July 24, 2012

Hey mom,

 Well, this past week has been nuts. We've gotten aLOT done. We taught over 40 lessons this week. We didn't have any bapisms but we have 3 next weekend so that's alright. One of the ones getting baptized is the girl from Lancaster, South Carolina :) This week I also got to go on exchanges up in Richfield which was alot of fun. LOVE the members there J We drove up early friday morning, exchanged, elder hawkins and elder dallon drove back down to st. George straight away and proselyted there all day while elder Chadsey and I stayed in richfield. Saturday morning they drove back up real early and we re exchanged and came back down. Lots of driving but it was alot of fun. I got to see some recent converts and old investigators i really care about. Most of them are doing really well. There were a few really interesting things that happened in the mission too but none of them are things i'm supposed to tell anyone about ha i reeeaaallyyyyyy wish i could though cause they were crazy.

We got to speak in a sac. meeting today. We talked about modern pioneers. I included you and dad in mine of course, talking about that type of pioneer but also since almost everyone there were already members and wont get the opportunity to be that type of pioneer i talked about how they can be pioneers themselves in their every day life. It was a really fun topic to speak on.

Oh, one other thing. I learned again this week how greatful i am for you and dad and your example. You are amazing people. If we're going by elder bednar's standards, you two live the Lord's standard to a T. He syas that success in life and missionary work comes "when we give everything, and expect nothing". Thinking of your example helped me alot because my companion had a kind of weak day where satan just pounded on him with doubts about his abilities and living up to what's expected of him and such and so he was crying expressing all that while it seemed like everyone else in the world was calling doing the same and for a time i really got frustrated. I had the attitude of, " I have my own worries and insecurities! Who am i supposed to go to?? How am i supposed to carry your burdens, and mine? Or, maybe if you forgot yourself and actually got to work, these problems of yours would go away.." I dunno, weird thoughts and feelings like that ha But i said a prayer and thought about you and dad and how growing up, you've always "given everything, expecting nothing" and instantly i knew i needed to repent and quit that foolish thinking. Why shouldn't i help everyone else? Who says i can't help with their burdens and my own at the same time? That's what Christ does right? So i decided to quit being selfish and looking for something for myself and "give everything, expecting nothing". Once i apologized to Heavenly Father and set in again with that attitude, things actually got alot better really quick. So thank you very very much for yours and dad's examples.

Love you,

   Jer

July 9, 2012

Hey mom, 

This past week was pretty good. We had a good fourth of July. We had Zone Leader Council that day so all the zone leaders came into town and we had our monthly 6 hour long training meeting. It was crazy, President pretty much gave me and Elder Hawkins the whole thing and let us train everyone. He only took 45 mins for himself. We did the majority of the training on studies (personal and comp), having more frequent but shorter lessons and something i came up with called WPM (Words per minute). That one has had the biggest impact so far. We have SO many young and even old missioanries who have a 50 minute lesson in which they just talk and talk and talk and tell and tell and tell. Several months ago when i was a zone leader i watched President do a role play in ZLC that was amazing! then right after, a zone leader did one that was.... just ok. I thought to myself, what's the difference? They taught the same thing but one felt like true teaching and one just felt like explaining.

      It clicked that alot of it was the speed with which they spoke. The actual speed at which words came out of their mouths. And the quality. President never uses any filler words like "um" or "Like" or "you know what i mean?". It's like the prophet speaking at general conference or the scriptures. Every word means something. The very way you allow words to come out, accompanied with how much you pause and think can have SUCH a huge impact on the spirit in the lesson. You go from being an average person explaining something to a whole lot more. It was that and the questions asked. Since i had that epiphany months ago i've striven to teach like that and it has sure allowed the spirit to do alot more with my teaching. I brought it up to elder Hawkins when we got to be companions again and he slowed down his speach and what a difference it has made. We notice it everywhere now ha in Sacrament talks, in testimonies, in other peoples teaching etc. There's power in speaking like the apostles and prophets. So we did the majority of our training in ZLC on that. It's something so small but turns out if you want an easy way to take any  6 foot missionary and help him become an 8 foot missionary, is by teaching him how to control his WPM and how to ask better questions. It's already had a real good impact.

     Besides that, we just taught the rest of the 4th. Then thursday and friday we were up in Mt. Pleasant , then Price on exchanges with the zone leaders up there. That was a very fun productive trip. Then saturday we had a baptism of a girl named Audrie. She is really neat.

     Well, we still have a bunch more stuff to do tonight for Zone Conferences coming up this week so i'm gonna go. I love you!

                       -Elder Spurlin 

July 3, 2012

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NIKKI!

  It sounds like everyone has been having fun in the heat. I'll take st. George thanks. Atleast this is fake-ish easy heat. I'd MUCH rather be 110 in the dry than 100 in the humid.

  I haven't been back up to the manti pageant. We just went the one night. We haven't had any fires in st. George yet either. There were some bad ones up towards ephraim and 1 set of elders got evacuated but that's it.

  That sounds like a pretty awesome program the mission is trying. That's really a fantastic idea. If you can get people to read the Book of Mormon they'll get baptized, then stay active.

The work is going good. We are still being so so blessed in our area. We taught almost as many lessons this week as we did in the week there were three of us here. We WORKED this week. It felt so good. As we did so the Lord blessed us with 4 new investigators that we did not have to look for at all. Two neat experiences.

 Did i tell you we were teaching someone from SC? She's from lancaster . We were seeing someone in one apartment but they weren't home so we were walking back to the car when i saw a window that said " Tennessee " and without even thinking about it we just went and knocked on it. The conversation went like this, "Hi there, what's your name?" "_____", "Awesome it's nice to meet you, i'm Elder Spurlin. Where ya from?", " South Carolina ",  " Noo wwaaaayyyyy (disbelieving voice ha) what part?", " Lancaster ", "Whaaattttt?? Do you know where Rock Hill is?" and so on and so forth ha She's not a member, but we're teaching her and she's progressing fantasticaly. She came to church today and wants to be baptized.

Then another one, we were walking back to our car at like 9:15 to get home before 9:30 and halfway across the road out of the corner of our eye we see someone sitting on the curb. Again, without even thinking ha I, ( I know i keep saying I but both of these particular instances involved me acting first for some reason. It's not always like that, Elder Hawkins acts first too. ) literally ran back across the way we came to shake his hand and talk to him. He wasn't a member and we're now teaching him and helping him prepare for baptism also. SO many miracles! Then the other two new investigators came to us wanting to meet. One is even from Tampa and grew up going to Ft. Myers all the time. What a testimony of the Lord preparing people and putting them in your path when you're striving to make yourself ready for them. Especially when you go the extra mile at 9:15 at night ha Neat stuff.

 Anyways, we're gonna go home. Lots of fun stuff happening in the mission and lots to do! Happy July 4th again, Love ya! Elder Spurlin    

June 25, 2012

Hey mom,

It has been quite a week ha We haven't stopped runnin of course. I'll tell ya, i'm grateful for this experience though. It's a whole lot different being an assistant coming into the area with Elder Brown than it is leading the area and being the one "in charge" (only because elder Hawkins doesn't know all the responsibilities).I've definately learned more about how to cope and act (not react) under extreme stress. When the only person who has more responsibility than you is the mission President and something you're in charge of goes wrong, it's stressful. Haha And that seemed to happen more than once this weekend. But that's all the whining i'll do. It went well. And on the bright side, we welcomed 12 of the finest, most prepared, best looking Elders i've ever seen into the mission. This group is the future of the mission. It was absolutely incredible the spirit their whole group had with them. It hit me what a force the army of helaman must have been. Physically and spiritually. That's how these were, fit spiritually and physically. Ready to work. It was awesome. We also saw 4 Elders and 1 sister off who went home. The Manti pageant was alot of fun. It was neat being able to organize it all then go and participate too. We got to do a short training inthecastfireside before hand again like last year. There was no one of "significance" there this year like there was last year but still a neat experience. It was really warm up there this year.

It's been pretty warm here this week too. I think it hit 110 today. Atleast it's dry though.

That's neat that laura got to take a trip like that. I bet she had fun.

I know this isn't too much but we're gonna go home. Oh, we had two great baptisms this weekend. I'll send pictures next week. Elder Hawkins and i are doing great and we're getting work done. Tell dad thanks for his email and the pictures. I'm gonna use some of the quotes he sent in our weekly communicator

June 18, 2012

Happy Father's day dad! Hope you had a  great day :)

  Well this week has been pretty eventful. We've worked on transfers all week with President and finally got them done and the calls made today. On tuesday my new/old companion got snuck down here to our area so elder brown and i could show him the ropes before elder brown leaves on tuesday. My new comp is Elder Hawkins :) We were together like 9 months ago here in a different part of st. George. I'm so stinkin excited to be companions with him again. He's the one from australia. I'm super sad to see elder Brown go though. I don't have a better friend anywhere in the world. It's been a blast serving with him. I've never had so much fun and satisfaction in my life. It's ok though. He's only got 6 weeks left, then he goes home and comes back to BYU. I feel like after i get a job i may or may not make a trip or two out to stay with Christy for a while ha We had two baptisms this weekend, that was exciting. Then we should have atleast 1 a week for the next long while. We'll see how it goes. I'm excited for school to get back in :) If we're having this kind of success during the summer, i can't WAIT for there to actually be lots of people here. Like i said before we were in a threesome this week and we were able to teach 50 lessons (the mission average is like 16), find a few new investigators and have two baptisms. It has been by far the most productive week on my mission as far as lessons and such. Lots and lots of fun. I have no idea how to train someone to be an assistant but we'll see how it goes i reckon. I'll have to write more next week, it's super late and we're ready to go home. I love you all very very much,

           Elder Spurlin

June 4, 2012

Hey mom,

 I'm glad everything is good. Hooray new nephew!  I'm glad the zone conference went well! and that they liked the alfredo. If you see elder Brown again tell him i said hi and so does his mom. I told her before i left richfield i'd tell him if i ever saw or talked to him. That's neat that he's in Rock Hill . Yeah i don't know who the other elder was. I don't have much to report on tonight. We were out of our area on exchanges up to price and richfield for two solid days this week but we were still able to make the best out of the time we did have here. There's lots goin on with transfers coming up again soon and stuff. We've already started figuring those out, plus elder Brown and I get to make all the arrangements and organize the missionary side of the manti pageant (talk about a headache)... Yaaayyyy.... haha Other than that, we're going to the temple tomorrow for our p-day! That's about the most exciting thing.. Huh. Yeah, well, that's about it. we're gonna go home and go to bed. I love you! I'm definately going to go ahead and start praying for aunt mindy and uncle jim and grandma and papa to come to the home coming. And tell Tyler congratulations! That's awesome. Love you!

 I'll write more next week i promise

May 28, 2012

Hey mom,

  Oh man i wish i could have seen Tyler and Ben sing! Haha i bet that was awesome. Tell tyler congrats for me when he gets his call. That's super exciting.

  This week was a pretty darn good week. Nothing quite as hillarious as last week happened but it was alot of fun and really productive. We didn't have a baptism this week but will have several coming up soon. We saw the hand of the Lord alot as we taught and found new investigators.

 You know what one of my favorite things about college work is? Every now and again you'll come across an apartment where a party is goin on with the doors open and music playin and people in and out smoking and drinkin and Heaven knows someone always has to make some sort of comment about offering the missionaries a drink ha "Hey, someone ask the mormon guys if they want a shot!" It never fails haha But i love being able to go over with a bold smile on your face, look everyone in the eye while you shake hands and ask their name, make a whitty comment here or there and eventually having everyone stop for a minute or two while you share a thought. They're completely thrown off at first that you even came over and sometimes they wont let you share a thought but you just have to own the situation. The most thrilling part is when you get the music turned down and explain what we do as missionaries and explain why we're on a mission. Then you testify boldly of the consequences and feelings of sin and the sweet peace of forgiveness you've felt in your life and that they can feel too . If the spirit is there strong enough you could hear a pin drop while you talk. Then as soon as you finish the music goes back up and everyone gets back to drinking but to feel the spirit testify to a group of people like that is awesome. I've noticed too that you can turn the burliest hard criminal looking person into a softy if you mention something about his momma haha :p It's just super super neat. Pretty soon you get to know all the homies and Gs in their neighborhoods and when they see you they yell "Heeeyyyy! Elders! Hows it goin??"   

  We had to move out of our house this week. Our landlord's son was moving back home so they needed the downstairs back of their house. We had the full downstaris to ourselves. It was basicaly an entire house, fully furnished etc. We moved into an upstairs of someones house more towards the middle of town. It's a nice place but i really miss our old place ha

 I'm really struggling for things to say :p I don't know what to talk about... too tired! Well, that's about all i got. Going home & to bed finally. Love you!

         Elder Spurlin