Ciao!: Week 10--Sept 14 (Terni)

MAAA PEOPLE!!

I hope everyone had a good week and every one of my friends are making good choices as they are going back to school;) I love y'all so much and thanks again for your support. I know that I say that every week but it's true; every time someone gets mad at me for trying to talk to them I just think of y'all and it helps me.

So I don't have that much time to write cause I am about to go play (American) football out in the rain with some buddies and some priests/GANS (young adults) from the ward. My goal: to crush everyone in this game. In a loving missionary way I guess HAHAHAHA. But really though, I am excited. It will be fun.

Alright so this week was good, I am not gonna lie it was really hard at some parts because we have been doing a lot of finding to get some solid investigators. But, I am getting better at the language so that has been awesome! I try to think of how far I have come instead of how far I have to go haha:) And our work has paid off!! We received a referral from the sisters in Catania about this man who has had a super rough past. He hasn't made good choices at all but his wife is a member of the church and he wants to get back together with her. To do that she said he has to learn more about the church (shout out to member missionary work!! It really is the best way. I invite all of y'all to try it!) so he has the motivation to change his life. We met with him on Saturday night and he actually is a really solid guy. We had a good lesson and he came to church with us the next day for the full 3 hours!! And on top of that when we walked into church with him, there was S. (guy with the crazy wife) sitting in the church 30 minutes early with a white shirt and tie on! Ohh it made me so happy!! With this new investigator and someone sitting in the church I was so happy. Church made this whole week so worth it, I was so happy!! The church is so true!!

Also something else that is really exciting is the other elders have a baptism this week!! I am so happy for them because they have been working with this girl for a while but because her dad is Muslim he doesn't want her to join. She turned 18 today actually so we are going to her birthday party ('cause it's a good missionary opportunity) and we get to sing at her baptism. I am so happy for her; she's so cool! She wants to go on a mission so hopefully her dad will let her.

I am so sorry I can't add more details! Here is my spiritual thought this week though. So I am in my scriptures right now reading about the stripling warriors. And I came across a scripture that I love so much- 25 And it came to pass that there were two hundred, out of my two thousand and sixty, who had fainted because of the loss of blood; nevertheless, according to the goodness of God, and to our great astonishment, and also the joy of our whole army, there was not one soul of them who did perish; yea, and neither was there one soul among them who had not received many wounds.

So the reason that I love it so much is these warriors were protected against all odds. Because of their faith, obedience, and powerful testimonies. Because of this not one of them perished and yet they received many wounds. Just because we are doing everything that we should doesn't mean that we are not going to have hard times and fall down. But, God will always be there to pick us right back up. I love that so much!

I love y'all!!!

Love Anziano Spencer

P.S I learned a sick handshake that people from Nigeria do to each other; it's so subtle and awesome. I felt so white when someone tried to do it to me and I had no idea what was going on. Probably cause I am white but now I know what's up when it happens. I love his church and my mission!!

PSS This week, I (Mom) asked Tristan some specific questions:

How often do you get invited over to eat with people?
What do you cook for yourselves the rest of the time?
Is your apartment nice? Do you have hot water to shower?
How long does it take you to get to church?
Do you ride the bus around? Is there a metro?
Have you been able to keep up with your exercise plan?
Is the language coming more and more each week?

I thought you would also enjoy seeing his responses (also note that he never called me Momma in his life until he arrived in Italy—it kind of cracks me up!):

Hi momma!! I have made it back on! Okay so here is the answer to some
of your questions..
We don't get invited over to people's houses at all to eat.. If we
want to go we must invite ourselves over which makes it difficult
because a lot of people live far away from Terni. But we are meeting
with 3 families this week who are members!
Pasta, a bunch of stuff.. I am starting to cook and I even cooked some
zucchini pasta yesterday with meat. It was so good!!
It's pretty nice, we do have hot water and it's pretty big too. It's
been kinda disgusting though but we cleaned it. Last night my mattress
broke though like the springs so luckily I can switch it out..
3 minutes probably we live super close to the church which makes it
super nice!!!
We take the bus to go to some investigators' houses but most of the
time we take the train when we go to Rome for district meetings.. Or
to the places outside of Terni. Like two days ago I traveled to
Perugia which was a 2 hour train ride to see some people. It was a
veryyyy long day.
Yeah I actually have been keeping up with my plan! It's been really
nice and I am getting stronger.
Yeah it is.. I know I don't think that it really is but I can stop
people now and kinda talk to them.. If they are patient with me haha.
But most of them know English too so I can talk to them like that.
Okay sorry that those were so brief!! But that's just a little
information for you!