November 3, 2008

Dear Mom,

This week has been incredible! Well, last week was exhausting, but this week went pretty well. I do admit I'm getting a bit testy with Elder Woods, but that's only because we've been together for three transfers and I feel I need a change soon. Don't know what kind of change, but I'll need one soon enough. The work is still progressing!

I never thought I'd see the house glowing orange! Thanks for the card, I really appreciated it! I'll send Grandma a birthday card soon enough...in a week. I bought the card. I can't remember where I put it though. I'm just a mess right now.

HAHA! Dad got hit by you? Oh boy...just make sure you jog his memory right- oh you remember, you got in my way! Hope he's doing well. As for Rod, I really hope he'll do alright...that's the last thing that poor guy needs. Eesh...I'll keep him in my prayers as well as Prop 8 and McCain. Our stake had our bishops give the closing prayers to the sacrament meetings for Prop 8. Did you all do that too? I know it's California, but still. It'll affect everyone! I hope for the best.

Now onto the week!

Monday was a good p-day. Very relaxing (notice a recurring theme? I'm super tired nowadays) and our district-mates Sara and his greenie Frei played Risk 2210 with us. Pretty intense game, and much better than the original. One time Woods was making fun of Yu Gi Oh and stuff by quoting it and what not. It was funny when he attacked Frei and Frei responed with a card, slamming it down and saying, 'LAND DEATH TRAP!' and thus cutting Wood's invasion force by half. Absolutely hilarious and dorky at the same time. Loved it. Our week went fast! Tuesday I went with the zone leaders and up to Northridge with Elder Boyce. He's the man. We had some great appointments and we got along great. He's definitely AP material. I feel empowered when I teach with him. I'm still struggling to find how to motivate my district members, and he just knows how to motivate, period. It's not as easy as I had thought. I thought people could be motivated like me to do things. I just don't get it. So we had some really great visits. One less active and part-member family basically told us they wanted to go back to church, and the part member sister wanted to take the lessons to be baptized. We didn't even really invite the Spirit, they invited it in long before we came into the house. Wow! And we got great Thai food for dinner. At a Tongan house...the less active sister said her non-member sister cheated on dinner cuz she didn't cook. Whatever, it was good curry chicken and barbeque pork. Wednesday was a bit slow. We had a great training on how to train our districts, had some pizza for lunch and went out to work! Problem was, I was a bit tired and I felt just a tad sick from the greasy pizza...so I was slow in getting out. As a result, we didn't have a blessed afternoon as much as I had hoped. My fault. But, we contacted some really cool guys and they're were so pumped to receive the lessons! I was excited! We went on splits for home teaching and got a little miffed at our high priest because he expects us to do it all. Fat chance! But, our elder guy was all gung-ho about it all and I just wish every week we could go with him. His list would be done in a jiffy! It was sweet! Thursday was pretty good. The highlight was our media referral Tim McWilliams! The absolute highlight! We planned, going in, on extending a baptismal date for the 30th of November. We got a member to come along, good old Bruce Sayler. I love that guy. Goofy old guy. So we go in, Tim is quite a talker, only because it's more of a therapy for him. He's alone, never been married, has two cats, is quite the pack rat, but a great man. We talked a little, had to interrupt him a bit, but he understood us that we were trying to teach him. We asked him to be baptized, and he cried. He felt he was out of the group. He felt very included and honored to be baptized. So we'll go over the details with him later. He felt that love of the Gospel...I love those recognizing moments in teaching situations. Then the Lunas! Fun times, and we taught them about the Atonement, in preparation for a more elaborate lesson of the Atonement and faith. Friday was Halloween! Got to see the Lunas in their Halloween outfits! Hilarious! They're like family to us! Saturday was a bit dreary due to the weather, it seems to depress me a bit. Reminds me of home. Sunday was great, I love fasting. I receive great strength from it. The best part was our lesson with the Lunas. We get there, pray, follow up on their reading. We start off where we left off...and we spoke of faith. Shared Peter's story when he walked on water. They liked it. We watched Finding Faith in Christ. Great movie. We prayed to leave and bless our dessert, and I felt the Spirit to move me as did Cindy's request to say a few things, mostly to bless their daughter to find her way home...Junior was crying and we all really felt that love and bond in that home at that moment. How beautiful is the Spirit! It is true, isn't it? He exists, doesn't he?

Well, out of time. I love you all. Stay true, stay faithful, God is here to help us. His church is true. We do have prophets here today. I love my Savior and His Atoning sacrifice for me, a sinner.

Love,
Spencer