Week 23: Spring is Here!

Warm and lovely spring is here, everybody!

No offense, but I am so glad I'm not in Utah weather right now ;)

This past week has been great! I LOVE receiving answers to my prayers! It is so apparent in my life that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ truly do direct this work!

So, I spent a little bit too much time emailing family members, so unfortunately, this one's gonna be quick ;) Sorry!

I don't necessarily have any fun stories to tell at this time, so I'm going to tell of my past week's experience...

Our main goal (meaning mine and Elder Thomas) is to work towards getting Standards of Excellence every week, which I have found is quite difficult to do. For those of you who don't know, Standards of Excellence is a weekly achievement that teams can get if they get a certain number of hours finding, lessons taught, investigators at church, new investigators etc, and on average about 5-8 teams achieve this per week. While Elder Thomas and I have been working together, we have been blessed by the Lord to achieve this 5 consecutive weeks in a row, with getting it again this week. (Lets just say two weeks ago was a tough week for Leeds 5) Elder Thomas and I still don't know how we are doing it... but the Lord is seeing it fit to bless this wonderful area :) My testimony on Faith has increased so much as a result of my experiences this week. So, long story short, we plan basically everything out, new lessons, members are coming out with us, and everything. Then on each day, our plans would fall apart somehow. Members would cancel, investigators wouldn't show up, it was starting to look like a very unsuccessful week. But Elder Thomas and I knew that if we would keep trying our best, and if it was in the Lord's will, we would be able to achieve standards again. Eventually, Friday night came, and our situation was looking almost hopeless. Nevertheless, we did not lose faith. We planned for Saturday to be a jam-packed, yet productive day. Saturday came, and things still fell through. But then, people were calling us, asking us if we needed help, and most of our plans were not carried out, but through the help of the our investigators, the Leeds 5 branch, and most of all the Lord, we were able to make Saturday one of the most productive days of my mission, and make standards!

Yay!

And then Sunday! Oh, Sunday... I had so many different opportunities and experiences to teach... I dare say Sunday was probably one of the most spiritual days of my life! I felt the spirit so much, and it made me so happy!

I love this work! I'm enjoying it more as each day passes!

Love,

Elder Gabriel G. Spencer

PS Its Elder Thomas' birthday this Saturday on the 2nd of April. He's turning 20. If you'd like to wish him a happy birthday, please send it to his email at paris.thomas@myldsmail.net

PPS So first pic is from last p-day, when we cleaned our flat. We moved all of our furniture out of the way and DANCED BEFORE THE LORD WITH ALL OUR MIGHT! (Like David, in the bible)

Second pic is of the new recently changed Leeds Zone! (I cant believe Im going to be in my first area for at least 6 months!!)

Third Picture: Thought you might like this... This is the Russian family we are teaching! From left to right-Me, Yevgeni, Raxalana, Svetlana, Daniel, and Lutmila. I love this family so much!!