper, the gigantic cat, nicknamed Garfield

Julio Corbates, August 26, 2024

Hola a todos!

Highlights:

- We started teaching a guy recently named Julio that has been selling ties to missionaries and mission presidents for 20 years now. Lots of missionaries have talked with him in the street but we were the first to ever have a visit in his house! It was really awesome. Look him up on Facebook: Corbatas Julito. Absolute legend!

- On Wednesday I got to go to my mission presidents home. It is outside of my mission but still in Santiago. We literally went up this winding mountain pass thing. And I can say with 100% certainty that the grass is greener on the other side in the east mission. It was really nice over there! I felt I was back in Sherwood Park! And president lives in an apartment building but the elevator brought us into his home . That is his front door! They have a couple floors in that apartment. 

- Now for why I was there, president started a new tradition. To have a district leader training in personinstead of over zoom. So we sat there for about 7 hours listening to him talk. It was all interesting and I learned a ton! I was definitely motivated and blessed to feel the spirit. I also got to see a lot of my missionary friends so that was great!

- I did an intercambio with a new Elder in my district. He has a couple weeks in Santiago. I definitely remember feeling how he felt. His names Elder Godfrey. Really great guy, ready to work and learn. Even though 4/5 of our lessons fell through and canceled we were able to keep a smile on our faces! 

- I made some lemon bars for a ward activity! They all loved it and got eaten up pretty fast.

Spiritual thought: DyC 110:4

"4 I am the first and the last; I am he who liveth, I am he who was slain; I am your advocate with the Father." I love my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. I am eternally grateful for Him. For the chance He gives me to return to our Heavenly Parents who are waiting with their loving arms open to receive me. Jesus Christ lives. He will come again. I want to be ready when He comes. And I want to help the world be ready to receive Him. That is why I'm serving a mission. Not to convince people to come unto Christ. But to invite them to come unto Him who is the advocate with the Father. To know He who was slain but liveth. To know the might of the first and the last. I testify of my Lord and Redeemer. That He loves you and wants to have a personal relationship with you. In the name of Jesus Christ amen.

Challenge of the week: share your testimony of Jesus Christ with someone and with me through email, I'd love to hear them😊.

I love you all!! Have a lovely week!

Elder Spencer

                                                        

                                                                                                blossoms

 intercambio with Elder Godfrey

pizza party with the hermanas we ward share with

chilean flag

a pingüino milkshake

the drive home from president's home

Julio Corbatas (we of course had to buy some ties well with him)

street contact with a lady that asked us how she can get baptized

leadership meeting in the house of pres