Hmm okay, where to begin? Writing these emails is so difficult because so much happens and I want to share all of it, but unfortunately it's not possible.
A big thing for Elder Marcum and I this week was praying specifically for miracles, and we worked HARD. Wednesday was a pretty disappointing day because we were out finding all day and saw no fruits of our labors. The only good thing that happened was this older man came up to us and said "I'm not a member of your church, but I have nieces and nephews that have done what you're doing, and I have great respect for you. Here's $20 and you boys go buy yourself some dinner tonight." It honestly made our day so much better and was just a cool little tender mercy from the Lord. But other than that, our day was kind of a let down because we had prayed really hard for a miracle and put in the effort, and didn't get any apparent miracles. The next day, we had our weekly planning. By far, it was the best weekly planning session we have ever had. We had great ideas and were bouncing off each other and it was just really effective. That night we went out and found 4 people who would be interested in listening to our message! Now we haven't met with any of them or anything, but it was definitely a miracle. I know for a fact that the Lord always hears our prayers, the answer just might not always come when we want it.
I got to go on another exchange this week! I'm not sure if I ever mentioned that Elder Marcum is a District Leader so he has to go on an exchange with all the elders in our district during the transfer. This week I was with Elder Ewing. As we were biking to a park to do some studies, we rode past this man who was walking on the sidewalk. Elder Ewing went up to him and said "Hey, how's it going? Would it be alright if we shared a quick scripture with you?" The man asked where the scripture came from and we told him it was the Book of Mormon. Once we said that, his eyes got wide and he seemed pretty excited. He said "I've been wondering, what does that book say about the earth being flat?" Elder Ewing and I just looked at each other and I said "Actually, the Book of Mormon talks about how the earth is round and that it moves in motion with the other planets," or something like that, then told him the earth was created for us by a loving Heavenly Father. He just responded with "Oh so you guys believe in outer space too?" At this point we were just like, "this guy is whack, let's just share the scripture and go." So yeah, just a funny story. Hopefully the scripture we shared helped him out, haha.
I had a pretty cool scriptural realization this week while reading the story of Ammon in the Book of Mormon. At a point in the story, Ammon has the king over all the land at his mercy. When the king realizes he's about to die, he says to Ammon "...If thou wilt spare me I will grant unto thee whatsoever thou wilt ask, even to half of the kingdom." He is willing to give up half of his kingdom to be spared. Ammon doesn't take it and let's him go, and the king becomes interested in the message Ammon has shared. Ammon then sends his brother, Aaron, to teach the king. As Aaron is teaching him, the king realizes the importance of the message. He says, "...I will give up all that I possess, yea, I will forsake my kingdom, that I may receive this great joy." The king offered half his kingdom for his life to be spared, but he offered his whole kingdom, essentially everything he had, just so he could receive the joy that the gospel brings. I LOVE this. It caused me to think "would I be willing to give up everything I have to receive the gospel if I didn't already have it?" Just an interesting question to ponder.
Well, that's all for this week! Love and miss all of you and hope everyone is doing well! The Church is true!
On Friday, Elder Marcum and I went to an apartment complex and decided to knock some doors. We knocked on two doors with Spanish people, and guess who spoke Spanish that no one could understand? Me!!! It was so bad, I just totally stumbled over my words and phrased my sentences so poorly. The people we were talking to couldn't understand me and kept looking at Elder Marcum and he just said something else. Even Elder Marcum didn't know what I was trying to say. But hey, it's all good, that's what language study is for. I got a good laugh out of it so it wasn't a big deal. And after those failed attempts, we talked to a guy standing on the street corner and set up a lesson with him! So it honestly was a positive experience, so no worries.
I wish I had awesome stories of people we're teaching and seeing their lives change, but it hasn't come yet. As a District, we decided to start praying for people to baptize instead of people to just teach. We all have people we're teaching, they're just all flaky and not willing to progress. We want to teach people, but we want to baptize more. That's how people can begin the path to eternal joy and peace. Hopefully the miracles will start pouring in soon and I'll be able to help people come unto Christ.
I had a pretty cool scriptural realization this week while reading the story of Ammon in the Book of Mormon. At a point in the story, Ammon has the king over all the land at his mercy. When the king realizes he's about to die, he says to Ammon "...If thou wilt spare me I will grant unto thee whatsoever thou wilt ask, even to half of the kingdom." He is willing to give up half of his kingdom to be spared. Ammon doesn't take it and let's him go, and the king becomes interested in the message Ammon has shared. Ammon then sends his brother, Aaron, to teach the king. As Aaron is teaching him, the king realizes the importance of the message. He says, "...I will give up all that I possess, yea, I will forsake my kingdom, that I may receive this great joy." The king offered half his kingdom for his life to be spared, but he offered his whole kingdom, essentially everything he had, just so he could receive the joy that the gospel brings. I LOVE this. It caused me to think "would I be willing to give up everything I have to receive the gospel if I didn't already have it?" Just an interesting question to ponder.
Well, that's all for this week! Love and miss all of you and hope everyone is doing well! The Church is true!
Elder Spangler
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