Elder Neel: 4/24/23

 

What a time to be alive!

Spencer Neel <spencer.neel@missionary.org>

Hello my friends and family!! I got in another bad streak of not sending emails but it’s ending. So much has happened these past few weeks and I hope I am able to sum it all up for y’all. Biggest thing to remember, God is so good, Jesus Christ is our Savior, and I love you all so much. 

Transfers were three weeks ago and I am staying a fourth here in Lubbock. I am so thankful and blessed to have served in the Quaker Heights area for this long and I have loved every single minute of it. Easter and General Conference were absolutely amazing and I hope you all enjoyed them as well. Man remembering what happened is hard 😂 I’m probably just going to talk about this past week and all the rest can be sent through pictures. 

We had the coolest experience with our new friend Tyler. We were out street contacting and he pulled up to us in his truck and asked if we were on a mission. We said yes and Tyler said he wanted to talk and just lived a few houses down. He offered pizza and drinks so we could get out of the heat. At first we thought it was a little weird but we decided why not go talk to him! It ended up being one of the biggest testimony builders of my life. Tyler had never met missionaries before and really wanted to know what our Church was about. He is non-denominational and low-key was trying to convert us but also wanted to know who we were. The first time we met we cleared up a lot of misunderstandings and my favorite one is that he thought the Church owned Pepsi. To end we invited him to read the introduction of the Book of Mormon because that is truly the greatest thing you can learn about our Church is from that book. He agreed and now on to the second visit.

On our second visit with Tyler he brought up a lot of good and interesting questions he had with some things in the beginning of the Book of Mormon and other things about us. We were able to give him good answers and it was a good discussion. It was definitely a Gentleman’s bash though. For any of you who don’t know what that is, a Gentleman’s bash is when you are bashing in a Gentleman like way. We were very respectful of each other’s sides and it was a discussion not an argument. Tyler would state his things and we would respond. We eventually got to the point where we agreed on some things but after is my absolute favorite part. Tyler really thought we were deceived but we bore powerful testimony of the Prophet Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. You could feel the Spirit there and we could see something inside of Tyler. While he didn’t accept the feeling he promised to fulfill our promise of reading the Book of Mormon entirely. That way he can truly see what we are about and find truth from it. Elder Kitchen and I both came out of those lesson’s strengthened and having stronger testimonies of the gospel. I know with all my heart and being that Joesph Smith is God’s Prophet. Was he perfect, no. But this is something no one will ever be able to change my mind on. Because of this knowledge the Book of Mormon also has so much truth and power in my life. I hope you all are able to find ways to deepen your testimonies and hold on to them with all you got. There are people out there who really don’t want you to have one, especially Satan, who will stop at nothing to break your testimony. Stand strong and never doubt what you know is true. Doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith. I loved this experience and I testify of all these things to you.

Man after that high this week also just made me feel so much joy and happiness. Nothing in particular happened but I just felt our Heavenly Father’s and Savior’s love for me in ways I haven’t felt in so long. It truly has been a wonderful week and I will say a million times over that God is so good.

We had a little bit of a friend lesson drought where most of our friends would cancel or not be home when we showed up. But this past week we met with friends that we hadn’t seen in months and also new friends as well! We added Joel Valencia to our friend group and pray for him to have the desire to read the Book of Mormon and to meet with us again. 

That’s really all I can think of for the week, my brain is kind of scattered right now. I just wanted to give you all a quick update since I haven’t sent something out for awhile. Remember to strengthen your testimonies and know just how much you are loved. There are so many people in each of our lives who love us. Don’t forget it. It might be hard to see sometimes and you’re not able to talk to them much or feel it but you are loved. Until next week my friends,

Elder Neel