Happy 18 Months on Your Mission (Spencer and Mom) Jan 9 2017

Hi mom!

It was a good week! We didn't get to talk to Carlos and his famiy this week, unfortunately. They were busy and couldn't talk, but we've been in contact with them. We'll see if we can teach them this week, because I won't even be in my area because an elder fractured his skull and is staying at the mission home, and Elder Judd is going to go "replace" him for this week until the other elder is better, and I'll be in a tripanionship with Elder Yoder and Elder Wait until the next transfer, which is next week! Woah! Also Elder Yoder is going home next week. It's insane because when I started serving with him, he was at the point of his mission where I am! Blah! How scary is that? Do you remember me getting into the office? Yeah, that's how much time I have left! AH! But we've been talking to ANOTHER family, Paula, Tiago, and Carlos, who are the sister (and her nephew and son) of an awesome member in the ward. We're really excited about that too! We taught them the first lesson and after she told us that Carlos, who is 16, liked us a lot better than other missionaries who had taught them, and that he was excited to talk to us more, and she is super nice and Tiago was the same way as Carlos, so that's been good! And we shared a powerful message on faith to the Bishop (Bispo Carvalho) and his family, and he is really excited to work with us. 

That's so cool that Adam has transcribed Grandpa Bob's journals! I remember Grandpa Bob a little bit. It's been a long time! It really shows how the spirit of Elijah is turning "the hearts of the children to their fathers, and the fathers to their children." I love that!

I have currently written in my journal every day too! Yay us! Thanks for sharing your goals - I like them! I haven't made any goals for after the mission yet... I haven't really thought about it honestly!

Wow. Anna's hair is insane. Good job! It's super gorgeous! Man, I wish I could see this play. But I'll have fun seeing next year's! 

This week I tried to make a Chicken Tetrazinni thing but then I found out that our darn apartment doesn't have any cooking supplies. It doesn't have a single oven-proof dish! How the heck am I supposed to use an oven with nothing to put in it? Haha so it was more just like a chicken pasta thing, kind of like alfredo. We've eaten some leftover ham and rice and salad from New Year's meals, and some tuna stuff haha we haven't really had time for a lot! 

Spiritual experience - we went out on Saturday night to work, and things weren't really working out and we were deciding where we wanted to go, and I remembered an old investigator (his name is Virgílio, I think I have mentioned him before) from a while ago that we hadn't passed by recently, so we went and knocked on his door, and he finally opened and let us in, and told us that his younger sister had just passed away and how it was only the last of a lot of deaths in his family - his parents, his son, his sister - and we were able to testify to him of the truthfulness of the plan of salvation and how it could bless not only him, with the knowledge and peace it brings, but also for his family. It was awesome because I just had the idea to go there, we didn't have it planned, but it was just the right moment to go and talk to him. 

I will need a new black belt really soon! Haha the one I'm using is on its last legs. It's basically hanging off of a tiny piece of leather. It'll probably break in the next few weeks. Also I don't know if we could still do that scripture cover thing, or if it's too expensive (like €50) but yeah. :)

The weather is super good! Like, 50´s today! In winter! Insane! No rain!

Elder Judd is leaving me for a week to go work with one of the AP's because the other (Elder Gabbitas, who came in with me to the MTC) literally broke is head. He fractured his skull from a morning run and getting clotheslined by an iron bar and falling and hitting his head! So I'm in a tripla with Elder Yoder and Elder Wait until the next transfer starts next week.

I meet all the new missionaries being in the office because we do a training thing when they get here, so I know Elder Luiten and Elder Bates (though they might not remember me because it was their first couple days which are just the worst haha) but Sister Maingot I know really well! 

When you don't clean, or work, or do cakes, or do choir and sing/play the piano, do you like to do anything? :)

Okay! I'm gonna write a couple more people, but thanks mom! I love you lots!

Love, Elder Valentine!

Hiya Elder Valentine (January 9)

Hi dad!

I think that is such an awesome idea to get the youth involved in teaching and doing family history work. It's funny because even though I had been going to mission prep and I had been studying Preach My Gospel etc., I realized when I got into the MTC all the steps to teaching and following the Spirit don't come through study, but through doing! Practice! Real lessons! So to give the youth the opportunity to teach will do SO much good for them. That's awesome!

Zone Conferences - we'll get two or three zones together and We'll start with a hymn and a prayer, then President Amorim will always go through his "agenda" for the meeting with us so we know what's going to happen. Then he will take 10-15 minutes and let missionaries ask him any question they might have about the work or just stuff in general - rule clarifications, questions about teaching situations, his ideas on a good way to teach, whatever.  Then we will have 1-2 hours where President will teach us what he wants us to focus on for the next little while. Our last zone conference, he had everyone stand up, look at all the other missionaries, and then asked "what do you see?" and people answered "servants of God" "good young men and women serving selflessly" "humility" "love for god" etc. and then he went through a bunch of new testament scriptures that talked about judging righteously and unrighteously. Then he will talk about how we are doing with mission goals about baptisms or whatever, and we'll talk about the next month or two and what he wants to see. Then we will do a practice on a topic or teaching principle that he thinks we need to learn as a mission (ex. The second lesson (plan of salvation) as a topic, "using the scriptures" as a teaching principle). Then he will give a last message with his wife, usually about faith or hard work or something showing how we can accomplish everything we talked about in the meeting, and testify of it.

 That's like a pretty basic outline of a zone meeting! If you have any other questions I'd love to answer, because I was just thinking about doing it with youth and some fun ways you could apply it and I think it would be super awesome.

Wow, busy life! You're insane! What kind of stuff do you have to prepare for RootsTech? And in your meetings at work, what do you talk about every day? Haha it seems like you're just always in meetings and that you should run out of stuff to talk about. What do you do? Actually yeah, what do you do at work? I know you're the senior vice president of records and partnership relations or whatever, but what does that entail for you?

Okay, that's about it for now, I guess! Love you dad!

- Elder Valentine!

Happy New Year (Spencer and Mom)

Hi mom!

Thanks for the two big letters! I think a lot about how blessed my family is. I'm so grateful for the good lives we live - and when I think about it like that, it makes me understand how much more God expects of us, you know? As members of the church with a big happy family and with our knowledge of the Gospel, God wants us to share our blessings with others, because the brighter our "light on a candlestick" is, the more people can be effected by it. We have the brightest candlesticks in the world as members of God's church, so we should share our light with as many people as we can, whether it be through sharing the gospel or just serving God's children by listening, sharing what we have, anything. 

We didn't really do anything exciting for New Years since we have to be in bed by 11, but I was definitely up at midnight with all of the fireworks going off! We said "happy new year" to each other and then went to sleep haha! Portugal makes excuses to make any day a holiday - for example, today no one is working just because it's the day after New Years, so it's like a 3 day celebration. I haven't even thought about any new years resolutions yet unfortunately, except that I want to write in my journal every day until I get home, since I've been going at about 1 or 2 times a week, which is lame. So there's #1! and I didn't fail yesterday so we're off to a good start. :)~

We taught that brazilian family again - Carlos, Ana, Julio, Juliana. They are super devout protestants but they accepted the book of mormon and said they would read, so we'll pray that they will get an answer!

I'm so sad that the Tower of Terror is closing!! Anna told me in her letter that she put in the package. I also bought some berry jam today, so I can officially open my peanut butter tonight! :)

What are some of your new years resolutions? Thanks for answering my questions by the way. :) You're the best! I love you so much! I'll go write dad real quick while I still have some time. Have a fantastic week mom!

Love, Elder Valentine!

On Mon, Jan 2, 2017 at 5:40 PM, Linda Valentine <lindacmemail@gmail.com> wrote:

So we left at 7:30 am on Monday morning the 26th. Kimber and Kevin met us at our house and we stayed together the whole way (in our separate cars). We had good weather to drive in, but when we got to the Las Vegas area there was a huge traffic jam so it took us an extra two hours to get to California because of it. But we still went to IHOP at 9:30 pm and ate dinner! 

Tuesday morning we woke up early to use our "magic morning" early entry. We were in the park by 7:15! The weather was beautiful with clear blue skies, and we had jackets on at first, but it warmed up by 9:00 or so and we didn't need our jackets until it got dark again around 5:00pm. Our first ride was Buzz Lightyear ride instead of our tradition of going on Space Mountain first because of Lincoln and Porter. We wanted to make sure we mostly did stuff they could enjoy too. But we still did all the big people rides too- the baby swap pass is super awesome. Two of us would always get to ride twice so we took turns being those two lucky ducks. 

Apparently the week after Christmas is one of the busiest times of the year so it was pretty crowded, but it didn't lessen our enjoyment. It was a great first day! Whenever there was a parade, they had to open up some extra walkways to keep people moving so several times we got to see behind the scenes a little. One of them was through the area that they are building Star Wars Land! It looks like it's going to be amazing! There's always a "Day 2 slump" so Kimberly's kids were a bit cranky the 2nd day and they went back to the hotel early that day. The rest of us stayed until around 9:00.

Day four of the trip, Thursday, we went to Universal. I don't know if you remember when we went there before, but you've been to Universal in California and Florida. If you recall, we didn't love it the first time in California. The employees were grumpy, it was dirty, and all that. Florida we mostly just went for the Harry Potter land, but it was so narrow and cramped it was hard to enjoy. Well, I'm happy to say, they have improved greatly! This time we had a great visit! It was clean, the employees were really nice and helpful, and Harry Potter land was exactly the same only slightly more spread out. It was crazy busy there, but we ended up getting some "front of the line passes" from a few different employees and we got right on some of the rides when the wait times were two hours! Thanks to Kevin who can sweet talk anybody! 😉 Because we were there in the "winter/Christmastime", they were serving hot butter-beer so we got some of that. It was delicious! We ride the main Harry Potter ride (remember how awesome that was?) and a few others. I mostly stayed with the little kids while everyone else rode, but there was this one Jurassic Park ride that they went on and I wasn't gonna go on it because it involved water, but they talked me into it because when they went on it the first time they didn't get wet. So I went and stayed dry the whole time until the end and then a dinosaur at the very last part of the ride squirted me right in the face!! Just me. No one else!! Haha.

On Friday was our last day at Disneyland/CA Adventure. The Tower of Terrir ride is ending so we tried to ride it as much as possible. At night they make it so you ride in complete darkness! It's so fun! One of the times we were in line, we laughed so hard because Dad leaned against a gate and it wasn't locked so he fell in an everyone looked because the gate slammed against the wall super hard and made a very loud noise that drew attention to it. We were laughing so hard. Dad was embarrassed but he played it up and made it funny. 

We came up with some new "FOD" words on the Soarin' ride- they were good ones but I can't remember now! You would have liked them. One was with the F standing for Faith! I wish I could remember. The other was Star Wars related- First Order Droids I think. I love it. 

I wish I could tell you more but I think that'll have to do for now! Lincoln and Porter were so fun to have with us. They were the cutest and they loved Carsland the most of course. It was just such a great trip! We talked about you the whole time. There was even a guy working on the Star Tours ride that looked just like you and acted like you too! Kimberly took pics of him so I hope she sends them to you. We can't wait til we go again and YOU will be with us!! 

On Monday, January 2, 2017, Spencer Valentine <spencer.valentine@myldsmail.net> wrote:

Dear Mom,

Haha just real quick in case you have some time, dad didn't tell me anything about the trip - he said "mom will tell you the details!" haha so if you want to tell me that would be great!

On Mon, Jan 2, 2017 at 4:54 PM, Linda Valentine <lindacmemail@gmail.com> wrote:

Dear Elder Valentine/Son,

Christmas was a whirlwind! It has gone by SO fast. But it has been GOOD! We are so blessed!

Dad told you about the trip- it was so good! The weather was in the 70's except one day it rained a bit but we were glad cuz it was much less busy!😊 It was really hard to come home to 20 degree weather and ice everywhere!

Since that's all we did this week, there's not much to say about our week. One thing I will say about the trip - it was really different and extra special because 1) Christmas, 2) Happiness and everyone got along so well! 3) I saved all the money I would have spent on Christmas gifts and we used it for treats and souvenirs and it was fun to be able to buy pretty much anything we wanted the whole time we were there! I spent my portion on ornaments for our Christmas tree since we are trying to make it Disney themed. Ethan got a super awesome light saber, Anna got a cute sweatshirt. Dad didn't really want anything, so he mostly got food! Anyway, usually we are trying to be frugal while there, but this time we didn't have to be so it was extra fun and stress-free.

Okay, so last time you asked me a few questions which I will answer now. 😊  In case you forgot what you wrote, here it is:

 "How is the nanny thing going? How long are you planning on doing it for? What's your favorite hymn? And your favorite scripture? I'll ask you some more questions next week. :)"

My nanny job with the Powells is still good. The kids are getting easier as they get older. Especially Damian. He's gone through a lot of really annoying and difficult phases, but he is four now and he's mostly just a cute and well-behaved boy. Naomi is the same age as Ryleigh, and she is in a hard age of getting into things, getting hurt a lot from falling down or climbing things, and she's pretty stubborn so she cries a lot when you tell her know or you have to take something away from her. But overall it's getting easier. I'll admit that there are days when it gets tedious and I don't want to do it, but there are also days when it's fun and I really don't mind it. And I get paid well so it's a great job. As far as how long... it's hard to say. When I got the job (four years ago!) They said they were hoping to hire someone who could stay until Damian was in school. Now that they have Naomi, I'm sure they are hoping I'll stay until SHE is in school now too. Which would be another four years. Honestly, there's always the possibility something could change and I won't continue for that long, but I probably will. It would be hard to end it without a really good reason, especially since they live next door! So we'll see! I probably will stay for the long term. The thing that makes it a good job is that if I need to go somewhere or pick up Ethan from school if he's sick or whatever,I can put the kids in the car and go. I can't do that with any other job I would get. And it's always the same schedule- other jobs I would have to work varying shifts. And it's in the morning. I'm off by 3:00pm, so I have my afternoons and evenings free. That's one thing I did not like about teaching piano- it tied me down in the afternoons!! So there you go. I'm sure I answered that in much more detail than you really wanted. But get used to it! It's how women are and you'll have a wife one day! 😉

It's hard to choose a favorite hymn, but I think if I had to choose just one it would be "Where Can I Turn For Peace". A close runner is "All Creatures of Our God and King". That one might be tied with "I Know That My Redeemer Lives". I love the hymns so it's hard to choose. But those are all favorites.

Favorite scripture: 

2 Nephi 25: 26 "And we talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we prophesy of Christ, and we write according to our prophecies, that our cchildren may know to what source they may look for a remission of their sins."

Love that one!

I love that you asked me questions I can answer. 😊

Do they celebrate the new year in Portugal? What did you do to ring in the new year? Ours was a bit anticlimactic because we got home from our trip at 11:50pm so we carried all our luggage in the house and watch the clock turn to midnight, then said "happy new year" to each other and went to bed! 😬

Well, I love you tons! Looking forward to hearing from you! 

Love, Mom

Happy New Year (Spencer and Dad) 2017

Read this one from the bottom up:

Dang it dad!

You make me cry like every week! You turn me into a big booby blubbering missionary (or B3M). 

Disneyland sounds like a ton of fun. I'm devastated that the Tower of Terror is closing but I guess it has to be. 

Here in 3 days I'm going to hit my "six months to sexy," (which is six months to work out and get fit before going home, which is not something I made up, it's an old thing, so get that disgusted look off your face) but how crazy is that?

Thanks for the inspiring and inspired letter, Dad, for real. Like you said, I need to get what I know in my head to what I feel in my heart; and I feel like that applies to all missionary work! I KNOW that God can perform miracles and do His work through His servants, but is that a part of me? I don't want to get in my own way of being God's instrument! So thanks again! 

What are some of your New Year's Resolutions, dad? My first (and only so far, unfortunately! I'll do more!) is to write in my journal every day until the end of my mission, and I did yesterday, so 1 day down, 6 months to go! I'll make some more today and tomorrow and then tell you next week!

Happy new years, dad! 

Love, Elder Valentine!

On Mon, Jan 2, 2017 at 5:38 AM, Stephen Valentine <ValentineSJ@familysearch.org> wrote:

Dear Elder Valentine,

Happy New Years! You left on your mission in 2015 and now it's 2017! That's amazing!! Also amazing is that you will be turning 20 this year! That's officially old!! 

As you know, we spent the week in California at Disneyland and Universal. Mom will be sending you some pictures. We had a really great time. I'll spare you the details, but just know that throughout the week we kept saying: "We can't wait until Spencer can be here with us!" One fun thing is that the Star Wars Land is coming along pretty well. It may be done in 2018. That should be really awesome. Also, there is now a Harry Potter area in Universal Hollywood that is better (I think) than the one we visited in Florida. So when you're back and we can go to California you can see that, too. 

Also very fun this time was Porter and Lincoln being with us. They are so cute! You are going to love getting to know them. They made the whole trip really fun because it's like reliving your childhood to see their excitement and enthusiasm for everything. Kimberly is really a good Mom, and the boys love their Daddy. Kevin is a really good Dad. We all had a great time together. No drama! No tension! No hurt feelings! Just fun.

It was so amazing to talk to you on Christmas. You may not see it in yourself, but I saw some real growth in you. I mean, you are growing spiritually, but also you are seeming more "like a man"! You are looking older and more mature. You left a boy and are coming home a man!! Wow, that sounds like a huge stereotype, but I think it's true. 

I wanted to share some additional thoughts about your current assignment. I know that you're struggling a bit being in the office. But I also know that your mission president has keys. Since he has keys he is entitled to revelation for where God needs his missionaries. Since that is true, and you know it is true, then you are exactly where God needs you. Now I know that you know this in your head but I want you to know it down deep in your heart.

As an example, I was talking to a ward member a few days ago in my office at the church. We were talking about some challenge that she is facing. Then she said something really inspired. She said: "Well, I know that God knew that this was going to happen to me. He knew this even before Iw as born, so I guess that's why he brought (so and so) into my life and made all these other things happen, because God knew I would be having this trial right now." This is a true principle. Because God already knows what will happen in the Porto Portugal mission, and because he already knows what his children in Portugal needs, and because HE can hasten his own work, and because he knew all this before you were even born, and because you were called to this very mission because of your specific skills and talents . . . THEN because of all of that, of course being the executive secretary is EXACTLY what God needs from you right now! One of the key reasons you were called to this mission was to be the executive secretary. Again, I know that you know this, and you're thinking right now: Dad, I get it. I have faith. I know this is true. But I still wish I could be out there doing "real" work right now . . . The thing is, Elder Valentine, this is the REAL work that God needs you to do right now! You know it, but do you believe it? Do you have sufficient faith to believe it and not feel impatient or as if somehow you're not achieving your full potential? This IS you fulfilling your potential.

I'm not trying to be pushy here. It's just that I KNOW IT and BELIEVE IT at a level so much deeper now than I ever have before. In Nehemiah the Lord calls many different families to build their portion of the wall of the temple. Every person is called to do their part, in their portion, with what skills they have. This is true now for you. So never despair. All that you need to do is magnify the assignment you are given. And I know you are doing that! Your mission president trusts you! He needs you! You are keeping the whole mission going! What an amazing responsibility that you have!

I say this so often that perhaps it is losing it's effectiveness . .. but, once more, I want you to know that I am SO proud of you! I could not be more proud (in all the righteous ways!). There is a part of my heart that is imprinted by you, and it makes me happy every single day. Thank you so much for all you are doing to inspire and bless me!

The year of 2017 is going to be an amazing year for you, my son. I know it! You will complete an honorable mission giving a full offering acceptable to the Lord. You will return to a loving family. You will start college! You will have many great new experiences serving the Lord. It will be a wonderful year for you.

But let's not get ahead of ourselves. You have work to do now! So get out there and get back to your desk and do your very best. I will do the same in my own portion of the vineyard, on my own portion of the wall.

I love you! Have a great week!

Love,

Dad

Feliz Ano Novo!

My people!

Apologies for any Spanish speakers who are offended by that title. It makes sense in Portuguese.

Happy New Year! Holy Camoly! It's 2017! Time to make some resolutions! I wish a very successful year of resolution completing (unless you have already dropped out on yours, in which case, shame on you, you uncommitted weenie).

A quick funny story that wasn't funny for me - on Wednesday our Cape Verdian travel agent called me at 10:30 PM to tell me that the next morning, at 7 AM, two missionaries going to the Spain MTC were showing up at the airport and that I needed to go pick them up. Jolly good. So we got up at 5 AM to get to the airport by subway since we don't have a car, and when we got to the airport I couldn't find the flight number, so I called said agent and he said "oh, sorry, they are arriving in Lisbon, I thought you were the Lisbon Elders." What a blessing. So I quickly called the Lisbon Elders and they told me that said agent had already called them last night, and that someone had forgotten to tell us!

I want to share a new years thought that I stole from a new mormon message (privilege of sitting in front of a computer 7 hours a day!) about new years. 

Scripture: "Remember Lot's wife," followed by "look not behind thee." Christ specifically told us to remember Lot's wife; why? Look not behind thee - we are at the start of a new year! It's a new beginning! You have a new chance to make a difference, or BE a difference! And you don't need to look back at all of your faults and unaccomplished dreams - make this new year the year you DO. But more importantly, because of the Atonement of Jesus Christ, EVERY day is a new start for you! Wake up tomorrow and be better. Wake up tomorrow and be changed by Christ. And then do it again every day for the rest of your life - you are constantly starting new days and new weeks and new years, if you think about it, and today is the first day of the rest of your life - so make the first day the best day, every day. Go be different tomorrow! In fact, go be different NOW. Because Christ made it possible.

Happy changes!

- Elder Valentine!  

Christmas Pictures!

Here's how Spencer described the pictures:

Some fun Christmas stuff!

I don't know the order, because I can't see them... but 

1. President Amorim dressed up as Santa Claus in our Christmas conference!

2. Proselyting on Christmas eve!

3. Member lunch on Christmas!

4. My whole MTC district was at the Mission Leadership council as STL´s, Zone Leaders, and one of the AP´s. And me as the lonely Executive. Haha :(

Natal (December 19)

Dear Everyone,

Merry Christmas!

It's not Christmas yet but I won't be able to say it beforehand so take it now. :)

Elder Judd and I had a really fun week of talking to absolutely everyone. We had a ward Christmas party and a Devotional this weekend, and with the invitations we made we invited everyone to go! For example: There is a big soccer stadium by our house, and there was a game going on last week, so a lot of police officers were standing in big groups to control crowds. We were passing by a couple hours before the game started so the only people on the road were the police, so we invited all of them to go to the parties! They were way nicer than most people actually haha. And Elder Judd forgot his bus pass a couple of days ago, so he sweet-talked the bus driver into letting him go without paying in exchange for an invite to the ward party, and it totally worked. It was a ton of fun! 

Well I gotta go now haha I planned my time poorly, but have the most Merry Christmas without Elder Valentine! I know the Gospel is true, and I love my Savior! I am so grateful to have the knowledge of the Gospel to let me remember Him during this Christmas time!

- Elder Valentine!