Week 30 (Feb 1)--Trapani

Rimanero in Trapani!! (Lol this is not even grammatically correct but
I don't know how to type it haha)

Hey everyone!! I hope everyone is doing so well! So we got transfer
calls this week and I am staying with Anziano Garrett in Trapani for
another 5 weeks!! I am super stoked cause even though this city
is hard I have already learned so much and I really like working with
Anziano Garrett so life is so good! We also have a new sorella coming
into our district and two new anziani are moving in with the Zone
Leaders cause their work is going really good right now. So more
people in our district which I am pumped about! I am also super
excited cause I get to do Anziano Palazzo's last scambio with him
while he is in the mission, which will be really cool!

This week, to be honest, was pretty hard, but we saw some awesome
miracles too which were really cool. So every Tuesday morning we take
a 1 and a half hour bus ride to our district meeting which is in
Palermo. When we got back we were finishing our studies up in the park
and this one man came down and sat a few benches over from us. Me and
Anziano Garrett both felt really strongly that we should go talk to him
and it was cool because I felt the impression that we should just ask
him if we could practice our Italian with him for a little to build a
relationship, and Anziano Garrrett felt like we shouldn't talk to him
about his family (cause we had planned to do a family survey finding
for that night.) So we started talking to him and he was actually a
really humble guy that was really interested in who we were.  He ended
up opening up about how he does not have a good family situation
(super cool to see that if we started with that he wouldn't have been
very down to talk) and things like that. We ended up meeting with him
the following day and he has a sincere desire to know if the Book of
Mormon is true so I am really excited. Especially cause after that we
were able to see how the spirit guided both of us in different ways to
talk to this guy about the gospel.

Another miracle is this family that we are starting to work with. We
met the husband on the street last week and he was super sick and
really open to talk to us. He invited us over to his house and just
let us on in and we started teaching the restoration (that doesn't
happen very often haha) to him and his wife. They are super cool, and
right after the lesson he was like "Well, when is the next time that
y'all are coming over" SICKK!! Oh that was so nice, so this past week
just really strengthened my testimony that if we are doing what we
should, by being obedient and doing our best, the Lord really does
bless us and help us. I know that is true!!

I am sorry that's all I really have for this week; we have been doing
a lot of finding and things like that. We are also organizing a family
night for our branch on Friday night so if anyone has ideas about
games or anything, then that would be awesome and we would really
appreciate it!! We are talking about Obedience, Faith, and Charity. I
am really excited but also a little nervous cause I hope that it goes
well! So yes, if you have any ideas about games or anything to do... I
think it would be cool to teach them all to swing dance but I don't
know how well that will work out haha. Or just to dance in general. We
will see haha!!

So my spiritual thought this week is a quote that I really love from
Vince Lombardi. He says, "The harder it is for you to fight for
something, the harder it is for you to surrender." I really like this
quote a lot because I think it applies to almost everything in life.
Like I have had a lot of people ask me on my mission why is it that we
have trials or difficulties if we have done nothing wrong in our lives.
And something that I have been able to reflect on is the fact that
these trials and struggles really help us grow and shape us. God does
love us so yes, he wants us to grow and become better than who we
already are so that means life is not always going to be so easy. I
have already learned so much from being on my mission, and my desire
to share the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ keeps growing and
growing. Yeah, true, I wish that more people would accept it, but it just
makes me want to try harder and to be a better missionary. 

I know that I have a lot to improve on and the more I grow the
less that I want to give up. So yeah I hope that made sense. And I
know that this goes the same for anything, like school, family,
work, and all that life throws at us. I know that is so true!! The
Gospel is so true!! I love being a missionary so much!!!


I love y'all so much!!!

Love,
Anziano Spencer