Brian's email July 28

Subject: we have located your pants
Well, first to explain the subject.. My father sends me emails and apperently with yahoo you can generate random subjects. and this was the most recent one and it made me laugh so I used it.
So life here is going very well, this week was great. We had a young man who we have been teaching for a couple weeks now ask us to be baptized. his name is Kagiso [kah-he-so] He is only about 19 but he has been very interested since day one with us. He studies the bible and reads from the book of Mormon and has pointed out to us that they dont conflict with eachother. ;) smart kid huh?! I am pretty sure he has a testimony of the Book of Mormon but we are a bit worried about his testimony of the restored gospel. He hasnt come to church yet and he still goes to his "good news bible" church :s AHHH some people amaze me with the churches they go to! so we are going to focus a bit on the restoration with him before we go much further.
So we showed up to another investigator, Molley, on thursday. We were going to teach her about the law of tithing, and when we showed up she had an envelope sitting on the table we sit around. And when I told her what we were going to talk about, she said "oh I was just thinking about that earlier today" and she handed me the envelope! so we taught her about the law of tithing. and on sunday she came to church with another envelope! I had already givin the previous one to the bishop and he wanted to sit down and talk with her but unfortunately she had to leave early so he never got the chance. This same investigator has been reading the book of Mormon and is now almost finished with Alma! And amazingly enough she hasnt committed to baptism yet, she is still a little commited to her other bizaar church. ha, but im sure it wont be long now, She is starting to make the change, and Im praying she will accept the commitment soon.
YUP! thats life, Im sure some other cool stuff happend but... im done writing :D Love you all!
Elder Brian Spencer

Brian's email July 21

It has been a wonderful week, everything seems to be slowly progressing, which is good. We have found some new people, taught some old people and played with some young people :) Little kids are fun to play with, they are so easily entertained too. They are so bored during the day that they get very clever. I have been introduced to several games that little kids just make up to keep themselves entertained. One is like jacks except they find 11 rocks and they scratch a little box into the dirt lol. yup good times. We had 5 of our solid investigators come to church on sunday! that was awesome and one, his name is Thabiso really wants to be baptized now. He has come to church for four weeks now and we teach him every saturday. When we taught him last time he told us about some struggles in his life, cause his mom and sister both passed away in the last couple years. We were able to teach him about the plan of salvation. He told us afterwards, that this gospel is answering all his questions and he feels more relieved everytime we teach him. The next day he went to church and in priesthood the lesson was about Joseph Smiths trials with losing most of his children and life after death. It was perfect for him and he even contributed to the class. Another one of our investigators showed up for the first time and he just lost his first child who was like 6 months old and so I think the lesson really helped him as well. Just shows the Tender Mercies of the Lord. He really is there and hears and answers prayers. So many times we get "lucky" or a nice "coincidence" occurs but I am convinced that they are all tender mercies from the Lord as elder Bednar talked about in his conference talk. I am blessed to see them everyday, Always be on the lookout for them and you will realize how much the Lord is involved in our lives.
Love you all,
Elder Brian Spencer

Nathan's email - July 15

haha oh what a beautiful day! So its officially winter down here, that doesn't mean snow everyone, just means that while the sun shines and makes you feel hot, you don't sweat as profusely! yay! haha. But really its great down here not just cause of the weather. This last week has been a spiritual high and temporal low. Monday night there was an accident where Cidinha, a 9 year old recent convert that loves music and smiling, passed away. I had said before that drivers in Brazil are crazy, well this is a classic example. All I know about the story is her mother went into the store to get some medicine and told her to stay there, she wanted some candy and started to cross the street to the candy store, a bus didn't see her and when her mother came out and saw the flashing lights she found her daughter. Cidinha lives with her mother, I'm not sure if it's her blood mother or not, but they love each other and live for one another. Literally whenever Cidinha prayed all she would say is thank you for my mom and please bless my mom. I never saw them separated and now Eloza, her mother, is struggling with the loss. We´ve been visiting every day and teaching her and the rest of her family more about the plan of salvation and the love of our Savior for children and yes it helps but in another way nothing can take away her loss at this moment. It's such a sad time.
On a happier note, we will be having 5 baptisms this Saturday. The Lord truly is blessing the youth down here and they aren't just sitting back, they´re sharing. As I said last week we've been going around with recent converts to go teach, well our pool of investigators just keeps growing as friends call in more friends and such it's so wonderful to see. This one young man, Raphael, he'll be baptized this Saturday and already he invited two of his friends to hear our message, and he gave the closing prayer asking Heavenly Father to bless his friends to have open hearts and be able to be baptized into the true chruch of Jesus Christ. Wow.
So time here seems to be locked in fast forward, our transfer is already half over and we've still got tons to do down here :s But i'm sure what we leave the next missionaries will pick up on (we're pretty sure i'll be leaving, seeming how I've been here for 6 months!) Lets see what more, our english class is growing exponentially, haha its soo cool, we started out with just like 5 or 6 when I got here and now we've got almost all our recent converts coming and so its packed! We're going to have a party this Saturday as well where we get to teach these poor soccer players how to play baseball... I still need to find a bat... haha that'll be fun.
Oh yeah, so Saturday for lunch we had the lovely experience of eating chicken feet! (thank you Brian...) lol they saw Brians picture with him eating a chicken foot and decided that twins need to share every experience. lol So thats me in a week everyone, thank you all for your love and support, our Savior loves us and wants us to be happy so smile and do him proud! Families are the best, never take advantage of the one you've got, go find someone in your family right now and just give them a hug or something :D Thanks again. tchau tchau!
Elder Nate Spencer
Elder Nate Spencer

Nathan's email, July 8

Hello todo mundo!
The 4th came and went in the big city of Diadema, and maybe just maybe it gave someone here a reason to buy an extra drink that night lol. But it was cool I wore my blue tie and cried independence from the rooftops...almost. But this week was fantastic, we met our new mission president and he's awesome! I had the opportunity to have an interview with him yesterday and there's a spirit about him that testifies he truly was called of God to do this work.

Anywho there's this little thing called people searching for truth, it's a wonderful idea some people have and our only problem is finding them. But, occasionally they search just right and walk into our chapel on Sunday just like a mother and her son did! haha this really nice lady and her 13 year old son live around town somewhere (actually in Centro, not my area too bad) but they had seen our church a few times and were interested in what we were teaching. Well she immediately fit in perfectly with the relief society as her son Deigo was welcomed into the young mens classroom, elder Assis and I couldn't help but to just grin from ear to ear as two strangers fell instantly in love with church and the gospel. But thats only the beginning of the miracles. This last Sunday almost all of our investigators came to church, it was a festa, everyone is loving it and anxious for their baptisms. I don't know how to explain it, but sometimes people are looking for miracles, like seeing a mountain move or dividing the waters, but miracles happen all the time as normal people open their hearts to the gospel and accept its message of peace.
For example 3 teenage girls we were teaching, the first time we were there we set them straight as to why we were teaching them because they were being.... how might I say teenage girls. but the next time we went there was a completely different feel about them, they had read the Book of Mormon and prayed to know it was true. All of them gained a person witness and as we've been teaching them and their parents it's been amazing to see them change, everything, they have a new light in their eyes, they are dressing differently, they are literally repenting and receiving the light of Christ in their eyes. I love the gospel and my Savior Jesus Christ, if not for him all would be for naught. But when we find him the change it can make in our lives is incredible.
May we all strive to find our Savior and continually take the steps to bring ourselves closer to him, thank you all for your love and support, até next week!

Elder Nate Spencer

Brian's email, July 7

I'm sorry if my email last week didn't go through, I wrote one I know but sometimes emails don't go through. Well it's been another week in Africa, and we finished another transfer so my companion goes home in 5 weeks and he tells me everyday. Ha... Well life here is still good I suppose. We have been doing a lot of service lately, on Thursday we spent four hours tearing out the grass of a less active family. They don't have any men in the family so we opted to help out and they were very grateful. And then on Sunday both less active daughters came to church. And another less active lady we have been visiting came to church again and talked with the Bishop! yay, When we were with her she started telling us a lot of stuff and she was looking for counciling which as missionaries we aren't supposed to do so we asked her to talk to the bishop about that stuff and she did. Hopefully it helped and she'll continue to come to church. Her husband and a daughter aren't members so it might lead to some new investigators. Time will tell.lets see, what else has happened. Oh in my email last week I mentioned that we have a new mission president now. His name is President Poulsen, I still haven't met him personally but I have met several that have and everyone says he is really cool. So I'm excited, oh and there is a rumor that our mission might split... three years ago there were 120 missionaries here and now there are 180 and this is the largest mission or one of the largest missions in the world. So, I think it might split soon, maybe not this year but my guess is sometime within two years. I dunno, well Thats about all I have for today, I hope you are all doing well, I apologize for any bad grammer or spelling. Love you all
Elder Brian Spencer

Missionary update

Well, I was encouraged by Robyn (G.) to post the emails we receive from Brian and Nathan on the blog. I will be doing that from now on since not everyone receives the email forwards. I will also be posting more photos as we get them. I have received three cd's full of photos and videos from Brian, I just don't know which ones to post here. Nathan has been too busy to get us much in the way of photos.

Nathan's latest email

ola Gente! oh the wonderful world of the mission is still in full force. alright everyone take a breath and think, 6 months already! holy smokes, but im just getting into things here, thats a fourth of my mission. but its been a 6 months of some of the best memories of my life, (not that the ones before the mission were bad or anything lol) what a wonderful opportunity it is to be here. this last week elder assis and i have been able to work with the fruits of our labors. our recent converts are almost running the ward and missionary efforts here in serraria, its so cool to see. and especially since weve been having a lot of success with teenagers, its that time of life kids are searching for direction in life and such. well now that erick is with us weve been going with him almost every day to teach the gospel. hes an amazing kid and hes helping his friends find the gospel as well, for example. last wednesday we took 3 of our recent converts with us, Mirele 15, veronica 11, and erick 18, i was a little nervous cause mirele and veronica are... how might i say unique lol awesome but like Mirele has dyed jet black hair and doesnt smile much haha. well our first stop was at this house with bianca and her mom, well they are kinda like this proper family and i was worried about clash and well a miracle occured and they split from us for a half hour to find a friend of theirs that isnt a member while elder assis and i went to teach, so that worked out just great and as soon as we got done and left their house (good lesson, the daughter will be baptized!) around the corner comes our recent converts with their friend Marlou! well we headed back to Marlou's house to teach him the first lesson and it was great, all of us on the roof, pretty much like 6 teenagers talking about the gospel in a serious manner ya know. well we invited Marlou to Read the Book of Mormon and he agreed hesitantly and then we asked him if he would pray after and he said i cant "eu sou catolica" meaning "i am catholic, in an eternal sense) and nonchalantly Mirele replied "i was too" and after veronica said the same, then erick said the same and then elder assis said the same! wow im in brazil teaching the gospel to a group of ex catholics! but they were all testifying of the personal witness they had received to change and come into the fold of christ and his restored gospel. well after everyone testified that they had been catholic and when they read and prayed they gained a testimony he was still hestitant, he said his dad was catholic and wouldnt want him to change his religion. but he saw the light of the gospel and was afraid to try, to ask, because he was afraid of receiving an answer. well we left him with that and we went to teach one more lesson, then return to take him to our english class. well while we were walking back he nervously said he'd read the parts we'd marked for him. haha we gave him a great big smile and said did you pray?! he said "quase elder eu Quase orou" ,almost elder i almost prayed, he said he was afraid of an answer. one more time we testified that the gospel will bring joy into his life and the direction hes been looking for. then the next day we took him again to the church to do a job search (the church has a lot of services for anyone and its free, its really nice) and while we were there he stopped while we were alone (the three of us) and said elders, i prayed, its true. wow. i love the gospel. so elder assis was inspired, he walked over and showed Marlou the baptismal font and testified about baptism being the entrance to our journey here. he accepted a date to be baptized and now we are teaching him everything we can about the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. well better yet, though his dad is not for us his mom would love to hear our message as well (they are seperated) so im excited to see how that goes as well. thank you everyone for your love and support, the church is true, the truth is coming forth in these latter days and we've all been blessed to take part. miracles happen everyday, but they work according to the faith of men (moroni 10:7) have faith and we will all see the miracle of a world filled with the wonderful message of our savior Jesus Christ!
Elder Nathan Spencer