Elder Spencer's Mexico Mexico City North Mission: I want to be an Extraordinary Missionary!!

Hola Mama! Megan had a boy?? AAHHHH que bueno!!! (That's awesome!) So, after we emailed last week the rest of p-day was super good. We had our first lesson with Alexa and then another lesson with Alisson. The lesson with Alexa went great and I talked a lot doing the lesson! Our lesson with Alisson went good. We talked with her and her mom and they, unfortunately, are still having problems with respect and anger and not doing the things we invite them to do. We had a member brother with us helping to teach them the importance of praying, reading scriptures as a family, being obedient and going to church. I’m still worried about them doing those things though. I really don’t know how to help them besides for praying to ask God to help change their hearts.

Tuesday we had our zone conference with another zone and it was very inspiring. It really was a great conference. It was great to learn from President and Hermana Urrea and see other missionaries and talk with them. It was also especially nice that I got the packages you sent full of candy and other useful supplies. My family is the best in the world! PS feel free to send Reeses any time, especially fast breaks! They have Snickers and Twix and Hershey’s chocolate here but no Reeses!!!! What kind of place is this?!?!?!?!?!?! hahahaha jkjkjk.

Wednesday was a great day. Elder Rojas is teaching me how to study and plan our days more effectively, and how to teach more effectively as well. I love it because I’m learning so much, teaching better lessons, growing and becoming a better missionary. We had a lesson with a member family that I was super nervous for because I knew I would have to start teaching the lesson without help from Elder Rojas, but I had faith that God would help me and he did! We taught a great lesson! I followed the spirit and asked inspired questions, shared scriptures, talked about how to apply the principles in their lives and shared personal experiences too! It was an awesome day and it is because our Heavenly Father helped us.

Thursday I’m pretty sure we walked around all of Mexico looking for people from our book of references. It takes a lot of time walking from reference to reference, but for most of the people we planned to visit, we were able to find out if they actually lived there or if they moved. We were also able to have a lesson with a less active family too. The morning was good with our studies too. Elder Rojas is really helping me understand how important it is to ask inspired questions from heaven, listen carefully to their answers, discern (with the help of the spirit) and then teach them the doctrine they need to hear with scriptures, experiences, questions, testimonies. Then inviting them to commit to do something with what we teach. It’s an uphill challenge, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. “The key to know God is to struggle.”

Friday was a busy day with crazy weather. It was sunny, cloudy and rainy, sunny again, pouring rain, cloudy, pouring rain again (while we had to walk to our casa) and then just cloudy again. The weather here is more bi-polar than it is in Utah! We also had 3 more lessons. First with Anaid who thinks she needs to know everything before she is baptized. Then the family Tapia (that had an evil spirit living in their house, but they don’t anymore). They feel so much more peace and tranquility in their lives and want to keep investigating and learning. Then Alisson. We found out that she gets bullied at school and as a result of her getting bullied, she argues, fights with and doesn’t respect her family. I don’t know how to help them…

Saturday was a busy day looking for references and walking a lot, but we also decided to go back to the casa a couple of hours early so we could plan and have a talk. Elder Rojas was complaining about me not walking fast enough, not doing this right, not doing this fast enough, etc. I’m not a perfect missionary but thanks to the Lord I am really patient. Rather than blowing up at him I decided to listen to what he had to say, apologized for the things I’m not doing and explained the reasons behind the things he said and told him I’m learning. I do need to try harder with pretty much everything. After I explained my side, he apologized and admitted that he needs to be more patient. We have things we need to work on but we are helping each other learn and be better.

Sunday was a good day, we had 5 of our investigators at church! Among the 5 was the Tapia family who keep saying that our church is so interesting and different than other churches. They feel so much more peace and calmness in their lives and their kids love going to Young Women’s and Primary. It’s so awesome to see them learning and changing their lives. Later in the day we had a lesson with Alisson and decided to review the restoration with her and her mom. We taught from the pamphlet and drew pictures on a whiteboard they had to try and help her understand and I really think it helped! We also went to visit a family of less actives.

We ended the day talking about the differences between a normal missionary and an extraordinary missionary. An extraordinary missionary asks inspired questions to get to know the investigators, listens to the promptings of the spirit and teaches lessons according to these promptings. They listen to what investigators are saying to discern their needs. They don’t just come up with a lesson plan, teach it and then leave. They treat other people kindly and don’t talk bad about their companions or leaders. All those things and so much more. I want to be an extraordinary missionary. I want to be able to hear and teach according to the inspiring question I’m prompted to ask from the Spirit. I have a lot to learn, but with the help of God and the spirit, I know possibly one day I will be an extraordinary missionary.

I love you so much Mama! I hope you have a great week! PS in the pic of my zone, my comp is the one on the very left.