Elder Neel: 7/17/23

 

God is good my friends

Spencer Neel <spencer.neel@missionary.org>

Hello my family and friends how are you!? I definitely lost track of the time and realized I haven’t sent out an email in awhile. I’ll try to fit as many updates as I can without making it too long and hopefully I don’t repeat anything you’ve already heard. But fasten your seatbelts because it’s been a wild ride here in Roswell🤠

First major update and miracle I want to share with y’all is our friend Consuelo got baptized!! So on our way back from a district p-day in Ruidoso we got a call from our friend Efrain. He is a member and him and Consuelo have been living together for quite some time. They didn’t have any relationship because it was only for monetary reasons. Well come to find out he calls and says Consuelo wants to be baptized and that we are going to do it on July 5th. At first we were like okay but there’s still some things we’ve got to work through and he said they were getting married! It completely surprised Elder West and I and we started going crazy with all the feelings of joy and happiness for them. So we planned out the baptism for them, they got married at 1, and she got baptized at 5 on July 5th. It was such a sweet miracle because she has been wanting to be baptized for a very long time. But because of the situation she couldn’t. But now Consuelo followed the example of our Savior and she was beaming the whole time. It was so cool to be apart of. And on top of it, a full circle moment happened. My second trainer Elder Allphin found and taught Consuelo almost everything. And now 7 months later we were able to baptize her. Elder Allphin called to express his joy and we thought it was so cool that he started it and I finished it. God is good my friends. 

We also had the opportunity to help and be apart of the annual alien festival in Roswell. It is their biggest event of the year. Or quite honestly the biggest thing that ever happens in Roswell 😂 we had a stand in the festival and got a lot of exposure for our church. We met so many cool people from all over and some of the Elders got interviewed for a documentary. We also got a spot in the parade and just so y’all know, we won most interactive and won $250. Did not see that coming. Our friend CJ who works a lot with the city is going to take us out to a nice lunch sometime and enjoy our spoils. Alien festival was a huge highlight of the mission for sure. 

Elder West and I have been working hard and seeing the blessings that come from it. He is such an amazing person, friend, and Elder. I am grateful to have him as my companion. I have been blessed with good companions to keep me accountable, push myself, and have fun. If you ever met Elder West he is hilarious and there’s never a dull moment with him. 

A blessing this past week was that we had another lesson with our friends Salvador, Claudia, and their daughter. We taught them the plan of salvation and at the end talked about eternal families. We talked about how the first step to having this blessing is being baptized. We asked if this was something they saw in their future and they said yes! We had the Ortiz’s over as well supporting them through it and helping us teach. We have a lot of hope and excitement for this family and please pray for them!

Know how much I love you and how much more your Heavenly Father loves you. A scripture that has been hitting home lately is 2 Nephi 26:23-24. This scripture shows how much love Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ have for you. Nothing he does is in the dark, but only for our benefit. We might now see how some things could be a benefit, but I promise eventually you will. Look for how Jesus Christ is benefitting your life. And let His love be something you always cherish. This is Elder Neel signing out wishing you all an amazing week, go crazy in a good and fun way, and I love y’all 

Elder Neel