Dear Family and Friends,
I am now writing you from the middle of nowhere. I now live in a town that is small enough that they barely use addresses. They describe the house using terms like this "bottom of 3rd," "the second door down from the stop sign," "up river," and more. The town is super small. It has one grocery store. It has one high school. No real stop lights. The ward is a pretty large ward for the size of the town. The members are super excited to see us here.
So the week started off last Tuesday with the long transfer drive. They dropped us off in Rifle. There I was able to see some of the elders I have served with before. I also met my new companion Sis. Hatch. She is from Alberta, Canada and is super awesome. We then were able to get free sonic :) and then we made the 50 mile drive to our area. We are living with the Nielsen's. They are very nice couple. She is from Arkansas and he is from here. Bro. Nielsen actually served in Levelland on his mission in Texas :) We then proceeded to look at what the elders had left us. We then made some plans and went to meet some people. That night we met the RS presidency. They are super nice. It was weird to here talk about geneology and other things instead of things concerning Mexico. They were super excited to see us. We taught them a lesson on how to use us as missionaries and how we could work together. The Spirit definately confirmed our wards. We then were able to meet Bro. Murray. He is just about the only other member that speaks spanish. He is super amazing. We went to help him with English class. Sadly no one came. So here in Meeker....there is a cat that lives in the library. Ohh small towns. Then we met the bishop. He is from North Carolina and is super excited to have us. He told us about some families that we could visit.
The rest of the week has been super interesting. There are over 200 less active memembers in the ward. I feel really odd being in an english speaking area. I don't know how to talk to these people the same way. The culture is very different for me and has honestly been hard. But, at the same time, I feel like I need to be here and that this is exactly where Heavenly Father would have me. We have had several adventures here. A very large chunck of our area is the country. We have gotten "lost" with the GPS several times trying to look for houses. They don't always have addresses posted. There are sometimes sheep in the road and frequently cows and horses on the sides. There are chicken walking around town. The area is really beautiful. There are so many green things and small rivers here that really make me like it here. I love how quiet it is outside. Many of the members live on ranches and so this weekend we are going to help brand some cows ---wahoo SERVICE.
Missionary work in Meeker is very different. All of the town knows who the "mormons" are. The less actives are usuallly not excited to see us. There are not really lots of places to knock. There are tons of part member familes. This is going to be the most challenging area yet for sure. We have already learned that we will have to do things differently. We are going to need the members more than ever and we will also need to do lots of service. There are hispanics here. I got really worried about the spanish work this week. It is different teaching with out your companion. I feel like the weight of them is on my shoulders. President and I talked the other day about why exactly I am here in this area. He wants to see it there is enough work for this to be a spanglish area for a while. Many of the concerns of the spanish investigators is that there is no service in spanish. So it will be challenging to get these investigators to church.
Church was great yesterday. They are so excited to have sisters. They have not had sisters in more than 10 years. Our ward mission leader loves sisters. He bore his testimony about how wonderful and how much of a difference sisters make in an area. They are already very pleased with what we are doing. They asked us to bear our testimony yesterday in sacrament meeting. I got super close to crying hard. I hate realizing how soon my time as a missionary will end. I did feel power as the words left my mouth.
This morning we went to Craig, a town 50 miles away for district meeting. It is really weird being so far in the middle of nowhere and then driving to have a meeting. This week is zone conference and we are going to spend the night in Rifle and then go to Grand Junction :).
This week has been a week of growning faith. Sis. Hatch and I are really working hard to help the people here. We are excited to see all of the miracles that will be coming here. We feel like we are supposed to be here and make a difference. I have felt Heavenly Father's assurance so many times. He is here with us. It amazes me sometimes that we get in a car with someone we really don't know. We drive to a town, we have never been to. We then live with complete strangers and try to help people we have never met. The gospel really does change lives. There is no other way that this would work.
Please continue to pray for me. I love you and will write soon!
With love from Meeker,
Hermana Spencer
P.S. I miss speaking spanish.
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