February 2nd, 2011

Alriiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiighttt..
WHAT A WEEK. Sorry I didn`t get to email on monday! Pday was switched to today, wednesday, because we were awarded a special trip to the TEMPLE! (I`m not really sure why... from what I can tell and have heard, it is a verry rare priviledge) So today we had a zone temple trip with Pres. y Hermana Velez--everything was awwwesome except for the fact that we had to get up at 5:30 to take the hour bus ride to la colonia Pitic where the temple and the mission offices are. In a regular car it would probably only take 20 min I think.. Going to the temple in Spanish was very different ha ha but pretty much the coolest thing I've ever done. We took a zone picture outside of the temple, so I forwarded it to you guys - let me know if it comes through!
The photo of the Mexican flag flying outside our house DID come through :) I just showed it to Elder Florence, and he laughed. All he could say was,
``Mire! Mire! Verde! Vegitacion!`` <-- I think thats how you spell it
A lot happened this week, missionary work wise.. this week was 'bien pesada'... ``quite heavy`` in english ha ha
We had to drop one of the families we are teaching:/ and pretty much everything else just seemed to be really hard this week ha ha. Numbers were low.. people were mean... no one wanted to listen in the first place, let alone form two gringos.. and Elder Florence and I have really bad colds from showering in freezing cold water every morning ha ha. There is mold growing in our house from a leak in the appartment upstairs.. there was a party saturday night in front of, and behind our house haha they had a live band! and they played til about 4 in the morning!
Justtt about when Elder Florence and I were starting to think about being discouraged, Heavenly Father taught us a lesson. These past two days have been answers to our prayers. Monday morning after district meeting we decided to do something fun and different-- so we bought some chalk, borrowed a guitar from a member in Elder Church and Elder Garcia's area, then we brought some chairs from the church out onto the sidewalk by the bus stop infront of the church. While Elder Flroence and I played/sang 'jazzed up' hymns on the guitar, Elder Church and Elder Garcia drew a humungous chalk MASTERPIECE of el plan de salvacion. We talked to everyone who passed by, gave them church literature, invited them to church, and we got like a million referencias y direcciones y numeros y todo. Yesterday all of our set appointments fell, but we were still feeling pretty good from the day before so we went to follow up with some of the referrals--which turned into 4 new investigators, one of which, Sumla, told us she's excited to get BAPTIZED haha. When we got home last night all we could talk about was that it is ALWAYS worth it to keep working hard, and never give up or get frustrated when things get slow or difficult. This whole life, and the gospel, everything is about perseverencia, getting up when you fall, trying again when you fail, and never, ever, ever giving up or getting sad. This is the most important work in the world. This is the happiest message we could possibly be sharing with people, and Heavenly father always has our back.

Alright--I'm totally out of time! but really quick here is the mission office address and some of the answers to your questions--

Elder John David Spencer
Av. García Conde (number)301
Col. Pitic
Hermosillo, Sonora
C.P. 83150
MEXICO