February 18, 2013 - Davenport

Dear Family:

 

Sorry but today is going to have to be a short one.  We have a survice opportunity this morning and I dont have a lot of time.  Work is going well and it is very cold here.  Just last night we got a little bit of snow and slush and it decided to turn to ice.  Very nervous about my knee but I am doing my best to have faith that nothing will happen.  One of our dates that we have is a college student that is getting married to a member.  He has to wait to get baptized in the summer after they get married.  We are trying to make it happen sooner but he is jsut waiting for some prayers.  He is a way awesome guy.

 

Good luck to laura with her surgery on Wednesday.  Keeping her in my prayers as I am with all of you.  Love you all and I love this Gospel and sharing it.

 

Sincerely;

Elder Spencer Ariotti

February 11, 2013 - Davenport

Dear Family:

 

Well to start off there has been a little bit of confusion as to my new area.  If you have not guessed already I will not be going to Canton to reopen it.  There are Elders in Canton now but I am not one of them.  My new area is (drum rolllllllllllllllll, crash!):  Davenport 2nd ward!  Yep I have moved down the street from Clinton.  I am in the same zone just in a ward now!  I am still a little surprised that I am in the same Zone as before.  My new companion is Elder Wilson.  He has been out for 17 months and is from Lehi, Utah.  It has been a great few days meeting the people of Davenport.  Yesterday we had two investigators in church.  For one of those investigators it was his first time in church.  He seemed to enjoy it and he has been befriended well by the members of the Ward.  He recieved help from one of the stake leaders on getting a job for himself.  We had Ward conference as well yesterday and we recieved some great advice from the president for spending time with our families.

 

Well a little bit about the area:  it is another college area.  We have a school called Palmer in the city that is a chiropractice university.  So we have a lot of young couples in the ward that are students at Palmer.  The area that we cover is as big as my other areas which is nice because now I can walk a little bit more and work off this extra weight I have gained.  The weather is trying to warm up.  We hear that it may be getting down to the single digits this weekend but no reports on snow.  We have been getting a lot of wind and rain recently so it is very wet outside.  The district that I am in is great.  One of the Elders that I came out with is in our district so it was fun getting to visit with him.  Elder Barson (my last companion in Clinton)  is not training his best friend from his home town but his friend is in his district that he is now in charge of.  It is still very weird to think that I am still in the same zone as my last area.  Saturday night me and my companion and the Zone leaders helped with a stake valentines dance by serving food.  I saw a lot of the members from clinton there and that was a little weird.  After serving food we sat there as people danced on the dance floor that we had just cleared out.  We got a few funny pictures of four missionaries just sitting there looking bumbed out while everyone around us is dancing.

 

Well there is nothing much else to report on besides that.  I have been enjoying the new area and getting to know people.  The work has been going well and this Ward has a good ward mission leader that has come up with some good ideas to help get the missionary work going.  Love you all and I know that this gospel is true and does change lives!

 

Sincerely;

Elder Spencer Ariotti

February 4, 2013 - Clinton

Dear Family:

Well it has been another week in Clinton.  Big news: I am getting transferred back to Canton!  I don't know if I will be turning senior companion yet all I know is that I am opening up that area to missionary work again.  Elder Barson is staying in Clinton and will be district leader and he will be training a visa waiter.  He has been told that one of the visa waiters is his old friend from back home.  He has been told that he may be training him for however long he is going to be in Iowa.  We have been told that visa waiters can be waiting for either 2 weeks or for longer.  So Elder Barson is very excited about that.

Other then that we have just been packing and saying goodbye to the members in Clinton.  The members here are so great and so very supportive.  I was talking to one of the members last night and saying goodbye and he told me that I was an inspiration to him and his wife and that he will always look to me as a grandson.  I almost broke out into tears at that comment.  It will be hard to say goodbye to all the members here but I must move one and do the lords work in Canton.  I have been told that I should not be there any longer then a transfer.  And this next transfer will be shortened one week because we have new missionaries coming out.  This week we will be getting around 20 missionaries and 9 visa waiters.  There will be more coming especially in the summer with school ending.  I am just glad that I am not yet training.  But my time will come soon.

Well that is about all that I have to report on.  Love you all and I know that this Gospel is true and that this is Gods true church on earth.

Sincerely;
Elder Spencer Ariotti

January 29, 2013 - Clinton

Dear Family:

Well it has been another week in Clinton.  The weather has been very confused these last few days.  It seems that we are on this pattern where we get very cold and maybe a little snow and then it starts warming up.  We are right now where we are warming up before the cold gets here.  It is right now in the 50's outside and is raining.  Tomorrow it is going to get very cold all the sudden and a little bit of snow.  We do not know how much but we here it is going to be a few inches.  Nothing like what I here you guys are getting in Utah.  We did get grounded last Sunday because there was a threat of freezing rain but it was not bad outside.  Me and Elder Barson were sick on Sunday so it was not like we could do much anyway.  I had a sore throat and Elder Barson had a little cold.  We were both feeling great by the end of the day after some sleep.  The Iowa Winter Games were great on Saturday.  It was a long drive to the destination but it was fun.  Me and Elder Barson did the score keeping for some sixth graders.  We did get yelled at a few times because the score was wrong but we fixed the problem.  I dont think they even knew that we were just missionaries and not professionals.  One of the coaches thought we were from the CIA and that President Obama was coming into town.  We had a mother come up to us after a game and talk to us about how we took her son out of the last 6 minutes of the game because of his five fouls.  She said he only had four even though I showed the foul sheet to the kids coach at half time and it showed that he had four fouls.  So yeah it was very interesting to be on the other side of the audience for this job.  We did get to watch a lot of basketball though and got free T-shirts. 

The work is going great.  The referral that we got last week for the old investigator turned out to be golden.  He really wants to change his life around and wants help with life.  His girl friend wants to get active and wants to go to the temple someday.  The only problem is that they are both out of a job and it is the end of the month.  They both have no money and only she has a sure place to stay at.  So we do have some issues but I just have a feeling that everything will be OK.  We have been having a problem with getting a hold of the other investigators in our teaching pool but we are holding strong to hope.  We have also received a confirmation that I may be going back to Canton to open it up to missionary work again.  With interviews this past week Elder Barson asked President Jergensen what he was planning with that area.  President responded with this:  "I was thinking about sending Elder Ariotti to Canton today.  This is just a confirmation by the Spirit."  One of the Zone Leaders asked the same question but he did not tell us what President said back.  So expect next week an email saying that I am going back to Canton.  I will miss this area.  The members have been so nice and the investigators are so nice and accepting.  It is a shame I may not be coming back to this place.

Well nothing else to report on.  Love you all and I continue to pray for you all every night.

Sincerely;
Elder Spencer Ariotti

January 21, 2013 - Clinton

Dear Family:

Well it has been a cold one in Clinton Iowa.  Today is the coldest it has been so far this year.  It was about 10 degrees when I walked outside this morning.  It is going to get down to minus three tonight.  I think this will be the coldest I have ever been in.  We are going to be expecting snow tomorrow as well and we hear that it will not be getting to warm any time soon.  Good news: we found a new investigator last week!  Elder Barson found her on exchanges and she sounds like she is in need of some truth.  I have not been able to meet with her yet but we will go and visit her this week sometime.  I will also have the opportunity to help with the Iowa winter games.  It is in a town called Debuque which is in our zone and since it is sponsored by the LDS church we get to go and spend the day doing service.  From what I understand we will be helping with set up and keeping score for the games that will be going on.  We also found out this morning that we have a referral for one of the old investigators of the area.  We have been hearing great news throughout this week!  We will also be having our first interviews with President Jergensen tomorrow as well.

Well not a whole lot to report on.  Love you all so much and I know that this Gospel is true.

Sincerely;
Elder Spencer Ariotti

January 14, 2013 - Clinton

Dear Family:

Well it has been another week in Clinton Iowa!  We have received a inch of snow and a little rush of cold air.  From what I hear everyone is getting what I expected to get in my mission.  It is kinda weird......  As soon as I leave cold weather decides to come to Utah and leave Iowa......Anywho........  The work is going in the area.  We are having a hard time contacting most of our investigators.  They will not return our calls at all and are never home when we try to visit.  We are able to visit one investigator but that is because his parents are members and he wants to be baptized.  Other then that we are just trying to find new people to teach and trying to contact less actives.  We have found out that over Christmas time that people like it if we deliver fudge to them.  We are going to have to make another bunch of fudge so that we can get into houses.  If it worked on the members I am sure it can work on other people.

Other then that not much is really going on.  As I said it snowed and it is cold but it is not very icy outside so I am doing well with my knee.  We have not started the year off well with the goal of 550.  We only have about 10 so far this year.  President recently sent out a email saying that in order for the goal to be accomplished we need around 50 per month.  He also gave us the challenge to try and get 100 baptisms for the month of May.  That would require us to get around 25 more than what we got in the month of December with Baptisms.  But there is good news.  We will be getting a bunch of fresh missionaries for the next two months.  I feel kinda bad for one of the Elders coming out because it sounds like I will be training someone new soon.

Well that is all I have to report.  I love you all and hope you all stay warm with the cold weather in Utah.  The Gospel is true and it does bless lives!

Sincerely;
Elder Spencer Ariotti

January 7, 2013 - Clinton

Dear Family:

Greeting from Iowa!  It has been a good week here in Clinton.  On Monday of last week we spent the day in Geneseo and had some fun getting to know eachother a little bit better.  Throughout the rest of the week we tried to talk with as many people as we could.  We did not get in a lot of houses but we tried to touch there lives.  We were able to visit our only young investigator in the area.  His parents think that he will be baptized in March with his sister so that his Grandpa doesn't need to make multiple trips to Iowa.  We also had the great opportunity to go to the Nauvoo temple and do some work there.  It truly is a great temple and the spirit is so strong there.  Being away from a temple for as long as I have it was great to take some time and just get lost in the spirit.  We also ran into a future missionary in the Iowa Des Moines mission.  He told us that he was leaving in a few weeks for the MTC and will be out in the field in February.  Elder Barson continues to tell me that I will be training him.  So in other words: it was a bad week for missionary work but still a good week in spirit.

It is still a little bit cold.  The snow is melting and it is a little warmer.  I am hoping that it will snow again soon.  The only thing that I love about winter is the snow.  It just looks so pure and beautiful.  However I do not like the Ice.  And unfortunately Ice is very common in Iowa during the winter.  My knee is doing well.  The bruises from the tendons have disappeared and I am exercising it a lot.  I am keeping my brace on when I am outside and am trying not to slip on the ice.  Well I am running out of things to talk about.

Thanks for the Emails that I get!  Love you all and I hope that everyone is trying to keep warm during this cold season.  The Gospel is True!

Sincerely;
Elder Spencer Ariotti