October 25, 2010

Dear Family and Friends,

Every week passes like a blink but so, so much happens. I want to start with Wednesday. We've had this woman Daniela and her two little boys going to church for two weeks now. We went to their house and she has 2 little sisters, Laura and Leticia that live there too. 9 people total, lots of people! So right before we went in we stopped and prayed to invite the Spirit. I was the most nervous before teaching about the restoration then I had been in a long time because I knew she was liking church and I really wanted it to be a powerful first lesson. I was praying during the lesson the whole time when my companion was speaking and trying so hard to listen to any “brush” of the Spirit on my mind so I could know what to say. We taught a very Spiritual first lesson, Daniela asked me what I felt about my first time in church and I explained I was born a member but I shared of my experience with prayer at EFY of 2007. I could see that they felt the Spirit and we marked dates with Daniela, her two sisters and her son that is 8 years old. Laura gave the closing prayer and said something like: I'm so grateful for the missionaries in my home and this message, because I personally really want to do what is right. I really want to get to know this church. It was so so wonderful and I was just in awe walking to our next appointment. It was so wonderful to be the hands of the Lord. I really felt like we accomplished something, but it was just the fact that we were there and willing. The Spirit communicated to their hearts.

Friday we went to the house of a friend of Samira with Samira and taught the first lesson. Her name is Gleice and she accepted baptism with a date. (Just so you all know, we invite to baptism every single lesson. When we mark a date, it means they accepted baptism and a date, when it's just baptism, it is baptism without a specific date marked.) We asked her to pray and she was going to try but she started crying and said she couldn't. It was so wonderful after to be able to talk with her. My companion began to talk right after and I was so grateful he did. I felt in this comfort zone with her and although it was a potentially awkward situation, I think it went okay. She told us that she sincerely thinks this is the path she wants to follow, she just doesn't know if she is ready. Samira was so great though and talked about her fear, but you just have to pray and you will know. She is such a good person to teach with and she has absolutely no fear. We're going to teach many of her friends.

Right after that we had our second lesson with Daniela and her sisters. We had to walk about an hour to get there, all the way across town and our appointment was in 10 minutes. I read a talk about faith that morning that Elder Bednar asked us to read in preparation for his talk, and I prayed we could some how get a ride there. We were walking and saw one of our other investigators talking to a friend in a car! We went and talked to her real quick and they lived the neighborhood next to where we needed to go. It was perfect and was completely a blessing from the Lord, we very rarely receive rides, it was awesome!

To close, I want to type this little analogy. I love thinking of analogies, and I had these thoughts come in to my mind during a scripture study this week. It really helped me this week as I feel so much drive after scripture study but sometimes get discouraged during the day: I remember laying in bed the night before going snowboarding the following day. I would think about the trick that I wanted to do. For many years, it was a 360. It was completely effortless in my mind. I did it over and over in my mind the night before, so many times that it was easy. It was as though I had already done it. But when I woke up and was actually on the slope, it was so different. All of a sudden the jump was so much bigger. Many, many days I dreamed about doing a 360, but didn't actually do one. Because I am a dreamer, the thoughts of the next time I would have a chance would enter my thoughts as we drove home from the mountains that very day. Already I was planning the next time I could try. When you learn how to do any trick snowboarding, you hear that you have to commit. Even though it seems scary and really big and hard, you have to commit to doing it. If you don't commit, you won't do it. So many things tell you you're going to fall, or you can't do it, but if you commit, you really can.

Our difficulties in our lives are like a 1080. Maybe we can only do a 180 right now but today we can choose to improve a little bit. We can choose to commit to move forward. Soon we will be able to commit to a 360. Then, what once was impossible will seem routine. If we continue to improve and commit, eventually it will be a 540. One day it will be a 1080. It is all about commitment to improve today.

I have such big dreams about my mission that I will serve here in Brazil. When I read the stories of Alma and Amulek, I am with them. I feel it. They were such wonderful missionaries. I want to learn. I want to be like them. I have huge dreams. I have a 1080 I want to do. We all do in our lives. Maybe we can all do a 180 right now, but work, work, work. Commit! Commit to improving today. All we have is today to improve. Don't let the thought of, you can't do it all right now, keep you from doing all you can today. I think that this is a principle of faith. I will commit to giving the Lord my best today. I know we can be used in His hands. Alma 26:30 the sons of Mosiah thought there joy would be full if they could be the means of saving some. I have such a wonderful life. We all do. The future growth of the church is dependent on the members of the church. Share the gospel. God doesn't give us the spirit of fear, but of power and a sound mind (2 timothy 1:7). Don't have fear to share the gospel. Don't fear to commit to today!

Love, Elder Calvert

PS: My friend from Redmond Stake, Tanner Paxman, is coming to Sao Paulo Norte! That is so so sweet! I'm so pumped! I will have the same amount of time as Elder Schoen when he trained me when Tanner arrives in the field so it is possible that I could train him. That would be sweet!

I don't know if I’m getting transferred yet! We will find out like a half hour after we finish emailing.

The primary program went well! I was very nervous. I really don't play the piano so that was kind of rough but I practiced and did what I could. I played with them for half of the songs but some were just the melody, but I thought about President Uchtdorf's talk, “Lift where you stand”.

October 18, 2010

This week was really, really good. I usually only talk about the end of the week, but we had a wonderful Tuesday. I have a really good buddy named Elder Otterstrom and during our district meeting we taught together to practice/apply the principles we learned from our training. It started off really well, and ended up going really bad! I knew it was bad. I wanted to make up excuses but I didn't. I eagerly asked what I could do different and what I could change. I think this is something that I'm learning to do better. Actively seek feedback, even if you have to humble yourself a lot.

So later that day we had a practice for the Primary Music Program. We had scheduled to do this big lesson to receive references for a family at 6:00 and we left our chapel, about 3/4 of a mile away from their house, at 5:53! I was booking it and when we got out of view of the people at the chapel, I took off running (in our training to deliver this message it was stressed how we have to be on time) My companion was yelling stop, stop and was just half upset half smiling but I yelled something like, "We have rules that we have to stick together, and i'm running!" I was running down this big hill and I heard him yell behind me in English in an awesome Brazilian accent, "You use steroids!" I was waiting for him by the door and when I showed him my watch, it was 5:59. A minute early even! It was really funny. We had that lesson and received 75 people to teach! It went really, really well.

Friday was a huge day for me here. I was walking around our home doing morning things and studying Portuguese and stressing about all of the things we need to do, when I decided to go read a letter from my buddies who are serving missions. I picked up Morgan's and Dane's letters to their family and read them. I think I have some of the biggest studs for friends. I love those guys so much. The message I got from both of their emails is that they have learned to give their best and leave the rest up to the Lord. I remember reading Dane's words "I think that's where I've changed the most on my mission. Instead of being ridiculously competitive (I remember Dane freaking out during basketball and wiffle ball in his backyard, Zackary and Morgan and Chase can attest to this) to just doing my best and knowing the Lord's will- will be done." I was standing near my bed, and everything was different. I can't tell you how much of a difference it made. It hasn't stopped either. It was as though it opened my mind to everything differently. I was stressing about what we can do differently, how we can find more people, what we can do better, to all of a sudden, completely at peace. There is a lot of unneeded stress in our lives. I forgot about freaking out, and then went and just talked to my companion. It was really, really nice.

Friday night we had a family night in the home of a part member family. Early that week we broke a piece of glass that is symbolic of the church Christ established. We brought the scraps and the complete piece and spoke about how any amount of reconstruction could not give you the exact same piece of glass. I think it went pretty well, it is a very hard situation with that family. The mother is waiting for an answer and has been for quite sometime.

Sunday I gave my first talk in Portuguese. The Bishop came up to me and asked me to sing right before as well, so I sang and right after gave my talk. I talked about baptism and made an analogy of baptism being the ticket to enter the stadium to watch your favorite soccer team. We can't have a ticket that someone went and made a Xerox copy of. We have to have the real ticket, the real baptism. Honestly it went really well. I really enjoy speaking, I truthfully haven't felt nervous to speak in Portuguese in big settings like this at all. It really is a miracle.

I love you all so much. I really do feel yours prayers so much. I am so grateful for my friends that are serving missions. I pray for them everyday. I love you all so much!

Love, Elder Calvert

Sometimes He Lets it Rain- October 11

I wanted to share two particularly meaningful experiences that happened to me this week. I will say this, that so much happens between the weeks of emailing, that it is impossible to give a good summary. This week I had one of the hardest weeks of my mission up to this point. I already look back on it with fondness. It is so funny how it works. I am sitting at Infozion where I email, and I feel this energy and drive to do it again. I know it will be hard. But I feel the Spirit and excitement as I think about the work we can do this week.

It rained a lot here this week, and one of the days I was seriously sooo sad, I can't even tell you why. We had to drop some stuff off at our house, and I learned a tender lesson from the Lord as I cried to Him in prayer. I learned that in my efforts to learn and grow and become, there has to be rain. Just as it was pouring down rain in Sao Paulo Brazil, it was pouring down rain on Spencer. It is impossible to grow without rain. It was an obvious, but needed analogy.

Tuesday we got a call to go and give someone a blessing. It is the mother of two boys that are in the ward here, and she is not a member. She is part of a family that has many members in the ward. We went on Wednesday. We arrived at the house, and we talked with the woman who is skin and bones. She can hardly see. She is so weak. We began talking more and I learned she has diabetes, and is dying very slowly from the complications. She has to go to a health post, and is a long long walk in order to check her blood. They had no paperwork about how to treat diabetes, and I was so concerned at the lack of organization after our family had that huge orientation and all of this support and help. She said last time she went in she was at 500 or 600. We gave her a blessing, and on Sunday her son said that she was doing better.

Sunday morning we had confirmed 12 people to come to church. 5 ended up coming and I was frustrated. I was still a little sad when I was asked to help bless the Sacrament. Sitting in front before the meeting started, I saw many members of the family were rushing outside of the building, tears were on the face of those remaining inside. It was evident that something had happened. I looked down at her 15 year old son, waiting the pass the Sacrament with tears streaming down his cheeks. His 18 year old brother sitting in the back, holding his little cousin on his lap. I saw cousins, and friends crying with the family as the woman suffering was rushed to the hospital. It was testimony meeting and one of the relatives came back to Sacrament meeting to bear her testimony about the Savior. The older son got up and bore his testimony that he knows the Lord doesn't forget us. As I sat on the stand and looked into the faces of these people, I felt such a love for them. It was a very tender experience.

I felt so much gratitude for the health of my sweet sister, who is such a wonderful example of strength. Everyone here prays for health. I thought it was vain repetition. But how grateful I am to be healthy, and to have a healthy family. I was praying for an experience with gratitude and how very gracious the Lord was with me, as I felt so very, very grateful.

October 4, 2010- 4 months!

This week had many firsts. I had my first Conference on Friday and it was wonderful. After the meeting, I was able to talk with those who presented the training that we had and I really enjoyed it. We learned about how to use members more in the work and we were introduced to a program about receiving references. The singing was really fun too, I had one leg propped up on a chair to rest my guitar and my other leg was shaking like crazy during my singing. I tried to go up on to my toe, and all sorts of things but it was still shaking like crazy. It went really well though.

I received many many letters and that was so so good too. I love all of the letters from the missionaries, you can absolutely keep sending them. I have so many and I'm going to read one a night. After conference we came home and marked a date with Aguenauldo. He is this awesome man about 30 years old who has this little girl we know (her sister was baptized) stay at his home because her mom is not very stable. She calls him grandpa. He also takes care of his mother who is very sick. He is so so kind. He went to church but had to leave early to go home to take care of his mother. I love talking with him and we're going to go to his home after we finish emailing.

Saturday and Sunday was conference! I watched it in Portuguese, but it was still very good. I will be honest, I was so emotional the first hour of the first session I don't even know what happened. There was a constant stream of tears for an hour as I could hear the English words muffled in the back ground by the louder Portuguese, and thinking of the ears of all of my loved ones hearing the same things. After an hour of sentimental thinking I settled down. I couldn't sup really deep out of all of the talks, because I learned a lot. I look forward to reading them in the Ensign. I loved the music. I think it was the last song or second to last song of the last session that just really touched me. I loved it.

My favorite moment of all of conference was in the Priesthood session (we went and watched it in Sorocaba). I forgot who it was but the first speaker asked all of the missionaries and mission presidents to stand up. In our chapel in Sorocaba the 8 missionaries who were there stood up. I imagined all of the missionaries all around the world standing up at this time. There is such a strength that comes in thinking of the others that are serving with you.

I read a letter from Travy today and I love reading about him and all that's happening. I'd love to have his address. The closing hymn of the Priesthood session was ” Called to Serve” and I felt the Spirit so strong. I saw Creighton Hardy, a friend who lived on the same floor at BYU, like 8 times during the singing. It was awesome to see him. Oh and I loved seeing Mary! Our family doesn't even know her that well, but I just love her and I loved seeing her. My favorite talk was President Uchtdorf's and Dad that is definitely the first one that I want to read. My Bishop is going to download conference in English and put it on my ipod.

We weren't able to teach a ton this week because of 3 days of conference but what we could teach went really well. We are teaching Jamil and Sueli, a couple that we were walking by their home and just starting talking. I was walking close to this wall and rounding the corner and all of a sudden it wasn't a wall but a little front gate and she was standing there so a conversation started and now her husband has received an answer and knows The Book of Mormon is true. We were also walking past the work of a past investigator who called us in and said she wants us to come teach her again. She got engaged and stopped coming to church but I we are going to teach her again and try to teach her fiance as well.

Things are going really well here. I have so much that I want to improve. I am learning how wonderful small and simple things are. I have a few things I do every day, that just take diligence. Looking back, I can see how much those little things have added up to and it's really wonderful.

I was reading The Book of Mormon this morning in English and I learned a wonderful lesson of diligence from Nephi. 1 Nephi 3:7,15 are wonderful. When Elder Bavender's Uncle came, he called verse 7 the principle of anything, and verse 15 the principle of everything. Do everything you have to in order to complete a commandment of God. Nephi demonstrates his faith so well. The first plan, Laman goes in and it fails. His brothers were already ready to quit! How often do we do this? I think sometimes, maybe we were supposed to come here just to learn a principle of diligence. To show we are willing to go where the Lord guides. But no, Nephi understood the principle was not to simply travel, but to accomplish. He comes up with a wonderful idea to make a trade. They return to Laban with most, if not all of the worldly possessions. They were willing to trade it all for faith in a wise purpose of the Lord. Nephi didn't even know the wise purpose, but he trusted in the Lord. What happens? His plan fails. It failed miserably, they lost all of the possessions and Laban tried to kill them all. Imagine how Nephi felt at this time. Do you think he thought this plan was going to fail? No. I imagine he went to the Lord with this plan and believed it would be successful. But it failed. His brothers beat him. An Angel came. Nephi valiantly states that they need to go back again. They return and he continues on alone and all works out. The commandment was not try. The commandment was do. His words were not, I will go and try. His words were I will go and do.

There are many things in our lives that we know we are to do. I am praying to know what is my role to do here in Salta de Pirapora at this time. What is there for me to do? There is something for all of us to do in all times during our lives. Mosiah 8:18 says that "Thus God has provided means that man, through faith, might work mighty miracles. Therefore he becometh a great benefit to his fellow beings." God has provided the means. Man has to provide the obedience and diligence.

Love, Elder Spencer Calvert