This week has been super fun (picture overload)

Hola!

This week has been super fun. Best part...MOUNTAIN DEW!!! Had my first Mountain Dew in who knows how long. More or less 16 months haha which I basically cried when I saw it lol. It tasted so good. We played for the first time in 6 months today. When i say we played I mean...any kind of sport, we haven't played for six months. The President prohibited it haha but it felt really good. We played soccer for a long time and I'm pretty sure I look like a tomato. I haven't ran for a super long time but I try to do my exercises in the morning haha it's hard sometimes okay? Tomorrow we have a zone conference with the President which should be super fun...they always give us good food. I love you all! Smile!

Elder Braden M Spence

We got super super soaked

Well Hi! 

This last week was really, really ....really cool. Sooo there was a Hurricane that passed by us and we got super super soaked. Then right after that everyone told us that a different Hurricane was passing by and we got even more soaked! There was absolutely no point in using an umbrella or anything because it was literally like we hopped in a pool with all our clothes on and then started knocking doors haha. We are being protected for sure because we didn't get sick at all.

We are finding some great people that have been prepared before we even found them. There is this one lady named Beatris that talked with the missionaries a long time ago. She and her son never got baptized but really like going to church. She stopped going for years and then we got a reference in the house that she lived in but the reference wasn't there so we just talked with her. She is like 50 years old and her parents already passed away. She says that they both have come to her in dreams but never together. One time she talked with her Mom because she knew she was dead and asked her where her Dad was and why they are never together. (They were married 50 years) She then asked us last week what she could do to help her parents be together and if its even possible. Anyone who isn't part of our religion may not know what exactly we do in our Temples. In our churches, everyone is allowed to come in and listen and observe ect. we hold our services there Sundays. But in our temples we do marriages and things called baptisms for the dead and sealings. In 1 Peter it talks about how Jesus in the three days that he was dead went to a spiritual prison to preach to the dead. In the last chapters of Malaquias (Editors Note: what book is that?) it says that Elias the Prophet would come to turn the hearts of the Fathers to the Children and the hearts of the Children to the Fathers. What we do is we can use our bodies in proxy to be baptized for those that have passed on from this life. It doesn't mean that they are saved but we know that they are being preached to in the next world if they didn't get the chance to in this world. We do family history work to search our ancestors so that we can do these things. We know that Joseph Smith received the authority to do this work and has given it to other worthy males. We taught this lady that she could prepare to be baptized to prepare to enter into the Temple where she would be able to use her body in proxy for the name of her mother and do these ordinances for her IF they choose to accept the gospel in the next life. If they do, her parents have Gods promise to be sealed together forever. We asked her at the end how she felt and she simply said, I have finally found the answer to the question I have had for so many years. :) I love this work. I know that all can help their family and friends that have passed from this life be sealed together for time and all eternity. My great grandma died last week. I know she lives and loves me. She is dancing with my mom in the heavens resting in beautiful peace...and that brings me great great joy. I love you MeMama, you will forever be in my heart. I will see you soon. Te amo

Elder Braden M. Spence 

I have been Illegal for 4 months

Hola! 

Whelp I'm here in Tapachula still! It is suuuuper hot! I love it
here though! I have never seen so many pretty sunsets in all my life.
There is a volcano next to us that is super huge, apparently it's
active! My compañion is Elder Granados from Guadalajara, Mexico and is
really funny. He is the youngest of 10 children! This week was super
long because the first part of the week was a conference for the
leaders in our mission and later in the week I had to go back to
Tuxtla to renew my Visa because I have been Illegal for 4 months haha.
Just so you know, the travel to Tuxtla from Tapachula is a 6 hour bus
ride! So this was my week; Monday, p-day and travel to Tuxtla.
Tuesday, conference and back to Tapachula. Wednesday, zone conference
and work from 3-9. Thursday, weekly planning in the morning and travel
to Tuxtla. Friday, visa papers and we came back to Tapachula. Saturday
and Sunday work haha. In total, we were on a bus for 24 hours! Talk
about a lot of reading, sleeping, and staring at the jungle haha. But
the life here is super awesome! The food is way better than my last
area and the best is that there is Dominos pizza here! Had my first
dr.pepper in 6 months with was a taste of heaven for me. I love you all
and hope you all doing well! Smile! Oren y lean.

Elder Braden M. Spence