Spencer - Called to Serve: Week 54 - Spice Island Miracle, New White Shirts, Teaching with the Spirit

Selamat dari Pulau Sulawesi, khususnya di Manado!!

WOW!!! What a week! There is so much to talk about and not a lot of time (the life of missionaries)!! The week started off in Jakarta Monday and Tuesday. Monday was P-day and I fancied myself to a mall called Blok-M. I found a pretty cool fake watch and made the purchase. I left it in Jakarta with a few of my other things so that will be something to go back to! As you know I have passed the year mark and while I was in Jakarta I brought the other half of my white shirts back with me! I now have fresh new white shirts and can get rid of the yellow stained older ones! On Monday night, I was able to work with one of the Elders from my MTC group and we had a blast teaching a great lesson. Little did we know that we were going to meet him 41 floors high up in a building....that was a cool view! Tuesday was the meeting which is always spiritually hyping and the plane ride back!

This whole week we have had great lessons! One thing I have really been working on as a missionary is my ability to teach to the spiritual promptings that I receive a lot better. This past week I have really felt the spirit work through me and my testimony spark questions in investigators! It has been a very spiritually growing week! I can see a big difference when I teach as well that I'm really doing it for them rather than for myself or anybody else!

As many of you know, the mission here is about to have some big changes, a lot of missionaries going home and a lot coming in. One of the Elders from Australia finished his 2 years here and we had a great week with him doing some fun things. One of which was a district lunch and we went to Wendy's and treated ourselves with some frosty's and other food from there! District lunch like this also creates unity which, without unity nothing would get done!! With that being said, it leaves the 3 Elders in a 3-some for now. I will be getting a new companion on Friday but we will still be in the 3-some.

The other day my companion and I were able to meet with a new member that hasn't been coming to church but promised that he would come on Sunday. When we got to church, sure enough he was there. We pray that he will continue to come and grow in his knowledge of the Gospel.

Our other miracle was a miracle of all miracles. On Saturday night, Elder B gets a phone call from some random number saying that he wants to come to church. We didn't disagree but very confused as to who this was. We decided that waiting until Sunday would be good because then we might be able to recognize the face. Well, on Sunday he came to church. When we met him none of the Elders knew who he was, yet he was claiming to have met us before. It turns out he was contacted by the missionaries many months ago but he went back to his home island which is on the border of the Philippines and just came back to Manado. He's about 25, big smiles all around, and chizzled like a male statue! He enjoyed church and we made an appointment to go to his house later this week and teach him more!! WHAT A MIRACLE!!?

Other than that, all healthy and all good here down in the spice islands!

Elder Hayes