Dear Family and Friends,

You know you're a missionary when...

....it's harder for me to remember 1-10 in French then it is to remember the Joseph Smith story #theMTClife. 

... I can't remember my first name for a bit.

 ...when you build a temple with cardboard boxes in your free time

... when you tell each other the play by play of your favorite movies

...when you're having a debate of which temple video will play at the temple next 

... when you lovvvvve all the letters from family and friends!!

....when you get weekly gifts from the family that range from dinosaur finger flingers to caffeine (which is carefully rationed)

...when you feel the spirit so strongly each day and can't fathom why anybody would say no to this message (tough reality when I get to Tahiti and people don't want what we have to give them)

.... when you see your district in normal "street" clothes and they look really weird 

... when you are able to love and work with people from all over the world who love the Lord and are trying their best to be like him

There's probably more things but yeah :)

The snow is sooo beautiful down here, we love it!! And are maybe going to miss it...but then again maybe not.  

I love the sisters in my district and zone and can't wait to serve them!! They've all sacrificed something or are soon going to sacrifice things for Christ, and that's what brings us together. 

Here's some pictures from the week

We've got the beautiful temple pics (never enough of those original missionary photos right ;)

The temple we built with cardboard boxes 

 

Love,

Soeur Spencer

Feb. 17, 2017
Dear Family and Friends,

Just got back from a leisurely morning with a 6 am temple trip and a delicious temple cafe breakfast:)

Elder Ballard gave our devotional this week which was really great.  Also everyone who told me to sing in the choir was totally right.  The choir director is a saint and the music is beautiful.  

I totally have loved all the packages and letters from you guys.  My district really appreciated the 1 week MTC birthday donuts and party stuff.  Although sorry dad, but they confiscated the matches and birthday candles before giving me the package. The Elders totally loved the huge balloons and poppers.

      

My district is incredible, and probably because we're all trying our best and are focused on Christ.  It's so cool to see them in this element.  The day to day is similar to college and efy mix but the spirit here is unparalleled.  Something our mission president said that has been really true is this: "Sometimes we can think that we are not feeling the spirit in the MTC, but the actual problem is that we no longer can differentiate since the spirit is often present here"   The work is hard but the reward is eternal so what's not to love?? 

 For free time our zone typically gets a pickup game of .... foursquare going.  A soeur from my room gets SO intense during those games, lol, it's hilarious.  

My testimony has grown a lot in the bearing of it.  We've just finished teaching the lessons to our first Tahitian investigator in French.  She was going easy on us, and she'll probably end up being one of our teachers but it's fine haha she committed to baptism on the 30th of March. What I really love is the attention to goal setting here.  That really makes things a reality.  

One girl in our zone is from Korea and had to learn 10 weeks of English and now is starting to learn French to head out to France.  And I thought French and Tahitian would be hard! That's crazy for her:) 

     

Our mission president was talking to my district (the 6 of us) and he was saying "how do we deal with our trials here at the MTC? like homesickness?" and we were all sharing like the usual answers of praying, looking outwards.  When an elder said "No guys come on.  Think of all the times your mom yelled at you??!!" ........wait what?? hahahah it was so funny because he was so serious about it :)

      

I see a ton of LP kids all the time.  I see Miranda and Jake like 3 times a day at least and they both seem like they like their districts.  

It's also super funny to see the missionaries fight not to flirt. I can tell it's real hard for everyone which

just makes it funnier lol.  And sometimes when we're bored we just tell our favorite movies or studio c's play by play LOL

They say here the days feel like weeks and the weeks feel like days and that's pretty true, but I love my district, I love the spirit here and I love the work!!!!! There's no better work :)

I love Jesus Christ my Savior and his Atonement. And I love that he has a plan for us!!

Thanks again for all the letters and emails from you guys!! I love you so much!!! 

Back to the work :)

Soeur Spencer

Feb. 10, 2017
Dear Family and Friends,

One week done! Alright, more like 2 days done.  The days are long when every hour from 6:30 to 10:30 are rigorously scheduled.  I've seen Bro. Busby, Hermana Madsen, and all the LP kids who still are here.  I feel really old here haha.  

     

I'm pretty tired already but our Branch President said we've be tired for the rest of our life so we should get used to it :)  

      

Moving in took a while because Tahitian and French require their own set of books.  So we have double the amount of materials as everyone else.  Apparently, we are only (lol, only) here for 9 weeks! 6 weeks of French and 3 weeks of Tahitian.  Already everyone is speaking French at us.           The teachers use only 6 English words in our 3 hour classes....And I was taking that in stride until I found out that everyone in my district has taken 3+ years of French before.  My roomie has taken 6 years.  I keep mixing up everything I know from Spanish.  It's hilarious to me, but not really to them! Yesterday we met our first investigator, a Tahitian woman who my companion and I will be teaching tonight.  In 100% french.  I've written down a bunch of things from our resources but I will embarrass my cute, shy companion a lot, I'm sure.  

      

Our zone is incredible.  Love them a lot.  The ladies are hilarious and funky, and the boys are 18 and think they're super.  It's a good crew.  We went to the temple this morning and apparently it's a tradition for the zone to eat temple breakfast, which is cheap and delicious.  There's this temple worker who waits for us there every Friday to debate deep doctrine with us LOL.

     

So me, my companion, and one other girl are going to Tahiti.  And then we have a girl in our room going to Barbados.  The boys are going to Madagascar.  My companion is really nice but I hope I'm not too in control.  Technically, I'm the senior comp, but she'll switch me in a month or so.

     

I found our that we head out for Tahiti April 11th which is way sooner than I expected :)

     

I'm really excited to be here, and praying for the gift of tongues eventually.  Loving my crew, and I love you guys!! There's a huge focus here on exact obedience and the people we need to learn to love.  

love,

      Soeur Brooke Spencer