Elder Gabriel Spencer: Week 5:Standards of Excellence

Monday, November 22, 2010

'Ello from England!!

Hiya everybody! I hope all is well back home/ wherever you may be reading this email!

This week has been quite the learning experience!! Elder PAss and I have seen lows... followed by extreme highs! Our week started out not going so well, with people flogging (to 'flog' means to drop/lose/not want anymore) appointments right and left. By Wednesday, we decided on making a new approach. We prayed diligently for guidance as to a specific area we should knock, knowing that the Lord would grant us with an answer, and He did! we both felt impressed to go to a small district called "Gildersome" which was kinda out of the way of everything else. We knocked there, but nothing seemed to happen. But we are certainly not done yet! We plan on knocking a different street sometime later this week.

Sabeena and Antonio (scheduled for baptism my first night in the field) rescheduled their baptism date, du to some Word of Wisdom problems with Sabeena. But something miraculous happened! to show her commitment to the W.o.W., she agreed to have us get rid of ALL of her alcohol and ALL of her coffee!! And we poured it down the sink! It was such an amazing experience, and she will be blessed for it! Now all that's left for her is to quit smoking, and she and her son Antonio (9) will be ready to enter the waters of baptism by the 18th of December!!

We had 5 investigators at church yesterday, which was great! Sabeena and Antonio, Anje and James (mother and son, new investigators who LOVED church) and Ali (a guy who literally just walked in and wanted to see what going to our church was like!) Church is definitely different as a missionary. Sundays are certainly easier than the other days of the week (aside from P-day, of course) but that doesn't mean we are any less busy.

Also, Elder Pass and I got "Standards of Excellence" this past week, which is a weekly achievement a companionship can get if they get a certain number of finding hours, new investigators, lessons taught with a member present, investigators who came to church, etc. ! It came as a surprise to us, mainly because so many things went wrong during the beginning of the week. But we're definitely happy!

It's amazing how many miracles we can witness everyday as missionaries, ACTUAL MIRACLES! We're talking about the life changing, night and day difference miracles! we see them occur as a result of following the Holy Ghost, our diligence, and our obedience to the mission rules.

Well, I'm running out of time, so I hope all is well! next we're going to go get a Leeds University sweatshirt, and maybe see the Royal Armouries!

I love you all, and I appreciate your support and encouragement!

Remember to keep smiling! (and keep writing me letters!)

Best wishes,

Elder Gabriel Spencer

P.S. I recently found out that Hogwarts (or where they filmed most of it) is literally within the Leeds mission! I hope I get assigned to the Alnwick (pronounced like Ann-eck) area at some point in my mission!