January 24th, 2011

estimada familia mia,

WOW what a week!!! And an exciting email to read too! Bangkok THAILAND?! Cameron has to be going to the coolest misison in the worlddddd-- second to la Mision Mexico Hermosillo, ofcourse. And Mary!!! You are going to AFRICA?! What do I even say to that? haha when do you leave?? this summer?

Things are still moving really fast here! Never a dull or boring moment. Living in Mexico this past week has really made me realize how much I still have to learn ha ha in Spanish and being a missionary. That´s funny that the blog you foudn was Elder Forence´s! You´re pressumptions are correct, he is a GREAT misisonary. It is definitely an adventure, getting to know our area, learning spanish, navigating the bus system and everything together, two gringos.. and it is SO FUN. Ends up Elder Florence and I have even another connection! He got a letter from a girl named Kristen Gardner yesterday form the Zone Lords. This name sounded wayyyy too familiar to me.. I knew this girl.. but who?So i forgot about it. Later last night while he was reading the letter in the bathroom, he suddenly yelled, ´´Elder Spencer! is your first name Jack?!´´ I´m like, yeah! haha He read the letter out loud to me and it said, ´´Elder Florence, I just found out one of my good friends, Jack Spencer, from scout camp out on catalina island is in your mission! If you know him or meet him please say hi! You guys are really similar and will get along really well! etc etc etc´´ Soooo basically I spent some of the best summers of my life with Elder Florence´s best friend ha ha. So we told stories, and related experiences, and built our companionship unity HARD CORE last night ha ha. I love Elder Florence. We work really hard, we are REALLY obedient, we are as diligent as we know how, and we are starting to see the difference in the area! While walking mile after mile we talk about our favorite bands, and fun things we used to do before the mission--which all seem to be the same haha.

We have great investigators ( I talked about them last week) who are progressing, and we spend a LOT of time looking for new ones.

Just some fun, different stuff about the city in Mexico for those who didnt know already..

-there are lots of dirt roads

-the cities/towns are divided into little barrios/neighborhoods called colonias

-there are few driving/street laws... few obeyed anyway. but that isn´t for lack of police, because there are policia everyyywhere. Oh and ped.s def. do not have the rght of way.

-on pretty much every single corner there is either a little tienda(store) (ampm status, but just someone´s personal business, they usually live in the appartment above or behind the store) or an OXXO where everyone buys their cerveza

-alfombra (carpet) doesn´t seem to exist here

-there are dogs and cats running around everywhere

-there is alwayyyys music playing all day, all night, either from someones house, car, or who knows where

-on just about every otherrr corner, there is a tortilleria:) with the best tortillas de harina in the worldddd

-the food is beyond the best in the world

anddd I´m running low on time so I´ll stop there. Things are going GREAT here:) I love my area,and my companion, and our investigators, and th ward. We are having sonora´s famous carne asada a la casa del obisbo manana! then we are havign a carne asada with th elders quorum saturday, and we were just invited to another carne asada on sunday ha ha

I´m learning A LOT, little by little(just like isometrics dad), in spanish, and just plain A LOT when it comes t the gospel. Reading adn studying in spanish is like reading the scriptures all over again! with different words, and different descriptions, I feel like the stories and teahcings and lessons are completely new-and its awesome.

I´m healthy, I´m happy, and I promise I will look into the hep A shot.

You are all in my prayers, I miss you, I love you, I´m thinking of you,

-JACK