p-day # 4

Hey Family!
           I just want you all to know how much i love you. :) we got to watch general conference with the rest of the North Americans and let me just say that  conference was incredible. :) we would have been able to sing in the choir had we not come to Guatemala. in fact, we signed up and then we found out we were coming here. ha ha. so the rest of my district there was in the choir, and we were like searching for them as we were watching the songs. and at the end, when it showed David Archuleta, i seriously freaked out. ha ha. everyone here now knows me as the David Archuleta girl because i
yelled. full on yelled. ha ha. i was so embarrassed. i really need to work on not doing things without thinking them through first. but it was also very memorable. it's so lame that i left Provo the day before he got there. :( but whatever. David Archuleta vs. Guatemalan mtc? yeah. definitely would rather be here.
            Things are going really well here. i love this mtc so much. there are about 70 Latinos and 25 nortes, and all of the Latinas are super sweet and patient and kind with us. we always try to sit by them at lunches and talk about something. it involves a lot of hand gestures, but we always end up getting our point across. ha ha. I'm the skinny one here. that's what they all call me. i think it's so funny that they call people by their characteristics and it's not offensive... it's definitely something I'll have to get used to. ha ha. anyways, the food here is incredible. i have to stop myself from eating everything they offer at every meal or i will totally get sick. all of the things they serve are so
different from anything I've ever eaten, but all of it is good. the milk they have is kinda nasty... so I'm making sure to eat my calcium pills every day. we usually have some sort of fruit juice at every meal. and they're always super random. like this morning for breakfast we had watermelon juice. most of it is good... ha ha. sometimes i just get water.
        I really love my teacher so much. :) he's very patient, and i can tell that he really thinks I'm doing well. last week, he told me that I'm the best in the class. I'm glad that my hard work is paying off and that my teacher can tell. i could definitely be working harder to learn the language every day, so I'm going to start trying to only speak Spanish. the hardest part about this language is that there are so many different words that mean the exact same things, so the only way to find out which one is correct is to use them with a Latina who will correct you if you say the wrong one. i mean, we are pretty much only learning how to say gospel stuff, so to just get to know them is really difficult, but i keep a notebook with me to write down words that i want to know so that i can use them later. i bought a couple sets of flashcards before i came here, so they're definitely helping.:)
          Hermana Nielsen is amazing as usual. :) my room is super nice. Also the weather here is incredible. i seriously could live here forever i think... perfect temps and I'm starting to get a tan from studying outside. i love it here. :) i love you all!

Guatemala!

Hola familia!

 I am safe and sound in the MTC in guatemala! we flew all night and neither my companion or i slept very well. i probably slept about 4 hours on the plane. which considering, isn't that bad really. we got here at around 5:30 am, and had to fill out some forms so that we could go through immigration and customs. 

        When we finally made it outside, they herded us to a school bus. :) the drivers  here are super crazy. haha. i guess not quite as crazy as i've heard  in other countries, but no one slows down to let you in, and the bus driver just made his way in even though there were cars where he was  trying to go. somehow we made it with no accident. haha. but i was seriously amazed at how crazy everyone drives. and that they were all out and driving and at work at like 6:30 am!

         Then, when we got here,  we met all of the nortes (that´s what they call us here. the north americans. or nortes), and we took our luggage to our rooms, had breakfast, and they let us nap for about two hours. breakfast was really good. :) i wish i would have taken a picture of it, cause it

was way different food than i've ever seen before. eggs and potatoes cooked together, a spicy sausage, a super good homemade roll, and this like milky oatmeal with cinamon on it. :) i couldn't eat it all, but it was really good. i'm going to make sure not to take as much food next time. then, we slept for a while, and brushed our teeth and went straight down to start our classes and stuff.

      My other companion's name is sister davis, and she actually was the one on the flight withus last night. :) she's from kaysville, and she came straight from home like the rest of our district. the teachers and mtc presidency speak english, and they're very nice. :)  the people are so so so nice. They gave us a challenge to sit by latinos at dinner, so we're going to try to get to know some other sisters even though there's going to be a huge language barrier. haha. i can already tell that this is going to be a huge blessing in my life. i'm scared out of my mind that i'm not going to match up, but i know with the lord's help, he will bless me to learn this language quickly, so that when i start teaching real people in six weeks, i will be able to do so correctly. :)  i love you!

hermana spencer

p-day # 3

dear familia,

hola! how is everyone doing? can you believe another week is already gone?! it felt like the first week lasted a year, but this week was only like 3 days long. i can't believe i've only been here for 2.5 weeks though. with the amount of stuff i know and how much spanish i'm speaking in my lessons with my investigators, it's so crazy to me that i've only been here this long!

my teachers here are absolutely incredible. hermana self and hermano hepworth. they've started a new program called progressing investigator where each of our teachers pretends to be someone who they taught on their mission, and they act as if they are them with all of the same problems while we teach them. in spanish. it's really hard to say what we want to say because we still don't know very much spanish. i can usually understand the lessons well enough to respond to her questions. i just don't know enough words to be able to answer them how i wish i could in english. but that's just the nature of these practice lessons. they want us to focus on the investigator and not worry about spanish... haha. yeah. it doesn't really work that well. especially for us girls who are perfectionists and want to get everything perfect now. i'm actually really pleased with how our lessons are going though. this week, we've been teaching "gabriella", who is a mom of 2 kids, and her mother in law died at the age of like 45. she's really angry with god and we're trying to help her get over that. it's really difficult to answer her questions. but yesterday, we decided to not teach her a lesson and just teach her how everyone goes through hard times. i actually, very brokenly, shared my surgery story with her and told her a lot of stuff about my relationship with god and christ during that time. i wish it would have been more powerful, but what can ya do? it was still an awesome lesson, and we left her thinking a lot about how much god loves her. i hope anyways. she really likes us.

it's funny, cause even though "gabriella" is our teacher and we talk to her all day long, when she's acting like gabriella, i just love her so much and want her to understand how incredible this gospel is and what we are teaching her. it's a super weird feeling... but if i am already feeling like this about my fake investigators here, can you imagine how much i'm going to love my real investigators in chile? yeah, me either. haha.

on sunday of last week, in relief society, sister barbara bradshaw came and spoke to us about the importance of our mission calls and what they really mean. it was an incredible talk. i LOVE relief society because they have a member of the general relief society board come and speak to us every single week. they're always so spiritual and powerful and so applicable to what i need right at that moment. i loved her talk.

we watched the testaments after that. i hadn't ever seen it before, so i was so touched by the whole movie. i mean, i probably would have been anyways. near the end, i was just bawling because of the spirit was so strong in that room. and because of how incredibly powerful the message of the movie is. i loved it. :)

on monday, we got to teach some people in the TRC for the first time. seriously, one of the coolest experiences ever. one of our guys that we taught was so so nice. we taught him about the plan of salvation and we had him talk a lot, which has been one of our goals lately. it's really important to make sure the investigator feels comfortable enough to talk about whatever. and when we left, the guy who runs the trc told us that we did a really great job and that we did exactly what we needed to to make him talk a lot. so we felt really good about that. :) we have a long ways to go, but we're definitely building a very solid foundation to continue on.

on tuesday, for our fireside, we were priveleged to hear from elder dallin h. oaks. it was awesome. he spoke about the power and opportunity it is to have the spirit with us always. and how important it is to have the spirit with us, so we need to take the sacrament weekly. it is a sure promise that we will have the spirit with us if we are keeping the commandments and loving god. he said, "there's a difference between doing missionary things and being a missionary." it hit me really hard, and i've been pondering all week how to implement that into my missionary work. i feel like every day i'm becoming more of a missionary, and every day i'm here more will do the exact same thing. no one is perfect, and no one is ever going to be a perfect missionary. but with god's help, when i come home, i will have become someone who learned as much as they could about how to be one. :)

I'm out of time,  but I want you to know how much I love you family! Have a great week:)

 love,

hermana spencer

p-day # 2

hola familia!

 well... i have some incredibly shocking amazing news. haha. last night, when me and hermana neilsen were planning, our branch president came in and asked us if he could speak with us. we thought we were in trouble or something! so we followed him into a room, and sat down. he told us that god works in mysterious ways, and that we have been called to take a detour on these missions of ours. the Lord has called hermana Nielsen and i to serve 6 weeks in the mtc in guatemala, and we will be leaving in a week and a half. there is a sister who has been called to honduras who will be opening a new pilot program to learn spanish in 6 weeks, and we have been called to be her companionship during her stay there. there are no problems with visas getting into guatemala, and so we will be leaving our time here and our district to continue our training down in guatemala.

of course we were both absolutely shocked. hermana nielsen was really peaceful throughout the whole talk with the president, but i was freaking out. but, without a doubt, i accepted the call from my president, and after asking a few questions, we went back and told our district. we will be in a threesome with this girl, and she is going down there with no mtc experience at all. apparently this mtc is much smaller, so i will be one of about 100 missionaries, the president said. we will be able to proselyte to people right outside the mtc, obviously it's going to be very similar to here while obviously having a ton of differences. we are definitely going to learn the language faster because we will be so immersed in a culture that only speaks spanish, but i think that is a huge blessing, and after going through my freak out, i am so grateful that the Lord has called me to be one of the sisters to open this program down there.

i read a lot about faith last night before i went to bed because it is going to take a lot of faith in the lord to put my life in his hands knowing so little about this language and this gospel. Alma 32 and Hebrews 11 were the chapters that comforted me the most. i think it would be really great if you all could read those chapters while you are embracing this decision i have made to accept this calling.

our district took it pretty hard. These people that have become my family here are people that I know i knew in the pre-earth life. I am so grateful for all of the personalities and spirits that every single person in our district brings.  i love all of these people more than i can express with words. in fact, it's bringing tears to my eyes right now just thinking about how much i love them. right after the branch president left, everyone started crying and we had a little testimony meeting. we were all crying and talking about the gospel, and we decided to have a district prayer on our knees in the classroom. before i began, everyone expressed how much they were going to miss us and how incomplete our district will be without us in it. they all said the classroom would feel so empty without us there. it was really touching and i am so grateful for all of these brothers and sisters! i said the prayer in spanish, and i was so overwhelmed with love that when we all opened our eyes, everyone had started crying again. i can't believe i have to leave this family behind! it's insane how close we have gotten in a little over a week. it feels like i have been a sister to all of these people for my whole life. they are absolutely incredible people, and i know that i have learned so much from all of them already. it's going to be so hard to leave them. 

this week, we had the opportunity to continue to teach a man 3 times. on saturday, we decided to teach him about the plan of salvation and the atonement and the spirit. obviously, we were not extremely prepared and we don't know very much spanish, but the spirit in that room was so powerful. the gift of tongues is real, and i was so overwhelmed by the feelings that we had during that lesson. Even though we are extremely inadequate, we did everything we could and it was enough. :) just like it always is with our Heavenly Father. We invited him to be baptized in that lesson, and he accepted. :) over the course of the next couple lessons, we invited him to read the book of mormon, to pray night and day, and to attend church with us on sunday. it was all obviously in extremely broken spanish, but he understood us and he accepted every invitation with so much excitement. We were very pleased with our progress, but also just extremely grateful that our heavenly father helped us in our time of need. i know that when we work hard, even if we feel it isn't good enough, god will always make up the difference and provide us with his spirit to help us in our times of need.

Sunday was absolutely what i needed in order to realize that I actually do have a purpose here and that there is a reason that I am here, and all of the talks and songs that were sung were just for me. All of those things made me re-realize how much i love this gospel and how much i want to share it with others. what we have is too good not to share.

i will write more in my letters! i love you all so much, and I think i will be able to call when i leave. i'll let you know of my travel plans as soon as i know them.

love,

hermana spencer.

p-day # 1

hola familia!!

 first of all, i just want to say that I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!!

when you dropped me off, two host elders walked me to my building and dropped off my suitcases with some host sisters on the bottom floor. i met one of them, and she showed me to my room and then to my classroom, where we started immediately into a spanish lesson. after an hour of learning how to meet people, we went to dinner, and then to a fireside to introduce the mtc presidency. they were all super awesome, and since we sat on the front row, i got to shake everyone's hand and my companion actually got to give the closing prayer. :)  after that, we had a little mtc dormitory orientation from a sister who's only been here for a week... holy cow! she told us all of the rules and such for our floor, and gave us some advice. then i wrote in my journal for about an hour and got in bed. :)

spanish is actually coming along really well. :) i've had two teachers and a couple elders in my district comment on my accent. i'm just trying to learn as quickly as possible, and i think the best way to do that is to speak the way i know it's supposed to sound, but that makes me feel really good. :) i can now pray simple prayers and bear my testimony in spanish, both very simple, but i think that's awesome to be here for less than three days and already be able to do that. the Lord is definitely present in our learning and lessons, that's for sure. there is no other way that that would be possible.

I've already been designated the zone piano player for everything, and asked to sing in a SATB group for a fireside sometime... so, if that gives you any idea of how fast things are going here. haha. We met our branch presidency on thursday night, and my companion was made the coordinating sister of our zone, which is only us 4 hermanas, so it's not too big. haha. but that means i'm her senior companion right off. i really really love my companion. her name is hermana nielsen, and she is from logan, utah. The other hermanas in my district are also from utah. one is from riverton, hermana hermansen, and one is from like helper or something, and her name is hermana ortega. they are both so much fun, and we spend a lot of time laughing already. i'm excited to continue to bond as hermanas in the gospel, and to rely on each other in this challening time.

we taught our first lesson en espanol yesterday. and it was... well, a train wreck would be a very poor description. haha. we hadn't been taught hardly anything about spanish yet, and so we went in there with the pamphlet and a goal to get through everything we'd planned. we barely acknowledged that he was in the room, and we just read what we'd written down, bore a short testimony, and left. i think the spirit had a really hard time being there because we were so focused on our goal that we didn't deviate and try to find the spirit in the lesson and rely on our faith to help us witness about what we were trying to do. it was hard. but we're preparing another lesson for tonight, and i think we're going to do a lot better. we're going to go in there with less notes and try to rely on the spirit to help us say what our investigator needs to hear. :)

i have to go, but i love you all, and i love being a missionary. I can't wait to learn more!

love,

hermana spencer

ps, i heard rumors that david archuleta came the same day i did... and that he's going to chile. but i haven't seen him yet, so i'm not really sure if that was true. but... if it is... :)