Monday, June 25th 2018

Last Monday, we went to Family Home Evening with a family in our ward and they had one of the kid's friends there from school who was not a member. We had a great evening and he enjoyed the lesson. Afterward we had a jazz session. The dad is a music major and he is in the Marine Band and he plays the saxophone. It was really fun, and the non-member kid brought his trumpet.

We had a recent convert over at a member's house this week. We had dinner and a lesson. The member is a brother and his wife is not a member, so we were really excited to have a fun evening with her and the recent convert, but while she was preparing dinner, she dropped a knife and it went through her foot, so that was an interesting surprise. She is fine, they had their neighbor who is a nurse come over and help. We still had a great evening. The brother is really into Canary breeding, and he is the president of the Canary breeding club around the world. He took us into his basement to show of us all of his Canaries, and there were hundreds. It was fascinating. 

While we were in the parking lot leaving from church, I saw a family get out of the car that looked familiar. It was a family from my last area. They were attending the sacrament meeting after ours. I went up to them to say hi, and they told me that they are looking for a place to live in the area. It would be awesome if they moved into our ward.

At a dinner appointment we were at a members house and they asked us to check on their less active friend and her two daughters. We went over there and got to know them and set up a time to come back the next day to do some yard work. We talked to them afterward and asked if they would all be interested in hearing the discussions. They all said yes and we are teaching them now. Working with members is by far the most effective way to find people to teach. 

Elder Dallin McKay Spurgeon 

Monday, June 18th 2018

Hello Everyone! 

There is a story I forgot to tell you last week. When Michael was pre-baptised, he was at the Elders Quorum President's house and he saw a picture on the wall that he really loved. It was a picture of Christ reaching into the water picking up Peter. He loved it so much he took a picture of it on his phone and looked at it whenever he was having a hard time. His phone glitched and he lost everything on it so he did not have the picture anymore. We were at a members house with post-baptized Michael, and they wanted to give him a gift. It was the same exact photo he saw before. He loved it so much. He was always so sad because he saw a lot of pictures of family and gospel art hanging on the wall at member's homes, and he wanted that too. Now he has his favorite picture hanging on the wall. His Aaronic Priesthood Certifcate is hanging on the wall right next to it.

Last week we had family home evening at the Stake Presidents house with a mom and daughter we have been working with. It was probably one of the most intersting group of personalities I have ever experienced, but yet, they mixed so well. It was a wonderful evening. President Sakai is awesome. At the end of Family Home Evening, President Sakai asked us and Michael to come into his office. There, he asked Michael if he would be willing to speak in Stake Conference. Michael agreed. Michael is so awesome, he was so excited to speak even if there were 1400 people watching him.   

Sadly, Michael got really sick so he was not able to speak. He got bit by a tick a couple of weeks ago, and it developed into Lyme Disease. We hope he will be okay. There is a point in the development of Lyme disease, where if you catch it soon enough, you can easily stop it by taking some antibiotics. He is on them now and will be taking them for 30 days, we are in frequent contact with him to see how he is doing. 

Oddly enough, we got the call from Michael telling us he has Lyme disease while we were at the urgent care. Why were we at the urgent care you may ask? Well, because weeks ago I got bit by a tick.  I pulled it out and thought all is well, but just a couple of days ago I started to develop the rash, which is a rash that shows up when the tick that bites you was carrying the Lyme Disease. Ever since I got my tick bite, I have been joking with my companion that I think I have the bullseye rash, so when I actually saw it and said I think I have the bullseye rash, he was like "oh shush!!"  Then I showed him and his face was priceless. So we drove to the urgent care and I was put on an antibiotic for 10 days. I will be totally fine, I caught it very soon. Me and Michael are in the same boat, except his case is worse.  

Every month they have a fireside at the temple visitors center called "Why I Believe" with two guest speakers, two recent convert testimonies and other spirit filled things. This week was Why I Believe and my good friend Ian Somerville who was baptised in Olney (my last area) was going to bare his testimony. I was super excited to go, and we had a lot of investigators who were going too. We had to find a lot of investigators rides up to the visitor's center. While we found rides for all of our investigators, we forgot to find rides for us. We are not allowed to drive up ourselves, members have to drive us up. Well, with 50 minutes before it started and an hour and 20-minute drive to get to the visitor center, we get a call from Chris, who is a recently reactivated member who said he could give us a ride up. We said, "Yes please." We were waiting at the church building for him to pick us up, and we heard a loud car revving its engine around the corner. Chris comes around the corner with his sports car and says let's go. We hop in and... let's just say we made it on time for me to hear Ian's testimony. 

This week we signed up to be Clergymen at the local Hospital. We talked to Reverand Alice ( The person in charge) and we are all set. Now, we will visit everyone in the hospital who signs up for spiritual support and would like a visit with us. We start this Wednesday and will do it every Wednesday for a couple of weeks. Plus, we get a free hospital meal each time we go. 

This week we had a 70 visit us, Elder Corbridge. He talked a lot about the why of what we are doing and having us help our investigators to know the same. The biggest take away for me was how important receiving personal revelation is in our lives, and how Heavenly Father will tell us through the Holy Ghost the path we should take, but you first need to seek, then have faith and listen, then follow through, and report back to our Father in Heaven. On the way back from Elder Corbridge's visit, our car got in a little tussle with another car, our car and another car swiped sides. All is well, the man was very nice, minimal damage. 

I am not sure why I am so scared to send this E-mail. I only got Lyme Disease this week, got in one car accident, and went 100 miles an hour down the beltway to the visitors center. Well, I will talk to you next week... Hopefully.

Elder Dallin Spurgeon  

Monday, June 11th 2018

A couple of weeks ago me and my companion were walking down a neighborhood and we saw two ladies sitting on the front porch, so we approched them and introduced ourselves. One of the ladies said she was already Mormon, but she has not been to church for over 7 years. We talked to them for awhile and we found out that the inactive ladies son is in our ward, but they dont talk very much anymore. Both of them agreed to meet with us again. The next time we visited, we invited them to church, turns out that the lady is also a huge Elvis Presley fan, and we found ourselves in a deal. If she would come to church, each of us would have to sing her an Elvis song of her choice. She came to church and the next time we visited, my companion sang "Teddy Bear", and I sang "Suspicious Minds". Members printed out the lyrics for us and helped us practice. We really put on a show. I would not of been able to do it if it were not for my Mom teaching me her karaoke skills. The other lady has also agreed to be baptized. The inactive Ladies son has been taking her to church and sitting with her for the past few weeks now, and they are talking to each other more now. Thank you Elvis! 

Have you guys ever heard of Ramadan? its an Islamic Holy Month, where Muslims fast from sun up to sun down for 30 days. There is a couple more days of Ramadan left. Half way through Ramadan, we knocked into a muslim man, and for some reason, my companion agreed to participate in the fast till the end of Ramadan. He has kept it up, and has a lot of explaining to do whenever we eat at members houses. The Muslim man also invited us to the breaking of the fast of the last saturday of Ramadan. So of course we went. It was at their Mosque and entirely authentic. The food was wonderful, but hot. The dessert according to them was super sweet, but my American tongue found it no more sweet then a saltine. Everyone came up to talk to us and we learned so much from each other. We also got to witness one of the 5 prayers they do daily. It was so fascinating. I could write about it all day, but you can look it up and learn all about it. 

Wow, there is plenty of Poison Ivy down here. One of the Elders got it very bad, and they don't have a car at the moment so we had to drive him to the clinic. It looks terrible, so you have to watch out for it. There are so, so many home remedies the locals tell us about, I'm beginning to think if you put anything on it, it will help it. 

There is a family we are working with, that has a mom, dad, and daughter. The mom has parents who are members and she was never baptized, and her husband is not a member either, but the daughter was baptized when she was 8 and she is 15 now but has not been to church since they moved here from Arizona a couple of years ago. The dad is in the air force and is on a 2 year deployment in Turkey. The mom and the daughter have been coming to church and going over to members houses for lessons and dinner, and have been getting to know a lot of people in the ward and have been having a great time. The daughter is going to girls camp and youth conference this year. Finding that family was such a blessing and I have loved working with them. We are excited to see the mom progress in the gospel and follow her daughters and Jesus Christs example and be baptized. 

Lets gather Israel my friends!

Elder Dallin Spurgeon 

Monday, June 4th 2018

Hello family and friends. This last week was transfers and I found out I am staying here in southern Maryland. At the last district meeting one of the Elders had a Polaroid, so I took a picture with it and I look like I'm a missionary from the 80`s, which is awesome. 

This week we were able to do some service on a farm that was having a kids day. We set up huge tents and bailed lots of hay. I can now say that I have bailed hay. 

Everyone tells me here that I have to look for ticks, which is something I have never really had to worry about before.  The other day I looked at my leg and saw a tick latched on to my leg. I was freaking out because of the diseases ticks can give you. So, I got a lighter and burned it out. I check my body for ticks all the time now. 

Down here in southern Maryland, I have experienced the hardest rain storms I have ever seen. It comes down hard, and you have to park on the side of the road until it clears a bit so you can see. 

I was able to watch the youth fireside devotional this week by President Nelson and his wife, and it was terrific. President Nelson talked a lot about personal revelation like he did in conference, and that stuck out to me. He talked a lot about the For the Strength of Youth pamphlet, which I am defiantly going to go over it again and encourage people of all ages to do the same. 

The mission is going great, and the work continues. 

Elder Dallin Spurgeon