Elder Spencer Mauter

Elder Spencer Mauter

Monday, August 22, 2016


Batismo!!!!!!!!!
Last week we baptized Aliedson! It was pretty sweet helping him to take the steps and prepare himself to be baptized. Aliedson is 20yrs old and has been coming to church with his neighbor Jessica who is a young woman in our ward who is 16 and doing missionary work! From our first day teaching him I was able to tell he was an elect son of god but then again he made it clear that he only went to church to visit. When we started to teach him he accepted everything we taught him. He also committed to read, pray and stop drinking coffee. It was pretty amazing for some one who wakes up drinking coffee and only stops when he goes to bed at night.  I know it had to be pretty hard. He had accepted to be baptized earlier and everything was going well until one day when he gave us the news that he didn't want to be baptized anymore. But being a missionary you know there is always a motive for someone to quit or bail out. So we started asking questions of what happened and he didn't want to tell us until some drunk guy I've never seen before came up to us telling us that "novinho" (our investigators nickname) asked his mom what she thought about him being baptized in the church of jesus christ and she told him she didn't think that it was the right time. 
After Novinho's mom told him this, this drunk man saw him crying. We were able to talk with him and help him to recognize that the Holy Ghost was testifying to him of what he should do.  We told him that his mom wasn't with him when we were teaching and hadn't felt the things he felt. One of the things he told me when we first saw him after he said he couldn't be baptized is that he feels super happy when we are with him and when he is at church. He told us that he notices this happiness leaves him when we aren't with him. 
i was able to look at him and tell him that i was happy that he told us he didn't want to be baptized so that he could tell us this. Because we were able to teach him the difference between how the power of the holy ghost works in our lives. We explained to him that when we are baptized and receive gift of the Holy Ghost that this happiness will be able to stay with him as a constant companion. He was crying after we told him all of this with our testimonies and he was then baptized Sunday!
I learned a new slang word too this week aviãozinho (little plane) when we were teaching ledemberg (the bishops cousin) who's 18. He told us that he was an aviãozinho which i didn't under stand haha which is a slang for drug dealer. but good thing my comp knew and asked if he dealt drugs but he said no just wrapped c4 around his body and sold it to people who blow up banks.  We had to unmark his baptism that was coming and we need to help him out a lil more this week!
But ya I've heard a ton about Michael Phelps and all the USA Athletes doing awesome!  I realized how patriotic I am because of the olympics!!! I'll send some pics love you guysElder Mauter
So last week was pretty crazy because of transfers. I was transferred to a neighborhood called Rosas dos Ventos in Parnamirim and called to be the new zone leader here with elder Bento. If you remember Parnamirim was my 3rd area in the mission but last time I was here I was serving downtown and actually last time I was here I did a division for a week in the area that I’m at now.  So i know some of the people here which is cool. So last week before I got here we got the call that I would be transferred after lunch so we went around saying tchau to everyone here which was difficult and showing my son(the companion I trained) what he's going to be doing when his new comp gets there. 
When I got into my new area we went around getting to know everyone and the next day we had a zone meeting with our new zone so that everyone can get to know each other and so that we can pass our vision to them of what we want to accomplish this transfer. I can already see that this transfer will be alot busier now because i will be following up with 22 missionaries every day other than 6 which I was doing before haha. So wish me luck! 
Last week my new comp already had a baptism marked for that week, Leonidas whose 16 but he injured his foot the day before his baptism so we had to remark it for this week. We still wanted to teach and baptize someone so we were at a ward activity and found a bunch of young men that we thought were members but they actually have been visiting the church a ton without anyone talking to them thinking they were also members. We started teaching a bunch of them and ended up baptizing João Paulo whose 14. It was good that we found him because his family was having a bunch of difficulties between themselves. We found out that his grandpa was letting his dad use his house while he got back on his feet and until he found a job. It turned out that his dad wasn't even looking to find a job and also spending a lot of money on useless stuff.  So his grandpa was going to kick his family out of his house. We were able to talk to João paulos grandpa who was pretty mad when he found out and was telling us that he was going to kill him. It was good we were there to calm him down! But thats all for this week I need to send some paper work to the secretary right now so i got to go! 
Love,
Elder Mauter



rosas dos ventos
my new and last area!! 

Friday, August 5, 2016


Vinte Anos!!!!!!!!! (translated-Twenty Years)


Wow!!! There's a lot of emails/phone calls that im getting today so ill make it quick this week!
I just got off the phone with President and Sister Colleoni. First I was talking to Sister Colleoni cause my comp was super sick last week so she was checking up on him and then from Pres telling me Happy Birthday in english, português and italian haha! But Thank-You!! I'm definetly feeling the love today from everyone! At least my Birthday is on my P-day so it makes it alot better! I'm not sure what we’ll be doing today cause my comp is still sick. Last week he woke up and was with a huge fever so we went to the hospital for 6+ hours. They tryed putting down his fever twice but it didn’t work until they overdosed him on drugs!  He got pretty crazy so on Saturday we got home at around 10:30 and the doctor told him to stay home so we missed church yesterday.. ( i almost got to say i never missed church once on my mission) but he’s already gotten alot better. He’s just super tired! I'm pretty sure someone is making cake for us later! So ill try to send pictures!

Last week wasnt that exciting cause we werent able to get out and work because my comp was sick and also one day we had to stay home cause all the drug dealers were going crazy for two days putting buses on fire all through out the city.  It began because the police cut the cell signal from the prison to the outside. The govenment sent 1,200 army troops and also a famous police here in Brasil whose only purpose is to kill. So when they’re called you know its serious! But don’t worry everyone is chill here nothing has happened in my area yet! 

Last Thursday we had a zone conference with President Colleoni and Elder Mazzagardi which was super cool! I was really needing this conference because at times I feel tired but this conference gave me the spiritual push to do more! Elder Mazzagardi talked alot about our purpose on this earth not only on our mission but after our missions too. Also more of what i have already heard the last time he came to speak here haha. But it was still super good! One of the things I’m going to miss after the mission!

Last week we were going to baptise some people but we remarked this for next week because of all that craziness that happened last week! So pray that it’ll go well! 

But mom I talked with the mission secretary Elder Petter. He told me about my package that’s waiting at the post office. I'm sure I’ll beable to go there tomarrow to grab it, Thank-You!

So the exchange student whose is in our ward from Brazil, how long will she be staying with the Grays? If she’s till there when I get home I'll have some one to practice my portugeuse with after the mission haha 

But i got to go thanks again for the birthday wishes- 
Love,
Elder Mauter