Week one; of many, mucho, mostest and more to come! September 27, 2025
HOLA TODOS!
( Hello everyone!) That's about the extent of my spanish comprehension as of right now and probably for a while, so I guess the good news is that you will all be able to read most of my emails! But it's very exciting to be writing as an official missionary this week, it's been an incredible experience so far and the hope is not to ramble on too long.
This week has been what is called online MTC (Missionary Training Center), it's something that most missionaries do before they head to their missions, it involves classes through zoom meetings and canvas documents. Now I'm only in this online MTC for just under a week and a half; this coming Wednesday is when I fly out of edmonton. So it's a fairly short space of time but so much is done each day so it feels like a lot longer, and keeping in mind, all is done on screen... A daily schedule for me during this week is:
- 6:30 to 7:30 is working out and getting all ready for the day
-7:30 to 8:30 is personal study
-8:30 to 9:00 is companion study
-9:00 to 12:00 is spanish class
-12:00 to 1:00 is a workshop
-1:00 to 3 is a break
-3:00 to 6:00 is my last class
Now I probably lost most of you at 'daily schedule'. So good job getting to this point! Trust me, after day one I felt the same. Now the cool part about this, is that I was put into what's called a missionary district. This district is composed of 12 other missionaries all going to the same MTC to train, but different missions. So everyone in my district will be going to the Mexico City MTC but then we will all go our separate ways after training. And the people all online are the same as in-person, so when I get to Mexico I will know at least a few people! I was also assigned a companion, hence the companion study. So we study and work together each day and then we will get to be with each other through all of the training for 5 weeks, then go to our separate missions. His name is Elder Hatch, he lives in Morgan Utah, and is 6 '2, although the first question I asked was if he was 6 '7 and he probably thought it was gonna be the longest 5 weeks ever, well, it still could be. But really! I couldn't have asked for a better guy, he has a great sense of humour and genuine love so it's really hard to not be happy around him! He's very sporty and loves the outdoors so I'm super pumped. We get along extremely well and can get laughing very fast, and uncontrollably. He's very patient though and loves to learn and study so I have been enjoying each morning with him on the calls we have.
Mi Districto es muy divertido! They are all so fun and happy and respectful people so it makes every day fun and exciting. My teachers are young and very engaging despite having heavy Spanish accents, making it hard to understand them, but it's so fun and I love them. Our very first Spanish class (which is three hours each morning) my teacher started off by saying that he wasn't going to speak a lot of english in this class, also because he said he can't speak that much english😂. So that was a pretty intimidating moment just because I didn't really realize the extent of spanish that we would do until that day. We started singing right away in Spanish to open the meeting and it was pretty funny to watch all my district cause we were all just laughing in kind of shock and confusion. But I actually really enjoyed it all, he's an incredibly patient teacher and loves us so it's just a warm and extremely incredible feeling of security in the class. Even when we mess up no one or him says anything about it, just patiently and lovingly corrects us. It's crazy that 5 days of this class has taught me more than any high school class did. (no offense Mrs Chalmers I still loved your classes!) So basically if you want to learn a language, serving a mission is the best way aha. I've already learned so much, and even when I don't fully know what he is saying I can definitely understand a lot of the words and it's been really cool with how much growth and faith have to go into a language. It is very tiring though and oddly makes me very hungry, that's what spanish does I guess!
Obviously with a mission, there's significant spiritual growth. It's crazy with all the focus as a missionary, all the sudden, that is the singular focus. All you think about is how you can help others and to learn for yourself how to best find success. All I think about is my saviour Jesus Christ, and how much the world needs to hear his message, which in its very basis is one of love and joy. So I think with all the classes that I learn so much in, it's pretty overwhelming a bit and feels like there's so much practice and memorization I need to do, it can be pretty easy to get swept up, as in all our lives. But when I slow myself down and just think in simple terms and when I slow down to simple things in espanol it's much better to make progress but also love the language. Because we learned this week that there is nothing quite like teaching in people's native culture and language, and it stands out when someone who is not native speaks, or tries to speak, their language. And I love that, and I'm looking forward to trying my best, i'm definitely not perfect but I know that it can be possible!
So next time I write I will have just been meeting my district in person for the first day! And I will be in Mexico! kind of hard to imagine really, but mi es muy expacion! I'm extremely grateful for my family making the most of this experience and for all my friends and others in my life, missions are hard on their own, but harder when you are alone.
In a closing thought: Outside of the language and study, I learned that serving as a mission is truly for Jesus christ. It is in his place as a mortal influence, and he is a constant influence, everlasting and ever present. Sometimes it's hard to not think on your own as a missionary, and selfishly. But by turning and living the way Christ would, leads to the most success. I can say with certainty we have a constant companion with us and that is the holy ghost. Any warm, happy, and good thing is of god. When you are distinguishing between yourself and spirit promptings, good things are always of the spirit, and if you are unsure, you can't really go wrong with doing the right thing anyways! But these are my main takeaways from the week! I love being a missionary, remember you don't need the nametag to share the word! It is love and joy!
I love you all! Feel free to email me, I'll look forward to it!
Lots of love, Elder Spencer
FOTOS:
Same as 2 aha
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