¡CHISPAS!

 Hi this is Carrie on February 13, 2012????? =)...........I dont know why but I totally forgot to add this email to the blog???  I found it in the drafts on here....................sorry about that???  I can really be an airhead, quite often =)!!!

Hi, this is Carrie here, AGAIN!!  I just wanted to say that I was so excited to get Spencer’s email this week and hear about this big adventure he was on, traveling with the mission president.  I was excited because I knew he was going to get to see a bunch of his missionary buddies too!!  But, bummer for me, he basically forgot to mention any details of his trip (I love lots of details) and if you read the email below there are no pictures either!!!  However, I want you to know that despite the fact that he forgot to take pictures both times he traveled outside of Lima and he wasn’t at all detail oriented about his travels…I still love him and HE ONLY HAS 9 MONTHS LEFT!! =)

Carrie =)

HI FAM AND FRIENDS!

    

So it’s Monday again!  I cant believe that time is going by SO FAST!  This week was super nuts, before I start I must say I just about fell off my chair reading about the 49ers!  Holy Crap, that was crazy!  Haha sorry but I was half relieved when I read they lost, it was mixed emotions, sad of course that they lost but partially relieved cause I would be absolutely losing my mind if they were in the Super Bowl!  After so many years off suffering 5-12 records then they were on the brink of the SUPERBOWL!  So it will be much better when they win it all next year when I am there to watch and celebrate it! Haha!   So before I forget, I will be sending letters (finally) to some friends and Liney (HELLO???? Excuse Me… but what about your beloved mom???) today... But I need to hear from 2 people and I am not joking about NEEDING TO HEAR FROM THEM!!! They are: COLLIN RIGBY AND RYAN WESTENSKOW!  I’ve got a beef with those 2 CHUMP DADDY’S, they are totally failing in the letter writing category! Haha!!   So tell them to write me PLEASE!  

     

So, last week I got to go back to Huanuco!  And it was so flippin awesome to go back and see my first zone!  I didnt get a chance to go back to my first area, but it was still great to see good old Huanuco!  It was pretty weird but awesome to go back!  It seems like yesterday I was there!  So we had some conferences in Huanuco and President Ardila had interviews and I learned very quickly that there be a lot more stuff that goes on behind the scenes in the mission and in conferences than I thought!Haha!!  The biggest challenge is still getting keys to open the darn Chapel! Haha!!  To say the least, I was wasted after 4 days!!  I brought my camera with me and thought, yeah sweet I will get to take a few pics of my old zone and all… WRONG! (This next sentence about was not a happy experience for me to read!!)  I got on the bus to go back to Lima on Friday morning and realized ….Oh crap!  I didn’t take a single picture in 4 days!  MOMS GOING TO KILL ME! Haha  (There is no HAHAing about it………I was totally rendered speechless that he could forget to take any pictures???  I totally impressed upon him as he was growing up that, you can NEVER take too many pictures…I know it is impossible to believe that I am so dumbfounded that I cant think of a thing to say but it is true, for once in my life I am speechless??) !!  So I tried to snap some pics from the bus and I just ended up looking like I was 300 pounds with a blurry background so if I ever want to get married it’s better that I dont send those home for public view...haha!! 

So, I feel a little bit more comfortable in my role as an assistant now, it’s still a process, and I really just want to teach and baptize someone! Haha!!  My area well...  it’s one the richest parts of Peru, and everyone knows who the Mormons are.  But, we are still searching for anyone that will listen.  The good part is that the members of our ward are excellent, they always bring new investigators to church every Sunday!!  The only problem is that the people they bring, NEVER actually live in the ward and area that I am assigned to, so I can’t teach them!!  Yesterday, I got all excited because a non-member mom and her kids were at church for the first time and they loved the Meetings and all that, so after church I went over to schedule an appointment AND the mom wanted us to come over that very night to teach her (she is pretty much GOLDEN)!!  So, we scheduled a family night with her and her friend and I felt like I was in one of the “Preach my Gospel videos” cause it was too perfect!!  Then I asked where she lived and... BOOM GOES THE DYNAMITE….  She lives a block outside the ward boundaries!!!  Oh well I already passed the reference to the other missionaries who are assigned to her area and they are more than happy to teach her.  But anyways we have a few new investigators and it looks like they have the potential of progress. 

      

President Ardila has been traveling to all the Provinces in the mission and training them with a new teaching style and it is pretty much the COOLEST thing ever.  I have done it 3 times now and it has worked like a charm!  What we do is when we go to the house, we tell the people, Hola somos misioneros de la Iglesia de JesuCristo de los Santos de los Ultimos Dias and we tell them our names and all that jazz, then we ask them what do they expect from our visit.  We then tell them we are here as Missionaries to do 2 things.  Teach you the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ and to baptize you!Haha!!  Now, remember this is in the first 5 minutes of meeting people.  But then we tell them why we want to baptize them.  We tell them that we want them to have and experience all the blessings and happiness that we have in our lives, in their lives and that it all comes through receiving baptism, a true baptism just as Christ taught us.  They just look at us with this blank stare.  I told them, the process of preparing to get baptized lasts about 3 weeks to a month, will you prepare yourself for the 18th of February to be baptized and experience all the Joy and Happiness that we have? (It isn’t hard to believe that the people looked at them with a blank stare???)  So, guess what happened the first time we tried the new approach………the guy just looked at us and said, YES! Haha (WOW!!) !!   I was so happy and shocked at his response

…. but then we just went on teaching him!  His name is Antonio, we met him Saturday, and he accepted a baptismal date for the 18th!  He has had a lot of problems with alcohol and well his wife is member but has been inactive for 4 years, they were about to get divorced but they decided to give the church a shot! 

     

That is why the mission is SO GREAT!  Just to find and help people receive the Gospel of Jesus Christ in their lives.  We never know what the people we pass by on the street are thinking or needing or looking for.  I firmly believe that every person we pass by can be baptized, if they will only listen to the spirit.  The Gospel of Jesus Christ is SO amazing, and SO simple and pure; we are the ones that complicate it.  It’s this simple, if we are obedient, do what our leaders ask us to do and what the Lord wants us to do, we will receive Eternal Life, the greatest gift of all the gifts of God, just by being obedient.  I love this Gospel and my Mission has been and will continue being the BEST 2 YEARS FOR MY LIFE.  Without a shadow of a doubt I can testify that Christ lives, He knows and loves every one of us.  We are the ones that cause problems, we are the ones that leave the fold, but He is the GOOD SHEPERD and will never leave us.  I don’t know why I have been so blessed to be born in this time, into the Family that I have, but all I know is I owe a lot more than just 2 years to the Lord, I owe him all I have!  The mission is not easy, nobody said it would be easy, it’s not supposed to be easy, but they didn’t say it was impossible either.  Elder Brown taught me an interesting lesson.  He asked me, “how do you eat an Elephant?” and then he told me, “One bite at a time”!  That’s how the mission is, like eating an elephant but I’m starting to feel that I’m eating it way too fast!!

I love ya all, SOSOSOSOSO much, thanks for all you do for me!  The emails I receive every week and the letters you send, you´ll never know how much it really means to me!!  The fact that people are back home, praying for me, caring about me, and loving me, just helps me so much!!

Thanks for everything!!!!!

CHAU CHAU!

Elder Spencer Marty McGhie

Ps.  Dad, I hope you have recorded these epic sporting events I have missed, it would be LO MAXIMO if you saved them all or burned them all onto a disc and we can watch them all together after I get home!  Oh and I would like to see the BYU football schedule for 2012 when it comes out and I need some info about the jazz, I don’t even know who the starting 5 players are!?  Also I really need a watch.  I am on my 4^th or 5^th Peruvian watch and this time I have a metal one, it looks nice, but it’s leaving a killer rash on my wrist.  If you could send me a fairly good, reliable watch with a leather band... It would be very, very appreciated (I sent him a “Lego watch” with Yoda on it for Christmas…I cant imagine what is wrong with that watch =)!!! 

LOVE YALL!!

And props to Grandma Spencer for her new calling in the PRIMARY!!! HAHAH!  PROVECHO! Haha, Tell all the Grandparents that I love them!!!!!

LES AMO MUCHISIMO!

Elder McGhie

Lack of Sleep... haha

¡¿QUE TAL MI ESTIMADA FAMILIA Y AMIGOS?!   

Well, well, well another week has come and gone and here I am writing yall another letter!  Let’s just say this week was pure chaos!  Haha so we had Transfers this week... HAY CARAMBA!  It was just nuts.  Just organizing it all, sending the transfers, sending elders, waiting for them in the bus station, making sure everyone gets there on time and on the bus.  And it was extra special this week because it just so happens that Tuesday night there was a giant mud slide and all the transfers are Wednesday morning, so we got to the 3 different bus stations and some of the buses were able to go others no, they were coming from the Provinces and others were leaving Lima, so it was nuts haha and we had to change a whole bunch of bus tickets to the next day, oh it was so much fun!  Haha for that reason I put the title lack of sleep because for about 3 days I hardly slept!  One of the days I was so tired I got up at 6:30 and knelt down to say my pray and the next thing I know I heard some loud noise that woke me up and it was like 7am! Haha.. yeah I imagine Heavenly Father was really pleased with that prayer... haha  But I’m pretty sure he understands. 
        

So it looks like you got the email from President Pino, but I will give you the details.  First of all President Pino is a member of the First Quorum of the 70 and The President of the whole area of South America East,  Which covers Ecuador, Venezuela, Columbia, Peru and  Bolivia.  So the whole Area Presidency lives in our ward, and we always eat lunch with ward members on Sundays.  And it’s just a rotating list or whoever invites us to eat in their house.  So when they told us last week we were going to eat at President Pino`s House I laughed and said, funny joke, but they were dead serious!  So Sunday after Sacrament meeting Elder Pino came down from the stand, shook my hand, pretty much starred straight into my soul and asked me, So are you going to eat lunch at my house today ...
 I barely managed to get out any words and said... ummm.. I think so? Haha  And I said it with about the courage of Nevil Longbottom before he becomes a man in the 7th Harry Potter.  So, we went to their house after church and we started talking and he is actually really funny and his wife is too.  We talked about the mission, how we are doing, if we met our monthly goal and he gave us some good advice and it was SO COOL!  He is just a Champion and super powerful!  I felt the spirit SO strong in his house and well I knew he was awesome when I told him that  my dad served in Rosario Argentina and he got excited and told me he was the mission President there in 1990!!!  YAY!  So he got to be part of the 2nd best mission in the world!  Cause the very best has got to be….THE PERU LIMA EAST MISSION!  SIERRA, SELVA, y COSTA (Google translator said that means: Mountains, Jungle and the Coast??)!!!  Yeah son!  haha but anyway, that pretty much was one of the coolest things I have gotten to do in my mission.  So save that picture mom!  I would like a copy as well!
          

So I’m doing really well, I am headed off for Cerro de Pasco tonight, should be really interesting, because its smoking hot here in Lima and I think it’s snowing in Paco, then I get to go to my first area... HUANUCO!!!  YES!  So that should be just awesome! I love ya family SO much!  My pension is Luara she is a champion and yes I love her food, I dont know if I can send letters in the pouch, I will have to check it out, and I’m in the office with my comp Elder Quispe, Elder Daga, Elder Moralez, they are the 3 Latinos and then I’m with Elder Dodge from Orem and Elder UDALL!  Haha I love Elder Dodge and Elder Udall, they are so Awesome and we are going to be together in the office for about 6 months!  So I should be here in the office for a good 6 months then I will have about 2 or 3 changes left in the field to finish my mission! AHHHHHH!!! 
That’s just insane!  So I gotta go!

Love ya and CHAU CHAU!
Elder Spencer Marty McGhie

Info about the pictures above:

First Doctor Pepper in 14 months!!!!!!!!!!!  Tell Grandpa Spencer in 10 months to get the DP ready! Haha   This is my comp Elder Quispe, he is a champ!  Oh and I jumped from my window onto that pile of about 13 mattresses.... ummm dont worry I wont do it again, I dont wanna die, I would like to serve the lord for my 2 full years and not return home with a broken arm or something!



I know that I am behind with Spencers email from Jan.14th and I am sorry but it is coming soon, however I do have 2 "happy things" that I wanted to share with all of you who read his blog!! Sorry if this is kind of weird???????????? :)

I promise I will get this updated soon, Spencer didn't send any pictures which is a bummer but he did write a nice email and I need to get myself working on posting his email.......sorry to be such a slacker =)! But........I did want to tell you what happened to me today because Spencer was a part of it and he made me laugh =)

So here is my experience today:

 

I went into Spencer's room today and I was feeling sort of sad. I was just sitting there thinking, when I noticed the place on his nightstand (its made of light wood and it is a very nice nightstand) where he carved the words "MOM IS MEAN" with a pen in the wood and it just made me laugh so hard as I remembered that day long ago!! I was so mad at him for doing that back then and now I am so happy it is there!! I laughed so much that I totally forgot what I was feeling sad about!! I just love my cute missionary so much, he makes me laugh all the way from Peru, He is the best!!! I am so happy that I am his MOM...even if his nightstand will forever say that I am MEAN! :)!!!!

 

Also we got the nicest surprise yesterday........we received an email from a sweet lady and her husband, Elder and Sister Pino!!  Here is what it said:

Brother and Sister Mcghie

Today we had The privilegie of visiting and having lunch with Eld Mcghie and hin companion Eld Quispe.

We just wanted To thank you for preparing such a godo Missionary. He es obidient,enthusiastic and hard working.

Sincerely,
Elder and Sister Pino.

 

Getting this email was almost as good as getting one from Spencer!!  I love how she wrote to us in English, even though she speaks Spanish!!  So Sweet of her to write us!!  Made me so happy!! =)

 

I hope everyone who reads this is doing great!! =)  My daily motto used to be: BEE Happy (Okay so the Bee part is kindof goofy but my daughter Ainsley and I, really liked Bee's back then, she collected bee things.......so it made us happy back then???? =)  ......I think I will add it to my current daily motto (minus the extra "Happy" "e")  So here it is:

Be Kind and Be Happy too!!

T T F N (That is Tigger talk and it means:

Ta Ta For Now =)!! Bye =)

Love,

Carrie..........Spencer's MOM :)

Oh..........I decided to add a few pictures of Spence when he was little.........just for fun =)!!!




Spencer at his first BYU Football Game...
He is totally crazy about BYU!!:)




Spencer dressed up like he just
won "The Rookie of The Year" Award!!




Spencer's Birthday, he got a jazz basketball
and a Bulls hat, He has been crazy about sports
since he was really little, I found him watching
Sports Center when he was 4 and he was captivated by it???




Spencer is in his pajamas reading his Bernstein Bears
Book while sitting in a basket full of toys????? =)



Spencer and his Sisters, Ainsley and Caroline!!
These were the perfect days when my kids were little
and I was the center of their world =)!!



Spencer loves his sister Caroline!!  He seriously
is the best brother to her!!  She loves her big brother
Spencer and her pink binky =)




Another Birthday for Spencer, he loved The Lion King
movie and Simba was his favorite always!!=)




Sweet Spencer sitting next to me (I have no idea
why I am not smiling?) with Ainsley and Caroline and
 My Grandma Marie Spencer. They called her Great Grandma. 
 She was such a sweet and good person. 
She came to America when she was 14 from Norway.
Her real name is Ingeborg Marie Johannson Spencer. =)
Oh and Spencer does have shorts on with that large tshirt???=)



¡¡¡HABLA FAMILIA Y AMIGOS!!!

  

How ya doing?  How´s life in good old Sandy Utah!?  It’s really weird to think that its freezing cold in Utah cause its burning up here in Lima Perú!  So let’s see this week was a pretty great week.  Last Monday I went to Huancayo and I just got back today!  So I was in Huancayo in splits the whole week in 4 different areas, it was pretty awesome!  But you know what wasn´t awesome, traveling alone in a bus for 8 hours! WHAT!! (WHAT is exactly the word I yelled when I read about Spencer traveling ALONE on a bus for 8 hours, what happened to the buddy system……..I mean I thought missionaries were ALWAYS supposed to be with a companion or another missionary??????)(Spencer dutifully explained today, which is actually Jan 23^rd since I didn’t send this email out last week, BUT it is good cause I got an explanation about traveling alone on a bus………..Spencer said in his voice recording that his mission president, President Ardila is a super amazing Man and that he is very intune with The Lord and that he wouldn’t send Spencer on a bus unless he knew it was totally safe………so there…..to me!!  It is kind of hard to argue with a voice recording …so I just figured that in this new assignment of Spencer’s that he is going to be doing all kinds of things and traveling and going who knows where so I just need to remember that Heavenly Father takes care of His missionaries and that I should try maybe having some faith here………so I am taking a leap of FAITH and having lots of hope and doing lots of PRAYING TOO!! =)  haha  It really was super weird, but when we go to visit a zone, one of us has to stay in the office.  It’s not very easy to sleep in the bus!  So if this email doesn´t make any sense I’m sorry, I didn’t sleep very well or hardly at all last night!  Just to tell ya fam, when you come to get me or when we visit, we ain´t (he does know proper English, I promise!!) using the bus! haha  I woke up at 3 in the morning sweating SO Bad cause they had the heater cranked up so high! haha   So, just plan on renting a car! 

So it was really great to be able to return to Huancayo and do splits with the missionaries there. I actually got to go on splits with Elder Encina on Tuesday and Elder Pozo on Thursday (they were both his companions before!), it was great to be with my trainees again and to see how much they have progressed since the beginning of their missions!  We had a lot of success in Huancayo, we found a bunch of Investigators that are ready for baptism, and we put them with a baptismal date!  I was a little sad, thinking I won´t be able to be there for their baptism.  After just teaching them and inviting them to baptism and watching them take that step of faith and accept their baptismal date, makes me want to stay and help them and teach them and be there when they get baptized!  So that’s kinda a bummer,  I only got to teach them one time and then to not be able to see their progress, but I hope I have been able to help them out at least a little! 

So, our area here is pretty tough, in La Molina.  Let’s just say everyone has got some serious cash and they don´t think they need God, it’s a pretty brutal change from Huancayo to La Molina haha, but hey the members are really great and are always ready to help so we will be working a lot through them.  It’s a completely different style of work then I am used to.  Of course you have to use the members, but I love to street contact and just look for investigators every way possible, like contacting in taxis or after buying something in a store, but here in La Molina, everyone has their cars, no one is in the streets and there are Huge gates around their houses and they all have INTERCOMS! WOOF!  But hey, I know the Lord is preparing people we just gotta look a little harder and in different ways!  I forgot to take my camera to Huancayo (Oh boy, Spencer gets a BIG OLD… D- on picture taking in Huancayo…. VERY Bad Spencer!!! =)(I just couldn’t bring myself to give him a Big Old F (for Major FAIL) because he is all the way in Peru and he is so cute and sweet and he loves his mom (that is ME) so much and I miss him soooooo ….I decided a D- was just slightly mean but not a total Fail =)!!, so I have 0 pictures... SORRY! I will do better this week.  But don’t worry mom, I won’t be traveling this week, I will be in the office, we have transfers this week, so we gotta send the old elders home, and go and get the newbies from the MTC! Haha  It’s going to be nuts, but I’m kinda excited about it! 

      

So life is good, I’m just trying to get the swing of things here.  I won’t lie, it eats me alive to sit in the office all morning long with paper work and computer stuff... WOOF  I just look and look and can’t wait till lunch time to get the heck out of the office and go and do something! Haha  So if you could pray for patience and that I can maybe learn to sit still and work in an office it would be greatly appreciated!! (Spencer couldn’t even sit still when he was watching sports on tv, he had to be throwing the basketball in his little Tykes hoop that is hanging (still) on the door to the basement or he had to have a football in his arms and he would run in circles around the area carpet in the family room, all while watching the game on tv, he was a funny kid and he still is pretty funny kid……….I can say he is a kid still if I want cause I am his mom!!=)!! I love you guys SOOOOOO Much and thanks for being my fam and putting up with all my crap! Haha!

Love you! Hasta Luego!

Elder Spencer Marty McGhie

Ps. I need a calendar of 2012 like the one of Christ you sent me for 2011, 2 new pants to preach, preferably dark gray, like 1 long sleeved shirt, that is pretty nice, I have a kitchen now, so if you send me like mac and cheese or cakes to bake I can actually cook now (even though he doesn’t know how to cook…well maybe he knows how in about the C+ category..But wait, I did forget that he can make a mean cup of hot chocolate and he did have to take a class in jr high where they cooked during part of the quarter and he did try making those no bake cookies a few times, so maybe I will put his cooking in the B- category but I would advise them to have some supervision and probably a fire extinguisher close by!! =) ! YAY!  But that would only be on p-day or in the night after working, cause we always eat with our pensionista.  Umm… there were more things that I needed but now I cant remember.... AHH!  haha  Oh, I remember...I need more pens, those BIC ones you sent me, one more box of blues and a box of black pens!  And one of the Elders in the office wants to know how much did my perfect pushups cost, Oh and I need a JUMP ROPE! I think I have a good one in my jazz locker downstairs, please send it to me (I am totally going to go and get him a little girls jump rope, pink with sparkily pom poms on the ends, Oh I really am excited now!!)! LOVE YA!

 Answers to some of my questions…………he never can answer all of them????

Ok mom, to answer your questions, of course I know Elder Dodge! He entered the office with me and we are going to be together here for 6 months!  He is a CHAMP!  We live by the temple and we all live in the same house, it’s a house of our own and all 6 of us, 2 assistants, and the 4 secretaries live there together, but there’s always other elders staying there and it is SUPER SAFE!  There and big gates and guards outside the houses, always patrolling the streets, it is like safer than Sandy, Utah!  I kid you not! There are gates in the streets and cars can only enter on certain streets, it’s pretty ridiculous! Haha!  

My Pensionista ES LO MAXIMO!  She lives pretty close and has 3 little kids, and has been the pension for the assistants for about 2 years!  She is a grade A CHAMPION! 

Umm.. I will have to tell you when I am going to write you in my emails, I can’t log on to my email during the week, sorry mom, I am just being 100 percent obedient like you always tell me to!!!  But I will be writing you guys mostly on Monday’s and if not I will try to let you know in my email the week before, so Mom won’t make Dad call the mission President to find out why I didn’t email them!! Haha (Very funny Spencer, but a definite possibility if I don’t get an email when I am supposed to???)!!  So, I love yall SO much!  And I haven’t had any time at all to send the flippin package, but now I have computer access in the office to burn my camera card on cd´s so I will see what I can do this week!  

LOVE YOU!  BYE AGAIN!!

Ch-CH-Ch-Changes!

HOLA MI ESTIMADA FAMILIA Y AMIGOS!

  

Alrighty then I dont have a whole lot of time so lets get this party started.  I will start off by answering you questions mom.   First off all thank you SO much for sending me the emails all in a word doc.  It is SO much easier and faster, and YOU ARE THE BEST!  Secondly the package for Christmas was incredible!  I love the book with all the conference talks its, SO AWESOME! And my Hymn book from Grandma and Grandpa Spencer is in my backpack right now, and I am using it DAILY! So thanks SO much!  

      

So I guess I should start off by telling you I am no longer in Musa!  I was in my room last Monday with my comp planning and the phone rang.  My comp answered and it was President Ardila.  He then gave me the phone, and President told me, Well Elder McGhie, I´m just calling you to tell you that you have a new assignment, tomorrow your coming to the office to work with me and to replace Elder Taylor, your my new assistant (For those who aren’t familiar with “LDS Missionary Jargon”, This means that Spencer is now one of two missionaries who assist the Mission President with I guess whatever he needs them to do???  I don’t really know what Spencer will be doing but OH MY, I wasn’t expecting this to happen ??!!  I have no idea what Spencer will be doing but I really liked him being just a missionary who goes out and teaches people, now I don’t know  ???  I am a little bit freaked out by this but I am getting kind of used to being freaked out by having a son on a mission……….it is quite an experience!!=)!!)!    Oh flip!   Haha I just about fell off my chair, I was filled with a bunch of different emotions, first off, I was Pretty Nervous, than scared and then kinda flippin out! It was pretty crazy!  So, now I’m working here in the office, with President.  My new companion is Elder Quispe, from Ilo Peru, which is on the boarder of Peru and Chile.  My area is the area where the Temple is! haha Flippin NUTS!  To say the least, I haven´t slept much this week!  Tuesday morning we had our big meeting with all the zone leaders that we have monthly and President announced that I would be the new Assistant in front of everyone and it was VERY SCARY!Haha  He asked me to get up and say something, I won’t lie I was VERY nervous there in front of 25 other Zone Leaders, so I just stood up and said exactly what dad taught me!  I opened up my Missionary Handbook and read a line that says,  “An Assistant to the President is no more important than a Junior Companion.”  I told them all that I’m still Elder McGhie, my name tag still says Elder McGhie and that the only difference between an AP and a Junior Comp is their assignments and duties, to be assistant doesn´t make me any better than anyone else.  I am really grateful that Dad taught me all that, before I came on mission.  Because a lot of people see the position  of AP as a Goal or a great reward, but it’s just another assignment in the mission, it doesn´t make anyone better or worse than any other missionary.  The truth is I never worried about trying to be an AP or ZL or DL, I just wanted to work hard, obey, and be able to kneel down at night and tell the Lord that I am doing the best I can with these 2 years He has given me. 

     

I am grateful for the chance I will have to serve with President Ardila, I know he can teach me a BUNCH of things, and I’m excited, but I will never ever think that I am better than any other missionary because of this assignment!! Thanks for all the love and support!!  I love yall so much! Oh I just have to tell you my ward is NUTS!!!  The Presidency of the Area attends our ward! I was in Priesthood with Elder Waddell! HAHA! The ward is NUTS!  All the Missionary Couples attend this ward, the Temple Presidency and like 4 mission presidents and their families!!  Oh and there a ton of GRINGOS! Haha it’s crazy!  Talk about Pressure!!!  SO, PLEASE PRAY FOR ME!!!  Oh, dad I am going to need some serious lectures from you in my emails!  I Love your lectures! Haha!  Oh and I will be writing you on Saturday, cause next week are transfers and its going to be pure CHAOS! La vida es tan loca!!!!!

LOVE YOU!

CHAU!

Elder Spencer Marty McGhie

Sorry but I have no idea why the last paragraph has grey behind it and I tried everything and I couldn’t get rid of it ???????????????????



The Zone Leaders together with
President Ardila and his wife after
their monthly Zone Meeting!!







The Zone Leaders eating lunch at
thier montly meeting!!  Try to  find Spencer
 in this picture!! Heres a hint: Spencer is
cutting his food! =) 





Spencer  and his companion Elder Vilca, Elder Arnoa,
Cute Elder Biliter, Elder Winterton and I am not sure what
 the last missionaries name is..........sorry!! Oh and
Elder Pritchett is in the background!





 Cute Elder Brown and I feel terrible but I dont know
the other missionaries names at the table??!





 Elder Rider, Elder Sheridan and
if anyone knows the other missionaries
names please leave me a comment ! =)





Elder Poindexter, Elder Corbridge and let
me know who else is in this picture, thanks?? =)





Time For Basketball, Elder Sheridan,
Elder Pritchett (I think) and Spencer is the one far
 away with his back to the camera
in the white shirt and black shorts



More Basketball!! =)

Elder Norris's Mom sent me these pictures!! Arent they so cute!! =)



Elder Norris's Mom sent me the pictures with the blue captions and then Spencer sent me the pictures with black captions!!=)

 

Spencer, Elder Norris and Elder Rojo goofing around
with their Santa hats on!!  Elder Rojo was Spencers trainer!!=)

Chrismas Eve out caroling with their Zone!

Elder Vilca and Spencer out Caroling with their
Zone on Christmas Eve

Spencer and Elder Norris after playing tennis =)

Tennis, Action shot =)





More Action =)



My Holiday ADVENTURES!



HEY FAM Y AMIGOS!!!!

So I first off would like to tell you all………HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! Can you believe its

2012... FLIP!  That’s just plain nuts, and secondly I would like to apologize for my last email, I was SUPER stressed and then my computer didn’t work, wasted almost all my time switching computers and then looking for a computer that would work and I just kinda threw it all out in my letter... SORRY!!!!  So I am going to write a SUPER Letter today of my HOLIDAY RECAP!!!

     
So starting with Christmas, we had a ward activity the 23rd and we had 11 investigators at the activity and it was a really great activity!  My comp, our mission leader, and a few other members did a talent, we sang the song that everyone knows, Feliz Navidad, Feliz Navidad, Prospero Año y felizidad, I wanna wish you a merry Christmas... and so on and so forth.  But they asked me to play and instrument called the CAJON.  It’s like a big wooden box that you sit on and it has a hole in the back and you beat it like a drum... haha  I told them I had no IDEA how to play that thing but I would be more than happy to give it a shot!  Haha so I had my Santa hat on, sitting on a CAJON, just belting out Feliz Navidad, and playing the Cajon like there was no tomorrow.  It was pretty much Awesome haha!!  And I was fairly new in the ward so everyone was just like, who is the crazy gringo playing the cajon!?  Yep, thats your son!  

So, I have to tell you that I have eaten SO MUCH FRUIT CAKE.............. AY CARUMBA!!

Peruvians are so nuts, they love Fruit Cake, it’s like the best gift you can give someone is a giant Fruit CAKE!  Haha its called Paneton here, and they love it TOO MUCH!  They all ask me if we eat fruit cake in the States, I just kinda laugh and tell them... well no, actually never! Haha, But Christmas was pretty awesome, the highlight was definitely SKYPING yall, that was TOO GREAT!  It was absolutely Nuts to see the house, the dogs and cats and you guys!

So I love my Suit thanks SO much and all the new church cd´s and Chocolate!  And well Everything was just too great! My star wars lunch box, yoda watch... which I have on right now!  And my Ties are SWEET!  So that was cool, Here in Peru Christmas is really different, the party is the 24th at night and at midnight there are fireworks and they all go crazy, and then they do it all over again on New Years... go figure eh?  haha, so the whole world wanted us to be with them at midnight on Christmas Eve and we had to tell them we were just going to be in our room.  They looked at us like we were nuts haha!!So Christmas morning, our Pensionista saved us some of the dinner they had at midnight the night before...  So instead of eating German Pancakes or French Toast Christmas morning, I ate full blown  Turkey, Mashed potatoes, veggies and of course more... FRUIT CAKE! haha what a breakfast it was!  Oh, I love Peru SOOOO much!  Then on Sunday we mostly just had lessons with the members, cause just about everyone else was Drunk haha!  So that was my great Christmas Adventure!

   

This week has been really crazy, all the references we got around Christmas we contacted and we found a bunch of New Investigators!  It was pretty awesome, my comp is really great and we are working really hard.  But the down was that with New Years being Saturday night, of the 17 new investigators we had this week 1 attended church, Sunday Morning at 9 am... POOP!  But hey thats the way the cookie crumbles sometimes...  So we are pretty excited for January, we have a whole Bunch of Investigators and families to teach!  So it will be a pretty great week and month.  On new years I was thinking and I was just in awe that it is 2012!  I remember in the MTC in November of 2010 thinking that 2012 would never get here!  And Boom!  It is here!  I am so blessed to be able to serve a mission and to be here in Peru!  It makes me sad to think I only have 10 months left!  I really cant believe it! I love Peru so much, and the people, I dont know if I can leave so soon! It’s starting to go by faster and faster and I want it to SLOW DOWN!  But hey a mans gotta do what a mans gotta do! Times up I love ya and I hope LINEY had the best Birthday EVER!

CHAU!

Elder Spencer Marty McGhie








Spencer got a "Yoda, Star Wars"
 Lego Watch for Christmas =)




Spencer got a new Navy Blue Suit for Christmas and a bunch of ties =)!!!




Ainsley made Spencer this felt Christmas Tree and
we had lots of our extended family members write
him messages on the cards and he took out so many
cards per day to hang on the tree until Christmas Day!!
I wrote 10 cards ........I couldnt control myself =)!




Pizza Hut Pizza must have been
the day after Christmas Dinner?





I am guessing by the date on the picture
that this is New Years Eve???




I'm pretty sure this is
New Years Eve too!!!