12.29.08

Happy New Years,I hoped everyone enjoyed Christmas. I sure did. It was awesome to speak to some of you on Christmas. The day before Christmas we had some of the hardest rain that I had seen in my mission. I saw a road turned into a raging river in 20 minutes. Christmas day elder Ferrato and I went down to the river by our house to take some Christmas pictures by the river, it was cool because it was the first that I had been close to he river and at the same time in some trees. The day after Christmas we had a baptism of Aliema. We have been teaching her and her family for about 4 weeks now. Only she was ready for baptism this week but her daughter Ferenda should be ready when she finds the desire to be baptized. Aliema asked me to baptize her so it was an awesome to be able to baptize her. To help her find the power of god on the earth and then baptized her for the remission of her sins. With the power that heavenly father has put on the earth through his prophets.We are still teaching the rest of the family to help them gain their own testimonies about the church and baptism. I am loving it. The mission is great and wonderful.
Love ryan

Photos part2

Photos part1

Ok here's the deal... Ryan sent his memory cards to us so for the next little while I will be posting his pictures, there are quite a few of them and some we have already posted so I will do my best. I wish I could caption all of them for you but I am just the poster! We'll have Ryan do that when he gets home. Stay tune for another year or so!

12.23.08

i lost two letters that i wrote for you guys. But i ll call on wednesday to give you a number and a time of where ill be calling at on thursday. Ill call 9 or 10 in the morning your time to confrim with you guys. some one needs to stay close to the home phone on wednesday.
until then
Elder Spencer

12.8.08

Tudo Bem,
These past two weeks we have been finding a lot of people. It's awesome. We have five people that have a date of baptism marked before the new year. The Lord has blessed us with people to teach in the past two weeks. In the last two weeks we found 3 families that are married, which is really rare here in Brazil, because marriage is not stressed as an important thing here. I am really grateful to be apart of the Lord´s work. I see and hear the changes in the life´s of many because they are getting to know the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ in it´s fullness. The Spirit testifies that The Church is True. I am grateful for the opportunity that I have to teach things everyday for the people here.
I Love you all.
Love,Elder Spencer

Thanksgiving 08

Thanksgiving dinner, a bag of rice and BBQ. We bought it on the street at the end of the day. IT sure was tasty.:) Got to love the brazilian BBQ. We also brought Ice cream and ate dinner the american way, ice cream first, thats way you dont see it in the picture.
The week went really well, I am staring to learn to be a senior and a tranior after 2 and half months of trying. It was a week of power, and a alot of prayer and faith. Thanks to the exmaple of my compaion Elder Sears, bytheway, Hello Family Sears, Your son is an awesome missionary and a wonderful cook. You taught him well. Sister Sears thanks for the package.Love you all and I hoped that everyone had a wonderful thanksgiving and thought about what you are grateful for. I have alot to be grateful for. The Church is true and I am grateful for the hand of God in His Work.
Love You All
Elder Spencer

nov.10th, 2008

This week went by fast.we worked hard but we didn't get too much success. well the transfer was this past week and Elder Sears and I are still together for this transfer. The area is full of people to teach, the the problem that we are having is getting people to go to Church. Yesterday it started to rain just before church started which we think impede people to make a visit to church. I am doing well and making it through the times. Elders are starting to call me older in terms of the mission and i still feel like i arrived yesterday. I have a a lot to learn in the bunch of time that i have left.
anyway love you all, have fun doing what you are doing.
Elder Spencer

Nov. 3rd, 2008

This week we had the baptism of Zezé. She had been waitng for 6 months to be baptized. Elder Sears baptized her.it was awesome to see the first baptism of Elder Sears Misson. the last two days of the week were hectic i was running all over the place to do baptism interviews for others missionaries which took us out of the area alot. bythe way the whole zone baptized this last week. it was a good end of the transfer.i hope the next 6 weeks will be just as wonderful. Loving the mission and the things that come along with it.
Love Hion Xspencer (aka Ryan Spencer)

the things that have little importance but are worth to hear about.

i finally did a way with my towel it was way too big in the first place and was getting huge holes in it. so i cut it in half and donated one half to the house that we live in as a cleaning towel and keeped the other half for my shower towel.

saw one one halloween party.

Oct 27th 2008

Well this week was one for the books. I help in a marriage. Zezé was married this past friday to her almost husband of 30 years. Its was funny because there was not a big party of any sorts. Zezé is more exiected for her baptism this Saturday than she was for her wedding. The most import thing now is that is she living the comandments and will be baptized this Saturday.YES!!! This past week i went a spilt with an Elder that arrived here in Belém with me so that was great to spend time with someone that I left the CTM with. Parabéns Cody and let me know where you are going.
Elder R Spencer

October 21st 2008

Thank you for your love, support and help. this week went well. i had a split with the zone leader and learned alot. we are working hard and trying to find people. we will help a couple get marry this friday. the wife, Zezé will be bapstied in 2 weeks. still working on the husband.

Love Elder Spencer

pictures!

elder anjos and I ice in brazil

10.13.08

Thank you all for the birthday massages they were all welcomed with big wide open arms. Funny thing, the 12 of Oct. was a big catholic holiday and it takes place here in Belem. It’s the biggest gathering of catholics in Brazil to worship the Saint of Nazare but moving on to better things. the 12 was also kids day here in Brazil, so the church had an activity for the primary and a few members had a cake awaiting for me thanks to elder sears spilling to the whole world that it was my birthday, but the cake was also taken in by big, wide, open arms( and mouths), elder sears took pictures so someday I get them for you guys .the cake is the biggest I have ever gotten for my birthday. The elder qurom president, miller, made it for me. He made a promise after his mission to help the missionaries out in any way that the missionaries asked or needed. This was fulfilling his promise, making me a cake.
Anyway we had to move the Basptimal date of Zezé back a week. So that was a let down to have to tell that she need to await another week after awaiting for 6 months to get married.
I am doing better with the language as the days progress.
Well that’s my letter for the week.
Take care.
Elder R. Spencer

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ELDER SPENCER!!!

Lisa here:
I complied a few special birthday messages for our Elder Ryan on his 20th Birthday!

Dear Elder Spencer,
A special wish for your 20th Birthday. How great that is for you to celebrate it in the mission Field... What a special place to be. Have a great day and a wounderful year of great missionary experiences,
Love, Brother AND Sister McPhie

RYAN!!!!! I hope you have a fabulous birthday and that all of your wishes come true! I'm glad that you are doing so well in the mission field! Keep up the good work! :)
Love, Rachel Leber

Hi Ryan,

Happy Birthday! We hope that you are well and having a good time.
As they say in Star Wars, may the force be with you!! Or as they say in Primary, “you’ve had a birthday shout hooray! We want to sing to you today! One year older and wiser too! Happy birthday! to you!! In Spanish, Feliz Cumpleanos! I don’t know how they say “Happy Birthday” in Portuguese but I am sure it is similar! Anyway, we love the church and all that it does for our family! May God bless you with whatever you are in need of.

Love,
The Bingham Family

Hey there Elder Ryan,
Happy forthcoming birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday dear Elder Spencer, Happy Birthday to you. We are praying for your success and grateful you are enjoying your mission.
Love, Bishop and Sis. Dellenbach



Happy Birthday Ryan!!
What a wonderful week, after conference, being so filled with messages and inspired to do and be better. The message I kept coming back to was Elder Bedar's talk on prayer. "Our morning prayers prepare us spiritually for the day, then our evening prayer links to our morning prayer. All the small prayers in-beween, all linking together."...he said it so much better. But I think of your missionary work and how you are doing this kind of praying on such a regualr basis that you don't find it that unusual, but it is something I need to work at.
I'm glad Lisa encouraged us to write a note. You have a wonderful family! I think of you regularly. I hope you have a great 20th birthday. I am proud of you and the great work you are doing! Love, Aunt Lynnette

Lisa again: Hope you are having a wonderful birthday in brazil, hopefully those brazilians know how to party!
Love, your sister Lisa and the rest of the Webbs

10.10.08

well i am in a new area called Laranjeria (orange tree, but i haven't seen an orange tree in the area yet), a neighborhood of Icui , Icui is a barrio of the city of Annanuiea. we are opening up the area. the members are awesome and willing to help out. its one of my quietest area yet.´it reminds me a lot of Norco with the horses and the cows on the road and there are a lot more trees here´and all dirt roads except the road of the buses. we have one baptism marked of the 25 of this month, Zezé, she is going to get marry the 24th, she has be waiting for over a year to be baptized and she is excited for the 25 . we went to Gerenal conf yesterday and Saturday and that was awesome i enjoyed it. my favorite quote was from sister Dalton about you can have a desire to win but without the desire to prepare it doesn't mean anything.well someday i´ll send pictures but not Today
Thanks for the letters especially about Landon and Quinn they sound so big.
Love
Ryan

9.29.08

well this last week has been a long one, i was transferred again to another area close to Belem. this is the first time i have left Belem. I am with an American, Elder Sears, he is from Fontana, so its cool to be with a companion that lives close to home. He has 2 months on the mission. he's a really good kid and speaking really well already. The area that we are in is rural and a lot greener than my first two areas on the mission. We arrived Wednesday and we are getting to know the area, lost at times but living at the same time. Yesterday I have never seen a ward that small. The hour before sacrament meeting I was asked to give a 10 minute talk about missionary work. it went really well. as I was giving a talk, Elder Sears was playing the organ. and dad I think that I did a good job looking out at the people during my talk. well the ward is small but we have received a lot of references, so we are gong to be working with those to start out with.
anyway i am doing great and i hope that everyone is doing fine and having success in their lives, where ever you may be.
Elder R. Spencer

9.22.08

Lisa here:

As you all know I am the only the steward of this blog. I copy and paste all Ryan's letter (and do the occasional spelling check) but other than that these are all his words. This week however his email came with no words, only pictures. You know I love love love pictures so I was very excited but I have no idea who the people are in these. They say a picture says a thousands words so I hope these pictures will speak for themselves. Maybe Ryan can fill us in when he gets home!

9.15.08

Oí,
This week was different than the rest. We had the baptism of Ingrid yesterday after church. It was great, a member did the baptizing and Elder Gimenes and I sat backed and watched. The best thing was that the family of Ingrid was there as well, there are not members. Her mother cried. It was definitely a spiritual experience. I enjoyed it. We don’t have any ready to be baptized this week but the next we are praying that Ana Jolema will be ready to be baptized. The Bishop of the ward is offering to give Franisco and Aline a place to have there wedding, but unfortunately I don’t know too much about what happening because the Bishop likes to do things without talking to the us, the missionaries, about the investigators. Besides that little detail all is well and we are working with more references of the members.
Ryan

P.s. one person this week said that i speak fluent Portuguese. i am pretty sure he was trying to be nice because when people want to know something about me they ask my comp, just as if i wasn't in the room. but he said that i speak fluently.

9.8.08

Hey,
The work and the walking in this area is about to pay off. Elder Gimenes and I are going to have are first baptism together this weekend. Ingrid, a friend of a member, she really has a firm testimony. And in the upcoming weeks we have people with baptism dates. Ana Jolema, she’s the sister of Francisco, she went to church for two Sundays in a row. It was awesome to see her walking to church yesterday with a 2 month old baby in her hands and a 5 year old walking alongside her. She has a lot of faith but she said that she hasn’t received an answer to her prayers about Joseph Smith. We are also working with a 20 old year young man, boyfriend of a member, that said that he wants to serve a mission after the first lesson, so were working with him and preparing him for baptism. This area, I think will be my hardest of my mission but the people that I am teaching will probably be some the firmest members of the church. I am so grateful to be working in this area on my mission, I have learn a lot about patience with others and more important with myself.
Elder Spencer

8.25.08

This week came and went. We are struggling to find new people to teach. Two Sundays ago a few members brought their friends to church and we are struggling to contact them during the week to teach them, but they went to church last week as well. Saturday we had an awesome service project with the ward. We were building up the foundation of dirt around a few members homes. One members cant live in his home because when it rains his house floods with two feet of water because the street is higher the house, so the ward is trying to fix that problem by building up dirt around the house.
Take Care
Elder Spencer

8.18.08

Tudo Bem,

this week was another tough week but i am still living. Lisa asked me to write a little bit concerning how members can be involved in missionary work. because she listen to the homecoming talks of Jared and Jason Leber (you guys are living right) and she liked how they stressed the importance of members and the success they had when the members work with the missionaries. Tá certo. at times in the life of missionary work it is easier for me to contact a reference than to knock on a door. anyway, yesterday at church Pres Hoggan gave a talk about the members in the work. it was really good, i didn't think to much of it but it jump started or gave more fuel to one member. he knocked on doors after church on his street

and gave us 3 references on Sunday night as we were walking to our apartment. it feels so sweet to me not to have to ask the members for references. last night we only had to walk up the door of our apartment and we had 3 refs without having to ask for them. :):):) this same member befriends people when they come to church. the first time the time i saw him talk one our investigators i thought they were friends and already knew each other.they laughed and talked, that's a big help. as well this member is willing to go on splits with and share his testimony.
references
befriending
splits( testimony)
tchua
Ryan Spencer

8.11.08

this week was not every good teaching wise. we are only working with one family that is progressing but is a long way from baptism. but the family is awesome and i love to teach them. i just love that family. they always have the best questions. they already bought a triple combination and the bible. the members are starting to give us more refs to work with. just trying to stay focus and work hard. this morning at 5 o´clock i was thinking about my worth as a son of god and the worth of other people as well. i read about the potential all people have because we are sons and daughters of god.(romans 8:17(?) e 3 nephi 12:48) eu acho.estás escrituras são muito boas.
remember who you are and who you are going to become,
Ryan Spencer

8.4.08

hello,
i am doing fine. things are rolling along here in the area. finishing up an other transfer. were teaching one family who are super excited about the gospel. at church they are practically members of the ward. Franicso, Aline and victor. the ward is really good and they are trying to give us as much support as they can.its tough being here and knowing the Olympics are about to start. anyway four more years. the bishop here is really great and he really generous. we have 6 ward missionaries. Cody baptized some one the other week. that's great. i just need to keep pushing on to the front and get some work done.
love you all, take care
Ryan

7.28.08

tudo bem,
this week went by super fast . i have little time to write because we had a zone activity and that ate up my p-day. the first time i played soccer with Brazilians. it was different playing with people that all can play, very well. they said that I played well for a American, because i scored one goal. the area going slowly but going we had about 5 people in the capela domingo. so it was a good day. I went on a spilt with my district leader this week and it was a great learning opportunity. elder da silva is awesome and he knows the Scriptures really well and has a grande testimony.
sorry for the short letter,
hope everyone had a great week.
Ryan Spencer

7.21.08

Well another week, went really fast. We had one investigator at church, Germano .his first time at church yesterday I am pretty sure he enjoyed even tough elders Quorum was an interesting experience. Gave my first talk in Portuguese yesterday at church. The 1st counselor in the bishopric lives across the street from us and ask us at 7 o´clock in the morning to give talks in church because one of the speakers fell through. So I had a grand total of 20 minutes to decide what I was going to speaking about and what scriptures I was going too used. I talked about the love of Christ and the importance of the sharing the gospel with others. A grand total of maybe 4 to 5 minutes. It was fun and an awesome experience. It doesn’t help that I am not a big talker. I am trying my best to change that. Anyway the members starting to help more in the work and the Bishop is all fired up to make the ward a missionary´s ward. He called two ward missionaries yesterday and plans to call 4 more.
take care you all. (hey I am from Norco)
Ryan Spencer

7.14.08

Well, i am still adjusting to a new companion and the new area here in Entroconmento(?). we are teaching one family that´s really excited about our message and they went to church yesterday but in a different ward. Franciso, we contacted on the street, is the father and He is Just crazy, but in a good way. He Always has something to said, some little joke or some little piece of commentary to add to the lessons.
One Day this past week all of our appointments fell through and we had to knock doors from 7 to 9 pm. Instead of walking around until we found a street to knock doors, We pulled out the map and Elder Gimenes and i took turns looking at it and writing down names of 5 streets that we each thought we should go and batar portas. After my turn we compare lists to see if we had a street that was the same. And the Lord always delivers. We had only one that match. So went there and knocked on two doors. We tracked into a Young woman with 25 years of age that lost her son when He had 4 months. So we taught the plan of salvation to her. It was awesome. She seemed excited after the lesson but she didn't make to church yesterday.
I hope everyone is doing well. Sounds like Jared is home from Chicago by now and his brother Will follow in his footsteps, in the comming weeks.
Stay healthy, everyone.
Ryan Spencer

7.7.08

Hey,
Well I am in a new area. Two areas over from Telegrafo. And I have a new comp. he is from Campinas. He is a good guy. the area is three or four times larger than telegrafo. So there is a lot more walking here. Today was my first day washing my clothes by hand. New experience!!!!!Anyway, we had two new investigors at church Sunday. Which was awesome. They really seem to enjoy church, even though it was fast Sunday, which is generally different than a regular Sunday meeting. Francisco, the man at church, said that he is going to go out a buy a Bible so he could have is own to read at church instead of using mine. There are a lot less members here than in telegrafo, which was weird at church because I am used to seeing all the chairs full, but here one fourth of the chapel is full.
Love you all,
ryan

6.30.08

Oí,

Well I am being transfer out of the wonderful Telegrafo. Where to, I don’t know of as of yet. I find out Wednesday at the transfer meeting.This week has been frustrating with the Language but its coming. And that’s all I can ask for.

There was a party at the church Friday night and Elder Wasden took a bunch pictures, that I will send to Lisa, some day, to put on the blog. It was fun to see all the little kids and some adults dressed in funny clothing.

So that pretty much all for the week. Had my interview with Presidente after pizza hut on Tuesday and it was awesome. He always pumps me up.Going to miss the people here in Telegrafo

Tchua and thank you for the all the support,

Ryan