Is This Better?

Hey everybody!

 

Everything's going along nicely, I'm just ready to head out!  It's nice here, but it's just getting a little bit dull.  So my blog has 700 "hits"?  what does that mean?  People who have looked at it?  I'm not familiar with such terms.  :)  We played "20 questions" in spanish the other day to practice our speaking, and one of the sisters was thinking of "Sheri Dew".  Whoever she's supposed to be.  Her companion was the only one who knew!  oh well. 

 

It certainly sounds like you've been having an interesting time at home!  I hope everything is well with soccer and with your fun little SLC trips!  (wish I could go to SLC and hang out!)  I actually would like to go to Ecuador a little more!  I'm not necessarily tired of the MTC because I learn a lot of great things here.  I'm pretty tired of Provo though!  That's alright, I'm indoors most of the time. 

 

Only about 3 weeks left!  We've covered nearly all of the things we're supposed to go over, so that's good.  I've given two lessons in Spanish now, so I'm getting the hang of it.   How was "Fiddler on the Roof"?  I don't think I've ever seen that.  How was the ski trip?  Is the "SLOW" sign okay?   That's about all for this week, so I will talk to you all later!  I enjoy your dearelders, so don't stop sending them!  So Tyler will come next week I believe.  Pretty cool! 

 

Love, Spencer

More MTC Photos!

Hey Everybody!

Here are some new photos. Oh, and by the way, do NOT put my saxophone in the attic! It gets too cold up there! If you have, put it somewhere else!! Just a side thought.

Me practicing my anti-Mormon evasion tactics.

The Ecuador shirt!

Elder Hendrickson's morning prayer.

My district.  (Elder Te'o is not going to Pakistan...his arms are just too short.)  He and Elder Rood are going to Toronto.  Three of us are going to Quito, and one to Paraguay.

Elders Anderson and Skoubye, who left for Honduras last night.

Elder Moser, who leaves for Colorado soon.

P.S. Actually, just kidding.  Ther is no P.S.  I'll just tell you in my e-mail!

3 Weeks To D-Day!

Hey everyone!

 

how is everything going?  I have really appreciated getting the dearelders!  And no, I'm most likely not allowed on the site.  Everything's pretty rigid around here.  I can't wait to go to Ecuador!  Still some preparation to be done I suppose.  It's getting a lot warmer around here! 

 

Well, shoot.  I don't know.  Nothing much changes here.  I get up.  Shower.  Study.  Eat breakfast.  Go to class.  Study.  Eat lunch.  Go back to class.  Study.  Eat dinner.  Go to gym.  Shower.  Go study some more.  Plan.  Go to bed.  Get up...  So that's pretty much my life!  Not much changes!  So that will have to do for now!  We taught our first lesson in spanish yesterday, and it went wonderfully!  All that studying really does help.  I have also decided that I'm ready for Ecuadorian food!  I doubt that it can mess up my digestive tract any more than the mtc already has.  :)  And their attempts at disguising whipped cream as various desserts is getting a little bit old.  Only the best for us missionaries!

 

We're all getting along wonderfully as a district!  And we had Lynn G. Robbins of the seventy come yesterday for a devotional.  That's just about all for new things around here!  Most of the interesting stuff comes from my personal study, so yeah. 

 

By the way, would you mind sending Justin's address again, this time with out the question mark?  I don't have clue what to make of "Los Eucaliptus ?75."  What does that even mean?  Am I supposed to guess what number goes there?  :)  That's okay.  I'd like to know though. 

 

And to all the siblings, I would like to say, "deje de cejarse!"  (stop complaining!).  I sent letters to Aaron and Jess just last week.  And Tanner and Nathan never wrote me back when I replied to their letters.  So I've been writing.  Just so you know.  

 

Anyway, I'd better be going.  Sorry if I didn't have much to say, because not much has been going on!  Well we did see this student in her car on the way back from the temple, she was parked with the car running, music on, head against the steering wheel.  We went and knocked on the window to see if she was okay!  I think she was sleeping.  Hopefully not suicidal or anything!  We were probably just beeing paranoid.  Someone heard a news story or something.  So yeah.  That's it.  I also think I'm going to set a goal for my first year to read Jesus the Christ as well as the Book of Mormon in Spanish.  How does that sound? Anyway, I'm out!

 

Best wishes!

Spencer

Photos from the MTC

Me and Elder Yack before he left for Oregon.

Provo, UT temple.

Me, Elder Hendrickson from Illinois, Elder Rood from Oregon, and Elder Te'O from Hawaii.

Me and my companion, Elder Hendrickson.

With Sister Cooper and Sister Cozzens.

Cuatro Semanas!

Well hello everyone, and happy St. Patrick's day to all!  I've never seen so many green ties in one place!  Everything is going pretty well, and I can even communicate somewhat smoothly in Spanish now!  Me and Elder Hendrickson set a goal to only speak spanish all morning yesterday, and it went pretty well.  A lot of goal setting here.  Our zone keeps shrinking, and it's kind of a bummer.  We'll only have 3 districts pretty soon and ours is small to begin with.  It is all working out though.  I've been assigned new responsibilities as of last week.  I have to pick up the mail for our district, conduct our district meetings, and prepare a ten-minute lesson for Friday, because that's when we have our zone meeting and I am part of the rotation of lessons.  I am teaching about patience and humility.  Pretty simple topics, but really important.  I'm using the sons of Mosiah as an example, because they definitely had both attributes.  I'm also teaching about the need to humbly accept correction when needed.  I'm comparing the cities of Zarahemla and Nineveh.  They both had prophets call them to repentance, and one chose to listen, the other chose to ignore.  Not bad eh?  Next week we have to teach in Spanish, so that's going to be pretty crazy!  My Spanish mishap of the week - we were practicing talking about what we were going to do the following day, and I accidentaly said that I was going to "eat myself for breakfast."  oops.  Lesson learned!  Today we had manicotti for lunch!  best stuff ever!  I'll miss that in Ecuador!  On the other hand, I'll warn anyone who will be in the MTC soon NOT to eat the "cherry cobbler."  they basically dump a can of cherry pie filling into a cup and put a bit of oatmeal around the edges to trick you into thinking it actually has some substance to it.  I was shocked that the MTC would participate in such horrendous acts of deception!  Besides that, it's been good.  I had green pancackes for breakfast today.

I hope everything is going well with soccer!  Sounds like perhaps the team is moving in a POSITIVE direction this year?  That's great to hear.  That's sad about Brother Miles.  Is his family doing alright?  And has dad caught up on sleep?  Probably not, but hopefully he got at least somewhat close!  I have been receiving all of the dearelders you've been sending, including the ones about the other missionaries, although I didn't really take that much interest in it.  I think I prefer mail telling me about what you guys are doing.  :)    I'm very grateful for my companion because he's willing to work and takes his call seriously.  It makes a really big difference in how productive you are and how effective your teaching is.

We had Quentin L. Cook of the Twelve speak to us last night.  Pretty cool.  Funny story as well - we always sing beforehand, and the chorister says, "now we don't stand up when we sing, but remember, when one of the Lord's apostles comes in, we do stand."  As if that wasn't a dead give-away!  The funny thing was he tried to get everybody quiet after he said that, which sort of worked, but not really since everyone was so excited! 

Well, is there anything else?  The days are basically all the same around here!  I can't believe it's already been a month!  Time sure does fly.  I have decided that personal study is my favorite time of day.  We watched this video clip in a meeting where Gordon B. Hinkley was saying, "well?  smile!  come on, SMILE!"  Have you seen it?  pretty funny.  I don't think there really have been many other happenings around here.  I run three miles during gym, practice a lot of spanish, and do a lot of study and prayer.  that is all.  You guys will have to provide the interesting stories!  I got a postcard from grandma and grandpa Wallace, which was enjoyable.  What's their address?  What's Karsen's address for that matter?  And is Justin in Argentina yet?  I would think so...  so yeah.  If I could get some addresses that would be cool.  I enjoyed your pictures, especially the "Nemo" one!  And I think I might send some things back home that I might not need.  I'm feeling very doubtful about the necessity of that big coat.  We'll see what I can fit.  Is there a time when I'll get that photo book?  my wall is pretty empty!  It's warming up over here, how about in Roosevelt?  I'm pretty glad because they don't provide very warm bedding over here!  Everything else is great though.  Well, my time is up, so I will update again next week!  I will write the siblings individually if I have time, so bye!

Sequeman las papas!

what?  no email for me?   I feel neglected!  Actually I got a lot of your dearelders so that's okay.  Anyway, I actually got into my email on the first try this week!  Thank goodness for that.  Also, I will be mailing my memory card to you sometime this week.  Probably tonight or tomorrow.  I'm glad mom and dad made it home from Guatemala safely!  We haven't really learned much about what Ecuador will be like.  Mostly just the word of other people who had friends go there.  I hear that some flea spray would probably be a good idea.  President Greenwood tells the greatest stories about his mission!  He says he was in El Salvador on his mission, and they were at war with Honduras at the time.  They declared war on each other over a soccer match!  Anyway, he says his mission home got bombed while they were asleep, but since they didn't have very good war stuff, it just rattled all the bricks and knocked him out of bed.  He also said they would have issues with fleas in their beds, so he would roll them up in his hands and break their legs, and have his "own little flea circus" because they would be bouncing around trying to jump away, only their legs were broken.  Ha!  Pretty funny stories.  I talked to an Elder Elliott who says his cousin is dating Megan Ashby!  Also, I met an Elder Lisonbee who says he's related to some people in Roosevelt, but not the Lisonbees we know.  And Elder Moser from my zone knows the Lisonbees because Tyler almost married his sister, or so he says.  Small world.  Food here is pretty good, although it tends to mess up your... regularity...  It's pretty good for the most part though.  Except for the waffles.  The waffles here are terrible.  Besides that, it's good.   I completely lost my voice last week, which made things a bit difficult for contacting in spanish and things like that, but I'm over it now.  Spanish is coming along nicely, I'm learning more and more, I could actually understand some people we practiced with.  We do practice stuff once a week with native spanish speakers.  We had to pretend we were taking this old Mexican couple to church.  I could actually make a bit of small talk with them!  Then we prepped for a lesson and taught them (in English for the time being).  They didn't really know much English though, so I'm sure they knew how we all felt!

All in all, everything is going pretty well. We get to go to the temple on Wednesdays if I haven't mentioned that already.  It's a great blessing.  Elder Robbins left this week I believe.  That is about all.  I'm out of things to say.  The end.  How is everything in Roosevelt?  I've heard a lot about Guatemala!  Now how about some stories of home from a family perspective?  I sure do feel good getting letters from everybody though!  It makes my district kind of jealous.  :)   I also think I might be just about the only elder who eats the vegetable part of the entrees that they serve here!  haha.  Anyway, love you all, and let me know how you're doing!