Elder Gabriel Spencer: Week 33: A Swedish Chef

Hej (hey)! Everyone! (Thats how you say hello in swedish)

I bet by now you are wondering first off, who my new companion is and second, why Im using all of these Swedish references? Well, believe it or not, they are related!

My new companion/baby boy is Elder Samuel 'Crocodile' Dundee, from Gothemburg, Sweden!

Thats right! My first non-American companion! I was so stoked! His ancestors are from Scotland, Holland, and mainly Sweden, and he is a powerful missionary. But wait, it gets better! English is his second language! And on top of that, he is a professional Chef!!

CAN YOU BELIEVE IT?? MY NEW COMPANION IS LITERALLY A SWEDISH CHEF!!!

I've already partaken of some of his cooking... We had fajitas for lunch on friday, and it was delicous!! Quite literally, the best food cooked by a missionary that I have ever had :) If you cant tell, I am very excited about this new transfer.

Traning is a-whole-nother thing in itself. I will constantly get flashbacks of when I was a new missionary, and the confusion and doubts and questions that I had in my mind (sometimes I still feel like a new missionary) But thankfully, Elder Dundee is a very hard worker, and is eager to improve his ability to teach and progress investigators. Oh and did I mention he loves to cook? Yeah, I approve ;)

His english is very good, but occaisionally I will need to help him with a word or two, which his remembers very quickly for the next time.

I will admit, this new resposibillity that the Lord has given me to train will not make my mission experience any easier, but I know that the Lord has everything planned and will help me whenever I need it. I might not know how to train a new missionary, but the Lord does. As long as I ask him for help and stay obedient, things will work out :)

Oh, and one more thing, I figured I needed to help start Elder Dundee's mission off with a 'bang', so I decided I would pray extra fervently, asking the Lord to help us get standards for his first week here. And you know what? He did! Elder Dundee was blessed to get Standards of Excellence within his first 5 days in the missionfield! Yay!

So, long story short, Elder Dundee only had about 30 minutes to email, and I'd feel really bad if I made him wait 30 minutes while I finish, so my son and I are going to head over to Sheffield now and play some sports with the other missionaries, where he will meet his grandpa, Elder Pass for the first time :)

Cheers!

Or hei-du in Swedish! (That means good-bye!)

Love,

Elder Gabriel G. Spencer

PS Pictures!

#1. Both my MTC companion Elder Gravalese AND my 'Step-dad' (follow-up trainer) Elder Thomas are training new missionaries this transfer as well! Im so proud!