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