January 12, 2009

Dear Mom,

Life is pretty cold over here, but it's gone down a bit. Now it's like spring weather. Weird. Welcome to California!

So Elder Finch is on his third week. I'm really proud of him. I feel bad sometimes because he makes greenie mistakes then I realize, hey, I did the same thing too! But, he's doing just great. He got in a few Spanish contacts under his belt and his English contacting is really good considering he's green. But, we get along fine. He's a beast on a bike. I'm just a slow bum. Speaking of bikes, I lost a screw on the left pedal side so I have no left pedal. Long story, believe me. Several times I have lost this darn screw...and it's nowhere to be found. Oh well!

This week was pretty interesting. Lots of...interesting trials. Just a lot of walking Monday and Tuesday and we got bikes on Wednesday. So we've been doing our best since Monday according to circumstances. On Monday, we had a great Family Home Evening with the recent converts the Molinas. We shared Finding Faith in Christ with them...and that is a great film. Just super spiritual. I felt inspired by the Spirit to say a few things and it went over well. We all felt the Spirit and were edified by all our testimonies. I love testimony. Just brings the Spirit. Wednesday was rocking! Bikes! Woo! We did our best to find people at home, and we ended up having a ball of a time at the Lopez's, just fun-loving members. They invited us to come back to do service, and we were pumped to do that. We took part in the ward's Mutual for the YM about missionary service. It was so fun to share how fun and great the mission is! Thursday we had district meeting because we were going to the temple on Friday. I felt inspired to do better in involving members so we did our best in making practical plans. We'll see though. We biked all the way to Anayansi, the Lopez Run, and it was rough. Across the railroad tracks, lost the screw so we looked for it for a while, then to Anayansi's. Bike didn't work going up the hill, so we were way late and did our best with the time restraints. We challenged her to be baptized, and I really hope she'll go through with it. Darn less active dad's! She won't get baptized without him and he won't meet with us. So we made it from their hilltop house down the hill to dinner across the next major street in nine minutes. Holy snap! I was booking it down the hill so fast that Finch lost me in the darkness. I realized that the road becomes a dirt path, really uneven, and I saw a Joshua tree coming up from a distance. So I braced to hit the dirt, avoided wiping out, then braced as I was hitting bumps here and there. Definitely had time to avoid the Joshua tree, ample space and time. Friday was temple day! I love the temple! I really need to make time post-mission to go to the temple as often as time permits. It is beautiful! All my worries went away, as I was instructed by the Spirit. The new temple president just blew me away with his spiritual knowledge, and made me feel like I have much to learn, but I got time, right? A super spiritual lesson with Mario Sanchez. Still has doubts over authority and baptism, but we had a plan that was to slam it home. We get there, and I get the feeling, 'don't share it. Gift of the Holy Ghost.' We ran with it. Finch backed me up like a pro. The Spirit led me to share one scripture, and as we read it the Spirit told me to stop right before the last verse. I did, and I realized it helped Mario understand he didn't receive this gift. If I didn't jump on that prompting, the scripture would have confused more than done good and profound thinking. We just bore our hearts to him, how we want him to be happy, to have this eternal gift. I left, feeling that love for others and how much more I ought to open my mouth for all to hear. I felt I could talk to everyone afterwards! It was spectacular! Saturday we did service most of the day. Finch had a headache but he endured through it. Good kid. We helped the Lopez's with yardwork, then our first counselor Escobar with his tree. Big tree. Huge tree. Bishop Berganza was chopping them down with a chainsaw and one time, the tree swung down and hit his ladder, knocking him off-balance for a second and caught himself up there. Oh...scary! But, we did our part and left to proselyte. We had a great lesson with our active family, the Villanueva's. Father wants to baptize his girl, since he's been LA for a long time. I'm pumped for that! So happy to hear that from his mouth! Sunday was a long day. Just exhausted, the both of us. But, here we are! A fun lesson with the Molina's to finish the week, a lot of MTC games, but at the end, we shared a thought about trust in God. Hno. Molina has barely a year in the Church, and is now the YM President. Crazy stuff!

Hey, got to go! I hope all is well! Love you all and God be with y'all!

Love,
Spencer