Dear My Family,
I appreciate all of your thoughts and prayers and emails. I feel the Spirit so strongly as I type these words, so happy to feel how I do right this moment. My companion's name is Elder Henrique. He is from Joao Pessoa and he is one of the kindest, most humble people I have met in my life. In the car driving back from the mission office, someone showed me a four leaf clover and I said quietly to him, "I want a four leaf clover" kind of joking around. When we were leaving our house after dropping his things off, he was looking at this planter in front of our house, and said quietly "I only can find 3 leaf clovers". That may sound like a silly little thing, but it meant a lot to me as I just said it in passing and he heard and was looking for a 4 leaf clover.
These last few days have been so filled with work. We nearly found as many new investigators in these few days as the last transfer combined. We will be walking in the streets and he will say little goal/challenges about how many people we want to come to church, dates we will mark and I work so well with little challenges like that. For me, it's like Daniel Hill saying lets squat 405 10 times when we've only done it 5 times and we are already completely dead, but with a good friend who believes in you, you do it like it's nothing. I was thanking him for the week and telling him how great of a missionary he is and he said in his quiet voice that he wishes I could have been his trainer and that I'm the best missionary he knows. I just feel like a great guy with him. I am so grateful for his kindness and his gentle manner. I thank Heavenly Father many times everyday for Elder Henrique. He is the angel that you have been praying for.
We found an awesome new family this week. The dad's name is Joao, his wife Ilda, and his sons Caio (Kyle), Emmerson, and Rai (Hi-ee). They came to church and this weekend was the youth conference for all of the youth so hardly anyone was at church. I think there must have been around 30 and there were lots visiting. I felt so nervous that Joao and his family didn't like church that much because it was so empty. I was pouring out my heart during the whole meeting, that although the situation was not ideal, that their hearts would be touched and they could enjoy the meeting. We went to his house after the meeting and before even asking him he said he's going to go again next week! I was really pumped. I learned that often my fear or desire to not we overbearing or overstay our welcome or pass by too many times is often entirely false. In fact, it's never been accurate. It is always just a little fear that tells me another path rather then doing exactly what I know is right. I am learning more and more that what Charles Schwab said "I consider my ability to arouse enthusiasm amongst my people the greatest asset I possess, and the way to develop the best that is in a person is by enthusiasm and encouragement" is so very, very true. Chastising, criticizing, or negative comments is a terrible way to motivate. I have been applying this to people and they are so much more inclined to act. I will experiment this with myself this next week, sometimes out loud just little positive comments like "you can do it Spence" or something like that.
Yesterday in church an instructor from the CTM who I really like came to my ward. He used to attend there and when he walked in I gave him a huge hug. He invited us over for lunch today and we went and ate tacos and cookies. It was so, so good. I thought of Monday night tacos.
Love, Elder Spencer Calvert
que saudade de você !!! beijos
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