Hola familia!
It has been yet another good week. A week of work, a week of fun, a week of learning and a week of teaching.
We did a lot of work with less-actives this week, and our work paid off! We had 5 less actives come to church this week! We have been working with Rosi, a 28 year old woman who was baptized over 10 years ago and hasn't come to church in 10 years. We have been trying to get her at church for weeks and she always flakes out on us. We always joked that we were going to come and make pancakes for her and help her come to church. Well this Sunday, we made a huge plate of pancakes and stopped at her house before church. She was NOT planning on going, but I think the pancakes did it. She came a half hour late and left after sacrament meeting, but SHE CAME! And better than that, her YW leader from when she got baptized is in our branch.
We invited and visited a lot of less actives this weeks and most of them came to church. We had the primary program this Sunday so it was a sweet and relaxed Sacrament meeting.
Saturday was a very funny day. Earlier, I was telling Hermana Argueta about how I really hadn't had to eat any really bad or weird food yet. I spoke too soon....
We had a lunch appointment at a members house that lived a half hour away. We got there and while waiting for the food they had us watch their daughter's wedding video (very cute). Then they served us this Peruvian food called...Ceviche.
It is this seafood dish that is soaked in lemon juice. It is an arrangement of raw fish with a few spices. It was HORRIBLE. We all ate it with a smile on our face and told them how good it was. Then they mentioned that nobody ever takes seconds or eats very much. Well nobody else was getting seconds, so I felt guilty and got more. I was so full and so grossed out.
2 Hours later, and still completely full, we had a dinner appointment with some more members with all the missionaries from the branch. The second we walked in, we smelt it.....Ceviche. This time was worse.
It was entirely raw fish, shrimp ( with legs!), octopus, some bug, and other strange meat I dared not to ask about. The octopus got me. I WAS EATING TENTACLES! It was so horrible. One of the elders snuck it into a napkin and put it in his pocket. I was jealous of his technique. I am officially scared to eat dinner at any Peruvian house.
Other than horrible food, we had a good week with miracles.
We got dropped a few weeks ago by this couple, Alex and Rosi. Hermana Argueta was heartbroken because she had a lot of hope in them. The other day, I felt impressed to go visit them, but I was nervous because I never met them. I asked Hermana Argueta if we should and she said "I was thinking about them this morning!" We decided to go. We get to the door and somebody is home. We knock, and somebody looks in the peep-hole, but nobody answers. I say a silent prayer and ask heavenly father to "please allow them to open this door and let us talk to them." Right then, Rosi opened the door. She let us in and admitted that she has missed us.
We talked with her a bit and she admitted that she is stuck on the Book of Mormon, because it's not the bible. Hermana Argueta reads a scripture on faith from the BOM and I felt prompted to also share one from the bible that supports it. I shared James 1:5-6. At closing prayer, I felt like we were really supposed to bless the home in the prayer, but Hermana Argueta was praying. Right before she closed her prayer, she blessed the family and the home. Right after that Rosi asked us to come back and read with her sometime. We were SO excited. The spirit was definitely guiding us and we felt very humbled by the experience.
Something I learned this week was, how important it is to be grateful. Grateful to the Lord, and grateful for other people. Yesterday at church I got asked to do a lot to help with the music, ward council, the class and with investigators. I realized that nobody thanked me besides the other missionaries. I realized, how little I thank my heavenly father for all that I have, and thank other people for helping me. We are so much more obliged to help when we feel appreciated. I think that's the same thing with our Heavenly Father. He wants to bless us, but why would he continue to bless us if we are ungrateful for the many blesses we already have? I've also noticed that the more we are grateful, the more we find things to be grateful for.
My testimony is definitely growing. I am being refined and improved everyday. The reason I know that is because I am becoming more and more aware of my many imperfections. The second I think that "I'm good" I am in trouble. We always have room for improvement. There is something we can always be doing to become more like our savior. Whenever I make a mistake like "wow, I really shouldn't have said that" or "I could have handled that better" I take it as something I can use to do better the next time.
I also learned something this morning in my personal study. I read an article in the Ensign (I love the ensign) about parenting. It mentioned how perfect parents are not the ones with perfect kids (that fits perfectly because my perfect parents have a far from perfect daughter :)), but perfect parents are the ones that teach their kids the gospel and try their hardest to love them and help them. It is the same thing with missionaries. A perfect missionary is not the one that baptizes everybody or has the perfect investigators, the perfect missionary is the one that works hard, teaches with the spirit and does everything in their power to invite others to come to Christ.
The spirit that we have as members of the Church of Jesus Christ is unexplainable. We were invited to stop in help with Esperanza's son, Ryan's 1st birthday. She rented a place, ordered a cake, rented a DJ and had decorations everywhere (that was a little ridiculous) but regardless, we had fun.
My favorite part was that almost all of Esperanza's family and Jose's family was there, who are all non-members. We could feel their eyes ALL night. Jhoana and Esperanza told us later that everybody kept asking who we were. They notice something different in their family members who got baptized and they notice a difference in the missionaries. There really is a light that each of have. It can only get brighter and brighter as we get a closer relationship with our heavenly father.
Thank you for all the love and support. Keep working hard in the Lord's vineyard too. Every member a missionary :)
Con Amor,
Hermana Spencer
Mom: thanks so much for everything. I did get the package and I did get the DVD's. I already had one of them, but I haven't use the other yet. Thanks so much. Don't worry about other DVD's yet. I haven't asked President yet and I have a feeling he might say no. Anything thats online at LDS.org or Mormon.org is allowed, but I don't know if they put it DVD form yet. But if you happen to find a DVD of mormon messages (I know they make them, I just don't know where to get them) I would LOVE one. Most investigators don't have internet access yet, and we aren't cool enough to get Ipads yet in this mission. Maybe before I go home :)
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