Ok, let's get caught up!!!

While in Franklin, Elder Bartlett and his companion (Elder Daniels) had another baptism, Merle.  It was the Saturday before he was transferred and just perfect! 
Some of the member of the ward went to a lot of work and made Spence a DVD and scrapbook of this time in Franklin.  It was wonderful (thanks for all your hard work girls!!!)

Elder Bartlett and some members of the ward looking at the AWESOME scrapbook they made him the night before he was transferred.  Thank you Franklin ~ Elder Bartlett LOVES you and will miss you!!!

The people in Franklin really wanted Elder Bartlett to stay longer!!!  (I dare say, there were a few adults that wanted to do this!!!)

This is why I LOVE PA!!!

The view of Oil City as you cross the bridge .   .   .

March 5, 2012

Spencer and Linda - what a great day!!!

So Linda's baptism happened! It was pretty great! Ah haha except like 15 minutes before it was supposed to start I realized I didn't have a change of garments and so we had to rush home! And the Bishop didn't show-up which we thought was SUPER weird! But she looked so happy it was awesome. She couldn't stop telling us thank you! So that was a great day!

Ah i have to tell you something cool that happened, so yesterday I was fasting to find new investigators because we have like 2 now. So we go to church and Marsha comes up to me and tells me that her new bf wants to meet us and be taught! Awesome right? But it gets better, so then we went to this guys house that said we could come back when we were tracting and we talked to him forever...it was tough because he didn't want to believe anything (of course) so we said well read the BOM and pray about it and you will get your answer, so he is going to do that and we are going back in a couple weeks, AND today when we went to Wal-Mart this guy comes up to me and says do you know Mit Romney? And I said I know of him .  .  . and he said is he like the head of your church? hahaha! I said no and then he starts to laugh and said he was a member from Knox and was just giving me a hard time but that there has someone in our area that he wants us to go teach! 3 in two days!! Pretty cool!!!  We have been doing a lot of finding (tracting) lately.  It gets tough.  We were out of miles for our car so we did SO MUCH walking!  Makes me thankful for a car!!!

Franklin On Ice

They had "Franklin On Ice" this last week, which is a ton of ice sculpures in the park!  So, we went and talked to people there, it was SO awesome!
(Franklin has a great web site - http://www.franklinpa.gov/  if you want to check it out!  When Spence first got his call we jumped on the internet to see what was in him mission.  We happened to find this website and spent a ton of time on there looking around and reading about the area.  Now - with him staying in Franklin to train a new missionary (another 12 weeks) it is likely he will spend the most time in Franklin of his whole mission.  Funny how thing things like that happen!   Ü)

This last week was a little bit slow!  Friday we went to Pittsburgh for training.  It was good!  I had to drive though and it was SO scary!  We lived so it was ok!  hahaha!!!  We are running out of people to teach .  .  .  hahaha so we have been knocking a lot of doors lately!  We might have some new investigators from that .   .   .   I'll let you know next week!  Pray for us!!!  We had a lady answer the door this week and tell us she wasn't interested because she has too many dogs .   .   .   hahaha we were laughing so hard!

We are still teaching Linda.  She is SO excited for baptism, she is scheduled to be baptized on Saturday and we are super excited for that!  She was interviewed yesterday and she looked sooo excited after she was done.
(Linda is the lady "the holy spirit" told to come to church.  January 3, 2012)

transfers - new companion - a taste of home!

Transfers were on the 7th.  Spence has kind of been up in the air since his companion as going home and it was time for him to transfer. 

"Thursday we went to district meeting in Meadville.  So, I was having a personal interview with Pres Topham and he says - "well, how would you feel about training a new missionary???"    Of course I said it would be awesome!  I'm a little nervous to train because I still feel so new but I'm super excited!  It will be very tough but I know I will learn so much too! 

So, my new companion is Elder Daniels.  He is the the 7th  missionary in his family, pretty strong family!  I am excited to train!  I'm also excited, because when you come out of the MTC you want to be perfect, which will be awesome!  This last weekend it snowed nonstop!  It is so beautiful here!  But, on Sunday there was no joke 25 - 30 people at church total!  What a first week for Elder Daniels!  hahaha!!!"

One of the members there (Nicole) was going to have Spence and Elder Daniels over for dinner as a welcome to Elder Daneils.  She e-mailed and asked one of Spencer's favorite foods.  Spence loves "Hawaiian Haystacks" so she fixed it for them for dinner.  How sweet was that?  Thank goodness for supportive members in the ward that watch out for our missionaries!!!

Ken and Jen's Baptisms

The baptisms were awesome! It was cool because we asked Ken if he had a preference who baptized him, because he has a close friend in the ward who we thought he would want to do it, and he asked if I would do it. I feel so honored! Ken and Jen both are so excited at the opportunity to start their lives living the gospel standards. Ken texted us and said he feels like a new man, ah it is so amazing to be able to be part of this mom! Such a blessing for sure!





Jen has a little girl, Donna.  I gave Donna her baby blessing on Sunday.  Oh man I was so nervous haha and she kept jumping out of the chair but it was such an awesome opportunity to do that! It feels so good to be able to take part in this work. I can't even explain it actually. I love them so much and am so excited for them!




I found out something awesome - before the 2 baptisms we had in October there had only been 1 baptism in Franklin in a full year.  I feel super blessed, I know people have been prepared for us to teach and I can really feel we have been lead to those people.  Many times I can feel grandma's hand in preparing people for us.  Just like my blessings promised!

Training in Jamestown, NY - "miracle for the week"

Friday we went to Jamestown, NY for training.  On the way home we were driving and the GPS woudn't work . . . which was very bad news because everything home was 2 lane highways, super confusing.  So, we thought we should say a prayer for safety and guidance.  So we did, the GPS started working again (it hasn't worked since).  As we were driving our tire pressure light came on . . . which it always does.  So, we decided to just put air in it in Franklin.  Before we went to put air in it, we went home for lunch . . . so an hour later we went to the gas station and our tire was totally flat!  As we put air in we could hear it shoot out - - - so we put on the spare.  But we were worried we had bent the rim, but when we got it fixed everything was fine.  There was a chunk of something in the tire but everything else was fine!  That is my little miracle for the week.