Spencer - Called to Serve: Week 52 - Holy Cow - 1 Year! Ramadan, Lord's Standards are Unchanging.

HOLY COW!!!! Where has the time gone??? It has already been one year since the departing of Braedon and myself! As I look back, I can still ask the question, "What have I gotten myself into?" There have been innumerable hardships on the mission, but the things that I vividly remember are the times I was having fun, the spiritual things, and mostly when the good things happened!!! I'm looking forward to more of that!!!

As many of you know, it is Ramadan. Manado is VERY different from other parts of Indonesia when it comes to this month. In Manado, everything is open and there just happens to be even more food options for us as missionaries this month. We do however highly respect their beliefs and watch out for them. We usually eat inside places and not outside as well as drink. However, on Java it is a totally different story. Everything is closed, it is harder for the missionaries to eat and you do not eat or drink outside as it is very rude and then you get yelled at. I find myself very lucky to be serving here. I will tell you this past week, we had some pork ribs that were oh so delicious!!!! :)

My companion and I had a great week! We are so busy and I am just tired ALL of the time!! One thing I miss is just being able to do nothing sometimes!! Hopefully we will see a couple baptisms happen here in the next few weeks. We did however had a full church on Sunday because of the number of less-actives that came. It is always a blessing to see them at church!!

I have heard one of the Supreme Courts decisions to legalize same-sex marriage. I did not hear if there were any more big things if there were, I'm very interested. When I heard of that ruling and read a little bit of it on LDS.org it was just a small but simple testimony builder that the Lord's standards WILL NOT EVER CHANGE!!!! It's crazy to think about the things that go on in the world and to experience some of these things as a missionary!! I'm very grateful for the restored Gospel and the knowledge that I have as well as the testimony that I continue to develop.

It is good to hear about others back home! It sounds like Summer is just taking off! It has been very hot here as well and the rain has cut back! We are getting ready for some changes here in a few weeks as a bunch of missionaries will be finishing there service and a bunch are actually coming in! It will be an exciting time!

I did hear that S was baptized and I was SUPER EXCITED to hear that!! He is such a great kid and will do great things!!!

I did pull out some money so that seems to still be working!!

I love you all!! If Zach is already 84 lbs. holy cow I'm in for a real surprise in a year!!!

Elder Hayes