New area:Thompson and new comp:Elder Requejo

¿Como esta Mom??????? I hope everything is well, I`m good and getting to know my new area better, my companion`s name is Elder Requejo, he is from Peru and he has about 5-6 months in the mission. He is really animated to work and it helps me to focus more too. The area is more country than my last area, if you want to look up my last area, it was in a city called J. Augusto Saldivar. The houses are pretty much all made of wood panels or tin, and the people are very humble and kind. The church attendance each week is about 50-60 people, and it's mostly all ladies that attend church. Our branch mission leader is really helpful and is preparing to leave for his mission, so he is always going with us to lessons and giving us references.

Right now we are working with a lady named Leonida and her son and daughter Elias and Leila, but Leonida has to get married before she gets baptized, and her boyfriend doesn`t want to hear anything about the church at all, they are attending church and they told us they feel like it's true.

There are a lot of less active members in this area so we are searching for them to help reactivate them and strengthen the branch. Today, we get to go to the temple to clean it again, which will be awesome, and on Wednesday, we will have a zone conference with most of the mission.

Not much else new, just trying to learn more Guarani now and getting to know the members and others in the branch. Hope you guys have a good week, and enjoy your summer, it has been cold here, it's weird to get used to the cold when it's June and July. Thanks for the pictures and emails as always, I will try to take some more pictures of my area and my companion and I, can`t wait to hear from you soon!

Rohayhu!

Elder Spiro

Saying goodbye to some families in Posta Leiva

A baptism and news of a transfer

Hola Mama!

Thanks for the emails and pictures as always, we had a busy week and a quick one too, it is still cold here but during the day the sun is warm, so its only a little cold at nights, but no worries. Today we will find out if we have transfers, so while writing this email I will most likely get the call. I`m glad to hear Dad had a good fathers day, I wanted to send a card but I don`t know in how much time it will get there, because the mission doesn`t send our mail now, we have to search a place in the city to be able to send it.  I got the package of treats you guys sent for Hump Day, and none of them were opened or eaten, so thanks!!!! I will be sure to eat all of them most likely this week.

We also had Celia`s baptism on Saturday, and it went good, we had to wait a little while for a few members to come, but in the end it all turned out well.  I had the privilege of baptizing her, she had been waiting a long time for her baptism.  She has a brother on the mission, and she had been living with her boyfriend before, so they had to get married but he didn`t want to, but recently she got separated from him. She is really excited to learn more though, she always shows us what she has been reading in The Book of Mormon and the gospel principles book we gave her.

Everything else has been good, we are working hard and Oliver came to church yesterday. He is a really humble guy and always goes with his friends who are members to visit other less active members after church which is super awesome.

Well I just got the call and I will be leaving the area, I will be going to an area called Thompson, I think its close to here, I will be senior companion to an Elder that has about 6 months in the mission, so we`ll see how that goes. Next week I`ll tell you more but I`m excited for the new area! Hope to hear from you soon and thanks for everything!

Rohayhu!

Elder Spiro

Alex's district

Quidditch?

I have no idea what's happening in these pictures but it looks like they are having a blast :)

Celia's baptism

Week of 6/13/16

Hey Mom!

Gracias for the emails and pictures. Looks like you guys had a fun time at SeaWorld, that sounds pretty crazy sleeping next to the tanks. I am doing good, we have been working hard and we will have a baptism this Saturday the 18th. It is for a lady named Celia, the two teenage girls weren`t able to attend church this weekend so we will be planning for a different Saturday, but they are still progressing! We also had another investigator named Oliver that come to church, he is friends with a few members so they had been inviting him. All is good though, Celia is really excited and she has been inviting a lot of people this past week.

Silvio unfortunately moved last week to a different city, but we encountered another investigator with the same situation, he is working on his addiction to alcohol. He expressed his desire on Saturday to attend church and to change his habits, but he didn`t come to church and we passed by on Sunday and he was drunk with a friend that was at his house. But it's alright, we just need to be patient and diligent in working with him.

I forgot to add in my past email that we ate pig head. The Aguayo family invited us and the other missionaries. It wasn`t bad at all, just a little slimy, but the taste was really good, and I would eat it again. We also performed some service this past week, which was nice. I can`t remember the last time we had a service project, we always offer but usually nobody takes us up on it.

This will be the last week of this transfer, so next Monday I will let you know if I am changed or not, or if I have a new companion. Thanks again for your email and I hope you guys get home safe and have a great week! Can`t wait to hear from you soon!

Rohayhu!

Elder Spiro

A service project, apparently moving a large cabinet from one house to another

Adventurous eating 6/6/16

Hey Mom, 

It's strange to hear of the heat because its still pretty cold here, and no worries about the sweaters, I can always buy one here if I need another one.

We had a bit of a tough week to be honest, most of our investigators are females, and we always need a man that is 18 or older to be able to teach them. None of the members were able to help this week, so that resulted in lots of walking and contacting.  I can see how obedience brings blessings, because we had an old investigator named Celia who came to church on Sunday.  She wasn`t able to be baptized before because she was living with her boyfriend and they had to get married for her to be baptized, but he didn`t want anything to do with the church. They got separated about a month ago, and she now just lives with her kids. We passed by after church and she accepted a baptism date for the 18th of June.

The other two girls we were teaching had to live with their grandma in a different city for a week because their Mom is having her baby and she is in the hospital. We haven`t been able to find Silvio to teach him, he is always away from his house (hopefully not with bad influences).

My talk was about commitment, mainly focusing on the covenants we have made and being faithful. I used a lot of quotes from the book you guys sent me. Not much else new, we are about 2 weeks away from transfers again and I would like to stay in the area.  It's a bit difficult at times, but I`m learning a lot and I`m grateful for the trials I have had.

Hope you have a good week, and enjoy the heat haha, sounds like you will have fun in San Diego. Thanks for the pictures and emails as always! Hope to hear from you soon! Love you!

Rohayhu!

Elder Spiro

Getting ready to enjoy pig's head for dinner!

He said it was delicious

"a funny 'tree for sale' sign"

Beautiful picture of his area

Making soup from a recipe book we sent him

Semana de 5/30/16

Hey Mom! Thanks for the emails and pictures and updates! The P90x didn`t work but I will try to download it again and see if I can format it or something. The videos didn`t work for some reason either, but I`m sure the concert was awesome!

A normal week in the mission, we didn`t have any investigators and a lot of the members didn`t come either, it wasn`t raining or anything just cold. I also had a talk in sacrament meeting that went better than I thought it would. Speaking has gotten a lot easier for me now than before, I looked down at my watch at the end of my talk and I had been talking for 15 min too, when it felt like only 5 min. 

We have been working with 2 teenage girls that attended church with a member, and their Mom is also a member, less active. They weren`t able to attend church this week though because their Mom had her her baby, so hopefully everything went well, we haven`t been able to talk to them in a few days. We invited them to be baptized for the 18th of June, and they accepted, we just need to help them keep progressing and maintain the spirit that they have been feeling.

We have also been working with a man named Silvio who has attended church 2 times, and we have been teaching him very simply because he doesn`t understand much Spanish. The other night we were visiting another member who lives next door to Silvio, and we heard a dog barking so we went to look what he was barking at and we found Silvio passed out on his porch from drinking, so we went and woke him up and helped him into his bed. He told us he felt bad about not going to church that Sunday, and he remembered what we told him, that he needs to put in his part if he wants to work on his addictions. So we are going to work hard with him and help him. 

Not much else new, no worries about sending clothes Mom, I have 2 sweaters that I use, and a member helped us find some more white shirts with long sleeves. On Pday, we wear white shirts and ties like all the other days, the only time we really can change is if we are playing soccer or we have a service activity. Thanks for the email again Mom, hope you guys had fun camping and all the family is doing good too! Say hi to the Allbees for me! 

Rohayhu!

Elder Spiro

Cooler Weather 5/23/16

Sorry if my email is missing a few c´s because this keyboard is not very great. But its good to hear from you as always, and its crazy to see the pictures from Abby´s graduation! She looks so grown up haha. I had a good week, we had a zone training this week and I learned some good stuff, I was thinking a lot about the mission rules this week because they just gave us a new rule that we can only wear white shirts with long sleeves, and I was a little frustrated, but I learned that a lot of the times we need to be obedient even when we don`t know why or what the outcome will be, especially with the mission rules. We also had the mission president and his wife come to our house, because the mission president now does his interviews in our apartments, so that was kind of weird but cool. We cleaned a lot before they showed up so luckily there was no problems haha. 

We also had 3 investigators come to church this week, the little girl (Delci) that didn`t get baptized came to church again, but we decided that we are going to baptize her when she has a responsible adult to go to church with her, because we want to make sure she stays active. We are also working with the girl that wants to get married and baptized, but she lives really far from the church and they only can walk, and its a little cold and they have a young baby, so we are helping them to attend church and read the Book of Mormon and pray as a family. 

Everything is good, I enjoy the cold weather to be honest, so hopefully it stays this way for a while. To answer your question, sometimes we have to take a collectivo to attend church but we normally walk. Hopefully this week will be good too, thanks for all the emails you sent, I was only able to see the pictures though but I think the P90x works. Hope you have a great week and have fun camping! Can`t wait to hear from you soon!

Rohayhu!

Elder Spiro

Elder Spiro and another Elder in his zone (no name given!)

Zone Conference

Week of 5/16/16

¿como estas? Estoy bien y agradecido por escribir y escuchar de ustedes!

Thanks for all the pictures and emails you have sent, I got the letter from you guys for Abby's graduation. I was thinking if we made one for my graduation, could you send me a picture if you can find it? Thanks for the updates of the family, it's good to hear you are busy and it's crazy that Abby is graduating this week! In the pictures she looks a lot taller, and lots of scholarships to choose from haha. 

Another week in the field, not too much new, we had 1 investigator come to church, and the only problem with him has been that we can`t have too many lessons with him because he is always working during the week, and doesn`t have much time. We have asked him if he likes church and he said yes, but we`ll have to see what else we an do to help him progress.

We have been working with another Christian family that are willing to listen to our message. We went to visit them the other night, and the husband was a little drunk, so we planned another day, and he gave us a hug and kissed us too haha. 

Not much else new, we are helping another couple get married and baptized, but we need to have permission of the parents for the girl, because she is only 16, but they already live together and everything. A lot of work to do, and a lot of walking, but I have gotten used to that. The Guarani I sent with the picture means "Happy Mothers Day Mom" I`m going to write more phrases in Guarani from now on hehehe.... Hope you have a great week and can`t wait to hear from you!

Rohayhu,

Elder Spiro

With his sisters' high school graduation announcement.  It got to him in less than a week, which is a miracle.