Dear Friends and Families,

Really cool week! We had an awesome specialized training this week! I felt the Spirit as President Ware and the APs told us how we can focus on our purpose. The Spirit also showed me how we could help D________. So we went over there (side note: she read 80 chapters in one week nbd) and invited her to pray about being baptized and she said she would. We came by the next day and she said that her answer was that she would know when she was ready. It has been awesome to see someone receiving revelation for themselves, even though its not the answer we wanted, but God's way is far superior to Elder Coleman's way. She and her husband have noticed a significant change in their lives and its been an incredible blessing for me to continue to help them progress towards Christ. We also have a church tour with O______ and his family tonight so hopefully that will be awesome.

So I finished "Jesus the Christ" this week and it was such an amazing experience to read about Christ's perfect life and how He has done so much for us. So, I have decided to read Ye Olde Testament. We'll see how this goes. So far though, it has been really great to learn from the example of the early Patriarchs, especially that of Abraham. When God asked him to sacrifice his son, he with unwavering faith in God's promises and steadfast obedience, was willing to give up what he cared about most. Fortunately, he was not asked to give up his only son. As many of you know, Abraham's sacrifice was in similitude of God's sacrifice of His Son (Jacob 4:5). I know that Christ is my Savior and that through Him, I can return to Him whom I love. I am so grateful for Him and for all of your love and support. Thank you and have a great week!

Love,

Elder Spencer Coleman

June 18, 2014

Dear Friends and Family,

Sorry this letter isn't going out until Wednesday. We went to the temple and so P-day is today. The temple was yet another amazing experience. I really encourage you to regularly attend the temple if you can or work towards that. We had a really awesome week this week! We have been going through the ward directory and we are trying to help some of the less active members of the ward return to church. It has been cool to me to see that amazing people sometimes can fall off the beaten path, but fortunately, Christ had suffered for us so that we can change and receive the blessings of the Gospel.

We had a really powerful lesson with D_______ on Monday. The Spirit was there because we taught as Christ did by using inspired questions so that she can receive revelation for herself. She now knows that she needs to pause and listen in her prayers so that she can recognize the promptings that come through the Spirit.

I can testify that as you live worthily and pray with real intent, that you will learn to recognize the promptings from the Holy Spirit and your life will be blessed immensely because of this. I love you all and have a great week!

Love,

Elder Spencer Coleman

June 9, 2014

Dear family and friends,

We had a pretty cool week this week. D________ and T_______ came to church which was pretty awesome! We also started meeting with a few part member families so hopefully those go well.

Well, since we have knocked all the houses in our area twice, we have decided to take a different approach. Elder G and I also decided to go through every single name on the ward directory and teach whoever was willing. We had a super cool miracle because of it. We just had a list of names in the area and we got to the next one and went there, and she invited us right in. She said that she was watching something on the TV and it talked about the Elders and the laying on of hands for healing. She decided she needed a blessing to overcome an addiction that she has. So she decided to look for us. After calling different people and using various means to contact us, she decided that she would just walk and look for us. Before she could do that, we knocked on her door looking for her. We were there at just the right time because she was praying and was about to go for a walk to try to find us. So we gave her the blessing and it was a very good one. We set up a return appointment and hopefully, this experience changes her life. It was really cool that God would use us (unaware missionaries) to be an instrument in his hands of blessing (literally) the lives of one of His beloved children.

Lately, I've been trying to read to scripture with real intent, looking for answers to questions. I was reading 2 Nephi 4 (one of my favorites) and came across verse 28-30:

"Awake, my soul! No longer droop in sin. Rejoice, O my heart, and give place no more for the enemy of my soul. Do not anger again because of mine enemies. Do not slacken my strength because of mine afflictions. Rejoice, O my heart, and cry unto the Lord, and say: O Lord, I will praise thee forever; yea, my soul will rejoice in thee, my God, and the rock of my salvation."

I looked up the word droop in the dictionary and it said, "to languish because of grief." Well, I didn't know what languish meant either so I looked up it and it said, "To become dull or spiritless." So the definition I wrote in my scriptures was to become Spiritless because of the grief. That grief is caused by the effects of sin, so we all need to not beat ourselves because we are not perfect because we have a Savior, one who has suffered for us so that if we have faith in Him and repent, we do not have to droop. Instead, we will rejoice and praise Him who "with wood and nails, built mansions for us all." I love my Savior and am ever grateful for His sacrifice for me, so that one day, I can be like Him and live with God for eternity. I love you all and have a great week!

Love,

Elder Spencer Coleman

Still in Umatilla!

Dear Friends and Family,

We had a great week last week. Transfer are this week and Elder G______ and I are staying for our third run! He's a cool guy and we have unfinished business so I'm glad we are staying another.

Unfortunately, I have neglected to share any cool stories from the past few weeks so here is a cool story that happened 2 weeks ago. We were planning on doing service in the morning with K______, but she had to cancel. We were really bummed because mornings are really hard to plan for. During my nightly prayers, I felt that we should go see the H family in the morning. So, that morning we went and when we got there, D______ had prayed about Jacob 5 because it made no sense to her (no surprise). Then, 5 mins later we show up. C_______ commented, "Do you guys read minds or something?" We said no but inside I was chuckling to myself because God knows everything and he let us know so in a sense we do. That was definitely a testimony to her. She is still waiting for "THE answer" but it will come eventually. My message for today is The Church is true, the Book is blue, the laborers are few, and nothing much else is new (I've been working on my rapping;). Love you all and have a great week!

Love,

Elder Spencer Coleman