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