May 28, 2013 - Davenport

Dear Family:

Well it has been a wet week in Iowa.  We have been receiving a lot of rain here and the creek that we are close by has risen quite a bit.  During the weekend it was really raining.  In some parts of town where there is a slope down there was up to 1 foot of water.  In front of our apartment yesterday morning there was a pool of water that they had to close the road off so it could drain.  Sadly we did not have the car when it was raining this weekend so as a result Elder Bankhead has a little bit of a cold that he is getting over. 

Well I had a great birthday doing missionary work.  And to finish off the day we got a phone call for someone that is interested in being baptized.  That was quite the gift to receive.  Well this is a big week.  We have the baptism of our golden investigator.  We had a little problem figuring out the time for the baptism but got it finalized for 5 on friday.  I am still a little bit worried because most people are still at work at that time or are getting out of school.  I am keeping my fingers crossed for people to be there.  We are also still figuring out who will do what for the program.  Elder Bankhead will be baptizing him (thanks to a coin flip).  But I just have a feeling that everything will be alright and that it will all fall into place.

This weekend we will also be getting transfer calls.  I am a little anxious to find out where I go.  I am sure that I will be transfered but there is always a small chance that I will stay and Elder Bankhead will go.  I always did hate waiting for these calls.  Well everything else is going well.  Love you all and I love sharing the Gospel!

Sincerely;
Elder Spencer Ariotti

May 20, 2013 - Davenport

Dear Family:

Well it has been another week in Iowa.  It has been very warm lately and we also had some good rain storms last few nights.  We were even on tornado warning all last night.  Elder Bankhead was really hoping that we would get a tornado.  Sometimes he worries me with what he wishes for.  Our investigators are doing well.  Our investigator that will be baptized on the 31st has his interview thursday so we are hoping that he passes.Which he should.  He is so solid.  He has not gone back to his coffee or tea or any of that.  He truly has been prepared by the Lord for us.  We found another investigator that is the grandson of a less active member.  He is 13 so he will be easy to teach as long as he doesnt have any word of wisdom problems and I would be surprised if he did.

Our other investigators are doing well.  We will need to push one date back because of the ward trek but we think she will be fine with that.  Our other investigator is still waiting to get married but he is so ready for it.  Well these are the last three weeks of my time training.  It is also the last 6 weeks of President Jergensen as our mission president which is sad.  He has been a great man to me and to the mission.  But President Jensen will be a great man as well.  Who knows what lies in store with me as a missionary.  But I know that the Lord knows what he is doing.  Love you all and the church is true!

Sincerely;

Elder Spencer Ariotti

May 14, 2013 - Davenport

Dear Family:

Well it was great talking to everyone yesterday!  Yes it is true I did have a smile on the whole time and my face did hurt by the end of the phone call.  There are few things that compare in a mission to calling home and talking with people.  I would like to do the skype idea for christmas time.  I was actually thinking about asking for that.  We will just have to organize it so that I can be at a members home that does that.

Well I dont have much else to say.  I already said everything that needed to be.  Life is going good and it will keep on getting better.  It is suppose to get up to 85 today so it will be hard.  Oh and there was one thing that happened.  We had a less active member die last wednesday that I had grown very close to.  She was in very poor health and life was just very hard for her and her husband.  But she is in a better place now.  We will be going to the funeral today so it should be good.

Love you all!

Elder Spencer Ariotti

May 7, 2013 - Davenport

Dear Family:

Well it has been another week in Davenport Iowa.  We did have a lot of clouds over our head and some rain but we got no snow.  We did hear that a lot of areas in the northern part of the mission got hit really hard.  Up to a foot in some areas we hear.  But all is well with Davenport.  We should be warming up a lot more this next week.  We had the great opportunity to hear from Elder Neal Anderson of the quorum of the 12.  We also had Elders Reall, Dube and Clayton.  We had great revelation given to us and we felt the spirit greatly during that meeting.  I was also able to find out that one of my good friends from Bountiful is in the mission now.  She is being trained now by a missionary sister that I have served around a lot in my mission.

Well in other news we had to drop two of our investigators because they were not interested in what we had to share.  It is always sad to have to drop investigators but they have there agency.  Sometimes I want to say goodbye to agency but I think then of what a blessing it really is and how it has helped me in so many ways.  We are still doing good with our golden investigator.  We are seeing if we can move his baptism date to a sooner day so that we can have him count for the month of May.  President Jergensen has set for the month of May the goal of 100 baptisms and we need to make sure that it is accomplished.  On the other hand we have a teenager investigator that is having a hard time.  We feel that it is because she has no people that she knows in the Ward.  This is the same investigator that failed her baptism interview.  Her Grandma told us that she is thinking of stopping meeting with us and not even getting baptized.  We talked with the young women and they said they will try to fellowship her into going to church.  We are hoping that it will help her.

Other then that we are just working on trying to contact potential investigators.  We are always trying to work hard and leave our area better then when we had found it.  One of the Elders that had served in Davenport before stayed with us for a night before saturday and said that he liked how we were improving the area.  However we were just told that the Bishop wants us to get up to 40 lessons a week.  The highest a missionary has ever gotten in the mission is 31.  This will be fun.  Love you all!

Sincerely;

Elder Spencer Ariotti

April 29, 2013 - Davenport

Dear Family:

Well it has been another week in Davenport.  It is starting to get warm here.  We were actually able to take off our suit jackets today.  This summer should be a real fun one since I am this close to the river.  They say it is very humid here and there are a lot of thunder storms so that should be fun.  And the last time they had a tornado was years ago so I should be safe from all of that.

Well this week was good for meeting with investigators.  One of our dates came to church and he told all the members that he was getting baptized in June.  Man this guy is so golden.  Our other investigators are doing fine.  We are working well with the members and they are always happy to help us out with rides.  This last week was transfers and we got a new set of missionaries in one of the neighboring wards.  We will be sharing the car with them now.  Unfortunately that puts us without a car for two weeks straight but that will not stop the Lords work.

Well I love you all and I know this Gospel is true!

Sincerely;

Elder Spencer Ariotti

April 22, 2013 - Davenport

Dear Family:

Well it has been a very interesting week in Davenport.  For about 3 days it was raining and there was thunder and the result being the flood of the mississippi river.  It went up about 2 or 3 streets from the river front.  On the last day it rained we drove past all the parks in the area and all of them that had lakes were buried in water.  Creeks were also flooded and because of that many basements were flooded.  But the rain has stopped and it has warmed up a little bit.  But it sounds like we will be getting some more rain and wind and all that stuff.  They say that in Iowa every time you blink the weather changes.  That is totally true.  I think I may have seen it gone through all for seasons in the past few weeks.  It was warm, then it got cold, then it snowed a little bit, then it warmed up and there was rain, now it will be humid for a little while.  I am not in Utah anymore.

Well the work is going great.  Our baptism that was going to happen this weekend failed her baptism interview.  It is a little sad but we are not giving up on her.  She didnt fail the worthiness part just the lessons learned part.  So we will set a date with her to be baptized in June.  We did get a new investigator met this past week.  He was being taught by first ward elders but they found out he was in our area so they handed him over.  He is a way solid guy and wants to get baptized.  The sisters in Bettendorf found someone in our area that they taught once.  And this morning we talked to a lady that is not happy with her church so we said that we can help her.  The work is truly speeding a long in Davenport Iowa.  We will be getting another set of missionaries in our district this week so that is good.  We will be getting around 38 new missionaries this week.  about 11 or 12 will be missionaries waiting to go to San Paulo and one to I think Australia.  Oh and yesterday morning before going to church we went to visit a Baptist church to see how they worship.  We were the only white people in the building and there was a lot of praising.  It was a good experience thought.

Well that is all I have to report on.  Love you all and I love sharing this Gospel.  This is the true church!

Sincerely;
Elder Spencer Ariotti

April 15, 2013 - Davenport

Dear Family:

 

Well it has been another week in Davenport.  This past week it has been very wet and windy.  Then for saturday and sunday it has been warming up.  But now for this next week we will be getting mor rain and some thunder storms.  Out here the thunderstorms are loud and happen a lot during the summer time.  I am honestly not looking forward to when it will be getting warmer.  The humidity here is also suppose to be the worst close to the river.  The work is doing good.  We are preparing our investigator for her baptism on the 27 of this month.  She is way excited and so are we.  This will be the first baptism that I have taught the whole time.  This thursday we will find out if she is ready with the interview.  Hopefully she will pass and I am confident that she will.  But if she doesnt pass we will work throught it and she will be baptized. 

 

This past week we got 3 new investigators to teach.  One of the investigators I am not really sure if we will continue to teach.  He likes to listen to us but I think he is just looking to us for information and not for the truth.  The other two seem like they could progress well.  We also were able to get a less active and her little family to church.  The kids are 8 and two 6.  The 8 year old says that she is wanting to get baptized but we are not really sure if we can teach her since she is not yet nine years old.  The Less active has not been to church since she was a teenager but she said that she really liked the meetings.

 

Well here is an interesting story for the week.  Me and Elder Bankhead were knocking on doors and we went to this one door and this older guy walks out.  "I could walk circles around you guys with the bible and you would not even change.  You guys have changed the bible so much and you should be ashamed of yourself.  I will not see you guys later."  Well with that we were speechless but Elder Bankhead said: "Well we love you!  See you later!"  Then the guy opened the door once more and replied: "I dont think so."  With that me and Elder Bankhead walked away and we laughed at the whole situation.  We honestly think he thought we were someone else because we have not at all changed the Bible.  We believe the Bible to be the word of God as far as it is translated correctly.  I honestly believe that.  The Bible has been changed around a lot but we have the most correct version of it along with a book that is another testament of Christ.  I know it.

 

I love you all!

 

Sincerely;

Elder Spencer Ariotti

April 8, 2013 - Davenport

Dear Family:

 

Well it has been another hard working week in Davenport Iowa.  This past week we had a lot of meetings to go to.  Wednesday we meet as a zone to recieve some trainings by the zone leaders.  Thursday we meet as trainers to talk with President Jergensen.  And friday we meet as a district to talk with President Jergensen in interviews.  Then we had General Conference this past weekend.  So it has been a very long and spiritual filled week.  The work is going very well and is speeding up.  One of our investigators is preparing for Baptism on the 27 of this month.  She is very excited and so are we.  We may need to push the day back a little bit because we do need to get permission from her parents to get her baptized and that may take some time to do.  But she seems like she is ready.

 

Well Conference was very good.  A lot of talks about member missionary work which is good for the members out here to listen to.  They have many friends they are just a little hesitant about sharing the Gospel with people.  There where other talks that really stuck out to me about talking with people and helping those that we notice are a little sad.  All the talks were very good though.  We were able to have our two main investiagtors at a session of conference and they both liked it.  It is so great to be able to have inspired leaders that listen to the councils of God.

 

Well this week we should be warming up a lot with the weather.  I think spring is finally here.  We will be working alot this week with investigators and preparing them for baptism so keep them in your prayers.  Love you all!

 

Sincerely;

Elder Spencer Ariotti

April 1, 2013 - Davenport

Dear Family:

 

Well it has been another big week in Davenport Iowa.  The biggest news is that on May fourth we will have a member of the 12 and a president of the 70 in town and they want to have a visit with all the missionaries in the IDMM.  We just found out about this not to long ago so it is very big news.  We also have general conference to look foreward to which is going to be great.  Me and Elder Bankhead this week were able to teach 21 lessons with people which is the most we have ever done together and the most I have ever done in one week as a missionary so far.

 

This past week we set up a date for an investigator to be baptized on April 27.  As long as everything goes well with teaching her she will be baptized on that day.  Her mom is a less active that wants nothing to do with the church so we are hoping that she will not say no.  Other then that we are just trying to find new investigators.  We have a lot of potentials but we are just not able to meet with any of them.  The good news is that we will be getting the car back on wednesday which will be nice.  Riding on the bus is fun but it is so time consuming.  Well spring looks like it may be hear for good.  It is starting to warm up and that is good.

 

Well I had dinner with a member this past week that many of you may recognize.  The last name is Roderick and he says that he lived down the street from us when we lived by Dicks.  When he said that I about died.  He seems like a very nice guy and he is on the high council for the stake.  Anyway I just thought that that was cool.

 

Love you all!

 

Sincerely;

Elder Spencer Ariotti

March 25, 2013 - Davenport

Dear Family:

 

Well it has been another good week in Davenport.  Me and Elder Bankhead have been working our hardest this past week to get the work moving in this area.  We got a new investigator this week.  She is the granddaughter of a member and has expressed interest in learning.  She was unable to come to church yesterday and neither was our golden investigator but it is all good.  We did have two of the Zone leaders Investigators in our church meetings but that does not really count since they are not in our area.  This past week me and Elder Bankhead have been getting really familiar with the bus system in town.  I dont like the bus but my companion loves it.  It is a big headache to do planning at night since we need to figure out which bus we need to take but it is better then walking everywhere, especially in the more darker parts of town.  We have also had more funny experiences with the bus then with the car.  So on our way back home on the bus Elder Bankhead talks to this old black lady and she asks for $5 from him.  He pulls out a $10 and he says that is all that he has and he gives it to her.  Well we got off and Elder Bankhead wanted to eat out so we went to A and W.  After he ordered the manager comes up to the cash register and gives him a discount.  She then looks at him and says:  I heard what happened on the bus.  She had heard from a guy that came in what he did and he got blessed for it!  It was very awesome that it happened to him.

 

Well we will be moving back to riding on the bus this Thursday.  We are hoping that we can work as hard as we did this past week.  It will be hard but with the Lords help I know we can do it.  Everything is just going great.  Love you all and I hope you all take some time this weekend to thank God for the atonement that his son went through.  It is a great and very beautiful thing in this world.

 

Sincerely;

Elder Spencer Ariotti