Week 16--October 26 (Terni)

Waazzuppp my people!!

I hope everyone had a good week! I heard Donald Trump is winning in the polls? Is that true lolol? This week was a pretty good week, I had a lot of very different interesting experiences that are cool, and other things happened that are just straight up weird.

So there have been just some super weird people coming to English Course lately. A couple of them are these two ladies that to be honest are disgusting. I know that sounds horrible but they are definite Cougars and were trying to flirt with me and Anziano Palazzo which was super awkward. And then after class we were talking to S. (insane guy that I taught a lesson to while sitting on his bed.. More details on him later) and he told us they were transvestites. Ummm WHAT?!? Soo I don't know if they were women, or men.. Or what.. Anyway on Saturday we were doing finding and I saw one of them in centro. And I was like ohh noo not again so me and Anziano Slade tried to like avoid her and we thought we did but then all of the sudden I hear this high pitched, "Ohhh Spennceerr" and I was like gosh dang it. So we turned back and she/he/I honestly don't know bached me (kissing on the cheek thing, can't wait to start a trend of that in America hahaha) and then talked to us for a little. The person was with a man though so I am really hoping it’s a woman. I will see her/him/I don't know at English course again so more to come on that. Lolol

Our investigators are doing really well for the most part. H. is coming along, he had a hard time understanding the Word of Wisdom though but he told us he prayed about it so hopefully he will be able to realize why it's important and how it can bless him. We also got a new investigator too!! We found him doing street and we invited him to English course. He was a little confused on the days I guess because he showed up to the church on Friday instead of Thursday but there was an activity going on with some guy talking about the Illuminati, Isis, umm what? And all this other stuff (gosh I love Italians haha) and he stayed and was interested. So we started talking to him and he said that he is actually looking for Jesus Christ (hallelujah!!) in his life and we had a good lesson with him! He told us that he suffers from depression (it seems super severe too), so honestly he is just like the perfect guy that needs the gospel in his life. It also made me realize how much of a support system and friendship the church actually is cause he told us that he doesn't really have any. After the lesson he gave me this huge hug and kinda just held me and like nestled his head against me.. And then was like thank you! Thank you my friend! I didn't mind though cause if I can have this 60 year old man be happy and realize that he is loved by God and Jesus Christ then it's all worth it and that's what I am supposed to do as a missionary.

Another interesting thing that happened was on Sunday because of the time change. We set our clocks back an hour and I had the most amazing sleep ever cause we got to sleep in for an hour!! Oh it was so amazing, first time since I entered the MTC. Even though we still woke up at 6:30 lol. So what happened is we were doing our studies and we get a text from one of the members and he was like "Anziani where are you.. Church started 15 minutes ago?!" And so we were like WHAT?! So we like went to church as fast as we could and what happened is our clocks reset automatically as well so they were two hours behind and we didn't even realize it. Oh gosh the members thought it was hilarious cause obviously it was an accident, and I gotta say it was so nice to get 2 hours of extra sleep without even meaning to haha. Won't get that for the rest of my mission but that's okay haha

Other than that we have been doing a lot of teaching and finding. The work is picking up for us, and there have definitely been hard days but when those happen, there is always something nice that happens that makes you realize there is a God and he does love us! THE CHURCH IS TRUE!

For my spiritual thought this is something I have read from a talk on patience because I have realized how awful I am at being patient with myself and so I am really trying to develop it. It's from a talk titled Never Give Up by Elder Joseph B Worthlin-

Secular history also teaches the principle of perseverance. Winston Churchill is well known for his determination as the leader of Great Britain during World War II. On one occasion in his later years, he returned to a school where he had studied as a boy. Before he arrived, the headmaster told the students, “The greatest Britisher of our time is going to come to this school, and I want every one of you to be here with your notebooks. I want you to write down what he says, because his speech will be something for you to remember all your lives.” The elderly statesman came in and was introduced. His glasses were down on the end of his nose, as usual. He stood and delivered the following words from an immortal speech that he once gave in Parliament. He said, “Never, never, never give up.” Then he sat down. That was the speech. It was unmatched (see “These Are Great Days,” in War Speeches, ed. Charles Eada, Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1942, pp. 286–88). His message was indeed something to be remembered by every boy who heard it and by each of us. We must never give up, regardless of temptations, frustrations, disappointments, or discouragements.

So I am doing my best at being patient with the language, investigators and other things and just trying to persevere and Never Give Up!!! 

I love you all!!!

Anziano Spencer

P.S. Okay so we went over and had dinner at S.'s house (the crazy guy) cause he invited us and we were hoping maybe his mother would be interested. Anyway, right when we get there he was like don't worry don't worry at all guys. And then we walk in and he goes in and opens one of the doors to a room and started screaming/hissing/weirdest noises to like his cat. It was the creepiest thing. So yeah then we had dinner there. Intense.

These pictures are from Tristan's Pday trip to Spoleto, Umbria this week:

Week 15--October 19 (Terni)

Whattt up everyone!!

So this week was sooo awesome! (I am sorry that I don't have that much time, I am on the train back from Rome and there is a crazy man talking trash on us about our church and all the people are like siding with us so it's a good time for me to talk to them.) There are always ups and downs but we had such a great week with finding new people and teaching! And the best part is H. IS GETTING BAPTIZED!!! What what, I am soo happy. We had a great lesson with him yesterday and he told us that if he doesn't die by the time November 7th roles around then he will be baptized. It's so cool to look back and see where he was and then where he is now and see the happiness and joy that the gospel has brought into his life! 

So on Tuesday we had such a sweet day. We taught 6 lessons like back to back with our new investigators and they all seemed genuinely interested! Like the cougar one even mellowed down once we told her our age. Kinda messed up but whatever lololo. So that was a really great thing for me to do because I was able to talk a lot in Italian. Hopefully they will keep wanting to meet with us and we can bring them the same happiness that the gospel has brought H.! 

The one lady from the bar has been interesting. We met with her again and this time her friend was there who was not interested whatsoever. She was making fun of us and talking about smoking and all this stuff. It was kinda frustrating cause I don't take it well when people talk trash about me in my face but I couldn't understand most of it which was good for me, I guess.. We invited her to our quit smoking course and she seemed kinda interested cause she told us she smokes 36 cigs a day. 

We have had other lessons too and the one that went really well was with C. We have been talking to him a lot about marriage and he finallly accepted that he really needs to marry L. So when he was at church on Sunday he told us about the conversation that they had and she said no! So now we have to figure out like why she said no, and he told us that she might be moving to Germany for work and then he could be baptized. We said yeah that would work but still... I was kinda like in shock he didn't seemed too bothered by it so that was kinda sad to see how marriage wasn't really important for them. 

Well that's kinda all the main stuff that happened this week. Today we were able to tour around Rome and see the colosseum, the Spanish steps, a super cheap Italian tie shop, churches, old Rome and other amazing things so even though this letter isn't very long hopefully y'all can forgive me cause I took a lot of pictures.

I am also working hard at the language by trying to talk to more people on the bus. Last week I had a good like 20-minute conversation with someone so it is coming along! I just need more time, cause that's the best way to learn the language: talking with others (on a daily basis) and time. So I will get there!!! 

Also, I stopped this guy on the street and he was not interested to really talk but he did tell us how he works for the Catitas (the organization that helps refugees from Nigeria and feeds them and things like that) and so we met with the boss last week. He said he has to talk to his bishop (cause it is run by the Catholic Church) but we should be able to help out. That would be awesome cause it is hard to find service work here in Italy. 

Well I love you all!! Thanks for your support and your letters! I love getting them throughout the week cause they really help me when I have hard days and things like that! Thank you! The church is true!!

My spiritual thought for this week is about patience cause I still have a lot to learn on patience hahaha- 

That positive perspective comes when we faithfully follow the Lord with optimism through our own wildernesses. As we do, we will one day discover that our wilderness experience wasn’t nearly as bad as we thought. We may even admit that it was totally worth it. To each of us the Lord says:

“Continue in patience until ye are perfected.

“Let not your minds turn back; and when ye are worthy, in mine own due time, ye shall see and know” (D&C 67:13–14).

I love y’all! Thanks for your prayers!!! Anziano Spencer

Week 14--October 12 (Terni)

3 Months!!!

Thank you so much for your prayers and support this week; it was such a good week so thank you! It's so weird to think that I have been out on my mission for 3 months now, it doesn't feel like that long but at the same time I have a lot left to go. But that's okay cause serving is awesome!

Okay so this week was a really sick week with some very different experiences. We have finally been able to get some new investigators!! One of them was this girl that was in our area book that we called and she was super down to meet us. Turns out she works in a bar that she started and so when we met with her all of her friends were there that we had actually met before. There was like 8 of these 20ish year olds and we had tried to talk to them but they had previously tried to cuss out out in English.  Anyway so we walk up and one of them shakes my hand and gives me a "very firm" handshake. As if he's like king of this bar or something. So I just look at him in the eyes and crush his hand right back and then walked inside. Kinda like don't mess with me man, cause I am called of God as a missionary, and also as a member of the church we shake hands a lot so back off (so obviously my hand was stronger hahaha). We met with the girl and she was super open to hearing more about the gospel, it was just hard to teach her because she was blasting Eminem (which was sooo hard not to try to jam out too lolol). But she accepted a copy of the Book of Mormon and told us that she will read it so I have high hopes for her! And I hope that we can teach her friends too, or at least get them to start liking us! And then I talked to one of her other friends to try to build a friendship and he is like a bro to me now. Cause when we walked out of the bar, he gave me the "slight bro nod" as I walked out so we will see! 

We also are starting to teach this man that is very Buddhist that we met on the street. He invited us into his house and we explained who we were and he told us to come back and eat with him! It's very sad though because obviously he doesn't have a lot of food or a whole lot of anything. He is very kind, though, and I hope that good things happen with him! I also think that he was slightly drunk during our visit but he wants us to come back and is super open, so that's another person that we can start teaching! 

Something else that was really cool this week is a few weeks back we were doing some finding and I walked past this family that I felt like I should talk to. Then began the constant battle in my mind cause it’s at those moments that I start getting scared. So I ended up turning around and went back but they had left, so I was super sad that I had missed that opportunity. But then we started talking to this fresh half Indian/Egyptian guy and he came to English course and has become really good friends with us. He refers to us as his brothers. Well, we hadn't seen him in a few weeks and we saw him a few days ago across the street. I shouted at him and was like, "my friend!!" And he got so excited and came over and said he wanted to take us to buy a drink. We explained what we believed but he was still persistent so he bought us some pear juice, and introduced us to some REALLY Muslim friends of his and we sat in there and talked to him and explained about missionaries. It was a really good opportunity and so hopefully we can start bringing in the gospel with him. I believe I was supposed to go back to talk to that man!

Other things that I think y'all will think are kinda interesting that happened this week-

There is this woman that's really interested in meeting with us this week but I am 99 percent sure she is a cougar (like legit no joke she flirts with us and she's probably 35. It's disgusting) so I will let you know how that goes! 

Also, we got another pepperocini from a man that we are teaching. Anyway, this one he told us you have to wear gloves when you cut it because it's so hot. Completely ignoring this counsel "cause I am a big strong man" I cut it up with my bare hands. Let's just say that putting in my contacts for the next 3 days was absolutely horrible cause the juices wouldn't come off of my hand... it was horrible. 

We met this really nice woman that we gave a Romanian Book of Mormon to and she wants to meet with us again! So hopefully we can start teaching her! We also started teaching this man that is extremely intelligent that came to church yesterday. He is curious where is grandfather is because he passed away. The church is so true cause I was like, well, my friend, we have the perfect answer for you. 

Italians think that eggs can kill you. We had a huge argument a few weeks ago in English course about how we all eat three eggs a day and they were super concerned for us that we were going to die. I am being totally serious; it was the funniest thing ever haha.

Well I love you all!! God does answer prayers and he loves us. I can see that from this week with all the new potential people that we have to teach. There is even more but this email is already massive. Thanks so much for everything! There was zone conference this week and we talked a lot about planning, and executing that plan, and then teaching with the spirit. So my spiritual thought for this week is just about how important the spirit is. Cause when we teach it's not us that's going to change the person cause if we do that then they are not converted. It's the spirit and the feelings that they have that they know this is the true church on the earth today. That's what our goal is and so I know I have a lot to learn with teaching with the spirit but I am really grateful for what I have learned with that!

I love you all!! Thanks for everything! Love, Anziano Spencer

Week 13--October 5 (Terni)

CIAO BELLI! (Hello beautifuls is the translation) yeah.. People say that a lot here haha!

Hey everyone!! This week was an awesome week. Because Anziano Slade (still just the coolest name ever) didn't get here until Thursday, we were in a group of three doing all of the work for both companionships. It was really good and a good learning experience for me. We also had a car which to be honest I didn't really like cause I'd rather walk and talk to people but because we had it we were able to go up to Perugia  cause we have investigators and some members there to visit. One super cool place was this piazza drago which means place of the dragon. Essentially.. The dragon place.. Super sick. 

Anziano Slade is such a cool missionary!! He came from Ena which is like right in the middle of Sicilia and he showed me pictures. It's a city high up in the mountains and in fact the missionary apartment is on top of one of the mountains so you are above the clouds! It's amazing!! You look out and you are right up with the clouds--it looks incredible. 

Conference weekend was sooo awesome, oh my gosh it was so good to watch it and hear counsel from our prophet Thomas S. Monson and the Apostles. So I have gotten a lot of questions about how and when do I watch it because I think I am 7 or 8 hours ahead of y'all right now. So we watched the first session on Saturday night and it was me, Anziano Ray, and H. (he came oh man it made me so happy!!) in a little room in the church in English while everyone else watched it in Italian! So I don't remember the names of some of the people but the one that was perfect for Henry and I really enjoyed it too was the one from the woman with the super heavy southern accent. He said he really enjoyed it! Then on Sunday we watched 3 sessions (the priesthood and then Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning). The ward, though, wanted us to watch it with them so I tried to have a good attitude when it started but to be honest I was like dang this really sucks cause I really can't understand anything and the translator earpiece that they gave me was set to German, not English. Why it was in German I have noo idea. So I was kinda ticked just cause conference is something that I really enjoy and was excited to be able to understand all of it. So I started to pray. Cause I was really discouraged about the language and prayer is really the only thing that I can turn to right now, and all of a sudden C. and L. walked in!! (our investigators) and the ward switched it to make sure the translators were in English and so I was so happy!! God does answer prayers; it was such a good testimony to me!

Other than that we had some really good lessons this week with C. and he really opened up to us and explained some things that he was trying to figure out in his life. The spirit was really guiding that lesson so that was really powerful and spiritual to me! 

Well this week we are planning on doing a lot of finding so I am hoping that it goes really well and we are able to find those who want to hear us and recieve the joy that I have felt from this gospel. 

The thing from conference that I loved was the quote: "It will all work out in the end." That really stuck with me cause this is honestly so hard. But at the same time it's the most incredible experience that I have had. You talk to people that are so mean, like one guy I stopped to talk to him and he started yelling at me that I was a pig and I was just straight up swine... But then you get other people who are so nice and they want to hear you and talk to you. Or others who don't want to talk about the gospel but just need a friend. We have made a lot of friends throughout centro who we see a lot and it makes their day when we talk to them. It's so nice. 

Well I love you all! Sorry I don't have any funny stories for this week, I will next week though haha! Also shout-out to my little brother Caden who turned 11 this week. I love you so much little bubba! I wish I could have been there for you! You're such a little stud!

Love, Anziano Spencer

P.S I have Zone conference on Wednesday!! I am so excited!

PSS Tristan did have a funny story after all. He sent it to us separately and then decided I could include it with the above: 

So what happened is during English course on Thursday is we had planned to throw down a super sick prophet devotional to invite people to conference. Right before we were going to start this BEAUTIFUL Italian girl comes up to me and says something super fast in Italian and to be honest I thought she didn't know where the bathroom was so I
walked out with her to point her to where it was. And I walk out "to be honest really stupid of me and I don't know what I was thinking" and her friend is standing there. And then I realized what was happening and I was like oh no. Her friend then said in broken English.. "I... I... I have I have a crush?? A crush yeah.. I.. Have a crush on you." And I looked at her and was like I am sorry I don’t understand. HAHAHAHA oh my gosh! And then I was like sorry I have to go back in and Anziano Ray is throwin down a sick devotional and then there is me studying to get away from this girl and she grabs my arm and was like wait. And then she's like, "I like you..." And I was like "ohhh" and then she is like can we just be friends? And then shook my hand and walked away. Awww it was awful. Sooo bad! Then I walked in and talked to my homies Fredriko and Leonardo who are like typical Italian studs, they are so cool. So yeah that was my kinda one interesting experience this week, so I don't have more. Nothing huge happened, I am hoping this week will be better!! I love y'all so much!! So so much!!