sup y´all?
Sorry i skipped a week. things have been good out here for the most part. we´ve got three people that might get baptized. one for sure. the other two had a run in with the Jehovah's witnesses before meeting the missionaries and after being with the j dubbs for a while and learning more of their doctrines they got disillusioned and left them. so then came the first missionaries and started teaching them but they`ve had all kinds of doubts and have been investigators for a two changes now and we have been able to answer all their questions but they`re still worried that they´re going to find out something about the church that will disillusion them and they don´t want to get baptized just to leave the church later on like they did with the j dubbs. so they want to know absolutely everything before getting baptized. I have explained to them on like three separate occasions that the important thing is to gain a testimony of the restoration through study and prayer most importantly and then when they have that testimony they can be sure that all the things that came from it are from god and they can trust in it. also that there´s tons to learn and it would take a lifetime to learn everything. but thats not enough for them. so we´ll see if they´ll take the leap of faith. i hope they do and we´ve been praying and fasting for them but after all, it´s their choice. then theres Hugo who´s super cool. the only reason we haven´t been able to baptize him yet is because he´s had a major problem with his eye directly after we started teaching him and hasn´t been able to make it to church and theres a rule that they have to go to church three times before we can baptize them. he accepted a baptismal date with all kinds of excitement the very first lesson. it was sweet! other then that we have just been pounding doors and bothering the members for references with very little success.
last week Saturday night at about 9 the bishop called us and says ¨Elders! you´re gonna speak in sacrament meeting tomorrow, that cool?¨ so we were like ¨oh heck ya bishop, thank you for the incredible notice!¨ so I wrote my talk Sunday morning in about an hour. it was more like notes. it was actually extremely easy and the topics that me and my comp picked went super well together and the bishop spoke too and his topic was along the same lines too. it was cool. it reminded me of how the people who speak in general conference don´t collaborate their topics but they always work together. I was really nervous when I got up to speak because it was my first talk in Spanish! It went extremely well I felt. I talked about pride and charity.
also, we merited an invitation to sing in the missionary choir on the 13th in front of the temple so we´ve been going to those practices and its been going really well! i´ve missed singing in a choir. It´s really made me miss and appreciate the opportunity I had to sing with the borah choir when i went there because its much more cool when all the members of the choir can actually stay on key and read music. however, i´m enjoying it :) also, The dude directing the choir who´s in charge of the whole thing (Elder Morris) invited me (and only me) up to try out for this huge solo that goes for almost the whole song in one of the songs we´re gonna sing. I was freaked out cuz 1. i have never sang a solo before in a choir cuz i didn´t ever want to, 2. we had never sang the song before and I had no idea how the solo went, then 3. morris informs me when I get up there that I was not going to be accompanied by the piano during the tryout. sweet. I had no clue where to start so he started with me but dropped out after a few lines and I was left singing completely acapella in front of about 50 missionaries a very high tenor solo and I am not a tenor. I am a baritone or bass. however, somehow everything came out really well! I got a ton of compliments afterwards and it made me feel really good :) then the next practice Morris decided to add another song (angels we have heard on high but in spanish) and he has me stand up as we´re starting and says ¨alright Elder Henze, you´re gonna sing verse one of Angels we have... in english solo¨ I was like, ¨...k¨ and I did it. I´m not sure if I´m going to be the soloist for the concert, but as far as the practices go i´ve been dubbed the designated soloist! Its been way cool! sorry if that sounds like I´m bragging, but for real, this is a big thing for me because being a soloist in a choir has always been one of my biggest fears. partly because I was afraid to try out for fear of being rejected and because singing solo in front of people has always been a huge fear. so being not just accepted, but chosen has been super cool for me. and the compliments have helped me a lot with my confidence in singing. so it´s like a mountain in my life that I´m conquering so thats why I wanted to share it with you all.
anyways! thats about all i´ve got to report! I can´t believe its almost Christmas. passing Christmas here is going to be super weird because the weather here is still in the mid to high 80s every day with lots of sun. I miss the snow a lot. and the cold believe it or not, but i´m enjoying the different stuff here. its cool. also happy thanksgiving to everyone! i totally forgot about thanksgiving until I showed up to the choir practice that morning and all the Americans were like ¨happy thanksgiving dude!¨ very strange.
alright well, I love you all! thanks for taking the time to read this! It means a lot to me. hasta luego!
love,
Elder Spencer Henze
