Ciao!: Week 63: September 19 (Brindisi)

Mission Conference

Hey friends and family!! This week was really great especially because
we were able to go to Rome! It was so good to be able to go back there
after about 9 months. I definitely love that city, it's so big and

there is so much movement that goes on. For my letter today I am going
to mainly focus on the conference and share some of the things that I
learned because it was incredible. This week, though, Anziano Young and

I are really trying hard to put into practice the things that we
learned and continue to find more people to teach. We are seeing
miracles with teaching lessons on the street and now we are trying
hard to meet with those people again.

So the conference was so cool. We left on Wednesday morning in the
afternoon and took the train ride for about 5 hours up to Rome. I was
able to sit next to some really nice people, which I was super grateful
about; all of the missionaries were separated because we
were assigned seats and so I was all alone. I was able to talk to all of
the eight people around me and with the two people sitting next to me
I was able to teach the restoration, so it was a good experience. We arrived in Rome
and headed over to meet some of the Rome Anziani (Anziano Cannon!) to
work in their area. I was able to do a scambio and head off with
Anziano Raimondi to find some people and we ended up getting a

referral from the park that we went to for Anziano Cannon and his
companion. Then that night we ended up meeting with more of the
Anziani who got in from Malta and Sardegna (the two islands in our
mission) and headed over to the mission villa. While we were walking
over there I was able to talk to Anziano Governici who is a missionary
from Brazil. He is kinda a quite guy but it was good to be able to
talk to him because he served in Brindisi about a year ago and so he
was giving me advice and people that we should try to see and telling
me some of the things that they did when they were here. It was good
to be able to talk to him and talk about Brindisi. He told me that
missionaries in the past and he as well have called the city the
"nest of the brave" because it's tough, but as you put in the work you
see the blessings and that's exactly what we are seeing.

The night in the villa was so sick. There was around 30 of us Anziani
and it was really fun to see a lot of my old friends who I haven't
seen in a while and to be able to talk to them. I was able to talk a
lot with Anziano Friedman (the missionary that helped me with the
baptism in Taranto) and he is from Southlake, which is a city 30
minutes away from my house. He's a stud and was actually baptized two
years ago and so it was cool to hear his conversion story and to talk
to him. We will be going to school together too so that will be really
fun. It was good to see the villa again after not being there for a
year and a few months. Like I mentioned in my last letter, it was the
old house of Mussolini and it's kinda funny going back because--don't
get me wrong--it's a really big house, but my first night there when I
first came to Italy I thought it was the size of like a castle with
being like 5 stories high and things like that. Hahaha now that I have
adjusted I have come to realize that it's not quite like that. I was
just super shell shocked which is funny to think about.

On Thursday morning we left and headed to the Rome 1 church which was
an old supermarket in the past that has been converted into the church (sooo
sweet). (In Rome 3 their church was an old prison.. How cool is
that..) and I was able to see all of my old buddies and a lot of my
old companions, which was so cool. Anziano Brown and Anziano Olsen are
doing really well and it was great to be able to talk to them. In the
conference there were probably about 100 missionaries and we were
finally able to meet President Kearon and also President Saben. At the
very beginning of the conference, President Kearon invited us all to come up one by
one and shake his hand so that he could get to know us a little
better. It was really powerful because he is such a spiritual man and
is the President of the Europe area and so it was a really cool
experience. (He also has an English accent which makes everything
better as he talks.. Shout out to Elder Merrill, you stud.) We then

received some instruction from him, and he shared his thoughts and
feelings with us about us as missionaries as he himself is a convert
to the church. Something that I really liked that I wanted to share is
when he said, "When I first met the missionaries on the street it was
like I saw a wall of light... I don't remember a whole lot of what they
said, but I remember the light." Wow. He was incredible. He had a very

open and kind attitude and so when was he talking to us he made us feel
comfortable asking questions. I wanted to share with y'all some
of the insights and the personal goals that I set from this conference
that I want to improve on. I can
always improve as a missionary and so this conference really helped.

1. Look at the people here in Italy the way that God sees them.
2. Don't worry so much while you are on the mission, enjoy the time here.
3. Develop a PASSION for finding.
4. Every day remember that I am a Son of God. Love others, but love myself too.
5. Have Pleading Prayers with the Lord ("feel the chill on your knees"
is what he said, meaning don't pray in bed or be lazy but get down on
the floor)
6. Experiment to Become (the type of missionary God would have us be
because we are all different, but don't be a robot.. We were able to
practice on this one as we went out and did finding with the football
asking people why there are rules in sports or the importance of a
team and then relating it back to the restoration... It worked really
surprisingly well haha)

So the conference was really awesome and I am excited to keep
improving. After the conference I was able to talk to some more missionaries and
also receive my package!! Thank you so much family! It seriously meant

so much to me and I really appreciate it! I can't thank you enough; I have

missed MM's and Skittles haha and everything else. I said goodbye to
all my friends and then we left to take the train ride back home that
night. I really said many times how nice the people were on the train
ride up because on the train ride down I sat next to probably one of
the rudest ladies I have met in my life Lolol. It was fun but man she
was really just terrible. I won't go into details but she threatened
me and told me that I was not allowed to speak for the entire rest of
the 3 hours of the train ride. Haha, good one lady. It was fun to say
the least, and we ended up getting home at about 11:45. I have been
pretty tired the past few days because of it.

These past few days after the conference have been really good though.

Not easy, but they have been good. Our investigator D. is
progressing well. He prayed for the Rome temple to keep growing and
actually wrote me and Anziano Young a prayer, asking God to keep us
safe here in Brindisi. He wrote it in English for us so he said "Older
Spencer" haha because that's what the translation is in Italian. It's
super cool. He also came to church in a suit which was super
surprising. It was awesome because our stake president was there and
so we were able to all have a lesson together about prayer. It was
powerful because our stake president is a convert himself, and so he
was really able to explain some things to D. that helped. Hopefully
he continues to progress.

Know that I am doing well and that I love the mission. We are working
hard on finding new people and we have some good potientals for this
week, so hopefully we will be able to. I also was able to hear this
new Imagine Dragons song that was playing at a member’s house while we
were there and that was one of the best things ever.

For my spiritual thought I want to share some thoughts that I have had
about prayer. One of the things that we were asked to do moving forward after
the conference was to say a prayer with our companion at
10:00 every night and pray specifically for blessings and for the work
here. It has been a powerful experience to do and the spirit is really
strong. We have invited all the members to do it to with us so all the
missionaries and members in our mission are saying a prayer at 10:00
for the work. We have seen miracles from it and I am grateful for the
knowledge that we have to have an open communication with our Heavenly
Father who loves us. I am excited to keep working here in Brindisi and
see the miracles that the Lord will bless us with.

Vi Voglio BENE!!

Anziano Spencer

I love you all!