¡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