Hello Family and Friends! I have survived 5 weeks!

Dear Everyone,

I am so excited to write today! This week has felt a little longer than most! 5 Weeks today I have been in the MTC. Crazy huh!

So the most exciting news is: Elder Holland came and spoke last night! He was amazing. He brought the spirit big time! He spoke to us about missions of course. One thing that he told us is how his mission meant everything to him. He says this in every talk he ever gives about missionary work. This time it hit me. This is why I need to go to Denver! I realized that Denver is where I can have my mission mean everything to me! I loved it. He also gave us some advice on how to do better as missionaries! We need to be studying better, planning better, and we need to be teaching better. He of course gave us some tips for each of them. He also told us about after the Savior died and the Apostles went back to fishing. He told us about how the Savior asked Peter, "Do you love me?" The Savior asked them to leave their nets, and when he did he meant forever. He asked them to feed His sheep, he meant forever. He asked them to be His apostles, he meant forever. Elder Holland told us about what this means for us. We must leave our nets and feed His sheep forever. He told us of one of the reasons we have Preach My Gospel (Which is the greatest!) - so many missionaries come home and turn away from what they know to be true. PMG was designed to convert the missionary so they would have the gospel written on their hearts. When we have the gospel written on our hearts we will want to share it with others. So I have been asking myself today "Do I really love the Savior?" If I do I will do better!

Also this week we made a district goal to speak only spanish on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. So yesterday, we spoke in spanish and for the most part I could get my point across. So the language is progressing. The thing that is the hardest for me is remembering how to conjugate the verbs while I am speaking. So I talk funny but it is getting better. I have come to appreciate English so much more. It is weird to pray in English now. Another goal we had as a district is to teach 15 lessons this week outside of class. Which pretty much takes up any free time we have. We have already taught 6 and will be teaching more today! All of them have been in spanish. On Friday we go to what is called the TRC and people volunteer their time to be an investigator. This is difficult because of the time limit and because of the language. However, we did good. Hermana Thomas and I have really been working on being unified, also we have worked switching off better - and they totally saw that! We taught them the plan of salvation and the Word of Wisdom.

So since we had a lesson on the Word of Wisdom, we were learning about it in class. I have learned why the Lord gave it. He didn't give it to us so we could be healthier (which is defintely a bonus), but He gave it to us so we could have His spirit with us. He knew that things would happen in the world that would cause problems and that men would conspire to do evil things! So I think everyone should look at D&C 89 again! AMAZING!

Also we have a new teacher, Bro. Hollenbaugh! He is great. He bears his testimony about how his mission changed him. He says that he is mexican in his heart. He always says something that inspires us to be better, or at least that makes me want to be a better missionary!

So less serious matters - Volleyball. I don't know how much I have told you about volleyball, however, I play everyday! AND I am actually getting better. There is a new elder in our district that sounds like the seagulls from Finding Nemo. All he says is Mine, Mine, Mine and honestly it drives us all crazy!  Another thing I am grateful for is our Elders. There are some Elders with some serious digestive issues....flatulating is gross. Yesterday we were teaching "Mine" Elder and his companion and he farted in our lesson. Can you believe that!

Another thing that is funny- my companion the other day while we teaching kept saying Jesu Smith instead of Jose Smith - so funny!

We went to the Temple this morning and of course it was great! I love going to the temple!

Ohh Sis. Thomas just reminded me - Every Friday night, all of the Hermanas from our zone come to our room and we have a girls night - which only lasts for 30 minutes but it is so fun! We celebrated our one month in the MTC. 4 weeks till Denver! All of the rest of the Hermanas are leaving this next week. :( That really makes me sad. They are going to Argentina and also Domican Republic.

So I love all of you so much! I love getting mail! SERIOUSLY! It is one of the highlights of my week!

Smile the Gospel is true,

Love,

Hermana Spencer

Shout outs -

Katelynn - Joseph is getting married crazy! I'm glad school is going well

Kayla - I knew you wouldn't last!

Dragon Posse - Thank you for all of the mail! Please write me and send me pictures!

Sallie - Hermana Loftus is going to be my companion (or one of them) next week and would love to see your pictures before she leaves so send them soon :) She leaves Thursday.

Hannah - I just got your package! Thank you so much! I loved it and I love you!

Sam Sarlls - ;) Loved all of it. You can write me long letters any time!