San Miguel de Allende

April 25, 2021

S1 E9

Ola amigos y familia -

Where do I start?  I'm doing a LOT of working to find members.  Since we have church on Zoom it's hard to meet people.  We are knocking a ton of doors but only 1 out of every 5 actually answer the door.   We have been working with this lady who is super cool-- I think she is the relief society president.  We walk around with her and she shows us where to go.  She is the most cheerful, happy lady I have ever seen.  She has a super cheerful attitude all the time.  Whenever she sees people on the street and just goes up and helps them.  I want to be more like that. 

 Last Sunday night we got to eat dinner with a family--she's a barber and guess what?  We made TAMALES!  They were SO good!  (I sent a photo!)

Monday was P-Day and it was great, actually because we went to Celaya to visit some other elders and we just hung out.  We went to the church and I got to play the piano which was GREAT!  It was the first time in forever that I got to play which felt so good.  Also, it was my BIRTHDAY :) and it was a great birthday because I got to hang out with a bunch of guys and some spoke English!  We went to the store and then went to Elder Summers house and he lives in a high rise apartment, top floor.  We got to sleep over which was unexpected but it was too late to catch a bus back to San Miguel.  I also had a weird dream that night where I was playing basketball in outer space, like Space Jam ha ha!  My friend passed the ball to me and I jumped 15 feet  in the air and dunked the ball.  Greatest dream ever . . . then I woke up ha ha!  

Tuesday, the next day was my companion's birthday.  He bought me Burger King to celebrate and then I bought him a Starbucks caramel frappuccino w/o coffee, obviously :)   He has never gone to Starbucks in his life  and he loved it.  I loved it!  

Wednesday we got to eat at a member's house again which was great.  It was a mom whose husband is not active.  She made us lunch and honestly, it was a weird lunch with this funky salsa, but I was grateful for it.  We then met with another member who took us to a member's house and the guy that lived there was having bad heart problems.  He was in bed and didn't look good at all.  We gave him a priesthood blessing.  It was a good experience.  After, we went to the member's home and he works in a mushroom processing facility and gave us a jar of mushrooms and they tasted absolutely awful . . .  I'm still not used to the food here.  Oh my gosh, papayas here, those are flippin' gross.  Papayas look like cantaloupe and you get really excited until you eat it and it tastes like licking the bottom of your foot!  But the mushroom guy gave us some pineapples  and some frijoles so that was cool.  And he had a piano which was fun to play!  

I watch the stars every night and the sunrise every morning.  It's spiritually revitalizing for me.  I would like to share a scripture with everyone:  Mosiah 2:41 where it says, "And moreover I would desire that you should consider on the blessed and happy state of those who keep the commandments of God. For behold they are blessed in all things, both temporal and spiritual."  It tells others to look at members of the church and the light and happiness that is in their eyes from following the commandments.  Let's all try hard to keep the commandments so we can feel the Lord's blessings in our lives. 

Te Amo Mucho! 

Elder Spencer Chamberlain

April 15, 2021 

S1 E8

Hey Everyone -

It is officially my first month of being in Mexico!  Tonight is my four week mark!  (Tuesday April 13th) So I moved to San Miguel.  This place is SO BEAUTIFUL! Many people say it's the most beautiful city in Mexico and I believe it because it's so pretty!  And there are actually some Americans here--wahoo!  I spoke English twice to people this past week which was more than the last three weeks combined.  

This week was awesome! We actually went and did stuff this week!  Finally!  My companion and I went around and knocked on the doors of the members' homes.  Not a lot of them answer but when they do it's pretty cool because then we can teach them a lesson.  One of the people that we taught, this lady, started to cry when my companion shared a scripture with her.  She wanted us to come over again the next day.  So we went over to her house the next day and we gave her a blessing.  I put some oil on her head and we gave her a blessing.  She has problems with her leg and her feet hurt.  It was a really cool experience and I felt the Spirit there.  

After tons of people not answering the door, we came to another house where this guy had heart problems and problems with his hands because he recently had a stroke I think.  So he was just laying in bed but we shared a scripture with him and it didn't look like he was listening but then at the very end it was crazy----even though he had problems with his hand and arm he lifted up his hand to shake mine and I said in Spanish, "Thank you so much for letting us share a scripture message with you."  It felt really good.  Then after that we just did more knocking on doors and walking around.  There are some really cool views of the city that I get to see which is awesome.  

Every day that I have been here in San Miguel I have been able to watch the sun rise while I eat breakfast and I also watch the sunset while I sit on top of this skinny brick wall in our front yard where we hang up all of our clothes to dry.  But I just sit up on this wall and watch the sunset while I eat my dinner and it's actually SO  peaceful and spiritually fulfilling for me.  

But also some crazy things happened in the past two days.  So I ran out of food on Sunday, AGAIN, so Monday I was able to go to the store and I got a ton more food because you know, I love food.  I love to eat!  So it was great!  We went to the store and I got a lot of food and also a notebook for myself.  While looking at notebooks this lady came up to my companion and said, "Hey, do you speak English?"  He said no, but I said, "I speak English--I can help you."  And then she said, "Do you know that when you do miracles in Jesus' name, you are actually doing it in MY name. When you pray to Jesus, you are actually praying to me!  And if you try to pray to Jesus you will be praying to Satan."  I said, "Really, is that so?"  Then I asked her name and she said, "Susie McKathryn" and I said, "Well, I've never prayed to Susie McKathryn before . . . "  ha ha!  Wow---it was crazy.  I could tell she wasn't all there in the head . . . Just then a security guard came up so she walked away and he asked what the woman had said and I told him everything, in Spanish.  She must say things to a lot of people if the security guards know her!

Today I got my very first haircut in Mexico and it was really cool.  The guy was super nice and it was probably the best haircut I have ever had in my life ha ha!  The barber shop was really cool---here in San Miguel the shops are a little nicer because it's a "tourist" city.  It was a fun experience!

I started reading the Bible and I want to read the whole thing, like cover to cover.  Right now I'm on Genesis 20 and it's super interesting.  I'll be honest, I've never read the Old Testament before because we missed it in seminary when we switched to match the Come Follow Me that we do in church.  It's super cool and interesting.  

I'm praying everyday and please know that I love the emails that everyone is sending me.  Thank you for responding to me.  It is SO nice just hearing from friends and family.  Please keep sending them because it's awesome.  Please know that God gives us commandments to make us happy.  I know that if you just trust in Him and follow those commandments you will find happiness that you never thought you could have.  It's super cool . . . and I have experienced it.  

I love you all so much!  Te Amo!

Elder Spencer Chamberlain   (some pics below of my video chat with mom and dad)