Week 39--April 4 (Trapani)

Trapani Week 17!!

Hey everyone!! I hope you are all doing well and that everyone had an
awesome time watching conference (where our prophet and apostles speak
to us in a big center and we have the privilege to watch and take
advice and the things that we need). We were lucky enough to be able
to watch all the sessions except for the Sunday afternoon!! It made me
so happy! And to make it better it was in English! Ohhhh YESS, there
is something super powerful about their voices. I don't know how to
explain it, but it was incredible.  The reason that we were able to
watch most of the sessions is because yesterday we found a ride for
our African homies and so they came to the church in the morning and
we were there for the whole day with them watching the sessions,
talking about Joseph Smith, and some other stuff. It was great and I
seriously loved all the talks. The one that really touched me was during the
Sunday morning session by President Uchtdorf when he talked about how
God can always "rebuild' us even when we feel so low and so sad. I
thought it was a powerful talk and it meant a lot to me.

So this week, to be honest ,was probably one of the harder weeks on my
mission. A lot of things are just not really working out and the kinda
"big slap to the face" was my companion and I are really trying to
help strengthen the branch and help the members get more involved in
missionary work. So that's why we have been doing our family night
activities at the church, and other activities and programs to really
try to help. This Friday we had this activity that we have announced
in sacrament meeting for the past month to watch "Meet the Mormons"
all together and for people to bring their friends. Anyway we got
everything ready and we were seriously so excited. We bought drinks,
made brownies (cause Italians loveeee brownies) and were so stoked.
And then something that made it even better is our three investigators
said they could come and I am not kidding, I was so pumped for this
activity. Our investigators all showed up on time to watch and there
were no members. None. We tried calling them...Ohhh man it was so bad.
One of our investigators asked us, “Where is everyone??” Dang, I was
seriously so sad and just straight up ticked from the lack of support.
We decided to start the movie anyway and after 45 minutes one member
showed up!! I love her that came so much and it was good for her to
meet our investigators, but I don't think they will really want to come
back after that experience which makes me really sad. That gave me a
little hope and happiness though that one member showed up, but not
gonna lie that experience just really put me down and made me pretty
upset cause we really are trying our best to help everyone here in
Trapani and I guess there must be some things for us to learn still!!

I am sorry this letter isn't how I normally am; things are just pretty
hard here right now,but I am trying to be strong and just keep on
working the hardest that I can and I know that things will work out
eventually! I don't want you to feel bad for me either--I just try to
be me and try to be really real with my letters and so that's why I am
writing some of this stuff. I love being a missionary; even though it
is really hard I am grateful that I can serve the Lord here in
Trapani, Italy. One awesome thing though is one of our investigators
is progressing really well! He wants to receive his answer and he is
really open and receptive to meet with us and learn more. He even said
that he is becoming closer to the church and the things that we are
teaching so we are hoping so bad that things go well with him. The
hard thing is is that he can only meet once a week, but he comes to
church and so I am grateful that we have been blessed to know him and
work with him!

Okay so my spiritual thought is from the Book of Mormon about the
Stripling Warriors. This part in the scriptures really touched me
cause it shows me an example of how even when you are one of the
stripling warriors, things can be hard but the Lord will always strengthen
us-

"10 Therefore we did pour out our souls in prayer to God, that he
would strengthen us and deliver us out of the hands of our enemies,
yea, and also give us strength that we might retain our cities, and
our lands, and our possessions, for the support of our people.

11 Yea, and it came to pass that the Lord our God did visit us with
assurances that he would deliver us; yea, insomuch that he did speak
peace to our souls, and did grant unto us great faith, and did cause
us that we should hope for our deliverance in him."

I love this a lot. I know that Heavenly Father is always watching out
for us. I think it was stated a lot in General Conference by how
literally our Father in Heaven and Jesus Christ want us to turn to
them. Everyone has hard moments, and because of that Heavenly Father
in his wisdom provided Jesus Christ to come to this earth and perform
the Atonement for us so that he knows how to succor us and he knows
what we need to be strengthened and blessed. I am grateful for the
Atonement of Jesus Christ and I know that he is here!!

I love you all!!

Love,

Anziano Spencer

P.S We played Zone Calcio today which was really fun, I love playing
Calcio with all the Anziani because it's fun being around everyone and
I miss soccer a lot haha! Have a good week everyone!!