Septemeber 30th

September 30, 2013

Hola Familia!

What a week it has been. It has been one of the longest but shortest weeks on my mission. I have been trying to learn my new area like crazy. We spent a long time driving all over the city of Manassas because I don't know where everything is yet. Hermana Argueta and her last companion just barely opened this area so they had no investigators; they literally have been knocking doors every day for the past month.

Well, I said...none of that!

I worked a lot with other missionaries and I was able to ask the elders in our area if we could look through their area book. We were able to pull out like almost 40 women former investigators; we have been going to visit these people and a lot of less actives. We had a few poopy days where we didn't see a single person, but all is well. We are trying to find investigators like crazy. I had a huge self-reevaluation. I realized that I didn't have my trainer to lean on anymore and I needed to take some initiative to be the best missionary that I can be and push myself, and now my companion, to have confidence.

Hermana Argueta is doing great. Her last companion helped her a lot with her confidence. She is fluent in Spanish, but she doesn't know how to read or write it very well, so we are helping each other.

This week we did a LOT of organizing. I got a whiteboard and drew a calendar. Then we organized all the potential investigators, formers, investigators, less actives and members and wrote their names on the board. We realized we had a lot more people we could go visit than we thought. It has already helped a ton.

We helped 2 different people move this week, both less active families. It's hard because the branch doesn't really come to help with service like this, everybody just calls the missionaries. We helped this one family, and me and Hermana Argueta helped the Mom clean out the empty rooms. I was very grateful that I was taught to properly clean so that I could be helpful. The families were so grateful for our help.

We had a LOT of meetings this week. On Friday we had half mission conference. President and Sister Riggs taught a lot about getting back to the basics and teaching simply from Preach my Gospel. It was very inspiring.

We didn't see a lot of people this week, but we did work hard. On Thursday we made a 40 min drive to meet with these members. The Dad is a convert from Ecuador and he just had two of his kids sent here to live with him and his new family. They only speak English and are very homesick, but we were able to teach them and commit them to read the BOM. The 16 year old boy was very stubborn, but I joked with him enough to not think we were entirely weird :)

Yesterday, we got 2 other lessons. We got asked to teach 2 daughters of a member. The daughters live with their mom during the week but have been going to church with their dad and step mom. They are SO golden. They love church and promised to read and pray. We had a SUPER good lesson with them, but I think it was because I got to teach in English. I love it when that happens.

We also met with a former investigator the last Hermanas dropped but I really felt like we needed to try teaching her again. We stopped by and had a really simple, sweet, lesson with Jackie. Her mom fed us El Salvadorian food and Hot Chocolate. It's so good to just get to know these people and their culture. They really are such wonderful people.

The bummer about my new area is that our apartment is a former Elder apartment, so it has nasty stained carpet and a strange smell. Also, the apartment complex doesn't give missionaries gym passes or even parking passes because we aren't on the lease. So, I am afraid of getting lazy about working out the colder it gets!

We are really close to everything in our location. It's really nice to be so close to our investigators, the church, and shopping. I also lucked out and have a queen size bed!! We do live in the more ghetto part of Virginia though. We here sirens every morning before 8am and then throughout the day, it's great :)

So the other day, we went to go check on some former investigators and couldn't find parking. We had to park at the church and walk to the home. Well we were walking through one of the sketchiest 

neighborhoods in Manassas. Luckily we were out during the middle of the day. We got a LOT of strange looks. Everybody is looking at us like "Girls, what do you think you are doing here? Are you nuts?!" but me and Hermana Argueta just smiled and walked and said Hola to everybody. We ended up walking in the wrong direction and got completely lost. We ended up walking for over 2 miles in that neighborhood. We ran into these sketchy boys and when we said Hola they were excited we spoke Spanish. We told them we were missionaries and just gave them a pass-along card. Then one of the boys looks at me and says "Porque eres tan bella?" (Why are you so beautiful?). We quickly said bye and walked away. It became a running joke though between me and Hermana Argueta, it was just a really funny experience.

 The Relief Society Broadcast was SO good. It just made me excited for conference! I just remember how strong I felt when Thomas S Monson started speaking. It reminded me of when I said the prophet in person at the MTC. I remember then and I felt it again on Saturday, that he IS called of God and that he is our living prophet. I love him and I want to follow his counsel.

Things are going well. This week I had a few discouraging moments when it comes to training, leading and learning the language. But the longer I am here the better I feel. I'm learning a LOT and I am getting pushed in ways I wasn't expecting. It's scary and exciting!

We have a BBQ today with President Riggs because our whole zone got 90% baptismal invites for the month. We have a lot more fun on the mission than I thought we would!

I love you all, keep up the good work and help those missionaries find people to teach! Sometimes we know the people we know because the Lord knows they are prepared for you to share the gospel with them.

Love you all!

Hermana Spencer

My new address is 10841 Gambril Dr #23 Manassas VA 20109