Elder Spencer's Mexico Mexico City North Mission: Some Great Experiences this Week!

After emailing last week we tried to go contacting but no one would talk to us. We had no idea why either, it wasn’t even late. But since we didn’t have any luck we went to visit Eduardo and see how him and his family are doing. We also wanted to tell him about the Light the World event the church is doing in December. After our lesson with him, he asked us to give his son Gohan, who is very sick, a blessing. It was a really cool experience and I know he has faith and wants to learn more, he just need to commit!

On Tuesday we had district meeting then went contacting trying to tell people about the Illumina El Mundo event the church is doing. We only made one contact but we also made a new investigator as well! It’s a couple who are maybe in their 50’s but they are so awesome. They were very accepting of our message and want to learn more! After our lesson they were kind enough to feed us. The people here are super nice and they always try to make sure we have eaten and are more than willing to share. I know God will bless them all for how much they are willing to share and how kind they are.

Wednesday I was planning on writing about what my life would be like without the scriptures (a challenge from mom), but it was such a good day with awesome experiences I want to share them instead. During language study in the morning we had a random surprise visit from our Zone Leaders. They studied and practiced teaching with us and helped me realize that I have been trying too hard during lessons to think about what I’m going to say instead of focusing on what my investigator is saying, the few words I can understand, and that I just need to be confident in whatever I say and listen to the spirit also. It was a great learning experience and advice from them! After we studied and practiced we all grabbed some “Illumina el Mundo” cards and split up and went out and talked to as many people as we could and give out the cards. It was really fun! And it helped with my Spanish too. After our ZLs left we went to go see a reference in a part we had never been to. He wasn’t there so we started walking back but we didn’t have a map so we got lost. We at least knew what direction to walk and while we were walking we saw a family outside their house washing chairs so we offered to help them. It was my first experience doing any kind of service, besides missionary work, and it was great! One other man we talked to and taught for the first time was super sad and told us his problems and said he needed help. We were running short on time so we scheduled an appointment and I offered him a Book of Mormon. We also invited him to Church! He said Yes!

Thursday was a humbling day. We had interviews with the President, but before that during companionship study Elder Martinez told me that after interviews with the President, that he and Elder Coltrin would be switching areas so Elder Coltrin would be my companion for the rest of the day and part of Friday. He also told me that I would be in charge of teaching the 3 lessons we had planned too. I thought to myself, oh great I don’t know hardly any Spanish much less how to teach people I barely know or haven’t met yet, and I started to feel really angry and upset that I was being forced to teach/lead a lesson. During this time I also started to think about my responsibility and duty as a missionary and then it hit me that first off, I would have Elder Coltrin to help me and secondly and also most importantly, I was allowing fear to take over instead of having faith and trusting in Heavenly Father to help me. How can I teach my investigators to have faith and trust in God if I don’t even do it myself? That was a really humbling experience for me. After our interviews and other things, Elder Coltrin and I weren’t able to teach the people we had planned because we got back late from Enterevistas. We did however talk to and teach, a less active member family a little and that went great. We rescheduled previous appointments with other investigators and also scheduled one with the less active family. Today was a great day!

Friday (day 67 baby!) J. After our studies, we headed back to Elder Coltrin’s casa so we could switch back companions and all of our appointments that we had for the day fell through, so we went and visited an investigator we were supposed to teach Thursday. Elder Martinez did pretty much all of the talking because Anald’s daughter kept talking to me and wanting me to draw pictures with her. She is the funniest little girl ever and I love her but she makes it hard for me to pay attention.

Saturday we taught a lesson to Carlos and it went good. I talked at first but then Elder Martinez did most the rest of the time. We went and visited a member who had her brothers over and we ended up teaching them and getting them to be investigators. After that lesson we went to the church with some investigators to watch a Wizard of Oz play, in Spanish of course, and it was hard to understand but still really cool and fun to see. PS, our bus driver that drove us to the play drove very similar to the bus driver in Harry Potter. I don’t remember which movie it’s in because Spanish is starting to block out everything else, but yeah it was crazy!!

Sunday – church was really good. Elder Martinez and I taught Sunday School because the teacher wasn’t there. We taught about the restoration and answered questions and doubts people had. There were 3 investigators there that we ended up asking to get baptized next Saturday and they said Yes! After church, we went to lunch (comida) with a member family and had enchiladas with mole sauce and it was interesting, different but good. Later we went to another member’s house with Daniel to teach a lesson to some new investigators, well it was like a family home evening activity that we did but it was fun! After that we headed out to meet 2 of our investigators so we could all go to the Stake Center to watch the Christmas Devotional and they loved it! I really enjoyed the music because it was in English haha. I did my best to listen to the talks in Spanish. It was a little difficult, but from what I understood it was awesome!!

I love you mama!! Happy Anniversary!!

PS are you studying Spanish? If not, start!