Week 44: May 9 (Trapani)

HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY!!

I hope that y'all are all doing really well. It was the best thing
yesterday to able to talk to my family and to skype with them. They
are seriously the best, and it made my week. Now I just have to wait
another 7 months;) YESSSS! Anyway, today for Pday we went to Palermo
and played Zone Calcio again with everyone. It's always really fun,
but I really like all the Anziani in the Zone and so it's fun being
able to see them and relax and play soccer. Afterwards we went to the
Tie Cave (the super sketchy area with all the cheap ties that are
really nice) and got some different ties and now I can email. We will
be staying the night here and working in Palermo because we have a
district meeting tomorrow morning so it will be fun working with the
other guys in their big area.

This week there is not a whole lot to report to be honest. Sadly, the
Golden Dude from last week has cancelled on us the past two times we
have tried to meet with him and he did not come to church. So we are
pretty sad about that, but we really hope that we will be able to see
him again and that he still has that desire. Other than that we have
been doing a lot of finding which has been good. I like talking to
people and I know that even if I could be teaching a bunch of lessons
every day, the Lord would still accept my efforts just the same
because I am trying my best. We did have a cool lesson with this
pretty sick 18-year-old ragazzo. He is pretty religious and he is
really curious to learn more about what we believe. We were only able
to meet with him for like 15 minutes, but hopefully this week we will
be able to see him again and that he's read in the Book of Mormon.
Another lesson that we had was with our good friend from English
Course and he is awesome. He's super sincere and really likes to meet,
but the things that are holding him back is he had like a bad
experience in the past with his church and that really hurt him.
Because of that, he doesn't feel the need to pray or come to church, so
we are trying to help him realize how important those things are and
how necessary they really are to daily grow and strengthen our
testimonies.

I was also able to have a really good scambio with Anziano Bellows.
He's a really nice guy and something that he talked to me about and
that I learned is more about the Atonement. He mentioned how he is
trying to work hard on daily repenting. Daily trying to become better
and daily trying to grow. That really touched me and I am trying to do
better on that and become more accountable for my actions every day
and trying to be better.

So for my spiritual thought I wanted to share something that I don't
think that I have shared before but it's been going through my mind
lately because this quote was shared at our district meeting a few
weeks ago and I love it. It's from the Sixth Rocky movie... So sick.

"Let me tell ya something that you already know... The world ain't so
full of sunshine and rainbows. It's a mean and nasty place and it will
beat you to your knees if you let it. You, me, or anybody ain't going
to hit as hard as life. But it's not about how hard you hit... it's
about how hard you can get it and keep on going, it's about how hard
you can take and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done! Now
if you know what you’re worth, then go out and get what you’re worth. But
you got to be willing to take the hits, and not pointing fingers
saying that it was him, or her, or anybody. Cowards do that and that
ain't you. You're better than that."

I know it's not word for word but I love this quote. Especially
because it's so true: life is hard. It's not easy because if it was
easy we would not be able to grow and learn. When things are 
hardest in life, we are still the ones to choose how to react and how to
fight against it. Not gonna lie, the mission is not at all what I
expected it to be, but to be honest the Lord knows exactly what I need to experience 
to learn and grow and become the man that He needs me to become. And I
know that I have been called to Rome, Italy to do exactly that and I
am so grateful to be a missionary.

There is this other quote from a talk by Russel M. Nelson (an apostle)
that I really liked that I also wanted to share.

"Why do we need such resilient faith? Because difficult days are ahead.
Rarely in the future will it be easy or popular to be a faithful
Latter-day Saint. Each of us will be tested. The Apostle Paul warned
that in the latter days, those who diligently follow the Lord “shall
suffer persecution.” That very persecution can either crush you into
silent weakness or motivate you to be more exemplary and courageous in
your daily lives.” (Face the Future with Faith)

Those are pretty hard words at the end, but it's so true, that we are the
ones that choose if we are going to be brought down by difficulties
and hardships or if we are going to use them to change and grow.

I love you all so much!! Thanks for your support. I am again so
grateful for Mother’s Day and I love my mom so much. If it were not for
her, I would not be where I am today. I am so grateful for her loving,
caring example. But even more than that, I am grateful for her
unshakable testimony in the Gospel of Jesus Christ because growing up
I was able to see that and it made me want to have my own testimony
and that's why I am here today. The Church is true!!

Vi Voglio BENE!!!!


Anziano Spencer