Well thats just the way the Cookie Crumbles, Sometimes... haha

Estimada Familia y Amigos!!!

How ya doing these days???  I am very excited to hear about how mom is doing at the work out Nazi training camp!!! I have been sure to pray a little extra for her this week in all my prayers!!!  I hope all is well and that your just loving the summer sun! Cause it aint here in Huancayo that’s for sure!!! Haha, the weather here is just pretty nuts, in the mornings its really cold, but in the afternoon, the sun just BURNS for like 3 hours, then as soon as the sun goes down it is cold again,  I guess we are pretty high up in altitude here.  I dont know what it compares to with Utah but I’m guessing we are higher here.  So I guess I’ll give ya the down low on what happened here this week in the Mish!!! First of all about my investigators.... yeah pretty much all of them have jumped off the Salvation Train and have decided to take other paths, can’t lie I have been slightly discouraged this week.  After all we had about 5 or 6 investigators progressing beautifully and now... well they say, one is the loneliest number that you’ll ever do, and 2 can be as bad as one, cause its the loneliest number since the number one... oooohhh, but i guess Three Dog Night never had all of them bail out and be stuck at 0... its kinda crappy haha!  But I have lots of faith we will still be able to A about! It was just nuts, we got to the point where he said that he loves God and he is everything but for him Jesus Christ is nothing and doesn’t refer to him as his Savior... O wow I pretty much just about lost it, ya know that feeling when someone is picking on one of you siblings and you just want to throw down, yeah that’s how I felt, so I whipped out a little bit of Mormon chapter 9, 1 through 6 and we solved that problem very quickly.  So at the end of the lesson, he told us that we have not taught him one thing that has impacted him or made him change his beliefs about life and God and all that.  He then sort of laughed out loud when we told him that we can receive revelation directly from God through the Holy Ghost.  He said alright, I’ll give you guys one more chance to teach me and if you tell me something, just one thing, I will get baptized and be a member but if not, we cannot keep on having lessons... Haha funny story I was just about to tell him if he didn´t stop talking like a nut job we were never going to teach ever haha... but I resisted and agreed.  So me and my comp did some studying and some good old fasting and we had the appointment the very next day... And it was incredibly simple what the Spirit told us to teach him, the very basics, that number one, God Loves him, he is a child of God and that Gods purpose is to bring to pass the Immortality and Eternal Life of man and for that he has given us the way to be saved, through his Son Jesus Christ, and his atonement.  We taught him that Christ already did it all, conquered death, atoned for our sins and all we have to do is follow His teachings and firstly be baptized as he taught us and receive the Holy Ghost.  The Spirit was very strong, but simple, he had about 1000 questions but the spirit guided us to every answer in the scriptures and after about 2 and a half hours, he accepted it ALL!!!  I was about to send the story to the Ensign to be published, when he said that he knows the Book of Mormon is true and he has to be baptized to be saved... and then of course... Boom Goes the Dynamite.  He says he can’t get baptized, because God said that he has to wait!!! I MEAN, OH COME ON!!! I just about chucked myself off a bridge, I mean after 2 lessons back to back that were both just a battle to the death, He finally agrees on it all, but says that God doesn’t want him to get baptized. OH MY SWEET DEATH!!!  Can’t a guy catch a break here! We even kneeled down and prayed right there and the Spirit was so strong when he asked if he should get baptized, I was sure he was going to finish his prayer and say let go to the Font BABY!!! But he just denies it all, the feelings and everything... SO here we are and now we told him to call us when he is ready cause we have done all possible for him.  So if yall could do me a favor and send a prayer for Carlos that his heat is softened.  So the week was crazy, but we are hanging in there and fighting on!!! I love yall sosososos much! Good luck at fat camp mom!!! And finally Liney emailed me!!! HOOORAY!!! Love ya!!!
Elder Spencer Marty McGhie

Ps dad, i need a new black belt, mine is shot, size 36... CHAU!!!

Spencers email for July 25th coming soon!!

Sorry everyone but I am at an exercise camp and they keep us very busy and exhausted!!  I promise I will get Spencer's blog updated as soon as I can!!  His email today was great, he always makes me laugh!!  He is just the best guy and I am so thankful that I am his mom =)!!!  More from Spencer coming soon!!!
Carrie

You know that’s my dream to dress up like Nephi and kill people with swords!!! NOT FAIR!!! haha

Hi !!

Sorry this is so late, I am at an exersize camp for the 2 weeks and I am just getting this sent!!  I will try to do better next week!!!  Sorry!!  I hope you all are doing great!!!!

Carrie J!!

¡¡¡HOLA HOLA!!!

Bueno, Primeramente, tengo que decir algo sobre me estimado y querido Peru en la Copa AMERICA!!! ¡QUE TAL PERU! Semi Finals Baby!!! (Okay…translated from Marty, that says the following: Very well, first off, I want to say something about my esteemed and beloved Peru in the America’s Cup.  HOW ABOUT PERU!  Semi-finals Baby!!!)  To say the least the people here are pretty excited!!! So before I give you the big scoop on this week I have to respond to your last email...  First of all I’m SO JEALOUS OF THE YOUTH CONFERENCE!!! (It was a Book of Mormon Youth conference and everyone had to dress up like Nephites and they reinacted parts of the Book of Mormon and they got to fight wars too, with cardboard sheilds and foam swords! pics coming soon!!)  You know that’s my dream to dress up like Nephi and kill people with swords!!!  NOT FAIR!!! haha  I’m very anxious to hear how it all went!  Also dad, I’m so totally game for waking boarding camp!!! That’s like the best thing I have heard of since sliced bread!!!  Mom, Elder Prichet is my BOY!!! He’s a champ!  And thanks to Aunt Jane for her AWESOME email, the dear elder from Grandma and Grandpa Spencer, emails from Uncle Steven and Blake’s dad also!!!  It’s beyond great to hear from everyone!!! Some people I would like to hear from... Mitchell Peterson and Trevor Fugate!!!  I sent Will and Collin some letters and my family!!! Challis, Tal and Ethan and Nate, Kaycee, Aunt Kristen and well EVERYONE!!! That would be the best birthday present of all if everyone just wrote me something!!!

     

Alright onto what happened this week!  So Wednesday morning I was in the room of the zone leaders, I had been sleeping there and then going to my area in the day and preaching with some divisions or changes (I can’t remember how to say that in English)  So then the zone leaders called us Wednesday and said I had a companion!!!  And he is another new Elder... and another Chileno!!!  HAHAHA - how nuts eh? But he is really awesome, I miss Elder Pozo, he was really funny, but Elder Contreras is awesome!!!  So Saturday we had interviews with our new president and this morning we had our conference and I just have to say that he is the MAN!!! And his mom lives in Sandy!!! Before they went to the MTC they went to Sandy!!! Haha so that was cool to talk about, his wife is just really awesome as well!!! And he has 3 daughters that are 19, 14, and 12... I only met the 14 year old and 12 year old and they reminded me sososososososo much of LINEY!!! Haha so big news, we will not just be talking on the phone this Christmas... WE WILL BE SKYPING!!! O HECK YEAH!!! How awesome is that! So I’m pretty stoked about that for sure!!!  This week was pretty nuts, we have a pretty big goal for my area and we are right now at 0 baptisms... I was getting pretty frustrated cause at the beginning of July we knelt down and just asked the Lord what should be our goal for this month... we both felt that it should be 5 baptisms...  And so this week I just started to get a little frustrated, cause my investigators started to fade and I didn´t know why!  I am doing the best I can, really I am trying to be obedient with exactness, but they were all just bailing out!  So Sunday came around and we passed by the houses of our investigators and no one was answering the door or anything!!!  And me being a man of little faith just started to doubt, I was saying how am I going to baptize anyone this month!!!  No one even wants to attend church, so how can I baptize 5 people let alone 1!!!  Oh, ye men of little faith...  We ended up with 6 investigators at church!!!  We only arrived at the beginning of Sacrament meeting with 2!!!  And they just kept filing in little by little!!!  So we have 2 or 3 baptisms this Saturday, and we will see what comes about this next week.  But I know that in these 2 weeks there are 5 people to be baptized!  Because that is what the Lord told us!  The Lord wants at least 5 baptisms here in Huancayo, La Florida, so that’s just what I’m going to have to do...  So should be pretty interesting this coming week, we have found a few new families and we are really working hard with them!  If you could pray for Hermano Cezar that he and his family can have the faith to close their shop on Sunday and go to church, and for Hno Carlos that he can really read the Book of Mormon and gain a testimony of the truthfulness... also Jesus and Adriana, that they can continue progressing towards their baptismal date for this Saturday!!!  I would appreciate that greatly!!!  So the mission is just crazy, my new mission president, President Ardila is really a fantastic guy and I can already see that he is here for a reason to help this mission and me personally as well!!!  Sorry that this email was pretty lame, my brain is just fried after our conference for like 6 hours!!!  Haha I really can’t think of much to say other than i LOVE YOU GUYS!!! I’m loving the mission, it’s tough, but that’s why I love it so much!!!  I am almost finished with the Book of Mormon... IN SPANISH!!! I’m in the last chapter of Mormon, so it’s pretty amazing to see how far I have come in my Spanish!!!  It really is quite a miracle!! I love ya fam and keep it real!!
Elder McGhie!!!
ps

Dad, one more thing for my birthday if you could send me Jesus the Christ in Spanish! LOVE YOU GUYS!!! And i would like to get an email from every one of you with your favorite scripture.... that’s for the fam!!! LOVE YA BYE!!!

Oh, and once more another great adventure lies ahead!!!

¡¡¡Estimada FAMILIA y AMIGOS!!!

   

What’s going on GUYS?!!! First of all I have to say I’m here typing you this email in Huancayo, and the owner of this little internet hub, is cranking out the song Dragon Force from Guitar Hero!!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! Almost to many memories with this song!!! Family, you might not appreciate that, but Collin, Will, Keaton, Ryan, Brandon,  and Jake Corry will definetly appreciate it and will bring back a flooooood of memories Jammin out in Lola pretending to play the guitar with Tennis Rackets hahahahahaha, sorry i had to get that off my chest!!! And well on to the good stuff!!

     So I have to start off by saying that i am here companionless!!! NOOOOO!!!Yep!!!  My comp Elder Pozo had to go to Lima and he will be there for an entire MONTH!!! NO!!!! He hurt his knee and now he has to be in the Office for a month resting his knee!!! So to say the least this week was a giant crazy mess!!!  We were in the doctor’s office for about a total of 6 hours this week... WOOOOOFFFFFF!  I hate the doctor’s office! So to say the least we missed about a combined total of 13 to 15 lessons this week... ¡¡¡It was HORRIBLE!!!  I always thought back in my earlier days in the field, that it would be somewhat great to have a companion that was sick so that one day I could take a nap or something... WRONGO! It was the Pitts!!! The whole day Thursday we had to stay in the apartment cause my comp couldn´t walk... I was losing my mind just sitting in the apartment!!! It was just really a strange experience, like the first time in 8 months where I just kinda sat there and had time to think, I was just thinking how crazy it is that I have been on my mission for 8 months and I already have changed so much.  I just kinda sat there, read my patriarchal blessing and just thought about life I guess... we all know I’m not the deepest guy, but it just kinda hit me, the whole mission thing that actually one day its going to end, and it will come faster than I can possibly imagine, and then it’s just back to normal life after that!!! AHHHHH!!! How scary is that!   But anyways, Friday my comp went to Lima and I now have a 19 yr old young man, from the ward here, staying with me as my ¨"Companion". I never realized the difference in a missionary with a nametag and the calling and just a normal teen or something.  I’m not saying that he’s not a good kid or anything, he is going on his mission in like 3 months, but there is just something distinctly different, there is definitely Power in the NAMETAG!!! I was my “substitute companion” and another young man from the ward yesterday, out contacting people in the streets, and it was so weird, they were talking about stuff that I haven´t even thought of for like 8 months haha!!! Like the latest cell phones, tv shows, movies, and the weirdest of all... GIRLS!!! AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!! If you thought i was afraid of Girls before the mission, just wait till i get home from the mission!  I dont even think I can look a girl in the eye, let alone hug a girl!!!     AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! That’s the weirdest thought I have had in a long time, one day it will actually be legal for me to hug a girl... WOOF! To say the least it will be pretty interesting when I get back and they all start tellin me to get married... NOT GUNNA HAPPEN!!!  So if everyone could give a prayer for my comp, Elder Pozo, he’s only been on his mission for 1 month and to have that happen to you after being out only 1 month! TOUGH STUFF!!!  And now I pretty much have to do 100 percent of the lessons, contacts and everything!!! It’s going to be an interesting, and rather difficult month.  But I know the Lord has a bunch of lessons that I’m supposed to learn from this experience, so we shall just wait and see!!!

Well, I had 2 pretty solid Gringo experiences this week...  First of all we were walking in the street one day in the afternoon, contacting people and we passed this little old lady who was picking flowers, we said Buenos Tardes, and she looked up and screamed ¡¡¡O QUE MARAVILLA (Hey, Carrie here, Google translator says that means ,”you are wonderful”??)!!!  I was like... umm apparently she wants to talk to us, so we went over and I started to introduce myself and all that jazz and she immediately broke out into song, singing the hymn “How Great Thou Art”, so I thought she might be a member of our church but then she started to change the words, and sing louder and louder and then started to like yell and cry and then started Sobbing!  A picture of that moment would probably be worth a thousand bucks, for like 15 seconds I just kinda stared and had no idea what to do...  Then her son or grandson ran out of the house grabbed her and started dragging her into the house, She then looked back, yelled GRINGO and tossed me a flower and like skipped away... haha I mean what in the heck is that! Probably the weirdest 30 seconds of my entire life!!

The next Gringo experience is an eye roller!!! So, Huancayo is at a really high altitude and it is also very dry, so my skin is like dying, and the sun BURNS!  So I broke out the sun screen today and I had to buy some lotion, the lady in the store tried to sell me some lotion for like 25 bucks, I was like... umm no!?  so she grabbed this other lotion, I said, I think that’s only for women, she says nope, says here its unisex and only 10 soles, I’m like, yeah I’ll take it!  That night I get back to the room, bust out the lotion cause my hands were just wrecked and it is like 100 percent for women and smells just like I walked out of that Bath and Body store or something... woof!! So now every night I go to bed smelling like Caroline or Ainsley with my pink lotion... Dont judge me! So thats pretty rough, the youth that is my companion, probably thought I was sort of feminine haha, nope, just a gringo that get severely taken advantage of!!! Well I’m signing off for now! Know I love all yall!!! And keep the faith!!!

Elder McGhie!!!

Hola again, I had a few more minutes!!!
So here are some things I have thought of that I could use for my birthday...  A good workout band, dad will know what I’m talking about, like a giant rubber band thingy with handles... Some candy!!! Mike-n-Ikes, Cashews and Planters Peanuts! Some more peanut butter, another journal, Picture of the Draper Temple, a post card of BYU, the campus and cool stuff, some photos of youth activities, vacations, campouts, another journal, a picture of my baby girl LOLA (in case you don’t know, Lola is his car and Marty thinks he is selling it……WRONG. I can guarantee that Lola isn’t going anywhere, Spencer loves that car!) and whatever you feel would be fun!! I love you all sososososossososos much! And yeah my pensionista is great, our room is really really safe, there is like a giant wall with big spikes surrounding it (is he making fun of me by telling me it has a wall with big spikes??), its the same area that Elder Madsen was in when he left the Peru MTC!!! So you can talk to his mom and find out all about it!! Pretty cool eh, I told the Pentionista that Elder Madsen was doing great in Tarma and that his mom said thanks for taking such good care of him while he was in Huancayo?  Oh and Mom, some bad news... we can’t call you Mamasita anymore... haha, I found out that it means like your girlfriend, sorry!  Haha!! So how about we call you Mamita!!! Thats the right word... haha love ya!!! Keep it real in Utah,  all is well here in Peru, tell dad the pack of plain white shirts was brilliant, I use them every day (I have no idea what pack of white shirts he is talking about???)!!! Les extraño un MONTON!!! Que tengan un BUUUEEN Dia (Goggle again, since Marty is asleep, translates it as, I miss you all, have a wonderful Day)!!!

Con mucho amor,

Spence the missionary guy, McGhie



We found Hamburgers and Sprite on the 4th of JULY!!! IT WAS AWESOME!!!



Huancayo, Peru

Luis and Ines (from Huanuco, he is a real fireman) gave me this red sweater,
 it’s a legit fire fighter material Sweater!!!



I guess Spencer is saluting in his Legit Fireman Sweater, not sure why he
is saluting but maybe firemen salute in Peru???


OH MY GOODNESS, I JUST HAD TO COME BACK ON THIS MISSION BLOG OF MY CUTE SON AND TELL EVERYONE HOW CUTE AND GOOD AND AMAZING MY FUNNY SON SPENCER IS!!  I AM SO THANKFUL AND GRATEFUL TO BE HIS MOM............HE IS JUST SUCH A FUNNY AND SWEET GUY AND I LOVE HIM SO, SO  MUCH!!!! =)!!!  AND YES I AM A LITTLE BIT WEIRD :)!!

Instead of Hot Dogs, Hamburgers, and going swimming in the sun... Chicken, Rice, and Preachin the Gospel! HAHA Happy 4th of July!!!!!!

What’s the Word Guys!?

So well Happy 4th of July!!! It’s so strange to think its the 4th of July! Cause well i haven´t seen a barbeque let alone a cheeseburger in about 8 months! HAHA, and of course it’s flippin COLD HERE! That just isn’t right that it is the 4th of July and its cold! HAHA But you’ll be happy to hear that I had my own little 4th of July party this morning... I woke up to the Air Force Anthem in Honor of Grandpa Spencer, but I don’t have the one of the Army... Sorry Grandpa McGhie, but I listened to the Marines one as well... haha so I’m sure my comp was overjoyed with happiness to listen to Anthems of America the entire morning!!! HAHAHAHAHA Mo-Tab works magic in that CD!!! HOOOORAY FOR THE USA! My first 4th of July out of the states...  man the states are great! HAHA and in the shower this morning I sang, “IM PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN, WHERE AT LEAST I KNOW IM FREE, AND I WONT FORGET THE MEN WHO DIED TO GIVE THAT RIGHT TO ME!!!”… and so on and so forth! So if all of you could do 3 favors for me today... First of all, eat a hot dog or a hamburger and LOVE IT, then Listen to that song at least once for me... “I’m proud to be an American”, Uncle Ricks favorite song... and then give the good old stars and stripes a salute for this guy!!! It will be much appreciated!   

Well now onto my weekly report... To say the least I had one of my biggest Gringo moments of my life this week! So strap on and prepare for this one!  So at the beginning of every month we go to the bank to draw out our money.  And we always just do it in Soles, but for some reason we had to get it out in dollars and then trade it for soles.... yeah, you already know what’s coming!  So me and my new Chilean companion (Peruanos  dont like Chileans)  leave the bank with a butt load of money to pay the pension and the room and laundry and all that stuff... So we go down a street where there are like 50 shops to exchange dollars.  SO we find the shop with the best trade in and we enter.  I had a crapload of money so we enter and we see the exchange rate, they do it all on their calculator and all is well.  We are trading the money in and all that stuff.  When they changed the money I started to count it all for like the 3rd time just in case, and they got annoyed and then took the money and started counting it out loud to me and made me feel stupid so i was like ya, ya it’s alright.  We leave and get back to the room and my comp starts counting his money again.   I was in the bathroom and he starts hooping and hollering, Hey!!! Hey!!! They robbed me 20 soles! And in Peru 20 soles is a pretty good amount of money.  I though he was just being a psycho Chilean who is always accusing the Peruanos for robbing them of everything... haha! So I don’t say anything but he just kept freaking out so we counted his money and he WAS short 20 bucks, so then I start to get a little worried and I count my money and those tools jacked me 50 soles!!! GARBAGE! I was flippin ticked, 50 soles is a bunch of money, I mean the church only gives us like 85 soles for the whole month to live on so you do the math!!! So we got in a taxi and I was like,…WE ARE GETTING OUR MONEY BACK!!! But before we left we said a prayer and it calmed me down, and I got to thinking, what would Jesus do in this situation...  My comp wanted to storm in there and just start rippin heads off, but I got an idea of how Christ would get his money back... So we get to the little sketchy shop and all the little money changers are in there and all got way excited thinking we were there to trade more money so they could rob us more... Boy,  were they wrong! I entered and just said, “Sorry Hermanos, we forgot to invite you to join us in church this Sunday at 9 in the morning!”  Then I whipped out a bunch of Hand out cards with the picture of Jesus and his red robe and said, also we have some gifts for you... laminated pictures of Jesus Christ!!!!! HAHAHAHA!!! I then started to explain a little about our missions, how we are here to serve Christ and it’s all service and they don’t pay us and the money is so that we can pay our pension and eat!!! I then said,”Now brothers you owe me 50 soles and my companion 20”... And you know what………… they all just immediately whipped out the money threw it on the table and just stared at the floor!!! HAHAHAHAHA!!!  How about them apples!!!! They wouldn’t even look me in the eye! I finished up the invite to church told them that it would help them a lot and change their lives! I handed them the Handouts of Christ and we bailed!!! OOOOHHH HECK YEAH BABY!!! I felt like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid or Clint Eastwood in Dirt Harry... Come on Boy, Make my DAY!!! HAHA!!  IT might sound way lame but it was totally Legit! Haha…. take that world!!! SO……. that was a big moment this week!!!! As of a week and a half ago we didn’t have 1 investigator and guess how many we had at church yesterday.... 5!!! WHAT!!! MIRACLES FROM THE HAND OF THE LORD! 3 of them have baptismal dates for the 23rd and we have a lesson with the others tonight and we are going to challenge them to see if they want to get baptized!!! MIRACLES; nothing more, nothing less! I love the mission, it’s really, really hard sometimes but I am learning lessons in these 2 years that would take 20 years to learn!

I have to say that your emails family, last week saved me!!! They were answers to my Prayers! Ainsley email of how we should give thanks for our challenges was just what I needed to hear, also Lineys email what so powerful, it put me to tears!!! Fam and Friends I love you all sososososo much, enjoy this 4th of July and don’t forget to sing, “I’m Proud To Be An American, really loud before the 4^th is over!!!!!  You are always in my thoughts and prayers, LOVE YOU GUYS!!!
Elder Spencer Marty McGhie.... HHOOORAY AMERICA!!!

Ps mom, the birthday package, i could use these things called the perfect pushup little hand things that twist, also lots of chocolate, fotos, surprises and a stapler!!! Also a family picture of all of us framed and ready! LOVE YALL SOSOSOSOSO MUCH
Have a great week and I will send a lot more pics the next week! PROVECHO this 4th of  July!!!

BYE!

FAM!, I have a short time left, just to say my pensionista is the wife of the bishop and great! She isnt Hermana Genoveva but it’s all good!!! Also, yeah that La Florida market is right in my area! The chapel is just down the street! My area is huge and I live in the part called PIO PATA. Right by the big Catholic church! I miss you all so much and what! I read Ainsleys short email, CULINARY SCHOOL!!! THATA Girl!!! THATA Girl!!! Mom I had an amazing experience the other day in my prayer before I went to sleep, I started praying and I just got this distinctive feeling that you were either praying for me or talking to me or in my room just chatting it up with me (I do that a lot, this is Carrie, and I don’t care if it is weird because it makes me happy =) !! )! It was incredible! And then Ainsleys experience, that I was praying for her and she felt me praying for her, how amazing is that!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Fam I love you and I need some prayers, I’m learning lots of patience and humility with Elder Pozo, The some of the people from Chile are like 5 year olds (not all of them, like my last companion, Elder Encina he was amazing), they like to pinch, push and just play little games to annoy you!  Pray for me please! Oh and everything is about how much better Chile is than Peru and how it’s just so great and how the USA is lame! AHHH!!! I want to hit him sometimes, help me to be humble and patient....I am his trainer and I need to love him and teach him how to be a great missionary.it’s kind of hard but I am working on it, I just could use truck load of help!!!!.....................................PLEASE!!!!

Love You All Soooooooooooooooo Much!!!
CHAU!

Elder McGhie!!! LOVE YA!

Elder McGhie with his newbi companion Elder Pozo

Elder Mcghie with Elder Fogleman, he was Spencers Zone Leader in Huanuco!