Semana Santa

Hoooollllaaaa!

I´m sure by now mom is having a total freak out cause she hasn’t gotten an email from me yet today(FREAKING OUT IS SORT OF AN UNDERSTATEMENT!!!..THIS IS CARRIE BY THE WAY J!!)!  It’s because we had a little conference with President Leyva, well the leaders did, the District Leaders and The Zone Leaders, so I was in splits with the other district leaders companion and so, it was a great morning!  We had breakfast, I got like 3 hours of personal study and we had a solid companion study and i got to take an hour nap!!! I was so dang happy!!!

Well to start out, let’s just say that, Easter in Peru is not at all like Easter in Utah!  Haha, so Easter is a whole week long here.  No one has school or works, they call it the Semana Santa, or The Holy Week and pretty much it’s just like spring break or something?? haha.  Except for the part where they actually reenact the crucifixion of Christ? Yeah here in Huanuco, they have like actors and they actually like beat em and spit on them? I dont know how you could do that when the person is acting as Christ and then they spit on them but I guess that is how Christ was treated so they want to make it real???  Ohhh the Catholics in Peru, i just don’t get it!  But anyways so Thursday they all stop selling meat, so my pension made us fish, it was alright, but then she asked me if i wanted soup, i said, Well, Why not, I love me a good soup... but this was no- good soup! It was a soup of fish eggs!!!!!!!!! AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!! And yes you know i ate that whole darn thing!  Just smiling and acting like it was just the best thing i had ever eaten.  It wasnt too bad, it was just the thought that i was eating fish eggs... AAAHHHH, well my exclamation key stopped working, but just imagine a whole crap load of exclamation points there.  It was easily one of the weirdest things I have eaten, but hey…. Welcome to Peru (with exclamation points).  Well this has been a pretty well, I cant lie… hard week, but I’ve learned a lot.  This week was just a weird dream almost.  I cant lie i read Ainsleys email about her graduating and it was late at night before my prayers.  I cant lie, i was just balling in my prayers.  I haven’t cried in quite a while, and it just all came out.  I think something  just hit me this week, with my struggles with my comp, our struggles in our area, (we had no investigators

progressing) and just reading the letter that my big sis, is graduating from college, just hit me like a bag of bricks.  I just realized wow, i have almost been a missionary for 6 months?  What the heck, and my mission is one forth over almost, i dont know, i was just thinking of all our good times, me and Ains and i just broke down, I was never supposed to get old, i mean what the heck im turning 20 in like 4 months, and then i read Collins letter about him graduating and all that and getting ready to go to BYU and i was like WHAT THE HECK is going on in this world.  It seems like yesterday i was with Ainsley and she was driving me in Lola to baseball practice or just hanging out.  And what happened?  Yesterday i was with Collin and all my buddies just hanging out being a kid, a year ago it was me at the student government inauguration, I dont know it just all hit me all at once and i just was in shock, but all is well now!  I’m just back to work again.  Well, enough of me being a baby i have to tell you about our service project Thursday.... CONSTRUCTION IN PERU IS NUTS;   My pension is building the back of her house, which we destroyed for her, like a month ago, but this time we got to lay the roof!!! It was so awesome and so nuts, i have to send you the pics.  We just had one machine and we had to fill up our buckets from the little cement machine, put it up on our shoulders, hike up a homemade step ladder on the side of the house and then pour the cement.  Their insulation is foam with cracks for the wiring to go through!!! Pretty much the most nuts thing ever, it was dang hard but so awesome.  It was such a crazy experience.  I was just comparing it to when we laid cement in our house in Utah, with wheel barrows a giant truck to pour the cement compared to what we did here so awesome!!!!! Well im going to bail out here so i can send ya the pics!!! I GOT MY PACKAGE!!!! Hooray!!!! and the office called and they got the package from Kyle so I’ll get it next week, I haven’t had a chance to open the package yet it, but im so excited!!! (hey,the exclamation mark is working again!!!!) Love you so much fam! The mission well is dang hard, but the change i can already see in myself is amazing.  I have grown so much, and i just dont know what to say, other than I LOVE THE MISSION!!! And please pray for me! I would send you investigators to pray for but there arent any.... woof!!! Well love you sososososososososososo much! You’re always in my prayers, Con mucho mucho mucho Amor! (With very, very, very much love, thast what Marty said it meant in English!)

Elder Spence Marty McGhie!






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Who´s got 2 thumbs and a Foot Fungus... ¡¡¡THIS GUY!!!

Well good morning my dear family and friends! Another Monday is here, Hooray!!!  So I figured that the title of my email would get your attention haha, yes its true i have something terribly wrong with my feet! Haha i have had like this big white stuff on my feet, it just looked like blisters, and we have neighbors that are elders too, they are both Latinos, i asked one of them what the heck was  on my foot and showed him, he told me it defiantly was a fungus!!! AHHHHH!!! I guess that explains why my feet smell FEASO (meaning: really, really bad in English)!! I guess i have become immune to smelling things, my sense of smell is pretty much destroyed, i mean i love Peru but its definitely a 3^rd world or Ïmproving¨Country ß (Carrie here, not sure what those dots mean, maybe they are supposed to be quotes?) or whatever it’s called these days, and in the streets it definitely doesn’t smell great.  So yeah, i am now the foot fungus kid that can’t smell anything, Yeah For ME!!!! (he also is a little bit strange too!!) Haha that other elder had some foot fungus destroying cream, so i have been using it every morning and night and it seems to be helping! Now don’t go judging me, i shower every morning, and i even now floss my teeth and use Listerine! Yeah thats right, you heard it, I am a FLOSSER!  In the words of Caroline, this club definitely CANNOT handle me right now (for those of you, like me that don’t know what “this club can’t handle me now” reference is, they are lyrics to a song that Spencer and Caroline loved and would always sing it really loud while driving in Lola, Spencers green Van)!!!

So now I’ll just give you the Down Low on what happened this week in the Field! So we didn’t have any baptisms, but worse not ONE of our Investigators that are progressing came to Church this Sunday!!! Zip, Zilch, Zero, NADA! Ugh, that means that all of their baptismal dates are now in need of change cause you gotta attend church to get baptized, at least 2 times and a baptismal service... WOOF! But yeah its alright, so if your wondering about my companion, dont fret he still doesnt get up on time, but what can a man do!!! Im trying, and ill keep trying, but i cant complain too much, he is a really hard worker in the field, and we are really working, so that is great.

Well lets see, I really do not know how to describe my companion. Haha i found out he was in the Army this week? Umm that was about the last thing i would have every guessed that my comp did? He was in it for a year and a half, then bailed or something, i was shocked.  So he was in the army, but the other day he asked me if ever in my life i had seen another dude that i thought was good looking and liked???????? AHHHH!!! I looked at him and said …UMM WHAT!????! TO make sure i understood him, he then said, yeah like some other guy you saw and you thought yeah he is good looking i want to be like him or something like that? I cant lie i just about ran back to my room, packed my bags and got the heck out of there!!! I mean what kinda question is that??? Mom, im kinda of scared, I cant lie hahahaha!!! but really thats just a little bit on the weird side! And then after dinner we were walking and he told me a story of how he used to love to paint his sisters fingernails and toenails??? He told me he would spend a half hour on each finger! I’m sorry i just laughed out loud and once again asked the question, What in the Sweet Death are you talking about!? He asked me, well you have sisters right, havent you ever painted their nails or done their hair? I looked at him in horror, and said, UUUUMMMM NOOOO! JAMAS (that means never ever, ever, ever in English) Well maybe when i was 2 years old my sister painted my fingernails (don’t judge me i had no choice, i was a confused young lad!)! Of course i did not tell my comp that, i don’t want his fuzzy little foreigner mind to get the wrong idea.  So yes i might be living and preaching the gospel with the weirdest, strangest (and maybe gay) missionary that I have ever met!! And all I can do about it is just try and smile and work haha.  So please once more, i ask for some serious prayers for me this week!!!

So dad, i must thank ya right now for the talk you sent me by Elder Bednar.  It honestly hands down has CHANGED my life.  And i dont say that with the least bit of drama or sarcasm. That talk totally changed my view on everything.  Life, the mission, how i go about doing things.  Honestly, it was an answer to my prayers! I was doing exactly what Elder Bednar said, only using the Atonement to repent or when i am in need of something, and the rest of my personal obedience, when im trying to love and serve my companion, when im trying to just lose myself in the mission work.  I was just trying to do that through pure grit, and personal strength and self control... But it doesnt and shouldnt be that way!!! The enabling power of the Atonement is not just for sinners to become good people, no it’s really for all of us, trying to improve, trying to really change, and become better.  I have to tell you that I have felt the Healing and Enabling Power of the Atonement in my life this week.  Dad i know you were inspired to send me that talk.  It has completely changed my prayers and really my everything! I was having a rough week, i mean, you know I am loving the mission, but i hadnt really figured out how to just kinda let go of everything in my old life and just really lose myself in the work.  And its just my desire from the depths of my very soul to just lose myself and love the work.  I wanted to get to the point where my number 1 desire is to wake up at 6:30, to study and to really to preach the gospel.  But, I’m too weak to do it by myself.  But i have found how i can do it! I was praying all wrong, I was praying for a change in the situation, not in myself, that is what the talk by Elder Bednar that dad sent me, helped me realize, that I dont need to do it by myself.  I can become strong and blessed to have these desires be my number 1, thought hope and dream, through the power of the Atonement.  I have felt and seen this change within me this week.  Mosiah 3: 19 really is the key, a saint of CHRIST is the opposite of the natural man.  Someone who willingly submits to what the Lord has given him or the situation, the Lord sends us.  Thank you sosososo much for that talk dad!! I love you so much FAMILY!!! Ainsley is about to graduate! I cant believe it! I was so happy to receive part of that dear elder from Liney last week!!!  Liney you can use my sweatshirts whenever you darn well please!!! I love you little sis!!! Ainsley, good luck at graduation!!! I hope all goes well!!

Love yall,

Elder Spencer Marty McGHIE!!!

Ps mom, i need more of those ctr rings in Spanish, they are a hit!!! Everyone wants them,  all of my converts too! HAHA CHEVERE!!!( Meaning awesome or cool in English)!! Oh and i heard a David Archuleta song playing in the streets the other day! So i contacted the people and told them he is Mormon and my little sister knows him!!! HOW COOL IS THAT!!! David A in Peru!!! (HELLO?..Caroline really doesn’t know DAVID A.???)

Mom in my next package i want my Armies of Helamen, mommas boy shirt, and a cool copy or printed out typed up of D &C section 4, like you do on printshop, and please laminate it!!! LOVE YOU MOM!

Pss, how is Kory doing?  I need his address.  Also I need Challis’s address too!! And mom send Keaton my mailing address, tell him i love him, but he cant email me at this address, he has to email you!!! Thanks love ya!!!! Sorry no pics today... oops…. haha! Love you!!! Tell Brandon and Staples congrats for their mission calls and Bubba I’m way fippin jealous he got to see MESSI; send all my brothers my love and finally Collin wrote me! Ill respond to that next week!  Oh and tell Kyle there is a package at the mission office for me but it hasn’t been delivered to me yet!!

Love and thanks to all of you!!! Peace !

Hay Carumba... haha!!

Well hello there fam and friends another week has come and gone, and of course as usual, what a roller coaster ride it was!  Well wow I can honestly say my patience has never been tried harder than this last week. So my companion well he is a a good guy.  But definitely the weirdest person i have ever met in my entire existence on this earth.  Holy Cow.  So my comp is a great teacher and a hard worker when he is awake! O woof, he cannot get his butt out of bed to save his life.  Apparently the Lord really wants me to learn patience during my mission cause its definitely not one of my strengths and its just getting hammered.  My comp doesnt want to go to bed ever he just keeps talking and talking and referring to Preach my Gospel every 5 seconds.  Haha so we never get to bed on time, but i still get up so im just so tired and then he just sleeps in till flippin 7:15 AHHHHHHHHH!!!!! So difficult!!  So one night we were walking back to our room and i said man im so tired lets try to actually go to bed on time tonight.  And he said, well you cant go to bed till i go to bed its a rule.  I said yes your right but we really should try to get to bed at 10:30 as it says in our schedule, so we can get some sleep.  Then he started to get all butt hurt.   He then told me since i get up 10 minutes before 6:30 i am breaking the rules? HAHAHA He tried to convince me that i cant get up till exactly 6:30, i said no thats definitely not a rule, but i was breaking a rule without getting up at the same time as my comp... because he sleeps in till 7!!! I then told him no we can definitely get up before 6:30 to do exercises and such, but we definitely CANNOT sleep in past 6:30.  He then got Royally Butt Hurt cause i was calling him out on sleeping in for the 50th time this week.  He tried to convince me that it was different and not really a rule and he told me we should look at the missionary handbook to see what it says.  I said POR FAVOR lets take a gander and see what the handbooks says, it says we have to be up at the latest 6:30 at the same time as our comp.  But he realized that he was wrong before i could whip out the handbook and stopped me and said Elder McGhie, how much time in the mission do i have? (1 year) And then responded to his own question and told me, Now Elder McGhie i think i know the handbook and the rules by now.  I laughed out loud and said, Wow that is great comp you have been a missionary for a whole year and you STILL CANT GET UP ON TIME!!!!!!! Hahahahahaha to say the least VICTORY was mine, and oh it was SO SWEET!  But yeah he still doesnt get up on time... ugh, but he definitely is almost the spitting image of Steve Erkle and laughs just like him.  And in the middle of our planning session he just screams at the top of his lungs for like a good 5 seconds and proceeds to laugh hysterically (just like Steve Erkle) for like 5 minutes.   I just try with all i have to smile and try and laugh.  Sweet Death, i mean honestly will everyone receiving this letter please pray that i can have the patience not to kill my comp.  I seriously thought, i have now learned why he has never had a companion for more than 1 transfer - for his whole mission.  Haha but yeah thats the mission right, lots and lots of experiences! ;)  Moy Bien sorry i really just had to get that off my chest, if it made any sense I’ll be happy!!

So, this week we did have 2 more baptisms! YEAH!!! We had the baptism of Hermana Carmen and her son who is 12.  Her husband is a member and was inactive for about 7 years but he is definitely re-activating and the baptism of his son and wife was a huge step! I have pictures to send.  I honestly cant explain the feeling of baptizing someone.  I got in the Baptismal Font and it was freezing cold, but honestly i never feel the cold of the water.  The spirit is so strong and its honestly like my chest is on fire it just has this warm burning great feeling right in my chest and i know for a fact without a doubt it is the Holy Ghost.  And its in that moment when all the frustration, all the home sickness, all the doors not opened, all the people that just laugh in my face when i try to contact them and they just yell GRINGO! And run away, its really in that moment when all the frustration of companions and everything hard just melts away.  Im so blessed to have this gospel in my life its unbelievable.  And really the baptisms are amazing but that’s not all, maybe the very best part of the day is before i go to bed i can get on my knees and just talk with my Heavenly Father and knowing that i did everything physically possible to talk to people to teach with the spirit to love my comp and all others, its when i can kneel down and express my gratitude to my Father in Heaven knowing he is listening.  That is an experience i can have every day, i just got to go and work and try my very best.  And it'll all work out. Cause there won’t always be baptisms, but my Father in Heaven and his son the Lord and Savior is ALWAYS going to be there.  Sometimes we just got to get on our knees and ask.  I would like to issue a challenge to everyone reading this, probably you are already doing this but if not, please just try it, it will change your prayers.  First of all Kneel down, not on your bed but on the floor, secondly pray out loud, find a private spot and really just have a conversation, and 3rd at least once a week in one of your prayers, dont ask for anything just give thanks.  And if you do these things i promise you will see a change in your life and your prayers.  Love all of you, sorry if i just got crazy preachy on all yall, or if i sounded just like my dad... hahahaha but its true!!! The Gospel is True, LIVE IT!
Love ya!
Elder McGhie

O yeah remember the church songs that we always listened to when i was little, like Have you received his image in your countenance and How could they not believe? Those are the choruses of the songs and my comp has them in Spanish i all of the sudden heard those songs and i was paralyzed and like 10 thousand memories of my childhood came flying into my head! I cant lie i was a little trunky in that moment but hey just thought you would like to know and its a good memory for the fam too! And great songs! Well random i know but love you!!!

Carmen, Vidal her son and Lady her little girl and her husband Edgar and my ward! The guy with the glasses kneeling down is my Bishop John Bravo!

 Carmen and her son Vidal and her little girl named Lady and her husband Edgar.

Choose your love and love your choice... yeah maybe in November of 2013 (or way later than that! this is his mom :)!!!! haha

Buenos Dias!!! Que Tal? (Marty says it means how are you)

Well first off i will start by saying conference was just AMAZING!!! For the first time in my life i listened to every talk and took like a billion notes... haha how great is the mission or what! So first off im going to tell you dont worry im still in my same area! HORRAY! And i have a new companion! Haha o boy =) he is one of a kind, but really pretty awesome! So im going to describe him the best i can and i just have to clarify first i cant complain cause really all he wants to do is work and be obedient! But i gotta tell you about him, He is one of a kind to say the least haha.  So his name is Elder Arnoa (Are-now) he is Peruano from the city of Tacna, which is very close to Chile or so he tells me.  He is almost black but has a mole right in the center of his forehead so he looks like he is from India haha... Anyway so first off,  he is 24, has a girlfriend that is serving a mission in Mexico. So he really, really, really likes to talk and talk and talk.  He reminds me a lot of Steve Erkle, kinda laughs like him and he is the District Leader and he is freaking out and terribly nervous, its seems more like he is district leader but im the senior comp, haha he is really nice, really goofy, and well pretty funny.  He is just one rare bird.  I thought we were going to have problems the first day cause everyone groaned and told me sorry when they heard the announcement that he is my comp, but really i love the kid he is great, a little over the top but hey thats fine by me!!! For example the first morning i got up at 6:20, (yes that’s right its a miracle i know, 10 minutes early, im almost a morning person now!!!)  But he slept till like 7am and  i was like woof  i have to do this all over again.  But that night he asked me if there was anything he needed to improve and i just told him straight up, get your  butt outa bed (But with Amor) haha and I’ll be darned now he gets up! He really is quiet the character, a talking machine! But he teaches awesome and i can learn a lot from him! Its sorta a test of my patience, he is kinda “captain obvious” and when i ask him a question instead of  just answering the question he talks about the question and everything else possible like im 10 and then answers, i just grin and say thanks haha... Our first morning he tried to teach me how to tie my tie haha i was just laughing  and said yeah dont worry, i know how to tie my tie, my friend.  He is the king of cologne and deodorant; he uses about 4 different ones in the mornings and irons his clothes everyday!  I  couldnt help but laugh, he really is great, dont take the comments wrong they are with love, i just had to give you guys the down low! But yes that is my new comp! Ill send ya some pics too!  Alright now wasnt conference the BOMB!  First off all i only cried a little bit, when the Mo Tab was singing “The Spirit of God”! And one other time, during Elder Nelsons talk when he had that picture of  his grandson, then he paused and just looked me right in the soul and said,” in a little while that little boy will go through the temple, then he will go and serve a mission.”  I dunno it just hit me like a ton of bricks that the little kid was and is me!

I dunno,  alright dont judge me for being a softy! He also said then that little kid will go and get married... ummm yeah that definitely isnt me quite yet!!! Haha, what was up with that?  Like every talk was about getting married! Haha it made about half the missionaries in my district trunky especially the one with 20 months already! When President Monson in Priesthood started talking about that we just kinda laughed, i just shook my head and thought, well this talk definitely is NOT for me for 20 more months.  It was pretty funny! So we got to listen to almost all of conference in English! Funny story, so the first session of conference we got there and there wasnt the feed for English. So i was just thinking o yeah its alright i can watch it in Spanish and enjoy... WOOF!!! Conference in English is 10000000 times better!.. in Spanish its just not the same at all! Its not their voices, and there is no emotion! So that first session of Saturday was just not the same!  But the stake president hooked us Gringos up with English and we got to watch the rest in English!!! It was AMAZING! Just us four gringos with our own television and room and English! Yeah i know im spoiled and a baby but hey i have no problem admitting  it! So yeah conference was awesome and apparently with all those talks on marriage, ill get home in November of 2012 and be married before conference of April 2013... Or NOT! Haha!!  But it was such a great conference! I loved the talk by Elder Anderson in Priesthood about Missionaries for sure! I also really enjoyed the talk by Elder Scott about his wife, that was so LEGIT!  It was great to see good old Utah again! And mark my words family, April of  2013 we are going to the Sunday Morning session or a session together in the conference center!!!  All the talks were fantastic, the quote that i have in my mind is the one from Elder Anderson, “Its not what you can get from your mission, Its what you can GIVE!!!” Oh and of course the other one from Elder Scott, Serve an Early mission, then get back and get married! Umm... can anyone say that is terrifying to think about! haha but yeah i have a long time until i have to worry about that! As of now im just here in Huanuco Amarilis in my area Paucarbamba just preaching the Word!!! Love ya fam and friends, thanks for the letters and all the support!!  I’m always here, just waiting for packages!!! HINT HINT!

LOVE YOU GUYS!

Elder Spencer Marty McGhie!!!

The pic is taking forever to load so im just going to write you a little message while im waiting! So mom i really did feel really close to the fam while watching conference, i felt united! We were hearing the same words from the Prophet and the other Gen Authorities! I really kinda teared up thinking about you guys sitting in the house watching but its okay! we will watch together again really soon! !!! Oh and what day do Dayton, Kyle and Jake enter the MTC exactly? And if ya dont mind, instead of sending me just one big package, every now and then, how about sending  a lot of smaller ones??? haha sorry im a baby i just need some packages filled with lots of love with just weird things and crazy stuff and notes on napkins (like in my sack lunches from Altara) haha!!! Oh and please send me next week,  the quote that is framed in my room from Patriarch Stenneck!!! Love ya !!!

Spencer and his new companion, ElderArnoa, he is from, Tacna, Peru

Spencers own words: Title of the Picture: Personal
 Study, Lehi´s Dream... haha im so funny!