December 12, 2011

My family and friends,

Well I just got back from the center of São Paulo a little bit late so I don't have very much time to write. I am going to write as quick as I can. After speaking to mom and Dad, I felt an incredible sense of peace. I haven't been able to sleep because of the excitement I feel. There are many emotions that I have been feeling, but through all of them I have felt an incredible sense of peace. I was incredibly comforted by these scriptures. In Salto de Pirapora, I remember one morning when I was feeling particularly low. I cried to the Lord in prayer, and I felt what is described in these verses. I felt it happen to me. I felt the burden made light,

Mosiah 24:12 And Alma and his people did not raise their voices to the Lord their God, but did pour out their hearts to him; and he did know the thoughts of their hearts.

13 And it came to pass that the voice of the Lord came to them in their afflictions, saying: Lift up your heads and be of good comfort, for I know of the covenant which ye have made unto me; and I will covenant with my people and deliver them out of bondage.

14 And I will also ease the burdens which are put upon your shoulders, that even you cannot feel them upon your backs, even while you are in bondage; and this will I do that ye may stand as witnesses for me hereafter, and that ye may know of a surety that I, the Lord God, do visit my people in their afflictions.

15 And now it came to pass that the burdens which were laid upon Alma and his brethren were made light; yea, the Lord did strengthen them that they could bear up their burdens with ease, and they did submit cheerfully and with patience to all the will of the Lord.

16 And it came to pass that so great was their faith and their patience that the voice of the Lord came unto them again, saying: Be of good comfort, for on the morrow I will deliver you out of bondage.

I felt my burdens taken upon His shoulders. They have been on His shoulders and mine now for over a year, and many, many times it has taken me to my knees. This past week, I heard the voice of the Lord through my Mission President, a counselor, and my parents say "Be of good comfort, for on the morrow I will deliver you out of bondage."

I know that God is willing to guide us in our lives as we are preparing to return home to his presence. I know that life will go on after the mission, and trials still exist, but I believe that this is the very best for me at this time in my life. I am so grateful for the tremendous support I have received from all. I feel very loved, and cherished, and many days it was your love that helped me through. I cannot wait to hug you and be with you and share my gratitude personally with you.

Love, Elder Spencer Calvert

November 21, 2011

Wow, well I just received a call from my mission President and he said he woke up late last night and felt that I ought to serve in Osasco. So I am being transfered Wednesday to serve in two wards in Osasco and I will continue as a Zone Leader. This is quite a shock for me, he complimented me and said that the Stake President here spoke extremely highly of me and that he joked around and said that he wants me to come live here after my mission. My heart feels soft, because of a simple compliment. I am going to be really sad to say good bye to those in my zone, for I truly love them, particularly my angel companion. We created a great bond very quickly.

I don't have much time to write, but I want to share an experience that happened this last week. I was feeling very low. I got on my knees before I left to work, and I prayed very sincerely for the Lord to help me. I asked him to bless me as I was walking in the street so that I could really feel his presence with me. I wiped the tears from my eyes, said a prayer with my companion and walked out the door. 1 minute later I got a call from the Secretaries and they said that Elder Knoblauch, my dear friend here on the mission, wanted to talk to me. I heard him say hello and he said, "Ahh I just wanted to hear your voice man, how are you." I told him about the prayer I had said, and he said that for some reason he knew he was going to talk to me that day. It was a tender mercy from the Lord, and a very quick, immediate answer. Elder Knoblauch and I are kind of switching places, because he is in Osasco and he will come here, and I will go fill his spot. He truly is a friend. One timely phone call.

I will be thinking about you on Thursday as I am having my first full day in my new area. I am excited for the newness and the new relationships that are to be found, and sad to say goodbye to people here. I will really miss this area, and the people, but I believe that it is from God. I love you very much. Thank you for praying for me. I will be praying for you.

Love, Spencer

November 14, 2011

My heart is really tender today. Do you think that because I was spoiled so much during my youth, that my mission is hard for me? It seems ridiculous to me because everything is going so well, there are relatively few difficulties, but still for me just being here seems so hard some days. My companion from the CTM, is going home tonight, 6 months early. He will be getting on a plane at 10:30, when I am getting ready to go to bed.

I want you to know, that I love my companion, and the zone is doing so well. I have many friends here in this ward, and in this mission. I think I'm feeling more sensitive because I am thinking about Elder Bavender. I am trying to trust in the Lord and come closer to Him during this time. Thank you for supporting me. I love you with all of my heart and I am going to try to give more and more to the Lord.

Love, Spencer

Elder Fonseca- New Companion

Well this last week was very busy. My companion is wonderful. In talking about the work and our plans, I got emotional telling him how grateful I am to serve with him. Elder Fonseca is one of the kindest people I know. He is so gentle and calm and peaceful about everything. He is a very loyal friend and son. His father passed away when he was 14 but I had no idea about it until a conversation a few days ago. He is very humble, and very mature. He has a girlfriend at home who he is very sure is going to marry, and I am very impressed how he lets this motivate him to work hard. It has been very wonderful to serve with him. We are reactivating a family and going to baptize their children in the next few weeks. The zone drastically improved this week. Many more people are progressing towards baptism. I am feeling much more peace about the work.

I sent many, many pictures, and I'm excited that you can have them all! Bishop Tyler and his wife came to the ward and I got to see them on Sunday! It was really nice to see them. It's great to have friends here.

Monday, Elder Evans of the Seventy and Elder Godoy of the Area Presidency came and talked to our mission, so we had p-day today. We went to the zoo today with the zone, and it was a blast. Usually everything is closed on Monday, so it was good to be able to take advantage of the Wednesday P-day and go to the zoo.

The picture of the monkey and the bird was hilarious. All of these monkeys were playing some sort of game to see who was brave enough to slap the bird on the back. They would sneak up on it, almost touch it, touch it lightly and then slap it and the bird would try to snap at them and they would run away. One time it did it with its foot. It was really funny, so I took a picture and wanted to send it to you.

Mom, I got 3 packages, thank you very very much! I started opening one but I saw Christmas wrapping paper so I taped it back up. I gave away nearly all of the candies, snacks and protein bars on the bus going back to our areas after transfers but it was a lot more satisfying than it would be eating it by myself. I saved the pumpkin bread to make for my zone.

I'm glad to hear that Grandpa and Grandma are going better. Grandpa must look very good in that new suit. He is a handsome man, and I'm grateful for his stature, strong shoulders, broad chest, because I think I got that from him.

October 31, 2011

We had a baptism! We are helping reactivate a family and we noticed that this little boy wasn't baptized so we worked really quick and he was baptized and confirmed yesterday. He is 9 years old an bore a sweet testimony of the gospel, very eagerly after he got dried off and was dressed back his clothes.

Today we had our last zone activity at this pizza restaurant and we made our own pizzas. We all ate a lot together and had a lot of fun socialing with the owner and his family. I played uno with his daughters and some other missionaries.

So I will be staying here in Santana and I will be receiving Elder Fonseca. I already served in the same district as him and in the same zone for all of my time in Freguesia do Ó. He is an amazing man, very kind and a very hard worker. I admire him so much from the time we have already spent together, and I am very excited about serving with him. I feel amazing about this next transfer. Our zone moved a lot, and we have amazing missionaries here in the zone. It's going to be a very successful transfer I believe. I really have faith that the work here in this Stake is going to make lots of progress right now.

Tuesday night, My companion and I had a meeting with the Stake Presidency and he asked a little bit about what was happening with the drops in the numbers. We are planning on doing a Stake Missionary Activity not this next weekend, but the following, and it is going to be very powerful. We are going to talk about the fears we feel as member missionaries, how to invite people to hear more about the church, and how to do an easy family night with your friends and the missionaries. It is going to be a wonderful next few weeks.

I'm excited to receive the letter from Daniel. He is such a dear friend of mine, I hope he knows how much I love him and think of him here as well. Every morning I exercise and I think of our times at Gold's Gym. He could destroy me right now in all of our lifts, but I'll catch up one day!

It was a good week. The work is wonderful. Love, Spencer

October 24, 2011

Well this last week was another good week.

I don't have a lot of new things to tell you, but I wanted to share an experience that happened at lunch one day this week. It was with a man in our ward that I love. He is almost 80 years old, and he literally has a twinkle in his eyes. I love him very much and I always give him a big hug when I see him. All of his daughters are married in the Temple, and the last one is engaged and will be married in the Temple. For some time now, his wife hasn't been going to church. She has only been one time in all of the time I've been here. I see this man, who is so faithful, working in the Temple, doing visits. The man who passed away in our ward was one of his best friends. After we ate lunch I was giving a message, and I told him and his wife how much I love them and being at their house. We always joke and play and laugh together. His eyes welled up with tears and I knew his heart was very sensitive that day. After we prayed his wife said, stay here talking, I'll do the dishes really quick. We began talking and I asked him what was wrong and he began to cry and cry. He expressed some of his feelings and he asked us to give him a blessing. The words came to my mind from the Lord and I believe that he was comforted.

I am trying, and I will continue to try to be the best man that I can be. I feel like I'm watching things fall apart, but I'm grateful that I could comfort one man this week. I don't know what it is the Lord wants me to learn right now. Maybe this is the humility that Morgan was describing, but I feel so amazingly weak. Transfers are this next week, and I don't know what is going to happen.

I really need your prayers. I love you.

Love, Spencer

October 17, 2011

Elder Lew is one of the Assistants and he will go home at the end of this transfer. It ends in two weeks, on November 2nd when I will have been here 1 year and 5 months. Time is flying by. You asked me to share some of the work with you. This has been a large struggle this last transfer in our entire zone. I am striving to help improve the work we are accomplishing, It is often on my mind. We did have an experience this week that really touched me and taught me a good lesson. Actually two. The first is about the importance of acting without delay. We were calling and following up with each companionships and seeing about the updates about references they have been receiving. One companionship was unaware of two references they had received from church headquarters. They went by there the following day and called us to say that the man passed away a month ago. I don't know what the situation was, but inside of me settled sense urgency. Not a sense of running faster then I have strength, but a sense of urgency and purpose in our work.

The second experience that really touched me was a man named Marco. In between the sessions of conference Elder Macfarlane and I (my friend who lived next door, is in the same group as me and is now in my zone) were talking outside of a pizza restaurant. We were talking in English and Marco began talking to us. We talked for a while and we said we would call this next week. Well I forgot. But when I remembered we decided to pass by his house. He looked out the window and said in a Brazilian accent with a huge smile, "just a minute guys". He has a very pretty well kept house and his wife is very sweet. Her name is Renata and they have a 2 year old son named Thiago. We talked for a long time and got to know them well. Marco told us about his first contact with missionaries, which was the experience that really touched me. He said that a few years ago the missionaries had marked to go by his house, but when they came he didn't answer the door because he had heard bad things about the church. After a new coworker talked about the church with him, he learned that it wasn't anything like he had heard, and when we talked outside the pizza place he was so kind. He went out to his car to get a picture of his son to show us. What I learned from this is that no act goes unrecognized. Whoever those two missionaries were that talked to him, I am so grateful to them for because of that initial contact, he was opened to our contact with him. Because of the example of his coworker, he learned that members of the church are not crazy. I felt the Spirit so strong, and as I talked about Eternal Families, Renata began crying. We didn't teach much, we just talked about the importance of what we do, and how we leave our families because we want to bring the happiness we have to others. It was a very sweet visit .

I'm going to try to send you a picture of this morning. I spent many hours just writing letters! Love, Spencer