Elder Kyson Spendlove

Week 2                                                                                                               June 23, 2015

Hey Family, It was so good to open my email this morning and receive so many emails. I have such a hard time reading them all in 1 hour. So this week has been so amazing and full of the spirit. Our investigators are our teachers and we have committed all of them to be baptized in the first lessons and all but one of them has said that they would be baptized. The feeling of speaking the Spanish language is still really weird, but I am loving the language a lot. Most of my days are so packed with study and lessons of the language and the BOM that I barely have time to think about anything else, and I love that. P-Days are full of laundry, emails, soccer, and pictures so we stay very busy. My companion is from Hawaii and played football. When he gets home from his mission he is going to be playing football at Utah State University. Hopefully we will see each other! He is the oldest in his family and was a video gamer, but he is such a hard worker and good example for me and everyone around him. I just found out the Ryan is going to Independence Missouri, and I am so happy for you Ry!!! Kelci and Ryan, there have been hard days for me already when I thought, man it would be so nice to go home. I promise if you find a way to turn outward like the Savior does and find someone to serve, like your companion, you will be okay and will gain such a testimony from the hard times. 

Sounds like Skyler needs some more lessons from me on how to keep your hands away from a moving prop, but I am so glad he is okay.

Ryan and Jaden, Thank you so much for always keeping my mom’s spirits up and being there for her. I look up to you two so much out here and love both of you so much. Every night I look at my family pictures and then I sit and look at the picture of us three from soccer and I am so glad I had your guys example in my life.

Dear Dad, Happy Father’s Day! Sorry my card did not make it to you in time. I could not get stamps until this morning so I sent it this morning with a few others letters inside of it. Thank you for your amazing example to me and for always teaching me to work hard. Sorry I could not call but please know I pray for you each and every day. Hope you have an amazing day.

I am loving the new culture and cannot believe I only have 4 weeks left here. It flies by so fast. 

The picture I sent last week from  the airport that has the 2 hermanas we talked to in it. The one by Elder Falk is the one I sat by and visited with on my flight from SLC to Mexico. 

Oh, also Elder Lakey and I got made Zone Leaders this week and we are in charge of 3 districts! It is a great experience to serve the lord. Cannot wait for more chances every day.

Thank you all for your support and prays. I love you all so much and can feel your prayers in my behalf.

yo se que la iglesia es verdad, y yo se que jesucristo es mi salvador. Estoy muy agradacido por mi beniciones. en el nombre de jesucristo, Amen.

Con Amor,

Elder Spendlove 

Elder Tanner Barlow

Well folks i cant believe im saying this but this will be my last email.  its been a nice two years and ive learned a lot and am excited to come home.  there are many here that would like me to stay but when its time to move on its time to move on.  this week was really exciting.  we went and visited the miricle of last week who will be baptised this friday.  we also had to go and do 3 baptism enterveiws for our distritct who are really trying to work hard and we are seeing the fruits of are work.  So schedule for this week. today until friday just another normal week.  friday at 12 baptism at 1 my president is personaly coming to get me in which we will go directly to a mesuiam where all the other missionarys from my generation will be.  saterday at four am im at the airport and at 9 pm im in sweet old st. george.  For those who would still like to right me my email address is 13barlolest@gmail.com.  love you all and want to end with  my testimony that i know that God lives and that He love each and everyone of us more that we can ever truly understand.  i know that if we put our lives in harmony with his will we will be able to feel that love in our lives through the Holy Ghost.  i know that the prophet Joseph Smith was called of God and that he restored the true church of Christ on the earth in these the later days. i know that the Book of Mormon is proof of Gods love and that Joseph trully was His prophet and that no man will be able to be more closer to God than by the books teachings.  The Book of Mormon truly testifies of Christ and His sacrifice for us.  of this i bear my humble testimony in the name of that man who i have come to love so much, yea in the name of Jesus Christ Amen.

Con Amor

Elder Barlow

God be with you till me again.

Elder Kyson Spendlove

My First Week in the CCM!                                   June 16, 2015 

Hello everyone, 

To start off I want to say how blessed I am to be a missionary of the Lord. I feel your prayers everyday through the love of my CCM family. 

So the plane flight was way different then I was expecting it to be but I loved it so much. Sorry to say, I did not read your letters on the flight because I had the awesome blessing of sitting by a older women who only spoke Spanish. I got to talk to her for 4 hours all the way to Mexico city. 

So for those of you who do not know. CCM stand for Centro capatación misioneros. or in other words MTC. So the CCM is very pretty and green. About8 pm every night it rains and it feels so amazing. Also, if you want to see a big city you need to look up videos of a flight over Mexico city. It is huge and super noisy for the fact we are in the middle of it all. At night time it is hard to sleep because of the noise of the traffic. But what an amazing experience.

My companions name is Elder Lakey. He lived in Hawaii and is huge! He is so much taller and built bigger than me, but I love him so much. Also, we get along so well. He does not have a lot of support from his parents by mail but he got a few emails today so he is doing good. He knows Spanish pretty well and has been helping me all along the way. 

In my district there is 4 elders and 2 sisters. They are like family already and I spend all my time with them so I love them. So far Me and Elder Lakey, along with Hermana Odell, one of the sisters in my district are the only ones going to Fort Worth Texas.

By the way mom and dad thank you so much for the package. My whole casa of elders had a shoe shining party today and loved the cookies and milk!

The most surprising thing that has happened so far is the fact that we have already taught an investigator named Jósue. We have taught him 3 times this week in complete spanish and both Elder Lakey and I bore our testimonies and asked if he would be baptized and he said yes!!! Please pray for him. I believe he has felt the spirit and wants so much more in his life.

The food here is so amazing and fattening, but I just try to watch what I eat. Also, Elder Lakey and I used to have to find places to sit so we could be by the Latinos, but now they all try to find us because we teach them english while they teach us spanish. 

I am sorry to all of you that have written me letters and I have not written back. The problem is I barely have time to think of sleeping or home. I am loving the letters tho, and I have letters coming home soon. I will not send a lot by mail because the stamps are 13 pesos a stamp and we only get 100 pesos a week for necessary supplies en la Tienda.

Same with E-mails. I just do not have a lot of time while in the CCM, but once I get out I will have a little more time. 

I am sorry for the shorter letter and for not sharing a lot, if you want to know anything else please email me and let me know. I love all of you so much and am praying for your safety. Please keep me and my companion in your prayers as we continue to study the hard but fun language of Spanish. Please remember how much our heavenly father loves you and always pray to him for strength in your hard times. Until next week...

Con Amar, 

Sincerely, 

Elder Spendlove

 Also, I forgot to mention. There is 46 missionaries in our Generation. ( what we say for our group that we flew out with.)

And I love wearing my name tag because not only does it have my name that I need to live up too, but it has the lords name that I get to live up to share with people all the time.

 Wow I keep forgetting, but I do have to tell you that I am known for my soccer skills by the latinos. Today we are going to play with them and all of them want me on there team. I love you all.

Elder Tanner Barlow

SO the week was pretty boring.  we went to the offices all day on wensday so i did nothing.  but the miricle of the week came on sunday.  ok so we get miricles everyday but the biggest happened on sunday.  

so we get to church and there are no investigadores.  for that matter there was hardly any members.  so im bumed cause if there are no investigadores there are no baptisms cause they need at least five.  so here im saying so im not going to baptise before i go home and boom.  in walks a sister and walkes up to us and says elders i want to be baptised.  ok so we talked to here and she is an old investigador who realized that this really was what she was supposed to be doing.  she has more than the five times to the church she needs and has all the lessons.  so we just have to pass over the lessons again and yea.  just in enough time.  well love you all 

Elder Barlow

Elder Tanner Barlow

Hello family and friends.

i actually have a while to write you guys so maybe this letter will be a bit longer.

I am happy to say that if all goes well (and we are doing everything in our power so that it does go well) we will have a baptism this Sunday.  His name is juan carlos and truthfully he is a miracle.  He is the worker for one of the members here and when we first started teaching him he was truly a man without faith nor (so he says)  need of God.  But something we have seen is that he was very humble and really wanted to learn.  It started out slow first with faith that took a day.  Then repentance another,  Prayer almost two.  But then the miracle happened and boom he started learning left and right.  His prayers improved and since then he has only grown in faith and knowledge of the church.  It’s amazing how God has prepared even the non-believers as the book of Mormon calls them.  That and we and the brother who first introduced us, are convinced that God sent us for a reason.  i say it’s because my companion and me both like music and so does our investigator..  The brother says its because me and my comp are full of the love of Christ and knowledge of the gospel.  in the end who knows.

Something interesting this week,  my comp had a I meeting with all the district leaders zones leaders and assistant’s., and im talking the old assistant. AP.  I start telling him how i think its amazing how in the book of Mormon, there are so many other people that the laminites  could have battled with but they focused on the nephites because that’s what God told Nephi he would do to remind them of the gospel.  So the assistant looks up at me and says "there were more than just the nephrites and Lamanites ."  i explain how at least the people of zarahemla and the last of the jaredites where around until the book of Mosiah and how it was with that king that they found zarahemla and just a bit before the jaradites were killed.  He then says "the book of mormon  isn’t true."  he clarified that he was joking but it was nice to see that it doesn’t matter if your assistant or junior companion there is always something more you can learn.

Last night we had our first family ward night.  it was a blast. we talked about the Sabbath day and autosuficiencia.(sorry dont know how to spell that in english.)  then did a game after words.  it was fun and we all left better than when we came.  Makes me sad that i won’t be here for another.  The bishop says that he only wants one every three months cause if not the members just  get bored.  

well thats my week love you all

Edler Barlow

Elder Tanner Barlow

Dear Family,

This week was really busy.  

to start out with we did divisions.  its good to see the view points of other elders so that we can progress and grow.  then i taught english to a super awesome family here.  the sister who is twenty gets the most of what i say and speaks pretty well also.  her husband thats another story.  there boy, well he still struggles speaking spanish since he is only 3.  but anyway the sister was telling me how she met her husband how six months later they got married and im like oh such a nice story.  then i found out she is only 20 and got married at 16!   i guess there is nothing wrong with that but i personally feel its just a bit to fast.  and young. to start a family.   oh we had interviews with presidente  Anaya.  i just love my president he is so wise and just super cool.  i dont think there is a time when ive been with him that i havnt had a super spiritual experience.  any way then to cap off the week we had Juan Carlos at church.  he said it is way different from the catholic church but way nice feeling also.  we are going to really get busy with him this week cause when the ward asked if he was a member he said. "im here does that make me a member cause id like to be"  in missionary talk that says i want to be baptized.  so we are going to start getting him ready.  

Well pretty sure thats all

Love you all 

(os queiro) hahaha old spanish

Elder Barlow

Elder Tanner Barlow

Dear Family,

 I'm glad that I'm writing now cause its hailing outside,  and raining very hard, so glad I'm not out in it.   This week was pretty normal.  Only that from Monday till Wednesday we didnt have a phone that worked.  it was a little hard  to report everyone home at nights but its all good now.

  We found a new investigator this week that was very enlightened and actually told us the majority of our own doctrine,  unfortunately ( here come the but. ) but he had a couple of things way out of proportion and wouldn't stop talking to let us help him put all this info in its right place.  Tomorrow though he said he would be more silent and let us talk.  Guess we will see how it goes.  We also have Juan Carlos who has been progressing nicely.  We are hoping that his prayer was answered the other day.  He asked that God would give him more work in the member’s hamburger store.  So i guess today we are going to go check that out.  

In other news, i now have an awesome Mexican backpack.  a couple of missionary’s were shopping and found me one.  Today we did par core in the park. ( And by us i mean my comp.  ) He is the brains on what to do (flips wall jumping things like that) and HE is the person who does them.

 I am the official filmer /dj/ medic.  It’s fun.  So hope everything is going well at home love you all 

Elder Barlow

 Me, even though I promise I am a lot thinner.

Me in a few months!