Ayyyyeee!! My favorite people to talk to!! I miss you guys so much, so thank you for all of your letters (cause seriously they mean so much, not kidding I wouldn't mind like getting grocery lists or anything I feel so disconnected from the outside world haha) support, prayers, and love!
Okay so this week was pretty good! A couple things that I forgot to add to my first email that I wanted to say. So I have 5 Anziani in a room which is pretty cool cause we all support and help each other but we have this one guy, a big Hawaiian guy, who has like 17 letters in his first name no joke. HE SNORES SOO LOUD. I wish I could explain it better but like honestly the first night I thought he was going to die because his breathing lasted so long that I thought that was it and I was going to have to tell the District President that one of the Elders passed away cause he stopped breathing. He knows he snores though, so he bought us all ear plugs which has been really nice, but a few days ago I somehow lost mine. So one of my friends gave me one of his cause he found an extra. Kinda disgusting but I was so desperate haha. Like my other friend Anziano Bertoldo slept in the hallway for 3 hours because he couldn't sleep. It's getting better though cause I am more used to it haha.
Okay so now on a more serious note. This week has had some really good highs (being able to go to the temple, singing Praise to the Man in the choir for the Tuesday night devotional which was an incredible experience to do with 800 other missionaries.. Like during the chorus I felt the spirit so strongly it felt like my body was on fire--it was such an amazing experience, going to devotionals, studying and learning). My companion and I (his name is Anziano Brown by the way so I am still team brown skin for all of you who know what that means haha; even though I have totally lost my tan I can still be on it!) started teaching two new investigators who are more difficult and not "the perfect investigator’’ anymore. One is a Chinese man (his name is Francesco, but it is really just Fratello Gessel acting) who doesn't know anything about God so we try to make things super simple and show him pictures but then he asks us questions that we know how to answer in English but we have no idea how to explain why Christ is the only begotten son in Italian so we have struggled with that. I was honestly feeling really discouraged with the language just cause some people are accelerating really fast and I don't feel like I am, but my Spanish has helped. I understand a lot of what people say to me; it is just trying to answer that I have a hard time with. But, on Sunday night I watched the most amazing devotional called the "Character of Christ" by Elder Bednar. If you haven't seen it I would encourage all of you to watch it because it really helped me out when I was feeling pretty down on myself. He describes that during all of Christ's trials (suffering in the garden, his experience with Satan, on the cross etc..) he always turned outward instead of inward. Serving others and helping them, while the instinct of the natual man would be to turn inward and shut everything else out. I am working hard on doing this and when I struggle with the language instead of turning inward and being hard on myself I am going to to turn outward and serve and love those around me. The devotional helped me so much and I am seriously doing SOO MUCH BETTER!!
Also, Emma (our investigator from last week) is now our teacher too which has been awesome because she reminds me exactly of Aunt Nicole which is like the greatest thing cause it makes class 10 times better. We are teaching her again this week and now her new name is Maria and so our first lesson we taught the Plan of Salvation or il Piano di Salveza and it went really well cause of my cards! (Shout out to Allie Jones--those are amazing and they make explaining the plan of salvation so much easier!!) Our lessons with her are going really well, my companion and I just need to figure out a new plan for teaching Francesco so hopefully our lesson with him tomorrow goes well!!
Something else that has been a huge motivation to me is the example of an Elder named Anziano Grover. He is a little slower when he learns so he has a harder time with the language than the rest of us but he works so hard. Like it is incredible. I have such a love and respect for him because of who he is. He is always studying at meals and at night he will go into the hallway before lights out and will read the Book of Mormon to himself out loud in Italian so he motivates me to work harder and I do my best to help him out when I see him. He has touched my heart and I pray that he will be blessed with the gift of tongues (because it is real!!) so that will help him out.
Okay so I wish I had time to respond to everyone's letters, but I can't so I am going to try to answer people's questions!
So my zone is made up of 24 Sorelle/Anziani, 8 who are going to Milano and the rest of us are going to Rome. As a zone leader I get reports from all the district leaders about all the companionships, and then we report back to our district president about how everyone is doing. It has been really amazing to be in the calling because I have learned and received so much instruction about administering and ministering to others just as Jesus Christ would. Then as zone leaders we plan Sacrament/Pristhood to make sure everything flows pretty nicely. And just make sure everyone is doing okay and try to lead by example. I am so grateful for this calling cause I have learned so much from it. The best part of the MTC is being with all these missionaries and knowing that everyone is here for the same purpose that you are and the strong spirit that you feel. It really is amazing and I love it so much. Even though we are all going to different places, we are doing it for one purpose!!
Some other things that I have learned and have happened this week that have been really awesome.
I saw Michael (who was my counselor from Aspen Grove) because he works at the MTC now teaching Ukranian so that was really cool. I also got to see Polly Pace who left for France on Monday! And I saw my cousin Ally Riding-- that was soo nice! And it was so weird to hug a girl after 2 weeks lol 2 years is going to be different when I get back hahaha.
Some cool Italian words that are so much fun to use-
Ecco-Behold
Chisto- I'm down!!
Managa- Dang it
Forte- Slang for Cool
But when you say them you have to use a lot of hand gestures and inflections in your voice to ya know "sound Italian" haha.
Working out this week my buddy showed me this exercise called the dirty dozen where you start at 1 and do one push-up. Then you immediately go and do one pushup on your knees. Then you do 2 reg/2 knees and go all the way up to 12 with no rest. It is extremly hard so Dad/Gav/Bubby or whoever else y'all should try it cause it KILLS.
Well I love all of you! Thank you so much for the support as I am on my mission!!
I love this gospel and my Savior Jesus Christ. He literally has been with me every step of the way!!
A scripture that I really liked this week is in Doctine and Covenants when the Lord is talking to Oliver Cowdery. I forgot the exact reference but he is saying to be patient my son and don't work faster than you can bear. That really helped me with the language this week and so it is coming along a lot better now!! I love you all!!
Love, Anziano Spencer
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