Spencer - Called to Serve: Week 46 - A Baptism!!, A Transfer, and an Iguana

Well, the great and awesome adventure in Surabaya has ended and I have found myself upon the gorgeous city of Manado!! If you imagine cleaner air with mountains, the ocean, lots of people and all then you have Manado! It is beautiful!!!!

As for great news, that wonderful family that we have been teaching was BAPTIZED on Saturday and then on Sunday received the Holy Ghost!!!!! They are all so awesome and it was a blessing to find, teach, baptize, and become friends with them! They are a family that has greatly blessed my life and it will be a huge blessing to keep in contact with them and watch them grow in the Gospel!!! I attached a picture of this wonderful moment!!!!

Usually you ask what was the weirdest food that I had eaten and it is safe to say that this week I tried Iguana!!! We were proselyting a little bit when the whole street started freaking out and yelling that we had to see what was in this bag!! Well as we usually do, we went along with it. While in there the guy pulls out a 10 kg Iguana still living and such and it was CRAZY!!!! The people in the house went on to say that they were going to give us some of it to eat. There was already some prepared so we ate it and it was SUPER SPICY! I had tears running down my face. The people saw that and then they went on to help me so that it wasn't so spicy and they say "eat this!" Well next thing I knew they were handing me the skin from the Iguana all fried up! I have now eaten Iguana and Iguana skin!!!

The miracles in Surabaya continued and the Elders there will enjoy it a lot!!! As for my first P-day in Manado, we took a 45 minute bus ride to who knows where and visited a Buddhist place. There were very decorated shrines and some of the cultural things! It was really cool to experience that and for the first P-day it was awesome!!!!! You're right, it is not as hot here, but it is still hot! Manado actually lies above the equator so that is cool too!!!! I'm excited to be here and search the blessings of the Lord! Instead of mosques everywhere, there are churches everywhere and like I said before most people here are Christian. As missionaries here, we do not ride bikes, we walk and use public transportation which includes buses and something called the angkot!!! I've heard there is some tasty fish here so I can't wait to try that and all!!!!

When you open up your email and see that there are a couple emails with the subject "prom pics" I had to freak out a little!!! All the pictures look great and wonderful. It sounds like they had a pretty good time!!! As for pics for me, I'll try to send a good chunk so that you can see!!

The work continues on and I hope that things continue to go great especially with school winding down. Last week was awesome on the skype call and I really enjoyed that!!

Until next week with more news

Elder Hayes