Elder Spencer's Mexico Mexico City North Mission: Happy New Year!!!

Couple of funny stories from the week before Christmas. First we got Ribeye steaks!! Hermano Cano got them for Elder Martinez and I because he is being transferred. It was great! Also before Elder Martinez left we went and got haircuts. I needed one really bad! After I got it, E. Martinez was funny and told me I looked like a soldier! I thought about it and realized that I am a soldier. A super soldier of God, in the words of Elder Martinez. My first and middle names mean Warrior of God and I love that – so much!

I got to meet my new companion Elder Anastacio from Peru. He is super awesome and I have faith that God will help us in this area. I also had a great experience teaching Alejandra and Mariana. Mariana has some doubts about the church and one question she had was what is our purpose or why are we here? Elder Anastacio looked at me to respond so I took a breath to relax and said with the help of the spirit what came into my head and heart. I could feel the spirit so strongly when I was talking; and after I was done, Mariana said okay and that she wanted to come to church on Sunday! So does Alejandra and their son Gonzalo! We kept talking with them asking if they had any other questions or doubts or anything and they said NO! It was so awesome to talk with them. We also had another lesson with Alisson, the 9-year old girl who was supposed to be baptized a few weeks ago. It was a really great lesson! It was an awesome day!

Christmas Eve was fantastic. Church was great! Mariana and Alejandra Juarez were there! I was blown away when we saw them! A little bit after sacrament meeting Eduardo Juarez, the father, came!! Holy snot! Haha that will be funny to read later. Anyways it was so great to see them at church. It was so great to talk to and see you guys. Of course I miss you like crazy but right now, in Mexico Mexico City North, in the Zone Tepalcapa, in Villas de la Hacienda with Elder Anastacio as my companion is where I need to be.

On Wednesday, 12/27, I was a little frustrated with trying to plan a lesson for our investigators by myself. After I struggled through it and then we left the casa, I was thinking a lot in my head how I can be a better missionary because I have so much to learn and do right now. I prayed for help too. We went to an Internet café and I watched a video from The District. In the video one of the missionaries said, “The key to know God is to struggle.” That hit me hard, so I prayed and thanked God for my struggles, for the opportunity to learn and grow and become closer to Him. Then I said I will trust in thee and have faith that thou will help me – He did help me too. When we had our lesson with the Family Juarez it went really, really well. We were able to answer their questions or doubts they had. They are such an awesome family! I know they will be baptized soon. As long as I trust God, which will be forever, I know he will help me. I can feel him helping me daily.

On Thursday, we met with Angie and her mom, new investigators, and the lesson went really well. Later in the lesson one of Angie’s friends came in to the shop and we ended up teaching her too. So we have three new investigators and have an appointment to go back and teach them this week!

As of Friday, we still didn’t have gas for hot water for showers; so I decided to heat up water on our plug-in stove top (hot plate) and then put it in a larger bowl and use that while showering. Elder Anastacio looked at me like I was crazy, but he is the crazy one because he thinks the weather is hot! Anywho, we had another lesson with Alissa to verify our commitments we extended and go over the baptismal interview questions with her. She has a hard time paying attention during lessons, and because of that she doesn’t remember a lot of the things that we have been teaching her. She is only 9 and we are doing our best to stop during lessons to make sure she is understanding, but it’s going to take a lot of work to get her to baptism. But I know God will help us and her as well.

On Saturday, we also found out that we didn’t have ANY water for the whole building and wouldn’t have any for 4 days. It’s not just our building but multiple colonies in the area so we went and bought 4 huge jugs of water. On Sunday (New Year’s Eve) I heated up some of the water we bought and put it in a bucket to use for showering. It was the first time I’ve ever had to do that. Even if I have to do it again/more during my mission, so be it. As long as I get to learn more and preach the gospel / teach people, I don’t care. I do care about being a good missionary and being a tool in God’s hands. When church started that day, there was only 11 people in the whole chapel. As time went on, more showed up and it was really good, but after sacrament meeting pretty much everyone left so there weren’t any classes. Bunch of slackers! Oh well. We ended the night with making food, doing laundry and watching church videos. What a great way to end the year. (I forgot to mention we got water back, just no gas for hot water yet.)

On New Year’s Eve there was a lot of fireworks and music, which made it tough to sleep, but it’s okay we got to sleep in for a while on New Year’s Day. Then on Tuesday, we had a district meeting which was really good! We also got a call from the gas people and bought some gas so I’m super excited to shower with hot water! And as you know we didn’t get time to write home so we got permission from Presidente to write on Wednesday (today).

It’s great to hear about all that is going on at home! and thank you for the thought as well! While watching the DVD “Doctrine and Covenants” this past week, one part was talking about the different gifts that people have. My thought for you is to find out what gifts God has given you. If you don’t know, then pray to ask him! If you do know, that’s great! Pray to ask him to help you improve and make your gifts and talents better! In other words too, use your gifts and talents to help others!

I love you so much Mama! Talk to you in a couple days!