Dear Friends and Family,

Sorry for the long letter, I was just in the mood to write today, unlike most days!

The Play

Everybody handles the stress of the MTC differently, and indulges themselves in different ways.  Some read comic books at night, some write their own raps, others draw pictures of clarinets, or look at their home on Google Maps and show everyone.    ​​​​

Ah, our zone is awesome here.  There's 30 of us and we're super close.  Today we're doing the weekly bowling, darts, and Pinata. Every day we have a zone game of Basketball Revenge going,  I got termed the "Jebron Kybrant" this week, so you could say my basketball skills are getting pretty serious ;)  Our zone also has a board of French Records to beat, One of the new Elder's beat the zone record for the mile with 5.04

We did lose one of the sisters last week, she went home and got engaged that very same day. Haha When you know, I guess you know! 

Pictured below is our district's S'floral Saturdays.  Soeur Miller got floral ties for the Elders so they could keep up.

Thanks family so much for the packages!!! We always laugh when we get the package slips and wonder what could possibly be the boxes.  Definitely out did your self with the Last one :) We wore the sombrero party hats all day, indulged in Los Hermanos Chips and Salsa, shot hoops, had an Elder imitate a Mariachi band, and we're busting the Pinata today with the zone, so pictures of that next week! Elder La Fontaine takes his airplanes everywhere. In fact we were in class when we heard something clang to the ground.  Look down and it's a metal knife...that he took from the cafeteria. haha He needed it to fix his plane. Also the caffeine is traded like gold here lol 

The Work

Each week when we go to the temple there's always this old man temple worker waiting for us in the cafe, he gives us homework to do over the week and articles to read and then we discuss the doctrine with him over delicious temple breakfast.  

Coming out of the temple today we saw this Elder who had a Tahitian type name.  We stopped him and he's actually from Tahiti (props to us for recognizing that)! He got called to Sydney Australia speaking Mandrin.  So by the end he'll know French, Tahitian, English, and Mandrin.  I think that's incredible.  We found out that our Tahitian teacher here at the MTC gave the discussions to his parents and baptized them 3 years ago and now he's serving a mission! A couple of things he said about Tahiti.  One: it's hot.   Two: lots of Transgenders Three: You call everyone "Tu" the informal you.  he said "because we believe that no one is any better than anyone else".  Also French uses the informal to address God, because we are to be familiar with him.  No thee and thine.  I personally love that.  

To be honest I love it here.  And 3 of the 6 of our district fam leaves in a week in a half and that's going to be the worst.  I love the 3 of them so much.  The good news is we start Tahitian in a week and a half! 

We have 3 formal investigators, and couple inactives that we teach, and we teach each other several times a week.  I love that the gospel makes sense in a very logical way but also is confirmed through experience and personal feelings.  What a relief that I'm a missionary for a church that has all truth.  When we teach lessons you learn that every person needs to hear different aspects of the gospel to meet their needs, but I'll often find when I learn about the person's life that I'm surprised by how perfectly the gospel can help them!  I never realized the importance of asking questions until now.  I really love the way it can open people's hearts and help them develop a desire to understand specific questions.

We also skyped a French woman in Canada this week and gave her a lesson :)

I already am beginning to understand that the mission can help you in every aspect of your life.  It's the greatest irony of this is life, that the more you lose yourself in the service of others, the more you find and become your greatest self.  

The support here has been amazing.  I love you all so much! Congrats to those getting their calls and leaving into the field and coming home! Miranda went out this week and Elder Busby leaves soon as well.  I caught him using chopsticks at dinner, he said someone from his district gave them to him.

I found a picture of Grandma and Grandpa in my building :) 

Alright, talk to you in a quick week! 

Time goes by so fast in here!! 

love,

Souer Spencer