I'm a Dad!

Hey Everyone,

I'm a dad! ha ha!

¡Que onda familia y mis carnales! Transfers happened about 2 weeks ago and I'm a trainer! I received Elder Rydalch from Illinois! He's the nicest guy and he went to byu for a year before coming out here and he already knows a lot about missionary work and what to do. His Spanish will need some work but I'll get him going. After a wonderful orientation by our mission president Stapley and his wife, we took a long bus ride back to Salamanca then to Valle de Santiago. Last week was tough as we were looking for more people to teach. We've recently found better ways to work on the phone however and it's been proving to be successful. We found 17 new people to teach this past week! Now we're gonna need to sift down through those people to see those who are willing to take the first step into the covenant path.

Last p-day we went to Irapuato for a zone council, learned some great things about being consistent with our planning and being on top of having a back-up plan. The next day we did divisions and my greenie left me for a day:( But I had a great day with Elder Nilsen, who was my comp about 8 months ago. It was also a good learning experience for me because he gave some useful tips on finding people. I was humbled to know that we had a lot more work than I had thought, and it's a good opportunity to go find more people.

Man, I love training! I remember thinking of training someone while I was in training myself, and here it is finally. I'm thankful that my greenie Elder Rydalch is faithful and willing to learn and is soaking up everything that I teach him. I'm trying to be the best trainer I can be. It kinda feels like being a dad haha! I can show him around and teach him everything he needs to know to be a disciplined, humble and powerful missionary. About a week ago we were walking to an appointment and some Americans like us came up to us and invited us to their church. Turns out they are from Maine and are Baptists, and that night we couldn't attend the whole meeting, but we caught them as they finished up and it was nice to speak some English with a bunch of other Americans and people from the states. Who would've thought there were Americans from Maine, Texas and Idaho in the middle of Valle de Santiago México, right?? Almost every night now, my greenie and I sit up on the roof and relax. It's a nice way to wind down from the day. Just the other day while knocking on some doors, we had to hike a little bit to the top of this big hill in our area and it's actually a small water volcano. It was a beautiful view and we took some pics. Around our area there are water volcanoes and craters that would be fun to explore on a pday.

Something I learned this week was knowing the difference between a weakness and a sin. Knowing this doesn't give anyone the excuse to sin as we should always try to avoid sin, but it gives us comfort knowing we all have weaknesses given to us by God and that he has provided a way to strengthen them. This is a very popular verse, I know. In Ether 12:27 we read that "And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness." So, if we come unto Him, He WILL show us our weakness. It's not a matter of IF He will show us our weakness, it's a matter of WHEN. Sooner or later He WILL show us a weakness we have. And then the rest of the verse shows us how to do it (and I'm sure you've all heard this many times before, but I wanted to mention it). It's an 'if...then' statement. If we #1 humble ourselves and #2 have faith in Him, then He WILL make weak things strong unto us, which is also not a matter of if, but a matter of when.

I'm especially thankful for my family this week. I love and miss them so much. My older sister just had another baby and I'm SO excited to see him when I get back home! I'm thankful for all of you and you are in my prayers.

Much love,

Elder Spencer Chamberlain