Elder Neel: 2/27/23

 

The Big 3

Spencer Neel <spencer.neel@missionary.org>

Hello my friends and family!! What a week it has been. I’ve been able to see myself grow so much and really figure out how the Spirit speaks to me. I am so grateful for the mercy of our Savior and I am learning a lot of things from Him. 

Last Monday we had a shorter P-day because we had the amazing opportunity to go contacting on Texas Tech campus with the newly arriving missionaries. It literally feels like yesterday that was me being taken around campus but now I got to do it for someone else. I grabbed the first missionary I saw and his name was Elder Self. He’s from Logan Utah and absolutely loves to ski. He was telling me about all the snow Utah has gotten over this past winter and I am kind of jealous. But we went on a roll. Elder Self and I connected really well. We got a few people’s numbers and one guy wanted to come to church Sunday! I then challenged Elder Self to pass out the Book of Mormon to someone and he went and talked to the next person who passed by and absolutely killed it! It made me so happy to see him bear his testimony about the Book of Mormon just being a day out in the field and bless someone’s life with it. This makes me love missionary work with all my heart. 

Monday night Elder Allphin and I drove down to Abilene to stay the night and take the missionaries getting transferred back to Lubbock. I have now been able to see the whole Texas part of our mission and I’ve been out less than 6 months. Perks of being able to drive transfers. I just need to see the New Mexico side and then I’ve seen it all. 

Tuesday was transfers!! I am staying a third here in Lubbock in the Quaker Heights branch and I am so excited. I sadly lost my best partner in the West Elder Allphin to Amarillo and he is going to do so good up there. I have a new companion and his name is Elder Kitchen or Elder Cocina in spanish 😂 he’s hilarious and I am pumped to spend this transfer with him. He’s made missionary work so fun and he’s never been in a spanish area on his mission yet! It is going to be a big learning experience for the both of us but I’ve already seen mine and his spanish accelerate. Watch out because Lubbock’s got another fire duo🤠 I am also humbled to have the opportunity to be district leader this transfer. Our district from last transfer basically stayed the same so it’s all my favorite people again and they have taught me so much. I’m just another missionary and I am thankful for this time for growth and being able to push myself. 

We have had a lot more fun experiences with our friends. We’re not teaching our new friends Pedro anymore because he is now on a journey in the North West direction. He told us he’s been feeling a calling and hearing church bells out there so he built himself a cart and headed out! We were able to say goodbye to him and he showed us how to throw knives and ninja stars. He’s so sweet and humble but he has to follow this calling 😂 he asked us what was out north west and we told him about Utah and temples. We had a really good conversation and he told us he would go try to find them! I’m going to miss him like crazy and pray for Pedro that he has a safe journey. 

The Gonzalez family introduced us to some new friends across the street! We had second dinner with them and oh boy I was stuffed. The Hispanic people are so caring and loving and they welcomed us into their home like we were old friends. My favorite saying now is mi casa es tu casa. It means so much more to me now. We’re still trying to slowly but surely help the Gonzalez’s progress and pray that there hearts will be a little more softened! They believe so much of the things we teach there’s just a few things they are caught up on. I love them and cannot wait to see their journey. 

I wanted to share my thoughts with you about the Book of Mormon. Our mission just started the it all together and we read 2 chapters every day in our companionship studies. That makes it so every missionary is reading the same thing every day. We are supposed to finish June 15th. President Child was thinking and praying about some promised blessings for us when we accomplish this task and someone said that every area could baptize before we finished. President had to think about it for a second because he didn’t want to give any missionaries false hope. A few days later he announced over our mission prayer the promised blessing that if every companionship took this challenge of reading the Book of Mormon every day every area would baptize. This floored all of us because we now know God confirmed it to him. This is how much power the Book of Mormon holds. I challenge each and every one of you to start the Book of Mormon again and see just how much it changes your life. If we can receive so great of promised blessings I know you can too. I want to hear from you all your experiences as you go through the Book of Mormon. Go get it!! I love you all and until next week,

Elder Neel