Experiences

Spencer with his district in Danli Spring 2015 and Elder Adrian Q. and Sister Nancy Ochoa, Pres & Sis. Bowler

Hello Mom, Dad and Family,

I don't have much time today... like five minutes because I watched the Face2Face that Dad sent to me to watch and then I got caught up in that. But I wanted to share some great experiences with you and tell you that I am well and in good health.

This was my journal entry yesterday:
Today was super awesome! I feel like God has lead us by the Spirit a lot in the past weeks because of our prayers and because of our obedience. We felt like we needed to visit an old investigator today and when we got there he was sleeping in his hammock and no one came to the door. But we knew that we felt that impression to go to Mauricio's house. So I turned around and went up to the first house and knocked on the door. A man in his 50s opened the door and let us in. A little further into the lesson with him about the restoration, he asked us, "Who sent you two? Did one of my neighbors tell you to come here?" And we responded that we had felt the impression to knock on his door and that God had sent us. We had a great experience. The man's name is Siriaco.

A month ago we met a woman in Nacaome named Esmerelda. (She was the one who had lots of problems with the law of chastity.) I saw her in church today in the district conference. I'm so happy that she's getting reactivated! And her husband was there with her!

Orbelina came to church today with her son and his family and she shook my hand really enthusiastically after. Juan and Ana (that got baptized) came as well, and they aren't doing so well. They are having family problems right now and I think that Juan will have to leave the relationship behind if he wants to be happy. Suyapa (his companion) is the one causing the problems.

We also talked to a man that goes to another church called "Apostles and Prophets" (they don't believe in modern day apostles or prophets... a little weird) and we talked to him about prophets and my companion mentioned Joseph Smith and I saw him changed his expression suddenly and could tell he did not want to talk about Mr. Smith... So I pulled out the Book of Mormon and told him that he may have heard many rumors but the truth of him being a prophet relies on the Book of Mormon and not on what others think. He still wasn't convinced and so I opened to Alma 36 when Alma shares his conversion story and I felt, my companion felt, and I bet that he felt the Spirit testifying of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. I felt that we did and said all that God wanted us to say and I hope that he will read to Book of Mormon and pray to know if it's true, as we invited him.

That's all folks! Got to go!
Elder Tuft

Mom,
Thanks for sending the fotos. I'm printing them off. Love you!

Dad,
I'll print the story you sent me too! Thanks for giving me inspiring stuff to read. :D

This Halloween will be chill. They don't do anything to celebrate here. The other missionaries talked it way up last year.

Journals, Personal Changes, and Christmas Letter

Hello Family,

First off, thanks for the letters! I like letters. Second, Kyle, That's a lot of happenings and congratulations. My first impression was exactly like yours when I read that Kemp offered to sell the business to you. I just said "No Way!" out loud and Elder Laureano wanted to know what happened, so I explained your letter to him and then I said, "But that's too much. He'll just waste his time." But then Elder Laureano said, "Why would he be wasting his time?" And then I started thinking, "Better in just about everything. Better job, better application of what he's studying, better pay. Better, better, better." God always opens doors and lets us choose which door to take. Son tuyas las decisiones.

Mom, there's a blog for the mission now. Go and take a look: ServinginTegucigalpa.blogspot.com

As of this week, I got sick on Saturday and I'm still walking around with stomach aches from Hermana Glenda. She's always given food to us and for some reason the last two meals made me sick to my stomach. But I'm good. Hermana Oldroyd is going to get me a check up in the clinic just to be safe.

I love writing in my journal. I have been really diligent for the past months in writing in it and it's super cool to think back on EVERY SINGLE DAY for the past few months and say, "I REMEMBER THAT!" So write in your journals. It's a commandment! (from God, not from me)

Dad, you asked me about that phrase that I wrote you last week. I've just changed. Maybe what I learned motivated me to be a better person and so I've changed naturally to some extent. But I can feel myself changing still. Change doesn't just happen, it requires desire and choice. I want to be a better person and so I have to actively work on obtaining Christ-like attributes. They don't come just by chance to someone. But God has opened my eyes and I have seen things I want to change and so I'm changing myself. I hope I can change permanently. Sometimes we work hard and fulfill our goals and then stop thinking about it. But I don't want to forget even for one day what I am working on. Some days, I work a lot on Charity. Other days I work on Patience. And so it goes.

Letter For Christmas: Just pick out parts of my other letters. I can't sum up the past year for anyone. Too many things have happened. I'd like it if you put in a little about Carmen S.

Mom, I don't have time to answer all the questions from last week. Sorry but we have to get off.
My Ponderize scripture this week was D&C 4:1-3. I trade ties with some people but I never trade a tie that someone gave me so I'll bring those ones home. My toenail is fine. It's healed now and back to normal.

Also, one of the district leaders in my zone is Elder Scott and Mom, remember the soccer game in Salem that was really snowy and we cancelled the game? Well, he was the right defender in that game and I never knew! :D Small world. Also, Heidi Scott's nephew is in my zone (but his last name is Wardle.)

Love you all! Hugs,
Elder Tuft

President and the Zone, Carmen S.

Hello Mom and Dad and Family,

First off, we had Zone Leader's Conference this past week and that was really fun. I've become an entirely new person because of what I have learned, applied, and changed in who I am and who I want to become. It has been quite the roller-coaster but I enjoy crazy "roller-coasters" now. We learned more about the four things we need to have to be successful missionaries: Worthiness, Obedience, Work, Prayer. All of those things will help us to have the Spirit with us. I especially liked learning about Prayer. It's not what they said that I liked, it's what I thought about and learned from the Spirit. I thought about the talk that President Eyring gave recently about Prayer and the Priesthood and I was reminded about these words:

"All of us must speak and act in the name of God in moments when our unaided judgment will not be enough without inspiration. Those moments can come upon us when there is not time to make preparation. That has happened to me often. It did many years ago in a hospital when a father told me and my companion that the doctors had told him that his critically injured three-year-old daughter would die within minutes. As I placed my hands on the one spot on her head not covered with bandages, I had to know, as God’s servant, what He would do and say.

The words came to my mind and my lips that she would live. The doctor standing by me snorted in disgust and asked me to get out of the way. I walked out of that hospital room with a feeling of peace and love. The little girl lived and walked down the aisle into a Sacrament Meeting on my last day in that city. I still remember the joy and satisfaction I felt from what I had said and done in the Lord’s service for that little girl and her family.

The difference in my feelings at the hospital and the sadness I felt as I walked away from that door as a deacon came from what I had learned about the connection of prayer to priesthood power. As a deacon, I had not yet learned that the power to speak and act in God’s name requires revelation and that to have it when we need it requires praying and working in faith for the companionship of the Holy Ghost.

On the evening before I went to that door for fast offerings, I had said my prayers at bedtime. But for weeks and months before that phone call came from the hospital, I had followed a pattern of prayer and made the effort that President Joseph F. Smith taught will allow God to give us the inspiration necessary for us to have power in the priesthood. He put it simply:
 
'We do not have to cry unto him with many words. We do not have to weary him with long prayers. What we do need, and what we should do as Latter-day Saints, for our own good, is to go before him often, to witness unto him that we remember him and that we are willing to take upon us his name, keep his commandments, work righteousness; and that we desire his Spirit to help us.'

And then President Smith told us what we should pray for, as his servants pledged to speak and act for God. He said: “What do you pray for? You pray that God may recognize you, that he may hear your prayers, and that he may bless you with his Spirit.”

It is not a matter so much of which words to use, but it will take some patience. It is an approach to your Heavenly Father with the intent to be recognized by Him personally. He is the God above all, the Father of all, and yet willing to give undivided attention to one of His children. That may be why the Savior used the words “Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.”
What I like about Prayer is that we simple bow are heads in humility and pray that He will guide us and give us the faith in order to work with the Spirit.

Yesterday, we had a very personal and special experience with Carmen S. We have been teaching her about baptisms for the dead and temples which she loves because she's had a daughter and her husband and her mom that have past away. She expressed with us her desires to be with them again and we promised her that she could. We gave her one of those big Triplets (the BoM, D&C, and PofGP) so that she can read more easily and we also gave her a big hymn book to sing with us. She loved those gifts a lot. At the end of the lesson she offered the prayer and when she finished she look up at us and gave us a big, teary smile and told us that she was so grateful that we came to her home and have brightened her family with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Her daughter went to church this week (she's a less-active member living in Tegucigalpa) and Carmen told us, "Only Marcelo and Maria-Elaina are left to get to church now!"

Then yesterday night, we went to another less-actives house (The M-O Family) and talked about Missionary Work. Their family consists of the mom, a daughter (22 yrs), and the son (19 yrs) and we told them of the blessings of Missionary Work and that it is hard but SUPER worth it in the end. There is nothing I would trade for these best two years.

The ward is doing good. We have good plans to get them going and working independently. They can feel the Spirit and they know this is the true church. It's just taking a while to get them to understand the blessings that come from exact obedience. Some of the issues they face are mainly from poverty issues.

Congratulations Kyle and Jess and Milo, for the new family member ! :D That's super exciting and it looks like you'll have twins that were born on two different dates! Milo and Olivia look a lot a like!

Love you all!
Elder Spencer J. Tuft

No changes, Conference, Toesies

Hello Family,

I'm still here with Elder Laureano in San Lorenzo! We're doing great! I'm learning a lot about being obedient. I figure, the zone can only be as obedient as it's zone leaders. Hence, we are OBEDIENT with EXACTNESS :D It helps when you are obedient like they said in conference. If we aren't obedient, then we'll get eaten alive by sharks. :D

On Friday, I think, We went to Choluteca and got an ingrown toenail removed! That was super fun and not painful at all. You might think I'm being sarcastic but really it doesn't hurt me at all.

For conference, the energy lines failed and the church pulled out the power generators and we watched the Sunday morning session in Spanish... it's not the same in Spanish. I had a lot of thoughts about you guys, Dad and Mom. Elder Holland's talk made me think about Mom and I wanted to say thanks for being there for me and for putting up with me. Sorry for breaking your heart a few times. And then the next talk, Elder Foster, made me thin about Dad for being my hero and trying to help me understand. "I cannot do anything that I have not seen the Father do." and I loved his last thought when he said that parenting "is the pattern of how God blesses His children from generation to generation. Big thanks for being born of goodly parents.

I specifically liked the talk from Larry Lawrence when he talked about asking God what you need to improve and look for an answer through the Holy Ghost. Trust in the Holy Ghost.

Other than the good things you listed to me, Dad, I just wanted to share a few more thoughts on other things that I learned too:

Elder Cook... Self-Control is like a muscle: when it is exercised, it is strengthened.
Elder Martino... Scripture study everyday opens the doors of revelation.
Elder Anderson... Faith does not come by change but by choice. We must act.
Elder Uchtdorf... Are we like Daniel?
Elder Eyring... The story about the Elder's Quorum President that made friends with all the less-actives in his ward and then he "waited..."
President Monson... Obey the Commandments.
Elder Christofferson... The Church is the creation of Jesus Christ.
Elder Durant... Save money every week (what an important side note of his talk! :D) Exercise your faith. Discipline yourself. And Do It!
Sister Stephens... I loved the story about Cloe that she used to teach commandments.

I got home on Sunday night to write in my journal and I was so tired that all I wrote was, "General Conference was good today." But it was really good. I loved it a lot.

Wish I could write more but I can't. OH! And Carmen went to the Saturday Morning Session of GenConf. She loved it a lot. Juan went too, but Elder Laureano said that he had issues when Apostles would testify that this church is the only true church on the face of the earth. He had big issues with Elder Christofferson's talk I imagine.

Mom, I only know Elder Pope. The other two, I don't recognize off the bat.

Megan, Thanks for your letter. I'll keep reading it. It was a bit long to read within an hour but I'll print it off.

Kristen, I was looking for you in the conference building on the TV screen but no wonder I didn't see you two! You weren't even there! :D

Love,
Elder Tuft

PS Jacob Buhler (from the SHS soccer team) was the companion of Elder Openshaw that they showed on the Conference screen in the Priesthood session. That was cool to see a picture of a friend in Conference.